Page 92 of Daughters of Chaos

It takes all I have not to vomit. What he's insinuating—I pray to every god that exists that it's just a bluff, that he said it to get under Viper's skin. Rae is a fighter. If they tried anything, I know she'd go down swinging, but we all hoped we'd get to her in time. That we'd save her before—

A dangerous growl sounds from my right. Reaper is shaking now, angrier than I've ever seen him. Scar's words are working, but I have to tell myself that all they are are lies. All lies. We have to stick to the plan. I put a firm hand on Reaper's arm, drawing his attention. When he meets my eye, I shake my head.Don't do anything rash, brother. We'll get her back.

I plead with him to have patience, silently sending my message. If he acts on his emotions right now, the plan will go up in smoke. Viper and the others have Scar's attention, which is what we need. When Viper makes the big play, that's when we'll move.

Viper speaks, voice seething as he addresses Scar. "Give. Her. Back."

An eerie silence follows as Scar pretends to contemplate his answer. "Hmmm. Nah, don't think I will. Me and my boys are having too much fun with her."

Viper's dangerous growl sounds as he steps closer. "If you don't bring my kid out here now," he holds up the tattered bag. "Everything in this bag goes to the feds."

Scar scoffs. "What do I care? They've been after me for years and haven't been able to make anything stick. I doubt that bag of tricks will change that."

"Oh, it will," Viper promises. "I have everything, Scar. Right here." He taps the bag as he continues, "Every bank statement, recorded conversation, photo, written plan . . . I haveeverythingthe feds need to lock you up and throw away the key. All right here. Every detail of your most heinous crimes is in this bag leading back decades. I even have your journal—ya know, the one you logged all your sick thoughts in about the shit you did. So many confessions in one place.

"Every crime you've ever committed, going all the way back to Colorado, is right. In. Here. Maybe the Lobos would like to see it," he adds, making Scar sneer. "Or the Angels, or Dante and his boys. I'm sure any one of them would love to get their hands on you once they find out you're the rat who sold them out. See, I've got proof of that too. "

Viper knew Scar's secrets. Knew every crew he betrayed and blackmailed over the years. Still kept in contact with some of them to this day. He'd been playing the long game with his bag of tricks for years, ever since Scar went rogue. Prez knew one day that bag might be the only thing in his arsenal to put down the rabid fucker. He saved it till now, pulling his ace to save one of our own and finally take down the biggest threat to our existence.

"You're lying!" Scar fumes.

"Am I?"

"You wouldn't be stupid enough to bring all that here. What's to stop me from killing you and your boys and burning it all up?"

"You could, but I have backups. Everything is already copied and ready to send to the feds should anything happen to me."

A moment passes, then another before Scar says anything, but the tension in the air grows thick, stifling. Scar starts to pace, mumbling to himself as we watch, waiting for our cue. Any second now, and it will be time. The team closest to Viper, Bear, and Hammer are ready. We all are. We just need Scar to make his move.

Viper knows him better than anyone. He knows his sordid inner workings, what makes him tick. He called it long before Scar's decision was made. He told us what to do the second his former friend made his move because he knew what would happen.

He knew Scar's choice long before Scar did. We know what to do and where this conversation will lead. It's inevitable.

When Scar stops moving and grows deathly still, we know it's almost time. His laugh echoes through the lot, growing more sadistic the longer it rings out. No one moves. No one says a word until Scar turns to Viper and says, "We always knew it would come to this, brother. I wish I could say I was sorry, but we both know that's a lie."

Faster than a striking cobra, Scar grabs his gun, aims it at Viper, and pulls the trigger.

56

Reaper

Idon't know who got the first shot off. Bear? Hammer? One of the others waiting in the wings?

It doesn't matter. We hit a split second before Scar pulled the trigger. He was fast, but we were faster. The bullet didn't kill him, we'd leave that for Viper, but it threw off his aim enough to save Prez from eating metal for dinner. That's all we needed, that split second before all hell broke loose.

Viper trusted us to keep him alive. We wouldn't let him down. Not with that or anything else.

He knew Scar would pull his gun when he found out about the bag of evidence. He knew he'd be staring down the barrel of a forty-five tonight. He'd planned for it, anticipated our enemy's every move so we'd be prepared when chaos broke out, which it did in spades.

After the first shots, everyone moved—our guys, Scar's. The lot became a battlefield as men poured out from the warehouse, joining the fight, giving us our opening. As our men crashed with theirs, the teams set up to rescue Raven and Kat moved in.

With the chaos outside, we bet they'd have fewer guys guarding them than normal. We took out the stragglers as we went, using the firefight as a distraction. The first guys were too preoccupied with watching the battle to watch what crept behind them. After that it was cake.

Bodies pile up as we move deeper into the warehouse. The blueprints we retrieved gave us a good idea of where they may hold hostages. That and the intel from their rat made us confident we'd find the girls quickly. We split up into small teams to find them faster. The sooner we get them back, the better.

Jesse and I turn a corner down an empty hallway. We haven't seen any of the Bastards since we split from the others, but voices echo somewhere ahead of us. We're close; I can feel it. Jesse looks at me, and I see in his eyes that he feels it, too.We're coming, Wildfire. We're coming.

The voices grow louder the closer we get. Two men stand outside a closed door, arguing about something. "We should go in now. No one will know. You heard all the gunshots out there," one says. "Nobody's gonna come bother us now. Not till they've taken care of the snake scum and his boys."

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