Page 28 of Sam
Taking a deep breath, I exhale, “Adam, I’m not sure how this is going to affect her. I wanted to tell you first before I spoke to her so that you can catch her if she falls. I’m not sure if I’ll be home tonight; we’re waiting for information to come in.”
“Do you need us to come out there and help?” Adam offers immediately.
I rake my hand through my hair and almost say yes, but I know that Ally will need her family, and us Crows are used to working together.
“We’ll be okay,” I tell him. “Thanks for the offer. I’m going to hang up now and call her.”
“Okay,” Adam answers. I’m about to end the call when he speaks again, “Sam.”
“Yeah.”
“You be careful, okay? Make sure you come home.”
“I will,” I assure him, ending the call and immediately dialling Ally’s number.
“Sam,” she chirps happily.
“Beautiful,” I start to say, but she’s already interrupting me.
“What’s wrong?” she demands.
Clearing my throat, I tell her, “Bren and Ellie have been taken. We’re just waiting on information, and then we’ll be going after them.”
“Well, of course you are,” she says calmly. “Do you need me to come home?”
“No, baby, stay with your family where you’ll be safe. I’ll come to you when it’s done.”
“Okay,” she answers shakily. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?”
“I will, baby. I’ve got to go.”
“Love you, Sam,” she whispers.
“Love you too, Ally. You’re my forever.”
I end the call on her sob, trusting that her dad will take care of her for me.
Going back inside, we arm up and move out once we have confirmation of where the girls are being held. We go in hot and don’t mess around. Once we see the girls are fine, having saved themselves, we clean house.
Piling the bodies into one of their vehicles, we leave Navy, Hawk, and Booker behind. Carly drives the car that we’ve piled the bodies into. We’re about twenty minutes away when we see and hear the explosion. We arrive back at the mansion and take the back road to Draco and Molly’s, where we house the pigs.
Over the years, we’ve perfected clean-up and have it down to a science. While we took care of the bodies, Gunny took the car we’d brought back with us into the barn, and he, Dog, and Shep took it apart piece by piece. We’d ensure it went to different scrapyards within a hundred-mile radius over the next couple of months.
It's early morning by the time we’ve finished. Stopping at the abattoir, we shower and burn our clothes in the drums we keep there for this purpose.
Once clean, we head back to the house one by one until we’re all assembled in the kitchen. Mum and Bev have coffee and sandwiches ready for us.
It’s quiet in the kitchen as most of us process what happened tonight. The girls are safe, and that’s all that matters.
Reaper finishes his tea, pushes his mug away, and looks around the table. He looks exhausted, eyes red-rimmed, stress lines deep on his face.
“Church tomorrow at eleven to go over tonight. I’m aware I let you all down.” He holds up his hands when we all protest. “Thank you all, but tonight I wasn’t a good President.” He swallows before turning to me. “You did good tonight, Sam. Handled everything perfectly. I’ve never been prouder in my life.”
Pushing back his chair, he stands. “I’ll see you all tomorrow.” He holds out his hand for Mum, who takes it. They walk out.
“Fuck,” I mutter, not liking the defeat in his frame as they walk away.
“He’ll be okay,” Draco clasps his hand on my shoulder. “Give him tonight, and he’ll realise that it was the situation he was responding to, not that he’s a bad President. It’s a wobble, Sam. He’ll be okay,” Draco assures me and stands up, stretching. “I’m heading to bed. The second generation did us proud tonight. I’ll see you in the morning.”
