Page 69 of More Tricks

Void grinned at me as he holstered his gun and plucked out one of the grenades I knew he had in his pocket. He pulled the pin, held it for a second with the safety clip release then chucked it down the hall toward the three men.

“Fire in the hole,” Void announced, ducking and covering his ears.

Everyone in the apartment dropped to the ground as the explosion went off, rattling the whole building. Void popped back up and whipped out another one in the opposite direction before falling to the ground. “Fire in the hole… again.”

Another booming concussion shook the floor under us. Screaming could be heard throughout the building as people realized a war was happening on the top floor. I vaulted over the bookshelf, Void right behind me, ready to shoot in either direction if they survived. When the dust settled, all we saw were bodies, but I wasn’t going to trust it until I checked.

Keeping low, I darted down the hall to where the three men lay bloody and mangled. It appeared holding the grenade for that second meant it exploded in the air lessening the damage to the lower floor.

“Void, you clear?” I yelled.

“Swiss cheese over here. I think we’re good,” Void answered. “Still think we need to check the rooms to make sure no one comes at us from behind.”

I gave him a thumbs up and waited for two of Daniel’s men to join. There were ten apartments, but it seemed only six people were living on the floor. The other rooms had what looked like the makings of a drug production layout. Bricks of coke or heroin were stacked on a counter with scales and other items needed for distribution. It looked like this was more than just a well-guarded apartment where his son lived. Seemed Axel might be more involved than we’d originally thought.

Stepping back into the hall, I spotted Void with Axel having a heart-to-heart as he was dangled over the railing with nothing but air between him and the ground. “Now listen to me, you little piss ant. What I want to know is if your old man has more people in this building or just this floor?”

“I’m not fucking telling you anything. You’re the cops. You can’t do this to me,” Axel argued, his voice a little garbled with Void’s hand around it.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, wake the hell up. We ain’t no cops,” Void muttered. “Now tell me what I want to know so we can make sure you leave this place alive. Seems your usefulness is still required, so don’t make me tell my woman I had to kill you.”

“Why the fuck would I care about helping you with your bitch?” Axel said, then tried to spit on Void.

Eagle lunged forward as I bolted in their direction, but Eagle managed to grab the kid just as Void released his hold on him. If Eagle hadn’t caught Axel’s arm, he would have been splattered on the tile below.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, I don’t want to die. Please don’t let me go,” Axel begged, panic written all over his face. “I didn’t think he was really gonna drop me. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just don’t drop me.”

Void grunted as if he was satisfied with the sheer terror in Axel’s voice, then helped Eagle pull him over the railing and back to the hallway. Standing there looking at the three of them, my heart in my throat, I realized Void knew Eagle would catch him. The crazy fucking bastard made a move like that, trusting Eagle would step in.

“You fucking crazy bastard,” I blurted as I slapped him upside the head. “Dax would have had your balls for pulling a stunt like that.”

“Wait, did you just say Dax,” Axel demanded. “As in Two Tricks?”

The three of us looked down at him questioningly. “What’s it to you?” Void asked.

“She… she’s y-your w-woman?” he stuttered. “Oh, fuck me, he was telling the truth.”

Confused, I stepped forward and squatted in front of this sack of shit so we were closer to eye level. “While that is absolutely the right response to have, care to fill me in on what the fuck has you pissing your pants?”

“That guy of hers… Jeff, the enforcer we snatched in LA. I think that’s what he said his name was. He told me that she would find me and kill me for taking out one of her people. That she’s a bloodhound, and no matter how careful we were, she’d find me,” Axel explained.

We all knew how hard Dax took Jeff’s death, being one of her top enforcers who worked with Brian. In everything else that had happened, we knew it still nagged at her. She hadn’t run down his killer, but it seemed karma was on our side.

“One thing you should know about our woman,” Void said, crouching and grabbing the kid’s neck again. “She never forgets a slight and all those stories I’m sure you’ve heard of her… she’s worse, especially when it comes to those who harmed her inner circle of people. You’ve done it twice, killing one of her men and taking family. I bet you wish we’d let you drop.”

A shrill whistle sounded from below. “We gotta go, times up,” Daniel hollered.

Void grabbed the kid and chucked him over his shoulder, and hustled down the stairs with Eagle and me right on his heels. Let’s hope things went as well for Dax and the others.

Chapter twenty-five

Cameron

Reaching over, I pulled Dax’s hand away from her mouth. I didn’t think there was much left of that thumbnail and when she noticed, then she’d start picking at her bottom lip. Once she started that nervous tick, it was almost impossible to get her to stop.

“Beautiful, you’re killing me with all this nervous energy,” I murmured into her ear.

She let out a sigh and yanked her hand out of my grasp to run it through her hair. “You know this whole waiting shit drives me crazy.”