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“Yes. Continue.” Brick was all business. Looking at his hard features helped settle me. These were my brothers. They always took me seriously and never dismissed me even though I was sometimes erratic and all the time an asshole.
“Madness has talked Hunter into taking revenge on --” I abruptly cut off, remembering Dani was all too near. She couldn’t hear this. “Dani, I need you to go back to my office and stay there.”
“Wylde, I --”
“Now, Dani! Please.” There was urgency in my voice as I took her face in my hands and leaned down to be able to look her in the eyes without either of us missing something in the other’s face we needed to see. I was certain she saw my panic. I definitely saw her worry. “I promise I’ll tell you everything as soon as I can. But right now, I need you to do two things for me. First, go to my office and shut the door. Then I want you to text the girls. See if they’ll answer you.” I smiled, but I wasn’t sure it was all that reassuring. “Please. I really need this.”
She searched my features for a long moment before nodding her assent. “OK. I’ll go. Whatever you’re doing, be careful.” She kissed me for a lingering moment before doing what I asked. Once I was certain she was out of earshot, I filled my brothers in even as I activated an all-hands alert for the rest of the club.
“Madness has talked Hunter into taking revenge on Dani for rejecting him and taking up with me. He’s going to Harrison High School to find Apple and Lemon, but he’s also indicated he’ll get revenge on everyone in the school for not giving him the respect he feels he deserves.”
“Do we know who we’re lookin’ for?” Sting pulled his weapon and checked the clip same as I had before heading back to the main part of the clubhouse. The all-hands alert had locked down the club girls and families to their rooms while letting everyone else know they needed to be armed and ready to ride in five minutes. Even now I could hear bikes roaring into the parking area in front of the clubhouse.
“His name is Leo Winston. Graduated a couple of years ago with a football scholarship, then promptly flunked out of college. He blames the university as well as his high school teachers for not preparing him to do better.”
“Where does Dani come into play?” Brick asked.
“He’s been hittin’ on her at the coffee shop. Asked her out a few times. She’s always been nice but has steadfastly refused to go out with him. Apparently, he learned she’d taken up with me. Which is where Madness comes in. She’s been planting seeds for him along the way. Why is anyone’s guess. Even before me and Dani were a thing. Apparently, he’s finally snapped. The chat I found between them today happened about an hour ago. She pushed Leo into going ahead with this. Even calling him a pussy for not defending himself. He’s supposed to go to the school, shoot it up until he finds and kills Apple and Lemon, then he’s comin’ here. For me.”
“She?”
“Yeah. JustMadness is Jordan. She works with Dani at the coffee shop.”
“And Dani? What’s he plannin’ to do with Dani?” Brick looked ready to do murder. I didn’t blame him.
I shook my head. “His punishment for her is to leave her alive to deal with losing everyone she loves.”
Sting’s face was a hard mask of rage. “Not on my fuckin’ watch.”
Sting stormed through the clubhouse, through the common room, to the parking lot. Like the seasoned, hardened warriors I knew the Tzars to be, every single man was accounted for.
“This is sensitive, boys,” Sting called, his voice ringing. “Got a threat to Harrison, where all our older kids are, then the club. Gonna need five of you to come with me to the school. The rest of you stay here and lock down the compound. No one gets in or out. I don’t care who or what the situation is, you get permission from me or Roman before you even think about approaching the gate to let someone in. The person we’re watchin’ out for is a young man a couple years older than the kids he’s attacking. Wylde has sent his picture to your phones. Study it.” He repeated himself. “No one gets in without express permission from me or Roman.” There was a collective grunt of understanding as the men hurried off to secure their stations and prepare the compound for attack.
As I was calling nine-one-one, I heard Dani calling my name frantically. I turned and she was running as hard as she could across the parking lot to the upper end where we’d gathered.
“Wylde! Wylde!”
I headed in her direction and was aware Sting and Brick had done the same. “Dani, what’s wrong?” That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach started churning again. I could see it in her eyes before she ever voiced it. “It’s started,” I muttered. Dani’s wide, frightened eyes told me all I needed to know. “It’s started!” I yelled. “We need to go now!”
“Apple says the classrooms are all locked down, but Lemon was late to class and is out in the hall somewhere. I can’t get her to answer her phone, Wylde!”
I turned and sprinted to my bike, started it up, and left the compound like a hellhound. So help me, God, if even one hair on either of those girls’ heads were harmed, I’d kill that motherfucker with my bare fucking hands in front of God and everybody, and damn the consequences.
We arrived at the school before emergency crews or police. Which was another thing I was pissed about. They were pretty fuckin’ quick to get to Danica’s house when they had, yet no one was here yet. Not a rational thought, but one I’d be bringing up later. After they got here to clean up the fucking mess I was about to create.
“Stop, Wylde!” Sting called -- but fuck that shit.
I stormed to the back entrance to the school. As suspected, it was locked. So I shot the latch several times until it gave with one solid kick. I switched to a full clip before entering fully, needing the maximum amount of ammo available to me without reloading. When I killed this fucker, I was gonna kill him to death.
Making my way slowly into the school, I could hear the pop pop pop of automatic fire. Screams filled the air as the subtle pops of the assault rifle was replaced by a loud BOOM of a large caliber handgun. Unless I was mistaken, that was a three-fifty-seven Magnum. If the guy hit someone with that, it didn’t really matter where it struck. Someone was either dead or missing a limb.
I came to the first room, just a few meters away from the exit. I tapped on the door before opening it. There were a few whimpers and the teacher had a baseball bat in her hand, ready to attack, but I placed my finger to my lips.
“The way to the back door exit is clear,” I said. “Take your class and head out. Don’t make a sound and whatever you do, do not stop running or look back. There’ll be men outside to get you to cover and the police are on the way.” Then something occurred to me. “Do you have a resource officer I need to watch out for?”
She nodded her head. “Three, but I think… We think they were the first ones…” Her voice broke, but she clamped her lips together to keep from showing how frightened and grief-stricken she was. She took a breath then added. “There’s three ROTC teachers also. They’ve been trained as well.”
“Good. Get your students to safety.”
