One Hundred & Thirty-Six Scars (The Devil's Own, #1) (12 page)

“Remind me why we have to be there at exactly 12:01?” Ripper tenses from the back of the van we’re in as we wait for Hella to leave the house.

“Because if we all showed up at different times, that would fuck everything up. The Russians turn up and see it’s the Feds, then
The Army
show up, can you see how that would pan out?” Nyx replies next to him.

“Shut up. Both of you. I don’t even want to do this, something doesn’t feel right. I fucking hate the Feds,” I reply, flicking my switchblade between my fingers.

“You’re the boss, so
why
are we doing this?”

“Because I need these assholes off my ass without a war, so I can proceed with getting all the innocent people the fuck out of the base. Then, I can kill them all.”

“Who? The innocents? That’s a low, even for you, Beast.” Flicker laughs from the back. I shake my head. The boy needs a kick up the fucking ass sometimes.

“No Flicker, you dumb fuck.
The Army
. Jesus, how the fuck did you get patched in again?” Ripper answers shaking his head.

Flicker flips him off. “By fucking your mom.”

Ripper’s head snaps up, eyes narrowed. Flicker throws his hands up. “I’m kidding, bro. Fuck!”

“Fuck up, Flicker, or I’ll drop your ass back off at college.” Flicker was our prospect but got patched in a few months ago after he took one for us. He spent twelve months locked up, he patched in after he got out. He’s twenty-four. You wouldn’t guess, but the young buck can end almost anyone with one punch. I strategically placed all the men I have in my chapter. A few of them are still here from my dad’s days, but a few of them are newly patched in after I took the gavel—Flicker is one of them and so is Hannibal.

The driver’s door swings open and Hella gets in, starting the ignition. “We’re ready. Abby said no later than 12:01, she’s persistent on that.”

A growl escapes my mouth and Hella snaps his head to me. “Don’t growl at me.” He laughs, putting the gear into first. “Save that shit for the bitches.”

“I don’t like it.”

We pull down the gravel driveway until we reach the entry gates. Looking to Hella, I shake my head and push the button to open the gates. I don’t know why, but I don’t like this idea. I want my in, so that’s the only reason I’m following Hella’s lead on this. That, and because he’s never let me down before.

Sure enough, once we pull out of the compound, the Black SUV pulls up behind us, following closely. I keep my eyes locked on the mirror, looking sideways at Hella.

The drive there is silent and we keep it at a slow, consistent speed. Once we hit the turn-off, Hella pulls in off the road and the SUV looks to hesitate for a second.

“Come on,” Hella urges keeping his speed maintained while his eyes stay locked in the rear vision mirror and the road ahead of him. Once the SUV begins following us again, we all let out a breath of air. Because the dust is causing smoke to rise up outside from our speed, you can hardly see anything. Once Hella swings around a tight bended corner, I look to the time to see 12:01 exactly and the van comes to a halt. Silence fills the atmosphere, every hair I have on my body stands to attention along with my senses.

With my jaw clenching, I turn my head sideways to look out the side mirror. The black SUV halts behind us suddenly, almost rear ending us. Opening my door, a round of gunshots ring out, bouncing off the shell of my door. “Fuck!”

The SUV attempts to reverse when another truck pulls up behind them. Squinting my eyes to look closer, I see the girl in the passenger seat, her hair glows with Abby’s trademark red hair.

“Who the fuck just shot at us?” I yell out to Hella, who’s ducked behind his driver’s side door, loading his gun up again. He’d already emptied an entire round and he probably didn’t miss either.

“Russian’s, I’m guessing.” Before he swings back around and unloads another round.

Gun shots sound off from behind me along with a blood-curdling scream. Swinging my head around, two women’s bodies are lying lifeless on the ground. Picking up my gun, I point it out in front of me and head toward the one I know is Abby, when a man dressed in an elegant, crisp black suit stands in front of her, blocking my path. He stands with the type of calmness and cockiness one can only learn by being in
The Army
. The van trunk opens wide and the boys unload out with their weapons raised.

“Stop! Hold the fuck up,” I yell at them. They look at me like I’m crazy, but I need to know what this fucker has to say.

“Let her go,” I state, pointing my gun to Abby. There’s another woman wearing a badge dead on the ground beside her, blood trickling out of her eyes, landing onto the dirt ridden ground.

“Hella!” I roar out. In a split second, gun shots die out and he rounds the van to stand up beside me.

Realization sets in, his face morphing into the lethal son of a bitch he is.

“Abby?” His voice cracks for a second before anger seeps into his bones. You can see the exact moment that that anger has settled.

“Let her go.
Now,
” he warns, bringing his eyes up to the crisp suit.

Crisp suit laughs while shaking his head. “Now, I can’t do that, Hella. In fact…” he looks down at Abby before looking back to us. “…I don’t think we’re finished with her body yet.”

“You won’t win this,” I state just as helicopter propellers sound off over the top of us at around the same time the gun shots die out from where they were coming from, with cars taking off in the distance.
I guess the Russians are gone.

“We already have. We are always, one step ahead of you boys. Remember that.”

“We could kill you right now and it not be an issue,” I say, smiling back at him.

He laughs, then points to the sky. “You see that?” He points to the helicopter overhead. Hella steps forward forcefully, my hand swinging out and catching his forearm. He cocks his head, looking at me over his shoulder. I shake my head and pull him back. I know she’s dead, and if Hella inspects that any closer, I cannot be responsible for his lashing out.

“I have five minutes to get out of here before more backup show, and judged by those little red dots covering you and your men… I’d say you can do neither of those things.” Gripping Abby’s arm, he pulls her limp body up and drags her by her armpits back to her car before him and the other man he was with get into Abby’s SUV and pull out of there with the helicopter following them.

“Fuck!” Swinging my hand around and landing it in the window to our van.

“Move the car…” Hannibal points to Flicker, “....now! We need to get the fuck out.”

I look to Hella, who still hasn’t moved, or breathed by the looks of it.

Flicker gets in the driver’s seat, dropping the emergency break and pushing it out of our way before we all climb back into the van. Once Hella gets in, I turn my attention to him. “I could fucking kill you,” I growl.

He brings his eyes to me. “Fuck up, Beast. Don’t start with this shit. I respect you as my president, but we were equals before this shit brought us together, and right now I’m unstable enough to fuck shit up. Don’t…” He turns the key in the ignition, the veins in his neck pulsating, his jaw clenched and his eyes dead. I laugh under my breath. I know he’s any second away from killing something. Turning the headlights on, I look out ahead of us at what can only be described as a war ground.

“Holy fuck,” Flicker whispers from behind me.

Swallowing down, I shrug. “Fucking stupid. We should have never been here either. Let’s go.” The entire ground was littered with bodies. There were Feds and men in casual attire, I’m guessing Russian. What a fucking mess, this has just caused a whole lot of fucking heat that I didn’t want. I’m sad for Abby, I am. But she was asking for it. You dance with fire, you’re going to get burned eventually. Her execution wasn’t thought through enough obviously. Looks like we’ll be rolling with Sinful Souls, not just for their beef, but for what is now ours too.

On our drive back to the compound, I turn to Hella. “We need to talk about Abby,” I say, clutching onto the arm rest.

“I know,” he answers. “We need to call Zane when we get back.”

Once we pull into the compound, I walk into the barn where a few of the men who stayed behind are sitting chatting.

“Hey, fellas, that was quick!” Toke answers, swinging around on his chair.

“Didn’t take long,” I grumble, walking into the boardroom.

Hella follows me in along with Hannibal, Nyx, and Ripper. “I need to call, Zane.” Pulling out my phone, I scroll through my contacts until I come to his number, pushing the green button connecting me to his call.

“Sup, brother. What can I do for you?”

“Yeah,” I answer, taking a seat at the head of the table. “Some shit just went down today.”

“What sort of shit?”

“Did Abby tell you the operation she was working on?”

“With the Russians? Yeah, she did. Was dead against it.”

“Yeah, well she tried to add
The Army
into that mix, too. Something’s happened. Are you sitting down?”

Silence fills the phone before a door shuts in the distance. “Yeah,” Zane begins, clearing his throat. “I’m here.”

“We meet her down where we were supposed to. She got caught up between it all and someone from
The Army
took her down. I’m sorry, Zane. She didn’t make it, but they took her body.”

“Fuck,” he whispers before continuing, “are you sure she was dead?”

“I couldn’t check her. They wouldn’t let any of us near her. Had laser beams directed on every single one of us from their helicopter in the sky. But she wasn’t moving. I watched her chest and it was still. It didn’t look good.”

“Fuck. Fuck. Okay… Shit!” More silence rips through.

“Give me some time. We’re going to need some time to get through her funeral. I don’t want to add
The Army
onto the stress Blake and Ade already have with the Russians. I’ll keep that part out for now.
Shit.
I’ll need you guys in a week.”

“A week?”

“Yeah, give us some time to have her… funeral. I’ll keep it closed casket. That way there are no questions about her body. Leave on Monday and meet us at the compound.”

“All right, brother. We’ll be there.”

Hanging up the phone, I lean into my chair and throw it onto the table. This has started one mass fucking war, and we’re right in the middle of it. Two major sides, who you’d never want as enemies, and we have both. The Russians and
The Army.

Fuck.