Page 71 of Ravaged By the Dark

“Well, then saddle up. Shit is about to get real.” Arek settled into his little nest and took a deep breath. It felt good to hold Betty again. He gently rubbed the barrel of the sniper rifle that had been with him for every terrible moment he’d experienced. Sneaking her off the base hadn’t been easy, but it was sure the fuck worth it.

“Alright, Betty, let’s do this.” He stared through the scope while Trev relayed the info. he needed to make a clean shot.

Arek made the necessary adjustments to incorporate distance and wind speed. His finger squeezed the trigger, and the first of the two men dropped mid-stride, landing face-first on the roof.

Although his gun was virtually silent, the sound of a body dropping to the ground beside you was still pretty distinguishable. He smiled viciously as the second guard spun around and stared down at his dead friend and then looked straight up at him, eyes wide in confusion.“Smile, fucker,” he whispered as the bullet found its mark between the guard’s eyes. He turned his attention to the four guards standing by the back entrance and waited until the Syphons traveling in their cars rounded the corner before taking out two guards.

“Nice, you haven’t lost your ability to shoot.”

“Oh please, did you really doubt me?” Arek glanced at his brother.

Trev smiled, the teasing look telling him Trev knew the little jab would get him going. “Time to go,” Trev said as they swiftly cleaned up their perch before swinging their packs onto their backs.

The plan Trev created was simple. Convince the Syphons that the Vipers had killed their missing people. It had been him that made the Syphons believe that, but that detail was beside the point.

Next, they needed to produce just enough evidence that the Vipers were trying to enlist Trev’s help so Syphons would believe the story, which wasn’t that hard to do since the two gangs already hated each other.

Step three, the most important step—They needed to give them a financial reason to attack by telling them that the warehouse was full with a new shipment of opioids from the Golden Dragons.

Now here was the key—they needed to attack tonight, or the drugs would be moved by morning, and Trev didn’t know where the drugs would go.

Why would they believe Trev?

Because the Syphons had Trev on the books as their lawyer, and he’d gotten more guys off the hook than Arek could remember. Didn’t mean Arek didn’t hunt them down later and slit their throats, but they thought Trev was one of the good guys.

“Are you sure they can be trusted not to kill Renee or Cody?”

“If they want me to stay their lawyer, they won’t—I made that point very clear. They wanted to kill Cody for his work as Ice Man, but the allure of millions of dollars in drugs and wiping out Tyson was too good not to agree, but I wouldn’t trust them enough to leave them alone for very long.”

They ran for the opposite area where the Syphons were now fully engaged in a firefight. Both of them paused and stared up at the large window into Tyson’s warehouse.

“Here.” Trev handed over the scaling gear, and he gripped the set of magnetic discs. The theme song for Mission Impossible played in his head as they crawled up the metal wall. Lady Luck liked them tonight as the massive window was open, probably for better airflow. The sound of gunfire was extremely loud inside, echoing and vibrating off the cavernous space and the metal racks. A window further down exploded outward, the glass falling like rain onto the pavement below.

“Well, that doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies to stick my head in there,” Trev said as they watched the rest of the window smash to the ground.

“You don’t have to go,” Arek said, daring to peek inside. All the Vipers had their backs to them as they fought the surge of Syphons pushing and shooting their way through the door. This was either the smartest or the stupidest thing his brother had ever suggested.

“Don’t be an idiot. If you’re going in, then I’m going in, but tell me one thing first. Is this girl really worth all this trouble?”

Arek took in his brother’s concerned expression as Trev’s eyes searched his own.

“I love her, and I can’t leave her in there.” Trev nodded in understanding.

“You would find one that needed rescuing, wouldn’t you,” Trev teased, his mouth pulling up in a cocky grin. “I think we should move quickly and get low, hook on and drop in.”

Trev pointed to the repelling hooks on their waists. He agreed, no point in lingering where they could be seen or shot easily.

“Hey Trev, look.” Arek pointed to the far end of the building and a pair of metal doors.

“Those weren’t on the building blueprints I dug up,” Trev mumbled.

“Doesn’t matter now, but if the office is where it’s supposed to be, that is our best way out.”

Trev held up his hand, silently counting down their entry. As Trev gave the signal, Arek pulled open the window far enough for the two of them to slip inside. In tandem fashion, they hooked themselves to the window ledge and dropped like shadows into the darkness of the warehouse below.

“Sweet Delilah, turn on sight.” His camera flicked on and ran through the multiple settings until he said stop. “Over there.”

He pointed to the office they figured would be their target.