1. Dax
DAX
The shock my whole display of shooting the camera caused seemed to wear off all at once, and people started to flood toward the cage.
Then at the same moment, others were leaping after them, attacking those who were coming for us, holding them off.
It would seem the overall theory of picking sides tonight was true, and people were showing their allegiance here and now.
“So, Dax, did you have a plan to get us out of this after your declaration?” Tommaso asked dryly as I handed him back his gun.
Was declaring war in the middle of an underground fighting ring full of criminals the smartest thing I’ve ever done? Probably not.
Would I do it again to prove my point to the one man who’d been hunting my ass down over the last four months? Fuck yeah, in a heartbeat.
Should I have given my guys and team a better heads-up to what kind of stunt I was pulling? Yeah, that might have been smart since we now had a mass of angry people who had zero qualms about killing others.
“Yeah, so about that. How fast can you run?” I asked, cocking a brow.
Tommaso gawked at me. “You have got to be kidding.”
Laughing, I punched him in the arm. “Of course, I’m kidding. There’s no way we could outrun this many people. Don’t happen to have an extra magazine of bullets on you, do you? I’ve only used two so that should leave you six unless you have an extended clip?”
“It holds ten, and no, I don’t have a backup. Typically, I don’t put myself in situations where I’d need it,” Tommaso muttered.
“Come on,” I said, tugging on his sleeve.
“We aren’t going to make it out the doors we walked in at this rate.
We’re going up and over the cage fencing on the backside away from the bleachers.
Betta mentioned a back exit that would take us up to the street instead of through the subway where we entered. ”
“What about your guys?” he asked as we climbed.
I looked down at him as I swung my leg over the top of the chain-link surrounding the ring. “Don’t you worry about them, they’ll find me no matter what.”
Vaulting off the fence, I landed in a crouch position on the concrete floor, ready to take my knife in hand if I needed to. Looking up, I found Void and Eagle just off to the left waving for me to get to them. I grabbed Tommaso’s shirt and dragged him after me as I bolted in their direction.
“Come on, Betta got me the keycard so we can get the fuck out of here,” Eagle yelled to be heard over the roar of people fighting. “You sure know how to make one hell of an exit, little hellcat.”
Smirking, I let go of Tommaso, seeing he was keeping up as we jogged toward the exit. A man threw himself off the bleachers trying to get to me, but someone else slammed into him before he could reach me. I noticed it was Mr. Snake himself defending me. With a quick nod of thanks, I kept moving.
A knife came sailing past my shoulder and lodged into the wall bringing me to an abrupt halt. Grabbing the knife, I shoved Tommaso behind me and toward the guys facing off with whoever chucked the blade.
“Well, look who it is,” I said, flipping the knife casually. “Still shit with a blade, I see, Raxx. You’d think after our last encounter, you’d have worked on that. How’s the hand?”
“Fuck off, you cunt.” Raxx snarled as he grabbed another knife to throw.
Flipping the blade up, I grabbed the tip and let it fly right into his eye, sinking deep enough I knew it hit his brain.
“Told you I’d never let you speak to a lady like that again.
Seems like that’s just something you were never gonna learn.
” Spinning on my heel, I took off, trying to catch up with the others.
“Dax,” I heard Harper scream.
Skidding to an almost stop, I used the momentum to twist myself back around. Harper was running toward me with Ghost right on her heels, holding his right arm close to his body. Charging forward, I drew my knife and got a good grip on it, looking for her other two men.
Harper tried to stop and talk to me, but I waved her off. “No, get the fuck out of here with Ghost.” I looked up at him as I said the rest, “Follow the others out. I’ll watch your backs.”
Ghost nodded and urged Harper forward even as she tried to argue. “Dax, no.”
“Harper, so help me God, if you don’t get out of here with him right now, I’m never going to speak to you again,” I threatened. “Please, I’ve been doing everything I can to keep you alive through all this, don’t make it all pointless.”
Her face fell, but she nodded and let Ghost shove her in the direction the guys went.
I needed a fucking gun. As if my prayers had been heard, one skittered across the floor, and I scooped it up without thinking.
Raising it, I found Magnus snapping some dude’s neck before kicking him away.
He turned and spotted me then looked desperately around.
Two more guys tried to jump Magnus, but I shot them both before they got the chance, thudding to the floor. “Magnus, where’s Jaxson?” I demanded when I reached him.
“He went after Harper and Ghost, but I didn’t see where they went,” he answered.
“Then let’s go. We need to get the fuck out of here before they realize we’re gone,” I said, jerking my head, signaling him to follow me.
I picked off one more asshole trying to throw his knife at me before we burst through the red door Betta had described to me.
On the other side was a narrow flight of stairs leading up to the street.
It would plop us right on a main road which is why this entrance wasn’t used, but we didn’t have time to worry about drawing attention from the public right now.
“You got another gun?” I asked.
“Is your ass short?” he shot back with a growl.
“The fuck, man,” I snapped as I shoved his ass up and onward. “No need to be a dick. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t steal your only piece.”
Magnus, being a much bigger than me, could take two or three steps at a time.
My vertically challenged legs moved as fast as they could to keep up.
The ting of a bullet ricocheting off the metal stairs had me slamming myself to the wall as I whipped my gun around, firing off a shot before I got a look.
In situations like this, the person on the ground had a way better advantage over the person fleeing.
“Fuck,” a man swore, telling me I’d managed to hit him and keep him from shooting again. “You better run, bitch. Think you can just pull a stunt like that, and we’re gonna let you live?”
Crouching, I got a better angle and fired off another shot, hitting him right in the chest, dropping him. “Yeah, actually, I kind of did, but this is way more fun if I’m being honest. Everyone else will be pissed, but I’m getting used to that at this point.”
Checking to make sure no one was trying to crawl up our asses, I resumed my epic climb to the top of the stairs.
Kicking through the door, I quickly stuffed my gun in the back of my shorts.
It wasn’t hidden from sight by any means, but I didn’t have it in my hand either.
Brandishing a gun was a much bigger deal to the cops than just having one on you.
“What are you waiting for… an invitation?” Jaxson yelled from a work van that had the side door open.
Cognac was inside reaching out for me, and I prayed the rest of my guys were in there too. Bolting across the sidewalk, I leaped into the van, slamming into Cognac and letting him cushion my fall as I planted a kiss on his lips.
“Fuck, that was fun,” I said, rolling off him to see everyone I cared about looking at me with varied expressions. “Okay, clearly, not everyone was enjoying this as much as I was. It’s alright, though. Everyone gets their rocks off in various ways. You can pick next time.”
“The fuck were you thinking putting Harper in danger like that?” Magnus bellowed, surging forward.
Void shoved the man back as he stepped between us. “You don’t talk to my little demon like that, family or not.”
“I’ll fucking talk to her how I want when she puts my woman in that much danger and doesn’t fucking warn us,” Magnus challenged.
I let out a shrill whistle stopping the argument in its tracks.
“He’s right, Void,” I announced, much to everyone’s shock.
“The plan I made went up to declaring war on Marco, but I didn’t account for anything after that.
If I’d told you what was going down, you’d have been prepared to make a break for it.
He has every right to be pissed at me… fuck, I’m pissed at me.
Ghost got hurt, Harper was in danger, and the guy I just put in charge of the De León Cartel almost had the shortest reign in history. ”
Picasso leaned over to Eagle. “Did she hit her head or something?”
“Must have,” he agreed. “I don’t think she’d be saying that otherwise.”
I glared at them and looked around for my best friend, not seeing her back here. Then I spotted her in the passenger seat, arms crossed and looking pissed as all hell. Yeah, I totally deserved that.
“Harper,” I ventured.
All I got was her flipping me the bird, and I shut my mouth.
Clearly, this was one of those times I needed to let her cool off first. I looked over at Ghost, who was getting patched up by Sprocket.
Seemed he got shot in the meaty part of his bicep which hurt like a bitch, but it didn’t hinder him from using the arm like I’d feared.
Scanning everyone else, it seemed like that was the worst of what had happened.
A few fat lips and scrapes but nothing some ice, ibuprofen, and sleep wouldn’t fix.
“So, where to now?” I asked. “Is it safe to go back to the apartments?”
“We’ll be fine there tonight, but we’re gonna need to move to another location in the morning,” Ghost said.
“We’ve got a few other spots, that being our most public residence anyway.
It’s better to have one they can find if they try hard enough than to keep digging and find one we don’t want them to discover. ”