Brinley, that reckless, brave, ferocious girl.
“If any one of you wants to sit this out, I understand. It’s already the most dangerous undertaking we’ve endeavored, and it’s just become a million times worse.”
“Except we now know that Kent is waiting for us,” Trevan added from where he stepped up to my side. “If it hadn’t happened, we’d be walking straight into an ambush. Every single one of us.”
I looked at my oldest friend. The one who’d been there through thick and thin. From the start and to this end.
He cracked a grin and said, “I’m going to call this little mishap a win. And you fucking know I’ll be riding at your side. Besides, these motherfuckers don’t know who they really are playing with.”
Phoenix stepped up on my other side. Head still lowered with shame but that dark brutality oozing from his body. “I’ll gladly die for this.”
Brody suddenly broke through the crowd, donning his cut with his Prospect patch, his chin fierce as he forced his way to the front. “I’m coming, too. And don’t fucking tell me I’m not. This is Brinley we’re talking about. And this is retribution for our sister. For our mother. For the innumerable others we don’t know about.”
Emotion flooded from him, and I found I couldn’t refuse. My kid brother who’d become a man.
His own brand of brutality running beneath the surface.
My throat thickened, and I watched as every Crow dipped their heads in a show of agreement then moved to swing onto their bikes. The roar of them kicking over their powerful engines was nothing short of a battle cry.
They pulled back on the throttles. A deep, dark rumble of their loyalty and commitment.
Phoenix shouted above the tumult. “It’s time to get our Prez’s queen back.”
I looked at him. Understanding passed between us.
His true intentions, even though they were wrong. His love for me. His oath to always have my back.
The forgiveness that came on sharp relief.
Then I pulled away, my own determination rolling through me like a rockslide, and I moved to my Harley that sat waiting at the front.
I swung onto the matte black metal, hooked the heel of my boot to the rung, and drove down hard on the kick starter.
It rumbled and growled, and I revved it, my own call that reverberated through my men.
I lifted my hand, giving the signal, and we all flooded out through the gate. An ocean of Crimson Crows cuts and backbones of iron.
We rode through the night.
My body coiled and ready, my pulse thundering as loud as the army of bikes.
We rode for two hours, the night growing long the way we had planned.
The moment we crossed the California state line, Cash and his Sovereign Sanctum crew pulled out from where they were hidden and waiting in the shadows, their motorcycles gliding into formation, the same as Trent Lawson and his brothers did about three miles down the road.
These men I’d known for years. The ones who had helped set this whole thing into motion.
My crew began to segment off.
Teams heading to the different drop sites and the safehouse, while the rest of us barreled toward the compound.
Our only hope was that Kent had no clue about the magnitude of our hit. Had no clue that we intended tocompletely wipe them out. That we were striking everywhere at once.
Counting on the idea that he likely thought it would only be a handful of my men showing up at his door to rescue Brinley, not the all-out assault that was coming for him.
Ten miles out, we cut our lights. Darkness reigned as we traveled under the cover of night.
Five miles out, we split into thirds, taking the hidden paths that Cash had scoped out so we could completely surround the fenced-in property that covered close to two miles.
