Epilogue Raven
Once Shield confirmed the scene told the story he wanted to tell, we all left. Min snagged a top from Nancy’s closet to cover her blood-stained clothing. Once outside, Carver walked me to my car, but before he could open my door, Shield’s phone buzzed.
“It’s Dante,” Shield tells Carver.
“Oh, we didn’t ask about the operation. How did it go?” I ask Carver.
He shrugs. “I think we’re about to find out. Mellor and Banks went hunting. Tony followed a few minutes later, and we followed him.”
“What’s happening?” Shield asks when he shifts the call to speaker.
“Where the fuck are you guys?” Dante demands. I can hear noise behind him—voices, movement, chaos. “The operation’s done.”
Shield gives him the basics, but doesn’t go into too much detail. We don’t want the neighbors to overhear.
“Get here fast.”
“What happened?” Carver barks.
“Rollings shot Izzy. Scar and Tally are working on her.”
“We’re on our way,” Shield snaps as he ends the call.
No one says a word as we pile into my car. The air is heavy with worry as I pull out and follow Shield and Carver back to the clubhouse.
The common room feels suffocating the second we step through the doors.
The room is a sea of leather kuttes. Ashlyn, Tanya, and Min rush over to their men.
Caitlin heads toward Dante. Evie and Athena are cuddled on their men’s laps.
Lenora rushes into Shield’s open arms as Carver leads me over to Dante, too.
He’s sitting next to Smoke, who has his face buried in his hands.
“What happened?” Carver asks Dante after squeezing Smoke’s shoulder.
I glance at Jinx, who has come to stand with us. Her dark hair is messy, her makeup smeared, and there’s blood on the sleeve of her shirt.
“Everything went according to plan,” she says. “Izzy and I were both inside our respective bars when Mellor and Banks showed up. We both decided to play it as single women waiting for our friends to arrive. This had the bastards moving in on us fast.”
I can picture the scene. Izzy and Jinx sitting at a table, glancing expectantly at the door. Mellor and Banks honing in on what they assume is vulnerable prey.
“Mellor approached me and chatted me up. The same bullshit about a pretty girl shouldn’t be alone in a bar.
He offered to buy me a drink. I agreed, and he went to the bar to get me one.
I could hear Izzy through the headphones going through the same thing with Banks.
I figured he had already drugged the drink he brought me.
I pretended to sip it before placing it back on the table.
That was Cole’s clue to switch them out.
He bumped into Mellor to distract him before taking the tainted drink and handing me a new one. ”
“Good thinking,” I say.
“Yeah, Mellor was pushy about getting me to finish it, so I’m glad we planned out the switch. I finished it and pretended like the drug took effect. Mellor pretended to be my boyfriend, helping me outside. The bastard. He drove me back to Rollings’ house. Izzy was already inside.”
“How did she get shot?” Carver asks.
“Once we were inside, the club moved,” Jinx says. “One minute Rollings and the others were crowing about how the two assholes came through, and the next, Demon Dawgs were flowing into the house. It was controlled chaos.”
“Rollings panicked and rushed into his office,” Smoke says, picking up the story. “Izzy went after him. He must have had a gun in his desk, because he managed to get off a shot before she took him down.”
We all go silent as we picture the scene. Izzy is the bravest person I’ve ever met. I can’t imagine what it will do to Smoke and the rest of the club if she doesn’t make it. I’m too afraid to ask about the seriousness of the injury. It had to be bad if she is in surgery.
“Did you get everyone?” Shield asks. “What about the two women we think they kidnapped Friday night?”
“Oh, we found them upstairs. They were both drugged and tied up. They’re also being treated here, somewhere,” Smoke says.
“Feral and Penny, along with the prospects, stayed back and called the cops. We wanted to take them to the clubhouse, but we knew you wanted to see if you could get them prosecuted.”
Shield nods. “I’ll call in later.”
“What happened to you guys?” Dante asks.
Min tells Dante about Jackson and Marcus showing up at the clubhouse because Nancy kidnapped Mia. She says they were hoping for help from the club, but since everyone was gone, several of the women worked together to free Mia.
Babe wraps his arm around Min’s waist when she describes how she ended up killing Nancy.
“Will this come back and bite you?” Babe asks her, although his eyes are on Shield.
“No, we found a scapegoat. Or I should say, he showed up and presented himself.”
“Who?”
“Tony,” I say. “He arrived just after Nancy died. He claimed that he was there to pick something up from Nancy. We figured out that he meant Mia. I think he was there to buy Mia from Nancy.”
“Son of a bitch,” Dante swears. “Where the fuck is he? Did you arrest him? He should be dead.”
“He is dead,” Shield says with a sideways glance at me.
“I killed him with poison,” I explain.
The only shift in Dante’s demeanor is his eyebrows rising. “Excuse me?”
I proceed to tell him about The Trial Ordeal and my use of the calabar bean.
“Wait, you’ve grown and processed the poison?” Scar asks, leaning forward.
I nod.
“Do you still have the plants?”
“I have a few. I brought one over to Nancy’s house so it would look like she brewed the poison.”
Dante smirks. “Good thinking. So, you can frame Nancy with the other murders, and you made it look like Nancy and Tony killed each other?”
Shield nods. “Yeah. I haven’t called it in yet.
Not sure how long it will take for someone to discover the bodies.
I’m guessing it will be sometime tomorrow when CPS serves the paperwork terminating Nancy’s custodial rights to the Filby children.
The longer it takes for someone to discover the bodies, the better.
I’ll make sure to get control of the investigation. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
Dante nods. “Good. Welcome to the family, Raven.”
Carver tightens his arm around me.
I feel grateful for everything the Demon Dawgs have done for me, but we still need Izzy to make it through so we can be whole.
Scar steps into the room, drawing everyone’s attention.
For one terrible second, nobody breathes.
Smoke is the first to move. “Well?”
“She’s out of surgery,” Scar says as he pulls Caitlin close.
The entire room seems to exhale at once.
“And she’s going to be fine.”
Relief crashes through the room so hard it almost knocks me sideways. Torch mutters a grateful curse under his breath while Dante leans back in his chair and drags both hands over his face.
Smoke stands completely frozen as he processes the good news.
“The bullet missed everything major,” Scar continues. “There was blood loss, but Tally got her stabilized. She’ll need recovery time, but Izzy’s going to make it.”
Smoke finally moves.
He bends forward slightly, gripping his knees as if trying to catch his breath, or keep his legs from giving out under him.
“Jesus Christ,” he whispers hoarsely.
Jinx closes her eyes briefly beside me, her composure slipping for the first time since we arrived.
Carver squeezes my hand.
The tension in the room eases little by little, replaced by exhausted relief and loud gratitude. For the first time tonight, it feels like maybe we survived this.
Then Jinx’s phone rings.
Jinx frowns slightly and pulls the phone from her pocket. The second she looks at the screen, all the color drains from her face.
A horrible chill races down my spine.
“Jinx?” I ask quietly.
She doesn’t answer.
Her eyes widen slightly as she stares at her phone. Then she abruptly turns and starts toward the front door fast enough to alarm everyone.
“Jinx,” Byte snaps, standing.
Still nothing.
She shoves the phone back into her pocket and breaks into a run.
Smoke straightens instantly. “What the fuck?”
Byte grabs for Jinx, but she evades him and disappears through the door.
Whatever just happened—
It’s bad.
The End
Find out what Jinx has so terrified in Byte’s Bastion. In addition, someone has declared war on the Demon Dawgs, and Crossroads is their chosen battlefield. Byte faces off against a challenger who may be better than him. It’s a good thing he doesn’t work alone.