This was the way’a the world I’d chosen to live in. This was how to settle the hearts’a broken men.
With violence and retribution for any wrong.
In my ear, the Bluetooth speaker hissed ’fore Bat’s voice came over the line.
“In position, on my mark.”
“What the fuck?” Curtains whispered, lookin’ through the goggles at the back’a the house.
I snapped my gaze up from checkin’ the safety on my gun to see a dark shadow fall outta the second story window to the roof’a the veranda.
“Hold,” I snapped quietly to Bat.
A second later, two men came out onto the porch, probably to check out the noise. The man with the rifle at the side’a the house roused and got to his feet, steppin’ closer to the forest as he peered into the dark.
I knew Priest was at that side with Wrath, Heckler, and Skell only a dozen yards to the left’a them.
He didn’t stop walkin’, catchin’ sight’a somethin’ that gave away our men in the shadow’a trees.
“Hey,” the White Raider raised his voice to call as the men on the porch disappeared back into the house.
The shape on the porch roof shifted, then paused.
My heart was in my throat, wonderin’ if it could be Blue.
The man near the trees turned back to look at the house, probably searchin’ for the men who’d been outside. Instead, his head tipped up, and he turned his back on the forest to go toward the porch.
And the shape stickin’ up from the flat roof.
“Fuck,” I cursed softly. “Priest, straight ahead. Bat, go, go, go.”
A moment later, the crack’a a sniper rifle echoed across the flat fields, followed by the sharp fall’a glass in a window. Simultaneously, a dark form separated from the trees and arrowed straight at the Raider with his gun raised to the porch roof.
A garbled cry and then he was down on the ground, the shape I knew was Priest loomin’ over him like the shadow’a death.
“Go,” I told Curtains, pushin’ forward as the person on the roof fell to the other side’a the house and outta sight.
I knew in my fuckin’ bones it was Blue and thanked the fuckin’ universe that she was well enough to try to escape herself. Pride undercut the cold sense’a purpose keepin’ the hot edge’a panic at bay as I shot forward from the trees. Men poured from the back’a the house, guns raised, eyes set on the trees.
On us as we spilled forth like a dark plague of locusts.
Another boomin’ shot from Bat’s rifle thundered across the flat lands, but I was too focused on the gunshots pepperin’ us from the Raiders crouchin’ behind the rails and pillars’a the porch.
“Goin’ after Blue,” I shouted to Curtains. “Get my back.”
“Always,” he grunted as he slid to his belly on the ground behind a picnic table in the backyard, shootin’ at three men who aimed blindly at us in the dark.
I circled the table and broke toward the right’a the house, firin’ off a bullet that caught one’a the Raider’s in the throat, takin’ him down with a cut-off scream. Another fired back at me,the bullet skimmin’ my shoulder with icy fingers, leavin’ a brutal burn behind.
Still, I ran, sweat breakin’ over my forehead in the sticky summer air.
No one lay on the ground around the side’a the house.
The men shootin’ beer bottles by the barn were engaged with Zeus and King, father and son workin’ in harmony to fight two’a the men hand to hand. The third lay at Z’s feet, neck twisted at an unnatural angle.
A scream cut through the night, blood-curdlin’ and raw with terror.
I’d recognize Blue’s voice in any form, even if I’d never had the horror’a hearin’ that nightmarish call’ fore.
