I WRENCHED THE DOOR OPEN and jumped behind the wheel. Cranking the engine, I threw it in reverse and looked behind me out of habit.
Goddamn it.
Neil, Talon, Tyler, Dane, André, oh God, André, they were all taking fire. Alex was in the second vehicle with the window cracked, returning fire, but three brothers behind a wood pile were unloading clip after clip, firing at the vehicle.
Candle was crouched behind his bike. A couple dozen LCs were parked next to him, and they were all returning fire, but who the hell knew if they could overpower River’s men. And I knew those men, they wouldn’t stop. They’d keep firing until they ran out of ammo or were dead.
I couldn’t leave André and his friends. I was in a goddamn armored vehicle.
Shit.
I threw it in drive, and a knock on the window made me jump. I looked over, and Hero was already opening my door. “Don’t even fucking think about it, Hero. I’m not going with you to the deer trails.”
“Move over,” he said calmly.
What? “No. You don’t even know how to drive.” No one had cars on the compound growing up. Only River. Beyond panicked, I freaked the fuck out. “Get out, I have to get to him! Your asshole brothers are shooting at him!”
Hero dropped his voice and focused on me like he was talking to a three-year-old. “Decima, I am going to help him. Move over, I know how to drive.”
For a split second, I froze. Then I scrambled to the passenger seat as Hero slid behind the wheel. I pulled the gun out of my back waistband. “Drive!”
“Give me your communication device.” Hero put his rifle between us then held out his hand.
What the fuck? “No.” Not that anyone was talking. All I heard was constant gunfire.
“If I do not tell them I am helping them, they will shoot me.”
Fucking, fuck, fuck, fuck. I handed the comm over. “Drive!”
Hero calmly put the comm in his ear and threw the Escalade into drive. “This is Hero. I am pulling the SUV between the truck and the bikes. Is this the armored vehicle?”
“Yes!” I shouted. “It’s armored. Now drive.” I pushed his leg down.
The SUV didn’t move as Hero silently handed the earpiece back to me.
I shoved it back into my ear.
“Hurry the fuck up,” Talon barked. “We’re takin’ fire from all sides.”
Hero floored it.
The SUV’s back tires spun in the mud then the heavy vehicle lurched forward and Hero yanked the wheel first left then right and angled between the truck and the bikers. Reaching behind him, he threw the back door open on his side as shots plunked into the vehicle and windshield but didn’t pierce it.
“Neil, Dane, cover!” André yelled into the comms.
Heavy automatic fire rang out above the cacophony of shots then André jumped in the back seat, yanking the door shut.
My relief at seeing him still breathing was short lived.
“Spin around, spin around,” André barked at Hero, lowering his window and aiming his rifle out the four-inch crack.
Hero expertly spun the SUV and pulled alongside the truck as André laid down fire.
Talon yanked open the door behind me and jumped in. “Those fuckin’ tree hidin’ motherfuckers.” He glanced at Hero. “Present company excluded.” He cracked his window like André had done and started picking off shots into the woods.
“Reverse,” André barked at Hero, switching out his magazine. “Cover the back of the truck.”
Hero threw the SUV into reverse and floored it, pulling parallel with the back of the truck.
“Neil, Dane, retreat! Tyler, retreat!” André shoved his door open, stood on the running board, and fired over the SUV.
Neil and Dane sprinted to the truck’s cab and got in as Tyler ran to the second armored SUV.
Blaze’s voice came through the comms. “Perimeter southwest of gate secure.”
“Perimeter southeast of gate secure,” Collins added.
André got back in the vehicle as the truck took off. “Vega, cover the truck.”
“Copy.” Alex Vega spun the second armored vehicle around and fell in behind the truck.
“Most of the men are in the main building.” Hero’s quiet voice was barely audible over the shots hitting the SUV.
Talon glanced at André, but André was already shaking his head. “No fucking way. Retreat.”
“No sense chokin’ the dog if you ain’t gonna touch his neck.” Talon checked his magazine. “I got two and a half clips left.”
“Jesu-fucking-cristo. No. We’ve got extra cargo.” André glared at Talon.
“Whole reason we’re here.” Talon shrugged.
André stilled. Then he looked at me. Really looked at me.
I didn’t know exactly what he was thinking, but I got the gist of it. “Do it.”
The frown lines in his face deepened, and he glanced at Hero. “What’s the building made out of?”
“Wood frame,” Hero answered calmly.
A round of bullets hit the SUV, and one of the motorcycles caught fire. I couldn’t look to see if Candle was still alive. All the bikers were prone and firing or kneeling and firing from behind their bikes. I couldn’t tell who was dead or alive, and I didn’t want to. I just wanted this to be over with.
“Damn it, André,” I snapped. “Do something!”
“Fuck.” André slammed his fist into the side of the door.
“Back seat, come on, come on.” Talon grabbed my shoulder and practically dragged me over the center console then he shoved my ass into the way back. “Get down!”
André got in the front passenger seat and leveled Hero with a warning glare. “You one-hundred percent in?”
Hero didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“If you’re not, I’m going to torture you so fucking slow, you’ll wish—”
Hero stepped on the gas.
I was thrown back against the third row of seats as Talon yelled out, “Brace!”
The SUV slammed into River Ranch’s main building.
Metal scraping, wood cracking, roof falling, men screaming, bodies flying, Hero floored the Escalade until he cut through the small reception area and crashed through River’s office.
Everything went slow motion.
André systematically aiming and firing, killing River’s guards. Talon yelling out an elongated warbled war cry and spraying bullets. Hero reaching for his rifle and shooting to injure, but not kill, as he fired at his own brothers.
My heart pounded like it was caught in a slow-motion loop, and the ringing in my ears intensified when Alex barreled into the building in André’s second armored SUV.
Seconds later, but a lifetime in the making, it was over.
Dead bodies, dust rising, utter chaos, Talon and André opened their doors like the second coming.
Lights flickered, a beam overhead fell, and the broken glass from the windows shattered all over the debris-covered floor.
My lungs filled with dust and gunpowder, and I watched in shock as River slowly stood from behind his huge wooden desk.
His arms were up, his mouth moved, but all I heard was a high-pitched ringing and the distant garble of a voice through water.
With their weapons trained on River, dust floating up around them, Talon and André looked like soldiers of death.
I didn’t realize I was out of the SUV or that my foot landed on an arm buried in rubble. I didn’t notice that my gun was in my hands. I didn’t even register André’s mouth moving in slow motion.
“Chhhhi-caaaa, noooo.”
My father’s forehead lined up with my sights.
Then the cruel mistress that was life took away its blanket of slow motion, and Hero’s hand slammed down on my gun.
My elbows locked, my arms fell in front of me, and I was forced to drop my aim.
Hero single-handedly raised his rifle and pulled the trigger.
River Stephens’s head exploded into a million pieces of stolen justice.