“Send me the address,” I tell him as I walk toward the exit, my brothers hot on my heels. “Cage, call Grady, find out what the fuck’s happened.” He was supposed to be watching this son of a bitch.
“We’re going downtown,” Matthew tells me as I climb into the car, Cohen’s driving and Matt’s sitting in the passenger’s side. Cage and I are in the back. “He’s taken her to the club.”
I nod; we have an address, we’ll be there soon. I try to focus on what my brothers are saying, but my brain is swirling with what could be happening to Reli. I have the worst case scenarios running through my mind. She’s overcome so much.
“Fuck.” Cage growls and I turn to face him. “Grady’s in surgery. He was fucking shot. There’s not many details at the moment, but it looks bad.”
Shit.
“She’s going to be okay,” Matthew says quietly. I know that he’s trying to reassure me, but he’s failing miserably.
I glance at Cage; his face is set in stone. We know the worst of what’s happened to her. She confided in Cage. It took awhile but she trusts him and she told him everything. We know just what she’s overcome and how badly it affected her. This. This could fucking break her completely.
“She’s going to be okay.” This time it’s Cohen; his words are sharp and meaningful.
“Bro…” Cage begins. “You don’t get it. The shit she’s been through. It would have killed others. She’s clawed her way back from the brink. You have no idea of half the shit she went though.”
“What, and you do?” Matt fires back; there’s anger in his voice and I’ve no idea why.
“Yeah, I fucking do. The first time I heard her have a nightmare, I thought someone was in her bedroom attacking her. The fucking screams.” He shakes his head. “I followed John into her room and found her trying to fight off her nightmares. Fuck. She was struggling to breathe. Clawing at the invisible person who was holding her throat and she was struggling to get air.”
Cage was working a case and he had come over to the house to talk to me about it. While he was there, Reli went to bed; she was tired, it was after a grueling session with her counselor. The nightmare she had was one of the worst I had seen. It was fucking awful. When I had managed to settle her back to sleep, I saw Cage crying. He loves Reli like a sister.
The car is silent as Cohen and Matt take in what he’s said.
“She’s been through fucking hell. All the abuse she’s lived through, and she’s still fucking strong. She’s trying to make a difference, to help others. She doesn’t deserve this.” He scowls and turns to look out the window. I know he’s struggling to deal with his emotions.
“John?” Cohen says after a couple of minutes.
“Yeah?” I mutter not wanting to talk right now.
“Are you doing okay?”
I roll my eyes. “What the fuck do you think?”
“We’re almost there,” Matt tries to reassure me.
I ignore them as I try to clear my mind. I need to be sharp and alert when we breach Havers club. It’s going to be tough, but I don’t give a fuck. They have Reli and Lance. I want them back.
&nb
sp; “Backup’s on route. They’re thirty seconds behind,” Matthew says and I nod, glad that both he and Cohen have stopped asking fucking stupid questions.
The car comes to a screeching halt and we’re all out within seconds. All four of us have our guns out and aiming toward the club. It’s eerily quiet, and adrenaline runs through my veins. Cohen takes the lead and indicates for us to follow him.
Tires sound behind us and it’s soon followed by doors closing. “Boss, are you doing okay?” Greg asks as he comes to stand beside me.
“Fine,” I say through clenched teeth, needing to stop waiting and get the fuck in there.
Cohen holds up three fingers, indicating that we’ll go on his count. One finger goes down, followed by another. It’s as though time slows down as I wait for his last finger to fall so we can storm into the building.
Finally, he gives us the go ahead. We move as a well-oiled team and enter the building. There’s four men waiting at the entrance and as we breach, they’re taken down. Greg, Cady, Cage, and I shoot as soon as we entered; now they’re on the floor dead. Havers needs to get new men, the ones he had were shit, they didn’t even know that we were here. They were too slow at reaching for their weapons. That was a deadly mistake.
We continue to move through the building, Cady, Greg, and Martina lead our group. Checking each room as we pass it.
Then I hear it. A man yelling, the sound of grunting as though someone’s being hurt. We’ve found them.
I’m a fucking asshole, hoping that if it’s one of ours being hit that it’s Lance that’s taking the beating instead of Reli.