Page 133 of Queen of Anarchy (Dirty Broken Savages 2)

The guys cluster in, forming a kind of barrier around us. The man Knox shot lies on his back, his breathing labored and blood bubbling out of his mouth.

“Who the fuck are you?” I ask him, trying not to sound as shaky as I feel. “Why are you doing this?”

“Bitch,” he curses at me, voice raspy and heavy with pain. He’s dying, the light fading from his eyes. “We—we bite back. We do not… yield. For Diego.”

He takes one last rattling breath, and then he’s gone, dead in the middle of the floor.

“Who the fuck is Diego?” Ash asks, firing off a quick burst as more gunmen try to get close.

I open my mouth to say I have no fucking clue, but then it hits me. I look up and meet Priest’s gaze, and I know he knows too.

It feels like it was a long time ago now. So much has happened since my first botched attempt to take out Ivan St. James. In all the chaos and confusion and emotions since then, I’ve barely thought about missing the shot and killing the leader of that cartel Ivan was meeting with instead. And then the frantic chase through the alleys that ended with me being cornered and sure I was going to die.

But then Priest showed up and killed the men who were after me, and we managed to get away.

I should have known this would come back to bite me in the ass, but there’s just been so much going on that I barely remembered.

“The cartel,” Priest spits, the anger in him rising so much that it’s definitely visible now. “The men we killed the day River let Ivan get away.”

“I didn’t let him get away, he—” I cut myself off, because that’s not the point.

“Fuck,” Gage curses. “Goddammit. We didn’t even think about them. Of course they’d want their fucking revenge. They’ve probably been planning this.”

“I bet they’re the ones behind the attack the other day too,” I say as the pieces fall together in my head. “They hired someone or sent someone after me.”

Gage nods, still looking furious. “They must’ve pieced together that you were responsible and then sent someone after you. That failed, and their man never reported back, so they resorted to this.”

“How would they know she’d be here, though?” Ash asks. “It’s not like she’s the one getting married.”

“They knew she was at our house, Ash,” Gage says back. “And Julian reached out to anyone who was anyone about this wedding. It wouldn’t have been hard for them to find out about it and know she’d be here.”

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,fuck.

This is the last goddamn thing I needed. Hannah and Cody are still right here, and I have no idea where Julian or Natalie is. The plan is well and truly off the rails now, and I don’t even know if we can salvage it.

The shooting is still going on. There are more bodies on the ground, some dressed in the black of the attackers, some in the finery of the wedding guests. It’s fucking chaos, and everything is a mess.

“You have to go,” Priest says, pausing to turn and shoot at someone coming up on the side of the nave, trying to sneak around the pews. “You need to get out of here.”

“But—”

“The plan, River,” Gage barks, cutting me off. “You need to get to safety. You and Hannah and Cody. We’ll cover for you in here. Just go. Now!”

I hesitate, still not sure if I should leave them, caught between two conflicting impulses—to get my sister out and to make sure the guys are okay, to stay and have their backs.

As if sensing my internal struggle, Priest grabs my arm and pulls me closer. He cups my face with the hand not holding his gun and kisses me hard enough that I see stars for a second.

Then he pulls back and holds my gaze. “Go. We’ve got this.”

“Okay,” I whisper, so much adrenaline barreling through my body that I feel like I’m vibrating. “Okay.”

“We’ll get you an opening,” Knox grunts.

Without wasting another second, he and the other Kings lay down cover fire while I grab Hannah and Cody and we start moving. Luckily, it’s not far to that side door. The original plan—to get them out through the alley around the back of the church—is probably still the best plan, so I lead them in that direction.

Compared to the noise of the shooting and screaming in the main part of the church, it’s eerily quiet in this hallway. The heavy huffs of my breathing and the sound of Cody sniffling into Hannah’s dress as he clings to her seem too loud in my ears.

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