I dodged just in time and rolled off the body of his buddy. Bones shot another of the men attacking him, but they must be wearing bulletproof vests because out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of them stagger back to their feet and into the fray once again. I mean… unless he was a zombie. That would also explain him taking a bullet in the chest and not being all that upset about it. Either way, I didn’t like it. Baton guy and I circled each other. I managed to dodge his blows, and he managed to evade my knife until I accidentally tripped over something and fellhard.
Turned out bodies were horrible trip hazards, especially in the dark. It also turned out that like zombies, our assailants could be taken out with a headshot. Good to know. A sharp hiss came from Bones, and his gun went flying from his hand. The two remaining men fighting Bones pummeled into him, and he was doing his best to fend off the bad guys with one arm cradled to his chest. I tried to scramble up from my position on the ground, but before I could, a burst of white-hot pain shot through my head, and my vision went dark. Fucking ouch.
Chapter 28
Bones
A sickeningcrackto my right caused my head to snap in that direction just in time to see Indi crumple to the ground. “Te voy a matarte, carajo,” I snarled. I would fucking kill them, all theseperroswho thought they could attack my family, my home. My right hand was cradled to my chest, something in my arm most likely broken from the blow that knocked my gun from my hand. Indi and I had managed to kill two of the five men, and I wished viciously that we could have killed more of them in the minutes since the power had gone out. This attack had to have been planned ahead for some time. Somehow they knew that the compound would be virtually empty…something that rarely ever happened.
“Leave him,” the man behind me says in a bored tone. “We just need the girl.”
“Fuck that,” snarled the man who I’d shot in the chest. I'd have aimed for his head if I had known they were all wearing bulletproof vests. Anexit wound would have improved his looks greatly in my opinion. “This asshole killed Chains. He’s coming with us, and I’m going to take my time making him mybitch.” The goon next to him snickered.
“Sorry,cabron, you’re not my type. It’s really inappropriate to flirt on the job, you know. Keep that shit up, and they’ll have you down in HR.” I blamed the pain in my arm and Indigo’s bad influence, but I just didn’t have it in me to cower to these fuckers. They’d have to kill me if they wanted to take Indi off this property, and if I was going to die, I might as well do it with a snarky fuckin’ attitude. A sinister chuckle came from behind me, along with an uncomfortably familiar sound.
Snick. Flick. Snick.
Snick. Flick. Snick.
Pyro waltzed around the corner of the clubhouse, bloody hands playing with that goddamn silver lighter.
“Bring him.”Snick.The lighter opened.Flick. Flame ignited.Snick. The lighter lid flipped closed, extinguishing the light illuminating Pyro’s sinister face. His hands and shirt were splattered with blood, and I wondered which of my brothers…or God forbid, the women, he had hurt. My mind instantly flashed to a mass of dark, curly hair and kind eyes.Dios mio, please don’t let it be Lennon. Not her. Not mygatita.
“You’re dead,” I hissed out between clenched teeth, earning a kick from behind me that brought me to my knees. “You’re fuckin’ dead, Pyro. My brothers will annihilate you.”
Pyro sneered, hatred and resentment twisting his face, making him look even more like a rodent than usual.
“The Callahans have offered a huge payday for delivery of this little bitch.” Pyro kicked Indi where she lay, causing me to roar in fury as I tried to lunge for the piece of trash masquerading as a Crow. “Killing you will just be a fun bonus. As for yourbrothers,” Pyro sniggered and spit in my face, “they can come at me. I have a much better crew at my back now, motherfucker.”
“Jesus, enough monologuing,” the man behind me drawled in a bored tone. The last thing I heard was his baton's whooshing sound as it cut through the air on its way to my head, and then, darkness.
Priest
“Amigos, pleasure doing business with you,” Selina Alvarez purred as she strutted away. The weapons we’d be running were already loaded onto our truck, and money had exchanged hands. The only thing left for us to do was get our cargo to its destination. Some of the weapons would make their way into Los Cuervos’ armories. The rest would be sold, and the money funneled into our coffers. Bard had done an excellent job managing his first exchange with the Alvarez Cartel, and I could tell Sticks was pleased with the decision he’d made in naming Bard his successor. As I helped slide the last crate onto the truck, I stretched out my lower back with a groan. Twelve hours in the saddle followed by an arms deal left a man with some serious tension.
“I look forward to doing business with you in the future, senorita,” Bard drawled, snapping the tailgate of the covered truck into place. With a whistle, Selina Alvarez summoned the contingent of men she traveled with, and they silently slipped back over the border and into Mexico. She never acknowledged Bard’s words, but the sly smile on her face was almost feline.
“Flirt on your own time, motherfucker. Some of us want to get this shit show on the road,” Sticks barked. The roar of several motorcycles starting at the same time drowned out Bard’s retort. For the fiftieth time today, I checked my phone, hoping for a message from Clover at the least or a text from Indi at most. I was a fuckin’ simp checking my phone any time I had a spare moment. I’d been tense all day, and I couldn’t put a finger on why.
On Bard’s signal, we all pulled into formation and drove off, heading northeast toward our chapter house in Cedar City, Utah. The cool nightair whipped around my head as I rode, thoughts of the future of our club and one psychotic blonde cavorting in my mind and filling the monotonous highway miles between here and there. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket sometime after midnight, and I flashed my bike’s headlight, signaling my need for a pit stop. At a random Love’s Travel Stop in Flagstaff, Arizona, our convoy stopped so I could check my messages and we could refuel.
As soon as we parked, I slid my phone out of my pocket and saw I had a text from Clover.
Clover:Did you know they made a Tiger King 2? AND a doc about Doc Antle? That guy gives major cult daddy vibes.
I ground my teeth together and hit “call.” I was exhausted and hardly in the mood to wade through any quirky banter to get to the information I had been waiting on.
“Clover’s Crematorium: You kill ’em, we grill ’em. How may I help you?” Jesus Christ, this woman was going to be the end of me, I swear to God.
“Clover, please tell me there was a reason completely unrelated to exotic animal exploitation for you to text me this late.”
A chuckle bubbled out of Clover. “You’re so old. My night is barely getting started. I mean, I know you’re almost thirty, but damn. You know, they make supplements to help with stamina if that’s a concern for you.”
“Clover, for the love of God, please get to the point.”
Clover sighed faintly, which was another red flag. Clover reminded me of Ellis in a way. She took a little sister’s delight in giving me irritating news. Only when a situation was truly messed up would she tap dance around the truth like this. Otherwise, she found sadistic glee in getting on my last damn nerve. If she was reluctant to share something, I knew it had to be significant.
“Look… okay. When I investigated the Petrovs, I didn’t find anything you wouldn’t expect to—basic mafia underground kind of bullshit. I dug deep, Priest. Initially, on paper, they’re like every other crime family within the Russian syndicate.”
