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Wylder’s green eyes were fixed on me. “You look like you’re scheming something, Queen Katz.”
My lips twitched into a ghost of a smile at his callback to our conversation last night. “I’m getting started on it. But I think we’re going to need some help, and obviously we can’t go to your father or anyone working for him for that.” I paused. “Let’s see what the rest of the Claws are up to.”
* * *
Finding the former Claws members wasn’t as simple as just showing up. We swung by the shop where I’d met with Kervos and his small crew earlier, but the basement was abandoned, pretty hastily from the looks of things. A half-full mug of coffee was sitting on the card table. Gideon glanced at it and wrinkled his nose as if he could already tell it didn’t meet his stringent criteria.
Rowan turned to me. “Any idea where else they might have gone?”
I worried at my lower lip. “I can think of a few places we can try, but if they’re trying to avoid being found after that massacre, they might not go anywhere that’s ever been associated with the Claws. I did get Kervos’s number. Let’s see if he’ll answer a text.”
If he didn’t, it might be because he was dead. I didn’t want to say that out loud.
“Are there traffic cams in this neighborhood?” Wylder asked Gideon as we tramped back upstairs. “Maybe you can see which direction they took off in.”
Gideon dipped his head in a jerky motion. He seemed more tense than usual. “I’ll do whatever I can.”
But we’d just piled back into the van when my phone pinged with a response to my text. We’re in the back of the pub your dad sold. Make sure no one sees you.
My heart leapt. “Never mind about the cams. I know where to go.”
My dad had owned the pub down on Morton St. until I was twelve years old. He’d used to hold meetings there, letting me play behind the counter as long as I didn’t touch any of the bottles. Then the guy who was managing the place double-crossed him somehow or other, and even though he’d taken care of the traitor, the betrayal had soured the place for him. He’d sold it off and moved his activities elsewhere.
Business mustn’t have gone much better for the later owners, because we arrived to find the windows boarded up. Rowan parked around the corner, and he and Kaige hung back to keep an eye on the street while Wylder and Gideon joined me. We made our way over through the alley to the back rather than tramping along the sidewalk out front.
The lock on the back door was broken. As I eased it aside, a groan reached my ears. I pushed past it into the shadowy room.
Kervos was slumped on the floor amid the empty boxes that’d once held bottles of vodka and gin. Roy leaned over him, wrapping a bandage around his mid-section. My pulse stuttered.
I hurried over. “Is he okay? What happened?”
“‘He’ can speak for himself, and he’ll be just fine,” Kervos muttered in a strained voice. “Although I’ll admit I’ve been in better shape.”
“It looks like it’s healing okay so far,” Roy told him, and turned to us. His face had gone wan. “You’ve seen what the Bend looks like. Those Storm jackasses went crazy.”
“They attacked you too?” I glanced around and realized it was just the two of them. “Where are the others—Wheeler and…?” I’d never gotten the other two guys’ names. Another jolt of panic hit me. “What about Jenner and the other Claws people you were still in touch with?”
Kervos sat up carefully, favoring his injured side. “We’ve heard from Jenner. He and a few people made it out. He’s the one who warned us the pricks were coming.”
“We just weren’t fast enough,” Roy added. “We only got a little way down the street when they were everywhere, shooting like mad—I’m surprised they didn’t kill each other the way they were going at it.” He let out a rough chuckle, but his voice was taut with fear. “That guy with the scarred cheeks was in the middle of it all, fucking applauding them in between firing his own shots. He’s insane.”
Wylder frowned. “Why would he come after you? I understand them wanting to take out the Red Sharks, but all you were doing was laying low.”
Kervos shrugged. “Like Roy said, the guy’s clearly absolutely fucking nuts.” I thought I saw his muscular frame contain a shudder. It said something about Xavier that he’d unnerved even this experienced gangster. “I think he wanted to clear out anyone who’d ever had any loyalty that wasn’t to him or Colt. He even—”
He grimaced and swiped his hand across his mouth before continuing. “He had a few of the Claws guys who’d stayed on with the Steel Knights contingent with him. They must have told the Storm’s people where to look for us. But I saw, when Roy was dragging me out of there after I got shot—they died too. The Storm’s men turned on them as soon as they thought they were done with us and blasted their skulls open.”
“It was a fucking bloodbath,” Roy said, looking away.
Gideon had been standing rigidly next to me during the conversation so far. Now, he started to pace the room, one arm tucked tight around his tablet, a wild light in his normally cool eyes.
“This isn’t good,” he said. “It’s too close to spiraling out of our ability to control the situation. We need to hit back—hard and fast, before they can get any more of the upper hand.”
Wylder shot him a puzzled look. “Don’t forget smart. Hard and fast on its own is only going to get us killed too.”
“Smart goes without saying,” Gideon retorted. I’d never heard him speak to Wylder that sharply.
Wylder looked taken aback too, but Roy cut in before either of them could say anything more. “You’ve got to be crazy to want to take them on.”
