“Hit squad,” she breathed.
She went into the bedroom, snatched up her phone, and called Danny.
“Yes, Bev?”
“Yvette and I are under attack at Leo’s house. It’s a hit squad. Two of them are down, but I don’t know how many are left. At least one more, I’m sure of that.”
“Stay on the line if you can,” Danny told her, and she heard him bark orders to Preston and Hugo.
Bev set the phone on the nightstand and turned it on speakerphone. Then she checked the stand’s drawer and found three full clips. “Thank you, Leo,” she breathed. Then she spied something else.
“Danny?”
“I’m here.”
“How do you use a hand grenade?”
“Put the grenade in your palm, pull back the handle with your fingers, then pull the pin. Throw it, and then duck,” he told her without hesitation.
She heard someone downstairs call out, “Jerome? Heitor? Jerome?”
She moved quickly to the head of the stairs and pulled the pin. When the voice was close to the stairway, she tossed the grenade.
“Aye, Madre!”
The explosion was terrifying.
“I think it worked,” Yvette told Danny back in the bedroom.
“Back in the tub, Yvette, quick, and bring the phone,” Bev told her.
“Got it. What are you doing?”
“I’m going to get that auto thing that guy was firing.”
“Careful.”
“Right.”
Picking up the large black pistol-like gun, she found a full clip. She searched the body quickly, ignoring the mangled head. She found another clip and three round black cylinders with grenade-like pins in them. She took these and heard several Mexican voices downstairs, probably on the porch. She flew back upstairs and into the tub.
“There are several of them outside, Danny,” she said to the phone. “I found three black metal cylinders about the size of my fist in length. They have pins in them.”
“Flashbangs,” Danny told her. “Concussion grenades. Pull the pin, throw, and duck. But also cover your ears and look away. The sound and flash both will stun you if you are too close.”
“Got it,” Bev said, and handed one of the grenades to Yvette.
Yvette took it with a determined look on her face.
“I thought you were the girly one,” Bev teased.
“I am, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to kill these fuckers,” Yvette told her.
“Danny, I’ve got an automatic gun here,” she told him, and then described it.
“Uzi,” he told her. “There are two external safety mechanisms on an Uzi. The first is the three position selector lever located at the top of the grip and behind the trigger group.”
“Got it.”
“The second is in the handle, and it is there to make sure the user has a firm grip on the weapon. It’s to safeguard against accidental discharge if the weapon is dropped.”
“A deadman switch,” Bev said.
“Exactly. Load the clip, pull the slide, and you are ready. The gun is going to want to climb when you fire it. So be ready to hold it down or you’ll just be putting holes in Leo’s ceiling.”
“Right.”
“I think they are in the house again,” Yvette said.
Bev listened, and she could hear hushed voices downstairs. “Listen for the stairs,” she whispered to Yvette.
Yvette nodded, her eyes wide and fierce.
“Now,” Yvette told her.
Bev didn’t second-guess her. She rose out of the tub far enough to point the gun and fire through the wall and into the stairwell. She gripped the Uzi with both hands and gave the trigger a squeeze. The recoil was amazing, but she kept it pointed at the stairwell and sprayed the wall like she might with a hose. Then she dropped back down into the tub and waited for return fire.
She didn’t hear return fire. What she heard was the roaring of Harleys coming down the road.
“The calvary is here,” Bev told Danny.
“Good. Just sit tight then,” Danny advised.
“Fuck that!” Bev said. She left the tub and changed the clip in the Uzi.
“Sorry, Danny,” Yvette said. “We’ve got to go, and I can’t take you with me because we were in the bath and I don’t have any pockets.”
“Oh, I see. Well, be careful, Shield Sisters.”
“Got it,” Bev told him as she picked up the Glock and changed clips in that as well.
Outside, a firefight had started. She slung the Uzi strap over her shoulder and picked up the two flashbangs with her left hand and the Glock with her right. She looked back at Yvette, who had a fresh clip in her Glock and a flashbang in her left hand.
“Ready?”
“Hold on a minute,” Yvette said, and then kissed her. “Okay, let’s go kill some fuckers.”
Their Glocks following their eyes as they searched the area, they went to the head of the stairs and looked down. A new body was at the bottom. Bev crept down the stairs with Yvette behind her, gun out front, ready to kill anything that moved.
Reaching the bottom, they moved into the living area. They could tell that the fighting had moved outside.
Bev crept up to the door of the spare bedroom and ducked inside.
“You try for the porch with your flashbang, I’ll try out the porch door,” Bev said.
“You think I throw like a girl?”
“Don’t you?”
“Well, yeah, alright, I’ll hit the porch.”
“Right. As soon as they go off, we run and kill them.”
“Got it. Kiss again?”
Bev kissed her. “Ready now?”
“Yes,” Yvette agreed with a nod and a bite of her lip.
“Go.”
They both went out the door, grenades in hand, pins pulled. Yvette tossed first, underhand, and the grenade landed near the middle of the porch past the door. Bev threw hers like a baseball pitcher. It sailed through both doors and landed out past the stairs.
They ducked back in the room and covered their ears.
The concussion was unbelievable. Glass blew out from windows while cups and plates in the kitchen shattered. Pictures were blown off the wall.
“Leo’s going to be so pissed,” Bev said as she unstrapped the Uzi, clicked off the safety, and ran for the patio.
Two men were on the patio. She fired into their writhing bodies without hesitation. Then she ran down the stairs. Yvette fired from behind her with a Glock in each hand, and a glance back told Bev that she had missed one hiding in the kitchen. Yvette hadn’t.
Down the stairs, she found three dazed men behind one of three pickup trucks. She opened fire, catching all three in her spray of bullets. Then she ducked down, searching for any more.
“Bev! Yvette! Hold your fire! We’re coming up!” a male voice that sounded like Hugo’s shouted at them.
Then they were there, coming up from around the trucks: eight of them, with smiles and guns. Yvette stood up and waved, and Bev propped the Uzi against her shoulder to point it at the sky.
Big Marty came up to her while taking off his jacket. He draped it around her shoulders as Preston did the same for Yvette.
“Nice shooting,” Marty told her.
“That’s not what Leo’s going to say when he sees his house,” Bev told him.
“Bad?”
“Five inside, two on the porch, three out here: What do you think?”
“Five out here,” Preston corrected. He gestured at a van on the side of the house. “I got two of them before you used those damn grenades.”
“Well, if the fridge isn’t full of holes, there’s beers in there, and food if you’re hungry. Yvette and I were in the bath, so we’ll go get dressed now.”
“Think the cops will come?” Yvette asked.
“Those flashbangs might have alerted someone, but I doubt it. The closest house is Bev’s,” Marty said.
“We’ll know by the time we finish a beer,”
Preston said. “Until then, don’t touch anything.”
Nods and grunts of agreement came from the group.
Just as they were reaching the main door, Bev heard someone say, “Yeah, but they sure were sexy wearing those guns.”
Bev went upstairs and got her phone. She took it downstairs and into the guest room with Yvette. “Still there, Danny?”
“Yes. I’m glad you are as well.”
“There were twelve altogether: three pickup trucks and a van for transport. The sheriffs don’t seem to be on the way. Clean up?”
“Easy Bev, easy. You two lay down for a bit, collect yourselves, and I’ll call Preston about the cleanup. Alright? Just take it easy for a bit.”
“I’m alright, Danny,” she said stubbornly, but then she saw that Yvette was shaking like a leaf. “Well, actually, maybe I’m not all that good. We’ll do like you said. Let the boys know we need a nap.”
“Good. Talk to you soon.”
To Bev’s amazement, she falls asleep with Yvette in only a few minutes. She woke to a gentle rapping on the door.
“Yes?”
“It’s Kim. Can I come in?”
“Um,” Bev says untangling herself from Yvette, “yeah, sure.”
Yvette was still asleep even after all of that, so Bev shushed Kim when she opened the door. “Come on in. I need to get dressed.”
“I heard all about the naked Valkyries blowing holes in everything on the way in,” Kim said quietly with a grin.
“Yeah, well, we were in the bath, and…”
“Right, what’s a girl to do when a bunch of assholes interrupt her bath? That’s just rude,” Kim agreed. Then she rubbed Yvette’s thigh. “Poor thing is exhausted. Adrenaline rushes will do that to you.”
Bev put on jeans and a t-shirt, and she nixed the idea of shoes right now. “How is the cleanup?”
“The bodies are already gone. I’m here with six other sisters taking care of the blood and broken things, sweeping up the debris. Did you fire through the stairwell wall?”
“Yeah, from the bathtub,” Bev agreed.
“Oh, good thinking. See, I never would have thought of that,” Kim said. “Brent, who’s a good contractor, will come out this afternoon and work on an estimate for sprucing the place back up.”
They left the room, quietly closing the door behind them. Bev asked, “How long have I been out?”
“Three hours, give or take. We’re just about done, but the guys wanted to talk with you if they could,” Kim explained.
The guys were Hugo, Preston, and Angel. Everyone else was either outside or had taken off. She needed to get the names of everyone who showed up and buy something nice for them. She walked into the pool/dining room and found the guys looking down at a collection of wallets, phones, watches, gold jewelry, and other items spread out on the pool table.
“Hey Bev, have you called Leo?” Hugo asked.
“No, and I’m not going to. This first guy who came up, he was specifically looking for Leo, not just anyone in the house. So, these guys were on their own, not from where Leo is at. They just would have waited for him to show up and capped him, right? Leo’s got enough on his mind right now.”
Preston pulled out one of the IDs and slid it over to her. “This guy is Jerome Morales.”
She looked at the picture. “This was that first guy. Morales? As in Ernesto Morales?”
“We’re thinking a brother. His cellphone had Ernesto as a contact,” Angel told her.
“I guess Leo should feel flattered. I mean, twelve men?” Bev chuckled.
“Serious hardware, too,” Angel told her. “We have it all laid out for you on Leo’s bed upstairs. Two Uzis, a handful of those flashbangs you seem fond of, and several nice pistols. One has a silencer, which I suggest you get rid of as soon as possible. Those are way too much heat.”
“For me?”
“Spoils of war, Shield Sister. That’s your stuff now. So is all of this. Use what you want, throw the rest away or sell it. But it’s yours. There’s about five grand in cash, too.”
“What about the cost of cleanup?” Bev asks, trying to get her head around this.
“Danny will let you know and work something out,” Hugo told her.
“Why isn’t some of this yours? If you hadn’t come and pulled them out of the house, we would have been overwhelmed pretty quick,” Bev objected.
“We all took a vote. You got ten, Preston got two, and he doesn’t want any of it because if he brings home one more gun, Kim’s going to make him sleep on the couch,” Hugo explained.
“Oh, well, I got nine, really. Yvette got the one hiding in the kitchen,” Bev said. “Well, I want a list of names of everyone who showed up, because they are on my special I love you Christmas list.”
“I got that for you, Bev,” Kim said, and rubbed her back.
“Kim? I think we’re done,” a woman called from upstairs.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Kim said, and she headed upstairs.
“How are you feeling?” Hugo asked her.
“Good. Why? What’s up?”
“Well, we’ve got that gig tonight, and there’s supposed to be ten of us to pull it off right. On his way home last night, Frankie had a little accident and messed up his leg,” Hugo explained.
“So,” she said, looking from man to man, “you’re a person short.”
Preston nodded. “Yes, and we can’t think of someone with the skills, availability, willingness, and trustworthiness to fill the position in the patch holders, so we were thinking a Shield Sister could help us out.”
“When are we leaving, and is it bring your own gun?”
“Just like that?” Angel asked.
“How long has Leo been working on this? Maybe nothing will go wrong with a man short, but so far, he hasn’t said much to me that didn’t matter.”
“Which is why we’re asking,” Hugo concurred. “Just a little surprised at your willingness to go from one firefight to another danger zone.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, “me too. I need to find someone to watch over Yvette, though. Can’t have her waking up alone.”
“We’re meeting up in the back of the club at eight, so about six hours from now, and yes, it’s BYOG.”
“Is Austin going on this?” she asked.
“Yes,” Preston replied.
“Damn. I guess I’ll ask Kim, then,” she said.
“I’m sure she’ll help out,” Preston said with a smile.
Chapter Thirty Nine
Leo rode in the passenger seat of the Hummer while Nomar drove. Two of Nomar’s lieutenants sat in the back seats. Another Hummer was ahead of them, and one followed behind them. Trucks were already near the site at this point. Leo checked his Jaeger LeCoultre Master combat watch, which retailed at over $10k. It was a few minutes before 10:30pm. Like everyone else, he was wearing black fatigues and laced combat boots. He had two Glock 9mms, one on his side and the other in a shoulder rig. Vigilante border patrol groups and bandits would do well to stay away from Vasquez drug drops, but sometimes they were stupid. Nomar called it natural selection.
All five of Nomar’s lieutenants were on this drug drop, which was highly unusual, and it made Leo a bit nervous.
“Any contact from Gonzalez?” Leo asked.
“Gonzalez? Oh, you have been off, sorry. It is becoming a habit to believe you already know everything,” Nomar said with a smile. “I’ve taken care of the Gonzalez threat already.”
“Oh? Is the solution a secret?” Leo asked.
“From you? Not at all. I kidnapped Kari yesterday, then sent word to Gonzalez that I have her, and if any of my homes or businesses are attacked, I’ll kill her. On top of that, tomorrow she is eighteen, and I will marry her, as she wishes.”
“What was his response?” Leo asked, while a cold spike went through his spine.
“No response yet, which is unusual in these situations. But I’m fairly sure he got the message,” Nomar assured Leo.
�
��Hmm. Well, if you kill her, it will be all-out war. He’ll strangle your drug supplies and come at you with every resource he can muster,” Leo pointed out idly.
“Agreed,” Nomar said, “which is why this drop is so important. I’ve changed the drop amount to 1000 kilos, instead of 300.”
CRASH: The Rogue Sinners MC Page 25
