Outlaws’ Property (Property of Outlaw Sons MC #1)

32. Jessica

32

JESSICA

Ghost slips away from the door, and immediately my heart starts racing. He puts himself behind a corner right by the table, leaning against the wall like he’s not paying attention. If someone's coming, I don't hear them yet, but I trust him. I just need him to be okay, and I’m not going to let him pull back again. I'm not going to pretend I can fix all the pain that he's gone through or the guilt he has to be carrying, but it makes me want to do my best to make it as easy on him as I can. Because I care about him, just like Tex and Riot.

He glances my way and frowns. With a quick hand motion, he gestures for me to move back. I do, but not so far that I can’t keep watching out the little viewing window. Maybe it's for my own safety, or maybe he just doesn't want me to see what he can do, but I don’t want to go blind into whatever is about to happen. I shake my head, and the frustration is clear in the set of his jaw, but now's not the time for arguments.

Then I hear it. The footsteps are light and quiet, but definitely there. Ghost's waiting quietly, his gun in one hand, and a vicious looking knife in the other. I couldn't look away if I tried.

It's not long before shapes dressed in mottled dark clothing from head to toe appear at the end of the hallway. From inside the cell, my view isn't great, but enough to make them out. They have helmets, dark face masks, scary looking guns, and from what I can tell, every possible advantage on Ghost. Why are there so many of them? And why is anyone expecting him to handle this alone? Ghost might be skilled, but he’s only one man.

How did these guys get this far in the first place? My blood chills. Did something go wrong outside? But no, they warned Ghost, right? So they have a reason.

The crack of a gunshot goes off upstairs. One of the soldiers glances over his shoulder, but seems unconcerned. Is it part of their plan? Does this mean they've taken control of the compound? God, I wish I knew more about what’s happening.

The front one holds up his hand and makes some kind of signal. The other three spread out and start to move into the room, gliding like shadows. These guys are professionals, but then Victor already lost a man. He wouldn’t risk looking weak by sending anything less than the best this time.

Even with Ghost there, my blood is ice. What if they're too much for him? The soldiers don't seem to have noticed me yet, but there's no way out of this room, so they have to know I'm in one of the cells. I'm surprised they can't tell where I am just from the sound of my beating heart.

Ghost explodes. One moment, he’s still, a statue in the shadows, the next one of their soldiers drops to the floor like someone hit the off switch. Their leader freezes. By the time Ghost is past him and on to the next, the leader drops to the floor with a knife still sticking out of his masked face and thick, red blood spurting out around it. He never even got to scream.

The next guy does though. Ghost takes the man's arm and wrenches it around to his back with a sickening crunch, then uses him as a screaming shield while Ghost levels his gun and puts a big, bloody hole between the eyes of a fourth one. The massive boom inside the little room has me clutching my ears, but I can't look away from the carnage. Not until I know Ghost is safe.

The one Ghost shot tumbles backwards until he slams against the wall and sags down it. The bullet must've gone all the way through, since he leaves a red streak behind him as he slides.

Ghost never stops moving, spinning and dragging his human shield. There's a second crack, another bone broken, and the guy screams louder. The last one tries to level his machine gun, but Ghost throws the man he's holding at him. Even as the two black-clad soldiers collide, Ghost is right there. I have no idea where he got the second knife from, but he buries it deep in the last guy's neck.

Still not stopping, he kicks the guy with the broken bones over so that the helmet isn't in the way, aims the pistol at the man's face, and executes him. This time I look away, suddenly glad I skipped lunch.

Riot was brutal with Troy, playing with him before putting an end to it. Making sure Troy felt the pain Riot thought he deserved for messing with me.

This was nothing like that. This was pure efficiency. I'm pretty sure Ghost had all five men down in just as many heartbeats, and he's already got the last knife back and is aiming his gun down the hallway in case there are more. I knew he was cool under pressure, but this was almost machine like. Somehow I'm falling for a man that can do… that.

I should probably be running the other way as fast as I can, but I haven’t lived the kind of life that has let me pretend bad things don’t happen. I already knew he was dangerous, and I’d rather have him at my side than anywhere else.

But man, it's chilling to see him in action.

I hold my breath while I wait. Ghost is absolutely still again, his gun hand unwavering. Is he getting new intel through his earpiece? Is everyone okay up there? Or are there more coming? Someone must've heard the gunshots.

I don't let my breath out until Ghost's shoulders relax and he sticks his gun into his belt. He gets up, collects his other knife, then wipes both of them off on the pants of one of the soldiers. The knives disappear wherever he keeps them hidden on himself, and then he finally looks at me. There's pain in his eyes. Regret? Not over killing them, but that I had to see it.

"Are you okay?" I whisper, knowing they didn't have a chance to physically hurt him. But that's not what I'm worried about.

He lets out a slow breath, then nods. "Fine. You?"

“Been better, but I didn’t throw up this time.”

“Shit, I’m not sure if I’m proud of you for being so practical or pissed that I’m even thinking that.”

I give him a shaky grin. I might be a little green around the edges but we’re alive. "Go with proud, because the other ship has already sailed. What about the others? How did they get all the way down here? Are Tex and Riot…?"

"They're fine." He taps the earpiece as he comes closer. Just the briefest of pauses as he looks at me, and then he unlocks the door to let me out.

I throw myself around him, not caring that there's blood on his jacket and a little on his cheek. I need to hold him, touch him, know that he's whole… and to let him know that he hasn't scared me away. I accept the darkness in him, even if he doesn't. A short sob escapes me, and then his arms are around me too, pulling me in close. When we come upstairs, there’s a line of bodies. They're all dressed in black and masked. With the Outlaw Sons knowing they were coming, they didn't stand a chance.

"Jessica!" Riot pushes through to us. Ghost still has his arms around me, but Riot grabs my head and kisses me like he thought he'd never see me again. I'm so shocked, it takes me a second to start kissing him back. He's okay. And then Tex is there too, jumping in as soon as Riot backs up, and I get another kiss. It's nice. It's life, celebrating that we pulled through without getting hurt.

Hellfire comes over, followed by a couple of grizzly looking bikers I don’t know yet. "Nice work," Hellfire says. "Barely a scratch, and twelve bogeys down. Any trouble downstairs?"

Ghost shakes his head. "None. Not convinced that Kane got his money's worth with these guys."

Or maybe they didn't count on there being a freaking ninja biker waiting for them down there.

"Hey, Boss. Kept one alive for ya." Between Poe and Sinner, there's a guy in black with his helmet and mask removed. They're as much keeping him up as they are making sure he doesn't get away. His hair is buzzed short, but the little he has is soaked with drying blood from an oozing wound on his scalp. His eyes look a little unfocused and his face is heavily bruised.

It's hard not to feel sympathy, even knowing that he and the others were coming in here to steal me and Anne away. On the other hand, I doubt he would have had any compunctions about blowing away Riot, Tex or Ghost. That thought hardens my heart pretty darn quick.

Poe holds out a little electronic device that looks kind of like a phone. "He had this. He was hanging back a little, and we figured he was the contact man. Either that, or so chickenshit that he hid in the bushes as soon as he got here. If we hadn't been waiting for them, we'd probably never spotted this fucker."

They shove the man forward, and he drops to his knees in front of us, catching himself against the pavement with his hands.

Hellfire takes the device and looks at it. Up close, it seems more like a pager, but who has those anymore?

Skyhigh takes a look. "Narrow band comms unit. Good for communicating if you don't want anyone intercepting. I was taking them apart and putting them back together back in my deployment days." Ghost nods like he recognizes it. With his background, he's probably used them before.

"How's it work?" Hellfire asks, his growl threatening. I wonder if the guy on the ground is with it enough to understand he’s a dead man.

"This one looks text based. Probably encodes it on the way. Silent and more accurate than voice. Might require a code, though." Skyhigh takes the unit from Hellfire and examines it closer. He nudges a button, and a screen comes on, so low contrast it's almost invisible, even in the darkness.

Ghost kneels in front of the last of the attackers and grabs his chin to force him to look up. "You’ve got two options, friend. Quick and painless, or real long, real slow and the worst fucking agony you've felt in your whole damn life. How much loyalty is that money worth when you know you'll never see any of it?" The ice in his voice doesn't just give me chills. Even a couple of the Outlaw Sons look a little uncomfortable with how easily he makes the threat. Killing in the heat of battle is very different from the promise of torture.

The man's eyes clear up, like his body just channeled every drop of adrenaline in his body towards this new threat. I don't know how much he understood but definitely enough that his face contorts in terror. "What do you want from me?"

"Give me the code word."

The man looks around at the glowering Outlaw Sons surrounding him, his expression resigned. There's no mercy to be found here. "Quick?"

"You won't feel a fucking thing."

He nods. I don't see how he can meet his obvious fate that calmly, but I guess you have to be a certain type of person to get into this kind of business at all. "Spoiled brat. Two words," he says.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me," growls Riot. Tex just chuckles.

Ghost nabs the comms unit from Skyhigh, and types on the little screen. I peek over his arm to read.

Target acquired and removed from premises. Mission successful. Spoiled brat.

"Let's see what they say." The screen remains black long enough that Ghost turns his attention back to the man. "If you fucked this up, it's gonna take fucking days."

The man shakes his head. "No, I swear. It's legit."

A faint dark red glow lights up on the comms unit, barely visible and pulsing slowly. Ghost taps the button. There's a new message there.

Good work. Confirm when your team has cleared the blast zone. You've got three hours.

Tex is looking over Ghost's shoulder on the other side from me. "Cleared the fucking what?"