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Whip held his breath as he heard the man come down the two wood steps. “Don’t make me put my fuckin’ boots on!”
Whip rolled his eyes and whispered, “C’mon, fucker, come check out the noise, we don’t got all night.”
He heard a female voice from inside the cabin.
“You just stay inside, Birdie. I’m gonna check it out. JD might be tryin’ to sneak off with the car again. If he is, I’m pluggin’ a bullet in his ass this time.”
The woman inside kept squawking but Whip couldn’t make out what she was bitching about.
“Shut up, woman. Don’t give a fuck if he’s your kin. We’re all kin and he can’t be takin’ what ain’t his. Includin’ you. Warned him once. He ain’t gettin’ another one.”
Even with his heart pounding in his ears, Whip heard heavy footsteps approaching. His adrenaline was spiking as much as his damn pulse.
Cage better be ready.
“You hidin’ in there, Jimmy Dean?” The driver’s door squealed as it was yanked open.
Whip peeked his head up and saw the man leaning into the car and waving the gun around the interior.
“Get up so I can see you when I plug a bullet ‘tween your eyes.”
Holy hell, had the fucker spotted Cage?
Whip crept around the back of the Chevy and quietly stepped behind the man, raising his knife in preparation of slicing the fucker’s throat. But before he could do that, Cage surged up from the rear seat and plunged his knife directly into the man’s heart.
Complete fucking bullseye.
Whip didn’t have time to appreciate his brother’s accuracy. He jumped forward, yanking the gun from the Shirley’s hand as the man slowly crumbled to the ground next to the sedan.
As the Shirley gripped the knife sticking out of his chest, his mouth opened and, before he could shout a warning to the woman inside, Whip crushed the fucker’s face with his boot to keep him quiet.
Cage jumped out of the Chevy and rushed around the car, pulling his imbedded knife free and wiping it clean on the man’s flannel shirt as he continued to bleed out.
“Gotta drag him back inside as soon as we get his woman secured,” Cage said.
Whip put his finger to his lips because the door to the cabin was still wide open and he didn’t want to tip off Birdie. “Let’s go stand on either side of the door and see if she comes out to check on him. If she does, we can grab her and pull her out. Guaranteed there are more weapons inside,” he warned in a whisper. “Need to get her away from those.”
Cage nodded. They moved quietly to either side of the door and pressed their backs to the front of the shitty cabin. Whip took a quick glance at his cell phone to check the time. He had set up a timer on his burner phone to make sure they were done with their part and off that fucking mountain well before detonation. He turned the phone toward Cage to show him how much time they had left.
They were thirty-five minutes in. They had ten more minutes to finish up, get the woman and her kids to the van, and about another fifteen to get clear from Hillbilly Hill.
His asshole was starting to pucker with how close it might be. Glancing at Cage across the open doorway, he had a feeling his brother’s was puckering, too.
Cage barked out a loud cough.
Whip mouthed, “What are you doin’?”
Cage lifted a just-wait finger and coughed again.
“Elvin, that you? You find JD?” The questions were accompanied by quick footsteps heading toward the door.
Cage lifted three fingers, then counted them down. When no fingers were left, the woman stepped out of the doorway, peering into the dark. “Elvin!”
Cage lunged, grabbed the woman by her hair, using it to fling her off the steps and to the ground.
She shrieked like a bobcat caught in a trap and Cage fell on her, straddling her and using his weight to hold her down. He covered her mouth with both hands to keep her quiet. “Shut up! You want your kids to keep breathin’, you shut the fuck up, you hear me? Nod.”
The woman, whose eyes were at first wide but now narrowed on Cage with hatred, nodded.
“We need to gag her. She ain’t gonna stay quiet. I’ll keep her mouth shut while you secure her hands behind her back. You better not bite me, bitch. You do, you’ll never see those two spawn again. I’ll sell them off to the highest bidder and they’ll still have a better life than with you.”
Whip ignored his brother’s empty threats and Cage turned her enough so Whip could bind her wrists with a flex-cuff. Once her hands were secured, he sliced off a piece of fabric from the bottom of her dress and handed it to Cage, who quickly gagged her, despite her struggling against him.
