Page 26 of Drowning in the Deep
I chuckled, not even sure who she was talking about. She went through guys so quickly. “As if you ever listen to me.”
“True,” she admitted. “Anyway, tell me about this new guy of yours. Does he have a job?” Sara rolled her eyes, obviously mocking Mike.
“Yeah. He works in his family’s business,” I said with a nod. “Importing and exporting.”
Sara tweaked an eyebrow. “That sounds exciting. Is he hot?”
“Definitely.” I didn’t have to stretch the truth for that answer. “And he has some cash. But I’m not sure he’s that into me.”
“I understand,” she said with a sigh. “I wonder the same thing about Jerry. I know we’re good friends, but I have to think, is it worth it to try to take things to the next level if it’s going to ruin that? And then I have to work with him, too, so that could be super embarrassing if he shoots me down and I have to see him every day.”
I nodded along with her, thinking there was no way in hell Jerry would ever shoot her down. Sara was beautiful, intelligent, clever, and funny. Who wouldn’t want to date her? And unlike me, she didn’t have the kind of baggage that made a person wonder how many dead bodies had been stored in that luggage for years.
No, Sara and Jerry were completely different than Daemon and me in all of the good ways. Stability, normalcy, the opportunity to do whatever the fuck they wanted and not have to worry about their parents showing up to fuck things over. I envied her in so many ways. Controlling my face so as not to give that away was nearly impossible, so I finished my drink and refilled my glass the best I could with whatever was left in the pitcher. Sara made a face, obviously sad it was all gone, but I said nothing.
Instead, I leaned back on the couch, wondering if maybe I should find myself a Jerry Jacks. But then, hadn’t I had one before? My last boyfriend had been just like him. Vanilla. Plain. A bran muffin. Daemon, on the other hand, was everything your mother always told you to stay away from rolled up into one burning flame.
I kept trying to hold that fire in the palm of my hand, and even though it burned like a motherfucker, I had no intention of letting him go.
“Well, now that the drinks are gone, I think I’ll go in my room and watch some Netflix,” Sara said. “I hope your fellow calls you.”
“Thanks. I hope you figure out which guy to go with. I’m sure that you will.” I smiled at her, trying to be supportive. She returned the smile and left the room.
Ultimately, whoever Sara chose, she’d end up happy and in a normal relationship with a man she could rely on to love and take care of her. Whether I chose to continue to pursue Daemon or not, I was going to get burned.
I may as well enjoy the sizzle.
My eyes went to my phone and I hoped he’d call soon.
CHAPTER18
DAEMON
The smoking rubble of the meth shed was still glowing in the moonlight as the Savages ran, shouting and trying to shoot into the darkness as they scrambled for cover. My guys had them completely surrounded, so the only place they could go was back into the house.
I watched a tall, bald Latvian run up the steps and trip over the corpse of one of the guys Vin had tossed a knife into a little while ago. The man fell flat on his face, got up, shrieked, and tried to make for the door before I buried three bullets in his back, causing him to fall right on top of the knife victim. He was the fifth or sixth guy I’d picked off, not that I was bothering to count. So far, we were winning, and that was all that mattered.
With the house surrounded, it was just a matter of time before we got in there and finished them all off, all except for a few unlucky bastards who would be selected to live—for a bit longer. Until they told me what I wanted to hear, that it was Alexander La Rosa pulling their fucking strings.
With the rest of the Savages taking cover in the house, I had a second to breathe, to survey the area. Bodies littered the grass, rivulets of blood evident even in the dim light. They were all Savages. While a few of my guys had a bullet in a shoulder or an arm, none of them had fallen yet, and none of them were willing to give up. Now that this had turned into a fucking wild west shootout, I had a feeling we were going to make it out of this alive—all of us.
“What the fuck do we do now?” Vin asked to my right. “Should I storm the fucking door and start shooting?”
“Only if you want to die.” When would he ever learn not to let his zest for blood overrule his logic? “Nah, they’re coming to the windows to shoot at us. Let’s see if we can pick some of ‘em off.”
Even as I spoke, a barrage of fire poured out of the downstairs windows. Not only could I see them firing at us through the back, I could hear the gunfire from the front of the house as well. If anyone had been driving by, they would’ve thought it was a war zone. Thankfully, we were far enough out in the middle of nowhere that it wasn’t likely anyone uninvolved would hear a goddamn thing.
The shooting went on for a while. I counted ten of them inside the house, most of them downstairs, though there were a few situated in the upstairs windows. This couldn’t go on forever. We’d need to find a way to infiltrate the house. Every time we started to move forward, they amplified their firepower and drove us back to the trees on the outskirts of the yard.
“Cover me,” I told Vin as I took off from behind the tree where I’d been standing next to him. I headed toward Dezzy’s location over to my extreme left. I hadn’t wanted to take any explosives into the shed with me for fear something might ignite the chemicals too early, so I needed to reach Dez and get some of the bigger firepower he had with him.
Dezzy saw me coming and scooted toward me, still firing at the house. “What the hell are you doing, boss?” he asked me.
“I need a flashbang,” I told him. “You’ve got them, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a few,” he said, sparing me a glance now and again that told me he thought I was nuts. “You gonna try to Tom Brady one of them in there from fifty yards away?”
Grinning at him, I shook my head. “No, but I am going to need you assholes to aim a little better.”
