20. MAVERICK
The explosion of the warehouse going up in flames rattled my entire body when the blast reached us from our position in the tree line. It threw us all unbalanced, with Jax recovering first. I followed suit, my head still pounding, when I notice Xander still struggling. Calling his name a few times gets me nowhere, which means his ears are probably ringing as much as mine right now. I notice blood leaking from a wound in Xander’s shoulder, but push that worry to the back of my head. I feel only slightly bad when I slap him across the face to get his attention, but it was the only thing I could think of.
“Get it together, Xander. We have to move. Now.” I give Jax a nod before tugging on Xander as we move along the tree line to get a better tactical position, shooting as we go. Xander stops first and takes his spot behind a tree, giving me cover fire as I continue to move further down. Once I’m in position, I wait for the signal and hope I can hear it.
Moments later, a loud but uniquely Jax’s whistle sounds among the fire fight. As one, we round our trees and focus on whoever is the closest to us. I take down two men before I’m hit in the leg. My right leg gives out, saving my life as another bullet goes flying past my head. Ducking, I roll until I can take cover by a large piece of debris, maybe a piece of the metal wall. Taking a second to catch my breath, I quickly reload before peeking out again.
Xander is taking cover behind a car that must have been flipped during the blast, while Jax continues to shoot away. Dodging bullets left and right. I’ll be surprised if he makes it out with only one new hole. From the corner of my eye, I see movement coming up behind Xander. A man dressed in all back, slowly creeping up. I move then, rounding the edge, gun raised, I take aim. I send three bullets soaring his way, and they all hit their mark center mass. Xander snaps his body around, gun raised, but lowers it once we make eye contact. Glancing down at the man now bleeding out on the floor, he gives me a nod of thanks.
We don’t waste anymore, time jumping back into the fight. Send out bullets and dodging them in return. We underestimate the number of men who were originally here, and soon I’m dropping my weapons and picking some up from whichever dead man is the closest. It feels like hours before the sound of the firefight dies down, but I know it takes half that time. This was a planned ambush, and I’ll have to thank Xander later for making the call for us to stay together. If it was only one of us, that one would have been dead. Adrian didn’t come to play today, but he got too cocky, thinking we wouldn’t be able to handle twenty plus men in a fight.
Jax and Xander check for IDs and phones, secretly hoping Adrian might be among one of the dead, but of course, he’s not. He sent hired guns to fight his battles. That pussy. While they go off to do that, I look for a reliable set of wheels. Our vehicle was parked decently close when the bomb in the warehouse went off, leaving our SUV a little more than scrap metal at this point. The other vehicles I’ve spotted have been pretty shot up as well, but I’m hoping I can get at least one running enough to get our asses back to the city.
It takes me about thirty minutes of Frankensteining the last car that pulled up to run. It’s not a high-speed chase type vehicle, but I think it will get us far enough to get to one. “Ready when you are.” I call out as Jax and Xander toss the last dead body into the still burning building. We don’t need any more bodies tied to us at the moment. Both men climb into the car, and we head back to the city.
“Jax, get a hold of our men with Wren. I want her home and the house on lockdown. Adrian wasn’t at any of the warehouses, which means this was some type of diversion.” Xander calls out, rotating his shoulder to get a feel for the damage in the backseat while Jax pulls out his phone and makes the call.
“Edward didn’t answer.” He hangs up before dialing a new number. That sinking feeling that something is wrong hits my gut and I slam my foot down on the gas. The car shoots us forward, and I pray it makes it back to the city before blowing up or something. “Still no answer.” From the corner of my eye, I see him frown before dialing another number. “Wren’s not answering either.”
“Try Abby. She always has her phone in her hand.” I say as I swerve around another car. We hit the city limits a lot faster than expected, and I head straight for our closest safe house. Pulling up, I barely have time to park before the doors get thrown open, and we are heading for the garage. None of us even bother to grab a first aid kit as Xander grabs the keys off the wall and opens the garage sliding door. Minutes later, we are back on the road.
“No answer on Abby’s phone, either. I’m calling Doc.” Jax says before calling the Doc. His phone automatically connects to the new car, and Doc’s low voice fills the car stereo.
“Gentlemen, are you needing a house call?” he asks.
“Where’s Wren?” Xander demands.
“Excuse me, Wren?” he asks.
“Where is she, Doc?” There’s a rustling over the phone before the old man answers.
“She said she was heading home about an hour ago. Is everything okay?” he asks, sounding concerned.
“I don’t know yet, but get to the house. We need some patch work done.” Jax responds before hanging up and trying Wren again.
“I thought she was going to the shop after Docs. Why would she have been going home instead?” I ask, but don’t expect an answer as Xander changes course to home.
We’re about ten minutes from the house, worry causing all of us to be on edge since we haven’t heard back from a single person. Wren’s phone is off, Abby’s and our men just keep ringing until it goes to voicemail. Not a single phone being answered. I keep my eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary when I spot something off the side of the road. I squint as we get closer, a black blob down an incline off the side of the road. When we are close enough, I see two blobs. Fuck. No, no, no, no, please don’t be what I think it is.
“Stop.” I yell, causing Xander to slam on the brakes hard. We all going flying forward in our seats but I don’t have time to care as I jet out of the backseat. Jax and Xander shout after me, but my adrenaline is pumping as fear rushing my body. “Please don’t be it. Please don’t be it.” I chant as I side down the embankment and start running to what is clearly two rammed and smashed SUV. Two SUVs that look like ours. I’m halfway to the upturned vehicles when I see the first of our men. A clean kill shot right through his head.
“Angel!” I call as I hear the others following. “Angel! Answer me Baby.”
“Princess!”
“Little bird!”
“Wren!”
I take the first SUV that’s flipped upside down. I see another two of our guys and a few drag marks as I crouch down to duck in. Blood and broken glass are scattered all over the back seat, but it’s Wren’s purse that I spot next. The contents spill about the now floor. “Fuckkkkkk. That fucker has her!” I scream.
“She might have gotten out. Where’s Abby and the mutt? That dog wouldn’t have left her?” Xander exclaims. He has a point. I take a second to survey what would have been their best options before letting out a loud, long whistle.
“Aressss!” I call and, as if he was waiting for his own signal, the damn dog barks. The three of us rush in that following the noise before the dog himself rounds a tree. “Ares, where’s Wren?” I ask and he jets off to the left. I give chase until I see a pair of women’s tennis shoes a few meters away. Bending, I see that it’s an unconscious Abby, bleeding from a minor cut on her head.
“I found Abby.” I tell the other before scooping her up in my arms. “Abby? Abby? What happened? Where’s Wren?” I’m panicking now because I don’t want to accept that Adrian took her. The things he will do to her, to punish her for what his dark and twisted mind thinks she did wrong. Abby lets out a low, pain filled groan before her body goes limp.
“Wren’s not here. He has her. Let’s get Abby back and see what she can tell us. Doc is on his way.” Xander says, leaning down to give Ares a pat on the head. What I would have done to get a picture of Xander Ashford giving a dog affection? Ares seems to be managing, but has a small limp as he walks along with me, as if still wanting to protect Abby. I have a feeling this is Wren’s doing, since I know Ares wouldn’t have left Wren unless ordered. He only ever listens to her commands. She might have saved both their lives by sending them away. Adrian is not a kind man and would have used Abby and even Ares against her if he could.
We make our way back to the car and climb into the back with Abby still in my lap. Ares jumps in after me and lies on the floor, a small whine in the back of his throat as he stares up at me. I know, little guy; I miss her too, but we’ll get her back.
Xander slams his foot on the gas, sending us flying back, before he snarls at us. “Get every last one of our men to the house within the hour. If Adrian wants a war, he’s going to get one.”
For Wren, we’ll all go to war.
Doc is already at the house and in our makeshift infirmary as we pull up. I head straight for the medical room with Abby, Ares still attached to my side. Doc frowns as we enter, glancing behind me as if looking for someone else, someone like Wren.
“Where’s miss Wren?” he asks, grabbing a pair of gloves from the counter.
“Focus on Abby, we need to know what happened?” He gives me a quick nod before nodding to the table. “Lay her down. What happened?”
“They were rammed off the road. I think they flipped a few times. Abby was found in the tree line unconscious.” I set Abby on the table and Doc gets to work. Shining light into her eyes, turning her head from side to side. He takes a long look at the gash on her head before heading to the counter and grabbing a white pouch.
“I’m going to activate some smelling salts. This will wake her. It doesn’t appear to have any major injury but she might have a concussion, but she should be able to tell us what happened.” I give a nod to continue as Jax and Xander walk into the room. We all stand to the side and watch as Doc snaps the pouch, shakes it, then places it under Abby’s nose. Like a shot of adrenaline to the bloodstream, Abby shoots up with a scream.
I rush forward to calm her. “Abby. Abby. You’re safe. You’re home.” At the sound of my voice, her head snaps around the room.
“Wren? Where’s Wren?” She climbs off the table. “We need to find her.” She stumbles forward, and like she had just been struck by lightning, she stands at attention, a look of horror on her face as she turns to Doc. “The baby!” she exclaims.
The baby? What baby? A Baby?
Abby’s and Doc’s faces drain of all color as they turn to the three of us standing there, confused. “What baby?” Jax asks first.
Abby’s eyes fill with tears as she opens her mouth, then closes it. Doc looks down at the floor before adjusting his glasses and sighing. “You weren’t supposed to find out this way, but I feel this might burn that rage you have hotter.” This time he looks up, making eye contact with each of us before dropping a bigger bomb than the warehouse explosion in our lap. “Wren doesn’t have a stomach bug. She’s pregnant. From my exam, we estimated she’s about eight weeks along.”
Pregnant. Wrens pregnant. With a child. A child who is ours. My brain can’t process what is being said right now.
“How sure are you, Doc?” Xander asks, but there’s an odd note in his voice. Doc pulls out a phone and pulls up a recording before handing it over.
“I forgot to send this to Wren earlier, so she had something to listen to or show you.” Xander hits play and the side of quick thumping sounds. I frown at the phone as Jax snatches the device out of Xander’s hand and puts it to his ear, pushing play again.
“Is that…is that a heartbeat?” The awe in Jax’s tone is clear as he hits the play button again and again. Doc just nods while I stand there like an idiot, still trying to understand that Wren, our Wren, is pregnant.
I would be lying if I said I haven’t thought about getting her pregnant before. The guys and I have even mentioned how beautiful Wren would be as a mother to our children. We already knew she would be the only woman we would accept to have our children, but we also wanted to give her the choice. We’ve wanted to have this conservation for a while, but everything else just kept happening, so it wasn’t the right time. Does Wren even want kids? It wasn’t like any of us were using protection, but she knew that. Everyone knows sex equals a baby, so that means Wren might have wanted one, too.
Abby interrupts my thoughts. “We were on the way home, talking about a way to announce it to you all, when we heard a crash from behind. I tried to protect her. I tried to shield her, but someone hit us from the side, and we swerved off the road and flipped.” She takes a deep breath, wiping away the water building along her lashes. “When we finally stopped, we were upside-down. I got her down, but I think her shoulder was injured. Then we heard the gunfire. Wren was yelling at me to run. I didn’t want to leave her, but she told me you guys would come. She said it was Adrian. Oh, god. Why did I leave her?” Abby loses the fight with her tears as Doc wraps his arms around her in support. “She told me I needed to keep Ares safe and to tell you she loves you.” The dog in question presses against her legs as well.
Out of nowhere, our fierce, usually calm, unofficial leader loses his shit. “I’m going to fucking kill him!” he yells before turning and punching the wall. “I want every single person who works for us on the streets. I want to know where that bastard is now. Offer an award for anyone who has information on his whereabouts, and if anything happens to Wren or that child, I will burn down this entire fucking city as payment for what I lost!” Another punch against the wall and he storms out.
“I’m taking the phone, Doc.” Is all Jax says before he too storms out, with a look on his face that would scare the grim reaper.
I watch as they go before turning and facing Doc and Abby. “Doc, we need you to stick around. We all need a bit of patching up, but we will need you with us when we find Wren.” I glance down at Ares, the dog looking sad and depressed, with his owner gone as well. “Abby, keep an eye on Ares and help Doc if you can.” She gives me a tiny nod before I to leave the room.
I feel lost, not used to being this empty feeling in my chest, as I head for my room to quickly shower and change. I have to remind myself that my angel is a fighter. She won’t give up so easily, and I have a feeling Adrian isn’t done with us either.