Rowan killed the engine and got out of the car alongside Wylder and Kaige. I stayed where I was only because Wylder might have a bit of a point about my presence throwing off the guys’ dynamic. I didn’t want to be the reason one of them got messed up. Next to me, Gideon was snapping pictures of the buildings around us with his tablet. My hands balled on my lap.
The Steel Knights looked up and noticed the guys approaching them, frowns crossing their faces. “What the fuck do you want?” one of them called out, swinging a bat that was covered with nails.
“Ideally you, lying in several pieces on the ground,” Wylder said in an easy tone, as if he were talking about nothing but the weather. “I think it’s time you remembered who actually owns this county, and it’s not the Steel Knights.”
The girl took the distraction as an opportunity to make a run for it, but one of the Steel Knights yanked her back by her hair. As she shrieked, he looked toward Wylder and the rest with a challenge in his eyes.
I growled in anger. What an absolute shit-prick.
Kaige barreled towards the Steel Knights instantly, sending two of them flying to the ground. One of them cocked his gun at him, but before he could pull the trigger, Kaige ripped it out of the guy’s hands and threw it away. He slammed his fists into the sides of the guy’s head hard enough to make him yelp.
The one who’d grabbed the girl pushed her away and started to make a run for it. But Rowan was faster. He sprinted up to him and drove his heel into the back of his knee to topple him. The man reached for his gun and shot at him blindly. Rowan easily ducked and twisted the gun away from his hand while he stepped on his wrist. The man groaned in agony.
Where had my easy-going high school sweetheart learned those moves?
The guys didn’t take out their own guns. They didn’t want to kill these assholes—not today. They were sending a message, and they needed the losers to go deliver it to their idiot friends. And to Colt.
The girl dashed off. One of the men on the ground stood up shakily. He reached for his bat and brought it crashing down on Kaige’s arm, but the jerk of Kaige’s wrist sent the weapon smashing into its owner’s face in turn. Blood gushed from his forehead. He swore and took off.
Rowan dragged what looked like the leader of the bunch over and threw him at Wylder’s feet. Bending down to the battered man’s level, Wylder yanked his head up by the hair and looked him straight in the eye.
“What do you fucking want from us?” the man groaned.
“You’ve forgotten who the boss is around here,” Wylder said in a chilling voice. “This is your only gentle reminder. The Nobles are clearing the trash from our streets. And if anyone asks who gave us that authority, tell them you talked to Wylder Noble himself.”
He picked up the nail-studded baseball bat and then drove it into the man’s palm, drawing blood and a scream that echoed down the street. I had no sympathy for Wylder’s victim, especially not after the way that prick had assaulted the girl. He could consider it payback.
Rowan ripped off the bandana from the man’s arm and handed it to Wylder, who took something out of his pocket. At first I thought he was reaching for a gun, but then I realized that it was a lighter.
Wylder placed it under the bandana and set it on fire. He dropped it on the ground, watching as the hungry flames curled around the Steel Knight symbol, devouring it. It seemed so prophetic that goosebumps ran down my arms. This was the beginning of the end.
When the bandana was all but destroyed, Wylder stepped on it with his heel deliberately and said, “Remember this the next time we meet.” He kicked the guy in the ribs for good measure and left him groaning on the pavement.
Kaige and Rowan got into the car after Wylder. We still had more work to do.
We stopped again a few streets down in front of a vandalized laundromat. Kaige stepped out first, eyeing the four Steel Knights who were hanging out on the sidewalk, probably looking to deal. None of them had any weapons in sight, but I suspected they had at least a knife or a gun on them.
Kaige casually strolled up to them. “You need something, big guy?” the closest one asked.
“I don’t know. I was looking for Cunt Town and my GPS seems to tell me it’s here,” Kaige said with a smirk.
“You son of a bitch,” the man growled and raised his fist. Wrong move. Kaige caught him easily and twisted his hand. I heard the crunch of bones breaking.
The other guys stared at Kaige in shock and fury. “You’re not going to get away with this,” one of them said.
Before we knew what was happening, he whistled shrilly. Kaige punched him hard, again and again, until he shut up.
The other Steel Knights tried to bolt, but Wylder and Rowan moved to intercept them. “I don’t think so,” Wylder said with a cruel smile that somehow electrified me even though I knew how unpleasant his viciousness could be. “No one’s leaving here without paying their dues.”
A couple of the guys swung at them—and the third managed to dart between them while they were occupied, dashing past the car.
Oh no, he didn’t. I didn’t give a fuck what Wylder had ordered me to do.
I shoved open the door and leapt out. Flinging myself after the escapee, I latched my fingers around his arm and wrenched him back toward me—and into my fist. The snap of his breaking nose was the most satisfying thing I’d heard all day. A weird, woozy exhilaration swept through me.
I stomped my heel down on the guy’s shin and kneed him in the gut for good measure. When I turned around, Wylder and Rowan were striding over to me, the guys they’d been dealing with slumped on the ground. I braced myself for Wylder to berate me.
Instead, his eyes slid to the man I’d knocked down and back to my face. His jaw worked. “We got them all,” he said. Not a “thank you” or a “good job,” but I’d still take it over a “I told you to stay in the car.”