Page 71 of Outlaws' Dirty Secret

“Roger.” He runs off, bending low in case more bullets are coming. Other members already have their guns out and are laying down cover fire. This is the kind of shit that makes us unpopular with the neighbors, but I really couldn't give two shits right now.

“Skyhigh?” Willow can't see the timer, but obviously she knows things aren't going to plan. I'm gonna fucking murder Tanner. If Dragon and Blackout don't get him first. Can't see them with the van in the way, but I'm sure they're chasing him down.

“Shh, Willow. Babe. I've got this. You're gonna be fine.”

“Okay.” The trembling sob betrays that she might not be totally believing me. I get it. I wouldn't either, but what the fuck else can I say?

0016.

Fuck. There's a couple of possible configurations for a circuit board like this, and no way to tell which one's right. I don't exactly have time to go get my tools to trace the signals. And so I'm reduced to guessing, just like the fucking movies after all.

What are the odds that I guess right?

0009.

“Willow, I fucking love you.” I ready my knife, getting ready to knock out the connection I think is most likely. “If there's a last thing for you to hear, I want it to be that. Dragon and Blackout do too, and I'm gonna do my best to make sure they get to tell you in person.”

0005.

“Skyhigh…”

“I fucking love you.”

0001.

I break the connection.

38

BLACKOUT

A sharp painflares in my shoulder as a bullet tears through my flesh. Sucking sharp air between my teeth, I throw myself to the side, behind a parked car. I still have use of my arm, so it can't be that bad. Stings like a motherfucker though.

But I saw the muzzle flash, and that's worth a little sting. “Second floor, window on the left.” I point for Dragon to see.

He nods and runs for it, while I fire two shots to cover him. Did I hear a scream in there? Part of me doesn't want it to be that fucking easy.

At the periphery, more of the boys have noticed where I aimed. Savage and Crank are coming in on the left, Sinner, Riot and Ghost on the right, and I'm sure there's more that I don't even see.

Tex comes up from behind, dropping down behind the car next to me. “Go. We’ve got you.”

The moment I move, his piece thunders, putting bullets in the air over me. Chips crack off the building's facade as they chew up the wall outside the window the shooting came from.

When I reach the building, I push up against the wall next to Dragon. The first floor is all local stores, a few of them shut down and boarded up. Some are open, but no one's around. Shooting'll do that. But above the stores there's apartments, and that's where Tanner has to be.

A door between two of the stores leads into a hall with a stairwell at the other end, for getting to the apartments. The lock's been broken. We pull it open, jog past the rows of white mailboxes on one wall and an old elevator I wouldn't trust on a good day on the other, and up the stairwell. It spits us out onto the second floor, where a long hall runs the length of the building. There's a lot of fucking apartment doors, but Tanner makes it easy for us, coming out just as we're trying to figure out which door to blow open.

“Fuck,” he yells and then runs for the end of the hall, where there's a fire exit sign, pointing at a door like the one we just came through.

Dragon aims, but I stop him. “No, we're getting that fucker alive. I want him to see us coming.”

He's not getting away this time.

Our steps echo down the hall, getting to the other stairwell just in time to hear the outside door slam. A moment later, we're out. Grimm storms past us into the alley between this building and the next. “Tanner! You fucking asshole!” he roars.

We take off after him, chasing him around the corner into another alley that runs along the backs of the buildings. Someone fires a shot, and we speed up.

Grimm’s right ahead of us now, and we catch a glimpse of Tanner up ahead, making a wrong turn.

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