Page 107 of Ruthless Reign

He said nothing, his eyes glued to the older sand colored brick building two hundred meters away. “We should go back.”

“What?”

Past him, I could see Ma positioning herself, ready to accept the massive rocket launcher onto her shoulder like the goddamn war goddess she’d become in the years since she met Damien. There were four other Saints with equal artillery ready for positioning. Five would be enough to level the entire building to the ground. But if we used them all, we’d only have two left.

Ma thought it was worth the cost.

“I don’t like it.” Aodhán’s upper lip twitched. “It’s too easy.”

“What is he saying?” Hardin asked, coming over with Becca.

“He doesn’t think we should do it.”

“Of course, he doesn’t,” Zade said, eavesdropping from where he was crouched further down with a bunch of the other Saints. “Those are his people in there.”

Aodhán didn’t rise to the bait.

“I’m going to check the perimeter,” he said, rising to his feet. Dad jerked his chin for me to follow him as he started toward the edge of the roof. I didn’t know what he expected to do if he found anything, anyway. It wasn’t like Dad let him keep his weapons.

“See anything?”

This area of the city saw little traffic, and for miles all around us there was nothing but the hum of machinery and dull drone of the city in the distance.

“No.”

“You don’t sound sure.”

“I’m not.”

Damn. This guy could give Hardin a run for his money in a brooding competition. I wanted to brush it off, but something about his discomfort made my own hackles rise and by the time we got back to where the others were, the sense of disquiet in the air was suffocating.

“Maybe we scope it out first,” I said, interrupting something Dad was saying to Ma.

He gave me a look that brokered no space for argument at the same time Ma said, “fuck that,” and pulled the trigger.

My brother folded Becca into his chest and turned her away from the blast as the rocket soared and my ears rang.

It hit home.

“Get down!”

My eyes flew wide as the RPGs hit their target and the building erupted in white light. Something knocked me to the ground, and I heard Ma shouting an instant before the shockwave reached us.

Shockwave?

It pulsed through me, over me, even on the ground with the weight of Aodhán half covering my right side, I felt the heat of it.

Not the RPGs, but whatever other explosive had been planted in the Sons’ hideout. The RPGs set it off and I felt it shake the steel structure beneath us like the earth was cowed by the power of it.

Ash and debris rolled over us, tearing at skin and knocking bones.

No one moved until the gust passed and the tremors in the earth stopped.

When I shoved Aodhán off me, I shielded my eyes from the sun, peering into a black crater, its gaping maw spewing smoke as lighter debris continued to fall.

The blast had taken out not just the triplex building, but a good chunk of the industrial complex to the north of it. I didn’t see any wounded or corpses, but that didn’t mean no one was hurt.

Dad had Aodhán by his shirt, shaking him before I noticed he was even there. “Did you know?” he was shouting viciously into Aodhán’s face. “Did you fucking know?”

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