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I carefully pulled myself out of his grip and smiled. “We will. Stay inside.”
The cars were parked in the driveway with the day’s retinue of Marcosas standing in front. Uncle Joaquin and his merry band of idiots were huddled around the two SUVs that would carry them, while Dominic and Grey hovered in front of mine.
Stepping forward, I addressed everyone. “I’m not doing a big speech. We all know what we’re doing here. We go in, we take out the Aces, we leave. Don’t get cute, and don’t be stupid. The area is closed off to the main populace, so we should be fine, but keep an eye out. The last thing we need is some Good Samaritan getting in the way and getting hurt. Let’s keep the collateral damage to a minimum.”
No one laughed or made jokes. We were all focused.
By the end of the day, Cash would be nothing but an unpleasant memory.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mari
We were five minutes out from the meetup spot when the first tire blew.
This feels like déjà vu.
When the second and third blew too, I knew we’d found our way into the trap. Immediately, I spotted the vacant warehouse nearby with almost all its bay doors closed. Every instinct I had was screaming Danger! Danger!
“Gee, I wonder where he wants us to go,” Dominic said, pulling his gun just as I palmed my own.
I took stock of the area and frowned. Our numbers were about even, so when the Vipers came, we’d easily outnumber the Aces. Hell, even if Joaquin and his crew made it soon, we’d have no problem squashing them.
With that in mind, I handed out orders. “Dominic, call Joaquin and get him here. Even with the river on one side, they’re going to box us in and gun us down if we aren’t smart about it. Grey, get Two-Bit and the Vipers here.”
“Already on it. ETA is five minutes for both.” Grey traded his phone for a gun with a tense smile, but I wasn’t worried. We could survive five minutes just by staying in the car.
Or we could have, if they hadn’t started throwing shit.
Something flew, and I had a moment to think that’s a fucking grenade before Grey yanked me out of the car. Across the street, the bay doors opened, and men poured out with guns raised. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who they were.
Aces.
A quick count gave me a dozen men, and I knew right then that Cash wasn’t with them. It was an ambush, but it wasn’t a full-blown assault. He was toying with us, with me. Asshole.
“Fuck this,” Dominic cursed. Grey dropped me to my feet just as my first shot rang out. It wasn’t perfect, but we’d practiced shooting under any conditions. Being toted around like a sack of potatoes wasn’t even the weirdest thing we’d done.
“Everyone good?” I asked. They grunted what I took to be agreements, and I looked around at the loading dock full of open space. The rest of the men in Tennessee’s and Moore’s SUVs were hidden behind large containers or even cars, but we were too close to the middle to be anything but sitting ducks. “We need to find cover.”
Grey shot an Ace hiding behind a cracked bay door in the leg, then took him out completely when he fell to his side. “I checked the satellite photos on the way. There’s a side door near here that we can use to get inside. If we can sneak up behind everyone, we’ve got a good chance.”
“Get us there.”
Trusting the boys to keep me running in the right direction, I peeked back to see Moore carrying an unconscious Geneva, with Tennessee covering them. Guilt was a sharp ache in my chest as I realized we’d left her in the car. Two seconds into the battle and I’d already left one of my people to die.
“I pulled her out after you,” Dominic promised. “Moore snarled at me to stay with you and snatched her out of my arms the second he could.”
“Thank you.”
I couldn’t tell if she was hit or just knocked out, so I sent up a prayer to any deity that would answer. Let us get out of this alive.
I was pretty sure none of them listened to a kingpin, but I was going to try anyway.
The door slammed behind us, and chaos erupted as we startled an entire group of men.
“The second string,” Grey guessed.
“No shit.” I pulled my gun up and huffed in frustration. Though we’d instinctively spread out as much as we could to gain more ground, we were all too close to shoot unless we had to. Even then, we risked deafening ourselves in the empty space, and any loss of our senses could be dangerous. Best to stick to our fists.
