CHAPTER 42
RYDER
We gathered several blocks away. All together, with the guys Nate called in and Slade’s three friends, including Nate, Fury, Riot, Slade, Wreck, Bones and myself, there were twenty of us.
Lacey and Frankie stayed behind in the hotel, ready at a moment’s notice to come scoop up the victims. I watched as Wreck and Riot hugged them goodbye, my heart breaking wide open with anguish.
All I could think about was Grace.
The adrenaline had now been pumping through my veins for hours and I pushed away the exhaustion that was creeping into my bones. Grace needed me, now, more than ever before.
Nothing was going to stop me now.
But I would hate myself forever if something happened to one of my men in the process. I’d nearly died with grief over losing Doc. I couldn’t lose another one of my brothers.
I couldn’t bear to lose any of them.
This had to go as planned and even then, the chances of some of us taking a fall was huge. But if blood was going to be shed, I wanted it to be mine.
We went over the plan one last time before breaking into groups.
Riot and Wreck stayed behind to direct the other guys that would cover the north corner, and Slade and Bones formed another group that would go around the south side of the compound to form a second distraction.
Nate and Fury were going in first on the east, with about twenty pounds of fresh steak. Nate insisted he’d seen Snake disarm the dogs with raw flesh and I guess he had his ass to prove it. The dogs were a huge obstacle and we needed to try to disable them just as much as we needed to take down Snake’s men.
In the meantime, we all laid back, watching from afar as best we could, listening in on walkie-talkies and waiting on their signal. I swallowed hard as they approached Snake’s compound from the far-right, back corner of the property, the spot where Nate said was partially blocked off by the dumpsters and out of view, the place he knew the dogs would come running to.
They crept up to the fence, throwing the meat over the top, followed by an old blanket and a rope that Nate draped over the top spikes of the barbed wire. Fury tossed a beer bottle on the ground, the shattering sound of it breaking creating just the commotion we needed to get this started.
In an instant, the dogs came rushing towards the sound. They ran past the dumpster and immediately gathered around the enormous pile of meat, totally distracted as they began devouring it like a pack of starving wolves, oblivious to anything else.
Nate lifted Fury into the air and he vaulted over the blanket draped on top of the barbed wire, landing on top of the dumpster above the dogs. Quickly, he jumped down, keeping both eyes on the dogs as he swiftly pushed the dumpster in front of the small opening to the courtyard, locking the hungry dogs inside the small space. Fury ran back to the fence. He was two steps away when he stepped in a huge pile of dogshit. He looked down, lifting his foot.
“What the fuck?” he asked, his voice crackling over the speaker of the walkie-talkie. “It’s all crunchy.”
Nate laughed.
“It’s my fucking phone, man. I told you the fucking dog ate my phone!”
“Jesus,” Fury said as he quickly grabbed onto the rope and pulled himself over the top of the fence. He jumped down, his feet landing on the other side, just as I saw Snake’s guards start to head that direction. First the ones in the back strolled that way, then the ones on the East side, followed by the ones in front.
We knew the sounds would alert them and we had to move fast now.
Fury and Nate ran away towards the opposite corner as I jumped into the SUV and headed straight for the compound.
This was going to be tricky. I had to turn a corner quickly and hit the gate straight on, but if I could keep control, I wouldn’t spin out. All the other guys roared up behind me on their bikes, their bullet proof vests on under their jackets.
Pressing on the gas pedal, the tires squealed as I rounded the corner. I steered toward the front gate at full speed, hitting the gate with the force of my entire vehicle.
The screeching sound of metal on metal rang out, the gate giving way, the SUV breeching the compound in seconds. Just as the bikes roared in behind me, a loud bang exploded at the back of the compound.
“Device deployed,” I heard Slade’s voice say, crackling excitedly over the line. Chaos erupted around me as my men jumped off their bikes, guns out. I jumped out of the vehicle.
Snake’s men scattered in the distance, confused by the triple threat we’d unleashed upon them. Their dogs locked in the back, most of them ran towards the explosion in the back and a few ran towards us at the front.
Fury and Nate joined us, running inside the compound and then rushing toward the back of the buildings, leaving us to deal with Snake’s few men that were heading back to the front gate.
Concealed behind my vehicle, we opened fire as they came around the corner, before they knew what hit them.
Two of them went down immediately, squirming on the pavement in pain, as another one retreated towards the back of the compound. We waited a second, waiting for others to appear before invading further. The sound of gunfire rang out from the back and I hoped like hell my boys were still okay.
We inched forward as we realized the coast was clear. The sound of voices and doors opening broke out around the corner and we rushed back, waiting in the darkness as three men came running out and ran out of the gate. We let them go, since they hadn’t seen us, and we inched back around the corner.
I needed to get into the clubhouse and that was where the men had come from. My heart pounded with fear, Grace’s eyes haunting me.
I had to save her.
I had to save us all.