Page 51 of The Sentinels

Heath peeked around the corner, and then nodded his response. "No problem."

"As soon as he's out we'll be right behind you. We're going to have to act fast, brothers. We don't know how many Hellraisers are inside. Sure as shit they'll try to use our brothers as leverage once they know we're here." I took out my gun, locked eyes with Heath, and gave him a nod to go.

He sprinted to the back of the van, crouching low as he made his way down the side toward the front. The Hellraiser was at the front of the van, which was parked directly in front of the unit. The bay door was down. That would give us better coverage, but the single door leading into the unit was open.

Heath snuck up behind the man, wrapped his arms around his neck, and got him in a headlock. He was fast and efficient. A struggle ensued, but Heath managed to maintain his position until gradually the Hellraiser went limp and sank to the ground. Heath turned long enough to give me a thumbs up, and then quickly removed the man's belt and used it to bind his arms behind his back.

"Let's go."

I sprinted toward the van with Sully and Joker behind me. We were almost there when the back door to the van opened up. It was a tossup as to who was more surprised--me, or the Hellraiser who was getting ready to exit the vehicle. He hesitated for a second with indecision, but I continued forward, knowing that our lives depended on keeping control of the situation. Before he could raise the alarm, I reached for him and yanked him down by his cut. At the same time, Joker appeared with a knife and slit the fucker's throat.

I dropped him and stepped back when blood began to spew everywhere. Fuck! I snapped my eyes to Joker and glared. He shrugged, bent and wiped his blade on the man's pants, and then sheathed it again. Sully took a glance inside the van to make sure that there would be no more surprises. We dragged the two incapacitated Hellraisers to the back of the van and tossed them inside.

I didn't have to tell my brothers to be quiet as we headed toward the opened door. We crowded against the wall on either side of it. Heath and Sully were across from me and Joker. I listened at the doorway to gauge what was going on inside.

"Ready to talk now, pretty boy?"

"Fuck you." I recognized Dawson's voice, even though it was low and weak. A grunt revealed that someone had hit him.

"Maybe I'll get one of my boys to fuckyou," someone laughed. It had to be Maniac. "I have a few brothers who swing both ways," he laughed.

Someone snorted. "Maybe he likes sucking dick."

As laughter echoed inside the unit, I carefully peeked around the door jamb. The room was dark, but they'd rigged up some lighting that gave the interior a yellowish glow. I saw all three of our brothers hanging from the ceiling by a rope attached to a pulley on the wall. Dawson seemed to be the only one who was still conscious. Hock had been beaten to a pulp and now resembled a slab of hanging meat. It was obvious that the Hellraisers had used more than just their fists on him.

Jiggers was dead. That much was clear. He still had a knife sticking out of his gut. It didn't appear that he'd taken much of a beating. The bastards had probably killed him to serve as a warning to Hock and Dawson that they could expect the same if they didn't talk. Dawson was barely hanging on, I could tell. They hadn't shown him any mercy either.

Fuck. Our brothers had come to help us, and we'd let them down.

I counted five Hellraisers. Maniac and his VP were there, as expected. The other three were standing off to the side. I was about to move back when Boomer stepped over to Jigger.

"Maybe he wants to suck on this." He yanked the knife out of Jiggers' belly and moved back to Dawson, the blade dripping blood. My gut clenched.

I pulled back and signaled to Sully and Heath to indicate how many Hellraisers there were. When I heard Boomer say, "Maybe we should just fuck him with this instead," I knew that we had to move.

I rounded the edge of the door jamb, firing my weapon in Boomer's direction. He went down, but chaos ensued. Before I could fire at Maniac he'd pulled his weapon and had jumped behind one of his men, using him as a shield. He fired in my direction. The searing, burning pain that followed the impact of the bullet nearly brought me to my knees. I ignored the pain, firing back, knowing that the bullet would go right through the man he was cowering behind. I didn't let up with one shot, either. I walked toward Maniac, firing until my gun was empty, confident that my brothers would have my back.

The echo of gunfire lingered once the shooting had stopped. Smoke filled the small unit and burned the eyes and lungs. I clutched at my side, feeling blood instantly slip through my fingers.

"Fuck!" I heard Joker swear.

I swung back around to find him furiously working to free Jiggers from the rope that held his limp body. Sully and Heath were helping to get Hock loose. I went to Dawson, but the wound at my side prevented me from raising my arms. "Jesus, fuck!" I snarled, stumbling back with pain.

Sully caught my eye and quickly assessed the situation. "Fuck, you're hit, brother!"

I snorted. "Yeah, I know."

They lowered Dawson to his feet, but he immediately sank to his knees. "Just give me a fucking minute," he said weakly. Hock was unconscious but still alive, groaning from the pain of being moved.

"What happened, brother, how did they find out who you were?" I wanted to know in case we had to take care of a snitch.

He snorted, before it turned to a cough, and spit out a mouthful of blood. "Jiggers," He paused to take a breath. "One of the fucking Hellraisers recognized him." He gave his head a shake as if he were confused. "Something about a job they did years ago. I don't know."

He was showing signs of having a concussion.

"They need a hospital," Joker said.

"No hospital." He met my eyes pointedly. "For any of us." His eyes fell to my side and he remained quiet, but I knew from his clenched jaw that he didn't like what I'd said. He understood why, though, that much I knew. We all lived by the same code.

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