Don’t go. Kat’s pleas still replayed in my head. Please, Laz, not like this.
But the Mafia leader didn’t listen. Because I don’t think he heard her at all. Instead, he grabbed his weapons then strode for the door.
The rest of us followed and climbed into the cars before we hauled ass out of there, heading for the marker Anna had given us in the middle of the city.
Headlights bounced against a brick wall in front of us as the black Explorer skidded sideways when it braked facing the alleyway we’d been led to. Jesus fucking Christ, Laz was a goddamn animal as he shoved out of the Explorer two cars ahead, his head down and moving fast, without a damn vest.
I guess he didn’t need it. The man was bulletproof by rage alone.
But Tobias was right behind him, lunging out of the Mustang as it stopped on a dime with Nick behind the wheel.
“Brake,” I snapped at Hunter, desperate to be there, too. I’d be fucking damned if they were finishing Hale without me. My hand clenched around the weapon at my side. “Hunter, fucking stop!”
The heavy Hummer didn’t respond well at all, the grab of the brakes slamming me toward the dashboard. With a snarl, I drove my hand against the dash to keep from being knocked the fuck out and jerked a glare at my brother.
With one yank of the handle, I shouldered the door open and lunged. But Thom was already moving fast, taking me by surprise.
Bright flashing yellow lights blazed as a garbage truck backed into the alley in front of us. Two men on the back jumped down, grabbed the overflowing cans, and hauled them into the air.
But I was around them in an instant, gripping my gun and running with my younger brother at my side.
He’s here…Hale is fucking here!
I bared my teeth and slammed my boots harder against the pavement, surging forward as the alley branched right behind the row of shops. The flare of headlights came from the other end of the alley and the powerful shadow that was Finley Salvatore headed our way, with several others behind him.
Bang! The heavy thud against a door came as I turned right and found them outside a row of doors. Bang! Lazarus threw himself against one at the end of the alley before he stepped backwards and lifted his gun.
Both he and Tobias unloaded.
Crack!
Crack!
CRACK!
Their shots were still echoing when Tobias lunged this time to slam his muscled frame into the damn thing. Still, the door didn’t budge. It didn’t even crack.
“FUCK!” Lazarus roared.
I slowed, scanning the row of doors as the sound of car engines came.
“What the fuck is this?” Lazarus whipped around, bellowing as Finley stopped beside him.
“This doesn’t feel right.” Tobias voiced what I felt.
I scanned the row of doors, finding a dull shine in the crack of the door. Instinct kicked in, nagging at me as the heavy thud of footsteps came racing along the alleyway behind us.
Thud!
Finley slammed his shoulder against the door.
I swung my stare to Hunter, who scanned the rows of doors beside me. He scowled, sensing what I sensed.
“Lazarus!” London roared behind us. “STOP!”
The alley door to our right opened. Shadows spilled out, moving like a plague. I lifted my gun as that chilling feeling took flight, and took aim as one man slammed into Lazarus, lifting him off his feet.
Carven and Colt rushed forward, like a thunderous wave crashing against the army that came.
Crack!
Grunt!
I squeezed off a shot—Boom!—and hit one of them in the shoulder. He spun backwards, stumbling before he righted himself and whipped a sickening glare my way. I knew what they were…mechanical, terrifying hunters.
They were Sons.
“Hunter!” I roared as I rushed forward.
Two of them had Lazarus, one drove his fists into the Mafia leader’s face as the other yanked a glinting blade into the air. With a roar I lunged, driving my shoulder into the guy, trying my best to knock him sideways. But he was ready for it, turning to swing back around and drove the blade into my shoulder.
I unleashed a roar as pain plunged deep.
Bang!
Lazarus stumbled backwards, his gun kicking as it fired, hitting the Son in the center of his chest, dropping the bastard where he stood. The alley erupted in gunfire and screams. But the screams didn’t come from the mechanical, trained killers. They came from us.
Thomas unleashed a roar behind me. I swung, to find him lifting a heavy gold cross above his head before driving it back down. The same cross that was in his bedroom. I knew it was there…but how in the Hell did he bring it here? A Son was on the ground behind me, his sickening, rage-filled stare pinned on me.
One look and I knew my brother had just saved my life. I met Thom’s stare and nodded.
Caleb and Nick had taken back-to-back stances, each firing to pick off one after another of the bastards who came for us.
The white-eyed scarred fucker came from somewhere behind me, charged in to fire and dropped one of the Sons. But he was hit in kind, the shot clipping his shoulder to throw him backwards. I’d seen the guy take on four goddamn bikers on his own. But not even he was prepared for the onslaught of these bastards.
More of them came, throwing knives like words. I ducked sideways, but Alvarez Cross of the Cerberus brothers wasn’t so goddamn graceful. He took a knife in his thigh, and another in his stomach.
“Get back!” I screamed and clutched my gun, staring at the carnage as they took Lazarus’ bodyguard down. I yanked my gun upwards, swallowing the wave of pain that ripped like lightning through my shoulder, and squeezed the trigger.
Lazarus was down. Finley too. Hunter unleashed a bellowing roar as he took out two of the Sons.
But there were too many…we were going to die in this alley.
“Get them!” I yelled, pointing to Laz and Fin.
I fired my gun and strode forward, then kept on firing, making the fuckers dodge and run.
But it only gave us a second of reprieve. Still, it was what we needed. Hunter lunged for Fin, who was the closest, and swung his massive fist around to connect with the Son who had Fin on his back.
Crack.
The brutal blow was sickening. But it did the job. The Son flew sideways, slammed against the ground, and struggled to rise. I lifted my gun and stumbled to the side, then drove it down with all I had, cold-cocking the bastard on top of Lazarus as I shoved out my other hand.
He was dazed, still he grasped my hand and let me pull him upright. Hard, ripping coughs came as he clutched his throat and tried to breathe. But there was a look of pure rage burning like neon fucking lights in his eyes. The kind of rage that didn’t care if he was killed or the rest of us, for that matter.
Only I sure as hell cared.
“Go!” I shoved him backwards. “Grab your man and GO!”
I swung back around, not wanting to take my eyes off these fuckers for a second, to see Alvarez grab one of them by the throat and lift him until his feet dangled in the air. One sickening crunch and he just dropped the bastard to fall.
They didn’t deserve this. A vein in my temple pulsed as rage and regret filled me. They were killers…but they were nothing more than robots, trained from childhood to kill while they were useful, but ultimately to die. My gun felt heavy as I lifted it and fired at them again…so goddamn heavy.
They didn’t deserve this.
But we needed to survive.
I clenched my jaw, hatred seething inside me. Laz grabbed his bodyguard, pulled him upwards, then heaved him over his shoulder, stumbling at the weight. Fin was next, staggering toward them before he swung, firing his gun at the rest of the bastards as Tobias lunged to drive his fists into one, over and over, in a killing rage.
“Come for my family?” He raged, his eyes wide and wild. “I’LL SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENS!”
Bang!
Bang!
Bang…bang…bang…bang.
Nick and Caleb still fired, one after the other, the sound ricocheting off the walls until it was all I heard. I was grabbed and pulled backwards. Panic roared until I found the familiar eyes of my brother.
“Let’s go!” he bellowed, firing a shot behind me.
But the Sons were leaving, slipping back behind the steel doors to leave us behind. I stumbled, then turned, to find Laz and Finley lurching along the alley toward us. Alvarez was driving three of the Sons backwards.
“You go.” I nodded to Fin, who cradled his arm and tried to stop the bleeding in his neck at the same goddamn time. “Get him back. We’ll follow you.”
There wasn’t time to acknowledge anything I said as Fin’s leg buckled and sent him crashing to the ground. Hunter lunged, grabbed Finley Salvatore, and all but carried him to his car.
“We need to go.” I turned to Alvarez and met that unflinching stare. He gave a nod, glanced over his shoulder to the place where we’d almost died, then started forward.
Headlights shone, blinding me as I reached the Explorer. The others pulled up hard, and London was the first one out, with his buddy, Baron, right behind him. It had been only a matter of minutes that we were in that alley with the Sons of The Order. But it felt like it had been a lifetime.
London raced around the front of the Audi. “Colt and Carven?”
I just shook my head. “I don’t know. It was…like nothing I’ve ever seen.”
There was a flare of panic in his eyes before he shifted his focus to the alley. Loyalty to his sons drove him forward. He lifted his gun and charged, heading back to the fucking deathtrap we’d barely escaped.
Alvarez stopped and turned to watch London and the diamond asshole disappear. I did the same as guilt and loyalty forced me to turn.
“Fuck,” I grunted.
Alvarez turned to me, and I knew he felt the same. We stumbled back into that alley, limping, bleeding, and cursing, jerking our weapons toward anything that moved. But there was nothing but bodies outside those false doors. London checked each one, before meeting my stare. “Where the fuck are my sons?”
I shook my head, trying to make sense of what had just happened. “They came out of nowhere. Carven…and Colt, they saved our asses, driving them backwards.” I lifted my gun to the door. “They’re in there. They’re all the way in there.”
London rose from the ground and moved closer, his hands moving over the door. “It’s steel.”
“All of them are.”
“There’s no way in?”
“Not unless you have a key.”
He turned around. “So you’re saying my sons are in there, fighting a goddamn army of trained killers by themselves?”
I froze, my pulse booming. “Yes.”
