Venom stroked his beard as he read over what Facet had found.
“Lucky for you, like I said, I’m fucking phenomenal. I have a plan. Of course, I know it has to be voted on, and I’m open to suggestions for changes.” Facet grinned smugly.
Before anyone could respond, someone was banging on the door.
Blade got up to see who it was. When he opened the door, our senior prospect stood there, out of breath.
“What the fuck is going on?” Venom asked as he got to his feet.
“Prez, I’m sorry to interrupt, but you need to see this.” His eyes darted around, and I could tell it was bad.
Chairs practically toppled over as everyone jumped up and rushed out of the room after the prospect.
He ran to the property entrance where a second prospect waited, hand over his mouth as he stared through the bars.
“Jesus fucking Christ. Open the gate,” Venom demanded. The prospects rushed to follow directions, and each of us pulled out whatever weapons we had on us as we scanned the highway in front of the clubhouse property.
“What if it’s booby trapped?” Kicker cursed as he paced and stared at the battered body lying on the gravel drive.
“It’s not,” Voodoo assured us, looking as if he was coming out of a trance.
“Who is that?” Hawk watched as Blade and Voodoo cautiously rolled the man over.
The man gasped for air, and we cussed in surprise. “Motherfucker, that’s Billy,” Facet declared as Voodoo kneeled next to him, and Billy gripped his arm as he fought to breathe. He was supposed to be with Squirrel.
“Fuck. Call Squirrel now!” Venom ordered.
“Already on it,” Hawk replied with his phone to his ear.
“Let’s get him inside—we’re too exposed like this. At least bring him through the gate and close it. Blade, go get the SUV. Goddammit, we need Angel here. Is Squirrel answering?” Venom turned to Hawk who shook his head with a pensive frown.
“Keep trying,” Venom instructed. “Sabre, call Angel. If he answers, I want two of you to go pick him up on the cage.”
“Blade and I can go,” Ghost offered. Venom gave him a thankful nod.
Blade must’ve been running like the goddamn Flash because he came flying up within minutes of taking off at a sprint.
“Squirrel is good. He just called me back. He’d been waiting in the lobby for Billy to get off. He figured he was working late,” Hawk announced.
We all helped load Billy up into the back of the SUV after it arrived and raced back to the clubhouse. Despite being careful, he moaned as we moved him, and his breathing grew raspy and shallow.
“Billy, you hang on. You hear me?” Venom encouraged as we got him settled on the gurney in the infirmary.
“Prez,” he choked out.
“Shhh. Don’t talk. We need to conserve your strength until we can get Angel back here.” Venom gripped Billy’s blood-coated hand, but Billy shook his head. Fuck, he looked bad.
“M-m-message,” he stuttered.
“What?” Venom froze. Billy suddenly had everyone’s undivided attention.
“He said he’s g-g-going to p-p-pick us off one b-by one.” His bloodshot eyes met mine. “Until it’s j-just y-you.”
That motherfucker.
Well, I was going to find a way to get to him first.