“They might have kept it quiet,” I said.
We’d only found out about the bar’s secret thanks to the text chain the Claws techie had managed to dig up. One of the Storm’s guys had told someone passing on goods to them to come through the bar and down here so it wouldn’t be obvious where they were going.
“Ah ha.” Wylder shoved aside a stack of crates to reveal a narrow door in the wall that faced the hotel. This door was older than the one in the alley, with a keyhole and nowhere to input codes. But that was fine. I’d done a little practicing of my own this morning—with Anthea, to warm up my lock picking skills.
Drawing out the picks, I took a deep breath to steady myself. Then I knelt down and fit them into the keyhole. Anthea’s advice rolled through my mind as I adjusted them. Take it slow and easy. Feel your way to the right spot…
With a click, the lock disengaged. Grinning triumphantly, I straightened up and twisted the knob.
The passage on the other side was just as narrow, with crumbling brick walls that’d obviously seen better days. We slunk along it to the door at the other end, which should lead into the hotel’s basement.
We stood still for a minute, listening, but no sound came from the other side. We’d figured it was unlikely they’d have guards down here when they didn’t expect anyone to know about the secret entrance. I did my trick with the lock picks again, and in the space of several heartbeats, I had that door open too.
We closed it behind us as we came out into a larger storage room. A distinct chemical smell hung in the air. Wylder narrowed his eyes at the plastic boxes stacked along the far wall. “Glory?”
“No doubt.” I had the urge to toss over one of the explosives from the bag slung across my back, but blowing up their stash here would only ruin our real plan. We didn’t want the Storm’s people to have any clue we were coming until we were destroying them.
They’d all be focused on the fake Wylder and the other men outside for now. Using the element of surprise should be easy.
It was getting out again that’d be the hard part.
Wylder tucked his gun into the holster under his arm and took out his knife. Rowan and I brandished our own blades. We crept down the hall that led into the storage room and found a set of stairs that would take us up to the first floor. A couple of voices carried down to us.
Rowan tapped his finger to his lips. We eased up the steps, feeling them out carefully to avoid any creaks. A couple of men came into view in what appeared to be a large kitchen, leaning against one of the counters with guns at their hips, just chatting.
Wylder pulled into the lead. He braced himself stock still on a step a few down from the top, where the shadows still hid him. Then he launched himself into the room so fast I lost my breath.
“What the—” one of the guys exclaimed. That was all he got out before Wylder had plunged the knife into his neck. As the first guy slumped with a deathly gurgle, the Noble heir was already lunging at the second guy.
The Storm’s man had reached for his gun, but Wylder caught him with a knee to the gut and slashed his throat when he doubled over. That body thumped to the ground too. We froze, glancing around the room and through the doorway.
No one came running. More voices were carrying from the front of the building, along with mocking laughter and occasional gunfire. We’d told our guys to take a few shots here and there to keep the Storm’s people occupied until we were in place. From the sounds of things, they were doing their job well.
A door at the other end of the kitchen showed the gleam of sunlight through its window. I added that exit to my mental map of the place.
We’d just started down the hall toward the front of the hotel when a guy stepped out of a room closer by. Rowan acted immediately, springing at him and twisting his neck with a grunt and a snap of bones. The guy crumpled to the floor, his body slack. Rowan stared down at him, panting.
“I wasn’t sure that would even work,” he admitted in a whisper.
“Good thing it did.” Wylder drew his gun again and nodded toward the rooms up front. “Sounds like most of them are gathered up there. We aren’t going to get much farther without someone raising the alarm. Let’s take out as many as we can before they realize we’re here.”
That was the strategy we’d discussed before. I readied my own gun, and we eased down the hall until it opened up into a larger foyer.
A broad staircase led up to the second floor. Straight ahead was the front door, where a few Storm men were staked out, peering through the panes of the small window. I could see several other men in each of the front rooms on either side of it, watching the street, a couple of them taking shots at the fake Wylder outside.
Wylder smiled thinly. Without a word, he caught my eyes and pointed to the door. Then he looked at Rowan and motioned to the room on the left. So he was going to take the right. I tensed, waiting for his signal to move.
He swung his hand and leapt toward the room he’d picked in the same instant. Rowan dashed to the left, and I stepped forward, raising my gun.
This was for Roy, and my family, and every other person who’d died because of the Storm’s arrival in the Bend.
We all opened fire at the same time. I squeezed the trigger again and again, braced against the recoil. The thunder of the shots made my ears ache, but I didn’t give a shit.
One bullet and another hit the three men by the door. Before they’d managed to turn all the way around, I’d delivered at least one fatal shot to each of them. They toppled together in a heap in the front hall.
I grabbed another clip from my pocket and reloaded quickly. Wylder and Rowan were still shooting. I darted to Rowan’s side in time to see him taking down the last of the guys in his room, planting a bullet in the man’s skull just before the other guy could raise his own gun. The bodies lay in a row along the windows.
As Wylder fired his last shot, another sound reached my ringing ears. Footsteps thundered across the floor above us. Some of the Storm’s people had been watching from upstairs, of course. We just hadn’t known how many.