“Holy shit, are you guys okay!?”
Porter’s booming voice was the first one I heard as Summer and myself slipped out of our car. Him and Cole trotted up to us, their eyes filled with worry and unspoken words dripping off the tip of their tongues. I furrowed my brow as they came over and clapped me on the back. We all exchanged our rounds of hugs, and I made damn sure their hands didn’t wander anywhere on Summer where she didn’t want them to be.
But once we were done, I shook my head. “You guys okay? You’re acting like we almost died.”
Cole blinked. “Because we did.”
Porter threw his hands in the air. “There were ten of them. Ten!”
Then, Brooks’ voice boomed over our heads. “Get your asses inside. Now!”
We all trotted inside and waited for our verbal tongue lashing. But instead, Brooks dragged us inside and locked down the front door. All of the windows had been barricaded and some of the trip wires in the dead end hallways had been triggered.
Which only made me more curious.
“Did something happen here, too?” I asked.
Brooks shook his head. “Just us preparing. We had no idea they had figured out you guys were traveling in from out of town.”
Summer gasped. “So, they do know about Cheyenne.”
Porter shook his head. “No, there’s no way. Between our distraction, the lack of traffic cameras on the highways, avoiding them in Santa Barbara, and watching Summer shoot some dude off his bike with Tanner’s sawed-off shotgun, there’s no fucking wa—”
I chuckled. “You saw that? That was badass wasn’t it?”
Cole grinned. “Best thing I’ve ever seen.”
Brooks’ eyebrows rose. “Did she kill him?”
Summer groaned. “No, I didn’t kill him. I shot him in the leg. Enough to get him off his bike, but not enough to have his soul on my conscience.”
“Anyway,” Porter murmured, “no. There’s no way they know about Cheyenne. We took double precautions.”
Finn walked up to us. “The shootout and us rolling up on them at the strip club could’ve tipped them off, though.”
I nodded. “Which is why we took the long way around and avoided all traffic cameras in Santa Barbara.”
Brooks leveled me with a stare. “All of them? Can you guarantee that?”
I swallowed hard, but it was Summer that answered for me. “No. Not technically. Though, we were very thorough.”
Brooks sighed. “Church, everyone. Now.”
Summer looked up at me. “So, no shower?”
I kissed her cheek. “Why don’t you go and get started, and I’ll join you when we’re done.”
She looked at me curiously. “All right, but try not to be too long.”
I grinned. “I’ll do my best, beautiful.”
After all of the women hugged our necks, they left the living room, leaving all of us men behind to figure out what the hell came next. We waited until the women’s voices filtered all the way down the hallway, so much so that even we couldn’t hear them.
Then, Brooks shuffled us all into a corner and spoke as quietly as he could.
“We have to start making moves. We can’t just be on the defense any longer. We won’t make it out of this alive if we do.”
Porter sighed. “Finally, someone said it.”
I shrugged. “I’m all for it. But where do we step next?”
Finn held up his hand. “Brooks and I were actually talking about this for a bit on the ride back from the strip club. Wanna tell them what we talked about?”
Brooks shook his head. “You do the honors.”
Finn smiled. “Great. Okay. So, we’ve already kicked up shit with The Black Flags, and after laying low for so long that’s probably what tipped them off to the fact that something was up.”
“So?” Archer asked.
Finn rolled his eyes. “So, why don’t we keep taunting them? Not with big things, but enough to cover our tracks so that when we do need to pull something off, our distraction doesn’t become a beacon of warning to them.”
Cole blinked. “That’s your brilliant plan? Piss them off more than before?”
Finn shrugged. “You got a better idea?”
I scoffed. “Yeah. Don’t piss them off.”
Brooks glared at me. “Unless you want to offer up a plan, don’t shit on other people’s.”
Porter wrinkled his nose. “Even if it’s a shitty one?”
An argument broke out and our voices started to rise. I clamped my jaw shut and looked around at all of the crazed, wide eyes and the spittle bursting forth from their lips. And as I looked into each and every one of my brother’s eyes, I noticed something.
“I get that we’re all worried!” I exclaimed above all of them.
They all shut up and turned their attention to me.
“I know that none of us are used to worrying like this, but that only means we have to be on our guard,” I said.
Brooks groaned. “We can’t keep playing the same playbook over and over again. If they push back, we’ve got nowhere else to go. We’ll be scattered to the wind, and they’ll take over. You know this.”
I nodded. “So, we take them on. Head on. Like we’re used to doing.”
“But the girls,” Porter said.
“Dude, I got a kid coming,” Cole said.
I balked. “And what the fuck do you think I just did? Dropped my best friend off at someone’s house?”
The guys looked down at their feet before they raised their heads high with pride.
“We want to protect our club and our families, right?” I asked.
They all nodded as Brooks spoke. “Right.”
I shrugged. “Okay, then. It’s time to retaliate. It’s time to take this fight to them, it’s time to start the shit, and it’s time to have the last blow.”
Porter crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m with Tan. We’ve cowered away long enough.”
Archer nodded. “We’re becoming a joke to them, and you know it.”
Cole sighed. “And rumor on the street says that they’ve accepted five new prospects onto their team.”
I stepped toward Brooks. “They’re growing, which means their reputation is getting around town. That means we’re fading away, which means we need to strike. We need to show our city that we aren’t going anywhere, not even in the face of some of the meanest, most disgusting people to ever occupy this place.”
Brooks sighed before he licked his lips. “Assuming we retaliate, anyone got a plan of attack?”
Finn raised his hand once more. “We could storm their compound. Put a bullet in Chops’ head for all he’s done to us.”
Brooks chuckled. “Anyone got anything else to add to that?”
Porter nodded. “I mean, just because we take out Chops doesn’t mean we’ll take out the entire crew. I’m sure he’s already appointed someone to take over should his death come about.”
Finn pushed forward. “Which is all the more reason why we need to mount an attack. Now, I’m not one to advocate for death, but this has gone on long enough. They’ve taken our clubhouse. They’ve taken our safety. They’ve taken our reputation and they’re about to take our fucking home. That requires a drastic solution.”
Cole sucked air through his teeth. “If we mount an attack in the middle of the night, when they’re surely putting out their weakest prospects as a way to haze them and weed them out, penetrating their forces would be almost as easy as slicing through butter with a hot knife.”
I smirked. “And we’ve got the tactical gear. The night-vision goggles. We could make that kind of an attack work.”
Archer stepped up to the plate. “Especially if we bring our flash-bangs. We could quietly take out the guys surrounding their clubhouse, throw flash-bangs in through their windows, and then they all come rushing out—”
I smiled as I finished his sentiment. “—they’ll all run into traps that take them out at the knees.”
Porter grinned. “And we’ll be at the ready, waiting to put a bullet in whoever gets by the traps.”
Brooks looked around at all of us before he drew in a deep breath. “There’s only one thing I disagree with.”
Porter tilted his head. “What’s that?”
Brooks cracked his neck. “You know damn good and well Chops is much too full of himself to appoint someone to take his place. He thinks he’s God; that he can do anything and get away with it. That means he’s not protecting his blindside. And if he hasn’t appointed anyone, that means if we take him down—”
Finn smiled. “—we take the whole fucking crew down.”
Then, after Brooks looked around at all of us, he raised his hand in the air.
“All in favor of retaliating once and for all, raise your hand.”
And the unanimous vote sealed our fate.
