CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Sadie

A Week Later

For the past week, Wes has been radio silent.

The silence has been deafening.

And it's driving me crazy.

I just want to know he's okay.

But I will find out soon enough because today is the day Defiance is going to Arizona to raid the Steel Serpent's clubhouse.

All week, they have been plotting their attack, going through the motions, all contingencies in case things go wrong, and learning how to deviate from the plan if needed. Maverick is concerned, of course, but he also has faith that Haven will do everything in her power to protect me until the guys can get there.

The women and children are staying behind in LA at the clubhouse, but because all the guys will leave and come to Yuma with Haven and me, they needed to call on a brother chapter to technically babysit the clubhouse in our absence. The president of the Las Vegas Chapter will loan some of his men to protect the LA clubhouse while we deal with this issue.

Alpha said Vegas and LA have a great working relationship, so once this is all done and dusted, I will be sure to give my thanks to those brothers properly. We were so rushed to leave that I didn't even get to say hello to them properly. But knowing they're there watching over Clover, Rhyan, Ingrid, little Louis, and the club girls makes me feel more at ease if I can even be at ease in this situation.

The fourteen of us are making the four-hour road trip in one van. And while it is a big van, it's cramped. But this is necessary to make the plan work. With Dutch driving and Alpha in the passenger seat up front, the rest of us are piled in like sardines in the back. Maverick is super quiet beside me. A stern look of concentration crosses his face.

My fingers lace with his, and he finally turns to look at me. "It's going to be okay."

He smiles, though I can tell it is forced. His hand slides up, gently cupping my cheek. "We're gonna get the crops into these trucks and then get to you as fast as fucking possible."

Nodding, I smile back. "I know."

He exhales like he's really struggling with this. When I should be the one who is petrified right now—and I am—but I trust these guys to have my back in there.

And Maverick should too.

"If they lay a single fucking finger on yo—"

"Stop! Haven is going to be with me the entire time. You need to get your head in the game and focus," I tell him.

He clears his throat, nodding like I've shaken some sense into him. "Yeah… yeah, you're right. It'll be fine."

The van pulls to a stop, my heart instantly racing as Alpha turns back to look at Haven and me. "You girls ready to start this thing?"

My eyes shift to Haven while she's sliding a blade into her ankle boot, then places a gun down the back of her leather pants. "Ready to rock and roll."

Everyone slowly looks at me, and I shrug my shoulders. "Let's do this. I want to thank you guys for having my back."

Alpha scoffs. "No, thank you, Sadie. Without the plants we're about to steal from these cunts, our club would be in a huge fucking hole.You're the savior in this plan."

Maverick grips each side of my face, forcing me to look at him, his eyes full of fear. "Be safe. Follow Haven's lead. Do. Not. Die."

I can't help but laugh as I lean forward, pressing my lips to his. He immediately kisses me back, letting me know he needs this just as much as I do. He pulls back, looking into my eyes. "Repeat back what I just said."

Smiling, I cup his cheek. "I'm not going to die, Mav. This is going to work."

"I hate to break this up, but the longer a huge van stays stationary on the side of the road, the more suspicious it looks. You guys get out, Sadie and I have to get going," Haven urges.

Nodding, I glance back at Maverick, three little words sitting on the edge of my lips. But I want to save them for when this is all done. So, I say three other words instead. "See you soon." Leaning in, I press a kiss to his cheek, and then he turns, along with his brothers, as they grab their gear and start piling out of the van.

We've pulled up a short distance from the Serpents' farm. The guys are going to approach on foot before they attack.

Alpha and Dutch jump out of the front of the van, and Haven and I slide through the opening and into the front. Haven driving, me in the passenger. The guys dip their heads as Haven turns the van around and drives us back in the direction we came from. I peer back at Maverick, who watches us as we drive off.

He has to focus on his task.

I need to focus on mine.

So I take a deep breath and spin to face Haven. "Before we get to the clubhouse gates, you're going to have to pull over."

Haven turns to me, raising her brow. "What the fuck for?"

"I didn't mention this to the guys because Maverick would have had a fit about it, but for Grave to believe you've brought me in for a trade, you'll have to rough me up."

Haven side-eyes me, a frown crossing her face. "Rough you up? What are we talking about here, Sadie?"

I glance out the window, seeing we're far enough away from the guys now that they definitely can't see us, and I exhale. "Pull over. We can do this here."

Haven huffs like she isn't happy about this, but she pulls the van to the side of the road, and we both jump out. Purposely, I wore a short dress, one perfect for showing wounds. Haven steps up to me and shrugs. "Okay. I get where you're coming from. Do you have any requests?"

Tensing, I glance at my knees. "I wore a short dress for a reason, so wounds on my legs can be clearly seen."

Haven exhales, shaking her head. "Okay, just so you know, I take no pleasure in doing this."

"I know. I'm ready."

Haven reaches for my hair, pulling it from the braid. I let out an involuntary whimper as she shoves me to the ground so hard I fall straight onto my knees, my hands racing out to stop my fall. My skin instantly scrapes on impact. I feel it tearing when I slide along the pebbled surface, and my body gives out as I fall to the ground. Panting hard, my body aches in all the wrong ways.

Haven is by my side in an instant, her hand under my arm, helping me up. "You good?"

Stumbling a little as I get up, I glance down at the blood oozing out of my knees and the scuff marks on my hands and shake my head. Even though I'm in pain, I turn to Haven, letting out a huff. "It's not enough. For them to think you took me from Defiance and that you really want business with the Serpents, they will want to see me hurting. They take great pride in hurting women. This… these scratches, they won't cut it. You have to do more."

She groans, turning, and rubs at her face like she's uncomfortable. "Jesus, Sadie."

"You're going in there as an assassin with a tradeoff. Be that assassin right now, Haven."

It's like something in her mind clicks. Her posture straightens, her face turns cold, and she storms toward me with a calculating, ruthless look.

Fear runs through me as her hand lashes out, slamming across my face so fiercely I drop to my already scraped knee. My lip instantly splits, blood pooling in my mouth while tears prick in my eyes. I turn back, but before I have a second to think, she lunges, her hands wrap around my neck as she thrusts me back against the side of the van.

My legs kick out, my flip-flops falling off as I kick and jerk my body, trying to get her off me. My hands slide up, gripping at the sides of her arms to try to stop her, but she is so fucking strong. I gasp, absolutely zero oxygen getting through as my eyes bulge out of my head. Panic washes over me so intense that tears stream down my face while I stare into her completely vacant eyes.

There's nothing there.

No regret.

No remorse.

Absolutely zero care for the fact she is killing me on the side of the road.

I flicked a switch in her.

That was never the plan.

But as my eyes begin to fog and black spots line my vision, thoughts of Maverick flood my mind.

I should have told him I loved him.

My body lets go as blackness takes hold when suddenly, Haven's hands leave my throat. It takes me a second to register, but when her palm slaps me across the face again, my eyes snap open, and I inhale a huge gasp of air, my body lunging forward while I pant frantically.

Haven kneels beside me, her hand rubbing small comforting circles on my back. "Slow your breathing. You're going to be okay. I put pressure on your windpipe but not your vocal cords. I made sure it's going to leave welts and bruising. But I am tapping out here, Sadie. If I do any more harm to you, my brother is going to kill me himself."

Coughing, I lean into Haven, pulling her to me for a hug.

She lets out a small laugh, shaking her head. "I've never had someone hug me after I've tried to kill them."

Chuckling, I clear my throat. "Thank you," I try to say, though my voice is a little hoarse. "No one else would have done that. But it's the only way those assholes will see this as a legitimate transaction."

Haven nods, letting out a long breath. "As soon as you said it, it made sense. It's the only reason I did it. I can assure you, I took no joy in beating the shit out of you. Do you think you can walk?" Haven asks, reaching for my flip-flops and handing them to me.

I slide them back on and nod. "Yeah. We're good."

"Okay, let's go to the scum you called home and screw these fuckers to the wall."

Smiling, even though it hurts my lip like hell, I nod. "Oh, yeah, let's go fuck them right up."

Maverick

We slowly approach the farm gates, all of us cautious, my anxiety peaking through the damn roof. The metal gates look old, almost decrepit compared to the set we have on our farm, but then again, we have a legitimate business. This is an illegal operation.

As we peer through the transparent wire, the warehouse is in full view.

Where the trucks are obviously stored.

Where the processing is done.

Based on our plans, we guess the field is just beyond that.

We just need to get inside the facility.

Hanging far enough back, Loki works his tech magic on the security feed so the Serpents won't be able to see us approaching while also making the feed to the clubhouse on a loop so they won't be aware a raid is happening.

Loki glances at Alpha, signaling to let us know he has dealt with the security issues. Then, Alpha gives him a thumbs-up, and Loki hits another button. A beep sounds, and the security lock on the shitty gate in front of us pops open.

Just. Like. That.

Alpha uses his fingers to count down from three.

Once he reaches one, we slowly ease forward through the now-open gates, guns drawn, waiting for the arrival of Serpent guards to realize something is up.

We stealthily enter the premises, forming two rows on either side of the entry. When the warehouse door opens, we all stop as a rush of guards run out onto the raised landing with guns drawn and start shooting at us.

We break off, darting in all directions.

There are four of them and twelve of us.

I dart behind an oil barrel, a bullet slamming into the side of it by my torso, the oil spurting out onto my jeans and boot. "Fucking hell!" I grunt, ducking out of the way of the disgusting mess as another bullet whooshes past me.

I stand, anger roaring through me, spotting the guard aiming for me, and even though he is still shooting at me, I bring my gun up, shooting at the same time as him. His bullet grazes the side of my bicep, making me grimace. I jerk to the side but turn back to see him step back a couple of steps, blood oozing out of his chest. He falls over the ledge he's standing on, straight down onto a metal spike. It pierces his torso, and his body slowly slides down. He squirms until he finally gives out, and he falls limp. Dead.

The shooting continues as Weaver takes a bullet to his thigh from another guard, but Noah moves in behind him with some wire he's found from somewhere, wraps it around the guard's neck, and begins to pull, strangling him, as Loki runs to Weaver to help.

Alpha takes out another guard, his brain matter splashing all over the side of the warehouse before he even has time to jump off the landing.

South picks up what looks like some kind of plumbing pipe, slamming it into the knees of the last guy as he chases after Rip. The guard falls to the ground as South continues to lay into him with the pipe, and Rip turns back, kicking his boot into the guy until he's not moving anymore.

They literally beat him to death.

Shaking my head, I stand back as we all meet together in front of the warehouse, and Alpha dips his head. "We made noise. The shipping yard workers might know we're coming. We need to get there fast."

We take off to the other end of the yard, to the office in the shipping yard, and all of us walk into the main office. When we enter, the office worker widens her eyes in shock as if she had no idea we were coming.

It seems we weren't loud after all.

The woman lets out a scream as we approach her, and I point a gun at her head, stopping her from hitting the panic button. "Don't even think about it."

Alpha steps up to her, folding his arms over his chest. "Talk to us. Don't give us shitty answers, and we will let you go. Understand?"

She nods her head, tears streaming down her face. "O… okay."

Loki steps forward, pointing out the window to the trucks we need to steal. "Those transport trucks. Where are the trackers located on them?"

She widens her eyes, swallowing hard. "If I tell you, Grave will kill me."

Alpha cusses. "You like working for Grave? He treats you well?"

She glances around as if she's being tested and doesn't answer.

Alpha pushes her. "We're no friends of his, sweetheart. I'm giving you an out. You want to leave this shithole, we'll help you. No catch. We just wanna take this club down, and it's starting here right now. With your help."

She breathes a little faster as she turns to the cupboard behind her computer, grabs something, and hands it to Loki. "This is the tracking locator. It will beep when you find it. It logs all the history. But generally, they're located under the tailgate on the left side."

Loki takes it from her. "What's your name?"

She exhales. "Zara."

Loki dips his head. "Thank you, Zara," he states before taking off to the trucks to remove all the trackers.

Alpha turns to Zara. "Is there any other information we need to know? Like who's gonna come looking for these trucks when we're done with them?"

"The people the guys drive their product to. It's a cartel down in Tijuana."

Alpha scowls. "The Rojas Cartel."

Zara nods. "Yeah, exactly. They supplied us with the trucks for transportation so everything could remain hidden to cross borders."

Alpha shakes his head. "It's all that much fucking sweeter that we're taking another line of Rico's profit away from him, and he won't even know."

Zara bites her bottom lip. "Are you sure you can get me out of here?"

I step forward. "Absolutely. We're not leaving you here with these fucking bastards."

Alpha nods. "You can come work for us. You've been running their business, so you can help run ours. But what I can promise you, Zara, is we are nothing like these animals. We don't treat women like trash. It's not who we are."

Zara bursts into tears, rushing forward and embracing Alpha.

His eyes widen. "It's gonna be okay. We've got you. But we do have a job to do right now, and it's time-sensitive. Stay behind us, okay?"

Zara nods as Loki steps back up to us. "Trackers are gone, Pres. We're good to load."

"All right. Let's get to work. Guys, jump in the trucks, and let's drive down to load up these plants."

We make our way over to the trucks. The artwork on the side makes them appear like they're wine transport trucks, and they even have the little Heron logo on the side.

No surprises there.

We jump in, including Zara, and we drive to the farm, getting to work. As quickly as possible and with as much care as possible, we pull the plants, place them into the trucks, and try our best to ensure they will be kept in the best possible way for transport back to LA.

The entire time I am working my ass off to get this done as fast as possible, I am trying not to think about how shit is going inside the clubhouse with my woman and my sister.

Because if I think about all the ways that could be going wrong right now, it will drive me insane.

I need to get this done.

So we can get our asses back to them.

Work faster, Maverick. Work faster!