Page 27 of Rage

A little tension eases out of me. If Daisy’s talking, I can trust she won’t go absolutely feral. She’ll listen to orders without too much objection.

“Good, then we need to get going,” I warn her. “We don’t have much time. The pickup is in an hour.”

Half of that time will be us trying to get to the port.

“Then what are we waiting for?” She looks up at me, her mouth pressed into a tight line.

Our eyes meet. In the darkness, her brown eyes are a deep bottomless pool of wrath and death. I shiver, fighting down a wave of desire at the sight. It’s easy enough. My fear for her safety outweighs my need to see my girl rip people apart.

I nudge my head to the guys bickering behind us. “Your band of misfits are… misfitting.”

This makes the corner of her mouth twitch. Daisy doesn’t smile, though. Instead, she turns around to face the others.

“Enough!” she snaps.

I turn to Kingston, Wyatt, and Owen, and watch as they break apart at once. They glower at one another, but when Daisy takes a step toward them, their attention refocuses on her. This woman will always take precedence over anything else in our lives. Especially over stupid squabbles.

She’s the goddess of Death and we’re the demons she summoned, ready to do her bidding.

“Everyone ready to save these women?” she asks.

The three of them nod in unison.

“Good. Drake’s going to go over the plan one more time. Listen closely.” She turns to me expectantly. “Make it quick, Dre. There are people counting on us tonight.”

Looking away from her face, I meet the others’ gazes. Their expressions range from grim to worried. Good, this needs to be taken seriously. Because one mistake could implode the entire plan and turn our world upside down.

“The five of us are sticking together until we hit a fork down that road.” I jerk my thumb behind me. “Owen and I are going to head right. The rest of you will continue on the original path. You’ll get to the entrance of the docks and either have to climb the fence or search for an opening. From there, fan out and wait for my signal before killing anyone. Got it?”

Wyatt’s hand comes up swiftly in a salute as he straightens. “Sir, yes sir!”

I roll my eyes as Owen snickers and Kingston simply flips me off.

“You guys are such assholes,” I growl.

“Yet, you love us all the same,” Wyatt says.

Daisy’s hand comes to rest on my arm as she stares around at us. “Hoods up, gloves on, and masks ready, ok? We’re the demons that own the night, remember that. The only survivors tonight will be the women in the containers. If there are any runners, go after them.”

The muscles in my arms tense. Running won’t save them. I’ll make sure of that.

Owen’s the only one not wearing his gloves, but he pulls them out of his pocket to correct that, as the rest of us reach up and pull the masks down to cover our face. Created from wanted posters of missing women from years ago, the masks are a reminder of where we came from and why we kill. The small steel horns that erupt from the forehead of the mono-humanface glint in the yellow light. When we’re ready, I glance around at the menacing force we make and smile.

We’re the justice that can’t be corrupted and the vengeance you can’t escape.

“If you guys are ready,” Daisy announces through her own mask. “We should go.”

The fork in the road comes sooner than expected.

That’s both good and bad. Good because that means the entrance to the docks is closer than the maps we pieced together in the RV suggested. This will give us more time than we originally allotted to get to the women and break them out. Bad because I have to leave my girl when all I want to do is keep her close.

I meant for the split up to be swift and quiet. Instead, my fingers grip Daisy’s arm in a biting hold as she tries to hurry after the others, and I yank her to face me. I can hear her soft gasp of surprise beneath her mask as she looks up at me. We’re just out of reach of the streetlamps, so when I jerk up my mask then peel hers up off her face, I can’t read her expression. It doesn’t matter. I know exactly where her lips are.

Mine come crashing down on hers in a hungry, desperate kiss.

Daisy doesn’t hesitate to return it. Her gloved hands come up to hold my face as she pours her love, as sick and twisted as it is, into the moment. A hard shiver rushes through me as dread whispers in the back of my head.

This could be the last time I see her, to hold her in my arms. The enormity of that thought has me choking on fear.

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