Page 45 of Obey

Thank goodness. She’d made it back to the clubhouse.

Within seconds, more heads were popping up in the windows, their eyes on the street and their mouths drawn tight, and I realized that they were the men from our club. I saw face after face that I recognized—most of them smeared with dirt and blood—and then saw faces that I didn’t know at all.

In fact, I thought, there were more men than there should have been. Far more than the Banshees had in the club.

My breath caught and I searched for Gemini. When I found him, he looked both grim... and determined. And though I didn’t know him that well, I thought I knew what that look meant.

The clubs he’d thought weren’t going to show up had come around after all, and the men were in there with our guys right now. It was the only thing that made sense, and certainly the only way the Banshees would have so many men in their clubhouse right now.

“Looks like the other clubs finally arrived,” a voice said from directly above me.

I jumped and looked up to see Knight leaning around the corner, his head over mine. A quick check of my body told me that he was also pressed against my back, his warmth soaking through my clothing.

I allowed myself one-tenth of a second to revel in the fact that he was alive and right here, and then nodded. “I was just thinking the same thing. Gem wasn’t sure they’d come.”

Knight snorted. “Gem is a natural pessimist. He never believed they would help us, when it came down to it. Guess he was wrong.”

I didn’t answer. I wasn’t going to tell him that the presidents of the other clubs had actually called him and told him they weren’t coming. What good would it do to break his faith like that? Particularly when those presidents had evidently changed their minds.

“So what now?” I breathed. We had the men to carry on with the war, and we certainly had the weapons. We had our enemies in the area.

The time, it seemed, was ripe to finish this.

I’d barely asked when everything suddenly jumped into action again. The men in the clubhouse exploded outward onto the street at the exact moment when the cops—and the Steed—came running out of their hiding places. Knight let out a terrific whoop and ran toward the melee as well, and I didn’t even have to think about what I was doing.

I jumped up and followed him, screaming with the need to have this finished.

I wasn’t fast enough to keep up with Knight but he slowed, doing his best to keep me behind him as he fired round after round into the battle. I followed his lead, finding any man wearing the black and red of Devil’s club and shooting at them. I had no idea whether I was hitting any of them but we were firing so fast that no one was shooting back at us, and I figured that was a positive. We whirled in circles, searching for the enemy, and before long I was shooting at the cops as well.

It went against everything I’d ever been taught by my parents and society itself. But those cops were trying to kill us, and as far as I was concerned, that made them fair game.

I still didn’t know what the hell was going on there. Devil must have paid them off, but how were they getting away with making open war with citizens in the streets of the town? Wouldn’t they get in trouble for this sort of thing? Wouldn’t they... I don’t know, be fired at least and prosecuted at best?

That depended entirely on how far the corruption went, I supposed. If the entire department was paid off, along with judges and the lawyers in town...

If Devil had managed to wrap them all into his scheme, they wouldn’t have to worry about anyone else getting them in trouble. And if they tried to get out, he’d blackmail them by threatening to expose them to their peers.

It was neatly done, I had to admit. And it must have taken a ton of money. But if it led to Devil winning this war and taking over the whole area, it would be well worth it.

My eyes narrowed at that point and I cocked my head, taking a breath to reload my gun with a new magazine. Speaking of Devil, where the fuck was he? I’d seen him chasing me in the early morning light, but hadn’t seen him since, and this was definitely his battle. He’d brought it to the clubhouse of the Banshees, and it seemed insane to think his men might have come here without him.

He couldn’t be dead, either, or his men would have cut and run. They weren’t going to carry on this battle without the leader who’d made sure it happened.

Ten new cop cars suddenly tore into the square, distracting me from my thoughts, and Knight and I ducked down and scuffled behind a car for some protection. We were defeating the Steed but I didn’t know how we were going to get ahead of the cops at this rate. They seemed to have an unlimited number of reinforcements.

And better weapons. And, I was sure, vehicles that would tear us apart if they brought them.

How the hell were we going to get out of this alive if we had to fight something like that?

Create some space, I realized. If we could hold them off for long enough, they might start to grow tired, or they might give us enough space to escape. I didn’t know how we’d do that with our bikes being decimated by gunfire, and I didn’t know where we’d go—we were well and truly outlaws, now—but if we could get enough breathing room, we might be able to come up with something.

It became my new mantra. Shoot, pray for some space, shoot some more. Dodge, duck, shoot. Check in with Knight.

Shoot.

Pray.

New cop cars appearing.