Page 66 of Unmasked Anarchy
“What’s your fuckin’ problem?”Kael growls.
“I don’t know, why don’t you ask my fuckin’ wife, cunt,” Gage hisses, pinning Kael with a glare.
“Not now,” I say, shaking my head and giving them both a stern look.“We don’t have time for this shit.Can you sort it out after?”
Both men keep the glares, but they don’t say anything further.
Time becomes a fluid thing.My heart pounds so hard it actually hurts.I count the seconds.Five minutes go by before the air cracks, and the world becomes white.The explosion shudders the ground, and the trees around us shake threateningly.My eardrums pop, and then a loud ringing sound takes the place of the explosion.I press my hands over my ears, dropping my head as Kael’s arm goes around me, pulling me closer.
The wait after is agony, it feels like it takes so long before my ears stop ringing and I can hear again.
Both men check their guns, and then I know they’re ready.Ready to kill, without hesitation.The sound of cars rolling down the dirt road tells us that the plan worked.It shocked them, and now they’re speeding down to see what the hell happened.They’re loaded, I already know that, but they’re not expecting a sneak attack.
It’s the club's only hope.
Kael takes my chin, turning my face towards his.“Don’t move,” he says.“Promise me.”
“I won’t,” I whisper.
Gage glances at me, and I can see something in his eyes, but I can’t make sense of what it is.“Do as he says, Sabie.Don’t move.”
I nod.
The cars skid to a stop, and doors burst open.Men spill out, fanning across the yard, guns held loose but ready.They shout loudly, words I can’t quite make out as they look around.They’re confused, I know they are.I bet they think the club took the bomb into the woods.They don’t know they’re waiting right there, ready to shoot.
The clubs make their play.Wolfe, Knox, Zane, and a couple others burst from the woods opposite us, fire snapping from the barrels of their rifles.The Cartel team scrambles, caught off guard for the first half-second.Kael and Gage exchange one look—a lifetime of hate and mutual destruction—and then join the war.
The clatter of gunfire is so total it erases everything else.
I press my hands to my face, trying to breathe through the sounds of death and bullets.
This is the worst feeling in the world.
The worst.
There is a stench to gunfire.You never realize it until you’re up close—the sulfurous, filthy taste of violence, coating the back of your throat.I keep my head down, but my body is on high alert.Through the trees, I can only see a sea of black, leather jackets as the men shoot, bodies dropping.The cartel has more men arriving by the second.
The clubs are outnumbered.They’re going to kill every single one of them.
My mind works it over and over, hope thinning with every re-count.It’s not going to be enough.If I stay here, this ends with all of us dead.I watch Kael.I think he knows it, too, because for a second, he looks right where I hide.Not at me, but at the space, the empty air.
I have to do something.
Low, fast, I crawl back the way we came, my fingers numb, my every limb trembling from the aftershock of the explosion and the fear now crashing through my chest.I have to go around so I come out behind the barn, otherwise I will be seen before I make it.Once I step out into the opening, I run towards the back of the barn and peer inside.I can see the van the club always rides with, the one that holds their weapons.It is inside the barn.
Taking a deep breath, I slide my body through an old, broken window at the back.Keeping low, I reach the van.The back is still open, the club’s stash inside.I drag out a rifle, almost double my body weight, my pulse thundering so loud I can barely register the new round of gunfire.
This will cause damage, no doubt about it.
I need a location where I can see everyone, but they can’t see me.Throwing the gun over my shoulder, I climb back out the way I came and go back into the woods, searching frantically until I find a spot that works.An old fallen log I can rest the rifle on, and I can see out into the clearing.
I set myself up, my hands shaking, and then I lean down and find the first member to take down.A guy who is currently aiming right for Rafe, Gage’s brother.I don’t hesitate.I squeeze the trigger.The rifle roars as the bullet zips out, taking the man down in seconds.There is that much chaos unfolding, nobody notices.
I do it again.
And again.
“Fuck you,” I hiss at no one, at everyone, at every man who dragged us here.
