Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
WREN
“Quiet as we can.” Lex whispered. He led the way, Bray behind me, my friends to either side. Javey walked close behind Sinclair.
The headlights illuminated the track, making it easier to see. Several other vehicles were parked beside the first, all dark, their lights off.
How much planning went into all of this?
"I'm tempted to slash their tyres, but we may need them to get out of here," Bray said.
I was thinking the exact same thing. Stopping the bad guys from getting away from us might be to our benefit. Trapping ourselves definitely wouldn't be.
I suspected this would come down to either us surviving, or them.
Whoever walked away from this, the cars were all theirs. Slashed tyres wouldn't help us if we were dead.
Imagining them triumphant and coming back here to find they couldn't leave, gave me a slight spike of petty amusement. Only a small one. I didn't want to picture us dead all that much.
"That would be a waste of time," Javey said.
"Quiet," Lex said. "Spread out a bit."
He gestured to the other players and coaching staff who survived the crash. They quickly complied, putting a metre between each other. That should make getting past us unseen, more difficult.
At a shout, and more gunshots from up ahead, we all broke into a brisk trot.
If we had the element of surprise, we wouldn't have it for long. They'd expect us to get off the bus and do something at some point. Or maybe they'd expect us to stay and wait for them to come and take us out.
Either way, they knew we existed and would have to be dealt with sooner or later. Speed was more urgent than stealth right now.
We skidded to a stop at the top of a rise.
I was puffing lightly. Running around in forests wasn't something I did regularly.
Or anywhere else, for that matter. I wasn't as fit as the guys.
That was something I'd have to rectify when this was over.
Powell Tower had a state-of-the-art gym Tiger and Bray made use of.
I could do the same. I was sure Lex could give me a few pointers.
The glare of the headlights wasn't as bright below the rise, but it was enough to make out the stream Bray mentioned. The cliff right behind.
Elenna let out a squeak.
The guys stood in a loose semicircle, facing at least ten armed men. Including Gus.
Before I could even think, Sinclair raised her gun and aimed at him.
I couldn't see where the bullet went, but it must have missed him. His brains weren't spread in every direction. He didn't fall to the ground with a satisfying thud.
Instead, he turned and fired back.
The shot caught one of the coaching staff in the stomach. He went down with a cry of pain I'd probably hear until after I was dead.
The wound wasn't immediately fatal. He'd suffer for a long time before he died, unless we could get him to a hospital in time. We had to. Too many of us had died already. We couldn't lose anyone else. He’d survive, but we had to do this quickly.
I sent thoughts of gratitude to past me. The Wren of a handful of minutes ago, agreeing that slashing the tyres was a bad idea. We might need those vehicles sooner than we thought.
We all dropped down and melted into the trees, goonholes, players, coaches and badass women alike.
A shadow loomed in front of me, gun aimed at my head. Without thinking, I fired before he could. He let out a grunt of pain and ducked back away. Unless I was mistaken, I got his shoulder, not his heart where I was actually aiming. Bummer.
With any luck, it would be enough to put him out of commission for a while. I knew there was a reason I focused on shoulder shots when I was learning to shoot. Who knew my animosity towards Bray might actually come in useful someday?
That's for my shoulder, I thought. It was aching like a bitch right now, but I had to ignore it and focus on the job at hand.
A moment later, a different goonhole rose from the bushes and aimed at Lex.
No you fucking don't. My hand trembled from the recoil of the last shot, but I acted on instinct.
I swung around and squeezed the trigger.
The bullet flew out of my gun and hit my target exactly where I intended it to.
Right in the back of his head. It blasted his skull apart, killing him before he even knew I was there.
Fuck yeah, I still had it.
I glanced away from the spray of blood and chunks of brain and swallowed to keep down my last meal. I had a strong stomach and I'd seen death before, killed before, but it was never something I relished. I'd be no good torturing people or as a serial killer. I'd stick to making jewellery.
Lex turned back to look over his shoulder. "Good job." He flashed me a brief grin. “Thank you.”
I shrugged as though I was unmoved. "You're welcome. Nothing any of you wouldn't have done for me."
"Of course, but it's the first time anyone has killed for me," he said.
A smile crept onto my lips.
I had to cut short my celebration to duck back down as a barrage of bullets struck the trees all around me.
"No one shoots my girlfriend." Bray rose and took out two of them with two perfect shots. One to the head and another to the chest.
"No one but you?" I asked as he sank back down beside me.
He grinned. "Exactly. And vice versa."
I couldn't imagine a scenario in which we'd have to shoot each other, but I laughed softly anyway and squinted through the trees.
"In case I don't get a chance to tell you later, I love you," Bray said.
I glanced back over him and resisted the urge to make a comment about his timing. "I love you too." That seemed more important right now than ribbing him.
"Good." Apparently he felt the same way. "Don't get dead."
"You either."
Where the fuck was Gus? Was Nicholas here at all, or had he left all of this to his goonholes? That would be the kind of cowardly thing he'd do. Let them deal with us, and potentially die. As long as he was safe and well. Asshole.
Not unlike Reuben and Caleb, now I thought about it. I didn't see Hunter and Parker along with us either. Of course, when push came to shove, they were nowhere to be seen.
"Let's make our way forward," Lex said. "Stay low and move carefully."
"I thought we could run out there like crazy people and wave for their attention," Bray said sarcastically.
Lex glanced back at him and rolled his eyes, but grinned. "Go ahead. If you want to explain to Aidan later why you're full of bullet holes."
"Doesn't sound like I'd be in much shape to explain," Bray said.
Evidently he didn't like that idea much, he stayed low and moved quietly, staying close to me.
I startled at the sound of gunshots behind us.
The goonholes must have gone around, trying to pin us between them and the cliff, with the rest of the team.
Cries of pain and thud after thud made everything inside me recoil. They were killing our people.
I turned and waited. Watched the converging shadows approaching our position. They eventually drew close enough for me to make them out individually.
A little closer, I thought. I didn't want to waste bullets by missing.
Almost. Almost.
Now.
I aimed, taking out one goonhole before she could fire at Bray.
"No one shoots my boyfriend," I said. "Except me."
"Nice shot, Socks." Bray took out another of the enemy with a clean shot to the chest, and narrowly missed being shot in the head. The bullet embedded in the tree right beside him.
Hot fury coursing through me, I shot the man who aimed that bullet. "What did I just say?" I asked rhetorically.
He couldn't answer with half his face missing.
Slightly nauseous, I crouched back down, my hand on the tree trunk next to me. I'd rather kill than be killed, but this was getting to me more and more. Especially when all this death was so unnecessary.
We had no particular gripe with these people, just the ones they worked for.
Correction, we'd had no particular gripe, until they picked up guns and aimed them at us.
Let's face it, all bets were off at that point.
"There can't be many left," Lex said.
I wasn't sure if he was referring to the enemy or us. Possibly both.
The bush was a scene of carnage. I'd hate to see it when the sun rose. There would be blood and brains everywhere, bodies attracting flies and rotting in the filtered light under the trees.
"Gus," Sinclair hissed.
I looked in the direction she pointed. He and several goonholes were heading for Tiger and the other guys. He must have assumed we were dealt with. There really must not be many of us left.
"I think we can agree no one shoots our boyfriend," Lex said.
"Absofuckinglutely not," I agreed.
The six of us rose and stalked the goonholes, moving as silently as we could. Like before, we needed to get close enough for clear shots. Otherwise, they'd turn and end us before we could end them.
As the goonholes drew closer, Aidan gestured for the others to wait. The enemy was too far for them to get a good shot either.
The distance was closing quickly. Gus and his companions were making no effort to hide their presence or be slow and careful. They were so sure they were about to end this, they were getting cocky and, with that, they got sloppy. They should have known being sloppy gets you dead.
As if to punctuate my thoughts with a dash of irony, I almost tripped over a stick in my haste to keep up. I caught myself at the last moment and hoped like hell Gus didn't hear.
Evidently he didn't. The crunching of sticks and leaves under his boots were loud enough to cover mine.
"When I say the word, run," Lex whispered. "We can't let them get too close."
We all nodded our understanding.
I kept an eye on him and the other on the ground in front of me.
Gus stepped to the open track, back into the glare of the headlights. Trying to intimidate us by illuminating him and his people. They looked like a scene out of an action movie. The kind where the bad guys roll into town, just about to end the good guys.
I snorted to myself. Good luck with that, asshole. None of us were that easily intimidated.
I hoped.
"Run," Lex hissed.
As one, we bolted towards the road until we were close enough. Before Gus could turn, we aimed and shot half of his people in the back.
He whirled around and aimed back at us.
"Not today, Satan," Sinclair declared. She pointed a gun at him and shot him in his left temple.
"Fuck yeah, that's my girl!" Coast shouted.
Aidan ordered them all forward. They ran, taking out the last two goonholes who were closest to them.
Realising I hadn't stopped shaking since the bus crashed, I lowered my gun and sucked in a long, slow breath. "Is that all of them?"
"All of them except for Nicholas," Aidan said. He had his arms around Elenna, him, Orion and Finley giving her a hug.
I found Bray, Tiger and Lex's arms around me and nestled into them all.
"We still need to deal with Nicholas," Tiger said. "I saw him about half an hour ago. There were other people with him." He shot Aidan a glance, no apology for contradicting him.
I sighed into the side of Bray's chest. "It's not over then."
"It will be soon," Bray said. "Let's find this asshole and deal with him."
"Agreed," Aidan said. "No one goes home tonight until Nicholas Fiorelli is dead." He didn't add ‘or we are.’ Enough of us had died here tonight. We weren't going to let any more be killed.