Chapter 32 #2
Everybody in the watchtowers stiffens, and the air thickens with the threat of impending violence. Alex and I take that as our cue to get the fuck up there before all hell breaks loose. I’ve just reached the top of the ladder when Rhys replies.
“And I don’t think your position is any better.” Rhys raises his rifle to punctuate his point. Several security guys do the same; the threat clear.
I move to stand beside him, only just getting my reaction under control when I finally see what’s happening on the other side of the gate.
At least two dozen men—if not more—stand in front of the gate, all of them rough-looking.
Most wear worn jeans and tattered coats, with a few sporting leather jackets.
All of them are armed in some form, although thankfully most of their weaponry is melee based like cricket bats wrapped in barbed wire and kitchen knives.
Only a few are armed with shotguns, hunting rifles and pistols.
At the front of the pack stands the man who I assume the mocking voice belongs to. He’s a tall, stocky man, about the same age as Rhys, with dull brown hair and dark eyes. He’s average-looking, not grotesque by any means, but the smirk on his face promises pain to any who cross him.
That awful smirk widens when his attention flicks to me. “Ah, you must be the woman Ethan was so enamoured with,” he says with a chuckle. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Luke.”
Luke? My mind flashes back to the night we were ambushed by Scourge and Lodge members, and how one of them mentioned his name. This must be their leader, or at the very least high on the command chain.
“I see you’ve heard of me.” His smirk widens, and his eyes move from me to the two men standing on either side of me. “I assumed Ethan would be here with you…” He looks behind us.
My eyebrows jerk upward. He doesn’t know?
“Ethan’s dead,” Alex says, unable to hide the satisfaction in his voice.
For the first time since I arrived, the smirk falls from Luke’s lips and his jaw tightens for a moment.
Then, as if it never happened, the smirk reappears, sharper this time.
“I guess that explains his absence. I never did think he’d betray us just for some pussy, no matter how enamoured he was with it.
” He looks me up and down, but there’s no leer on his face as he does.
It’s how I imagine a predator eyes an obstacle that needs to be eliminated.
I stifle a shudder of fear.
A few of the men behind him laugh and eye me with a more lecherous gleam in their eyes.
Alex growls under his breath, and Rhys’s fingers flex on his rifle, like he’s trying to convince himself not to shoot.
Luke chuckles. “And it seems he wasn’t the only one besotted with it.” Those shrewd eyes catalogue Alex and Rhys’s reactions. “No matter. My offer still stands: give us back the people you stole from us, and we’ll leave this place untouched.” He pauses. “Mostly.”
“You can’t steal people,” Alex mutters with a barely contained snarl.
Luke just shrugs. “Semantics. Either way, we’ll be getting them back. It’s whether or not you want this place standing afterwards.”
I’m not sure why, but something about this isn’t sitting right with me.
While there are a lot of men standing at his back, we easily out-gun them, and while I have no doubt that he has access to explosives like Theo heard, I’m not sure that’s enough to overcome the range advantage we have.
And yet Luke and the rest of them are standing there, calm and relaxed, like it’s an afternoon chat with friends.
Why aren’t they more wary about the amount of guns pointed in their direction?
“Something’s not right,” I mumble under my breath as I narrow my eyes at the men below.
Rhys grunts in agreement. “They know something we don’t.”
“A trap, maybe?” Alex asks quietly.
“I don’t see how. They’re not convincing us to leave the safety of the wall, and there’s no way they can…” Rhys trails off, and his body stiffens, muscles turning to stone next to me.
I tear my eyes away from Luke to frown at him. “Rhys?” His face has gone as white as a sheet, and he’s staring at the men below with a mixture of shock and horror. Dread tightens in my stomach. Whatever has made him look like that can’t be good.
I shake his arm. “What’s wrong?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Luke’s smirk turn into a full-blown manic grin that’s filled with satisfaction. “I warned you,” he says smugly. “But you didn’t listen.”
What the hell is going on?
I shake Rhys harder. I’ve never seen him shutdown like this before, and it’s really freaking me out. “Talk to me! What’s wrong?”
He opens his mouth, but before the words come out, a shrill scream erupts from behind us. From inside Haven. The scream is followed by another and then another, all of them filled with panic and fear.
What the…
A shotgun blasts from somewhere inside Haven, followed by a masculine laugh that’s borderline insane. There are several more gunshots and laughter that send icy shards of horror down my spine.
Because I know exactly what’s made Rhys act the way he is. I know it even before he opens his mouth again and tells us that awful truth.
“They’re inside.”