Chapter 24
CHAPTER 24
CARTER
M y combat boots crunch leaves underfoot as I run across the lawn of Anthony Fenster’s safe house. The weather is turning, cold air breezing past me as I duck behind a car to avoid being seen, but I don’t feel the chill. Today is the day of reckoning for the Fenster family.
Declan worked for days, trying to find where the Fenster’s could be hiding. He checked every business and alias for everyone in their inner circle and got a hit with Gabbi’s. There was an LLC placed under her middle name, with only this property as a holding. Declan flew a drone over the house and saw it swarming with guards and caught a glimpse of Sam walking the grounds.
A shout rents the air, followed by screams and guns being discharged. The sound of shooting echoes around me, but we have the element of surprise. None of the Fensters expected us to bring the fight to them, especially in broad daylight. After pulling in a deep breath, I move from behind one of the cars, Declan, Hendrix, and Gavin hot on my heels.
Our men got to the door already and kicked it in, the bodies of the men guarding it littering the floor. I step over them and raise my AR, aiming at the chest of a man that rounds the corner that leads to the kitchen. I pump him full of lead and continue to move through the house before his body drops.
“I’m going left,” Declan says, and he and Hendrix split off from me and Gavin. I take the stairs two at a time, heading to Anthony’s office.
Declan found the floor plans for this house, so we’re not going in blind.
Gunfire reaches my ears from the floor below. I hope it’s not someone shooting at Kai. We agreed to split up to cover more ground and lessen the chances of both of us being killed today. I wish I had eyes on him, but I know it’s smart for us not to be together. If he has any injuries at all, I will fucking?—
A bullet whizzes past my head and embeds itself in the wall behind me. I drop to the floor, rolling behind a stone pillar. I curse myself for not paying attention. I need to keep my eyes open and my head in the game if I want to return to Kai. With more force than I thought I needed, I push thoughts of him from my mind for now.
Popping my head out, I bring up my gun and fire off several rounds. The person that shot at me drops to the floor, a high-pitched scream leaving her mouth.
Gabbi.
I swore when I saw her, I’d kill her myself.
Getting to my feet, I shout at Gavin, “Find Sam and Anthony if you can. But don’t kill them. They’re for me and Kai.”
He nods and takes off down a hallway, dodging bullets that Gabbi is still firing. When she curses and I hear the sound of her gun clicking, I dodge out from the pillar, firing at the men that come out of a room behind her. A bullet grazes my arm, but I ignore the sting and put them both down with bullets to their foreheads. Blood and brain matter paint the wall behind them as their bodies drop with a thud.
She tries to scramble away, rolling to the side to grab one of their weapons, but I’m on her before she can, kicking the gun out of her reach. She shouts a curse at me, holding on to her arm. It’s the one I shot, wrapped in bandages and bleeding profusely. She must have ripped her stitches. It probably hurts like a bitch.
Grinning down at her, I step on the wound, listening to her cries. “Not much fun when you’re on the receiving end of bullets huh?”
She glares up at me, anger flashing in her eyes. “Fuck you, Whitlock. We’re not done with you yet. You haven’t won. We’ll?—”
I put a bullet between her eyes before she can issue her next threat.
With one Fenster dispatched, I hurry back down the stairs, jumping back into the fray of the gun fight.
Bodies litter the ground, some ours, but most the Fensters. I step over them, looking down to make sure none of them are Kai. I do a double take when I see Hendrix laying by what was labeled as the sitting room, a wound in his chest and one in his forehead. I search around frantically for Declan, but don’t spot him.
Most of the shooting sounds as if it’s coming from the garage and mudroom, so I jog in that direction.
A bullet grazes my leg, and I hiss. I turn around and drop to one knee and fire at the man who shot at me. His head explodes and he drops against the wall, leaving a trail of blood and brains behind as he slides down to the floor.
My left arm and right thigh sting, but they’re flea bites. Now that I got my kill, I want to find Kai so we can take care of the rest.
When I step into the garage, it’s fucking chaos. Men are hiding behind any kind of coverage they can get, and bodies are everywhere. From my vantage point, I can see both Sam and Anthony taking cover behind a mid-sized sedan, bullet pinging off the surface—it must be bulletproof. But even with my position, I can’t get a good shot of them.
Gazing around, I see Kai kneeling behind another sedan, firing off round after round of bullets in the direction of Anthony and his men. He’s holding his own, but how long can that last?
One of my guys rushes down the hallway and I whistle to him. He jogs over. “Count to thirty, then open the garage door.” I point to the garage door opener. He nods, standing against the wall to take cover.
I rush to the front door, shooting any man I encounter. I take a slug to the calf that sends me to the floor, but I recover quickly. Before I can fire at the man that shot me, blood gushes from his neck and he twirls around before falling to the floor. Covered in blood practically from head to toe, Declan walks up to the man and plugs two more bullets into his face.
A sigh of relief leaves me when I see my little brother. He looks a little worse for wear, but he’s alive. I pull him in for a quick hug, exhaling roughly. “Glad you’re good. Sorry about Hendrix.”
He nods and pushes me away. Even in a situation like this, he’s not into public displays of affection. “Yeah, thanks. Where are they?”
“Follow me.” I limp outside, not wanting to put too much weight on my leg.
Declan and I grab another man we encounter on our way out and wait by the garage door. A few moments later, it starts to rise. We fire a few shots into the garage before the door rises completely. With the sound of gunfire in the enclosed space, the Fensters don’t know we’re there until they’re hit.
“Fuck!” Anthony exclaims, holding his leg. I shoot at his gun hand before he can raise it up to fire at us. The other people around him are dispatched quickly, including the woman that fucked Sam on Charlie’s grave. Blood flows down the driveway, like a river of red pooling around my feet.
Declan and the other man that joined us, Bruce, moves through the garage quickly, killing the Fenster men that didn’t notice us. It takes less than thirty seconds for them to clear the garage of Fenster men. Bruce and a few other men go back into the house to clear it of other men while Kai, Declan, Nico, and Gavin rush over to me.
Nico, Gavin and Declan hold a gun to Sam and Anthony while I hug Kai tightly. I let out a shuddering breath when I have him in my arms, safe and whole. I pull back to look him over. He has a scratch under his eye and he’s holding his wrist close to his chest.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Fell down the stairs. Landed wrong. Probably just a sprain though.” He looks down at my leg and growls. “Someone shot you?”
Declan chuckles, but it sounds empty. “I killed him for his trouble. Sorry.” Declan doesn’t sound sorry at all. “He killed Hendrix.”
It makes sense why he plugged him more than once.
Anthony looks up at us with fire in his eyes. “Fucking St. Clair’s and Whitlock’s. Didn’t think you had it in you.” He hisses when he tries to get to his feet. Declan shoots him in the opposite leg, making him crumple to the ground. “Hold up. Wait. We can talk about this.”
Kai extracts himself from my arms, taking several steps closer to Sam and Anthony. “You fucked on my father’s grave,” he says to Sam. To his credit, Sam just eyes him, not backing down. “And you pissed on it after your scumbag son jerked off on the headstone. There’s nothing to fucking talk about.”
With that, Kai turns his gun and shoots Sam three times in the chest. Anthony cries out, dragging himself over to his gasping son. He cradles Sam’s head in his lap, rocking back and forth. We all watch as Sam drags in a shuddering breath, then goes still.
Limping over to them, I kneel beside Anthony who looks devastated. I want to add salt to the wound. “Gabbi is dead. I put a bullet between her eyes myself.” His face turns stormy, and he swipes at me. But I move back, dodging his fist effortlessly. “We took your whole family. Now we’ll take your fucking empire. You fucked up when you targeted us.”
Standing, I aim at Anthony’s forehead and let off three rounds. His head kicks back and his skull explodes.
Pulling out my phone, I snap a picture and send it to Dad. He wanted to come with us, but he’s not as young as he used to be. I’m not saying he would have slowed us down, but he would have been a liability. Kai lost Charlie and he went half out of his mind, and he didn’t even like his dad. I knew if I lost my father, I’d scorch the fucking earth in my anger.
Declan points to a few cans of gas that we placed by the sheds and some of our guys run over and grab them. They started a path from the garage back inside the house, some going through the front door and around the house. A few gunshots can be heard, probably our guys killing anyone that’s still alive.
Once they’re done spreading the gasoline, they come back out, tossing the cans inside the house, crowding around us. Wrapping an arm around Kai’s shoulders, I kiss his temple, whispering that I love him as we walk away. He returns my affection, brushing his lips across my cheek.
When we get about fifty yards from the house, I turn to Declan and tell him, “When we get to our cars, blow it up.”
Last night, when we figured out the floor plan and got our weapons together, Declan suggested he and a few of the guys rig explosives to the house after they planted the gas cans. Either we were going to get out alive or we’d take everyone down with us. All around the perimeter of the house, there are enough explosives to level the entire house. Security was more lax than it should have been, so they got everything done and the Fensters were none the wiser.
We’re hoping with the explosion and the gas we spread across every surface of the house, the bodies and all evidence will be burned away.
It takes us about five minutes to get to our cars, then Declan pulls a remote from his pocket and presses a button. The sound is deafening, causing all of us to slam our hands over our ears. The plume of fire and smoke rise high in the air. Hopefully by the time first responders arrive, everything will be burnt to ash.
I climb into the back of the SUV, pushing myself against the door of the car. Kai slides in beside me, drawing my leg over his thighs. I hiss when he pulls my pants from the top of my boots and draws it up my leg.
He turns my leg to the side, examining it as the car starts rolling. We gain speed, flying down the road to put as much distance between us and the house we just blew up as we can.
Kai pokes and prods at my leg. I have to grit my teeth to keep from yelling. “Looks like a through and through,” he says tightly. “You have an entrance and exit wound, so it won’t be too hard to patch you up.”
I nod. We anticipated having some injuries when we returned. Our family doc is waiting at Dad’s house. From what I saw, a few of the men are worse off than me, so they’ll be seen first. All I need is a few stitches and some antibiotics and I’ll be good to go.
Sighing, Kai slides closer to me, planting his lips against mine. “I was fucking worried about you. If something like this happens again, I’m not leaving your side. Got it?”
Nodding, I pull him closer to me, kissing him harder. “It won’t. I could hardly think because I was worried that you were hurt, and I couldn’t help you. I just about went fucking crazy.”
An hour later, we’re back at Dad’s house. He and two people in scrubs stand outside, waiting for us to park. When Declan gets out of the car, Dad rushes over to him, hugging him and checking him over. As far as I can tell, Declan is unhurt, besides a few scratches.
When Kai and I step out, Dad narrows his eyes. “I should have known two of my boys would have been hurt, but I had money on Declan and Carter. You surprised me, Kaison.”
Kai laughs, walking over to Dad. “Just a sprain. Nothing too bad.” He twists his wrists in a circle. He winces but has full range of motion.
His arm around my waist, Kai helps me inside the house, keeping the weight off my leg. One of the men in scrubs comes over to me, his rough hands twisting my leg back and forth.
Kai plants a large hand on his shoulder, squeezing until the man cries out. “Be fucking gentle with him or I’ll kill you next.”
The man bats his hand away, but I can see the fear in his eyes. “I got it.” He goes back to working on my leg, without the man handling.
He numbs me up so he can check to make sure there are no more fragments in my leg, then sews me up. Ten stitches on each side, two antibiotics and some pain pills later, I’m done and allowed to relax.
The other doctor assesses Kai’s wrist, deeming it a sprain and gives him a brace to wear for a few weeks.
“Take him upstairs,” Dad says to Kai. “His old room is ready for him. He needs to rest.”
I’m starting to feel loopy, my head swimming from the effects of the meds. I feel safe being medicated because I know Kai will watch over me, making sure nothing happens to me.
“Come on, babe,” he whispers, helping me to my feet. “You need rest.”
“Stay with me,” I murmur back, leaning my head against his shoulder.
Usually, it’s me that comforts Kai, holding him up when he wants to fall. It’s nice to have him be my rock right now. He’s warm and solid, able to hold my weight with ease.
“Always,” he whispers back, kissing my temple.
Today was a real bitch. I didn’t expect to bring everyone back, but I didn’t expect so little of us to return. Now I see why other families don’t want or can’t handle repeated war. It’s too much. Too many people die and it’s a lot of work and effort to rebuild a family.
Having the St. Clair’s made it easier for us to handle, but I can’t deny that we suffered some heavy losses today. Men in our inner circles, Dad’s right hand man, Declan’s and a few of the younger men are a pile of ash back at the Fenster safe house. None of them will be able to get a proper burial. But I’ll do right by them and take care of their families, whether they belong to the Whitlocks or the St. Clair’s. After today, we’re all family.
Kai pushes into my old room and walks me over to the large canopy bed. “Pretentious,” he murmurs with a smile in his tone.
“Fit for a king,” I joke back, my words slurring.
He strips me of my clothes, pushing me to the center of the bed in just my underwear. After removing his own clothing, he climbs in behind me, wrapping his arm around my middle. “Declan and Dominic are taking care of security shifts. None of us will go unguarded. We’re safe, Carter.” I sigh, pushing back against him to get more of his warmth. “It’s over. We won the war.”
My eyes feel heavy, and it takes effort to open them for even a few seconds. “We did. I’m glad you’re safe, Kai. I don’t know what I’d have done without you.”
He presses a kiss to my shoulder. “You won’t have to find out. I’m not going anywhere. I love you, Carter.”
A smile touches my lips as my eyes drift shut. “And I love you, pretty baby,” I manage to reply before sleep claims me.