Tease: Mojave Boys MC (13 page)

He had to move, but everyone was blocking the door, and Tiny, who had hauled Cougar in, caught his elbow, holding him back. Vance had never seen Tiny scared, but his eyes were wild with fear. “Don’t go out there with guns blazing, Ice. There’s got to be at least fifty of them out there, and they’re thirsty for blood. You’ve got to play it safe and cautious.”

“How many are down?” Vance demanded, needing to know how bad things were.

“I don’t know.” He winced at the sound of a scream just outside the door. “I’d say three or four, maybe. I know we’ve hit several Scorpions, but it’s like they’re on a suicide mission, win or die.”

So be it, Vance thought. They could all die. He pushed everyone out of the way and plastered his back against the wall by the door. He motioned to Caleb on the other side. “When I say go, open the door, and I’m going to fire. As soon as I pull back, close the damn thing. Don’t hesitate.”

Caleb nodded, wearing a serious expression that lined his face beyond his years. Vance waited for a slight break in the gunfire and shouted, “Go!”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Vance focused straight ahead, seeing five Scorpions in an SUV, two leaning out with guns aimed while three more reloaded or pulled other weapons. He didn’t hesitate, emptying the Beretta clip on the two in the front seat. He caught one in the chest through the windshield, but the other ducked. The shots carried through the car to the backseat, and the middleman who had just stood out the sunroof to point and shoot caught three bullets in the leg. He fell inside the car, screaming.

Bullets flew at him, and Vance ducked back inside. Caleb slammed the door, taking Vance’s Beretta and passing him a loaded Colt revolver. “Some more of us need to be out there,” Caleb muttered, and Vance could see the anxiousness to join the fray on the other dozen or so faces. “And we need to find the guys who are down and try to get them inside.”

He was right, but Vance didn’t think they needed to head out into the storm of bullets. He turned and found Buddha. “Take six men to the front, and check on what’s waiting for us out there. Don’t raise hell, just handle it like I am here. If you can get the path open, split up and go around both sides, getting in behind the Scorpion crew. Take out as many as you can and get back inside, under cover.”

Buddha nodded and grabbed some men. Vance turned back to Caleb and sought out Donnie, calling him forward. There were still several men standing around, getting antsy, and three more on the ground with Cougar, including Tiny. Cougar wasn’t awake, and Vance had to look away before he got too emotional. “I want four men on the roof, sniper mode. Don’t just spray. I want focus and a bead on the best shooters. The rest of you, start setting up for triage. I don’t want to lose anyone if I don’t have to.”

He addressed Donnie and Caleb in the midst of the frenzy of movement. “Donnie, you’re a good shot. This time, when Caleb opens that door, I want you leaning around the other side. We’re emptying three clips right into these bastards. Are you good?”

He could tell Donnie was anxious for blood; Cougar had been his mentor. “Never better,” he said with a dangerous smile.

Vance nodded, waited long enough for everyone to get in place, and again shouted, “Go!”

Caleb yanked the door open, and Donnie instantly had to pull back behind the door as a bullet barely missed his shoulder and flew through the interior of the bar. “Shit!” Vance heard behind him, but he was focused on his game and couldn’t see if anyone had been hit. He had a bead on the SUV again, and he hit the guy who had ducked before in the shoulder and again in the side of his neck. He dropped his weapon and looked like he was choking.

Donnie hit the other two in the backseat and turned to a Scorpion leaning around a dump truck with a rifle. The guy hit the ground in convulsions as Vance aimed over his head at the Scorpion who had climbed into the back of the truck and peeked over to shoot. He fired three shots, one of which blasted straight through the guy’s skull. He still had several bullets when Donnie ducked back, grabbing a second gun and firing some more.

Vance took out three more enemies at the fence line, and he thought he saw Donnie get two others who had closed in and were in the shop. That worried him, and as he rolled back into the building with Donnie, letting Caleb shut the door, his heart raced. He didn’t see nearly as much defensive fire as he should have, and he worried that they’d lost too many men.

“I only saw six or seven of ours hit, and they were still moving, trying to take cover,” Caleb told him, anxiety clear on his young face. “But I couldn’t see this side.” He pointed to his right; the door would have blocked his view.

Donnie shook his head, heaving for breath. Vance understood; his adrenaline was pumping so hard he was gasping as well. “These guys aren’t going to run unless we scratch at least half of them, and not every Scorpion I hit took a fatal blow.”

“Same here,” Vance told him. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll keep going.” As he spoke, Johnny, one of their prospects, ran in with more guns and ammo.

He looked up, and Vance knew he hoped he hadn’t overstepped his boundaries. “I’m not carrying yet, but I thought I could help load and arm.”

Vance gave him a nod of approval. “Nice job. Let’s go.” As he reloaded his pistols, he heard the sound of his boys on the roof, followed by loud bangs overhead. They were in place, taking out Scorpions from their elevated view. Good, the more Scorpions they put six feet under, the better.

In place again, Vance gave the signal, and he was back in business. Several Scorpions on foot were moving closer to the bar, and one fired from his left before he could see the guy. The shot went a bit wild, and Donnie shouted, “Duck!” Vance did, and Donnie caught the kid in the chest. Seeing another young Scorpion closing in from the right, Vance aimed under Donnie’s arms and got three bullets off into his stomach.

“Look out!” Caleb called, and both gunmen faced forward to find a line of five Scorpions rushing them, each with two guns. The shots flew, and both men ducked without firing. Vance heard the sound of metal on metal as the bullets rained into the door, before he caught the hissed curse of pain from Donnie.

“You’re hit,” he said, seeing blood pouring down the kid’s arm.

Donnie shook his head and moved his hand. “It just grazed me, took a small chunk of skin. It’s nothing I can’t handle, but damn, it burns!” Caleb reached into his pocket and drew out a bandana, tying it around Donnie’s arm to stop the bleeding until he could get fixed up.

Vance started to tell him to trade places, but he could see the need for revenge in the kid’s eyes and understood the desire. “Can you keep going?” he asked.

Donnie nodded with a feral expression. “Damn straight!”

They went for another round, and Vance was relieved to see some of the men who had gone to the front had made it around. They were covering each other with gun fire as they pulled some of the downed men out of the line of fire. He was careful in his shots, making sure he didn’t accidentally hit one of his own. The number of Scorpions finally seemed to be dwindling, the shots coming slower, and he motioned to Donnie to follow him as he stepped outside.

A shot came from his left, and Vance turned to answer it, shooting through the Scorpion’s hand and knocking his gun to the ground. He screamed and reached for another pistol, but Donnie caught his jugular, and the enemy was gone. Two guys rushed from behind the SUV full of dead or dying Scopions, but they only had knives, and Vance took them both easily with a single shot to the head.

Donnie had engaged a couple of Scorpions inside the shop, who apparently had surrendered at gunpoint, and he was angry, pistol-whipping them across the face and kicking them in the ribs. Vance didn’t blame him. If he was ten years younger, he’d probably express his anger the same way. He’d been prone to it at one point anyway, and Donnie hadn’t just been hit. Vance didn’t know yet if Cougar was alive or not, which meant the kid could have lost his mentor.

As the rest of the guys who had come around from the front gathered, Vance could hear motorcycles revving, and he moved with several of the others, Donnie included, to catch as many of the retreating Scorpions as they could. Vance aimed for tires and watched four bikes crash, with Donnie and the others catching five more. But Vance wanted blood, and he ran toward the downed men, his brothers right behind him.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Two of the Scorpions were barely scratched, and they pulled weapons. Vance ran right past them as his crew took care of business. He focused on a figure just down the road. He knew that head of long, curly hair, and he rushed toward it, both guns aimed.

Antonio wasn’t moving, except for breathing heavily, and Vance could hear the pained growl. As he approached, he saw the crazy brute’s leg caught under the bike, and from the odd angle, Vance was sure it was a compound fracture. He could also see his enemy’s ankle, and the kickstand had shoved right through it, causing massive bleeding and likely torn ligaments.

“
Hijo de puta!
” Antonio shouted through clenched teeth. “Because of you, my boy is gone. Did you really think I wouldn’t find you,
cabron
?”

“It doesn’t look like it matters now,” Vance told him, his emotions turned off completely. “I didn’t kill your boy. He killed himself. And he did that because your crew, your
hermanos
, didn’t take care of him properly. So, if you want to know the truth, I just took care of business for you. All these men who betrayed you that way are dead. My boys helped you more than your men did. How do you feel about that?”

Antonio winced in pain, snarled, and spit on Vance’s boot. “Suck my dick!”

Vance nodded, still feeling nothing. “That’s what I thought you’d say. See you in hell, Antonio.” The man pressed his forehead to the barrel of the gun an instant before Vance pulled the trigger, blowing straight through his skull and spraying debris of bone and brain all over the road. The man fell back instantly, and though Vance knew it should give him a sense of satisfaction to know Antonio was dead, he still felt nothing.

He stood there for quite some time, hearing a few random gunshots behind him, and eventually, he felt a hand on his arm. He turned his head slowly and saw Caleb at his side. “Hey, man, we’ll clean up later. Come in and have a drink. We’ve got a crew to fix up.”

It was the right thing to say. Vance didn’t know if anything else could have turned his emotions back on, but knowing a lot of his brothers were injured—and it was all because he’d been too stupid to think ahead—kicked his responses into high gear. He clapped Caleb on the shoulder with a silent thanks and hurried back inside.

The place looked like a makeshift tent in a warzone. There were men on tables, men on the floor, and others running around tending to them. He counted at least fifteen injured, and things were so crazy at that moment he wasn’t sure he could see all of them. What he did know was that he needed to find Cougar and see if he made it, and then he needed to find Dusty and have him call Doc and Bert, getting both of them up here now.

Dusty sat on a barstool all the way across the bar, and Vance was forced to pick his way through brothers on the ground to get to him. To his relief, most of them looked like a few stitches or maybe removing a bullet would have them good as new. There were a few, though, who looked worse for the wear. He’d get back to those after he talked to Dusty. He wanted to assess the damage, but he couldn’t really do anything until Doc arrived.

He stopped as he neared his friend, noting that he, too, was bleeding and holding a bloodied rag to his chest. Vance started to rush over, but he was halted again as Maya came out from the back with her arms full of medical supplies. She piled them on the bar next to Dusty and went to work as if she didn’t have a care in the world and only wanted to help.

Storming the rest of the way, he grabbed Maya viciously by the elbow and demanded, “What are you doing out here? You were supposed to be in the back.” He glared at Joe as he, too, came out with first aid materials.

Joe glared back. “Relax, Ice. She just came out about three minutes ago and insisted on helping. The last shot was fired more than twenty minutes ago.”

Had he really stood over Antonio’s dead body so long? He shook his head and turned to Maya to apologize, but she didn’t look very forgiving at that moment. He realized, as she stared at his hand on her arm he was still holding her, and probably too tight. He released her, and she jerked back, giving him a warning look. “You put me back there to protect me, and all these men stood in front of me to keep me safe. I owe them something, and I’m going to do my best to pay it back by taking care of them the best I can.” She looked him over quickly, still angry but also concerned. “You aren’t hurt?”

He shook his head, not knowing what to say. He understood her position, but he didn’t want anything to happen to her, and there was no guarantee another gang wouldn’t ride in. He wasn’t stupid; there were likely a dozen or so Scorpions who had gotten away, and they’d go back to regroup.

And he also didn’t appreciate the way she spoke to him in front of the crew. Vance wasn’t the typical chauvinist, and he respected Maya for her confidence and independence. Yet, a woman should know her place, especially in a situation that involved dating a man who headed a motorcycle club. She wasn’t even an old lady…yet.

Gritting his teeth, he let it go as she turned to play doctor with Dusty, not even bothering to wait for a response from Vance. He asked his brother, “What happened?”

Dusty winced as Maya cleaned the wound on the right side of his chest, and Vance saw it didn’t look like a gunshot. “I ran out of ammo but managed to get around behind one of the Scorpions who’d made it into the shop, but before I could get him, he ducked my grasp and shanked me.”

Vance knew Dusty had been lucky; another couple of inches to the left, and he’d be dead. It also didn’t look too deep, which meant his brother had moved just in time to avoid serious damage. He blanched as he watched Maya thread a needle. “Have you done this before?” he asked skeptically.

She gave him a quick glance and nodded, still looking very displeased with him. This time, he figured it was the doubt he expressed in her. He was going to keep his mouth shut now; his rage and fear were going to incite a fight he didn’t want to have, especially right now.

“I already called Doc, and Joe called Bert,” Dusty told him before he said anything. Vance nodded, enthralled with Maya’s tender but efficient work as she sewed up the wound. She did well enough that Vance figured it might not scar badly. And as she tied off the thread and snipped, Donnie limped over.

Vance frowned at him, and he gave a rueful grin. “Leave it to me to twist an ankle beating the shit out of a Scorpion.” He had a hand on his arm, and the blood was soaking through the cloth he held there. “Hey, Maya, do you think you could handle another one?”

She gave him a welcoming grin. “Sure, have a seat, and I’ll get right to it.” She looked up at Vance and told him, “Tell anyone who needs stitches to line up. I’ll take care of it.” It was a directive, not even a request, and rather than cause a scene, Vance walked away. He needed to see how grave some of the injuries were anyway. As he weaved through the makeshift triage center, Bert burst through the front door, his face full of complete and utter surprise. Vance wanted to put on brass knuckles and blast it right off. He should have known something like this would go down, and he should have been here, prepared to help.

But Vance kept his distance. His emotions, dulled and dead such a short time ago, were riding high now, and he didn’t trust himself. He stayed busy checking on his brothers, but when he reached the other side of the bar and rounded the corner, his heart sank.

Caleb sat on the ground next to Tiny, both of them with their heads hanging. In front of them were two still bodies, and Vance had to swallow bile that rose in his mouth. His throat burned, and he had a hard time believing what he was seeing. But the hopelessness in Caleb’s eyes when he looked up at Vance’s approach spoke volumes.

Cougar and Joker were both dead.

“We tried,” Tiny rasped, obviously overwrought. He and Joker had been close, coming on with the Mojave Boys at the same time and originating from the same background. Nearing fifty, they had always been more like brothers than any of the rest of them, and Vance knew it was going to take a huge toll on Tiny. “Looked like Cougar might pull through for a minute, but we lost them both.”

Vance sighed and crouched down to pay his respects. Cougar had been a source of contention for him from time to time, but in the end, Vance had nothing but respect for him, and he’d been a good, loyal man. And Joker was the type of guy everyone liked, the old timer with all the quirky things to say, always good for a laugh.

As he stood, it took every bit of Vance’s willpower not to tear down the entire bar with rage and disappointment. It was just as hard not to take one of the bikes parked outside and go after the rest of the Scorpions, either wiping them out or dying in the attempt. But he still had brothers to protect, and he had Maya to consider. These men had stood up for him and were injured saving him, and he would respect that, staying as safe as possible.

Gathering himself and getting to his feet, he looked around for Bert. He’d wait to talk to Donnie until Maya finished with him. The kid was going to act out, and it would take several of the brothers to force him to be sensible. In the meantime, Vance had some words for their nonelected leader.