28. Hellena

28

HELLENA

“ H ella!” Tell’s voice rattles me from my stupor as we exit the devastated confines of Devonde’s building.

“Tell!” I’m rushing into his arms, spinning around through the air.

After what I just saw, I need his joy, his light. Added to the fact that he’s safe, alive.

“Where were you? We couldn’t get your tracker to work and we heard that Devonde was attacked and?—”

“I’m fine. I was lucky enough to be posing as one of Devonde’s scouts when I spotted Marco’s men.” Tell kisses me again before setting me down. He immediately looks over at Alaya, his eyebrow shooting up. “You’re new.”

“And you’re tall.”

“I’m Tell , and you are?”

“Not attracted to scarecrows, string-bean!” Alaya snaps with a smirk.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tell’s eyes narrow.

“Huh, I guess that makes Hell Dorothy, Gavin the tinman, and Evan the cowardly lion,” Alaya muses, and I can’t help covering a burst of laughter that slips through my lips in a snort.

“And you must be the Wicked Bitch of the West?” Tell slings back at her.

“I’ll have you know,” Alaya starts, jabbing a finger at him, “ I am… very okay with that assignment.”

The two of them are worse than children. Tell looks like he’s about to keep going when he stops, shaking his head and looking back at me. “I almost forgot. Hella, we need to go. The Block?—”

“I know. We need to warn Ora?—”

“No, we need to go now. They may already be under attack. Marco’s men left here in a hurry, heading straight for the Block.”

The news hits me like a gut punch. I thought we had a little time. That they would regroup.

“What are we waiting for? Hop on my broom and let’s go!” Alaya yells.

The five of us are piling back into the Jeep before anyone can say another word. With a screech of tires, Alaya guns us out and onto the main road, bashing right through the broken blockade.

“I hope we’re not too late,” I mutter as we roar out of the industrial district.

“They're tough. If anyone can hold out, it’s Clive and his people.”

The streets are strangely empty as Alaya takes the shortest, most direct route right through the middle of town. It makes driving easier, too easy.

It also means that every available man in Marco’s army has likely been pulled for the assault on the Block compound. A squirming twist in my stomach has me white-knuckling the door handle, looking out the window at the empty city whirring by.

Lost in my head, I barely hear Gavin filling everyone in on my conversation with Devonde on the way. Tell and Alaya bicker throughout, Evan grinding his teeth the entire way.

By the time we hit the edge of the woods, everyone’s a bit grim. Serious. The threat of Devonde’s last words hangs over us.

But we have more immediate concerns.

With a little guidance from Gavin, Alaya gets us to the back entrance, the secret entrance. I’m halfway up the slope when I turn back, looking to see what’s holding them up.

Evan’s standing over a trunk of guns and ammunition he dragged out of the back of the Jeep, blocking Alaya as she looks over his shoulder.

“Hot dayum! I call dibs on the Desert Eagle!”

“No fucking way! I want that one.” Tell steps in, trying to strongarm past her.

Alaya slaps his hand away and they square off, glaring at one another.

“That’s not…” Gavin starts, looking between Tell and Alaya like he’s about to separate them for fighting. He stops, blowing out a sigh and facing Alaya. “You don’t honestly think we’re giving you a weapon.”

“Why the fuck not? I’m part of the team now.” She says it with all seriousness. All four of us just stare at her.

“You aren’t. I—” Gavin sputters, shaking his head in denial.

“I’m the best shot here.”

“Which is exactly what we’re worried about.” Evan stands, crossing his arms.

“And the fact that she’s straight up bananas ,” Tell snarks, but his eyes are angry. The realization that she’s my shooter hit about halfway over here.

“I hate bananas. If you wanna call me a psycho bitch, call me a psycho bitch. But you’re the ones wasting time and talent.”

“Just give her a gun. We need all the help we can get,” I say before I can second-guess myself.

Gavin’s eyes bulge, giving me a pleading look. “Are you sure?”

“Nope. But my best friend and her family are in there, probably dying as we speak.”

“Hell yeah!” Alaya cheers, snatching the gun and ammo. “Or I guess I should say, yeah, Hell?”

“I don’t think I like you.” Tell scowls, shouldering her out of the way and gearing up.

“I don’t think I care.”

“I don’t think I can handle both of them on the same team,” Evan grits out.

We’re through the gate at a dead run a moment later.

Gunshots pop a fair way off before we reach Clive’s cabin, several deep booms following right after. We’re just stepping onto the small dirt road leading to the clubhouse when the first shout goes up near us, gunshots whizzing past us, way too close.

I lock up, freezing in my tracks.

“Hell!” someone shouts in my ear, jerking me to the side.

My head clears as I thump down on my ass behind a tree. “Wha?—?”

Gavin snaps a finger in front of my face. Shaking my head, I take a breath and nod to let them know I’m recovered.

“I’m sorry, I just?—”

“Shh. No need to explain.” Tell rests a hand on my shoulder.

Evan gives me a worried look but stays silent.

“Just stay low. Stay quiet. We gotta move.” Gavin crouches ahead of us, leading us into the cover of trees.

“Stay close to me.” Evan finally breaks his silence, leaning in close and pulling me up.

Our little squad sets off, weaving through the dim woods at a trot. With all of the calamity in the distance, we don’t worry about making noise, focusing on speed and staying out of sight.

It takes us five excruciating minutes to reach the main cluster of buildings, the houses and the clubhouse I recognize from the last time I was here.

The memory is a mixed bag, given the circumstances.

This was where Gavin told me how he felt about me. It also happened to be after he got shot and nearly died.

The next encounter happens as soon as we clear the trees.

One of Marco’s soldiers spins out from behind a building, barking an order to announce our presence. Gavin puts one in his head before I can shout, Alaya taking a knee and popping off three shots, eliminating the rest of the group.

A gust of a sigh puffs through my lips as Tell and I exchange stunned glances.

We’re back in motion again, cutting through the tiny homestead as Tell mutters to me, “I knew he was good, but holy shit.”

The swell of pride for one of my guys conflicts with the fear and adrenaline rushing through me.

Evan steps into formation behind Gavin and Alaya ahead, the three of them clearing the area before we proceed, Evan waving us on. Tell brings up the rear, watching our backs. If I ever felt more out of place…

Still. I have to be here. I have to make sure Ora and her people, our people, are safe.

Soon, signs of battle start to emerge around us, bodies. Gun holes in the wooden cabin walls. Smoke drifts past us. A fire is burning somewhere ahead. Likely, the main gate.

Which is exactly where we’re headed, the most likely place we’ll find Ora and Xavier.

On our route, we spot a few fleeing groups of women, children. The horror of the sight breaks my heart, but each band has at least a couple of bikers with them, the leather-clad figures sporting an impressive array of guns and munitions.

Each time we pass, the bikers give us a salute, one of them pausing to mutter a short conversation with Gavin. He nods once, clapping the other man on the arm before waving us on.

“Aside from a few shock troops scaling the fences, most of the force is still at the gate, trying to fight their way in. He said it’s only a matter of time, though.”

The news spurs me forward, the rest of my team falling in at a dead run.

It helps me keep my eyes forward, on the uneven ground as I place one foot in front of the other, ignoring the slumped forms of several people we find along the way. I have to believe that most of them are Marco’s men, not ours.

The scene at the gate is…

Incomprehensible.

For a moment, I’m overwhelmed. Until I spot Ora, shouting as she drags a biker back from the wall. As soon as she gets him back to the main building, she’s sprinting back to the gate.

Mid-run, she skids to a halt, noticing us out in the open.

“Hell?”

The tiny terror hits me like a sack of potatoes, nearly bowling me over in a huge hug.

“Thank goodness, Ora. I was worried sick.”

“Why? We’re kicking their asses!’

“Uh…”

Gavin looks skeptically at the force holding out at the gate. I can see that it doesn’t look good.

“Alright, we aren’t really doing too great. But we bought most of the fam time to get to our backup compound. Grandaddy is about to sound the retreat and blow the fuckers sky-high when they breach!”

Evan and Tell both look around nervously, like a bomb might go off at any second. I can’t blame them.

The only word that comes to mind in the thick of the deafening gunfire, the flashbang grenades, and the screams of men hammering into the gate outside, the ones inside roaring in defiance, is chaos.

Utter, absolute chaos.

I've never seen anything like it. Several nearby buildings are blazing, huge black pyres gushing smoke into the sky. The effect is diminishing, making it look darker than it should be at this time of day.

This is a war zone in the clearest sense of the word, right here on the edge of our town.

And I seem to be the only one who's truly shocked by it. Gavin, Evan, Tell, and especially Alaya, they’re not calm. But they’re cool, focused.

I wish I could emulate their control.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t freaking out.

“Come on, let's get moving. We can catch up once we’re in one of the vans.” Ora leads the way, heading back toward the clubhouse. All I can do is follow.

“I’m sorry we were late,” Gavin grumbles as we reach the double doors.

“Eh, you weren’t really. Made it just in time to help guard our retreat. And we haven’t lost too many kin. Thanks, by the way.” Ora smiles, but it lacks the humor I’ve always associated with her beaming grin. She’s hurting, aching for her losses.

She’s just reaching for the handle when an explosion rocks the ground, sending most of us down in a heap. My ears are ringing, but unlike that movie-tinted portrayal of time slowing, of sound muting, everything seems to happen too fast.

Evan’s pulling me up as we start to run, and though it’s faint through the ringing, gunfire rattles off in every direction around us, mostly from behind, accompanied by a crash as something barges into the gate. Once. Twice.

“Go, go, go!” Someone shouts as the whole thing comes crashing down.

Through the smoke and haze, soldiers pour through the opening, spreading out to secure their entry. It’s the last I see before a firm hand tugs me inside, down the hall, and out the back door.

Out on the trails, the whole world narrows to the most basic observations.

Gavin takes a knee. Four shots. Four kills.

Alaya rolls, hamstrings a soldier. Kill. Bang. Kill.

Evan’s covering my right, Tell my back, my left flank.

Shots fire. We run.

Ora ducks to the side along the trail, dodging a black-clad brute in goggles. With unbelievable speed and flexibility, she twists under him, snatching his gun from its holster and pressing it to his thigh. Pop . Then his lower back. Pop .

My world upends for a second, and it takes me a minute to realize I doubled over, puking in the dirt. It’s too much.

All of this.

Ora’s at my side, shouting something in my ear, then we’re running again.

We’re all scattered a little apart, weaving through the trees, when more of Clive’s people catch us up, grizzled bikers swarming around us en masse.

Ora smiles, nodding encouragingly at me.

Until suddenly, a strange sound fills the air, a whistling, screaming sound.

“SCATTER!”

The explosion is fake. Nothing can be that destructive.

Dirt and God knows what else spatters down around me, on top of me as I scramble back away from the blast radius and the pile of tree trunks still falling several dozen yards from me.

Whatever it was put a crater in the forest that I can’t wrap my head around.

But it does register that I’m alone. Right before I see Gavin across the rift, looking around frantically, Tell and Evan staggering to their feet behind him.

“Hellena!”

“H–Here!” I start to scream, but a hand clamps down over my mouth. Panicked, I struggle until I hear a deep, rough voice.

“Chill, chill, missy. They’re right on top of us.” Clive. His orders register, and I still, looking around for signs of our enemies. Several of them holler nearby, silhouettes fanning out toward us.

Xavier stands with his back to a trunk beside me, eyes darting to and fro. The veteran looks tattered. Old.

But his stance, his steely gaze, is solid. Unbreakable.

He glances back toward where I saw my guys, my family, gesturing with his hand, several signs I don’t understand. “Alright. You’re with me, you got it?”

“Got it.”

“I’m going to get you back to your boys. Back to my Ora. When I say go, we go, clear?”

“Yessir,” I snap, rolling into a crouch. Something calm settles over me, leeching off the intractable man watching over me.

“Move!” he hisses, breaking cover.

I dash forward, staying low like Gavin taught me.

Shots clap off behind me, but I never stop. Never look back. Clive is breathing hard right on my tail, unloading his automatic weapon before swapping to his pistol. We run for what feels like minutes, an hour, but I know it’s much shorter.

But then there’s silence, or relatively so.

“Almost to the gate, just up—Ugh!” Clive grunts, and I turn back in time to catch him as he goes down.

“Clive!” I ease him down, noticing the first wound. The second.

He’s covered in blood.

“S’alright. Just need a minute.” Clive tries to sit up, slipping back down onto his back. “Well, fuck. Guess that’s that.”

“No, don’t talk like that,” I command, looking around for anyone I can call, anything I can do. Pressing down on the worst of the gunshots, I feel a sob rise up, threatening to choke me.

“Hellena.”

“Yes?”

“I need to tell you something. For Ora…”

“Stop. You can tell her when she gets here.”

“She better fucking not… Girl needs to get to safety. Make sure they don’t find the secondary compound. You make sure she does, alright?”

“O–Okay.”

“I was planning on telling her sooner, but…well. Better that it’s you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Inertia. I know who he was. Your dad.”

The admission isn’t as shocking as I would expect, but even so, I don’t know how to respond.

“You knew him?”

“Not exactly. See, there’s some things about my family that I chose to leave behind. But that knowledge was passed down. A certain role was passed to me from my father.”

“Ardor. You’re?—”

“Was. I chose to step down. To abandon that title. It only ever caused anyone pain. And I hoped that when I did, with so many of the others gone, the Sinful might find their way if only one member, a good man, was leading the way.”

“Damon.”

Clive nods.

“But then my dad had himself killed…”

It clicks. Not the why, but the terrible knowledge that Clive’s plan didn’t work out. That my father wasn’t willing or able to continue.

“Never could figure out why. Or who was still there pulling the strings. And there is someone, Hellena. And it’s not me.”

I can see him struggling, his eyes drooping slightly.

“So damn tired.”

“Hang on…”

“Stop fretting. You’re worse than Ora.” He smiles, the expression warm despite the truth of his situation. “I need you to tell her. To pass on our legacy. Let her know who I was, who the Clives were. And give her this.”

He shrugs off his satchel, pressing it into my hands.

“I will. But why? If you left that all behind, why tell her now?” I hug the bag close, not bothering to look inside.

“Because of you. I see all that hope I had in Damon, right here . And she needs that hope to go on after I’m gone. She needs you. See, she’s never had siblings, best friends. Always a ton of people around, people she liked, but so few who really knew her. Not like you.”

My tears spill over, freely now, onto his chest.

“Take care of your sister , Hell.” He chuckles, fighting back a cough. “Never seen her eyes light up like they do when you’re around. Not since her momma died.”

My throat tightens, leaving me only able to nod in agreement.

“Hellena!” A soft, terse voice interrupts us, followed by crunching footsteps. I turn to spot Evan, Gavin, Tell, Alaya.

And Ora, her eyes wide.

“G–Grandpa?”

“Heya, chipmunk.”

“No, no, no!” She’s at my side, cupping his face, patting his wrecked vest, her hands floating above him, afraid to cause more harm.

“Shh. Peace, child. You all need to go. Get out before they find you.”

He’s not wrong. The sounds in the woods are getting nearer. Shouts. More gunfire echoes occasionally crack through the trees.

“Papa, you get the fuck up. I mean it. If we go, you’re coming with us.”

“Girl, do not test me today. I need you to be the boss I raised you to be. Now.” His gaze hardens, making me straighten. “I will cover your escape. I love you all night.”

“I l–love you all day,” Ora sobs.

“You’re the light of my life, Ora May.” Clive finishes in sing-song, dragging himself up onto his knees.

“No! No!” Ora’s scream tears my heart out as he pulls out of her grip. “Get the fuck up, you tough sonofabitch! Come with me. I need you!”

“Rorshak. You owe me.” Clive looks back, his voice unwavering, locking with Gavin’s.

Gavin nods once, his jaw clenching. Without a word, he loops an arm around Ora’s waist, dragging her back, his expression pained. Ora wails, struggling against Gavin's impossible strength before going limp.

Just as she does, Tell and Evan pull at me, forcing me to let go of Clive’s hand. The last thing I see before we’re through the gate and down the hill is Clive standing there, cocking his gun as swarms of Marco’s men close in.

And I just make out the words, “Welcome to the Block, motherfuckers.”

I block out the hail of gunfire as we peel away down the trail, leaving part of the nightmare behind but carrying so much of it with us.