Kaige shook his head, and Gideon went back to his laptop. He flipped through several feeds of street footage. “He does appear to be alone.”
I wavered for a second and then turned toward the stairs. “I’ll go talk to him. Like you said, I can take him on my own if I have to.”
Wylder was at my side in an instant. He grabbed my arm to stop me. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
I stared back at him, matching the intensity of his gaze. “Even if he made the stupid decision to side with Colt without knowing the whole story, he’s still one of my dad’s people. One of my people. What if he knows something important?” I pulled out my gun. “I’ll be careful. And if you’re so concerned, you can come along for backup.”
Wylder’s mouth flattened, but he let me go, following close at my heels as we descended through the two floors of the restaurant. When I reached the front door, he hung back to stay out of view unless he was needed.
I eased the door open a crack. “Back up a couple of steps,” I said, pitching my voice just loud enough to reach the guy outside. “I’m here. And I’ve got a gun on you, so keep your hands where I can see them. What do you want?”
The guy held his hands out at his sides as he followed my order. His skin looked jaundiced in the yellow light of the streetlamps, but that couldn’t explain the tension and, I thought, fear etched all over his face.
“I came to warn you,” he said. “Colt found out what you’re planning, I don’t even know how, and he’s rallying the Steel Knights right now to charge over here in full force.”
So our plan had just gotten off to an early start? “They’re coming to recover the truck?” I said, feeling like there had to be more to it.
The guy grimaced. “No. Well, maybe that too, but he knows you’re planning to ambush them. He knows you’ll be staked out here, and he’s planning to catch you with his own ambush. Unless you’ve got a whole army in there with you, you’ve got to take off before they get here.”
A chill washed through me.
“How the fuck are we supposed to believe you?” Wylder asked, coming up beside me. He released the safety on his gun with an audible click.
The guy outside blanched. “I swear,” he said, raising his hands higher, “I’m just trying to do the right thing. I shouldn’t have listened to Colt—I didn’t know what went down with Tyrell—but I should have realized it wasn’t like him to plan to stab someone in the back. The Claws were like family to me. I’m not doing some snake’s dirty work. Just hurry.”
“Stay there,” I told him, and yanked the door shut. I turned to face Wylder and realized the other guys had come downstairs to listen too, Gideon with his laptop balanced against his hip so he could keep an eye on the footage at the same time.
“It’s got to be another of Colt’s plans to fuck with us,” Kaige said. “He wants us to leave so he can grab the stash without us getting in the way.”
Gideon was frowning. “If he already knows that we’re not actually using the truck ourselves, that it’s bait and we’re waiting here for them to come, then we can’t get in the way. They’re not falling for the trap in the first place—he’s made us. The question is, how?”
“I’m not sure that matters right now,” Rowan put in. “If that guy is telling the truth, we don’t have time to figure it out. The five of us can’t fight off Colt’s entire force if he’s decided he doesn’t care about pissing off Ezra anymore.”
Wylder exhaled roughly. “The Steel Knights have already tried to kill me once. I think it’s safe to say that ship has sailed.” He looked at me. “This was one of your father’s men. Do you believe him?”
I swallowed hard. Was the decision really going to come down to my judgment? I got a little giddy knowing that he trusted me enough to ask, but I was also nervous as hell to be making the call for all of us.
All I could say was the truth. “I do. If Colt knows we’re here, he’d have a much easier time killing us if he took us by surprise. I can’t see how he’d benefit from getting us to run, expecting his men to arrive at any second. Rowan’s right—we wouldn’t stand a chance against a whole horde of them anyway.”
Kaige swore. “We can’t just leave the truck. I’m not letting them put that garbage on the street after all.”
Gideon cleared his throat. “We might not have a choice.” He jabbed at his laptop’s touch pad, leaping from feed to feed. “There are a hell of a lot of cars heading this way in a big group—from a bunch of different directions. They’re ready to box us in. We’ll have a better chance getting out of here unnoticed in the smaller car.”
“But the drugs—”
“Let’s go!” Wylder snapped. “Run upstairs, grab anything you might have left that’d point to us being here in case the cops come after all, and let’s get out of here.”
I hadn’t brought anything with me that I didn’t already have on me. My heart thudding, I cracked open the door again. The former Claws guy was shuffling his feet nervously. He jerked to attention when I peeked out.
“Thank you,” I said. “Now you get going too. If Colt finds out you tipped us off—”
He shuddered. “I know. You did a good thing for Jenner, Mercy. The Claws live on as long as you’re still with us.” Then he darted off into the night.
The guys were pounding up and down the stairs, shouting questions and orders at each other. I hustled to the back and peered out into the alley. We’d parked Rowan’s car down by the end of it, a few buildings away. The alley was completely silent, but the air felt heavy like the hour before a storm.
“Go, go,” Wylder shouted from behind me. We burst out into the alley—
And then tires screeched to a halt all around us, including at both ends of the alleyway.