Tharnished Hearts (Savage Saviors MC Book 6) Read online

  “In that case, make her a sniper,” Derek said with a chuckle. “OK, let’s go over some last minute things here then.”

  He pushed some papers forward as I sat across from him, Matty coming around to stand by him.

  “Where is it?” I asked, curious if it was going to be another abandoned building.

  “Some apartment building, I guess,” he said and shrugged. “They seem to be choosing old abandoned places that haven’t been occupied for years.”

  “Cheaper and easier to stay under the radar,” I said.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I think too,” he said, glancing over. “Our best intel suggests this will be a little easier than the last two ones, at least in terms of angles of attack. They can only shoot out of the doors and windows, but the walkways are such that there’s only one building, and to shoot down, you have to come out of the apartment and expose yourself. We sit someone back by the bikes to shoot at such people, they’re gonna have no choice but to wait in the apartments themselves.”

  “Which sounds dangerous, but ain’t no one a perfect shot at sudden movement,” Matty added.

  “Best bet, Eve, will be to wait until a room is clear, and only go in if gunfire breaks out and they need backup,” Derek said. “I don’t want you to play the role of sniper. All respect, you don’t have experience in that, and you need to be aware of enemies circling around and from behind. You may think that now, but you wouldn’t in battle.”

  “I know,” I said. “I’m happy to do whatever you need.”

  Derek looked at me like a joke crossed his face, but he just shook his head and kept going.

  “In any case, we think their wheeling and dealing is on the top floor. It’s an abandoned enough and run-down enough building that we shouldn’t have too many problems, but it will be a bit slow since we’ll have to go door by door. And… that’s about it. Eve? You ready?”

  I smiled at the thought of going into a combat mission in which I actually felt good about our chances and wasn’t worried about a fringe lunatic getting herself or us killed. I loved Tara, but I didn’t love her at all on the battlefield—so the less I had to deal with that, the better.

  “You said they’re under the radar here, right? Or trying to be?”

  I put my hands on my hips, well aware that my scar was showing, and beamed with pride.

  “Let’s go prove how not under the radar they are.”

  7

  Derek

  As we rolled up to the next target, something Roost had said at the shop kept ringing in my head.

  “Gal’s got a better accuracy than ya do, boy.”

  It didn’t offend me by any means, nor did it bother me. But it did align with what I had seen from Eve when she first shot at the makeshift target practice range. She was really, really, really damn good at firing a gun.

  It made me wonder if she had ever had to fire weapons before, and if so, what the context was of said firing. She’d never made any mention of it before, and she certainly hadn’t owned a gun while in the clutches of the Black Falcons. It just made me believe, though, that she was just a natural.

  A natural who, apparently, was better than me and many of the members of the Savage Saviors by extension.

  And this was someone I was trying to protect from battle!

  To be fair, she didn’t have any significant combat experience—she’d just found herself in a battle here or there, never really taking the time or having the opportunity to study warfare as she needed to. So it wasn’t totally insane that I wanted to protect her. There was some real logic behind it.

  But, well, with her arms around my waist, my bike hitting eighty miles per hour on the highway, and about four different guns between us, there wasn’t much protecting now. It was up to the both of us to hold our ground, stand tall, and do what needed to be done.

  We pulled off of the highway ramp after about a six minute drive—me, Roost, Bones, AK, Rucker, and about ten other club members—and went down some side roads for another ten minutes before coming to the abandoned apartment.

  From my vantage point, I saw no lights on, no patrolmen, and no vehicles belonging to the Black Falcons.

  “We sure this is the right place?” I said to Roost.

  “Eagle ain’t made many mistakes before,” he said, referencing the man who had collected these photos. “We may be too late. But let’s take a look and see.”

  We killed our bikes. Eve hopped off with ease, pulled the safety off of her gun, and nodded to me confidently as I did the same. I called Bones over, my eyes never leaving the apartment.

  “What would you do in Iraq? One door at a time?”

  “Yes sir,” he said.

  “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

  I turned to the rest of the group, keeping my voice low.

  “We’ll split up into two teams, Eve and the Marines with me, the others with Roost. We’ll approach the apartment from both sides and clear out as we go. Take it one door at a time, go slow, and don’t rush into anything. If you see a Black Falcon, knock them out. If they fire, kill them. If you find contraband, put it outside the door but don’t do anything yet. We’re gonna seize it and put it in the truck. Understood?”

  All the Saviors acknowledged it. Eve, the Marines, and I moved to the far side of the apartment, while Roost and his crew moved to the visible, dark side. I had a sneaking feeling that the far side would have more light. We’d be able to see—

  A brick wall.

  “Well then,” I said. “I guess this makes our job easier. No double-sided apartments.”

  “Big place, though,” Rucker said. “We can approach from the west side while they’re on the east side. We’ll clear it out much more quickly that way.”

  “Boss?” Bones asked for confirmation.

  “Yeah, let’s do it.”

  We moved back around to the house, making eye contact with Roost and the others. Bones gave some hand signals that another soldier picked up on, who then told Roost. Roost gave a thumbs up, and we went to work.

  At the first door, I let Bones and the Marines do the trick. For some stupid reason, I expected Bones to kick down the door and yell loudly for everyone to get down. I realized how dumb that was when I saw that we had the element of surprise.

  “NVGs,” Bones said.

  The three Marines quickly put theirs on. I realized Eve and I didn’t have any, but that was fine. We would stay as backup.

  I looked to her. She wasn’t even looking at me. She had her eyes locked on to the Marines, watching their step, while also sweeping the area for any surprises. That’s my girl.

  “Clear,” Bones said.

  “Anything inside?”

  “Nothing.”

  I took a look for myself, curious. Though it was dark, the moonlight and the stars above provided just enough of a view in for me to see there truly was nothing. Perhaps we had come too late, although…

  “Bones, does it look like anyone’s been here?”

  “Not in this particular room, no,” he said. “However, I do see some steps going up the stairs. They’re a bit older, though.”

  “Just as well, no one probably on this floor.”

  It made sense. The best position was the high ground, and putting contraband or their own men on a lower level was just a good way to get popped from afar. Better to be able to see everything than to be seen.

  “But let’s clear out all the rooms all the same.”

  “Acknowledged.”

  The Marines moved with the sort of ease that belied their tough nature. Like dogs without a collar, they moved silently, as if floating above the ground whenever they moved. They could not have been any quieter, and when they opened the doors to the newest apartments, it was as if they were entering their grandmother’s house.

  After about ten doors on each side, though, we intersected with Roost and his crew.

  “Find anything?” I asked.

  “Negative,” Roost said. “I suspect they be holin’
up coupla floors above.”

  “Good thing for us, only a three-story building,” I said. “Let’s keep moving.”

  The Marines went first. They moved cautiously up the stairs, following their guns, ready to pull the trigger at a moment’s notice.

  Roost followed next, following the same procedure. His steps were, shall we say, not so subtle, but anyone who tried to shoot at Roost would need multiple bullets, anyways. He was a bit indestructible like that.

  Roost’s men followed him, and then I turned to Eve.

  “Not quite as exciting as the last one, huh?”

  “Preferable,” she said, nodding toward the stairs.

  Damn, all business.

  She’s so good.

  God, she’s hot.

  I reminded myself that the sexual drive that came post-battle needed to wait until after we had actually finished this battle, which was more of a mission than a battle anyways. It wasn’t a hard switch, as the tension of the moment killed any thoughts of an erection or sex.

  We reached the second floor, Eve having my six, and continued much of the same. Sure enough, this place was empty as well. Bones, however, advised the footprints were still there, continuing up to the third and final floor. I turned to Eve just before we went up.

  “Battle’s probably about to start now,” I said. “Keep your ears and eyes sharp.”

  “You got it,” she said.

  With us having split up, we didn’t have to wait for Roost and his boys to go. Instead, the Marines and the two of us took the far staircase, moving up to the third floor.

  “Here,” Bones said.

  We paused and an immediate tension hit my gut as Bones advised footsteps were leading to this particular room. I had a terrible feeling a trap laid waiting on the other side.

  “They know we’re here,” I said.

  “Of course,” Bones said. “AK, Rucker.”

  No time even for acknowledging the obvious, I thought with a healthy dose of awe. I motioned for Eve to back up as we held our guns aloft. Bones slowly opened the door, his gun pointed out, and then flipped on a light switch.

  “Damn.”

  I waited until they called clear, but as soon as they did, I rushed in.

  Inside, one of the Black Falcon leaders was resting on the bed. He showed no visible signs of injury or trauma, but his chest wasn’t moving. He had an empty cup by his side of a liquid that looked like a dark brown or perhaps purple.

  “Death by suicide,” Bones said.

  “Wonder what drove him to do this,” I said.

  I went through the possibilities in my head. Was this another message from Falcon somehow? It wasn’t nearly as gory and insane as his other messages, so that seemed less likely. Had the man just… just gone mad?

  I heard a loud thud as I turned suddenly.

  Eve just stood there, sternly looking at the man.

  “Oh, he’s dead,” she said. “No man can fake no reaction to a groin kick.”

  “Good call,” I said, grateful that it was not me she had taken her anger and kicks out on. “But we still need to figure out what the hell happened here.”

  “Look,” Rucker said, finding something in the bathroom.

  I hurried over and saw a note with handwriting I did not recognize.

  “I can no longer support the Falcons’ cause. I have lived a shameful life and sent my men home. Falcon will kill me for this, so I have chosen to take my life in my own hands. Drugs and arsenal are in next two doors.

  -Blood Raven”

  “Do you think this is legit?” I said, feeling very uncomfortable at the prospect of a trap.

  “Yes, but never assume so,” Bones said. “We do what we’ve been doing. We treat every place as a trap.”

  “Sounds good, let’s do that,” I said.

  Still, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly unnerved by what I saw. I knew the Falcons treated their recruits and members poorly, with Falcon prone to killing his own without warning and keeping all the profits himself, but a suicide like this? That was…

  I recognized Blood Raven from the photos from earlier, but that didn’t make the fact that he had killed himself any less unsettling. If anything, it made me feel a little sad that he hadn’t bothered to just come to us. Perhaps he suspected that Falcon would get him anyway and do to him what he’d done to the Saviors and Falcons he’d mutilated.

  Either way, it was clear that the games of Falcon and the plots were not just affecting us, but affecting their own.

  Which told me that if the leader was feeling this way, perhaps the members felt even worse and were looking for ways out even more.

  This gave me hope that we were perhaps not too far from the end, not too far from defeating the Black Falcons. Perhaps we could—

  BANG!

  The shot hadn’t occurred in our room, but it was on the floor all the same. The three Marines moved without hesitation outside and ran down the railing. I peeked out with Eve to see that someone had fired into the room that Roost and the others were exploring.

  And then, just as the Marines ran by, another door opened and a man stepped out.

  “Oh hell—”

  But before I could even get a shot off, the man dropped dead. My ears rang from the gunshot that had come just by my left. I looked up, saw Eve’s gun with wisps of smoke coming out, and her smiling.

  “You talk too much,” she said.

  “Not as much as Tara, I hope!”

  “No one does that much,” she said, laughing.

  We quickly reorganized and stayed in our spots, keeping our eyes peeled for any other surprises. No one, though, came out.

  “You all right?” I shouted.

  “All good!” Roost yelled. “No one got hit. Just some asshole who thought he could win a war on all o’ us. Dude ain’t last but a second!”

  I felt utter relief as I wiped my brow. The Marines came back, stepping over the man that Eve had killed.

  “Thanks for having our six,” Rucker said.

  “No problem,” Eve said.

  “Let’s get the rest of these rooms cleared out before we have any more surprises,” I said, not wanting a repeat of this scene in the next half minute.

  Fortunately, Roost was right. All of the other Falcons had either fled or gone somewhere else; only the two zealots who refused to take Blood Raven’s order had stayed, and that they never even landed contact with any of my men told me everything that needed to be done.

  Blood Raven was also right in another regard. We found plenty of ammo that we seized, as well as documents, communication, and other critical pieces to the infrastructure of the Black Falcons. It was a critical victory, and just as we left, Bones laid out some gasoline to burn the place down.

  “Bit excessive, no?” I asked.

  “You never know if they have this bugged or rigged,” he said. “Better to destroy it on our terms.”

  No complaints there.

  We all headed back to our bikes except Bones and AK, who stayed behind momentarily to pour gasoline and light the match. They did so within a minute and were with us, watching the building go up in flames.

  “It’s like the Saviors’ version of fireworks,” I said.

  I was surprised to hear the men laughing, but then again, we had just successfully wiped out their third base of operations. Granted, it was perhaps more apt to say a disgruntled and woke member had ended it themselves, but no matter what, the Black Falcons were down to one solid base—a church.

  Which just seemed so appropriately fucked up for them. A house of worship had turned into a house of hell for them.

  I grabbed Eve and put my arm around her, and she leaned her head into me. The scene felt like I had just conquered the enemy and had his head on my spear. Of course, it was nothing like—

  My phone buzzed. I reached into my pocket, intending to ignore it, when I saw it was a number I didn’t recognize. There was something about the timing of the call, though, that had me more than a little curious.<
br />
  “Sorry,” I said to Eve as I answered the phone. “Hello.”

  “Derek Knight.”

  There was only one possibility for who was on the other line.

  “Falcon?”

  A sinister laugh came on the other line.

  “Very good, very good.”

  I suddenly felt the eyes of everyone around me turn to face me. I motioned for them to hold their guns at the ready, alert for a potential trap and ambush.

  “Yes, it is I, Falcon. I see that you have wiped out a third base of ours. Impressive work on your part. Even if it only happened because Blood Raven was too much of a coward to fulfill his duties.”

  “More like he realized how sick and twisted you are.”

  “I prefer the term utilitarian, Derek, and you will address it as such.”

  I just went silent, refusing to give him the satisfaction of me submitting to that request or of me angrily denying it.

  “In any case, it is clear that you have a great deal of fight in you. As does the whore.”

  “Where are you?” I growled, as much for the benefit of my team as I did for myself. I even put him on speaker phone so they could all hear.

  “Oh, don’t you worry, I’m very close by. I can see you now, in fact. Why did you put me on speaker phone?”

  The men tensed at that, holding their rifles aloft and scanning the area.

  “Oh, don’t even bother. Your men will not hit me from where they are. If it makes you feel better, though, I have only but a pistol and two guards whose guns will not reach you. You are quite safe. For now. You would be wise, however, to put me off speaker phone.”

  I looked to Bones, who nodded as he tightened the circle even further.

  “Yes, listen to your Marine, Derek. Do the smart thing instead of the hotheaded thing for once in your life.”

  I hated how little control I had in this spot, but not wanting my men to get shot in surprise, I acquiesced. The move drew laughter from Falcon, which only pissed me off even further.

  “Come out and fight me, you coward!”

  “Oh, I don’t think you would like that right now. We would have you outnumbered so badly you would have no choice but to surrender on the spot or die. No, Derek, I am calling you right now because I am here to make a deal with you.”