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Diesel laughed, clapping Rook on the shoulder as he came to stand with us, and my jaw flexed, frustration rolling down my back. A crooked grin pulled at one corner of Rook’s mouth, but it faded when he lifted his gaze back to me.
“Killjoy,” he muttered and pocketed the grenade, lifting a cigarette to his lips.
Unbelievable.
The unmistakable sound of a vehicle’s approach filtered into my ears, and I lifted a hand, signaling for silence as I listened.
“They’re coming,” I told them. “One car. A van maybe. A max of maybe eight Aces.”
“Just like we thought,” Diesel replied, drawing his weapon to click the safety off only to return it back to the sling across his chest beneath his leather jacket. “Get into position, boys.”
We did the same, readying our weapons and getting into position near the old bobcat, but not directly behind it. Close enough that we could dive for the automatic rifles in a pinch.
Headlight passed by the gap between warehouses and the roll of tires stopped on the other side, out of sight.
I cursed Diesel’s lack of foresight in not installing a cam on the roadside, too. I’d have liked even a thirty-second advantage of knowing how many there were before they made their way to the yard.
Diesel seemed to notice his mistake, too, a frown turning down the edge of his mouth for an instant before his all-business mask was tacked back into place. The unfeeling face of the founding Saint.
The crunch of boots over dry dirt sounded at the opposite end of the warehouse as the Aces made their way down the alley toward the yard.
Movement in my periphery drew my attention for a heartbeat and I stilled, my hand twitching toward my gun, my mind racing with possibilities of an ambush. My brows lowered as I registered what it was. A reflection in the crooked mirror on the rusted-out bobcat, reflecting the image of the Rover parked at our backs.
The breath was robbed from my lungs as the shadow of legs appeared beneath the chassis.
Shit.
The softest click of a door closing told me the fucker wasinsidethe Rover. Maybe the whole time.
I hedged closer to Dies, ready to give him an elbow and a signal to the threat at our backs when she crept out from behind the sleek black SUV and darted for the tree line.
No.
Fury and dread coiled in my chest, burning and sinking and heavy.
My little sparrow didn’t make a sound as she flew to the trees, concealing herself in their darkness. My eyes jerked to the guys, to Dies, to the Aces piling into the yard across from us.
No one else noticed her.
There was jack shit I could do.
If she was discovered spying, she’d be killed. Or at the very least interrogated to within an inch of her life. My pulse throbbed in my temple and the muscles of my neck stiffened, burning.
Stupid fucking woman.
What the hell was she thinking?
I should have known.Her smell.Her scent had been all over the goddamned Rover, and I chalked it up to another sleepless night. Convinced myself she was driving me insane when all the while the little viper was hidden away in the trunk.
Stupid.
Sosodangerously stupid.
Diesel elbowed me, and I blinked, refocusing my attention to where it should be. Squarely at the seven men standing opposite us in the yard.
“Welcome,” Diesel said, lifting his arms, the warm welcome serving the dual purpose of showing them that he wasn’t holding his weapon and telling them that he wouldn’t use it so long as they didn’t give him a reason to. “I think we all know why we’re here, so let’s get to it, shall we?”
I forcedthe air to enter and exit my lungs in slow, quiet breaths, clinging to the base of an old redwood for cover as I watched the exchange unfold.
