I just felt cold and empty, like what I’d dreaded most had finally happened. I glanced over at the others, wondering if it was possible that they’d picked up on the fact that Davis was in the thick of all this.
Not that it mattered.
Brother or not, he would pay for this shit, and he would pay dearly.
But we had to find the right time.
Two men charged down the hall and into the office. They were going to attempt to break into the safe. That wasn’t going to happen. That damn thing was state-of-the-art. It would take someone with a great deal of skill and patience to break through the layers of authentication, and even then, it would take time. Lots of it.
They could try explosives, but it would take a mountain of dynamite to blow it open. It was a fucking tank. It was doubtful that they could get their hands on what they’d need to blow it open. I was trying to listen when something upfront caught my attention.
The leg of a chair raked across the concrete floor, and out of nowhere, some kid who couldn’t have been more than twenty, stood and lunged for the stage. He rushed toward the leader. Only, he didn’t make it far.
The second he saw him, the man started firing.
The explosion of gunfire ripped through the club like lightning.
And he wasn’t just aiming at the kid. He was shooting anyone close to him, including Lu. She was one of the new girls, and I’d had a soft spot for her. Not because I was interested in her, but because she was a good kid, trying to make something of her life.
My stomach twisted into knots as I watched her bring her hands up to her throat. She coughed and gasped as blood seeped through her fingers. The girls around her started to panic and cries filled the room. But my focus was on Lu. I lay there, and rage coursed through my veins as I watched her eyes widen and her body giving out.
Then, she stilled. Her hands fell to her side, and the life left her body.
She was gone.
Dammit.
She was just a kid.
She had her whole life ahead of her, and he’d stolen it from her.
My pulse thundered in my ears, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the whisper,You waited too long. It replayed in my head over and over as I looked up at the man on the stage. He didn’t even look rattled, and that calmness chilled me more than the blood pooling at his boots.
He remained standing in the center of the stage with his rifle still raised, smoke curling from the barrel. He’d shot and killed three without hesitation.
He wanted to make a point, and he made it.
We all could see that he wasn’t bluffing.
We weren’t bluffing either. They’d crossed a line. This was no longer a robbery. This was war, and these assholes were about to go down.
I glanced around the room, and my eyes landed on Memphis. We didn’t nod. We didn’t speak. We just knew.
It was time.
I looked over to my other brothers, seeing the same shift in their eyes, and I knew we were done playing it safe. Slowly, carefully, I shifted my weight to the side, then inched my righthand down the small of my back. Each of my brothers was doing the same.
Subtle movements masked by the chaos of trembling bodies and frightened cries. I wrapped my fingers around the grip of my gun, and my heart started pounding as I eased it from the holster. I was preparing to take my shot when everything went black.
The room was so dark I could barely see what was in front of me, but that didn’t stop me from getting to my feet. I was about to make my way to the stage when the front doors exploded open with a hard thud, and the back doors did the same.
Seconds later, the security lights came on, giving enough light for me to see Grim, Creed, and Rusty charging in through the front and Skid, Ghost, and Gash rushing in from the back, cutting off all the exits. Gunfire erupted, and I used the opportunity to take out the asshole on the stage.
It just took one shot.
One squeeze of the trigger, and he jerked backward.
The rifle slipped from his grip, and the girls screeched when the sorry sack of shit toppled off the platform and onto the ground next to them. My brothers were taking shots, too. Ghost and Rusty moved past me, dropping one of the robbers before he even knew they were coming.
