Fatal Attraction (Love Kills Duet #2)

38. Thirty Eight

Thirty Eight

Phoenix

They got him! They fucking got him!

I blinked down at Spike’s text, widening my eyes as I read over it again, again, and again, my heart swelling.

“FUCK YES!” I screamed, pumping a fist in the air, so ecstatic I was shaking.

Thank fucking GOD!

How’s Charlotte?

There was a mild complication, but thankfully, she made it through the surgery. She lost a lot of blood, so they had to give her a blood transfusion. She’s in the ICU now, recovering. She hasn’t woken up yet, but she’s stable.

And Carter?

I ground my teeth, waiting.

Carter’s safe. I promised you I’d take care of them. Did you doubt me?

Blowing out a breath, I typed in my response.

Maybe a little. Thank you, Spike. Thank you so much. I love you.

I love you too, Phoenix. Take care of business, okay? I’ll message you once she wakes up. We’ll see you soon.

I tossed my phone on the bed, so relieved all I could do was clasp my hands together, stare up at the ceiling, and thank God over and over again for sparing Charlotte and not taking her away from me. From us .

And Percious…

That mother fucker was lucky he was in custody and that I was currently prepping for a drug bust. Once all of his charges had been brought against him, I was going to convince Harley into seeking the death penalty. After all he’d done to us, Charlotte, Karl, the SPD, and Felix, the bastard deserves to die.

Casting those thoughts aside, I got back to the bigger task at hand. Crow refused to mention what was going down tonight, so I had to ensure I was equipped for any unexpected surprises. I finished loading my service pistol and the other two I had locked away in the safe I kept under my bed. After putting the ammo away, I stocked everything in the holsters attached to my hip and then threw a solid black hoodie on to hide them from prying eyes.

Once I was in the car, I fished through the Five Finger Death Punch CD, searching for the right song to fit my current mood. Finally, I settled on Jekyll and Hyde and then I was off to Daggers, arriving just as the sun began to set .

A shiver spider-walked down my spine as my eyes raked over Crow and at least a dozen of his crew members lined up in front of the bar, waiting for me on their bikes which were all powered on, their engines revving at my approach. Toothpick, who was standing next to Crow holding what appeared to be two jackets and black beanie masks in his hands, offered me a toothy grin as he whispered the word “Bonecrusher” under his breath. I watched carefully as Crow turned to him and accepted the jackets and masks.

“Bonecrusher.” Crow’s brows furrowed as he gaped around and over my shoulder. “Where is your partner?”

“He couldn’t make it. Something came up and he had to stay behind.”

Crow and Toothpick shared troubling looks as the rest of the crew began dispersing in discouraging whispers.

“Is that going to be a problem?” I asked.

“We’ll make it work,” Toothpick said loud enough to summon a loud wave of silence. “It’s fine.”

Crow nodded his agreement. “Before we get started, I need you to take off that hoodie and spread your legs and arms wide.”

“What?” I blinked incredulously at him. “You think I’m wired?”

Crow lifted his shoulders, dropping them as he gave me a bitter smirk. “Better safe than sorry.”

I scoffed, rolling my eyes and doing as instructed, and waited as Toothpick thoroughly checked me over, finding nothing except for the extra guns I’d brought.

“I see you came prepared.” Crow grinned wickedly at me before offering me the Rolling Rebels jacket tightfisted in his right hand. “Welcome home, Bonecrusher.”

“Let me make one thing perfectly clear to you.” I grabbed the jacket and put it on, my brows lifting in frank surprise. It was a perfect fit. As I gaped down to the familiar worn-down badge with my old nickname stitched in on it, my lips parted. This was my old jacket from my teenage years. It had to be.

Crow actually held onto it after all these years?

“I am not back, and this crew is not my home. I’m only here to settle the bargain between us and that’s it. After that, I’m done. We’ll go our separate ways and hopefully never see each other again.”

Crow’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t fight me on it. “Understood, Bonecrusher.”

I swiped the black beanie mask from his hand and then stuffed it inside the left jacket pocket before grabbing my hoodie and throwing it over my shoulder. “The plan?”

“It’s simple, really. Intercept the shipment before it gets too deep inside the Ravens’ territory. Once the truck is secure, you can go back to being a good little piggy and all the bad blood between us will be wiped clean.”

“What do you intend to do with the shipment once it’s in your hands?”

“Since your partner couldn’t make it tonight,” he continued, outright ignoring my question. “You’ll be riding alongside Toothpick. Everyone has their orders and knows where they need to be. Toothpick will explain the rest once you’re in position.”

With a backward glare at his crew and with a raise of his large hand, they one by one slid their masks in place before speeding off into the night. When they were gone, Crow straddled his Harley and fired up the ignition. He gave Toothpick a wink and then offered me a cruel smirk.

“You remember how to do this, right?” Toothpick nudged his head hard to the right, at two bikes I hadn’t noticed were parked in front of the shed, covered by a blue tarp. I followed him there, and Toothpick grinned at my hanging mouth when he removed the tarp, revealing my old bike and the one that used to belong to Crow’s late father.

“No fucking way,” I whispered.

Toothpick just continued to grin. “It’s good to have you back, Bonecrusher, even if it is just for tonight.”

I felt so free. It had been years, just over twenty years since I’d been on a bike, and the feeling was unreal. My old bike—The Black Pearl, was her name—still purred like a kitten, and Toothpick was beside me, throwing his head back in a boisterous laugh as I raised my hands high and howled like a wolf at the top of my goddamn lungs, embracing the wind as it grazed across my naked cheeks.

I’d missed this—the rush, the thrill—only I didn’t realize exactly how much until now.

“Careful,” he shouted, which had me grasping the bars so I wouldn’t wreck. “Don’t get too lost in the rush.”

I knew exactly what he meant, but his words did nothing to ease the adrenaline pounding in my chest. I wanted to go faster, maneuver around the cars on the road and see if I still had the skills I’d acquired back when I was a teenager. I was more reckless then, a cocky little fuck who liked to show off and had embraced the call of the wild. I may not have been that same kid anymore, but I couldn’t deny that being back on the bike felt good—so fucking good. Maybe when Charlotte was better, I’d buy one and take her out for a ride, tell her about my time as a Rolling Rebel and the person I used to be before I’d grown into the man I was now.

“How far?” I shouted over the roar of our engines.

We’d been on the road for a while now. We were on the backroads, about a solid hour away from the hospital. I had no idea where the Ravens’ territory began, but we had to be close.

“Just up this hill,” Toothpick replied, his smile unwavering. “Follow me.”

Toothpick sped up then, and I merged carefully behind him, following until we’d breached the hill and started drifting downhill. When we reached the bottom, we were surrounded by woods on either side and there wasn’t a streetlamp in sight.

Toothpick eased off the gas and pulled off the side of the road, gently hopping off his bike. I did the same and then moved the bike off road, just between a small opening in the woods on the right, waiting beside him.

“So, what exactly is the plan here?” I asked him. He grunted, then fished a flask out of his jacket pocket before taking a huge swig from it, offering it to me. “Where’s the rest of the crew?”

“They’re not far,” he replied, taking the flask after I’d ingested a small swallow. “Barely half a mile up the road. Crow should be nearby too.”

“The plan?” I asked again.

“According to Leo, the truck should be coming in from the way we came, leaving us the first to ambush it from behind.”

“And if we fail?”

“Then Crow and the rest of the crew will step in.”

“Are you sure you can trust Leo? I mean, he did betray you. After what Crow made me do to him, he has to know there’s no guarantee Leo will—”

“We could say the same about you. How do we know that you won’t betray us? After all, you are a cop.”

I couldn’t really argue with that, so I bobbed my head and said, “I’m not going to betray you, but I will admit that something doesn’t feel right about this. Why does Crow want this shipment so badly?”

Toothpick took another drink. “Crow wasn’t bullshitting when he said he wanted to go legit. He’d gotten in some trouble a while back and was awfully close to facing years in prison, but the Narcs made a deal with him.”

“Narcs?” I repeated, head cocked and brows crumpling. “What do you mean?”

My eyes widened when he said, “Detective Gibbs and Hammett. Before they got involved, we’d been trying to track where all these nasty street drugs were coming from. Crow caught wind that there was this thug working with this popular street dealer.”

“And let me guess,” I said as the pieces began coming together. “His name was Rio Sanchez.”

Toothpick nodded. “Crow got lucky and found him, tried to purchase some of the drugs Rio had so he could deliver it to Kendall. It was a long shot given their…problems…but he wanted to see if she’d be willing to test the drugs and see exactly what we were dealing with. We’d helped a ton of homeless kids who were dealing. We managed to get them off the streets and in shelters so they could get clean, but then the next thing we knew, they were back on the streets all doped up, selling again. Anyway, Crow got busted by Gibbs and Hammett, and for a while there they were trying to pin everything on him. It took some time and a lot of vouching, but finally they agreed not to press charges against Crow, but only if he and our crew could discover who was really behind the drugs and where they were coming from.”

My breath caught. “Are you telling me Crow is a CI for Gibbs and Hammett?”

“Yes. Technically, I guess you can say we all are.”

My head spun.

“That’s why Crow couldn’t really tell you anything when you and your partner showed up at Daggers. This whole operation is considered confidential and if Crow had told you what he knew, he’d be in prison. We all would.”

“Fuck.” I ran a frustrated hand down my face and vehemently shook my head. “I…I can’t believe this shit!”

“In Crow’s defense though, he did give you hints. He did everything he could to help you and well, if you didn’t listen, then that’s not on him. That’s on you, Bonecrusher.”

Toothpick was right. Crow did help us, but the problem was Gibbs and Hammett. If they’d given us the information we needed when Spike and I had confronted them, then Percious Welch could’ve been arrested way before shit had ever escalated this far. Felix would still be alive, and Charlotte would’ve never been kidnapped.

It was evident now that my fight was no longer with Crow. Hell, it never was. It was with those two conniving sons of bitches.

Toothpick made to speak again and then froze, rushing to retrieve his phone. I never heard it ring over the bikes, so it must’ve been put on vibrate. “It’s Crow.” He put the device to his ear, nodding once before he hung up and faced me.

“Masks on,” he demanded, jerking his head hard to the left, where there was a set of headlights coming in hot. “We’re on. Crow said to shoot the back tires out.”

I plucked the mask out of my pocket and gently glided it over my head, lifting it up so it covered my mouth and nose. “How do you know that’s the right truck?”

Toothpick didn’t answer at first, opting to reach behind and under his jacket instead, revealing a gun. He checked the rounds before he cocked it. “You ask a lot of questions, Bonecrusher. No offense, but I’m frankly getting tired of answering them.”

It wasn’t the response I expected, but instead of arguing, I double checked my rounds, watching and waiting for the truck to slowly cruise on by. Right away I’d noticed a small blinking light emerging from underneath the truck as it passed. Toothpick hesitated another moment before he turned to me and said, “Let’s go!”

He hit the gas, zooming out onto the street with his gun ready. Following Toothpick’s example, I turned on the brights and as we veered closer, Toothpick shouted for me to aim for the back left tire while he handled the right.

I got in position, my aim undoubtedly on point.

But just before I could fire, the back of the truck lifted open. There were several armed men—five to be exact—glaring daggers at us .

Oh, fuck!

The men began firing as the words, “IT’S AN AMBUSH,” fled my throat, and, faster than I could blink, Toothpick was hit multiple times and had flipped backwards off his bike. My heart sank as I stared behind me and saw his large body rolling…and rolling…and rolling.

“TOOTHPICK!”

I killed the lights and swerved out of the way as the gunfire started up again, cursing like a fucking madman when I landed in the ditch. Lucky to evade getting shot, I worked fast to get the bike up and then popped a fast U-turn. Tears filled my eyes when I parked beside Toothpick’s body.

He was gone.

FUCK. FUCK. FUCK!

With no other choice, I grabbed my phone and called Crow.

“It’s an ambush!” I yelled when he answered. “Toothpick is dead!”

“ What the fuck happened!? ”

“There are five men in the back of the truck! They were waiting for us!”

He let out a vicious growl before he hung up, and I swore heavily, glancing down at Toothpick’s body before I had no choice but to pop another U-turn, my chest heaving. I didn’t want to leave him like that but there was nothing I could do for him. He was gone. One way or another, I had to stop these bastards before they killed anyone else.

Half a mile later I heard more gunshots, so many that I killed the engine and parked the bike on the side of the road, keeping myself low as I swiftly dropped into the ditch and trailed along it, two guns drawn and ready.

Fuck , it was so much worse than I thought.

The target was parked in the middle of the road, and Crow and six of his men were behind it, guarding themselves from oncoming fire. Five bodies lay lifeless at their feet and as I grew closer, several hundred feet ahead of the truck was another crew.

The Ravens. It had to be them .

There were about seven in all, each armed and drawing closer. Since I was in the ditch, I dropped close to the ground and aimed one gun at the guy on the furthest end. His body hit the pavement when I pulled the trigger.

Their attention fell on me so fast that I had to quickly lie flat in the ditch, covering my head as shots fired off one after another, sending dirt and grass flying up into the air. As the gunfire ceased, I shot up like a rocket and aimed both guns, taking down two more men.

WHERE THE FUCK WAS THE REST OF THE CREW?

“CROW!” I moved like lightning, joining him and his comrades as they covered themselves, panting hard. “Am I fucking missing something here? Where are the others?”

“They should be—”

And just like that my question was answered when Crow peeked his head out through the right end of the truck, grinning. I spared a glance, watching in relief when the other half came storming in, their engines roaring and bullets flying.

“GET BACK!”

Crow snatched me by the shoulder and slung me back beside him, saving my life as a bullet nipped the metal, missing me just in time.

“Thanks,” I whispered, my heart pounding harder as I gripped my guns tighter.

“Don’t mention it.” He turned to the Rebels beside him, telling them the Ravens were distracted and to handle the driver and help take out the rest. The Rebels nodded and then moved. There were so many shots flying through the air, I hadn’t a clue if they’d even made it.

“We’ve got it from here,” Crow said, shocking the hell out of me as he pulled me into a tight embrace, one hand brushing across the back of my head. “Our feud is settled, Bonecrusher. Thank you.”

“Crow, I—”

My words were cast out of me as he suddenly shoved me to the ground. Before I could react, gunshots stung my eardrums, and I screamed as Crow took three bullets to the chest, falling to the pavement. The Raven settled his attention on me but luckily, by the grace of a fucking miracle, the gun clicked when he fired at me. I raised my guns high and let out a vicious roar as I pumped as much lead into the motherfucker as I could.

“CROW!”

Sirens began wailing in the distance, mixing with the gunshots, and I ignored them both as I lunged over to Crow’s side, holding him tightly against me.

“Stay with me,” I said as I frantically searched for my phone, dialing 911. “This is Detective Phoenix Rhodes.” I fired off my badge number and then immediately demanded for the closest ambulance. “There’s a shootout between the Rolling Rebels and the Ravens. We have multiple casualties and are in desperate need of medical assistance.”

“Ph-Phoenix,” Crow rasped, tears dotting over his eyes as he weakly reached a shaky hand inside the top pocket on his biker jacket and pulled out a picture that was folded in half. “F-find th-them. Find her . Te-tell them I’m sorry. Te-tell th-them I love them.”

“Crow…”

“ Please .”

I took the picture and opened it, cursing when a smaller one of a beautiful young woman with auburn hair and stunning green eyes had fallen to the ground. The larger photo was of a group of five guys, plus the same girl. They were all together, smiling, happy. The date on the back of both was from well over twenty years ago.

“Francis,” he whispered, his tears slipping out and falling down his pale face. “Francis Lamour. Th-that’s what she goes by now. Fi-find her, Phoenix. Please—” He let out a shaky groan and squeezed his eyes shut, forcing them back open when I shook him, begging him to hang on. "T-T-Tel3l Kendra I lo-love her. Ta-take care of my baby girl. Sa-same with Ke-Kendall. Pr-promise me, Ph-Phoenix. ”

“I promise.” My tears fell and landed against his jacket as his eyes began to flutter, his breathing ragged.

“Crow,” I cried, shaking my head as I pulled him close to me, not wanting to let go. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. I-I never meant for you to hate me.”

“I-I never did,” he hoarsely whispered as I pulled back, staring into his glistening eyes. “I-I never hated you, Ph-Phoenix. You-you’ve always been my br-brother.”

His shaking hand reached up and cradled the side of my face. “I-I fo-forgive you. I—”

His eyes fluttered again before they shut, his head falling to the side against my forearm.

“NO!” I desperately shook him, begging him to wake up. “NO!”

“CROW!” a random voice shouted, and I began to sob, holding onto him tighter than ever. “CROW!”

A body appeared from the side of the truck, and my anger burned hotter than lava as my wet eyes lifted and locked with Detective Gibbs.

As I gently laid Crow’s body against the pavement, I shot to my feet and then inflicted a lethal uppercut against Gibb’s jaw.

It took Hammett and four other officers to get me off of him.