“Thank you. For all of this,” Freya whispered.
“Anything for you,” I murmured.
I released her and she went to go hug her half-sister. The three of them stood around, chatting away and trying to catch up on everything. Holy fuck, the three of them really did look alike. Even Asher joined them at one point, hugging Hayley and calling her his daughter almost immediately. It made Hayley cry harder, and it was the first time I’d ever seen tears in Stone’s eyes.
I was sure if it ever came up, he’d deny it. But he’d never be able to deny the love he had for that woman. Because I fully believed that there were only two things that made a grown man cry. Two things in the life of a man that were guaranteed to make him shed tears.
The falling tears of his own woman and the birth of his first child.
“Well, I guess this could’ve been worse,” Notch said as he stood next to me.
“I’m honestly not so sure what we were—”
“Get down!” Texas exclaimed.
A bullet surged through the back window, then sank itself into the front door. Cars squealed to a stop outside in the parking lot and we heard the cocking of guns in the distance. Another bullet came whizzing through the kitchen window, causing me to grab Notch and take him to the floor.
The men immediately pulled their guns as Rose threw herself over her two daughters.
“Cover! Now!” Stone yelled.
“Back room. Get down the hallway. Ella and Keva are back there, too,” Texas said.
I shot him a look. “And when the hell were you going to inform us they were here, too?”
“I figured it was a given since Hayley was already here!” Texas exclaimed.
More bullets ripped by our heads as Asher shot out the kitchen window.
“No! No givens, asshole!” Notch exclaimed.
“It’s going to be easier on you if you all come out with your guns in the air!”
Harry Cheng yelled outside our damn porch as more singular bullets busted out the windows of the lodge. I motioned for the girls to crawl to me, trying to make sure they got into that back room. All of the girls were here, which meant we had to play this carefully. Us and our guns were the only barricade standing between those asshole Chinese miniature juggernauts and the protection of the women we cared for and loved the most.
Love.
Was it possible for me to care so greatly for Freya so soon?
“Where am I going?” Freya asked.
Her voice ripped me from my trance as more discharged bullets sank themselves into the walls of the lodge.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Harry taunted.
“All the way back. There’s a door at the end of the hallway. Shotgun under the bed if Rose needs it. I’m sure she knows how to shoot,” I said.
“You’re damn right, I do,” she said.
“Go. We’ve got this. Stay down and don’t come out,” I said.
Then, I stood and aimed my gun through the window on the far side of the lodge. The one right in front of me. I aimed down the sights of my pistol and began shooting, standing strong and taking out the three men that aimed their guns right through the damn thing.
If they wanted to hurt our women, they’d have to go through me first.
Twenty-Two
Freya
Gunshot flew around in the other room as Mom pushed us back to where Bronx pointed. Hayley grabbed the door and thrust it open, ushering the little girl and a young woman who looked a lot like the guy who wasn’t a fan of me right now. Or maybe he was. I really didn’t know where we stood on that right now. Glass continued to break and the guys yelled back and forth at one another. The sounds of guns cocking and bullet casings falling to the floor rang out in my ears as I gathered the little girl in my arms. She was shaking. Shivering. Sniffling and crying. And in that moment, I realized why my father had worked so hard to keep me away from this life. Away from his lodge.
Because danger lurked around every corner.
“Where did he say that shotgun was?” Hayley asked.
My eyes darted around before I shoved the crying little girl into her arms. I ducked underneath the bed, digging out the shotgun as my mother got down onto her stomach. I saw her smoothing her hand underneath the bed before she ran it against something. Soft curses fell from her mouth as I pulled the gun from underneath the bed. My father hadn’t taught me much about guns. Hell, he hardly taught me anything at all. But I wasn’t an idiot. I’d watched him over the years clean his own guns. Stack up his own ammunition in the home.
He taught me how to be safe with them, and that was enough.
“I found the ammo for it,” my mother said as she crawled underneath the bed.
A metal box slid toward my foot before she reappeared.
“What can I do?” the blonde-headed girl asked.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“That’s Ella, Stone’s sister. And Keva, Ella’s daughter. They’re with Texas,” Hayley said.
I nodded as my mother tried to wrangle the gun from me, but I pulled it away from her. I glared at her hard before I held out my hand, wiggling my fingers for the ammunition. She gave me a hard look before she plopped some down into my hand, and I promptly loaded up the two-gauge shotgun with it.
Then, I stuck the rest in my pockets.
“What are we going to do?” Ella asked.
“Right now, we’re going to stay put. There are no windows in this room, which means—”
Before I could even get the damn sentence out, a bullet pierced through the wall. I watched it, almost as if it moved in slow motion. It sliced through the front wall and tore through the room, then exploded into the wall on the other side. Leaving a gaping hole that caused my mother to gasp.
“Hollow points,” she hissed.
“Okay. New plan. We need to get out of this room,” I said.
Another bullet blew by, opening another large hole in the wall. I motioned for everyone to follow me, and Mom promptly opened the door. She found a small hallway off to the right that tucked us between the back of the lodge and the middle rooms. Ella and Keva went first, then I pulled Hayley into the hallway. I didn’t know if my mother had a gun on her, but she was pretty confident in where she was going.
Which was more than I could say for myself.
The men roared in the other room and it felt like bullets were raining down from heaven. Ella cradled her daughter against her chest, both to soothe her and so we could all move faster. We slipped through the narrow passageway before it dumped us out toward the side of the lodge. Mom took a right and made her way for a door, then ripped it open and motioned for all of us to get in.
I turned around and made sure no one followed us before I slipped in after everyone else.
“It’s okay, Keva. I’ve got you. This’ll all be over soon, okay?”
“Texas is gonna protect us. He always does.”
“Sh-sh-sh-sh, princess. You really have to be quiet. Promise Mommy you’ll be quiet.”
As wood splintered and glass shattered, I looked over at my mother. She had guilt in her eyes and sadness seeping down her cheeks in the form of tears. She looked over at me with a look in her eye that both apologized and said, “told you so.” And my heart broke for her. Caught between a man she once loved that did her wrong and a man she currently loved who did wrong in his professional life. I looked over at Hayley and watched her wrap her arms around our mother. Trying to comfort her as best as she could as her own tears threatened to take over.
And as I stood there, listening to the carnage around me take place, a piece of myself died with every bullet that landed against the lodge.
“Where does that door lead to?” Ella asked.
I looked over at it and narrowed my eyes. I didn’t even notice it when we first walked in.
“I figured it was a bathroom or something,” my mother said.
“You figured?” Hayley asked.
I leaned my back against th
e door heavily, feeling the ground rumbling underneath my feet. Something was very wrong about this. There was gunfire canvasing the rest of the lodge. Why not this back room, too? I looked over at my mother and saw panic rushing over her features. Keva wiggled away from her mother, exclaiming that she needed to go to the bathroom.
Then, that side “bathroom” door flew open. Exposing the wrap-around porch before the cliffside drop of the ocean.
“Keva, no!” Hayley called out.
A hand darted into the room and gripped hold of Keva’s shirt. A long, slender arm pulled her toward the door as her mother lunged for her. Gunfire slipped through the door, just barely passing Keva’s ears. People screamed and Hayley yelled. Ella sobbed with profuse tears as plaster from the walls exploded out of nowhere. I looked down at the shotgun in my hands before I looked back up, seeing another hand come out of nowhere and wrap around Keva’s leg.
“Not today,” I murmured.
Without thinking, I leveled the gun at the man I could see. I looked down the barrel of the shotgun and aimed as best as I could. I waited until Keva fell to the ground, completely out of my sights. Then, I unloaded the first shot.
The man groaning caused me to run across the room to get a good sight of the other guy as well.
I cocked the gun to reload it, feeling the shell casing fall to my feet. And as the man looked up at me, he tried to fiddle with his weapon. Ella reached for her daughter and Hayley ran for the man. But all I did was aim that fucking shotgun right at his face. I gritted my teeth, knowing there was no going back if I pulled that trigger and did what I wanted to do.
But when he tried scooped Keva underneath his arm, I discharged without a flutter of guilt filling my gut.
I peppered the man’s face in ammunition. He groaned and gargled as he released his grip on Keva. People scrambled around me in a blur as I watched blood pour from the man’s face. He choked on it. He stumbled against the railing. And as the man I had originally shot lunged for him, they both tumbled over the railing.
Falling down the cliffside and finding their deaths on the deserted, sandy beach below.
I was numb. Like everything was on pause. The world stopped turning as Hayley lunged for the door, closing it and then locking it, too. I slowly looked around the room, my eyes falling to the door we all had originally come through.
Then, a hand on my shoulder slowly pulled me back into reality.
“Freya. Sweetheart. Honey. Can you hear me?”
I heard my mother’s voice as I slowly turned my eyes toward her.
“Give me the shotgun,” she said.
My eyes danced around her face. The gunfire and the explosions were nothing but a backdrop soundtrack to how hard my heart pumped blood through my ears. All I heard was the rushing sound it created as the thunderous war rumbled below my feet. I felt sick. I felt strong. I felt humbled. I felt disgusting. I felt so many things, but none more than protective.
I felt more protective of the people in this room than anything else.
“No,” I said plainly.
I slipped my hands into my pockets and opened up the barrel of the shotgun. I loaded up two more rounds, then stuck two more between my teeth. I crawled onto the comically-small bed and rested the shotgun against the end of the frame, then readied it for my next shot.
If anyone came through that door, I was blasting them to hell.
Along with the two men I’d already killed.
Twenty-Three
Bronx
It took us a while to level out the numbers, but we did. We poured through more ammunition than I would have ever liked to for something like this. At one point in time, I could have sworn I heard the girls moving about. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I knew I had to keep my eyes trained ahead of me.
Rose was capable. And so was Hayley. Between the two of them, I knew everyone would be safe.
Stone called out maneuvering positions and we all fell into line as one. Asher took the brunt at the front of the house, forcing some back into their cars to drive off. We followed along the wrap-around porch. Shooting assholes in the gut and pushing them off the edge. The water came right up to the cliffside where we were stationed. The bodies would be washed away with the night and left without a trace. We scoured the lodge, making sure no one had snuck into any closets to lay low before they surprised us with yet another attack.
And when the Chinese were finally whittled down to small numbers, they retreated.
“This isn’t over!” Cheng exclaimed.
“Well, make sure you tell your boss you’re fucking around with the police, too! I’m sure he’ll love that!” Stone exclaimed.
“Who do you think gave that order, asshole!?” Cheng roared.
I watched Stone’s face fall as we all held our guns out in front of us.
We watched as everyone drove off. But I could tell those words hit Stone much harder than they needed to. Hell, they hit me harder than they needed to. Yung knew his men were working for the police? He gave the fucking order for them to!?
What the hell was going on?
“Inside. Now,” Stone commanded.
“I really think we should—”
Asher tried to interrupt with his two cents, but Stone strode over to him. The two men faced off with one another, staring each other down. Stone’s nostrils flared, and I really thought he was going to put a bullet between the man’s eyes.
Then, he gnashed his teeth together.
“You have no turf here. I’m the one that gives the rules. Your crew might be legendary, but you aren’t. Learn that now,” Stone growled.
My eyes widened as he pushed past all of us. I stole a glance at Asher as he stood outside, his body surrounded in nothing but blood and dust. We all retreated back inside, picking up shell casings as we went along. Notch went about scouring the porch, making sure all of the immediate trace evidence we could pick up with our fingers was gone.
We had to move and quickly.
“Hayley!” Stone exclaimed.
“They aren’t in the back room,” Texas said as he came striding down the hallway.
“Rose?” Asher asked as he came back into the lodge.
“Where are the girls?” Stone asked.
“We’re back here!” Hayley called out.
I raced down the side hallway that skirted the side wall and the middle bedrooms. I lunged for the door, ripping it open to find everyone hunkered down in corners. I heard a shotgun cock as my eyes fell to the bed and saw Freya laying there. One of her eyes was closed and she had that gun held so tightly in her hands I saw the whites of her knuckles glaring at me. Her ass stuck itself up in the air as she poised herself, ready to shoot.
I wasn’t even sure she recognized who I was.
“Freya. It’s me,” I said.
I saw her blink a few times before the gun shifted.
“Freya, it’s Bronx. Can you hear me?” I asked.
“She killed two men,” Rose said.
I looked over at her mother before terror washed over me. Freya killed men back there? I slowly panned my eyes back over to her and watched her closely. Her head cocked off to the side, as if she was listening to the world around her for the first time. And when tears crested her eyes, I strode to her and slipped the shotgun from between her hands.
“It’s over. I’ve got you. Come here,” I said softly.
She lunged at me, clinging to me and wrapping her arms around me. The women rushed by me, making their way for their own men as the reunions continued to take place. I heard Stone kissing Hayley. I heard Texas lifting Keva into his arms. I heard Asher telling his wife how much he loved her as Notch groaned at the sight of all the kissing and hugging.
“Are you all right?” I murmured.
“I don’t know,” Freya whispered.
“What happened back here? How did you guys end up in this room?”
“We started taking fire in the other room,” Rose said.
I turned around with Frey
a in my arms, feeling her wrap her legs around me. I looked over at Asher and saw a disapproving stare waft across his face. But he didn’t do anything about it. He didn’t tell me to put her down or back away from her, so I didn’t bother with it.
We could resolve our differences another time.
“Hollow points,” Rose said breathlessly.
“So, you guys took the small hallway to this room,” I said.
Freya nodded against the crook of my neck.
“It’s okay. You just breathe, all right?” I asked.
“Okay,” she whispered.
“We got into the room and we thought that door behind you was a restroom. Keva pulled away from her mother because she needed to go, and then the door burst open and men started grabbing for her,” Rose said.
“For Keva,” I said.
“Mhm. And Freya just…”
I closed my eyes and mindlessly kissed the side of her head.
“You protected them. You were protecting them,” I said.
“Mhm,” Freya whimpered.
“Can I hold her?” Asher asked.
I wasn’t one to deny a father the right to comfort his daughter. I walked over with Freya in my arms and passed her off. Her father cradled her closely in his arms. Like a child sick with a fever. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and I saw his shoulders moving. Shaking. Like he was crying for the well-being of his child.
“Let’s give them some time. I’ll get you something to drink,” I said.
I led Rose out of the room and closed the door behind me. My mind swirled with so many implications. So many things I knew Freya felt in this moment. I remembered my first kill. How it haunted me at night. How it gave me nightmares for months. It didn’t matter that I was protecting Notch from a gang-related threat in the area. What mattered was the way that man’s eyes looked before I put a bullet between them. What mattered was the vibrating of the metal in my hands as the gun discharged and rebounded.
Bronx: The Lost Boys MC #3 Page 14
