“Sure did boss. Told them to be here by seven.” The taller one licked his lips as he eyeballed me. So much gross was happening in this warehouse this morning. I assumed it was a warehouse. It was a cold, steel building. There was nothing in it but rows of wooden crates and cargo containers stacked along the walls and throughout, creating a maze in the large space. It was hard to tell just how big the place was because everything was sectioned off by these containers. There were no sounds of traffic nearby. Definitely a warehouse.
I glanced back over and saw more men in leather cuts wandering in from behind me where a lonely row of wooden crates was all that separated us from the metal door. All around us to the sides and in front, the shipping containers created pathways through the building. If we were going to get out of here and had to go through those paths, it’d be like mice in a maze. The men all gathered around us. I knew from their cuts they were all Lycans, except for the two Vikings. I glanced at Bass and saw the grim look on his face. This wasn’t good.
“Fucking traitors,” Bass growled at the Vikings. They both grinned at him, completely amused at both his anger and at seeing him sitting there tied up. Another man, built like the Rock, walked up and punched Bass directly in the face. His head snapped back so hard I thought it would break his spine.
“Leave him alone!” I glared at the guy when he turned around and narrowed his eyes at me. They dragged up and down my body, but I held his gaze when it settled on mine.
“So, you’re Steel’s little piece of ass, huh?” If looks could murder the guy would fall dead at my feet but I didn’t bother to respond to him.
“Might have to keep you for myself once I kill him.” I sucked in a breath at the nauseating thought of that. I looked down at his vest to the patch with his name, Reaper. Great. According to the other patch, he was the Vice President of this MC. I looked over at Bass. His poor face couldn’t take much more today. The visitors they had coming today had to be the Vikings. Who else would come here for us?
Chapter 50
Remi
I had my answer entirely too soon for my liking. A shrill voice cut through the men’s low murmuring and I groaned. I’d know that voice anywhere. What the fuck was she doing here?
Scratch that, I thought as I looked on in horror, what the fuck were they doing here?
Bridget, Anna, Julie, and Uncle Caleb all walked into the warehouse. Uncle Caleb was the only one who had the good sense to look scared. The girls looked beyond pissed. This was my worst nightmare. All they needed to do was add Ming and Steel and every last person I cared about on this planet would be here, in danger.
“Rhonda!” Bridget called again. “You sent your scraggly ass bikers to our home to tell us you had kidnapped your own daughter, and that you were ransoming her for money?” Bridget stopped in front of my mother and about ten of those ‘scraggly ass bikers’ and tapped her Jimmy Choos.
We’re all going to die. Then I had to inwardly chuckle at how many times that thought had crossed my mind because of something Bridget had done or said in the past. The only upside was the look on everyone’s face, including Bass’s at Bridget’s announcement.
Anna stepped forward and poked a finger into my mother’s chest. “You have some serious mental issues, you know that? The fact that you would treat your own daughter this way?” Blaze stepped forward and shoved Anna backward, away from Rhonda. Before he could continue forward however Julie tossed a gym bag down in front of them.
“It’s all there. We’ll take them and be on our way now.” She nodded at me and Bass. Ever the pragmatic one, Julie was trying to de-escalate the situation. Anna looked petrified, but she was still willing to harass my mother. Bridget didn’t even have the good sense to look scared. The look Bass gave Julie had me grinning. If the night of the party hadn’t convinced me he had a crush on her, I’d for sure know it now.
Blaze shook his head. “Only Rhonda’s daughter is part of this exchange.” He snapped his fingers and a couple of his guys jumped forward to grab the bag.
“Well, we’re not leaving him.” Julie crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the Lycan President.
“Then I guess none of you are leaving.” That had come from Reaper. He pulled out a gun, and I saw my friends give each other a look. Now they all looked as scared as Uncle Caleb did.
“Put that away. We gave you what you wanted. We’ll be taking my niece and leaving. You can have that guy.” Uncle Caleb shot Bass a short look. I looked pleadingly at him and then at Bass who just shook his head.
“Go, Remi. I won’t let any of you die for me.”
“Change of plans.” We all looked over at Blaze, who now held his own weapon. “Turns out Reaper has taken a fancy to her.” Blaze gestured at me with the gun. “If you go now, the four of you can leave. But we’ll be keeping her and the money.”
The men in the warehouse chuckled. The girls and my uncle looked horrified, but I wasn’t really surprised that they were pulling something like this. Why would they let me go when they could keep me and keep making these four give them a steady supply of money?
I met my uncle’s gaze. “I’m so sorry Uncle Caleb. For everything. Just get them out of here.” I looked into the eyes of each of the girls who could have been my sisters and tried to tell them, silently, what they meant to me. I had no idea what these guys would do to me but just in case I wanted some form of goodbye.
Reaper stepped over and shoved his gun in the back of his pants and pulled out a knife, flicking it open inches from my face. I couldn’t help it, I yelped. Could you blame a girl? He chuckled then sawed through the ropes at my feet then hands. He hauled me up and against him before putting the knife away and pulling his gun back out. I tried to struggle, but he was built like a brick shit house and he ended up pointing the barrel of the gun at me. That had me stilling pretty quickly.
“You two. Untie him and bring him with us. If you kill him, I’ll kill you. He’s mine.” Blaze ordered the nomads to handle Bass. Uncle Caleb and the girls were still standing in front of us hesitantly. My uncle was looking between us and the back door that led outside.
“Please, Uncle Caleb. Go.”
We all paused. I saw a determination come into my uncle’s eyes. Before I ever got the chance to figure out if he was going to leave or do something stupid though all hell broke loose.
Chapter 51
Steel
Gunnar crept back toward us where we all waited by a back entrance to the warehouse.
“There’s about twelve of them, all armed. Ty and Red have Bass. Reaper has Remi and I don’t know why they are fucking here but Bridget, Anna, Julie, and Remi’s Uncle Caleb are all in there too. There are a few rows of wooden boxes stacked along the back between us and them. All along the sides, there are huge rows of shipping containers.”
“Wait. Who are Anna and Julie?” Riggs looked between Gunnar and me. Cade looked just as confused. They knew who Bridget was, and just saying Remi’s uncle took care of who Caleb was but that left the other two as fair game.
“Remi and Bridget’s best friends and roommates.”
“Right.” Our whole group looked grim. Instead of two of our people in there, we now had six. The odds of us getting in there and getting all of them out without anyone getting shot or killed was going down.
“We need to get in there. They’re about to move,” Axel hissed at us. He’d taken up the position by the window that Gunnar had vacated.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t come in from different sides. We were going to have to funnel in from this one door. It was going to be dangerous, so we were going to have to move fast. We all crouched next to the door and Riggs counted us down. As soon as the countdown ended, I kicked in the door and Gunnar went in first, firing off a few rounds. He wasn’t aiming at anything, in particular, just making noise to cover our entry and hopefully distract them as we fanned out across the aisles.
With Gunnar laying down cover fire, the rest of us got in the door and past the open area
until we were behind the crates. Riggs went next, then me, Cade, and the rest of our crew scrambled in, all of us running for cover and firing off rounds as we could. Luckily, I saw that everyone dove for cover across the room. That was better than an unlucky shot taking out one of the girls or Bass. Remi’s uncle, I wasn’t as worried about. There wasn’t any love lost between us, but I still didn’t want him hurt, if only for her sake.
“Blaze!” Cade glanced over at me and nodded toward the left side of the room, indicating for me to split off to that side. I nodded and kept crouched down as I moved along the stack of wooden crates we were hiding behind, heading for an opening to a path between shipping containers. “Let our people go and maybe you’ll get out of this alive.”
Blaze’s laugh bounced through the building. His crew echoed it like hyenas. “Not going to happen Cade. They’re ours now and soon enough we’ll be coming for the rest of your pathetic club.”
I glanced to my right, Axel, Drew, and Trip were right on my ass, coming around the left side. I saw Riggs, Gunnar, and Scout going around the right. That left Cade and the remaining two of our guys to go straight down the middle. If you counted Bass, we were still a man down from the Lycans count, but these were the only men who’d been close enough to get here in time. It was possible some of our guys could ride in during the middle of the fight but for now, we’d have to make do.
“Try to take us on, and we’ll wipe you off the map and take over your territory.” An angry shout answered Cade’s words. We were all listening intently. We didn’t care what was being said. We were just trying to get a bead on where these guys were hiding. This warehouse was huge, and it had a lot of rows of boxes and shipping containers stacked around in it that were blocking our view but also distorting sound and making it hard to tell where anyone was.
Once we’d come into the building, they’d all scattered down pathways, disappearing into different sections of it. The Lycans, having spread out as we had, could be anywhere. Cade was trying to draw them out the best he could so we could pick them off.
I had my Glock in my right hand, and I reached down and grabbed my switchblade and palmed it in my left. We slowly snuck around the side of a shipping container and came upon two Lycans who were facing away from us, creeping toward the sound of Cade’s voice, where he was once again taunting Blaze. I quietly stuffed my gun into the back of my jeans and tossed my knife into my right hand. I saw Axel doing the same out of the corner of my eye.
He glanced at me and at my nod, we both lunged forward. He slit the throat of his target quickly and quietly. I didn’t have the right angle for that so instead, I slid the tip of my knife into the side of his neck. My knife sliced through like butter. Both men bled out so quickly they didn’t have time to make any noise. I’d grabbed onto the Lycan to prevent his body from hitting the ground and notifying anyone nearby of the struggle.
I quickly laid him down and glanced up as Drew and Trip continued moving forward ahead of us. I cleaned my blade on the Lycan’s jeans then took his gun and shoved that into the pouch inside of my cut. Axel did the same before we moved on, following the direction the others had gone. That evened up our odds a little, I thought grimly.
By the time we caught up with them, they’d taken out another Lycan. I briefly wondered how my brother and Gunnar were doing going down the right-hand side. We kept moving forward until we reached the row of wooden crates at the very front of the warehouse. I realized that when we’d kept moving, we’d lost Drew and Trip. They must have turned down a different path. It was like one of those fun houses in here-the kind with the creepy clowns and mirrors?
A movement to the right of us had me and Axel freezing but then I relaxed slightly when I recognized Julie. I crept up behind her and clapped a hand over her mouth from behind, muffling her scream, as I wrapped my other arm around her.
“Shhhh, it’s Steel.” She instantly stopped struggling, relaxing in my arms. Still speaking softly, I turned to Axel. “Take Julie back the way we came and get them back to where Cade is at. If we can, we’ll get her outside.” Axel hesitated. He clearly didn’t want to leave me alone. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to look for Remi.”
“No way. I’m going with you to go get Remi.” Julie glared at me and crossed her arms over her chest. I shook my head at her in disbelief.
“Do you have a gun?” She shook her head. “If you had a gun would you know how to use it?” She hesitated but shook her head again. “If you had a gun and knew how to use it, would you be willing to kill somebody?” Julie’s arms dropped in defeat.
“I’ll go with him,” She whispered and pointed at Axel. He didn’t look any happier than Julie to be leaving but they did.
Once they’d taken the path to bring them back toward the front of the warehouse, I crept forward down a new aisle. Gunfire rang out, and I ran around the end of the box and burst out into an open area.
There were three people tangled up on the ground slugging it out and scrambling for a gun a few feet away. As I ran up, I saw Scout drag a Lycan back from the gun but that left the second Lycan open to scramble forward on his hands and knees to grab it. Just as he brought the weapon up, I aimed and pulled the trigger. Red bloomed across his chest. He looked down in surprise and then at me while he swung his arm toward me. I pulled the trigger three more times before the gun fell from his grip.
I heard the crack of flesh meeting flesh and looked behind me. Scout was still fighting with the Lycan he’d dragged off. Two more Lycans, having heard the shots, came out from another pathway and ran toward me. I fired off a few rounds and managed to clip one of the men on the arm, but they tackled me.
I pulled my knife out prepared to fight both men laying on top of me, but someone dragged one of them off of me before the fight even started. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw my brother toss the guy like he was a scarecrow. I focused on the man in front of me. After a brief tussle, my knife found purchase. The Lycan lay writhing, with a knife in his chest. I heard Riggs let out a grunt of pain but after checking I saw that the Lycan wasn’t long for this world. Riggs came and helped me up and Scout came over as we sat breathing hard, adrenaline surging.
After that quick breather, we continued. We cleared three more aisles without finding anyone. We’d heard five more gunshots and clear sounds of scuffles breaking out. We just hadn’t been able to figure out where they’d been coming from. The next aisle we tried spit us out into a smaller squared-off area. In the middle, stood Reaper, Remi, Cade, Bass, and Ty. Red was lying dead, on the floor next to where Ty was standing. It looked like Cade had shot him.
Good, I thought grimly. Riggs, Scout, and I ran up. Five different paths opened up into this little room. I nodded at Riggs to try to cover the exit to our left then to Scout to take the one to our right. There was one directly behind me, the one we’d come out of. That only left one to the right of Reaper and one to the left of Ty. Cade was closer to that exit than Ty was but since he still had Bass as a hostage, I wasn’t sure if Cade would be able to keep Ty from dragging him down the pathway.
I turned my attention to Remi. She didn’t seem to be hurt, thankfully. She looked scared but there was a healthy dose of anger in her eyes too. We were all in a standoff.
“Back the fuck off Steel or I’ll kill her.” I gritted my teeth when Reaper ground the barrel of his gun into Remi’s temple. My girl had massive balls though because she didn’t make a sound. As much as Blaze had always hated Cade and Riggs, Reaper had always had a hard-on for me. It went back way before any of us were in charge of our prospective MCs. Our feuds would only die when we did.
“Let her go and we’ll finish this now.” I knew, even as I said it, he wouldn’t. He was too cowardly to fight me without some kind of advantage. I saw Scout moving closer toward them out of the corner of my eye but so did Reaper.
“Stay the fuck back!” He took a jerky step back but didn’t take the gun off of Remi’s temple. Scout froze and then looked at me. I wasn’t sure what to do. If he
kept moving backward, he was going to go into the opening between the containers, and who knows if we’d find them again. I wasn’t going to let this asshole take my girl. A movement behind Reaper made every Viking in the vicinity, who was facing that way, freeze. The unnatural stillness must have made Reaper nervous because he turned to look behind him right as Julie ran out from between two containers.
“Remi!” It was all the distraction I needed.
I leaped forward and grabbed his gun hand. Reaper and I fighting had thrown Remi off balance. She went flying into Scout and they landed in a heap on the ground. I was holding Reaper’s arm into the air, but he started firing off rounds. Julie screamed and ran away from us as we both struggled to control the weapon.
I’d lost mine somewhere when I’d lunged at him. More gunshots came from the other side of the room, but I couldn’t take my eyes off of Reaper long enough to figure out who they were coming from. We crashed to the ground, still struggling. Suddenly I remembered the second Lycan gun in my cut. I switched my grip on Reaper’s wrist from my right hand to my left. I had to act fast. He was as big as I was and strong as a damn bull.
Quickly I reached into my cut with my right hand and pulled out the gun. Reaper’s eyes were right next to mine when I fired into his chest, point-blank range. I watched as life left his eyes and tension left his body. Another gunshot rang out, and I cursed while looking over. The shots had brought even more people spilling into our little area. I watched as Blaze burst out of the aisle behind where Ty and Bass had been standing.
Somewhere along the line, Ty had gone down to the ground, dead, and Bass was leaning against the wall of containers. Blaze started firing. Riggs and Scout weren’t able to return fire because too many people were between them and Blaze. Cade started running towards Julie, who had been moving toward Bass. Then he started firing toward Blaze trying to pin him down and get him to stop firing around the room.
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