The Way Home (Lights of Peril Book 2) (28 page)

Ty
continues walking the length of the couch back and forth to us while pointing his gun. “Duck-duck-duck-duck, you still there Hem? Duck-duck-duck-duck…”

The phone is silent, then I hear the blast and feel
its effects all over me. The screams surrounding me are tearing through my ear drums.

“When you love you wish to do things for.
You wish to sacrifice for.”

-Ernest Hemingway

-Hem-

A thousand emotions sift through my head as I hear what Shame is telling Gunner and me as we stand at the front door at the club. We had stopped here to get a load of the girls shit to take back to the house, our intentions were good. We were going to let them live at home again, with us being there of course.

Shame is
barely holding calm as he gets in my face telling me what’s happening at Sadey’s house. It’s a short ten minute drive from here. Once he tells me that this lunatic was about to play a game, I knew in my gut what the winner got. He’s holding the winning lottery ticket and his prize is a bullet to the fuckin’ brain.

Grabbing the phone I star
t to speak, telling the fucker to calm his shit down and that I’m on my way when I hear Sadey screaming in the background. “I love you, Hem. I love you. Don’t bring Patrick here. Don’t come here. Don’t fuckin’ do it.” It takes me all of one second to hear the blast coming through and the cries that erupt after.

Shame’s face is pale and Gunner is already in motion towards t
he hall closet where we keep a few guns behind a false wall in the back. He’s pulling everything out and Shame is following him, as if they didn’t hear what just happened on that call.

I’m holding the phone trying to listen to what the fuck is happening there while the guys finish gathering our shit.
I don’t hear anything else after the screams except his fuckin’ voice on the line again. “I’m going to kill them all, in turn. You come here now, alone, and let me have you. Once you’re here, they go free. Agree, or I shoot another one just damaging her enough to suffer. Little Sadey girl looks ready to volunteer. I would rush it if I were you, but thank fuck I’m not, ‘cause you’re almost dead.”

“Agree
d. Be there in ten.” Then I’m quiet until the line goes dead.

Mace comes walking in the room
. She knew of our intentions to try to give the women some normalcy and she was helping us pack their stuff up. She was in on the surprise and agreed to miss this girl’s day to help. Shame hasn’t said a word to her and Gunner is playing stupid.

“Mace, keep the kids here.
We’re going to be right back. I swear it.” I look into her brown eyes, I see Doc in them now and my determination to rid the world of this scum is validated. I swear to Christ this is not a replay of last year.

She is speechless as she continues to watch Gunner carry shit out front
. He’s working so fast that she doesn’t have time to register Shame coming up from behind her and kissing her neck, squeezing her body to his tightly. After the quick embrace, he spins her around he gives her the look. They always had the most fucked up way of communicating so no one could hear or understand it, but them. Any other time this annoys the hell out of me, but right now I’m not sure Shame could speak if he had to, so it’s a good thing she understands what he’s after.

I hear her mutter.
“I’m okay, Shame. Go. Whatever you’re doing, just watch out for Hem, and then come back.” Yeah, sissy, he’s going to watch Hem kill that fucker.

He wraps his arms around her again, holding her to him as if this could be the last time and his promises of safety were
only for her benefit, but he’s no idiot. What we could be walking into, he knows.

No
words are said on the way to Sadey’s other than quickly devising our plan of action upon arrival. Nothing more needs to be said. I’m not going to just give up and roll over this time. I don’t believe for a moment that Sadey was the target of that shot. He wouldn’t be dumb enough to kill her, yet. Fuck, I’m trying to only believe that so I get through this and might be able to stay focused.

April and Cherry are with them and I have no fuckin’ idea if Honor was in that room or not so we need to move forward not being sure if we have someone on the inside
, waiting for us to join them in an ambush.

My mind is racing
. I’m holding my fear at bay and I don’t have Sadey’s voice in my ear to calm me as I make my way to her. I only have a vivid memory replaying in my head of her as a kid, needing rescued.

“
What’s up, Mama?” I pull her into a side hold as she’s busy making sandwiches for the girls.

“Patrick
! What a nice surprise. I didn’t expect to see you today. Doc told me you have your hands full this week cleaning the latrines and cooking for the boys.” She smiles at me in jest, enjoying the fact that I’m nothing more than a housewife to all the brothers at Peril until I’m sworn in as part of the group. I love to see my mom smile. Sucks that this is at my expense, but whatever it takes.

“Thought I would stop in and see what you all were doing.
Girls out swimming?”

“Yes, honey.
They were playing Marco Polo a bit ago. I see Mace, but can you check on them? I hate that game. It makes no sense to me.”

I smile as
I leave mom at the picnic table and make my way down to the small beach, more like a patch with sand that Shame and I made last summer for the girls. They like to pretend and use this as their tropical setting.

I see Mace to my left
, but when she looks to me I see that she’s nervous. “Patrick, I can’t find her. I can’t find Sadey. She was just here. We were playing a game, then she swam off.”

I start to walk towards her
, but she points me in the direction of the embankment they are supposed to avoid. I fuckin’ knew one day one of these girls would go around there and get caught up with the underbrush laying beneath, where all the waves move debris during the storms.

I make my way
to the edge of the water and I can hear Sadey, but I can’t see her. “Mrs. Cash, please help. Mace!” She’s crying through her words and I can’t make out everything she’s saying after her calling out for help.

Finally
I see her face bobbing up and down in the water in panic and just as I suspected, she’s caught in that fuckin’ underbrush. Goddamn it.

“Mace
! Get out and go get mother. Tell her to bring down the medical kit.” Instantly I remove my boots, cut, and shirt and I wade in, careful not to cut myself on something on the bottom in the process. Sadey spots me and her panic immediately eases. Once I make my way to her she breaks down in sobs of relief.

“I forgot.”
My eight year old little friend can read my face. She senses I’m pissed off.

“You fuckin’ forgot?
You know damn well you’re not supposed to be past the tall oak, damn it. Don’t give me that shit, Sadey.” I’m pissed as hell at her for putting herself in danger. She’s been to this lake almost daily every summer for three years and she knows damn well not to swim past that point. Too many dangers linger around there and should be avoided.

Her arms
are around my neck and she’s pulling at me, trying to keep her hold. I slip under water to remove the tree vine that has cemented itself to the bottom during its growth. Once she’s free and I’ve secured her around the waist, I dredge with her to the lake’s shore. My mom is already there with the medical kit waiting for us. Her face is full of concern as she starts walking towards us. Mace is standing by mom in a towel and tears are streaming down her face.

“Sadey
Marie Lyons, you scared me!” Mace screams at her and she looks almost as pissed as I am. My mom just stares at us coming towards her. I’ve got Sadey cradled like a child in my arms as her bloody ankle dangles towards the ground.

“Patrick
, honey, put her down. Let me look at her.” Mom inspects a cut on her leg and pats her thigh in comfort. “There, there, honey, you’re alright. It’s just a small cut. Let’s get you cleaned up and after that we will go inside and get you some ice cream.”

“Right mother, rub some food on her stupidity
, and reward her irresponsible behavior.”

“Patrick Collins, enough.
She’s already scared. Do not upset her any further.”

I look to
Sadey; her immense green eyes filled with tears behold me. I’ve hurt her feelings in effort to rid my anger and concern, thinking something could have happened to her if I hadn’t checked on them.

I look at her,
tempering my voice and stare, “Sadey girl, you alright?” She just nods in response.

“Sugar, you’re fine.
I’m not pissed at you, alright?”

Again, the
affirmation that she hears me, but she doesn’t believe me.

“
Mother, I’m going back to the house. Warren home?”

“No
, honey, he’s working today, catching up at the office. Go grab some pajama pants to change into. I will wash those jeans and get them to you. Don’t drip all over the floor either. I just got done mopping.”

Good
. Dear old step-daddy is gone. Thank fuck for small favors.

Once I’m in the house I find Warrens stash of
Jack Daniels whiskey and down two shots. I’m on the brink after picturing Sadey’s face going up and down in the water before I got there. Little shit has no idea how to make a decision for her own damn good.

As I put my shot glass in the sink I hear her come in behind me
, then feel her grabbing me around the waist from behind with both her small arms and pull me to her in a tight hug. “I’m really sorry. Don’t stay mad at me. I won’t do it again.”

I pat her
back to ease her worry. “Baby, I’m not mad. I’m upset, there’s a difference. What would you have done had Mace not have found you, had I not found you?”

“
You would have made your way to me, Patrick. I know you would have.”

Yes, baby, I always make my way to you.
Hold out for me now, sugar.

Looking outside Sadey’s house you wouldn’t think anything was necessarily wrong.
Walking past the van, looking to verify if Honor is inside or not, Gunner stops when he sees him. He’s so damn calm, even during a crisis, it’s sometimes hard to tell if he’s just fuckin’ with you or not. He wouldn’t fuck about this right now, though. He’s dead calm and serious. “Honor’s down. I’m calling 911. We can’t do this one alone.” He opens the van door and leans in as Shame and I watch the house to be sure no-one threatens this situation further.

“Fuck, there’s a lot of fuckin’ blood.
I’m calling Raider to come stay with him. We need all of us if we’re going to get inside and make this quick.” As he says that, I can see Shame is manic in contrast to Gunner. His face is set with determination to end someone’s life. Gunner and Honor are close. They came to the club about the same time, making their bond all that much stronger.

Gunner finishes the call to 911 and comes around to us again, covered in Honor’s blood.
The house has remained quiet so far, until another scream erupts.

We round up to the house, ducking under all windows.
If the lunatic knows we are here, he’s not moving. I have yet to hear the sirens that Gunner requested and we most likely only have about three minutes to end this before the city’s best and most qualified fuck-ups make the scene.

We have a plan to get in.
We discussed it briefly on the way here before we all lost ourselves in our fear of the unknown. Gunner and Shame are going through Sade’s back door and window while I knock on the front to draw his attention. It’s not much, but not fifteen minutes ago we heard shots fired without knowing who is down.