Rubi was quiet, adding weight to the intensity already bearing down on us.
“Cam.” Nash crouched on his other side. “We can’t fight them like this. If they’ve got a van full of men, we won’t survive it.”
“I know it.” Cam’s frustration simmered in every inch of him. “Give me the phone. I’m calling that Russian cunt.”
As he said the words, Ifeltmovement behind us. Didn’t hear it, but I knew it was there in every inch of my tingling skin.
I jerked around, shielding Cam’s back. Bodies of men, at least ten, maybe twelve, loomed out of the darkness, surrounding us from behind as the rumble of bike engines sounded in the distance. They weren’t faces I knew, but they weren’t fucking Russian either, and my gut told me who I was looking at before the face of the bastard Crow solidified.
Butch had his uncle’s features—dirty hair, reddened skin, eyes like pissholes in the snow. He had the same demented stare too, as if the world he saw was a million times more exciting than a biker ambush in the rain.He really believes he’s a king.
Either way, there were still more of them than there were of us—how did they find us?And they were tooled up to the brim. Bats, blades, and chains. We were armed too, but it wouldn’t matter if they overwhelmed us. Two machetes versus a scaffold pole?
Yeah. I didn’t like those odds.
Fucking pussies. Fight us with your fists.
It was never gonna happen, and I braced myself, tightening my grip on the pipe in my hands. Alexei had offered me a gun. For the first time, I regretted rearing back in horror and putting myself at the mercy of his amusement. And then his irritation.“Protect yourself. Protect Cam.”
Idiot that I was, I’d believedmyselfto be enough.
I’d believed Alexei to be enough, and he wasn’t fucking here.
Text him.You might not get another chance.
My personal phone was in my van. I couldn’t risk having it with me in case we killed people tonight and the feds tracked my whereabouts, but I had a burner. And so did he.
The Crows drew closer. Cam’s back pressed to mine and he reached for me, his hand warm on my wrist. “I fucking love you.”
I wanted to say it back. I wanted the words to fall out of my mouth like a river running down a mountainside, soaking him to the skin.
To the bone.
But I couldn’t unlock my jaw.
Use your phone, wingman.
We were seconds away from the fight. I yanked the burner from my pocket and typed out what I wished I could fucking scream.
Saint:i love you
I showed it to Cam, then I fired that fucker into the ether. To Alexei. Because I meant it with every-fucking-thing I had in me, and I needed him toknow.
The fight hit, front and back. No warning. Just the smack and crush of bodies against bodies. Metal on bone. It was like every battle we’d ever fought.
Swing. Dodge. Jab.
Screams and yells.
Blood and guts.
I downed the men that came for me. In my peripheral, I saw Cam do the same, but he was a marked man. We both were. Nash fought like hell, screaming orders at the tiny army of men we’d brought with us, but we couldn’t outrun the inevitable.
Nash took a bat to the knee. He went down hard. Rubi joined the fray and covered him, but there were too many. For Rubi. For Cam as his injured shoulder began to betray him.
For me.
We formed a circle around Nash, protecting him as he struggled to stand.