by K E Osborn
To get her safe, this is the first step.
“Pres, we need to do this, get it done. Fin is a part of this club now. We protect our own.”
“We do, and she is. But we’re down good men right now. Wraith is out. Chains is occupied with Kobe, and Neon—”
“Hey, a damn fight will do me good right now. Bring it on, I say,” Neon stops Zero in his tracks.
“And Chains will want in on this. I know him. Don’t hold back when the time to strike is now!” I urge.
The Baroness tilts her head at Zero. “He’s right ‘ya know. You might only get one shot at them before they come after ya’ll. If they find out Finley is here, you bet your ass they’re coming.”
Zero scrubs at his face in frustration. “Fuck! Okay, then we do this. But I need your word, Connie, that we have your men with us and not fucking coming in at the last second and turning on us.”
“You have my word. If they do, I swear you can come after me personally and take me out in the most vicious of ways.”
Well, that’s pretty convincing.
Zero dips his chin in agreement with the Baroness. “With your blessing, we will put a plan together and go-a-hunting for some Russian mobsters.”
We have Russian Mobsters to think about, Maxen’s men, and let’s not forget the Heathen’s that are still lurking about—that imminent attack should still be on our radar as well.
We have much to be concerned about.
TEXAS
Telling Fin everything Neon and the Baroness had discovered about Maxen and the Russian connection was hard. She knew what it meant. That I wouldn’t rest until I had dealt with it. Seen it through to the end. We discussed in finer detail the plan, so she knew everything—where we were going, what we were doing, and what she needed to do while we were out.
The most important part was for her to stay at the club and stay fucking safe so I can do my job.
That’s what I need from her.
That’s all I need from her.
As those of us ready to head out gather in the main room, Connie’s men arrive dressed in full tactical gear. I smirk while shaking my head at how anyone passing by would think we’re here with the fucking SWAT team.
“Little overkill, don’t you think, Connie?” Zero teases.
She tilts her head to the side. “They’re the ones wearing bulletproof vests and aren’t going to get shot. Personally, I think they’re the smart ones.”
We all snort out a laugh.
“Pussies,” I murmur under my breath.
Fin moves into my side, her eyes glistening with fear.
“Is this all really necessary? Do you have to go after them?”
Lifting my hand to her cheek, I caress her skin. “For your safety… yes.”
“Then I should come with you! I know how to shoot now, remember?”
“Baby, your aim is terrible. I need you here… safe, so I don’t have to worry about you while I’m fighting. Your job is to stay here and do your part.”
“Okay… I got this, but make sure you come back to me. I’m gonna be real fucking mad if you get hurt. Like, I will punch you myself.”
A huge smile crosses my face as I lean in kissing her lips. I love my woman when she gets feisty. My lips press against hers, and that fire ignites inside my soul again. She’s the only thing in this world that makes me feel so fucking alive. I kiss her strongly like it could be the last time, my tongue colliding with hers in a tango as I hold her to me, my cock starting to stir.
Unfortunately, before I get myself too worked up, I pull back, panting for breath and lean my forehead against hers. “I’m coming back to you.”
She bobs her head up and down. “You’re damn straight you are. Now, go do your job.”
Smirking, I wink at her. “Yes, ma’am.” I lean in pecking her on the lips once more to tide me over, then make my way to my brothers who are already walking out of the clubhouse. Glancing over my shoulder at all the old ladies congregating together and Fin walking over with them, it hits me like a ton of bricks. If I make it through this, I’m gonna make Fin a member of that old ladies’ club.
We all head out to the black cages, four in total, and divide ourselves into groups. Two cages with four Defiance and one of the tactical team, then two cages with three of Defiance and two of the tactical team. There’s fourteen Defiance and six of Connie’s guys. We have twenty men in total. We’re hoping it’s enough, but Connie has more waiting on standby if we need them.
I jump in the back of the van with Phantom, Ax, and River, and we all slide along the metal grated seat, two men facing each other as the back doors close behind us. Taking a deep breath, I roll my shoulders. I don’t really know what we’re heading into, but I do know that for once, we’re taking the fight to the assholes instead of them coming to us.
We’re starting the war and fucking hell, I’m gonna make sure we damn well finish it!
The cage leads leaving the clubhouse with the other three following behind. I raise my chin to my brothers. “I wanna thank you guys for coming into this fight… for me, for Fin.”
Phantom scoffs. “I’d do anything for that sassy firecracker. She might know how to walk all over us, but fuck if she isn’t one of the most genuine women I have ever met in my life. I’d go into battle for her any day, brother.”
Phantom and Fin are close. Spending that time with her at her house brought the three of us together. So, I totally understand where he’s coming from.
River sits forward a little. “I’m a prospect, man. So, I do what I’m told. I don’t know much about Fin. I haven’t dealt with her all that much, but what I do know of her, is that she puts her ass on the line for this club, time and time again. Any woman like that deserves our help. She’s got my support.”
“Mine, too,” Ax states.
I drop my head as I take a relieving breath, knowing my brothers have my back. Looking up, I nod my head in appreciation. “Thanks, brothers. This means every-fucking-thing.”
“I’d rather be out here fighting, than having to listen to Brady carry on about how he’s such a champion at every-fucking-thing. I swear that kid has an ego the size of Houston,” Ax states, making us laugh.
“Seems like an odd match for Koda to be friends with someone like him. I guess opposites attract. If Koda says he’s good people, I suppose we gotta trust his judgment,” I tell Ax.
Ax rolls his shoulders. “He’s always talking to me about my military training. Kid’s disciplined when he wants to be. He’s just a bit all over the place. He needs to rein in his attitude if he wants to join the military.”
River bumps Ax’s shoulder. “Maybe he just needs some guidance, Ax. Kid killed his own father. He’s got the balls to back up his attitude. Maybe he just needs someone to pull him into line. Show him how to act.”
“What? Me?” Ax widens his eyes.
“He’s looking for that military-style guidance, Ax. You’re the only one here who can give him that.”
Ax groans. “Fuck no… he’s high maintenance.”
We all chuckle. “Then train him not to be.”
Ax lets out a long exhale. “Fine! I’ll take Brady under my wing. But let it be known, I do it begrudgingly.”
Phantom smiles. “Naw, look at you, adopting a little broken puppy.”
Ax reaches out punching Phantom in the arm. “Shut up, fucker.”
We all laugh as the van suddenly pulls to a stop.
My anxiety that had all but dissipated instantly returns tenfold as we all turn to the doors, and they open. I grip hold of my machine gun, nodding my head at the guys. “Here we go!”
They all grab their guns as we stand and walk toward the doors, jumping out and congregating with our brothers and the tactical team.
Zero moves to the head as we loiter in the rear parking lot of some Asian-style grocery store.
“Okay, here’s the play. We move along the rear alley entry into the home. It’s said to be where the Russian movement’s main loca
tion is based. Where the majority of their head honchos will be in hiding.”
“In a house? Not a bunker? Or some lavish fucking penthouse?” Kevlar asks.
Zero shrugs. “This is the intel Neon and the Baroness found. I guess if you want to hide, hide in plain sight, right?”
“Makes sense,” I state.
“From there, we have half our people going in the front, the other taking up the rear. We come at them from both sides. These men will be armed heavily. They are dangerous. They will kill on sight. Any questions?”
“Can we go? My trigger finger is getting itchy,” I call out, and everyone chuckles.
“Texas, I need you to keep your fucking cool in there, you hear me?”
“Yeah, Pres. I hear you.”
“Okay, then… let’s move out!”
We file into two lines. I lead one and Chains leads the other. His team heads for the rear door while my team is going in the front.
In a single file, we silently make our way down the alley alongside the rundown house. The tall, tattered fence gives us shelter from being seen as we race down the lane in opposite directions. I direct my team to head around the front and onto the porch. Beer bottles lay scattered along the wood, and we have to be careful not to knock any of them out of the way so as to not make any sound. We keep our bodies low under the windows as we approach, and I look at my watch checking the timing—knowing when the second-hand strikes twelve, we make our move simultaneously.
I count down in my head, three… two… one.
I give the signal, and the tactical guy moves forward using his shoulder to bash the door down. The second he breaks through the door, a row of knives fly through the air at him, slamming into his neck. Blood pisses out of his jugular vein as he gurgles, stumbling to the ground and falling flat on his face. I peek through the door, there’s no one there and look to the side of the door seeing a wire.
“It’s a booby trap!”
Dammit! We’ve lost the element of surprise, but we have to do this regardless. So, I race forward, ducking under the wire, making my way inside the house. I walk into the living room, stained couches sit on wooden floorboards, beer bottles and cigarette butts lay all over the floor. But it’s the walls that really take the cake. Russian National Unity Flags and WWII memorabilia fill the top of the cupboards everywhere. I’m so fucking confused. Two vastly different cultures are united in this place, and it’s throwing my senses off completely as I stand around gawking at it all.
The fuck is this place?
Then the sound of a beer bottle scooting across the floor catches my attention. We all turn when River kicks a bottle by accident. The bottle stops rolling, then we hear a click.
“Get down!” I yell.
We all drop to the floor as a loud stun grenade goes off. The glass bottles shatter sending shards from the beer bottles splintering off into the room. My entire body rattles from the noise. It’s so violent, I feel like I want to be sick. My eyes roll around in my head. The friction has a ringing vibrating in my ears. I lay on the floor with my hands over my ears, trying to gather my bearings, but the vague sound of shooting rat-a-tats is in the recess of my ears. I manage to glance over my shoulder looking down the hall, to our men pushing whoever was hiding out in the house forward, into the front room with us.
We need to get up.
We have to get up.
I crawl to my knees, even though my head is spinning like a motherfucker. I reach over to Phantom, yanking him with me as he shakes off the blast. Everyone else follows suit as we pull up our machine guns ready for them to file in, and just like that, they come running. We open fire on them when they enter, but they return fire just as quickly.
Bullets pummel the space as we rush in behind the sofa, trying to duck for cover. The men are jumping over objects in the room, avoiding obvious booby traps as they rush in taking aim at my brothers and the tactical team.
I shoot up from the sofa, taking aim at one of the skinheads as he jumps over a wooden crate. I aim for the crate, not the man. The crate explodes, the shockwave sending a plume of fire up, smothering the skinhead as he takes off, running around the room alight. He rushes straight into the window trying to get out, smashing through the glass then falls outside, but the fire catches the curtain ablaze. The room is slowly going up in flames as we one by one take out the men around us.
Pulling up my gun, a Russian runs in with something in his hand. I focus on it attempting to make out the form. Damn, that’s a grenade. So I aim at him before he can pull the pin, my bullets firing into his body in quick succession. He jolts back and forth with the rapid-fire as blood splashes on the red flag behind him. He reaches up grabbing it for support, but as he falls, he tears it from the wall, and it drapes over his dead bloody body on the floor.
The grenade rolls along the floor, and I rush over to try and retrieve it, but a bullet skims my thigh. I hiss through my teeth as I reach the grenade then I throw it with force, just in case, out the burning window. The pin hasn’t been removed so hopefully it won’t explode.
Just as it looks like we’re overrunning these men, someone runs in, and it catches my eye. My heart leaps up into my chest as Phantom places a gun to his temple about to pull the trigger, and I race over slamming the gun out of the way.
Phantom stares at me. “The fuck, dude?”
The skinhead stares at me, a cocky smirk on his face as I glare at him. “Your name… what is it?”
He chuckles as the gunfire dies down, all the Russians and his men around him now all but wiped out. “You know who I am, Texas. Just like I know who you are.”
Zero steps up to me wiping some blood away from his brow. “This him?”
“I didn’t come here today expecting to find him, but yeah… this asshole right here is Maxen Miller.” I let out a small laugh.
Zero peers over his shoulder, then wipes his hands. “That fire is gonna take hold soon. Do what you gotta do and get out.” He signals to everyone, and they all walk out leaving Phantom and me.
“Keep your gun on him, Phantom, while I tell him this.”
Phantom nods, raising his gun, placing it to Maxen’s pasty temple.
“Your effort in taking down the Baroness and removing her assets and money to fund your fucking racist party… yeah, that shit didn’t work.” His eyes light up in fury as he attempts to take a step forward, but Phantom pushes the gun into his forehead further.
“The hell are you talking about?”
“All the money is back in the Baroness’ accounts. But in the process, we drained your accounts, froze your assets, and framed your family for embezzlement schemes. In fact, the heat should be arresting your family as we speak… you, you scum bag, have nothing. Your party once you’re gone will have nothing. And if they continue to fight after you, Finley and her partners will launch an all-out attack on your guys so hard and fast. With all the information we have collected, your world and empire will fucking crumble to the ground, and we will take great pleasure in making it so.”
He laughs. “She doesn’t have the balls.”
“Then you don’t know Finley at all.”
Suddenly, another skinhead comes out from the hall, shooting Phantom in the arm. He drops his gun and Maxen rushes forward, shoving me in the chest, and I lose balance and fall back onto the sofa. He lands a fist into my face as I try to wrestle with him, hearing gunshots firing off in the house as I bring my leg up kicking Maxen back off me. He rolls onto the floor, onto the broken shards of glass. The other skinhead is dead on the ground and Phantom’s nursing his arm, aiming the gun straight at Maxen.
I smirk, and he exhales. “Always got your back, brother.”
I grip his shoulder then turn, kneeling over Maxen and land a fist into his face. He spits out a line of blood chuckling as he goes. “I’d rather die than lay over to you and your wild dogs.”
“I can arrange that!”
I grab my handgun from my waist as the flames now lick the ceiling. Smoke beg
ins to flood the room, and I cough as Phantom steps up to my side.
Maxen shakes his head. “My brothers in arms will fight for my cause. Just because I die doesn’t mean this is the end. Finley will still pay. She will never be safe.”
“Finley has already started the proceedings to take everyone in your organization, and the Russian syndicate tied to you, down. We have all the links, all the ties. While we’ve been here, Finley’s been out with the Houston Police Department rounding everyone else up. You’re finished, Maxen. It all ends with you, here and now.”
“No. No! I’ve worked too fucking hard on this to let that bitch destroy my plans for domination. We’re going to show the world the right way. The only way!”
“The only way the world should be, is without you in it!” I cock my gun aiming it at his head as he struggles beneath me. I point it directly at his forehead, his eyes meet mine, and I feel absolutely nothing. So, I pull the trigger.
His blood splashes on my face as his head jerks back with the force of the bullet.
Smoke builds around us, and I cough.
Phantom grabs my cut, lifting me from the ground. “C’mon, man, it’s done. We gotta get the hell outta here.” He yanks me toward the front door, but just as we get there, the framework above the door collapses and the exit is blocked by the inferno.
“Fuck!” I call out.
As I go to turn around, a huge explosion sends Phantom and me flying across the living room, slamming into the opposite wall. The flames lap at our feet as the ceiling of the house falls around us. My head rolls around, shocked from the force of the hit as I attempt to get back on my feet.
Phantom shuffles up, pulling me with him, then we make our way for the hall.
Scrambling to the back exit, I can hardly breathe. We’re almost to the door when Zero and Chains burst through. Reaching out, they grab us both and help us outside.
We make it to the back lawn and collapse on the grass as the entire front of the house falls in on itself, on top of Maxen and the other dead men who are left inside.
I pant for breath, trying hard to catch it, but knowing more than anything we need to get out of here. The emergency services will arrive at any second, and we don’t want to be anywhere near here when they do.