He barely nods and coughs up a mouth full of blood. “Aye… da others…”
I strip out of my jacket and cut, the pain in my arm not even registering as I start ripping fabric to make some sort of bandage to try to stop the bleeding. “I’ll send Spider over. He’s the only one big enough to move your gigantic ass.” Tank chuckles a little at that, but more blood oozes from between his pale lips. “You hang tight, old man. Don’t get any ideas about running into battle now.”
“Ye got it, Prez.”
My heart fucking squeezes as I watch a man I can easily say I love like a father slump against the chair behind him, his auburn hair with touches of gray falling over the wood. Tank’s breathing is labored, raspy, and shallow, and not only do I need to find Spider in order to try to get his dad out of here, I need to find him in case this is the last few seconds he has with his father.
I get to my feet but stay hunched over, and for a minute or two, I’m rooted to the spot.
Breaker and Shannon are herding the sweet butts and house mice toward the stairs, Link is down and most likely already dead, while Little John and Dead Ed stand over him firing at will. More Demon Seeds are filtering into the room and when I hear a war cry I’d know anywhere, I snap out of it and turn to see Marbles swinging a fucking baseball bat at Joker, one of the Seeds’ top enforcers.
There’s a match made in hell.
No time for thoughts like that though.
My best friend will be fine, he can handle himself and any other crazy son of a bitch thrown his way. I need to find… “Goddamnit!”
I start running through gunfire and dead bodies as fast as I can when I see Spider lumbering toward Beau the Butcher, the Demon Seeds president fucking egging on our six-foot-seven giant, who is flanked by a happy as shit Brick and Porkchop.
“Spider!” Jesus, I’m not going to make it to him in time. Any other day I’d let him go after Beau, but if he kills that bastard and Tank dies while he does it, there is no fucking way my friend will ever forgive himself. There is just no fucking way I can let that happen. “Spider. Stop.”
Thankfully Beau doesn’t hear me, mainly because he’s beating the shit out of some Python prospect I don’t know, but my brother in the club does. He stops dead in his tracks and turns to me, those green eyes scanning me from head to toe, no doubt in search of the source of all the blood.
“I’m fine, but he’s not.”
“Fuck.” And that’s all it takes. Spider reroutes completely and takes off toward his dad, Porkchop following and shooting fuckers along the way.
“What do we do, Prez?” Brick looks around for a beat, then grabs my bad arm and starts dragging me toward an overturned table.
“We don’t fucking hide, dumbass.” I scowl as he shoves me down behind it. “We fucking fight and get this shit handled.”
“Flesh wound?”
I blink.
“Your arm.” Brick nods toward said arm. “Is it a flesh wound and is it your only one?”
“Bullet is stuck in there and I have no fucking idea because I’m running on straight adrenaline and anger.”
“You armed?”
“Just my SIG.”
“Here.” Brick pulls out a .45 from the back of his jeans, and if we weren’t in the middle of a fucking hailstorm on our turf, I’d laugh. I can see at least three other guns strapped to this guy right now, and I’d be willing to bet there are more. “Porkchop will be fine with Spider. Cy and Crunchy have Jackal, but Gunner is…” He shakes his head. “Breaker and Pope are working to get the rest of the civilians and everyone else to safety. I need to know what you want the patches to focus on and I’ll issue the orders.”
I peer over the top of the table for a second and start weighing strategies. “Get them to move as much of the fight outside as possible. We need the Seeds away from the EC, especially now that they’ve managed to attack it. As it moves out front, leave a couple guys inside to put the clubhouse in lockdown the best they can and help with casualties while we wait for Doc and everyone else.”
“You gonna make the call?”
I shake my head. “Get Breaker or Pope to do it. Withers first, then Abernathy. Johansson and Berk next, but we need ambulances now.”
“Already on it.”
“Good.”
Brick looks at me for a second, then nods again. “You stay alive, Prez.”
“Back at you.” Then we both shoot to our feet and open fire as we each cut a path in the direction we need to go.
