“He was standing pretty close to the house when that thing hit us,” Dash said.
I scanned the area as we moved closer to the street but didn’t see anyone except for Lyric’s neighbors, who were now coming out of their houses to investigate the explosion. Whoever was operating the drone was long gone, if he was ever in the area to begin with. Who knows what this sick fuck had planned?
“We need to get him to a hospital, pronto,” I said to Dash.
“I’m okay,” Rabbit said. “Doc can patch me up.”
“You’re in shock, and we need to get you an ambulance before it wears off.” I pulled my phone from my pocket, but a neighbor must have already called 9-1-1 as the sound of approaching sirens filled the air.
Debris was scattered across the front lawn and a section of the rain gutter had been torn from the house, launched through the air, and was now imbedded in the front windshield of Lyric’s new Volvo.
“My car,” she cried.
I held Lyric tight. “It’s okay, Angel. I can fix your car, and Dad’ll get a crew on the house right away.”
“I don’t care about any of that right now. I just want our baby to be safe,” Lyric said with a sadness that both broke my heart and filled me with rage.
I looked down and locked eyes with her. “I promise you’ll never be unsafe again. I’m going to find whoever is helping Smalls and burn him to the ground. I’ll get to the bottom of how he was able to get to you this time and make sure it’s never able to happen again.”
My phone buzzed just as the first emergency vehicles began to arrive. It was Doc and I almost didn’t answer, given the situation, but he wasn’t the kind of guy to call just to chit chat, so I decided it was probably best to answer.
“Kind of in the shit right now, Doc. What’s up?”
“Hatch just called to give us a head’s up. The Spiders are making moves against the Dogs all over the country. Not just us, but the Presidents, Howlers, and anyone else that’s backing the Burning Saints. It looks like one of the Saints has already been taken out, so be careful…do I hear sirens?”
“I think Hatch was a little too late,” I said.
“What the fuck happened?” Doc demanded.
I filled him in on what I knew, growing angrier by the second.
“Goddammit. The women are locked down, right fuckin’ now!”
“Yeah, brother,” I agreed. “You gonna handle that?”
“Yeah. I’ll put the call out, then talk to Hatch and Minus.”
Minus was the president for the Burning Saints’ and coincidentally, Hatch’s brother-in-law.
“We’ll convene in an hour. All hands.”
“Okay,” I said, and hung up.
“Doom,” Lyric rasped.
“Yeah, baby?”
“I’m gonna—”
She pulled away and promptly puked all over the ground.
“Local PD’s gonna be here imminently,” Dash warned. “You need to get Lyric back to the compound. Gator’s takin’ care of Willow, so I’ll deal with Rabbit and Dalton’s men’ll deal with the cops.”
I nodded, and guided Lyric out to the street where I texted Mouse to come get us.
* * *
Lyric
