Chapter 27
Overdrive
The ride over was a fucking blur. I was trying to keep the thoughts out of my head because they kept asking what would happen if I was too late. Then there would be pictures in my head. Visions that were making everything turn red. They all centered around Rue. Dead.
I didn’t slow down as the others rushed to keep up with me.
My motorcycle was quickly out-distancing the SUV that Merc and Hype were in.
They had the rest of our back up weapons.
I didn’t need backups. I had my pistol and three new mags in my pockets.
I’d pick up whatever I needed along the way.
Because there was nothing I needed except to get to my old lady.
No one tried to warn me to slow down. They knew this was life or death. No. It was death. Any fucker who’d put his hands on my woman was going to die a gruesome, grizzly death. I’d make sure of it. Not one of them would live.
I took the corner into the car wash at a reckless speed, but I wasn’t fucking stopping. Not for that. Not for the chain link fence that was held closed by a lock ahead.
Gunfire rang out and I glanced up. Ruck had raced ahead of me and was parked near the gate with his weapon out, firing at the lock so that I didn’t crash into the fence and wreck. The lock gave way beneath his expert aim and I covered my head with one arm as my bike tore through the gate.
I went flying through the air. My bike skidded on its side away from where my body hit the concrete. It was a fucking stupid idea, and I’d known it was going to end this way, but I wasn’t slowing down to politely open the gate and walk onto the property.
Sliding to a stop, I pushed to my feet and started running. They’d know we were here. We hadn’t exactly been stealthy. Fuck quiet. This was going to be loud. And fast.
I pulled my weapon out as movement came out of the darkness to my left. Averting my eyes so I didn’t completely kill what night vision I had, I pulled the trigger and sent two men crumpling to the ground. My brothers spread out from behind me, running off to find targets to kill.
Whoever found Rue knew to take care of her. I just fucking hoped it wasn’t too late. Kilo stuck to me like glue, making sure I didn’t do something stupid. Well, more stupid.
We ran toward the building and my eyes narrowed as three shadows slipped into the open bay. “Kilo.”
“On it,” he muttered.
I hit one of the men running away from behind, sending us sprawling to the wet concrete.
We exchanged blow after blow as we struggled to end each other.
I didn’t know where his friends were, but I knew I didn’t have long before they’d fucking gang up on me.
“Kilo!” I bellowed, pulling my knife from my pocket and managing to plunge it into the fucker’s side.
He howled in pain and jerked the hand that was still holding his gun toward my head. I just barely managed to jerk to the right and avoid a bullet to the fucking skull. My ears nearly exploded as the gun went off right next to one.
“Fuuuuuck,” I groaned, pulling the knife out and stabbing the asshole in the neck. Jerking away from him as he panicked and tried to staunch the flow of blood spurting out of his throat, I shook my head, trying to clear my ears.
Looking over, I saw this guy’s two friends running toward me. Great. “Kilo!” My voice sounded distorted, even in my head. I glanced in the direction my best friend had run in and stared in shock.
This asshole was standing there, wallet out, credit card in hand, paying at the fucking kiosk.
“What’re are you fucking doin-” I broke off with a grunt as a bullet bounced off the pavement near me. Scrambling for cover, I swore as the closest guy caught up to me and kicked me in the ribs.
Pain exploded in my body and I knew I was going to be paying for this night for quite a while. Assuming I lived through it. Going into this fight, I figured I would. But that was before my friend decided to stop and pay for a fucking car wash.
The machinery around us began to move. I wasn’t sure why there wasn’t some kind of mechanism to stop it if it sensed people inside the bay, but something told me Kilo had taken care of that function. He and the other bastard were shooting at one another.
Bullets flew through the air and I swore as I fought to gain my feet as the asshole who’d kicked me lifted his gun.
I wasn’t going to die on my fucking knees while he stood there like a triumphant asshat.
Fuck that shit. It didn’t matter that he was about to put a bullet between my eyes. I’d figure something out.
A shadow came through the steam and water like an avenging angel.
When I saw who it was, I swear my asshole puckered in fear.
Gun to my head? No problem. Seeing the woman I loved flying through an area saturated with criminal pieces of shit and bullets?
Yeah, my bowels were ready to evacuate my body in a hurry.
I jumped to my feet, keeping the fuck wad’s attention on me.
If he turned and shot Rue… I’d lose everything.
Wait. There are two people. Who the hell…?
A young kid slid, as though he was sliding into home, and stopped right in front of the guy about to shoot me. Then Rue hit him from the side in a tackle that would make any NFL linebacker proud.
The guy didn’t let out a sound—he didn’t even have time to realize what, or who, had hit him—he just pitched forward over the kid at his feet and his arms pinwheeled as he tumbled into the rotating brushes. Then the screaming started.
We watched in silent horror as blood began to seep over the pavement.
The brushes had knocked him down to the ground and he’d been pulled into the conveyor belt that moved the cars along on the track.
I honestly had no idea whether the brushes were responsible for the blood, or the belt.
Either had enough force to crush the guy.
I couldn’t help but laugh as it was a self-cleaning murder.
“Wow.” We looked over as everything slowed and stopped. Kilo’s eyebrows were up as he walked toward us and at the gruesome sight in front of us. “That was a great hit, Rue,” he said with a grin. Then he looked down at the kid on the ground and offered him a hand up. “I take it you’re Ryan?”
Rue was in my arms before I had a chance to say anything. I had a lot of fucking questions. Like how had she found Ryan? Why were they running loose out here? Where is Carrick? But they all died in my chest as I held my Light close and reveled in the fact that she was alive.
“Fuck,” I muttered after a minute. “Thank God you’re okay.”
She said something. I could feel the vibrations of her voice. “What?”
“You’re going to have to yell,” Kilo said. And that was when I realized he was also yelling. Which meant I had been too. All our hearing was probably fucked at this point.
“I was so scared that they were going to ambush you,” she repeated. Louder this time.
“They tried!” I said with a grin.
“One more question,” Rue said. I arched a brow at her. “Why do you smell so bad?”
“We should find the others,” Kilo pointed out, laughing at me as we ignored Rue’s question. There wasn’t time to explain.
I shook my head. “I need you to get them out of here.”
His eyes narrowed. “I’m not fucking leaving you here alone-”
“Kilo!” I barked. “I can’t do this until they’re somewhere safe-”
I didn’t so much as hear the gunshot as I felt Rue’s scream against my body and saw the sparks from where the bullet bounced off some of the equipment around us.
As one we all ducked behind one of the scrubbers. Guess we’d found where Carrick was.
“You stupid bitch!” he shouted, voice echoing in the bay.
She gave me a sheepish smile. “When you came busting through that fencing he ran out to where they were holding us. He wanted some of his men to cut us loose and move us to a more secure location.”
“And?” I asked, amused. My ears were starting to clear a little. Well, one of them. The one that hadn’t had a gun go off near it. The other still sounded like I was at the bottom of the ocean.
“I may have broken loose and stabbed him with a rusty…thing…sitting nearby,” she admitted.
“Right in the thigh,” Ryan interjected. He had a wide smile on his face. “It was fucking awesome!”
“Language,” Rue snapped at him in only the way an older sister could. “We managed to run off into the darkness while they all tried to figure out what to do.”
“Why didn’t they just grab you?” Kilo asked, confused.
“Because Relay and Bolo showed up,” Rue told him. “They may fight a lot, but when they join forces?” She blew out a breath.
“Impressive right?” Kilo commented.
“Really-”
“Okay, enough,” I said, keeping my voice down because I knew I was still yelling if I didn’t lower it. “Let’s get moving. Kilo…”
“Still not leaving, brother. Couldn’t now even if I wanted to. We’d be sitting ducks.”
“No shit,” I said, tone dry as I gave him an unamused glare. “I was going to say see if you can get around behind him.” I pulled my knife out of my pocket and gave it to Rue. “Keep that on you. Find a spot to hide and you two stay there until we tell you to come out.”
She opened her mouth to argue, took one look at my face, then nodded and they slipped off into the darkness.
Kilo motioned to me that he was taking the left flank.
Nodding, I put a new magazine in my gun and headed off to the right. If we were lucky our brothers would have taken care of most of Carrick’s crew. But for all we knew he had a whole group of them here with him to try to kill us.
My eyes scanned the darkness, looking for any movement. There was a flickering light off at the end of the wash bay that kept it from being pitch black in here, but it still wasn’t easy to see. And I could barely hear shit.