I made the call. Lost my fucking words and hung up before Nash answered.
Damn.
I tapped out the distress code instead. Sent a location pin from a burner Alexei then crushed with the heel of his boot. “I don’t know how long they’ll stay down.”
Alexei followed my gaze to the knocked-out Crows. Some were already beginning to stir. “Let one of them up. He can go home with a message.”
“What message?”
“That it is war, though maybe you should wait for Cam.”
I didn’t know if he was coming. We’d always tried to keep him away from murder scenes. But as the thought crossed my mind, I knew it was bullshit and nothing and no one would be able to keep him off the road.
Alexei moved out, rounding the pile of Crows from behind so they wouldn’t see him coming. He cold-cocked the handful that had stirred and pointed at the one he’d apparently decided was allowed to wake up. “We need to move them from the side of the road and clear the debris from the crashed bike. Will they bring a van?”
“Yeah. They don’t know what they’re dealing with, so they’ll bring everything and everyone they can while leaving the compound protected.”
Alexei nodded. “Keep this one where we can see him. I will deal with the rest.”
“You’re going to toss six grown men over the fence by yourself?”
“I am going to roll them into the stream and hope they drown.”
He wasn’t joking.
I didn’t care.
We separated and got to work. I yanked the stirring Crow under the cover of nearby trees and tied him to the trunk of an oak. “Don’t fucking move.”
He was still too out of it to try, but I decked him anyway, craving the violence of it to soothe my frayed edges. With him secure, I ran back to the road and faced the mess of Alexei’s Yamaha.
It was destroyed, fragments of it strewn far and wide. Only the body remained intact, protecting the weapons he’d carried beneath his seat.
I hauled that part back to where I’d left the Crow, stashing it without him seeing me come or leave again.
On the road, I gathered every smashed chunk of Alexei’s bike I could find and cleared the road quicker than a squad of coppers.
I’d done this shit before, and staying busy stopped me fixating on how hard Alexei had gone down.He’s got to be hurting.
My bike was in one piece. I wheeled it away from the road, keeping a sharp eye on Alexei as he moved men as if they were featherlight ghosts.
He caught me watching and grinned. His dark humour sucked me in and I smirked back. This was the life we’d chosen, after all. None of us had a seat in heaven.
Alexei went back to work. Approaching vehicles shattered the quiet and a second burner phone buzzed in my pocket.
I pulled it out to a message from a number I trusted.
Kings:here.
Two bikes rumbled in the distance. Scouting. I knew the sound of the engines as well as my own.
Mateo.
Nash.
I flashed the lights on my bike. Nash slowed while Mateo spun around to go back to whoever was behind him. Breath left my body. I scanned the fight scene for Alexei.
He emerged from the shadows whole and tipped me a wink. “They will be comfortable there until you decide what to do with them.”