21. Ivy

Chapter 21

Ivy

A bout a mile from the location, I turn off on a side road and wait for the guys. Kira is brimming with excitement. She never gets to go on these kinds of assignments with me. I hear their bikes before I see them so I climb out and wait for them. I'm leaning up against the trunk when they pull up. Dismounting their bikes, they make their way towards me.

KC gets to me first. "Glad you stopped. We've got some of the club's lower ranks coming. Before you say it, they won't get in the way. They're going to be there to back us up but they know that Stanley is ours."

I nod. "I figured this would be a good place to stop and discuss our entrance and exit strategy. I know we're close enough for my tablet, so I'm assuming Cree and Beck, yours as well?"

They walk up, Cree holding his tablet and gives me a megawatt smile. "Absolutely beautiful." He then begins typing on his tablet.

We spend the next thirty minutes going over our partners and our strategy. Of course, I get partnered with Jax. Lucky me. We need to move now before the sun rises in another hour. Darkness will conceal what's coming.

We're just finishing up when the rest of the club members that are going show up. KC gives them their assignments and Beck passes out earwigs to everybody, including the lower ranks.

Once everything is worked out, I walk over to Jax, who's leaning up against his hog. She sure is pretty, but not as pretty as my girl. I don't ride bitch, but I'm going to make an exception this once.

"Cree," I say, tossing my keys at him. "Wreck her and I'll add your balls to my collection."

Since he and Beck aren't going in until after we've cleared the villa, it's logical for them to stay in my car. I'm surprised when nobody snorts at my comment. Everybody is serious. We have our war faces on, because that's what we're doing, going to war.

Once all the lower ranks take off, the guys shift, all but Cree, and Beck. It's fast, almost instantaneous. I'm surprised they don't have to remove their clothes. Most shifters do otherwise the shift ruins their clothes, but it seems their clothing shifts with them. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. I would have liked to check out their naked bodies as they got ready to shift. But at the same time, if anyone else saw them, I'd probably kill a bitch.

I take a moment to examine the similarities and differences of their scorpions. They look almost identical, but there are subtle differences that tell me who's who. KC, DJ and Neo take off headed to their point of entry. Looking around I realize Cree has already headed off in my car with Beck. That leaves me standing there with Jax.

"Hi, big guy. You in there?" To my surprise he drops his head and then lays down, making it easy for me to climb on his back. Once on, he wraps his tail around me, using his stinger as a claw to hold on to me. I tense for a second, but he makes a rumbling noise that soothes me somehow.

Before I can say another word he takes off, and damn is he fast. He skitters through trees and giant cacti like they're nothing. He's at home in this form and it's unbelievable.

We get to our location just as the sun crests the top of the mountain. Jax drops to his belly, releases me from his tail, and shifts. It's almost as fast as when he shifted to a scorpion. It's mesmerizing. Where once a giant deathstalker stood, is now one big hot biker.

We don't have to wait long before Jax nods that it's time. The wonder twins as I refer to them, should have the security system and cameras down now. Walking to the corner of the wall, Jax looks up and motions for me, holding his hands out.

He's so cute, I don't need help. I take a couple steps back, run straight up the wall, and flip over landing on the ground on the other side where I crouch behind a bush.

I hear a chuckle from the other side, and the next thing I know, Jax is crouched beside me. I didn't even see him come over the wall.

We look around for guards, seeing a pair talking on the corner of the Villa. I look at my partner. Jax motions to the one on the left I nod. He takes off for the one on the right, and I head for my target.

Jax has his in a headlock when I come up to mine and stick my dagger in his diaphragm. I'd normally use my venom, but I have no problems getting my hands dirty. They're both dead in less than a minute.

After we half tuck them behind a rose bush, Jax turns and gives me a once over. I roll my eyes. He smirks. We head to the back door and make our way inside. This early we figure Stanley is in the master suite, so we make our way to the stairway off the kitchen.

It's been radio silence until now when I hear Neo say, "All clear." Signaling they've taken down the guards at the front of the house.

Beck comes across next, "Only one heat signature other than yours located in the master bedroom."

As we come up the back stairway, we meet the others coming up the front stairway. Slowly we make our way to the master bedroom door. I stop them, holding my hand out. All eyes turn to me. I mouth the words, "Too easy?"

KC agrees, but I know it's too late. We've come too far, we're too close to back out now. The master bedroom has a set of double mahogany wooden doors. Half of us go to one side, half to the other. KC holds up three fingers and starts a countdown. When the last one falls, we kick the doors open. That's when all hell breaks loose.

Using the doors for cover, we manage to stop most of the bullets. One grazes my arm, Neo curses, and Jax winces. Guess they got hit too. The next thing I know, from the other side of the doorway, KC lets out a scream. It cuts clear through to my heart.

I can't lose him.

I can't lose any of them.

Without a second thought, I dive through the doorway and roll behind a chair that I caught a glimpse of when we opened the doors. Popping my head around the chair, I realize we were wrong.

Stanley's not alone.

"Six assholes guarding Stanley. How the fuck did we miss them?" I scream, knowing my earwig will pick it up.

Before I know it, the guys barrel into the room and are in hand to hand combat. I jump the nearest guy to me, joining the fray. There's no way I'm letting them have all the fun.

Suddenly, I hear more gunfire outside. Beck comes across the coms, "Ambush, get out! Two dozen incoming!"

The guys curse, but I watch as the last of Stanley's men drop. I scan the debris and dead bodies looking around for the asshole but he's fucking gone again. I scream a screech that rattles the windows.

"He's gone. We need to go! King's hurt pretty bad," Jax says as he grabs my arm.

King's hurt.

Fuck!

I snatch my arm out of Jax's grasp and run back to the door. KC lays, crumpled behind the door, holding his gut.

He tries to shake it off and stand, but I grab him and try and hold him up. DJ steps up on the other side of him and takes most of his weight as we start for the stairway. "I can't believe the fucker got away. Again. Not to mention you're fucking hurt bad, we need to get out of here now!" Through the coms I say, "Beck get to the front door now! KC's shot."

"On it!" Comes back to me. We make it to the front door just as Kira drifts over, sliding to a stop in front of the house. The back door is thrown open.

Cree is there and we practically throw KC in. Bullets ricochet off my baby. The guys duck behind the car, looking around waiting for it to blow. I can't help but laugh and say, "Bulletproof coating, windows, and tires. Now get him the fuck out of here." I slam the door shut.

Jax tries to stop the door. "Go…"

He starts to protest, but I cut him off. "Shift. We need to get the fuck out of here. We've been blown, they know what you are!"

In the blink of an eye, DJ, Neo, and Jax all shift. The lower ranks that are still alive are scattering. I jump on Jax and he takes off. Looking over my shoulder, I see DJ and Neo grab a couple of the wounded lower ranks using their tails to carry them.

The scorpions climb over the wall like it's nothing. A few bullets whizz past us and I lower myself even more to avoid getting hit again.

Back at the rendezvous point where we stopped to group earlier, I see Kira and a few lower ranks climbing on their bikes.

I jump off of Jax and sprint to my baby, practically ripping the back door open. Cree's in the backseat, holding a compound dressing to KC's gut. I leap inside, not hesitating.

Jax shouts orders about bikes and getting back to the clubhouse as he slams the door shut. He smacks the roof twice, and Beck peels out of there.