The men who did this are not done with the house.
“They’re coming back,” I mutter.
Then I hear it.
Engines.
More than one.
I move fast.
Julie appears at the end of the hall with a small metal tin in one hand and a folder clutched to her chest.
Good girl.
She got what she came for.
“Julie.”
Her eyes hit mine.
“Come here. Now.”
She moves.
Fast.
She is halfway to me when tires bite dirt outside the house.
Then more engines answer from the road.
Different sound.
Motorcycles.
Saints.
Good.
The front yard erupts all at once.
Truck doors slam.
Boots hit dirt.
Bikes cut hard toward the porch.
Julie reaches me and I put her behind my back.
The first man hits the front door just as Ghost comes through the side of the yard like death with a pulse.
He shoots him center mass before the bastard gets one full step into the house.
The body slams back into the doorway.
Viper comes in hard behind him, all sharp motion and bad temper, firing once through the front window and dropping the second man before he can clear the porch rail.
A third man cuts across the side of the house with a gun in his hand.
