Page 76 of Dagger

Broken glass dug into my palms as I scrambled across the wooden floor, but I was so intent on getting the doors closed, I hardly noticed. My eyes fell on Tex, who was lying with his back on the floor. His eyes were closed, and blood pooled around him.

My heart gave a hard thud, and I looked up, frantically trying to find help. “Tex caught a bullet,” I called out amongst the chaos. “Somebody get over here and stem the blood flow.”

“On it, boss,” Reno called out, lowering onto his stomach and sliding toward us.

“Get up,” I instructed. “There’s glass on the floor.”

Reno got to his feet as he approached Tex but stayed crouched low. He whipped his cut off, pulled his tee over his head, and used it to press down on Tex’s gunshot wound, trying to stem the blood. Reno looked up at me. “He needs a doctor.”

“Can you get him down the medical wing?” Sophie called over.

“Stay where you are, Stitch,” Atlas ordered. “Prez, we need this door closed now!”

Looking around, I took in everybody’s position, my mind going over what we needed to do and in what order.

Atlas was right. Getting the door closed took priority. After the last shoot-out at Sparky’s wake, we’d replaced the windows with bulletproof glass, which meant that once the door was closed, we’d be better protected and could fight back with some semblance of power.

The problem was that we needed cover to close the door, but we needed the door closed to get cover.

Fuck me.

My eyes fell on Breaker. My youngest boy had his ass on the floor and his back to the wall. He looked at me with blank eyes, and I knew the soldier had surfaced.

“We need cover, Kit,” I told him.

“It’s the Sinners,” he scraped out as he got to his feet and stalked toward the corridor leading to the kitchen. I heard the click of his safety coming off before he said, “Looks like they’re finally retaliating.”

“I’ll go with him,” Cash offered, appearing at my side.

“Me too,” Shotgun parroted from behind him.

“Be careful,” I warned. “And follow Breaker’s lead.”

I turned back toward Atlas. “The second things go quiet, get that door fucking closed and lock it.” Turning back toward the room, I spotted Arrow loading his gun. “Brother, get down the basement. I want firepower and ammo brought up. When you’ve done that, I want you up on the roof with me for a game of shoot the head off an asshole. First to five wins.”

Arrow jerked a nod. He waited for a lull in the shooting before disappearing down the corridor leading to the stairs with Abe on his tail.

“John,” a voice called.

My head whipped around to see that Elise had Kady and Sunny’s hands in hers. “The Cell’s down there, right?” She nodded toward the corridor Arrow had just gone down.

The sound of gunfire started up again, and a flurry of bullets pinged through the room, the ricochets bouncing off the walls. Shouts went up as people ran for cover.

Elise tucked the girls into her for safety.

Whoever was firing could only shoot down the middle of the room. As long as we kept to the walls on either side, we’d be golden. The corridor leading to the Cell was at the far end of the bar but directly in the center. It meant we couldn’t get the women and kids down there without the risk of them catching a bullet.

“You gotta wait until there’s a lull, Leesy,” I ordered. “Get the girls and the women down there, but wait for my signal.Breaker’s out there with some men. Let’s hope they can disable the shooters.”

“They can only fire down the center because of the angle of the door,” Elise pointed out. “Can we block the mouth of the corridor with tables and crawl behind them? We need to get Tex some medical help, and the girls are frightened. I want to get them safe in your panic room.”

“On it,” Reno said, gently laying Tex back down on the floor.

“Use the thick oak tables,” I instructed. “I don’t want bullets getting through to the women and kids.”

Reno nodded as he got to his feet and skirted the wall toward the back of the room, pulling heavy tables with him as he went. He flipped the first table on its side and pushed it hard toward the center of the room before doing it again with the second one.

Men crouched around the windows and hugged the walls, taking shots whenever they got a chance before pulling back to take cover. Smoke filled the air from so many weapons being discharged, and the sound of glass splintering rang in my ears as unrelenting gunfire peppered back through the bar.

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