Chapter 16

Static

Jerry didn”t say a word as we dragged him deeper into the alleyway. He knew better. It didn”t matter that at one point he thought I was a law-abiding man. He was recognizing his mistake now. He watched us with mistrustful eyes.

”Look, Jerry, I”m going to cut to the chase.” I gave him a fake sympathetic smile. ”You”re going to tell us where you get your drugs from.”

His eyes were wide and frightened. He looked between me and my brothers. ”I-I can sell you anything you want, Mr. Henderson.”

This man was forty-five years old, seven years older than me, but I”d laid into him when I defended him in court. I”d be damned if I ever let scum like him address me as an equal. Told him he would address me by Mr. Henderson and nothing else. Men like Jerry didn”t usually make it long in this world. The fact that he was alive and kicking at forty-five meant he was shrewd.

”I don”t want to buy drugs from you, Jerry.” I shook my head. ”I want to know where your supplier keeps his drugs.”

”O-oh, I can”t tell you that, Mr. Henderson,” he stammered. ”They-” He broke off and swallowed hard. ”They”d kill me.”

”I find it interesting that you don”t think we”ll kill you,” Butcher said, speaking for the first time.

Jerry”s eyes bugged out of his head. ”No, I-I believe that you would,” he answered carefully. ”I”m just thinking maybe you”d see what kind of position you”re putting me in.” He gave us a hopeful look. It died a quick death on his face when not one of us cracked a smile.

”I do see the position I”m putting you in. Possible death tomorrow or certain death right now. You know what you can say to get yourself out of this,” I said.

”M-maybe I do,” he hedged. ”But it would mean disappearing. My whole life is here.” His eyes took on a shrewd gleam under the low lights near the back of the alley.

”Your whole life can fit into your pocket. Which is where I”m about stuff your severed fingers,” Butcher growled.

”Or maybe we”ll let you keep your worthless life and take the one thing every man finds worth in,” Toxic said. He punctuated the threat by flicking open his knife.

A low whine forced its way out of Jerry”s throat as he eyed Toxic”s knife. ”Now, that”s not necessary,” he replied. His grubby hand inched toward his dick, as if that would protect it.

”I have a proposition for you, Jerry,” I told him. We needed the information and we needed to get the fuck out of here. I was willing to pay to ensure both happened. I reached into my jeans and pulled out a wad of cash. I knew the way this shit worked. Butcher and Toxic”s way would work, too, but it left behind more evidence—usually splattered on the walls. There was a code on the street. If you wanted information, you paid for it. Plain and simple. It was just the way business was done. ”Here”s three grand, enough for you to disappear.”

Jerry all but started drooling, staring at the money. Sadly, three grand was enough to encourage him to sell out his own mother. Loyalty wasn”t worth a damn out here.

”Tell us what we want to know, and it”s yours.” I was doing my part. He knew how to disappear. If he took us up on this deal, didn”t leave and was killed, that wasn”t our problem. This was enough to get him somewhere new and he”d start over, if he chose. I was willing to live with whatever happened. Fuck. I was willing to do whatever it took to keep my family safe. My brothers. My woman. My kids. Because they were already mine in my mind. I just had to convince Gwen of that fact. Just because she wasn”t aware of it yet, didn”t mean I wouldn”t protect them.

Jerry snatched the money from my hand, sealing the deal.

”Go ahead,” Hush urged.

We listened as he told us where to find the drugs we needed.

”They keep it guarded, you know,” he said. ”Going to take a fucking army to get into that place.”

I grinned at him. ”I know.” We had that. Or rather a collection of Army, Navy, and Marines. More than enough to take on some hired muscle. ”Jerry,” I said, stopping him in his tracks as he scooted past us to leave. He looked over his shoulder at me. ”If you”re lying to us-”

”Oh no, Mr. Henderson,” he said, waving the wad of money at me. It was his silent way of saying he was keeping his end of this bargain. Street code was the only thing that mattered to these guys. Everything else came and went, money, women, drugs, it all ebbed and flowed, but their reputation? That, they protected with their entire being.

I didn”t bother to finish my threat. He knew it by heart. We”d track him down, torture, and kill him.

He nodded in understanding of the look in my eyes and scurried off into the night. A small part of me hoped he did the smart thing and left. The rational part knew he wouldn”t. Most of that cash would be in a stripper”s thong within the hour.

”Let”s go,” Hush said. ”The others are waitin”.”

We got on our bikes and met up with the rest of our club at the designated spot.

”South side,” I told Lock as soon as we pulled up.

All hands were on deck for this except the few we left behind to watch over the compound and our families. Bear, Mel, and Dash had it under control. There was nothing that indicated Fremont would make a move tonight, and no one else was currently trying to kill us, so we hadn”t left more men at home. That would change after tonight. But we needed all the fire power we could get for this next step.

Priest leaned his head out the window of the truck he was driving. Someone had to drive the cage ride so we could transport all our weapons. We weren”t going into this with fucking handguns. No. We had AKs and M16s. A few shotguns. But mostly rifles. One thing we all knew from our military days, where there were drugs, there were guns. The men we were about to steal from weren”t going to be armed with knives and baseball bats. We were meeting fire with fire.

”Not what I was expectin”,””Hush said as we pulled up in front of the dilapidated barn. There were a few more outbuildings and an old ranch house, but it looked deserted.

”Where the fuck are the guards?” Butcher asked.

”Inside,” Priest replied, eyeing the building. ”No way they”re trusting this to cameras and security alarms. Not if Jerry was telling the truth.”

”The fact that they”re inside instead of out here,” Lock said, shaking his head, ”just tells me we”re dealing with fucking amateurs.”

We were off our bikes and grabbing rifles from the truck as fast as possible, because even if these people were amateurs, they couldn”t have missed the sound of our motorcycles coming up the road. It would have been better to roll up in the pickup, but convincing bikers to leave their motorcycles behind was blasphemy.

It was too quiet out here. We were down on the south side of Tucson, possibly even edging into Sahuarita. There were no suburbs and track homes out here though. This was a part of the city where you could still come and purchase land. There was no way to tell how many acres this farm was, but it was away from the city lights and neighboring homes, which made it perfect for what was going to go down here tonight.

”I thought for sure we were going to end up in a warehouse,” Hellfire muttered, eyes flicking around as we moved toward the house.

”Think they”re sleeping?” Ricochet asked.

”It doesn”t make sense,” I muttered. ”I don”t fucking like it.”

No sooner had the words left my mouth than the gunfire split the night. We had naturally split up and fanned out, and though it had been easy to hear one another in the quiet of darkness, we weren”t standing directly next to each other. Instead, we were staggered, and now we were all running for cover.

I ducked down behind an old pickup truck with a flat tire. As soon as the shots stopped, I popped my head over the hood. A single gunshot rang out and I ducked as the round whizzed past my head. ”Okay. They”re definitely not asleep.”

”Give me some cover,” Priest called out somewhere from my left.

”Go,” I called as I stood and started firing shots toward the top right window in the house. I wasn”t the only one, because more shots echoed around me and the sound of shattering glass was easy enough to hear. Our group was keeping every window covered so Priest could make his way to high ground.

His shadow ran off toward the barn, and as soon as he disappeared inside, I squatted down once more. Everything fell silent.

”Everyone good?”

We sounded off in low voices to his question. But we didn”t move. We were waiting. Heading out into the open yard between where we were and the house ensured one, or more, of us would get shot.

A low whistle sounded and I sucked in a breath as I moved around the truck and into the open. We had to draw them out. The rustling of the dry grass around me was all the warning I got that my brothers were moving with me. I could make out their shadows in the moonlight, if I bothered to look, but I didn”t. My rifle was up, the butt tucked into my shoulder, as I watched the house for signs of movement. Priest might not have time to squeeze off rounds at every fucking person in there if they moved in unison. Which meant the rest of us needed to be prepared.

”Fuck this.”

Shit.

”Butcher, don”t you fucking-”

Lock”s warning was too late. Butcher”s roar was like a crazed beast as he ran toward the house. ”That”s one way to draw them out,” I growled as I swung my rifle from window to window on the top story of the house, searching for something to shoot at. There. I didn”t have the chance to fire.

A crack thundered through the night, and I had to stop myself from checking that it wasn”t a bolt of lightning from some ancient, long forgotten god. I knew it wasn”t. It was just Priest, doing what he did, and sending one of our enemies straight to his deity. Who knew whether the guy was headed up, or down, but it didn”t fucking matter to me as long as it wasn”t one of us. These men were out here, protecting drugs that would later be scattered on our streets. They didn”t deserve our mercy.

Despite our plan, we weren”t going to let these drugs get distributed. There were already too many circulating out there, and these would be destroyed, one way or another. Once we used them to suit our purposes, of course.

The front door flew open, and I cursed under my breath and side stepped as a man came out, firing so chaotically that the only worry we had was catching a stray bullet. His rifle was a semi-auto, which meant he only had one bullet per trigger pull, but he was slamming that trigger so fast and hard, it was almost one continuous sound.

”Fucking asshole.” The barrel of my rifle swung his way and I let my training take over. My trigger pulls were smooth and fast, and my iron sights never wavered from my target. His body jerked several times before his gun dropped to the ground. His body followed with a soft thud.

Butcher had already run around the back, and the others were now dealing with more men streaming out of the house like ants. Priest”s M40 sniper rifle was louder than all the rest, but it was a cacophony of sound as we moved toward cover and shot at the advancing enemy.

”Down!”

I dropped as soon as I heard the warning, knowing someone was looking out for me. A grenade flew over my head and landed on the porch. The explosion was so close I could feel the heat of the blast on the back of my neck, and bits of wood peppered my face. I looked over my shoulder and gave Butcher an incredulous look. ”I don”t know whether to ask where you came from,” I shouted at him, my ears ringing so loud I could barely hear myself, ”or where the fuck you got a grenade!”

His smile was wide, his teeth gleaming in the light from the fire that was licking at the house. ”Ask stupid questions, win stupid prizes!” he yelled, directly into my ear as he pulled me to my feet.

”Goddamn it, Butcher!” Lock bellowed from nearby. ”There”s no way that”s not going to bring the cops down on our heads.”

”Took care of like six of them at once, though,” he argued, lifting a gloved hand to point at the destruction he”d caused. There was still a pleased look on his face.

I shook my head hard, trying to dislodge the ringing so I could hear the rest of the fucking conversation. Someone”s hand landed on my shoulder and I looked over at Rip. He wasn”t screaming so I was only catching every third word. ”...the...we...find...” He must have noticed as I squinted at his mouth, because he just started shoving me toward the barn.

Toxic, Hush, and Smoke were heading around to the back of the house to clear back there. Anyone inside the house was going to present themselves as a target for Priest”s watchful eye, or burn to death.

Now was as good a time as any to search for the drugs. I just hoped they weren”t inside the burning building.