Eleven
Bullseye
Waiting.
I hated waiting. It seemed I’d been doing that my whole life, and for what? I was tired of going with the flow.
Don’t rock the boat.
Just wait and see what happens.
I’ve been told my whole life that patience is a virtue. Well, my patience was gone, and if I didn’t see some action soon, I was going to lose my shit.
I wasn’t going to walk away this time. I wasn’t going to lose my sister for another year, only to watch her walk away. I was done waiting for reinforcements that only showed after the fact.
It was my job to protect her.
By the time I notified Reaper of my position, I was ready to climb out of my own skin. My sister was in that nasty motel room, hurt, scared, and didn’t know what would happen to her. I did, and though I would never tell her, I was pretty sure my sister believed she wasn’t getting out of this alive. She may be a fighter, but there was a limit to everyone’s resistance. I just prayed my sister hadn’t hit hers. I needed her to hang on a few more hours. That’s all I needed. Then I could get her the fuck out of there.
All I had to do was go and get her. Okay, so there were like twenty Vultures milling around, but none of them mattered. The one who did was Jekyll. He was a nasty piece of work. I could take out my rifle and shoot the fucker, but that would only alert the others to my position. I needed back up, and though I knew they were coming, the longer I waited, the antsier I was getting. I couldn’t explain it. I felt as if something was about to happen.
“What part of stay put didn’t you understand?”
Whipping around, I sighed when I saw Reaper and several of my brothers walking towards me. When I sent that damn text, I didn’t think they were that close. But I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. With them here, we could get Layla out of the motel safely without minimal damage. Well, that was the plan, at least. If we happened to kill some Vultures along the way, good riddance.
The world would be a safer place.
“She’s in room 3.”
“How many Vultures?”
“About twenty or so. Vain is dead. Jekyll killed him.”
“Anything else?”
“Yeah, about forty minutes ago, some fancy dude with three SUVs showed up and handed Vain an envelope. I couldn’t hear what was said, but the suit didn’t look impressed. He bitch slapped Vain like some Friday night whore. The fucker didn’t even fight back. Then Jekyll walked out of the motel room and shot him right in the head.”
“So, the power has shifted, then,” Reaper said, staring ahead at the scene before him. “What did you make of the suit?”
“Powerful, heavy guns. He was well protected, and he doesn’t look like he scares easily. Whoever he was, my gut is telling me not to tango with him.”
“It had to be Diablo,” Chaos whispered.
“Maybe, but we can’t be for sure. Did you get pics?” Reaper asked, and I shook my head no. In my defense, all I cared about was Layla.
I didn’t think to snap pics of the newcomer.
That was on me.
“Alright,” Reaper said, taking his guns out of his vest. “Let’s go get Layla. She’s been gone long enough. Chisel and Ink, you two take a left. Chaos, you hang back with the rifle and pick off the opposition as needed. Bullseye and I will take the right. Player, go do whatever it is that you do.”
Player looked up and asked, “What? Why me?”
“Because you are annoying. You excel at it. Now quit your bitching and go do your thing.”
“Fine,” Player sighed, took off his cut, stretched, then grinned wickedly. “Didn’t know you cared so much, Reaper.”
“Just get out there.”