KAT
After the Sorority House went dark, Cher turned on a corner light and explained how the bunker was on a different power supply.
“Did the bad guys turn off the power?” I asked, feeling stupid for having to ask.
“No, we did.”
Despite Cher’s calm tone, I noticed her rubbing her head and breathing faster. Ivy reassured her that everyone was in place.
“You know they’ve practiced drills for this scenario before.”
Nodding, Cher began to pace while staring at the security footage. After a moment, she stopped hiding her fear and cried, “Stevie shouldn’t be out there. She can’t survive another gun wound. We need to get her.”
Ivy used her petite body to block Cher from the stairs. “You aren’t thinking straight. Sit down, keep an eye on the phone, and watch for trouble.”
Cher stared at Ivy and began to cry. “I’m not ready for more pain.”
Ivy took Cher’s hands and walked to the couch where Maria and I moved apart to make room for the crying woman to settle between us.
“Everything will be okay,” Ivy said, kneeling in front of Cher. “You’d done the drills with the rest of the club. You know Stevie isn’t in the front. She’s out back, keeping watch.”
Despite Cher’s nod, she trembled violently. Maria and I hugged her between us and tried to soothe her panic.
With the phone resting on her lap, she swiped through various security camera angles.
One of the cameras revealed a truck and two SUVs racing toward the property.
I flinched when the truck struck the gate.
Rather than race through the now agape gate, the vehicles backed up.
Two of them emptied their passengers while the third idled a bit farther back.
One of the armed men shot at the house. Maria and I flinched while Cher began to cry again. None of the Crimson Guard responded to the gunfire. When I imagined Rowdy out in the darkness, I struggled to stay focused on comforting Cher.
Her phone vibrated, startling the three of us. Ivy took charge and answered the call.
“We got hit on our way to the party,” explained a woman. “They seemed to be coming your way.”
“They’re here,” Ivy said. “Are you okay, Dali?”
“I’m banged up. They pushed our motorcycles off the road. I ended up in a fucking ditch. Jas is nearby. We’re trying to find Goldie, but it’s so fucking dark here.”
“Stay safe,” Ivy told her. “But stay quiet. Right now, they’re attacking the Sorority House. We don’t know how many are involved.”
After Dalisay agreed to stay put and wait, Ivy hung up and looked at the security footage.
“Who is that?” she asked, gesturing at the screen where a motorcycle raced toward the Sorority House.
Cher grabbed the phone and tried to adjust the image. “Oh, no,” she whimpered. “Tricky is going to get himself killed.”
As Cher began to hyperventilate, I caught her looking at the stairs. Maria and I wrapped her tighter in our embrace to keep her from running outside.
The gunfire went from sporadic to deafening. Ivy tried to stay calm but finally settled next to me and stared at the phone. She was likely thinking of Clint out in the darkness.
“Farley started learning to shoot when he was seven,” Cher said through her tears.
“We all grew up together at the townhouse complex. His moms were like my aunts. Pepper is a great sniper. She was feared in Little Memphis back in the day. It’s hard to remember how scary our parents were when they were young.
These days, they talk about us not visiting enough and hint about grandbabies.
But there was a time when they were the monsters lurking in the darkness. ”
Maria nodded at Cher’s words. I knew she wanted to believe Farley was safe behind his scope. I was relieved to be in the dark about Rowdy’s location. Without knowing the truth, I could picture him hiding somewhere safe.