Chapter 10 #2
The mothers—mine, Camila’s, and Kilo’s, as well as Camila herself—had made a fancy breakfast for everyone. I watched friends and family mingle and celebrate with a content smile. The only thing that would make this better would be having Devyn here.
Some day. I’d get her to a wedding someday. Hopefully ours. A year ago I’d have laughed if someone told me I’d be having these thoughts. But it was time. I needed more. I wanted Dev.
* * *
Later that morning, I wiped sweat off my brow as I stacked two by fours into a neat pile. We were building an addition onto a house outside the city.
“Why the hell isn’t Relay here helping with this?” Isaac grunted as he put down the boards he’d carried over.
“He’s busy with something else,” Dad replied in a good-natured tone.
“He was at the damn wedding this morning,” Isaac pointed out.
“And now he’s busy,” Dad replied.
Isaac scowled at him. “It’s already hot as balls out here. What are you so happy about?”
Usually, we would be starting as the sun rose, to beat the heat.
But we’d gotten a later start today thanks to OD and Rue’s wedding this morning.
I thought about the ceremony and wondered how long it would be before I could convince Devyn to do something like that.
I was going to be lucky enough to get her to stick around at all.
I was sure weddings weren’t in our immediate future.
Dad arched a brow at my brother. “What’s not to be happy about? The question is why are you in such a miserable mood?”
“Needs pussy,” I said, stacking another two by four into place.
Dad grunted in response. “Maybe you should take care of that, Son. Do us all a favor.”
“That’s not what I-” Isaac broke off as a car pulled into the driveway.
He looked down at his watch. “It’s noon.
We never get started this late. At least the Gruebers said they were going to be out all day.
” It’d taken us a couple hours to get the supplies we needed after the wedding before heading out here, so we’d been looking forward to working on the place while it was empty.
Mrs. Grueber had dragged her husband off for a day of shopping. I doubted he’d convinced her not to buy anything in less than two hours. Leaning over, I looked around the house and frowned as two SUVs and a truck pulled in. “Fucking weird. Maybe they’re lost.”
“I’ll handle it,” Dad said. “You finish getting all that sorted.”
“Sure,” I said, though my tone was also upbeat—which caused Isaac to scowl at me, “I’ll carry all the heavy shit for you, old man, while you go chat.”
Dad flipped me off but kept moving toward the front of the house.
I looked over at Isaac as I went back to the truck and pulled more lumber from the bed. “So what is your problem?”
“Who said I had a problem, dickhead?”
My brows shot up as I stared at him. He grimaced. “Fine. It’s just-”
The sound of gunfire interrupted his response and both our heads snapped toward the front of the house.
“What the fuck?” I barked, feet already moving, pulling my Glock from its holster. Arizona was an open carry state—though I also had a concealed carry permit—and I always carried on jobs. You never knew what kind of whacked out fuckers you’d meet.
Isaac had his own pistol in his hand as we both hauled ass around the side of the house.
“Get down!”
My gaze zeroed in on where Dad was crouched down beside the opposite side of the deck from us. It wasn’t cover—cover would stop bullets. It was barely concealment for him and there were men spilling out of the SUV and heading toward us.
“Who the fuck are they?” Isaac shouted across the porch.
I didn’t give a shit who they were. Aiming, I squeezed the trigger, sending the men scattering like the fucking roaches they were. One went down. Dad and Isaac followed my example, keeping them pinned.
“Didn’t get a chance to fucking ask,” Dad bellowed back. “Bastards just started shooting!”
“Dad, back to the truck!” I yelled over to him.
“We need to get out of here.” The Gruebers didn’t live in one of those cookie cutter neighborhoods that were so common in Phoenix, but they did have neighbors.
It wasn’t an idle place to get into a shootout by any means.
Plus, there was the pesky fact that we were outnumbered, and out gunned.
I covered my father and brother as they made a mad dash to the back of the property. As soon as the truck pulled up beside me, I hopped in. Isaac was laying down suppressive fire for me. My arm immediately went out the window and I kept firing as Dad sped away.
“Who the fuck!” Isaac snapped from the backseat.
I ground my teeth together. “Pretty sure I know.” I looked over at Dad. “Sorry. I think it’s that club business I was telling you about.” I’d only given Dad and Isaac enough info that they could keep an eye out. They didn’t know everything.
“Thought you weren’t expecting trouble yet?” Dad’s eyes flicked over to me.
“Looks like we were wrong about that.”
He exhaled slowly. “We’ve never minded the club stuff,” he said, “but I have to say, I don’t like that you’re in the middle of this kind of shit. Bad enough when you three were in the military and getting shot at. But now?”
“I know, Dad. We only take on the shitbags though. You know that.”
“I know.”
“It makes our city safer for everyone.”
“I know.”
I glanced over at him. There was a grim set to his mouth. “But?”
“Still don’t have to fucking like it that my sons are the ones who have to take out the trash.”
Nodding, I slapped a hand on his shoulder. “I get that.”
“Here they come. Step on it,” Isaac called out. He was turned in the seat, watching our six.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the back window shattered, making him cuss and duck as glass sprayed over him.
“Fuck me,” I muttered, ducking my own head.
“Almost there,” Dad gritted out between clenched teeth, as he focused on keeping the truck on the road as we tried to outrun who I was now sure was The Collective.
“Where?” Isaac asked?
“That old manufacturing plant that’s a few miles up.”
“It’s abandoned, right?” he asked.
“A few years back. Hoping no one will be around,” Dad said in confirmation.
“If anyone is, it'll just be security,” I replied. “It’s a good spot for this.”
“Shouldn’t we just try to book it back to the city?” Isaac asked. “We get into a shootout and the cops are going to come sniffing around.”
“We kill these bastards and get out before they come,” I said.
“I’m not letting them get the jump on us later.
” My heart dropped into my ass as I realized there could be multiple groups going after our families right now.
The idea of Devyn or Mom getting ambushed right now made a cold sweat break out on my skin. “They don’t leave that factory alive.”
“Agreed,” Dad said.
“Sounds good to me,” Isaac agreed, finally sounding less grumpy despite what was going on.
I pulled out my phone and called Ruck. “Collective is chasing us, heading to the old factory on Avondale Boulevard. Send someone to watch Devyn and Mom.” I hung up before he could answer as more bullets pinged off the truck.
There wasn’t time to explain anything else to him. I’d have to fill him in later.
Ruck would handle the protection, and if there was time, send us backup. Though with how close The Collective was, I was thinking we were on our own.
I glanced over my shoulder to find my brother grinning. “Well, if nothing else, that’s knocked the pissy mood out of you.”
“I wasn’t pissy. Fuck off.”
My eyes moved to the road behind us. “They’re gaining on us, Dad.”
“Yeah, I know. This old pickup isn’t going to outrun those fucking SUVs. Make yourselves useful and shoot at them. Fuck!”
One of the SUVs rammed our truck from behind, forcing Dad to spin the wheel to keep the truck from fish tailing out of control.
“Now would be good!” he barked at us.
Turning in the seat, I aimed and shot at the driver, but didn’t hit him.
Hitting a moving target when you were also moving was much harder than people realized.
Now would’ve been a great time to have a rifle, but none of us had come today expecting trouble.
That would be something I remedied in the future.
No one was going anywhere without a fucking arsenal at their fingertips.
But for now, all we had were our hand guns. We’d have to make do.
I focused on forcing the SUV to keep its distance or risk our rounds penetrating their windshield. It was the best we could do. We just needed to get to that factory and make a stand. Then we needed to get our asses back to our families.