26. Sprocket
SPROCKET
It’s been an hour and thirty-eight minutes since Dax was taken from us and we got blown to hell.
That, in my mind, was an hour and thirty-eight minutes too long for my liking.
There wasn’t any doubt in my brain that my little rebel could hold her own, but it didn’t mean she should have to.
When I told her we’d be her knights, I wasn’t kidding, and no longer did she have to face these battles alone.
I knew she was a strong woman and a fighter who didn’t really need us, but that didn’t change how I felt about the situation.
I’d grown up looking after myself, not trusting people to have the best in mind for me until I met Donald and the guys.
Now that Dax had us, I was seeing another side of her open back up, and if this situation caused her to slam that protective shell around her heart again, I’d be pissed.
We were coming, and I just hoped it wasn’t too late as we made sure all the wounded were cared for, and we made a solid plan with the FBI.
I didn’t give a fuck about how the feds typically do things because I was going in guns blazing, and I was getting my woman out of there no matter what the fallout would be afterward.
The hum of my bike under me kept me grounded because we were coming for her, and every mile we ate up was one mile closer.
The abandoned building where they were keeping her wasn’t too far away, but there wasn’t a direct route to get to it since it was in a run-down section of town near the Arizona border.
We pushed our bikes to the limit as we wove through traffic, ignoring any sirens that came after us, knowing we could outrun them easily.
Wes led the way since he’d been the one to track her down.
It was odd to do this without Eagle or Picasso, but Dax would be furious if we’d let the man die.
The four of us were like the four horsemen bringing with them the end of the world strapped with weapons and ready for blood.
I didn’t let myself tap into my darker side often, but I kicked off the lid and let the cold anger wrap around me as we turned onto the long driveway leading to the abandoned hospital.
There was a sea of bikes already waiting for us, so we killed the engines on ours and rolled silently the rest of the way, tucking our bikes behind the stone outcropping with the name of the place on it.
Void took point and signaled to us to follow him low and quiet.
We didn’t want them to know we were here.
The FBI wouldn’t be subtle, but we didn’t want to keep them alive.
I wanted to see all their blood spilled before my woman’s feet.
The world should know the queen of the Hidden Empire surrounds herself with people just as dangerous as she is.
Gun in hand, we wove through the bikes, and I had to stop the urge to knock them all over, but that would alert them to us being here.
We got to the glass double door entryway and peeked inside, knowing we wouldn’t have the element of surprise for too much longer with how open everything was in the lobby area.
The lights were on, showing us the group of six men standing guard, guns drawn looking from left to right, floor to ceiling, like something could jump out at them any second.
Grinning, I knew that Dax had already been picking off our prey one by one.
There was a loud sizzle, then a pop before the whole place descended into darkness.
Now was our shot! Surging forward, I grabbed the handle off the door and pulled it open for Void and the others to enter, taking down guys left and right.
The crack of the guns going off echoed in the empty space, but it just caused the others to be disorientated, lost in the dark, the only light coming from the front doors.
The deeper we moved into the building, the light faded, but that didn’t slow us down too much.
“Someone’s shooting, and it isn’t us or the little bitch!” someone bellowed before I took him down with a bullet to the chest.
Knowing it wasn’t a fatal shot, I crouched over him, my knee right over the bullet wound to keep him from getting up. “Where is she?” I hissed.
“How the fuck would I know? If I found her, she’d be dead, not playing hide-and-go-seek in the dark,” the man snarled, trying to shove me off him.
I just put more weight on my knee, making him cry out. “Where’s Mastiff? I’d love to have a chat with that bastard.”
“Dead,” the man panted. “Bane’s the man in charge right now.”
My lip curled into a snarl, knowing Bane all too well from my days before the Phantom Saints.
He’d been one of the last people I couldn’t get for Donald’s murder because he’d fled like the little bitch he is.
Not needing anything else from this asshole, I stood and shot him right in the head and moved back to the lobby having cleared this section.
The sound of sirens outside alerted me that Cameron and the feds were here, but I wouldn’t let them stop me from what needed done.
“You good?” Cognac asked as he walked out of another office-looking room, clutching his left shoulder.
I nodded once before I pulled his hand away. “I should be asking you that question.” The wound looked like a simple through and through in the meat of his shoulder so that was good.
“Nah, I’m fine, just didn’t see the little bitch hiding behind the desk when I stuck my head in to check it out. Any sign of her?” Cognac asked as he brushed me off.
“No, but I took a moment to chat with one of the guys. Seems Dax is out of whatever cage they put her in and took out Mastiff, putting Bane in charge,” I shared as we headed to the stairs to find the other two.
Cognac paused, grabbing my arm. “Wait… that Bane?”
“Yeah, seems the universe is using this battle to bring all our new and old enemies to the end they deserve,” I bit out.
Dropping my arm, Cognac looked over my face as if he was seeing something there for the first time then grinned at me. “Fair enough, let’s take the fucker down.”
Void appeared out of the darkness, his face and hands splattered with blood, looking like a Viking from the history books. Cognac jumped and swore when he saw the man. “Fucking hell, Void, don’t do that shit to me. I almost shot you.”
“Don’t worry, you would have missed,” Void commented as he waved for us to follow. “Seems most of them are on the second floor looking for my little demon. My money’s on the fact she’s running around in the air vents.”
Glancing up at the ceiling, I had to agree that was a smart move, and she was absolutely small enough to make it work.
As we reached the stairs, Wes was waiting for us, holding a man by the throat who was trying desperately to loosen his grip so he could breathe.
“Who else is here? If she got out, why didn’t she leave?
” Wes demanded, shaking the man who just gurgled in response.
“We don’t have time, the black knight is here with the rest of his rule followers,” Void stated as he smashed the choking man’s head against the stairwell. “There will be a good reason she didn’t just set fire to this place and leave.”
Wes snarled at Void lunging forward as if he was going to take the big man on. “We could have gotten useful information out of him, you meathead!”
Void turned and met Wes chest to chest, looking down at the other man with understanding but in no way backing down.
“These are the Mad Dogs, rabid with cruelty and hungry for blood. We. Don’t.
Have. Time. If Bane is in charge, he’ll burn this place down with everyone in it just to save his own skin and keep Marco happy.
These men are cannon fodder, simple as that. ”
Cognac glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, worry filling them as he saw my expression confirm what Void was saying.
We were on borrowed time to find Dax, and this conversation wasn’t helping, but we needed everyone on the same page.
“Let’s move. The second floor seems to be where the action is, and the FBI showing up might push Bane to the limit. ”
Wes seemed to deflate just a bit at this realization, giving Void a sharp nod then reloaded his gun with a fresh clip. “I’ll follow your lead.”
I caught a sign for the fire exit route and noticed there were two entrances for the second level. “We need to split up. Cognac, you’re with me, and we’ll take the other staircase. Try not to shoot us if we box them in, alright?”
Void gave me a slow smile as he pulled two long knives out of their place on his hips. “No guns sounds like more fun anyway.”
“Have fun, you two,” Cognac called as we jogged in the opposite direction.
We didn’t get far as more Mad Dogs appeared out of nowhere. We had seconds to duck out of the way into an office since they were surprised to see us before shots were fired.
“Shit, that was close,” I muttered back to the wall beside the door. Peering around the doorjamb, a bullet whizzed by, but I was able to see there were way more of them than the two of us.
Cognac dove across the open door to get on the other side while shoving the rolling office chair out into the hall. “I suggest you duck,” Cognac whispered.
“What did you do?!” I demanded as I rolled away from the door and covered my head with my hands. Light flashed in the hall followed by a boom that shattered the windows to the office, showering both of us in glass. “Did you set off a grenade?” I asked as I carefully tried to shake off the glass.
Cognac’s head popped up from behind the desk, grinning. “Yeah, I found two of them in the stuff Dax had at the house. I really didn’t think I was going to be able to use them, so I only brought the one.”
Part of me wanted to be pissed at him since he could have blown us all up in the process, but as I looked down the hall, he’d created a wall of rubble and dead bodies.
Now there was only one way to go up or down to the second floor.
One of the Mad Dogs had survived and was trying to drag himself away from where the blast had happened, but I lifted my gun, and one shot was all it took.
“Alright, let’s double-check this floor and head up to join the others. ”
Cognac sauntered his way down the hall feeling way too proud of himself. He might have made the whole situation better, but he also could have killed us. This building was abandoned and for how long we don’t really know. It could have collapsed the whole right side of the place.
“You know they’ll be expecting us now. All surprise is gone,” I pointed out as we jogged up the steps pausing at the landing to check the hall.
Rolling his eyes, he moved out ahead of me. “Yeah, and everything else we’ve been doing has been real subtle so far. They still don’t know it’s us, they could think it’s Dax blowing shit up… that would totally be her style.”
“How many bikes would you say were outside?” I asked, changing the subject since he wasn’t going to agree with me.
“Ah… dude, why are you asking me? Wes is the one who would keep track of that shit.”
“It would just help us to know how many more we might be looking at dealing with,” I explained.
“All we need to do is shoot anyone who isn’t us, the FBI, or loba. It really isn’t that complicated, man,” Cognac said as he yanked me back out of the way as two guys came running around the corner with Void hot on their heels.
I went to lift my gun, but Cognac shook his head. “Let the big guy have some fun. We haven’t needed him to do much work lately, and you know how he gets, going without torturing people for too long.”
A woman’s scream pierced through the air, and it seemed to be coming from the stairs leading up to the third floor.
Leaving Void to play with his new toys, we ran across the open space, shooting anyone who popped out from behind furniture.
Wes had gotten behind them somehow and was taking them out if we missed, which soon diverted their attention to dealing with him as the bigger threat.
The doors to the third floor looked as if they’d been bashed in by something as they hung off their hinges and were warped.
Whatever or whoever was up on the third floor is who Dax was trying to keep safe.
“I said get the fuck away from them!” Dax bellowed as a man came flying down the stairs with an axe in his chest. “You want to get to them, you need to get through me first, you ugly bastards. You might as well give up since the FBI is here, and I disabled the bombs in the basement.”
“You bitch, you’ve ruined everything!” Bane ranted as shots rang out.
Yanking the axe out of the dead man’s back, I got down on my stomach with Cognac following my lead.
If Dax could keep their attention, then we might be able to pick them off or flush them out so she could get them.
Slowly looking over the last step, I found our little rebel with a machine gun in her hands, covered in blood, dirt, and grim, eyes blazing with anger.
We’d seen glimpses of this part of her, but now the darkness in her that fueled Two Tricks was on display for all to see.
“Come on out. Bane. We’ve been playing cat and mouse all afternoon. Don’t you think it’s time to see who has the bigger balls?” Dax taunted.
I couldn’t tell where the others were holed up or why she hadn’t just gone in there and shot them to hell.
“Let Abby go, you know she isn’t as much fun to play with as I am. Besides, I feel like taking a hostage because you think I won’t shoot her is just plain boring,” Dax continued as she paced the width of the hall, keeping her eyes on one door in particular. It must be where they took the hostage.
“If that were true, you’d already have killed us along with her, but you didn’t, did you? This makes me think you have lines you won’t cross which makes you easy to manipulate,” Bane yelled from his hiding spot.
Dax looked around the hall like she had a plan in mind but didn’t have what she needed.
Then I caught her glancing up at the air vent right under where she was pacing, but there was no way for her to get up there on her own.
Grabbing Cognac’s shoulder, I leaned in and whispered, “I’m going in to help her get into the air, you need to cover us. ”
Cognac gave me a thumbs-up before we both got to our feet and ran to help our woman.