Twenty-Eight
I t was a group of grim faces on the former brothers who were waiting for us. Rocket and Stag looked like they didn’t know whether to say hi, or gut punch me, and Has, Torch, and Ryder looked wary, but I think they were more concerned about the kid we were here to rescue. Has and Torch must have left as soon as they dumped me with Reacher, since they were still stripping off their cuts, and locking them in the van.
“What’s the plan? You seen the kid?”
Has glared at me, and opened his mouth to yell something, but Ryder waved him down.
“Ordinarily, I’d be the one taking the lead here, but you’re the expendable one, so let’s see what you’ve got.” Expendable . Yeah, I think I’d figured that one out already, but thanks for the reminder.
“Eyes on the fucking kid?” I hissed at him in response, squeezing Soph’s good hand. I’d wanted her to stay in the van, but she was a stubborn goddess, and wanted to stay with me. And hell, I didn’t want to think of it like this, but her sister would need her, hopefully only as a familiar face, but who knew at this point.
“They’ve been keeping her out in the open by that fire pit, but they’ve been taunting her or something, because she’s crying.”
“And you left her there?”
Has took an aggressive step in my direction, but Torch halted him, with an arm across his chest.
“Focus on saving the kid,” I heard him murmur, while Ryder stepped closer to me.
“We’ve got Nick closer up with a scope, watching them. They’re not hurting her, but we need to move fast. We couldn’t go in before, because there were too many of them too close to her, but there are more of us now, so we have a better chance of subduing them.”
“Shoulda asked the fucking mafia bastards to send a guy with a sniper rifle,” I said off handedly, as I turned to the weapon stash in the van, and palmed a couple of knives.
“Sniper rifle?” Soph gasped, and I turned to comfort her, but she looked intrigued rather than upset.
“Babe,” I started, but Ryder interrupted again.
“Two problems with that idea, smart-arse. First off, the mafia care more about violence and winning than they do about rescuing one girl, and secondly, they’ll take over after, and we want the club.”
I hesitated, and he smirked. “You clean it up, burn it to the ground, and we’ll let a decent club rise from the ashes.” Fucking hell. A new Phoenix fucking club, that’s what he’s talking about. It was all he could have meant by that.
“They all die,” I declared, and he shrugged, like it wasn’t that big a deal.
“There are still twenty of them, and there are only six of us going in, with Tommy holding the van, and Nick staying in watch position. Here .” He handed me an earpiece, and one to Soph, and I raised my eyebrows.
“Been learning from Rossi?”
He ignored me, and turned to talk to the others, so I helped Soph insert the earpiece, and immediately we heard Ice’s fucking unpleasantly snide voice, right in our damn ears where we couldn’t escape it.
“They’re moving inside, but two are holding the girl outside. Could be a trap, have you fuckers been made already? You had one fucking job!”
Nick’s voice followed. “They’re unloading some shit into the building, I think it’s just a delivery.”
Soph frowned at me. “I haven’t made a delivery, so they must have another supplier of whatever that is.” Shit. That could mean another whole fucking enemy here, but we couldn’t worry about that right now.
“We move now,” I said firmly, “and I’m taking the lead. I will make these fuckers bleed. Soph, you bring up the rear, and you get your sister out, but that's all. Are these ear things two way?” I pointed at my ear, and Ice responded.
“No, we bought the budget version, fuckhead. Ry, check your phone, I’m sending over a map of the area, there’s a fence and a route alongside that building that looks clear. I can’t see cameras from the overhead view, but who knows.”
Overhead view? I frowned at Ry, and he snorted.
“Drone. We’ve gone high tech since you faked your death.” Faked my death. Asshole .
Still, the time for talking was over. I tucked several knives into my pockets, my cargo pants being the ideal choice for my well armed body. There were even a few handguns waiting, and ammo, but I preferred the sneak and bleed approach. I grabbed Soph, and slammed my lips against hers, kissing her hard, in case this would be the last time.
“Worst time to fucking say this, babe, but I love you. If I die here today, just get Trish out. All that matters is that you two stay safe, got it?”
Tears filled her eyes, and she rested her palms against my cheeks.
“I love you, but don’t you dare die on me. We haven’t had long enough together yet.”
“Gag,” I heard Ice say in our ears, and we both grinned.
“Let’s fucking go!” Torch hissed, eyeing me as I grabbed another knife, and who could blame him for being wary of me and knives, after what I did to him, but it wasn’t for him. I turned and carefully placed the handle in Soph’s hand, closing her fingers around it.
“Stab first if anyone approaches you. I don’t care who they are. Stay alive, babe. Promise me you’ll defend yourself, but don’t go rogue. Stick to the plan.”
She nodded, and then we were moving, following Ry’s instructions from the map he consulted on his phone.
Sophie
I t was terrifying, and the added fear, that I couldn’t trust Micro’s old biker brothers to watch his back, had me firmly watching it for him. I’d never been violent against another person before, but if one of them tried to hurt him, they’d have to get through me first. He was leading the charge, around the side of the secondary building on their clubhouse grounds, which were in a comfortingly rural setting, so fairly easy to sneak up on. Ice had been right about there being no camera at this point, and Ryder was carrying a jammer thing to block all wifi signals now too, so anything that had been working would stop anyway.
I could see two bikers up ahead, sitting around the firepit, and they were leaning too close to my sister, talking at her, and I could see from the way her shoulders were hunched that she was terrified, wishing she was anywhere but here. I needed to save her.
“Can I rely on one of you fuckers to back me here?” Micro whispered to the group of men with us, and Ryder nodded.
“Right. You and me, we’re gonna head there, stealth mode, and take these two fuckers down. The rest of you cover that door, and if it opens, kill whoever sticks their head out.” Micro turned to me next. “Soph, grab your sister and get back over here and out of sight. I’d prefer you head back to the van, but I don’t want one of these fuckers following you guys, and attacking you while we’re busy here. Anyone comes near you once you’re in hiding, scream your fucking head off.”
I nodded, and watched as Micro and Ryder moved silently forward, while the others amassed near that set of doors that held the other members for the moment. It was going so well, until it wasn’t. Someone yelled out just as they reached the two guys, and I turned to see a burly biker running in our direction. My sister started screaming, as fighting broke out right beside her, and the doors to the building beside me suddenly started being pounded on, and I knew it was only a matter of time before someone got through the men holding them closed.
I just heard Ice mutter the words ‘fuck it’ in my ear, and seconds later, something swooped down from the cloudy sky above, and crashed into the running man’s face, with a loud crunch of bone against whatever the hell the drone was made of.
I dimly heard Reacher’s voice in the background of my head, yelling something about ‘did he know how much that fucking drone cost’ and then I heard Micro yelling my name, and I turned to see my sister looking at me, hugging her arms around herself, and Micro was waving at me.
I ran fast, grabbing Trish and pulling her back to the building, while I frantically tried to check her over.
“Who are these people? What the hell is going on?” she kept asking, but my focus was back on the fighting breaking out around us, seeing men fall, and not get back up, but not knowing who was who, as the doors to the building were breached, and the fight intensified.
“Why are we staying here, we should run!” Trish demanded, trying to drag me away. She looked jarringly out of place here, in her school uniform, with her dishevelled blonde hair, and smudged makeup. Did they do things to her that I never wanted to happen?
“Did they hurt you?”
Her eyes were darting around us at the violence, and deafening sounds of threats and fury.
“Trish, focus. Did they do anything to you?”
Her blue eyes finally settled on mine, and she bit her lip. Dear god no, please no.
“Trish!”
“They scared the hell out of me. They jumped me on my walk home from school, tossed me in a van, and brought me here. One of them hit me, here,” she pointed to a reddened patch of skin hear her temple, “I thought I was going to die. I had no idea who they were, or why they took me, until one of them said your name.”
She glared at me, her fists clenching at her sides, as she grew fierce, instead of breaking in this terrifying situation. My fucking incredibly strong sister.
“Why are you caught up with these people, Phie?”
I dragged her further away from the men fighting around us, as one guy landed scarily close to us, his eyes wide and unseeing, his body unmoving.
“I fell for the wrong guy, Trish, it happens. I never meant for you to be hurt. They… they didn’t touch you, right? Like… touch you?”
She shook her head, thank fuck, and turned to stare at the battle of bikers versus bikers, flinching when a loud bang sounded, and she heard her first gunshot.
“We need to get out of here, Phie!”
I was watching the battle closely again, trying to see one man among the raging bodies. Were Phoenix winning? Were the Rogues? Was Micro even still standing? Yes! There he was! He grabbed some guy by the head and twisted it violently, and that guy dropped like a sack of potatoes. What the fuck, did he just break the man’s neck?
“Please, Phie! They didn’t touch me, but they told me the things they’d do to me, and I don’t want them near me!” We kept backing away from the fight, even as we kept our eyes on it, and that’s the mistake we made. Not watching our own backs.
Trish suddenly made a panicked squeak, and I spun on my heel. A leather clad arm was looped around her neck, and she was held tightly against a large body.
“Going somewhere, cunt?”