“Wanna wipe them the fuck out, but can’t, not all at once. But we’re not lettin’ this slide. No more goddamn warnings.”
“If we gotta quietly take them out one by one, we will. ‘Cause it was bad enough when they stole Red from Sig, now they stole my fuckin’ niece. They’re done. All of ‘em. Don’t care what Trip or Judge says. They all gotta go in one way or another. Women and kids, too. Can’t let ‘em keep breedin’ a new redneck army.”
The thought of killing children, even if they were inbred Shirleys, made his stomach churn. There had to be another way. Whatever that solution was wouldn’t come into play tonight. Dyna’s safety was priority number one. But if a few adult Shirleys were taken out in the process? So be it.
In fact, that was preferred. Whoever touched his daughter needed to die. Male, female, he didn’t give a fuck.
Then they’d remove the rest from this Earth, from this mountain, like a surgeon’s knife. Steadily and carefully one at a time. Even if it was slow and methodical.
But the clan’s actions today guaranteed their demise.
Their extinction.
One way or another.
Cage hunkered down behind a thick shrub just beyond the cabin. Rook and Shade remained in his line of vision.
Shade had a huge fucking knife in his hand. A Rambo-sized fucking knife. Who the fuck carried shit like that?
That crazy motherfucker apparently.
Their new plan was to move in groups of two and check every fucking building at every cleared level up the mountain.
The only problem was, the compound was pretty fucking vast. Off the main clearing, where the leader’s house was located, were narrow, rutted dirt roads that reminded Cage of the spokes on a wheel. One directly north, one northeast and one northwest. Then off those lanes more rough roads spidering out into the thick woods.
Shade said he’d explored each one. He memorized the layout of the area. After every recon trip, he’d add to the crude map he drew of lines, squares, squiggles and symbols. Before they got on foot earlier, Cage had glanced at it. It wasn’t detailed but basic and he found it strange that Shade hadn’t made any notes on it. Just marked it with some letters, numbers and symbols.
The numbers were for how many occupied a cabin he’d discovered. O for occupied living quarters, X for unoccupied shed or lean-to. L for buildings that housed livestock, like the pigs, goats or chickens the Shirleys raised. M for locations where the Shirleys cooked Meth. S for the moonshine stills.
A for their armory stashes. At least the ones he could find. He suspected they also had some sort of root cellars and bunkers, some kind of underground storage. But he hadn’t been able to find any but two.
One was full of canned goods. The other a stash of old rifles and some old moldy boxes of ammo.
Cage now knew more about the clan’s compound than he wanted to. All he really wanted to know was Dyna’s location.
Where his baby girl was being kept.
And who was keeping her.
But they had a new plan they were carrying out. The only way they would abandon their plan was if someone found Dyna before Cage’s small group did.
He hoped that happened but knew it wouldn’t be that easy.
No, if they were using Dyna as bait for an ambush, they’d want to draw Cage’s brothers as deep and as high into their compound as possible. Somewhere where the Shirleys would have the upper hand and the MC members wouldn’t find it easy to escape.
While Shade, Rook and Cage took the lane going directly north, the others took the other two narrow lanes.
This was after the three of them had cleared the main house.
While it had been empty, handmade toys were scattered on the floors and dirty dishes covered the tables and counters. Like someone had told the occupants to drop everything and leave.
He thought the Shirleys had planned the whole abduction, but maybe they had jumped on a good opportunity, instead. Which was Jemma going to town to get her hair done. Because who would plan that kind of kidnapping in the light of day in the middle of a municipal parking lot?
No one with any kind of sense.
No matter what, what they did had worked. Planned or not.
The three moved quickly along the lane but stayed just off the path, using the edge of the woods as cover from being seen or shot at. It would be stupid for them to march up the dirt lane like they owned the place.
Though, that was exactly what Cage wanted to do.
Gotta be fuckin’ smart. Your baby’s life depends on it.
They checked a few small wood sheds along the way. Most were falling apart. All of them full of junk but empty of anything breathing.
Junk vehicles also littered the woods here and there. Some just rusty shells slowly becoming one with the earth beneath them. They checked every single one of those, too. Just in case they’d hidden Dyna in one.
“There’s a smaller cabin on the right ahead. Then just beyond that, a short lane to the left with another cabin,” Shade whispered to him and Rook.
Both he and his brother nodded.
“How many buildings are up here?” Rook asked Shade.
“Don’t know. Didn’t count ‘em all. Not sure I found them all, either. Was hopin’ to get a better handle on what’s up here before somethin’ like this happened.”
Before somethin’ like this happened.
Whether Judge was simply wanting to be prepared, just in case, or expecting something to happen, Cage wasn’t sure. But the man had thought ahead to put Shade on it.
Shade had delivered, too. The intel they had was much better than going in completely blind.
“If they’re using Dyna as bait to lure us in, wouldn’t they want us to know where she is?” Rook threw out there.
“You’d think,” Cage answered.
“They ain’t gonna put her somewhere too obvious,” Shade said. “They’d probably want us to have to break up into smaller groups to pick us off easier.”
“Which is what we fuckin’ did,” Cage’s brother muttered.
“But we figured out it’s an ambush before steppin’ right into it. So, maybe they weren’t expectin’ us to be smarter than them,” Shade concluded.
“Ain’t a hard thing to be.” That was for fucking sure.
“Just gotta be cautious,” Shade reminded them. “They’re expectin’ us. But now we’re on notice and they don’t know that. That’s to our advantage.”
“What branch did you serve in?” Rook asked Shade.
“None,” came the quiet answer. And then they were done talking.
Not because they needed to be quiet, but because shots began to ring out, echoing through the woods.
All three ducked, hunkering down, making their bodies the smallest target they could.
They had no idea who was shooting, who was being shot at or even what direction the shooting was coming from.
But Cage’s heart leapt into his throat. He didn’t want his daughter in the middle of a firefight. It was too fucking risky.
They remained eating dirt as they waited for the cracks of gunfire to stop. They also waited to see if trees exploded over their heads from stray or intended bullets.
Cage’s cell phone vibrated in his back pocket and he slid it out with minimal movement, pressing the button and blocking the lit screen so he could read the message. The text was from Judge. He assumed everybody got it since Rook and Shade were pulling out their phones, too.
Found Dyna.
Was she safe? Cage’s heart thumped heavily.
Before he could shoot off a response another text came in. And kept coming.
Can’t get to her.
Can hear her crying. Good sign.
In a shed w/ heavily armed motherfuckers.
AR-15s. Shotguns.
Not sure what else.
Around shed heavily booby-trapped w/ trip wires.
Need a way in. Not thru woods.
Need to use lane. Only safe approach.
&nb
sp; Safe except that made them an easy target. Since his brothers were out-armed, they needed to outsmart the clan, instead.
“Now what?” Rook asked after reading the same texts.
“Need to find the key for the lock,” Shade murmured.
“What?” Cage wasn’t quite picking up what the man was trying to put down.
“Need a negotiation tool. That’s the key. Need to find the right key to open that fuckin’ lock,” Shade explained.
“Eye for an eye,” Cage whispered, finally getting it. Sort of. “That’s what this was. We need to look at it in the same way. They got what’s mine. We need to take what’s theirs. Do a hand-off.”
“Yeah,” Shade agreed softly.
“Got any idea where they’d take their kids? Their women?” Rook asked.
“Bunker, if they got one,” Shade answered. “Couldn’t find it, though.”
“Sure they have one?” his brother asked. “They’re on a fuckin’ mountain, hard to dig deep before hittin’ rock. Could see them hidin’ their weapons underground, but not diggin’ a hidey-hole big enough for a bunch of people.”
“They knew we’d hit the main house first. There’s another good-sized house, not a cabin, up a few more hundred yards. Could see them all huddlin’ there, with armed guards to protect them,” Shade informed them.
“You said eighteen men remain,” Cage said, “If we had a count for the number with Dyna, we’d know how many were left. How many might be either guardin’ the women or hidin’, just waitin’ for us to fuck up.”
“We got the advantage. We know how many they have. They don’t know how many we have.”
“We got less than them. Ain’t armed like they are, either,” Cage reminded Shade. AR-15s were no fucking joke.
Rook looked up from his phone. “Got six with Dyna from what Trip could see. Could be more, though. They couldn’t get any closer.” Rook read another text that came in. “They inspected one booby-trap... Handmade nail bomb. Old grenade with a trip wire under a container of nails and screws, glass, metal, shit like that.”
“Jesus fuck,” Cage whispered, scraping a hand through his hair, then down his beard.
“We need one of their kids for an exchange,” Rook said.
“No, the fuck we don’t,” Shade started.
Rook and Cage waited for him to finish.
“Need three of their fuckin’ kids. One for each of us. Gonna use them as shields and then as bargainin’ chips.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck.
“Jemma...” Cage breathed.
“Ain’t gonna ever know,” Rook finished, giving him a look. “We’re gonna save your kid and gonna do it any way we can.”
Cage thought about what Ox did when Jemma was only five. How that incident haunted her her whole life. But then, Ox was someone who was supposed to love and protect her.
Like Cage was supposed to do for Dyna.
They didn’t owe the Shirley kids shit. And, while Dyna was too young to remember today, the Shirleys hadn’t cared about fucking up Autumn for the rest of her life.
So, fuck them all.
They were going to do just that. Take three of their kids and use them to get his daughter back.
“’Kay, we need a plan to get three of their brats,” Rook agreed.
“Need to find them first,” Cage reminded his brothers.
“Oh, we’re gonna find them,” Shade assured him in a low voice. “We’re gonna fuckin’ find them. Just a matter of time.” He pressed the screen on his phone and talked into it. Even though he spoke slowly, using talk-to-text was probably faster than typing it out. Their phones vibrated a few seconds later.
Cage read the text.
Hold your positions. Keep them in shed. Keep eye on baby. Gonna get bargaining chips.
Bargaining chips.
Just like Dyna was.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Stick with the fuckin’ plan,” Shade said beside him with their backs plastered to the mismatched clapboard siding of the house deep within the woods.
Dutch, Judge, Trip, Sig, Deacon and Rev kept their positions around the shed where Dyna was being held.
Once Shade, Rook and Cage found where the Shirley women and children were being holed up—exactly where Shade predicted—they hunkered down and waited for Dodge and Ozzy to join them. All of them, except Shade, palmed their handguns. Shade still had a firm grip on that crazy-ass knife.
“We go in and split up. Gonna use the element of surprise and anyone with a gun or hair on their balls dies. No exceptions. It’s the only way we all walk off this mountain breathin’. And with Cage’s girl. Need three kids minimum as insurance to get his girl back. No matter fuckin’ what, we’re gettin’ her back. Even if my plan goes sideways.”
Shade spoke more today than in all the time since he’d joined the MC. He didn’t speak fast, but carefully. Again, Cage wondered what that was about. He’d probably never know and was A-fucking-okay with it because Shade knew his shit.
How? Cage would probably never know that answer, either.
“Dodge,” Shade held out a rock to the bar manager, “break a window at that end of the house. Wait thirty seconds, break another one. Want their attention focused at that end. Women and kids will move away from the noise, men will move toward it. Keep your head down. They might just start blindly shootin’. If they do, that’ll cover the noise of the rest of us goin’ in. Oz and Rook, find and gather the women. Assumin’ all twenty-six are inside. Lock them up in a room. Don’t worry about the kids but watch any old enough to be a threat. Me and Cage are gonna take out the men.”
Shade and Cage made eye contact and he jerked up his chin in agreement with the plan. This had to work. His daughter’s life depended on it.
Dodge stayed low and moved around to the opposite side of the house.
The rest of them waited to hear the first window break.
Once they did, along with men’s voices yelling inside, they moved fast and low to the back of the house where they found a rear entrance. Ozzy pulled something out of his back pocket.
A lockpick.
Within seconds the door was unlocked and Shade slowly opened it before slipping inside. Another second later he opened it halfway, indicating they should enter.
They did.
More glass broke. More men yelled.
Twelve uncle-daddies could be in that house. They needed to move fast and efficiently.
The back door had taken them directly into a rustic kitchen where Shade grabbed a six-pack of Mountain Dew in plastic bottles off a long roughly-made table. He freed a bottle from the plastic rings and handed it to Cage.
“Silencer,” he mouthed.
Christ.
Cage nodded his understanding.
Shade pointed at Ozzy and Rook and signaled the order to go. The two disappeared up the back steps with the assumption the women and children were hiding on the second floor. Cage and Shade headed toward the sound of the men and a third window breaking.
Trying not to make too much noise, Cage twisted off the bottle’s cap and dumped the soda as they moved through the rooms, sticking close to the walls, doing their best to be invisible. Because once they were seen, they’d be in a fight for control, maybe even their lives. They needed to pick off as many clan members as possible before that happened.
Shade came to an abrupt stop at the end of the hall and the beginning of what might be the front room, where Dodge had just broken a fourth window. He peeked his head around the corner, then snapped it back and lifted up his hand with all five fingers in the air.
Cage read that hand signal as “five soon-to-be dead motherfuckers.” The palm holding his gun itched and his fingers flexed in anticipation.
Shade then counted down from three using those same fingers. Three. Two.
One.
Cage and Shade rushed forward. He lifted his gun, held the empty bottle over the muzzle and shot three right in a row, taking them down.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
They crumpled to the floor, their long guns spilling from their hands, but still within reach.
Shade grabbed a fourth Shirley at the same time Cage was shooting and sliced the man’s throat with crazy efficiency.
As the fifth guy was pulling the business end of his shotgun in from the broken window, Shade sank the large blade deep into the man’s back, where the man’s heart would be. The fucker remained on his feet and tried to turn. As he did, and as Shade jerked the knife back out, Dodge appeared in the window with his gun drawn and pointed at the clan member’s forehead.
“No!” Shade shouted.
The Shirley somehow still stood, but barely, as blood poured from the fatal stab wound. Shade used a handful of the man’s hair to yank his head down while kneeing him in the face at the same time. Once he collapsed all the way to the floor, Shade pressed a knee to the man’s chest and unceremoniously sliced his throat.
The man gurgled one last time and blood seeped from the newest wound.
“Was gonna take that fucker out,” Dodge complained, appearing disappointed he didn’t get to take out one of the goat fuckers.
But their mission wasn’t over yet.
“Don’t want the rest of them hearin’ shots if we can avoid it. Don’t wanna give them a head’s up to hurt Dyna before we got our bargainin’ chips.” Cage explained. “Get in here and let’s clear the rest of the house. And find Ozzy and Rook.”
Dodge disappeared from the window.
Shade and Cage moved toward the stairway to meet him at the rear of the house. Then the three moved up the steps, which creaked under them.
Cage doubted any of the buildings in their compound were built to code, so he wondered if the staircase could manage the weight of all three of them at once. Since Shade led the way, Cage slowed down and held out a hand to Dodge to get him to stop. As soon as Shade hit the upper landing, Cage followed and waved for Dodge to proceed.
Ozzy stood guard at the opening of one door, while Rook stood at another. Both had their guns in their hands and pointed into the rooms. What Cage could assume were bedrooms.
“Got half the women in here. He’s got the other half,” Ozzy said gruffly. “Those assholes taken care of?”
Blood & Bones: Cage (Blood Fury MC Book 5) Page 28