27
TEX
The call came in while we were still sweeping the yard for stragglers.
JD was talking to Moose about regrouping when one of the younger guys jogged over, phone in hand, face pale. I knew before he even opened his mouth that whatever he had to say was bad.
“Tex,” he said quietly. “You need to hear this.”
I took the phone. “Yeah?”
The voice on the other end was shaky. “It’s the girl’s ranch. They hit it. Set it on fire.”
My stomach dropped straight through the ground.
“What?” My voice came out low and dangerous.
“It’s mostly gone, man. Fire crews are still there but there’s nothing left. House, barn, even the fucking animals. They chained the doors shut so they couldn’t get out. It was too late to do anything by the time anyone realized.”
I didn’t hear the rest. I didn’t need to.
I handed the phone back without a word.
JD stepped closer. “Tex?—”
“They burned her home down,” I said, barely recognizing the sound of my own voice. “They burned the only thing she had left. They even killed her horses.”
I shook my head, my anger building. I pressed the heels of my hands against my closed eyes as I tried to regain some semblance of control.
“We’ll kill every last one of them,” Moose said. “Not just for what they did here, to us, but for her too.”
“You’re damn straight we will,” Swampy said.
His shoulder had been bandaged up after a couple of stitches, and it was still bleeding, but he refused to go to the hospital or even stand down.
When I pulled my hands away, I felt something inside me snap—not loud, not explosive. Quiet. Final. Like a bone breaking clean through. JD was pacing, a distant look on his face.
“Prez, they’re not just coming for her,” I said. “They’re trying to erase her completely—her blood, her life, her family. They’re making sure that no one else will stand in their way of buying up that land after she’s dead.”
He stopped pacing. “I know, and you know I won’t let that happen, brother.”
“I know that,” I agreed, and I did. I may not have staked a claim on her, but she was mine; JD knew it as much as I did.
JD put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll rebuild it, okay. All of it. But first we pluck the fucking head off this weed and make sure it doesn’t grow back. Then we dig deep and find out which of our so-called brothers created this fuckin’ mess, and then we end him.”
Moose, Swampy, and I all grunted our agreement.
Ending a brother’s life shouldn’t have been such an easy decision to make, and yet it was. Especially after tonight.
“I need to go to her,” I said.
“Tex, we don’t know what’s waiting between here and the safe house.”
“I don’t care. I need to see her.”
JD stared at me for a long second before nodding. “All right. Let’s move.”
We mounted up fast, engines roaring to life. Gods joined us en route along with Bear and Confessor. The ride was chaos, with blocked roads, cartel scouts trying to regroup, debris everywhere. Every delay made my pulse spike harder.
