Page 257 of Lodestar

The lay of the land was spread out like an open book in front of me. It consisted of a bunch of corn fields, then tilled areas thatreminded me of my ma’s flowerbeds with boxes I assumed were beehives dotted into the formation.

Two sets of gates were blown wide, and once I took note of the vehicles, I briefed them, “Two cars approaching from the front gates, one from a back road. Only the one from the back road is speeding.”

“Maybe they do just want to talk?” D asked.

“No. They want answers. If I don’t give them to them, then they’ll kill me,” Troy said, her insipid, bored tone belonging to a Starbucks barista who couldn’t spell Sarah and not a woman who was being targeted by a secret society.

“Answers to which questions?”

“Not worth…” Troy cleared her throat then mumbled something that sounded like, “…my life to discuss them.”

“That’s exactly what’s in the cards here, Troy,” I snapped. “Your life! So maybe share with the class?”

“You guard that fucking door, Conor. Do you hear me?”

“I do. I hear you, Troy.” Hearing the sounds of exerted breathing in my ears and knowing the women were situating themselves in their nests, I peered behind me, wondering what I was guarding. “What am I actually protecting?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“Are you aware of how annoying you are?” I queried.

“Yeah, douche.”

“As long as you are.” I rolled my eyes. “Car on the back road is just pulling up. Three men are getting out.”

“Have eyes on them,” Dead To Me bit off, her regularlaissez-fairejoker self not in attendance.

I knew shit was serious, but that was a massive identifier in and of itself.

“First car contains four guys.”

“Yeah, it looks like they want to talk,” Star grumbled. “Seven men in two cars for one Troy? Those Sparrow fuckers. I can’t wait to tear their world apart.”

“There’s my girl,” I said proudly. “Second car has two men.”

“Nine guys total.”

“Got eyes on those two cars out front, Troy. If you want to…”

Star didn’t get the chance to finish that sentence before bullets were fired. I almost groaned when I saw the gunfire coming from that same fucking tree Troy had stationed herself in before and groaned for real when I saw she’d shot out their goddamn tires.

“You fucking idiot, Troy,” D hissed.

“What did she do?”

“She blew out their tires, Star,” D snarled.

“You moron. Now they can’t tuck tail and run if they want to.”

“I’ve got Lodestar and Dead To Me set up in sniper’s nests on my property,” was Troy’s cool retort. “We’re going to slaughter the lot of them.”

Star growled under her breath. “You leave us no fucking choice but to do that now, especially when we could have interrogated the one in charge.”

As she let off some rounds, D spat, “Idiot, idiot, idiot.”

The CCTV footage became a blur of action as men attempted to creep out of their vehicles, guns locked onto targets as they tried to shoot at the nests where the women had established themselves.

Within a matter of five minutes, Star had picked off the guys at the back and had joined D and Troy out front.

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