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“Never said you couldn’t be, darlin’.” Sting grinned at her.
“Watch it, brother. She’s my woman.”
“So? Iris is mine.”
“Serelda ain’t your darlin’.” I knew what my brother meant, but the tension needed breaking before we killed these fuckers too fast. Breaking the tension in a firefight was damned hard to do.
Sting laughed. “Man, those three women are going to be the darlin’s of everyone here. They are fuckin’ fierce. And they will rule this place if we let them.”
I rubbed the back of my neck and muttered, “Kinda thought they already did.”
“Total of twelve men, Sting,” Shooter confirmed. “All twelve are either under the vehicles or in them.”
“Good.” Sting put a fresh clip in his rifle before raising his voice to address our visitors. “Toss your fuckin’ weapons away from the vehicles.” Silence. No one complied, but no one spoke either.
“Probably talkin’ amongst themselves. Tryin’ to form a plan.” Roman kept his eyes firmly on the enemy as he spoke. “We can’t safely approach them until they comply. I mean, we could, but that would mean some of ’em’d die.”
“No one dies,” Sting reiterated. “Not yet.”
Wylde broke the silence through our earwigs. “They’re hurt, Sting. No one’s dead, but there are a couple hurt bad enough they’ll need medical attention soon.”
“You hacked into their vehicle?”
I could almost see Wylde’s superior smirk. “Of course. Their phones too.”
“Smug bastard.” Roman chuckled, shaking his head.
“One of ’em’s on the phone to their boss.” Wylde sobered immediately, his voice now quiet and even. “He wants them to storm us, but they’re tellin’ him they’re too shot up. He’s callin’ ’em all kinds of stupid while they’re callin’ him a son of a bitch. Blah blah blah. I don’t think they’re in any shape to make a final stand outside of suicide, and these guys are hired muscle. They ain’t dyin’ for this bastard.”
“He close?” Sting held my gaze while Roman eased his way in our direction, careful of the windows.
“Just outside the compound. Not sure if he intended to come in after these guys had finished with this or if they were bringing the women to him, but the person they’re communicating with is outside the fence a hundred yards from where these fuckers broke through.”
“He alone?”
“Yep. Watchin’ the shootout. If we’re gonnna get the bastard, might want to before he gets the hell outta Dodge.”
“Morgue. Smoke. Go collect the bastard and meet us in the barn.”
“On it, prez.” The two big men disappeared out the door and off in the direction Wylde instructed. Sting waited a few minutes before giving the team the go ahead. Then we advanced on the vehicles. We jerked open the doors, disarming anyone we found. More than one of them had gotten shot in the legs during the exchange. Not only did we want them alive, but it had been the only target to aim at with them behind the car door while they engaged us. Couple of them would be lucky to make it to the barn before they bled out. That was on me, because I didn’t hold the men back.
We tied tourniquets above the wounds on a couple of the men, but we weren’t overly careful with them. They were going to die. Just not until Sting said so.
Fifteen minutes later, we convened in a big barn. It was deceptive in that it looked old and rundown on the outside, but the structure was sturdy and had a smooth concrete floor. A thick tarp was spread around the area where our prisoners hung suspended by their wrists from chains draped over rafters above their heads.
“This shouldn’t take too long, but I’m kinda hopin’ it does.” Sting stood in front of our guests, off the tarp with his arms crossed over his chest. He gave the men an amused grin. “Boys, you in a heap a trouble.”
“Look. We were paid to do a job. Surely you can understand that.” One of the men was trying to be reasonable, but he was sweating, the pulse beating furiously at his neck. He knew what was happening and trying to deny it to himself.
“You came into our home, guns blazing.” Sting chuckled. “What did you expect was gonna happen?”
“We were told you were giving up the man who killed one of our guys. That and you were sending the girl back.”
“He told us to ask if you had the other one, too. He knows they both came here, and he wants them back.” The guy was obviously trying to ignore the whole situation. Like he thought we’d all become friends and do what his boss wanted without question.
Sting looked back at me. “Are they for real?”
I shrugged. “Dunno. Son?” I addressed the second guy. “You do realize you’re not leavin’ here alive. Right?”
“What?” Poor guy’s eyes went wide and round in alarm. He truly was a dumbass.
