Page 52 of The Sentinels

"I agree, brother," Dawson managed in a weary tone. "No hospital, no cops."

"Sully, get that fucking van in here," I ordered. "We'll put all the bodies in the back and get rid of it later. We can send it to the bottom of the fucking swamp." There were plenty of places on my property where we could roll it right in, deep places that were filled with alligators. I clutched my side and winced as pain lanced through me. I had to remain on my feet.

"You need looking after, brother," Heath commented, while Sully hit the button that would lift the bay door. Joker climbed into the driver's side of the van and pulled it inside. "You're losing a lot of fucking blood."

I ignored him, taking out my phone. Tanner needed to be told what had gone down. As the bay door went down again and Heath and Sully took care of loading the bodies into the back of the van, I hit Tanner's number.

"You found them?" were the first words out of his mouth.

"Yeah, but it's not good news, brother. Jiggers is dead. Dawson and Hock are beat to hell. We had to kill the Hellraisers."

"Maniac and Boomer?"

"Yep. It was them or us. We found them at a storage unit torturing our brothers inside."

"Fuck."

Neither one of us mentioned how fucked up the whole operation had gone from the start. There was nothing we could do about it now.

"How's this being handled?" Tanner asked, which told me that he expected me to work out the details.

"Right now we're loading them into the van. We'll drop them into the swamp on my property later."

I heard his snort. "You've got a fucking graveyard out there, brother."

"The swamp tells no tales," I smirked. "Alligators and venomous snakes are better than guard dogs."

We'd dumped more than a few bodies into the swamp near my house over the years. The last time had been a few years ago, some fucker who'd killed Tanner’s pops and had been stalking Ruby.

"What about Dawson and Hock?"

"No hospital, but they need a doc."

"I'll call Rivers. Put them up at a decent motel and give them whatever they need."

"We'll take them to the Reef. I’ll get a couple of rooms there. You might want to call in a couple of the girls to take care of them." I was beginning to feel weak, and leaned against the wall. The sound of the van door being slammed shut drew my attention. I caught the concerned looks of my brothers. "Got more shit to take care of here. I'll be in touch."

"Ace, brother—"

I held up my hand to stop Heath. "I'm good."

"The fuck you are, you're as pale as a ghost," Sully grumbled, walking over to me. He'd taken off his shirt and was ripping a strip off around the bottom. "At least put this on to staunch the flow of blood until Rivers can get a look at you."

I lifted my cut and my shirt and looked down at the mean-looking hole in my side. I'd had far worse, but the truth was that as long as it bled freely, I would grow weaker and possibly pass out. I took the rolled up shirt from Sully and held it over my wound while he tied the ripped portion around me. "Happy now, mom?"

"Fuck you," he grinned.

"Alright, let's finish up here.” I pinned a look on Heath. "Call Mike and tell him to get his truck here. We need to transport Dawson and Hock to the Reef." I swung my gaze to Joker. "You head to the store and pick up some odorless bleach and some towels to clean up the blood, and get those fucking ropes down." He acknowledged me with a nod. I took a breath, wincing as sharp pain stabbed through me. "When darkness falls, I'll take the van to my property." I looked at Sully. "I don't want to take a chance that the girl who was working in the office gets nosey when she returns in the morning."

"What about your bike?"

"Mike can drive the van. I'll follow on my bike."

He snorted. "You're covered in blood, brother. Better you drive the van and he can ride your bike."

I didn't argue with him because he was right, and the cocky bastard knew it, too. We waited for Mike to arrive and carefully put our wounded brothers into the van, including Jiggers. He deserved a proper burial. There was room for Heath's bike, so he could drive the truck and not have to worry about coming back for it. When he took off for the Reef, Mike and I headed out for my property, leaving Sully and Joker to clean up.

Chapter 26

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