39. Kai
Kai
Devils as far as the eye can see, all of them with malice in their eyes. Ready to avenge their brothers.
Their leader.
Motorbikes fill The Pitch’s parking lot. Even Theo and Jules join the crowd, arms crossed and ready for revenge.
All of them looking to me. Their vice president. Their second.
Looking out at the hundreds of Devils, something violent pounds in my chest. I’ve stood beside these men for years. They’ve taken my orders countless times. Rode behind me during runs. Lived amongst me. Lost their brothers beside me.
Now, they will fight beside me.
Griff stands next to me, facing the crowd. His body rigid and ready for a fight. The empty space on my other side feels fucking enormous.
Curling my fists, I feel Roxy’s crumpled note burning a hole in my pocket. Kaleb’s knife sits against my back where I’ve tucked it into my waistband. Pieces of them. It’s all I fucking have.
Maddison stands next to Matt. Because of course, she refused to stay behind. Her hair is tied back, and she’s wearing a leather jacket, a helmet held under her arm. She’ll be riding with Matt and I put the fear of God into him to keep her safe.
If I save Ash, only to come back with his angel gone... It would be mayhem.
My brother is out there and I’m not sure if he’s alive. Not sure what he is going through.
“Listen up!”
My voice tears through the air. Everyone stills, hundreds of faces looking to me.
The air is heavy with tension and fury, yet it remains silent while they wait for my command.
For a brief second, I wonder how Ash does this every day.
How he carries the lives of all these men on his shoulders day in and day out.
How he carries it without breaking.
“Tonight, someone walked into our fucking home and took four of our brothers.” My jaw locks. “Our fucking president.”
Angry shouts fill the space, each of them as furious as the next. I can taste it in the air. Maddison’s face is a mask of everything she is trying to hide, but the girl is strong.
“We have spent months being attacked, being robbed. Being made to look like a fucking joke!” My voice is a growl. “That ends tonight! Tonight we show them why the Devils are to be feared!”
The Devils roar. Bikes rev to life, and the ground rumbles under my boots. Slowly, I pull on my helmet. Griff does the same beside me. He nods, hand flexing around the handles.
I nod back. And then we leave.
The roar is deafening. Hundreds of bikes tearing onto the road. It vibrates through my chest. Griff rides beside me, and we lead a reckoning of Devils.
Headlights paint the dark street, and I glance at them in my mirrors. They stretch so far in the view that I can’t see the end of them.
We only have one destination.
The freezer.
The place we were going to hit tonight before those fuckers got to us first. I rev the throttle harder, letting the cold air cut through my leather.
Griff stays with me. I don’t let myself think about what we are walking into.
Because we have no way of knowing. No time to do recon and no Leon to bust through the cameras.
It doesn’t matter.
Whatever we walk into, we fucking deal with it. Kill any Wraith in our way. Find our men. They are alive. They have to be.
There has never been a world where Kaleb doesn’t exist beside me. Unless it’s with her between us.
By the time we round the corner to the huge buildings, we spread out, circling it.
Surrounding them. There are a few men outside, but most of them seem to be inside.
Before we can stop our bikes, gunshots go off.
But the Devils are ready for it, sliding off their bikes and advancing.
Knives are out. Guns are out. Every single one we had available.
The night explodes.
Bullets fly. One tears through the bike beside mine with a deafening crack, sending sparks across the ground as I throw myself off Shadow and duck behind a truck. Griff drops beside me, already returning fire.
My eyes scan the area. The stupid fuckers only have one of the roller doors open. One entrance and one exit.
“Block the entrance!” I roar. “Don’t let anyone fucking leave!”
They advance like a dark wave. Guns raised and muscles tight. The Wraiths try to hold their own. Bullets land and Devils’ cuts drop to the ground, only to be replaced by more.
“Push!” I scream, voice breaking.
Devils split around the loading yard, using concrete barriers, trucks, and bikes as cover while closing the distance. The Wraiths have nowhere to go except inside. Exactly where I fucking want them.
Once that entrance is ours, nobody leaves this building without passing through us. A blood-covered Wraith raises his rifle, pointing it at Griff.
“Down!”
Griff drops and I fire, feeling a shudder through me at the way his body jolts with the hit, before thumping onto the ground in a puddle of blood. Kaleb would love this.
Griff rises, before shooting off another bullet and hitting a Wraith in the knee.
The air is full of bloodcurdling screams. An orchestra of pain and terror. Some of them will be Devils. And after we win this, we will bury them. Mourn them. For now, we kill.
A bullet hits the side of the truck above my head. The sound reverberates through my skull.
Scanning the space, I see Theo and Jules side by side, Jules using his shotgun to drop Wraiths one by one.
My attention goes back to the roller door. It’s all I care about. Because that’s where they are. The gunfire coming from the entrance is thinning. Wraiths retreat further into the building for cover.
“Now!”
We run. The Devils move with us, boots crunching over wet gravel as we close the distance, guns raised.
A Wraith steps through the opening, his face falling when he sees his huge mistake.
He lifts his weapon anyway. But Griff fires first. The man drops with a wet thud.
We reach the entrance. Guns fire, but all I can see are the three men. On their knees and restrained.
Ash with a wild gleam in his eyes. Xavier. And an unconscious Leon. No Kaleb.
I roar, lifting my gun and spraying. Watching men drop. I don’t care who; all I care about is that they bleed.
Griff runs to the three men, shielding the defenceless Devils. He takes in Leon’s limp body and the blood coating his face. From where I stand, he looks dead. From the way his head hangs, not a single twitch despite the thunderous gunfire all around.
Griff snarls, though I don’t hear it, and drops to a knee to lift Leon’s jaw. Gun still raised, he gives him a shake.
Shots continue to fly, and Griff folds himself over Leon. His massive body completely covers the smaller man as a bullet strikes the concrete behind them.
I watch as a bullet connects with Griff’s leg and he roars.
His body buckles, but he continues to keep himself between Leon and the gunfire.
Devils close around Ash and Xavier, cutting through their restraints. Griff hooks an arm around Leon’s weightless body, hauling him closer. Leon’s head falls against Griff’s shoulder.
Ash’s restraints fall away and he jumps up, snatching a gun from a Devil. My eyes are frantically searching for Kaleb. I’m too late. Too fucking late.
Wraiths drop like flies, but none of it matters.
I was too late.
My gun drops to my side. All I can hear is my own breath. My eyes continue to search, refusing to believe it.
A scream works its way through my panic. Everything freezes. My head snaps towards the far side of the loading bay. My eyes flare.
For a second, I think I’m imagining her. I’ve been shot and I’m fucking dreaming. There is no way she’s here right now.
“Guns down!” I scream when I see her stumbling with Isaac behind her.
A blade is pressed against her throat as he shoves her deeper into the mess. She fights despite it all.
Guns still fire, and I lose it.
“Stop! Guns down! Fucking stop!”
My voice tears from my throat. My heart stops as I search her body for blood. The gunfire from our end slows, but not completely. The Wraiths are outnumbered. They know. There can’t be more than a dozen left.
Ash stands next to me. “Ceasefire!” he screams.
Men groan on the ground, and my ears ring with the aftermath of the shooting.
“Roxy,” I whisper.
A broken, desperate whisper. Her blue eyes find mine. I drop my gun on the floor. And drop to my knees.