Page 169 of Gunner

“Fass!” The command echoed through the silent woods. Zeus’s years of training kicked in from the familiar word. He lunged forward, tackling Getty to the ground, sinking his sharp teeth into the mayor’s arm, and shaking in the bite and hold technique he’d learned.

The mayor screamed and beat at Zeus with his free hand. “Let go! Let go!”

A gunshot rang out, shattering the stillness of the night. I froze. Had Zeus been shot? Relief flooded through me when Zeus dragged Getty along the ground.

“Gunner—” But he’d already picked up the gun, which had flown out of Getty’s hand. I turned my attention to Zeus. “Aus.”

Zeus held on and wouldn’t let go. I reissued the command, and he released the mayor’s bloody arm, obeying my command to heel.

“Braver Hund.” I patted Zeus’s head.

The mayor writhed on the ground, whimpering and clutching his arm. “You’ll pay for this,” he wheezed.

Gunner pressed his boot to the mayor’s neck, the gun at the ready.

“Gunner, wait!” I cried.

“If you intend to save this piece of shit, Ben, talk fast. I’m a second from filling his head with bullets.”

“Trust me, I don’t want to save him anymore than you do.” I deliberately stepped on Getty’s injured hand, pretending not to notice his scream of pain. “I’m just thinking he should answer for his crimes. Plus, he might have more information that can lead us to finding the children he sold.”

“Fuck!” Gunner removed his foot from Getty’s neck but delivered a kick to the man’s head that left him unconscious. “Don’t start with me.”

“I won’t. He deserves it, and we still need to find my sister.”

Loud shouting and footsteps rushed toward us. Cops and bikers filed into the clearing, flashlights beaming. The two groups standing on either side eyed each other suspiciously.

“He’s not dead,” I said to the cops. They were the ones I was worried about. The bikers wouldn’t attack unless provoked, but I couldn’t afford a war when Alice was still missing. “Listen to me, I know this will shock you all. It shocked us too, but Mayor Getty attacked us. He’s the mastermind behind the missing babies.”

The cops looked at each other as if not sure what to believe, and I lost my fucking patience.

“Look, I don’t give a fuck what you all believe, but this man’s responsible for the death of those women and my sister’s kidnapping, andI’mgoing to find her. Do not let him out of your sight. Jones—” I singled out one of the cops. “Take him back to the cabin. Do not let him out of your sight.”

“Bloom,” Gunner said. “Go with them. He so much as lies about what happened out here, you make him tell the truth.”

Bloom nodded with a smile and stared at the unconscious mayor. “My pleasure. I hope he makes it hard for me.”

“Saint, you stick with Bloom,” Crowe said. “Watch each other’s backs.” He didn’t trust the cops, and I couldn’t blame them.

“Hey, we’ve found someone!” The cry came from several feet away. “It’s her! We’ve found her!”

A wave of lightheadedness hit me, and my knees buckled. Gunner wrapped his arm around my middle and supported my weight.

“I’m here for you,” he said softly.

“Gun.” My breath came out in shallow pants, and the words couldn’t come.

“I know. But you’re not alone. I’m here. All my brothers are here. For you.”

Using his words as strength, I hurried over to where a small group was gathered. A woman—no, not just any woman—my sister lay unconscious tucked behind an old fallen log.

I should do something, check her vitals. Anything, but I stood there frozen, staring at the stain between her tights. Was she…?

“She’s still breathing,” someone said. The man was the former fire chief, Michael Kent. He was the one who had organized the search and rescue team in Smoky Vale and kept at it, even after he retired.

Kent took charge of the scene. “We need to get her to the EMTs, now,” he said, his voice calm but urgent.

I nodded, still in too much shock to react. He radioed the EMTs, giving them our precise location in the dense woods. It seemed to take hours before the crunch of footsteps and voices alerted us to the EMT team, equipped with a stretcher, making their way toward us. Jamie was with them.

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