My leg was on fire. The pain lit me up. I grabbed my thigh and lost my balance, toppling to the floor. I couldn’t hear anything for a moment other than the rapid pumping of my pulse in my ears.
“I’ve been hit,” I mouthed, unsure if the intended shout ever left my lips.
As the rattling of the garage door and the pop-pop-popping of gunfire returned, I heard glass in the office break. Shit! Someone was coming in that way. The door opened, and another large Russian stood above me with a cruel, sadistic smile on his face. Where the fuck was Ivan getting these guys? Were they cloning these guys over there?
I reached for Cliff’s gun again.
“Don’t worry, little man, we aren’t going to kill you. We’re here to take you to your little whore girlfriend,” he said in his thick accent.
He reached down and grabbed me by my vest, pulling me up off the floor.
“She’s going to be happy to see you. Until she sees what we’re going to do to you,” he said with a satisfied smile on his face.
I put the gun under his chin. “Fuck you,” I said as I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. We both fell to the floor.
I looked around the room. There was still no sign of Angelo. Gunshots still rang out from the Suburban, so I knew Chase and Juarez were alright. I was honestly surprised they weren’t standing in the middle of the street shooting at these guys.
I dropped through the opening in the bay, leading to the pit, where we would normally stand to reach the bottom of someone’s car. The interrogation room wasn’t the only one we had downstairs. We also had an arsenal downstairs, locked behind a cage. No one ever paid it much attention because it was behind a couple of tall tool boxes on rollers.
I shoved the tool boxes out of the way and fished out my key to the arsenal. I grabbed the tear gas and a couple of masks for anyone still downstairs. I took to the stairs again, running up with my equipment. I tossed the gas masks in the Suburban.
“Guys, put these on!” I lowered mine and lobbed a few gas canisters at the guys standing on the street. A few moments later, as I pulled down the other bay door, the gray cloud of gas filled the street, and the gunshots ceased.
Chase and Juarez cheered as they lifted the back gate of the SUV and climbed out. They put arms around each other’s shoulders and laughed.
“Yeah, we did it, man! Good thinking, Gage!”
Their celebration was cut short when they saw the two men laid out on the garage floor—Cliff, Juarez’s prospect, and Angelo, a long-time member of the Kings of Hell MC.
Juarez lifted his gas mask. “No way! No fucking way! Gage, man, we can’t let them get away with this shit.”
I stood over Angelo’s body, staring down at the man who had been like a mentor to me since the day I’d started moving up the ranks. My leg didn’t hurt anymore, the gunshot wound numbed by my anger.
“We won’t,” I assured the knuckleheads. “They won’t get away with this.”
“Guys, how’s it going down here? Holy shit!” It was Ricky, catching sight of Angelo and Cliff as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Yeah, that’s how it’s going down here. How about upstairs?” I started walking towards the stairs.
“We got three bodies in the clubhouse, and luckily there wasn’t anyone on the third floor,” Ricky reported absently, unable to take his eyes off his fallen brother.
I was impressed we didn’t lose more. We were taken completely by surprise. I clapped a hand on Ricky shoulder, snapping him out of his trance. He looked at me, and his eyes widened when he saw my leg.
“Shit, Gage, let’s get you upstairs so we can take care of that,” he said, pulling my arm over his shoulders to help me walk.
“Sounds good. Chase, Juarez, get someone down here to help clean this up, and get someone to clean up the clubhouse,” I barked. “We also need someone to check upstairs and see if the rooms need any cleaning.”
“Already got someone on that one, Gage,” Ricky assured me. “You let the boys handle the rest. We need to get you cleaned up.”
“They have Julia,” I told him while we trudged upstairs.
“We figured that much,” he told me.
“No, I mean they have her. She didn’t escape with Dimitri. Dimitri took her. He probably tricked her into feeling sorry for him or something, and when she went to let him go, he grabbed her and took her with him to Ivan. They probably know everything by now,” I explained.
“Don’t write her off too fast, Gage. If he double-crossed her, that probably just made her more loyal to you as an alternative to being screwed over. Just keep that in mind moving forward.” He sat me down on one of the couches.