Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

Isla

T he lead vehicle came around the bend, slowing as its front tire slammed in and out of the massive pothole the others had dug. That was Hellfire's cue. A giant pine tree slowly wheezed as it let go of the stump it was attached to. Through the windshield I could see four sets of eyes go cartoonishly big as the hundred plus foot tree came crashing down over their heads.

Four doors opened, but only two got out. More groaning echoed through the woods. Hell had dropped the other tree toward the rear of the convoy. Now they were trapped. No going back now, for any of us.

Hellfire was already loping away, heading back down to the valley floor to join the others waiting at the cabin.

Settling in for what was about to happen, I started to focus on the men scrambling around down on the ground. An explosion rocked the ground and I swore as one of the vehicles exploded into a funnel of fire .

"Oh man, they got the rocket launcher?" Kilo complained, staring longingly down at where the vehicle was blazing.

"Focus," I told him as I lined Donna's scope up on a man as he tried to run from one tree to another. With one trigger squeeze Donna bucked in my hands and the man dropped. There was gunfire all around me as the six of us tried to even the odds for those waiting by the cabin. There was no way I was letting eight of them go up against as many men as my former co-workers had brought with them. We were thinning the herd, but damn it seemed like it was never ending.

Gunfire from behind me had me turning my head and looking down into the small valley. Some of the hired killers had gotten smart—they probably went on foot a mile to get past. I could only hope some of them got waylaid in my traps. Regardless, they had managed to get around us. The bikers down at the cabin were now a part of this fight. It was too much to ask for fifty men to come right through a choke point. I tried to settle my aching stomach. Butcher was down there. And so were the other men I'd come to know, and like, over the last few weeks. I didn't care about the assassins at all. They were a threat that I wanted to take out as quickly as possible.

Swinging Donna to the side, I looked through her scope, scanning until I found Butcher. My jaw dropped open as I watched him beating a man with something.

"What's he got?"

Glancing over at Kilo, I bit back the laugh. He'd turned his weapon to check in on the others as well and was seeing what I was watching. "He's beating the guy to death with his own arm."

Overdrive's head lifted and he frowned. "How's that work?"

"Hacked it off with his ax," I replied, turning back to my own job. I knew Butcher was down there having the time of his life hacking and slashing away at people. We'd had a slight lull, but it was time to get back to work.

"Oh shit! Pretty sure you hit that one right in the balls," Overdrive muttered with a laugh as he looked through his scope at where Kilo was once again shooting .

"Focus on your own damn people," Kilo told him in a calm controlled voice. "And don't try to shoot their dicks off."

Overdrive's rifle barked out another round. "Too late. Your fault for giving me the idea."

These guys were amazing. They didn't get fired up about much in the heat of battle. They were calm and collected. These were exactly the kind of men I had no problem fighting alongside. I'd seen my share of people who'd panicked the minute the shooting started.

Aiming in, I set my sights on another man's chest as he raised his own weapon. I didn't know who he was about to shoot at, but I wasn't about to let him pull the trigger. Gunfire exploded in my ear and the man crumpled to the ground.

"I seem to have a lull," Overdrive complained. "Why aren't they coming my way anymore?" There was a brief moment of silence. "I'm bored. Let me shoot at one of yours."

"No. Go away, asshole. These are mine. You're the one who wanted that side so badly."

"Yeah, ‘cause I figured they'd be swarming through here."

"Figured wrong," Kilo muttered, eyes already on another target. Their arguing was drowned out as he took the shot.

"Just let me shoot one. Just one," Overdrive begged.

Rolling my eyes with a grin, I swept the area, looking through my scope as I did. Overdrive was right. They were thinning out. Which meant most had gotten through, gone around, or were dead. "It's almost time to move," I warned them.

"I have eyes on two more," Kilo told me.

"It's because you're shooting them so slowly. That's why you have some left," Overdrive muttered.

"I'm not fucking shooting them-" Bang. "slowly. Fucking hell, Isla, go ahead and move and take this asshole with you while I finish up."

Getting up, I made my way to the secondary spot we'd scouted out yesterday. It would give us the perfect view of the cabin and everything happening down there. Our previous spot allowed us to see the cabin but wasn't as clear for shooting. This way we could help pick off even more. The less the guys had to fight on the ground, the better it would be.

"Up there," Overdrive said, pointing toward the little marker we'd left on the tree.

I made my way over, lifting Donna and using her magnified scope to take another look around. Laying down, I focused in on a man running toward Hellfire and Smokehouse, gun spewing rounds in their direction, pinning them down. My grin was feral as my shot took him down, sending him face first into the dirt.

"Shit."

"What?" I asked without looking Overdrive's way.

"Fucking rifle is jammed."

"Did you tap rack it?" Kilo asked as he jogged up.

"Did I tap rack it?" Overdrive muttered in a mocking tone. "Of course I did, but here, I'll do it again." The man slammed the heel of his palm into the side of the stock, then racked the slide back.

Judging by his swearing, the stuck round didn't loosen. "I have an extra rifle," I told him, pointing toward it. "Use that." I always tried to bring an extra because I knew all about temperamental rifles. We fell back into silence as we worked together to help our men on the ground.

Movement caught my eye and I saw Butcher fighting with someone. They were grappling for a gun. "Move," I muttered, willing Butcher to take a step to the left so I could shoot the fucker putting hands on my man. More movement made me swing Donna further to the left and my heart leapt into my throat.

I'd know the shifty bitch slinking up behind Butcher anywhere. Vega was one of the three top female assassins. She had no morals, no boundaries. She'd kill her own mother if someone was willing to pay her to do it. Shifting my sights onto her, I pulled the trigger. The hollow click made my stomach clench. "Not now," I hissed at Donna. I tap racked, then tried again. This was the reason for the second rifle. The minute my Prima Donna got dirty she liked to stop performing. My eyes flicked down to where the men were still wrestling for the weapon as I tried to force Donna to bend to my will. She refused. "Anyone not using their rifle?" I barked.

"Sorry."

"Busy."

Tossing Donna aside, I made a split second decision and started running down the hill. That bitch was creeping in behind Butcher so she could kill him while he was distracted. I wasn't about to let that happen. They were only about five hundred yards away. I could make it. Brush slapped me in the face as I barreled down the hill. When I got to the bottom, the land leveled out so fast I almost face planted. There was no time, so I scrambled to keep my feet.

"Almost there," I panted. I couldn't call out to him. It would bring more attention to him. And me. Vega stopped in her tracks, raising her gun. She was normally a knife kind of girl, most of us were, but we knew better than to bring a knife to a gunfight. Most of the time. Not that we didn't have our knives on us, too. We just knew when it was beneficial to use a gun. I'd promised Butcher I'd stay up on the hill, killing people from afar, so I'd only brought my rifles and Stabby with me.

No.

Vega was going to shoot him.

"Butcher!" I screamed, not caring at this point if it brought every killer down on my head.

His head snapped to the side and his eyes found mine. They narrowed, then he turned. He dropped the dead weight of the man he was holding, finally having dispatched him. He turned just in time for Vega to shoot.

"No!" I was only feet away, but it was too late to stop her from firing. I pulled my knife from its sheath and tackled Vega. Hitting the ground with a jarring thud, I brought my blade down toward her face. She managed to deflect it.

"Stupid cunt," she snarled from beneath me as we fought and rolled along the ground.

"I'll fucking kill you," I roared as we fought. My fist was making satisfying contact with her body. I punched her anywhere I could, and grunted as she returned the blows.

Her eyes widened at the fury and pain in my voice. She managed to get a hit into my solar plexus and we broke apart, her breathing hard, and me just trying to suck in any breath at all. "What's wrong Manta?" she purred. "Oh." She gave me an over exaggerated pouty face. "Was that your man?" She shrugged as she started to circle around me. "Too bad. He was a pretty fucker. Now he's dead."

With a wounded sound, I forced myself up to my feet and charged her. She hadn't been expecting it. Stupid of her to taunt me, to think I wouldn't bash her gorgeous head in. Her dark hair was piled high in a bun and she was wearing all leather. She always had to be dressed up. It was her thing. I'd never liked her. And the feeling had always been mutual. She was too much of a showoff for me. And had no fucking heart. She often let her marks bleed to death. Even though we were assassins, we needed a code.

I hit her so hard my teeth rattled, but this time I was thinking clearly instead of attacking in panic and rage. I thrust Stabby into her side, enjoying her howl of pain. She punched me in the side of the head, managing to break my hold. We circled each other, two angry sharks and now there was blood in the water.

There was a bellow, a demonic howl that ripped through the valley. It caused us both to pause. "Sounds like someone found your boyfriend," she mocked.

"Fuck off bitch." My skin flushed from anger, adrenaline, and fear.

"Seriously?" she taunted, one hand pressing against her side. Her knife was now in the other. She'd lost her gun the first time I tackled her. "You fell in love?" She rolled her eyes. "The perfect Manta, breaking her own rules."

"I almost feel sorry for you," I growled. This was the last thing I wanted to be doing. I needed to get to Butcher, but if I made the wrong move, Vega would kill me without hesitation. The bitch needed to die first, then I could go help him. "You'll never know love."

"Like I'd want to," she sneered. "It weakens you."

There was a time I might have agreed with her, but now I knew that I'd been wrong. She was wrong . Love gave you a purpose. It made other people, outside of yourself, important. It made you fight one-hundred percent harder to protect that person than you would for yourself. "Guess you'll never find out," I told her, watching as she stepped on a loose branch. The minute her ankle twisted, I made my move. Her and those stupid heeled boots she insisted on wearing. Her shallow ego was going to be her downfall.

"Oomph," she grunted as her back slammed into a tree. I had my blade under her chin and pressed to her jugular before she knew what was happening. Her eyes flared in fear and her breaths came hard and fast. "You stupid bitch," she hissed. "You're willing to kill me? For him?" She searched my eyes. "You threw everything away."

"I did," I admitted. "And I'm willing to kill you just to end you, but everything else I do will be for him. I wouldn't take back a single thing I gave up." Because really what had I given up? Loneliness? Emptiness? A lifetime of growing old by myself? Fuck that. No matter what happened, at least I had love, even if it was only for a brief time. I'd take that over Vega's worthless existence. Over what mine had been before Butcher.

"Not if he's dead," she snapped. "I shot him right in the heart."

I hadn't seen where Butcher had been hit, but the thought of her having killed him made everything inside me tense up. I was finished talking. My knife raked across her throat and I held her, immobile, against the tree as she bled out. Normally, I would make a person's death quicker, less painful. I didn't like people to die panicking as their life left them. But Vega deserved no less for how she dispatched her own victims. This was karma coming back to her.

As soon as the light was gone from her brown eyes, I let her drop to the ground and turned. My gaze found where Butcher had fallen and I saw Toxic there already. The shooting was dying around us. Or maybe the hammering in my ears was drowning it out. I stumbled forward, running toward the men.

There were bodies everywhere, and screams erupting from the woods. "Lockout's going full Lockout," Toxic said by way of explanation as I dropped to my knees next to Butcher. There was no humor in his voice.

I wasn't about to stop and ask him what that meant. I was too focused on Butcher.

Toxic's t-shirt was off—though he'd put his cut back on because that was how we identified who not to shoot. The material was wadded up against Butcher's skin. Blood was soaking in, turning it red.

I looked up at him, tears shimmering in my eyes. "Toxic-"

"I know. Come on, help me get him into the cabin."

Grabbing Butcher's feet, I tried to hold back my sobs as we carried him into the safety of the cabin.