Page 28 of Brake's Intent

The airboat slows, and we dock.

“Watch where you walk and keep an eye out for snakes and gators,” Chains states and steps onto the dock.

“He’s going to be pissed,” Breaker announces.

“I don’t give a fuck,” Tyres growls. “He promised he wouldn’t come here again.”

“Where are we?” Faye whispers.

Tyres looks at the both of us. “Has Brake told you about our life growing up before Ryder took us in?”

“Yeah,” I answer.

“But he didn’t say much. I know only a little,” Faye murmurs quietly, her body visibly shaking. “This is the house, isn’t it?”

Tyres nods and glances between us. “Just be ready for anything,” he says and starts forward. “And we’re not joking about the snakes and gators. Be on the lookout.”

“Might want to watch out for nutria rats as well,” Ryder adds. “Those bastards aren’t anything to fuck with.”

“Nothing on the snakes that grow out here,” Breaker mutters.

“What the fuck is a nutria rat?” I mutter, never having seen one before.

“You’ll know when you come across one,” Chains grunts.

As a group, we make our way through the vines, tree roots, and scrubs that are all over the place. I swear I keep hearing the hissing sounds of gators and snakes, and it’s starting to fuck with my head. There’s only so much a man can take without flipping his shit. And this right here is about to make me do just that.

After a good fifteen minutes of trudging through what I’m now claiming to be a jungle, I’m ready to strangle Brake myself as we make it up to a house that looks like it should have been torn down years ago. Vines have all but overtaken the place, and is that . . . I narrow my eyes on the railing and jump back a step at the sight.

“That would be Pocket,” Tyres mutters, talking about a snake that’s got to be a good ten feet and is wrapped around the porch rails. “Whatever you do don’t show any signs of fear.”

Don’t show signs of fear? Is he fucking nuts?

“Brake is going to get a beat down for this shit,” Breaker grunts. “Fuckin’ hate coming here.”

“You and me both, brother,” Tyres grumbles.

“Let’s just get inside and get this over with,” Chains growls, clearly pissed about being out here.

Ryder doesn’t say anything, but the tension and rage seeping off him is enough to tell he’s past pissed.

Faye trembles next to me, and I shield her with my body from the snake because there’s honestly no damn way to hide her fear from the damn thing, and there’s no way I’m about to let that thing swallow her whole.

When we make it inside, I release a harsh breath and stare around at the decimated building. I’m willing to bet that at one point, it was a beautiful house, but now the walls were filthy, and critters were crawling over them.

“This way,” Tyres states and starts heading farther into the house.

Soon, we can hear voices, and everyone goes still because it’s not Brake’s.

“Is that?” Breaker snarls.

“Fuck me,” Tyres sneers.

“I’m going to kill those motherfuckers,” Ryder speaks up, his voice deadly as he moves. I know things just went from fucked to royally fucked because I’ve got a feeling I know who those voices belong to.

But the question now is why the fuck are they here, and is Brake with them?

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

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