Page 83 of Making Choices

“Saw that.”

Seeing that Bear’s about to do something stupid now that he’s lost his wingman, I motion for my group to retreat around the corner. Their reluctance is obvious as they move back, but they don’t question me either.

“We need a game plan. Even five on one like this is risky. He could put a bullet in Toker’s head and call it a day… and even if we ended him afterward, that’s not a price I’m willin’ to pay.”

“Agreed,” Hunter replies straightway.

The other two sharply incline their heads with their agreement.

“Right… now we need to find a way to separate Bear and Toker. Me and Wyatt will come at him from opposite directions. Once we’ve surrounded Bear, we’ll try to hem him in between the truck and us, then I need you two—” I stop speaking to jerk my chin at Hunter then Cub. “—to drag Toker outta harm’s way.”

As soon as I lay out our plan, the one sound we didn’t need to hear today rings in the distance. Cop sirens. The roar of a truck engine joins them. We quickly surge around the corner to discover Bear in the driver’s seat of the removalist truck. He aims the vehicle at us. Without needing me to explain our best course of action, the three boys stand in a line across the entryway and sight him up.

I raise my hand and drop it so Isaiah knows to join us. “Now.”

As one, we shoot.

The windscreen shatters, but Bear keeps coming.

A moment before I’m about to tell the others to get out of the way, he slams on the brakes and drops his forehead to the steering wheel. I can’t see Toker, so I’m pretty sure Bear’s tossed him in the back of the truck. He wouldn’t leave his bargaining chip behind willingly. Clutching his shoulder, Bear makes it clear that we’ve hit him.

Unless he’s playing us, so we’ll draw close enough for him to mow us down in the tight drive between the rows of storage units...

Before I can decide our next step, the sirens become too loud to ignore, and I realise that we’re about to be outnumbered. If we’re caught in a public shootout, even Gabriel’s reach will struggle to get us bailed quickly. Our injured brothers will have only the Inadale chapter for protection. My parents and Cherub will be left with a skeleton crew to watch over them.

And then there’s the added worry of protecting my brother in lockup.

Hunter will be a target, not only for our enemies, but anyone who sniffs out his differences.

Rock meet hard place.

I know what Toker would tell me to do in this situation.

“Let him pass,” I order as Bear guns the engine. “Get outta the way.”

“What the fuck? No!” Wyatt is indignant as I grab the back of his shirt and drag him with me. “He’s got Toker.”

The truck speeds past us. It rocks from side to side when it clips the electronic gate that’s slowly rattling open and, for a second, I think this might turn in our favour. Of course, life continues to prove that it’s a bigger bitch than ever, choosing to fuck me right up the arse without lube as the truck rights itself and continues on down the road.

“We needa make chase.”

Shaking my head, I tighten my grip on Wyatt’s shirt. “What we need to do is get the fuck outta here before the cops find us. There’s a bleedin’ Bishop and a ransacked storage unit full of fuck knows what that they can pin on us. With our recent run-ins with Joseph Kingsley, it’s suicide to wait around.”

“Fine,” he huffs.

Cub and Hunter push us out of the way to shoot at something behind us.

My brother shouts, “Go! We’ll follow.”

All but dragging a reluctant Wyatt, we make it back to our bikes in record time. When Cub reaches us, I ask, “You cut the CCTV?”

“Better than that, I set it up to loop yesterday over and over. The cops’ll have nothin’ to place us there.”

“Bullet casings?”

He smirks. “This ain’t Hollywood… all that’ll tell them is the calibre of weapon used.”

“Anythin’ you can think of that could come back to bite us in the arse?”

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