Page 25 of Patchover Fright Night
Chapter Ten
We found Ice, andnot the way we’d expected to. We thought he’d be having one of his hissy fits, trying to get into a locked safe, but he was out cold, on his stomach, with his hands cuffed behind his back. Grease cursed, and staggered a few steps, as he started turning around and yelling out for someone he called ‘PC Pain’, and promising her he’d give her something painful.
I couldn’t wake Ice up, which was a major fucking problem, and I also couldn’t uncuff him without the fucking key. Grease finally focused when I yelled his name for the fifth time, and he grimaced, making his way shakily to the building which housed his room.
“Fuck’s sake, man. You gonna help me drag him with us? We can’t leave him exposed like this.”
A gunshot rang out again, and we both flinched, expecting to feel the searing pain of a bullet, but it didn’t hit either of us. I grabbed Grease’s arms and practically shook him.
“Every time we hear that, another brother could be fucking down, or worse. Keep your head until we can get him into your room, and you can get that fucking satphone. We don’t have time to screw around.”
“Easy for you to say,” he slurred, groaning and grabbing his stomach, which was probably roiling angrily. I knew he was struggling right now, probably concussed, in pain, feeling ill, but I was running out of allies, and the longer we were away from the women, the more danger they could be in. I didn’t want to let myself think about one of them being the one who just took a bullet, but the thought of that being Tori would fucking destroy me, and I didn’t have time for that.
I shook him again, like an asshole, and he shoved me back, dropping to his knees as he threw up, and then? The fucker dropped like a rock, and was out cold again.
Fuck me. We were running out of options here. We had to get someone out of here with a fucking phone, so we could call for help, but who the fuck would we even call? Pretty much everyone was here… except for the damn Don himself.
I spent precious moments dragging, first Ice, then Grease, into Grease’s room, and checking that safe, that definitely wouldn’t fucking open. I lay them both on the floor by his bed, and groaned. Time to make a break for it, do the smart thing, and get off site. Then I could make a fucking call, and end this shit now. You know what stopped me? A fucking bullet, and that searing pain I’d been braced for earlier.
Tori
Imust have beeninsane to go out and look for help, but it was almost less terrifying than being there for a baby being born. I mean, okay, so many women were all about the miracles of birth, and stuff, but ugh, even if I could tolerate a baby, I sure as hell didn’t want to see it being born. And here’s the more important point here, Sophie wouldn’t last five minutes out here. She maybe figured she was tough, but five minutes in this chaos, and she’d be desperately seeking her dick of a man, and hiding behind him.
After I dodged a scrapping pair of Hampshire bikers, and smacked another guy in the face, for trying to grab my ass, I brandished the axe in front of me, and that seemed to deter the few who realised what they were seeing. Big shiny blade. Will kill. Back off.
If any of them touched me, I’d probably hit them with it, because no men get to fucking touch me, and none of these were in control of their urges right now, which made them a terrifying threat.
A gunshot rang out, and I dropped to a crouch, as I cast my eyes around in the darkness, trying to work out who the hell was shooting, and who their target might be. I was really hoping it wasn’t me. I kept an eye out for old ladies as I moved, because Ally, Grace, and Elise weren’t accounted for, and that bothered me. I finally spotted Elise, giggling wildly over a hasty tattoo station, where someone was getting tatted, and she and Has-Been were watching Rocket at work. I dreaded to think what was happening there, but at least they looked safe, so I kept moving. Harley was trotting around, and tugging on somethingimaginary, which I finally figured out might be a horse’s reins, thank god, but he was keeping to himself, so I ignored him, and edged around the building I’d stepped out of, and that’s when I saw them, men with guns charging at three men I suddenly recognised. Stitch, Torch, and Micro!
I started to run in their direction, to protect them from who I now realised was the four mercs, who rarely showed up for anything that involved socialising. Now I understood why. They were stuck in some kind of warzone mindset, and that made them deadly.
Someone grabbed my arm, and yanked me to a stop, and I turned to yell at them, before I realised who it was.
“What the fuck are you doing out here? You were safe in there!” I hugged Ryder tightly, thankful that he was safe at least, but he’d clearly left Grease somewhere. He had blood on him, and was breathing hard.
“Did you get it?”
He rolled his eyes, pushing his hair back with a bloody hand. “Of course not. Nothing’s that fucking easy, right? Grease is out cold in his room with Ice, who’s also out cold, and fucking handcuffed. I’m gonna leg it up the road, to try and get a call in to your dad. We need help, before the cops get wind of this, and we all end up behind bars.”
“Where’s the blood coming from? Are you hurt?” I started checking him over, and he gestured grimly to his left leg.
“Bullet hit my calf, but it’s bearable, I mean it has to be. I gotta get help, so I can cry about it later.”
I glared at him, trying to crouch down to check his leg, but he dragged me back up.
“It was a graze, babe. There’s no bullet there. Look, I have to go, before something else goes wrong.”
“The mercs!” I slapped his chest, pointing at the ongoing scrap I’d been heading for, and Ry groaned.
“Jesus fuck. Okay, we’ll break this up, then you get back in with the others, okay?”
“Cammy!” I gasped, shaking my head.
“Huh?”
“She’s going into labour. I was coming out to find Stitch, because she’s freaking out, and we don’t know how to deliver a fucking baby!”
Ryder groaned, digging out his phone and glaring at it. “Okay, so we break that up, you get Stitch to Cammy, and I’ll get a fucking ambulance here, even though they’ll bring the cops. Fuck! This is all going to hell.” And I’d make sure he got that leg checked out at the same time. Damn stubborn asshole.
