Page 73 of Butcher

“Does that change things?” I asked them. I hadn’t meant to hide this from them. Sometimes I forgot that people who weren’t in the game didn’t know how it went. These men were all former military. Their kills had all been sanctioned. They’d been trained to do this to protect our country. It didn’t mean they knew how it worked when the government wasn’t in charge of shit.

“No,” Lockout replied to my question. “It doesn’t change anything.”

“Do you have a number?” Kilo asked.

I shook my head. “It’s a rough estimate.”

“How many?” Overdrive insisted.

“Forty? Fifty?” I guessed. “Each of the assassins coming for us is going to come with at least ten.” I shrugged. “That’s what I would do anyway.”

Silence descended on the room. “Fourteen against fifty. Well, guess we better eat and get ready then,” Toxic said, breaking the tension.

I glanced over at Lockout and Butcher as everyone filed over to the kitchen. “I’m sorry. I should have explained better, I-”

“Don’t apologize,” Lockout told me. “We knew the plan. We agreed to it.”

“Doesn’t matter if its assassins, sicarios, mercs, or whatever the fuck they send at us. We’ll kill them all,” Butcher said in agreement. He leaned down and kissed me.

Their confidence eased the worry that I’d messed up. I didn’t want to do anything that put us in any more danger than we were already in. Blowing out a breath, I followed them into the kitchen. They’d have more questions and I was going to do my best to prepare them for the assassins I expected to respond to this contract.

“Time is it?”Overdrive asked.

“Five minutes since you last asked,” Kilo snapped.

It was about two in the afternoon. I knew as soon as my location was released that the assassins would come as fast as they could. Theyprobably already had whatever teams were working for them nearby, waiting to find out where to attack.

As soon as Riptide had seen activity on the camera he’d installed on the road out to the cabin, we’d all come up to our places. Kilo and Overdrive were with me. Priest, Rip, and Drifter were on the other hill across from us. Bolo was waiting down with the others in the valley. The cabin was about two hundred yards away from where we were holed up on these slopes. Through the scopes on our rifles we could see everything that would go down in the wide expanse of field in front of the cabin. This location was perfect for what we were about to do. It was the reason I bought this place.

The cabin sat in a bowl of slopes and hills. At the back of the three acres of grassy field was the wooden structure. There were trees all over the property, enough for cover, but not so much you couldn’t see what was going on. My back was currently resting on the trunk of a tree as I stared down at the single road that would bring our enemies straight to us. They’d fan out, if they were smart, and that was why we were posted up here. It was our job to make sure they weren’t able to circle around and come up on us from behind. And to take out as many on the road as we could before they got past the chokepoint the hills made.

“Tired of waiting,” Overdrive grumbled. “Thought Rip said it’d take about twenty minutes from the time they tripped that alarm?”

“They’ll be going slower,” I told him in a low voice. “They’re not sure what to expect.”

“Good. Means we can kill them easier,” Kilo muttered.

“Exactly.”

We sat in silence, ears straining as we waited.

I wasn’t sure how much longer we waited, but a grin stretched over my face. “Incoming.”

Both men froze, listening and they returned my smile. We could all hear the revving of an engine. If you wanted to sneak up on someone in a vehicle it helped to keep at a steady pace. The more you stepped on and eased off the gas, the easier it made it to hear them comingfrom a distance. A steady hum of an engine was harder to pick up on than someone fluctuating their speed.

Unfortunately for our prey, the bumpy road up to the cabin made it hard to stay at a consistent speed. I laid down on my stomach, getting comfy as I stared through my scope. Aiming it toward the road, I waited for them to come into view. It was time to play.

CHAPTER 25

Isla

The lead vehicle came around the bend, slowing as its front tire slammed in and out of the massive pothole the others had dug. That was Hellfire’s cue. A giant pine tree slowly wheezed as it let go of the stump it was attached to. Through the windshield I could see four sets of eyes go cartoonishly big as the hundred plus foot tree came crashing down over their heads.

Four doors opened, but only two got out. More groaning echoed through the woods. Hell had dropped the other tree toward the rear of the convoy. Now they were trapped. No going back now, for any of us.

Hellfire was already loping away, heading back down to the valley floor to join the others waiting at the cabin.

Settling in for what was about to happen, I started to focus on the men scrambling around down on the ground. An explosion rocked the ground and I swore as one of the vehicles exploded into a funnel of fire.

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