While the others began their preparations, Hunter put several men on the task of guarding the prisoner cell where they’d placed Fang. He specifically chose a few club members who were better kept out of the impending gunfire – bikers slower on their feet, or weaker with the weapons.

Grizz, as the Devil’s Dragons second-in-command, volunteered for the task of ensuring full prisoner cooperation.

“I need you by my side,” Hunter reminded him. “The Dragons can keep this fuckers behind bars, but you? Your place is with me tonight.”

The burly biker’s piercing blue eyes met his, and he nodded solemnly. Grizz understood his place, and knew that Hunter could use all the help he could get when it came to assaulting the cartel… Without another word, Grizz accepted the role of overseeing preparations among the seventy bikers as Hunter disappeared into his war room.

Eager to contribute in some way, I brought him a cup of coffee. Glancing up from his maps, he gratefully accepted the steaming mug and turned his attention away from the sprawling notes.

“You can stay here if you want,” Hunter reminded me. “You understand, of course, that I’m not asking you to implicate yourself in cross-border infiltration and cartel warfare…”

“I want to be there,” I told him firmly. “This is your fight, but that doesn’t mean I can’t use this to my own ends. If you take another hostage – especially one further up the chain – then I can probably extract some information on where to find those cheerleaders…”

“You don’t want to be a part of that process,” Hunter grimaced.

“You haven’t let me in on any of this yet! You stole my case files. You’ve kept me as far in the dark as you can. When are you going to let me into your world and start explaining these things? I still don’t know what exactly happened to your sister… how you organized this bikers’ alliance of yours… who this interrogator of yours is, or what you’ve been doing for the last eight years to rebuild the Devil’s Dragons… and that’s only what I know about.”

I gave him a meaningful, heartfelt glance. “There are so many mysteries with you, Hunter… I feel like I’m just scratching the surface. When are you going to open up?”

“In due time,” Hunter replied, sensing my frustration. “I know that you want to know everything right now, but we don’t have the time for that… You want to come, fine. Help me through this ordeal tonight, and I promise you that I will keep no secrets. Just give me the time to finish this.”

“You’re going up against the Víboras Verde cartel,” I mused aloud to myself. “The Vipers of the Green. You think you have a chance to snuff them out, to destroy their central order and let their outlying operations collapse, wherever they are…”

“That’s right,” he confirmed, glancing down at the maps again as he set his coffee aside. “The hostage gave us some solid intel on their workings. Everything that was finally pulled from him correlates to the understanding I already had…”

“What happens if we get down there and he fed you a thick stack of lies?” I asked, playing Devil’s advocate.

“The information is good,” he promised me. “There’s no doubt about that. The Desert Owl is very persuasive…”

“Right,” I nodded, crossing my arms and holding my elbows. That wasn’t convincing me, and Hunter knew it… but I wasn’t willing to keep the topic going.

“You’ll want to get some rest if you can,” Hunter reminded me. “Fit in a couple of hours’ sleep if you can. Our guests are going to do the same. God knows my club needs it.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I replied softly. “What about you?”

For a second, Hunter looked amenable to the idea. After all, we hadn’t slept in a bed together since reuniting.

But his glance slid over to his tabletop, covered in maps with revised information and new details, and I knew his answer before he parted his lips.

“I have to go over everything a few times,” Hunter replied softly but firmly. He pointed to a nondescript door to the side of the war room and continued, “Go on ahead without me. I’ll be in there in a little while.”

I gave him a quick kiss, my hand lingering on his shoulder for a moment. After a quick squeeze, I slid into the room. It was a small room with a full-sized bed in the corner, some basic wooden furniture, a tall floor lamp, a small bookcase, and a standing closet.

This is his bedroom away from home, I realized to myself as I shed down to my underwear and slipped beneath the covers of his bed.

With my head against his pillow, I could watch him study the table. He descended back into his work, glancing between maps and pinning papers to the walls.

I knew he wasn’t going to rest.

He couldn’t rest.

Although he clearly wanted to climb into this bed with me and enjoy my company just as much as I wanted him to, he couldn’t pull himself away from his work. The safety of his men, and the lives of these last abductee victims, weighed too heavily on his mind.

The binding chains of responsibility weigh heavy, I thought to myself as I drifted to sleep, gazing sleepily upon my man as he worked hard to protect us all.

When I next opened my eyes, Hunter was nowhere to be found. Grumbling and wiping the sleep from my eyes, I crawled out of bed and threw my clothes back on.

How long has it been? I thought to myself, throwing my boots back on and walking out into the hallway. There was a bustle of activity as bikers from every present club flooded towards the front, snatching up gear.

As I stepped into the front den and finally encountered windows again, I realized that the sun was already setting outside.

Well… that answers how long I’ve been out, I thought to myself numbly.

I needed to find Hunter, and fast.

While scanning the crowd for him, I noticed that over half of the collected bikers weren’t in bulletproof vests… There must have not been enough time to secure more protection for the assembled forces.

A feeling of foreboding came over me.

Hunter knew better than to lead these forces into the fight unprepared. So far, we had been lucky to survive no casualties and only a few wounds. We might not be so lucky in the future…

Was one more day enough time to prepare for a grander, larger scale of attack? After all, we were trespassing across the border… heading into the enemy’s territory and striking them on their own turf. We would be bringing the fight directly to them…

I shook my head.

Have more faith in him, I reprimanded myself. After all, this wasn’t the first time he’d done this. He’d been a part of the Dragons when they’d descended a lot further than this into Mexico, striking at the cartel to free his sister before…

This time, he had the advantage.

Hunter had assembled a considerable force here. While they brought their own weaponry, there was still extra to go around.

We also had the luxury of a nearby target. We would be heading less than a dozen miles outside of Juarez. We could be there in an hour if we caught the right trail.

More men.

More guns.

More time.

Hunter had spent countless hours pouring over this plan, uniting the necessary manpower to his cause, and studying the revised trivia he now knew from the survivor of the cartel border brawl.

My man’s got this in the bag.

I finally spotted Hunter off in a dark corner speaking to Grizz. The two were in some kind of hot debate, and I hesitated to interfere.

Before I could turn and find something else to do, Hunter spotted me. With a sly grin, he gestured for me to join them. As I reluctantly approached, Grizz whispered something in his ear before disappearing into the crowd.

“What was that all about?” I asked Hunter after coming into earshot.

The Devil’s Dragons president glanced over in the direction that his second-in-command had chosen, and shook his head.

“He’s just worried. He thinks that I should stay behind on this one.”

“Why’s that?” I replied, crossing my arms.

“He caught me awake,” Hunter replied simply. “Everyone else got some shut-eye, even the Dragons on our operation last night. Grizz got restless and he spotted me bent over those maps…”

“He thinks you’re going to be too tired?”

Hunter ran his hand through his hair. “Grizz is careful. He’s methodical.”

My expression soured. “Grizz has a point.”

“I know,” Hunter replied. “But tired or not, I have to ride…”

“What makes you so sure?”

“Look at us,” he indicated to the bikers as they wrapped up their work, suiting up for the coming fight. “Everyone is prepared to follow me into the fight. If I stayed behind, it would send the wrong message. There’s no turning back now… Can you feel it in the air?” He pointed upwards.

I shook my head. “Tension?”

“Anticipation,” Hunter corrected. “These men are hungry for a piece of the action. It’s not just about the money, either. Everybody wants to be the hero sometimes…”

I glanced over the dissipating crowd as it swept outside, snatching up weapons and patting each other on the backs on their way out.

They seemed… oddly jovial.

“You’ve noticed,” Hunter read the expression on my face. “You’ve seen how ready for this they are… how they almost don’t take it seriously.”

“Why is that?” I asked, turning my head to face him. “Why aren’t any of them scared? They could lose their lives. We could be riding into something a lot more dangerous than they think…”

“It isn’t often that the Outlaws are seriously put to the test,” Hunter observed.

I only hoped they were ready for the road ahead…

Hunter pulled my thoughts away before I could voice any concern. “We need to get going, Sarah. The men are assembled, the night awaits, and the time has come.”