She did make short work of Hernandez's cockroaches at the Shop-N-Stop, Hunter thought. That was damned impressive.
Well, first things first. Hunter would wait for Cain to heal up, and together they'd figure out how to come at Gaspar. After that, he could learn how to do more stuff around the house for himself, and then give some more thought to Missy's future with the Eagles.
Assuming Cain and Missy are even still alive, he thought, pouring on the speed.
Chapter 25
Hunter
Hunter's bike roared into the driveway just as Keith, Arnie, and Tallboy pulled up.
“Fan out,” Hunter commanded. “Search the whole property—the bushes, under the house, everything. I wanna know what happened to Bones.”
As the Eagles split up to inspect the exterior of the house, Hunter's boots thundered up the front steps and he banged on the door. Missy opened it immediately.
“Did you see anything?” Hunter asked her as he entered. “Hear anything? What the fuck happened?”
“I don't know,” she said. “He was sitting out there, I went back to the kitchen, and when you called he was gone.”
“Did you notice any headlights outside, or flashlight beams? Anything at all?”
“I'm telling you, I didn't see anything!” Missy insisted. Her eyes were dry, but her voice was quivering slightly. “If I did, I would tell you, but he just fucking vanished!”
“Seriously, Hunter, there wasn't anything,” Cain chimed in.
“I didn't ask you, goddamn it,” Hunter spat. “What the hell would you have seen or heard, huh? You're half out of it on pills!”
Cain's mouth snapped shut and he lowered his head. Hunter felt himself consumed with rage, and he knew why he was snapping at Cain—because he needed him sharp, he needed him now, and there was nothing he could do to make that happen. So Hunter was taking it out on the poor bastard, even though it wasn't his fault.
Before Hunter could take a deep breath to calm himself or try to fumble out an apology, there was a knock at the door. The three Eagles stood in the doorway morosely. “We didn't find anything,” Keith said. “No blood, no spent cartridges, not even footprints or drag-marks.”
“Get back out there and check again,” Hunter demanded. “You must've missed something. These aren't fuckin' ghosts we're dealing with, here. They're just men, and men leave traces. Find something! Now!”
The Eagles exchanged worried looks and dutifully tromped back out to take another look. But from their expressions, it was clear they didn't expect to find anything.
“What the hell am I supposed to do?” Hunter wondered aloud. “If Gaspar's gonna just keep sending people here to try to take out Cain...”
“If they'd really wanted to kill Cain, they had a chance to do that after they took out Bones and before you guys got here,” Missy pointed out. “Or Gaspar would have just sent a few car-loads of his men with machine guns and shot the whole house full of holes. But since he's sending a guy or two at a time instead, it seems more like he wants to rattle you. And if Bones were here, I'm betting he'd tell you the same.”
Hunter nodded slowly. The whole thing made a twisted kind of sense to him. “It seems like our best move is to get everyone to the Knife—you two included—an' hole up there.”
Missy shook her head. “That could be just what Gaspar wants. Maybe he figures if he picks off enough of the people who are closest to you, you'll get paranoid enough to pile everyone into the clubhouse, bunker-style. Then he can launch a few grenades into the place and wipe all the Eagles out at once.”
“Well, what the fuck should I do then?” Hunter asked. “He's got me backed into a corner!”
“Seems like Gaspar's going full-on terrorist with his tactics, right?” Cain said. “So why not do the same? Split the Eagles up into multiple cells around town, including here. Make it so he can't possibly hit one without the others knowing about it and mobilizing in minutes.”
Hunter thought this over. Separating his people like that sounded borderline insane—they were an MC, not the Viet Cong, and guerrilla fighting had never been their style.
But it seemed like Gaspar was well-acquainted with “their style,” and he'd already shown how capable he was at making it work against them.
It looked like the Eagles would simply have to adapt or die.
“Okay,” Hunter agreed wearily. “I'll have Keith, Arnie, and Tallboy each choose about three guys, an' I'll take the rest. My team will stay at the Knife, Keith's team will hang out here in your garage, an' Arnie an' Tallboy can take up positions in the eastern and southern areas of town. From this point forward, no Eagle will ever be out of another Eagle's line of sight. We'll all try to keep our heads down an' make it through this next week without losin' anyone else.”