The Rise (The Kings and Gods #3)

Chapter 21

Hunter

There was never a time in my life when I thought about love. There’s always been so much hate and anger that love didn’t seem possible.

Yet, Lana stands here telling me she loves me. Love for guys like me is rare. We don’t look for it because we’re likely never to find it. And yet, when she’s here with me, I feel whole. I don’t feel as empty when she’s by my side.

I didn’t say it back, and I don’t think she expected me to either. Because I’ve never known love, and I don’t know what that feels like.

I keep her tucked into my chest, just holding her because I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do or how to feel.

“You’re suffocating me,” she mumbles against my chest, causing me to laugh. I let her pull back before I smile down at her.

“There’s no turning back now,” I tell her.

“I didn’t want to.”

“Good. I need to get ready,” I tell her. She nods her head, and we both walk back to the room, where I get a bag and pack a few things. I don’t like the idea of leaving her here, but I can’t risk taking her with me either.

Hoax and I have a general idea of where they are, and now’s the time for us to act on it. We need to get there and hit them when they’re least expecting it.

Once my bag is packed up, I pull my black hoodie on over my shirt before hefting the bag over my shoulder. I hold out my hand for Lana, and she slides hers into mine. I pull her along with me out into the main room where the others are waiting.

I drop my bag and pull her face to mine, kissing her before I go.

“Don’t get hurt,” she whispers against my lips.

“Oh, come on, little rebel. Where’s the fun in that?” she doesn’t laugh or smile at me, and I know this is hard for her. “I’m going to be fine.”

“What’s going to happen when you come back?”

“Same thing that happens to all of them,” I answer her truthfully. She nods her head, although I can see the look in her eyes. She isn’t sure how to handle this and I understand it to a point. That’s her family by blood, but we’re her family now. She doesn’t need them anymore when she has us.

“If you don’t want to see them, you don’t have to.”

“I just don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I want to see them after everything that’s happened.”

“I get that. You have a few days to think about it,” I tell her. She nods her head before wrapping her arms around me and holding me tightly. I love every second of it. I love having her hands on me. I love her just being here.

When it’s time to go, we pull apart, and I reach down, grabbing my bag once more. I toss it over my shoulder and turn, following the guys out the door.

We walk out and toss our stuff into the back of the SUV before climbing in. I see her, standing at the doorway with the other girls watching us leave.

“You better not come back dead, man. Lana will kill us all,” Silas says over the seat.

“Didn’t plan on it.”

“You sure about this? Something seems off,” Rylan adds.

“About what?”

We pull out onto the road and head on our way, but we keep talking as we go.

“There’s no way they found Chaos by chance,” Rylan says. He’s right. They didn’t but I can’t figure out how they would have known.

“What are you thinking?” I ask him as I rest my forearms on the seat in front of me.

“I don’t know. Do you suspect any of the Gods?” he asks. I shake my head.

“Not that I can think of. We haven’t had any issues in a long time,” I reply. I can’t think of a single God who would do this shit. Why would they? It doesn’t make sense.

“I don’t know, Hunter, something just doesn’t feel right.”

“You think we should call it off?” I ask him. I trust Rylan with my life. If he isn’t feeling it, then there’s usually a reason, and I respect what he has to say.

“No. You’re right about finding them first. We need to hit them before they hit us,” he says. I nod my head.

“He’s right. Let’s get to them before they come back,” Silas adds.

“I appreciate you guys coming along,” I tell them.

“Fuck off, Hunter. We’re family. And I’ve told you, things between the Kings and the Gods are going to change. We’ve been separated way too much in the past, and that shit doesn’t make any sense,” Rylan says.

“I get it, Ry. I’m about ready for some damn changes around here,” I tell him.

“So, you’re married now. How’s that going?” Silas inserts, changing the subject.

“It’s good, Silas. You know, you never think you’re going to find someone who will accept your damn demons as their own, but Lana does. She doesn’t judge me or look at me some kind of way.”

“Then you got a good one, Hunter.”

“Yeah, I agree. Let’s just hope she stays that way after what I have planned,” I tell them. They both laugh but don’t ask questions. None of us are in our right minds and we’ve accepted that a long time ago. We do questionable things to people and don’t think about the repercussions.

The ride is silent as we get closer and closer to the area we suspect they’re at. The anticipation is high as fuck. I can feel my blood running colder and colder.

The thought of them touching Lana causes my blood to run ice cold. The thought of them hurting her and taking a life from her. The anger it causes me is hard to keep pushed down, but I do my best. If I don’t keep it contained, I will kill them on the spot and not even get to have any fun with them.

We pull into a parking lot with the other guys behind us and climb out. We move to the trunk, grab our bulletproof vests, and slip them on before getting the guns ready.

“The building is right over there,” I tell the others, nodding toward it. “We don’t know how many are in there. We don’t know anything about the fucking layout either. The mission is to get in there and see if it’s them, and if it is, we want them alive. Anyone else, kill them.” The guys nod their heads as they finish getting ready to go.

Once we’re all set, we start making our way toward the building. You would think we were the fucking military the way we move around so stealthily. We’re down the road and up against the side of the building, ready to move.

I raise my hand and motion for some of them to go around back as the rest of us hit the front. We give them time to get back there before we move to stand in front of the door. Rylan raises his hand and counts us down when I kick the door in.

We move in quickly and make our way through the first room, not finding anyone, but there are signs of trafficking. There are cages along one wall and a mess of clothes on the other.

Rylan motions for us to keep going, and we make our way down the hallway. A few guys break off to go to the left and the others to the right. We kick open the first door, and kids begin to scream.

“Fuck,” I mumble under my breath as I take them in. We back out of the room and close the door for now, knowing we now need to be extra careful with what we’re doing.

We move down the hall further and keep checking rooms until the last one. My nerves are firing off one by one, and when we kick the door open, the shots are fired. We fire off a few rounds ourselves, but we’re careful where we aim. We move into the room as a team, rushing the assholes in the corner. A few shots hit my vest, nearly knocking me on my ass. The pain shoots through my body, but I don’t stop.

“Get the fuck on your stomach!” I hear Silas yelling as I blink my eyes rapidly. The pain is intense as I reach around and pull the zip-ties from my back pocket, tossing them to the guys. I shake my head and step back, letting them get a handle on them.

“You hit?”

“Hit the vest,” I tell him.

“Shit. You sure?” I don’t fucking know at this point because the pain is ripping through me.

“Hunter?” Rylan calls out to me.

“Yeah?”

“You sure you weren’t hit?”

“I don’t fucking know, man.” All I can feel is pain shooting through me. I slide down the wall and fall onto my ass, trying to catch my damn breath. I’ve never been shot before and never had to use my vest, either, but this shit is painful.

“Load them up!” I hear Silas call out to the others while Rylan comes and kneels next to me.

“We need to get this off,” he says, tugging at the vest. I nod my head and let him pull the vest off when he curses under his breath.

“What is it?” I grunt.

“You were hit,” he says.

“Where?”

“Shoulder. The vest took two to the chest,” he reports as pain shoots through me.

“Let’s just get the fuck out of here,” I tell him.

“Let me look at it,” Rylan says, ignoring me.

“The Doc can look at it home!”

“Unless you bleed out, asshole. Sit still,” he roars at me. I sit back, doing the best I can to sit still while he checks me over. When he’s satisfied, the one bullet that hit me went all the way through; he helps me off the floor.

My chest feels heavy as they help me out of the building and back to the SUV. I wasn’t sure we’d find them this quickly, but now that we have, we can head back to Chaos.

“The kids?”

“I’m leaving some of your guys behind to handle it,” Rylan informs me.

“Good. Make sure those kids are safe,” I tell him as we climb in the car. My chest hurts, and it hurts to breathe. Silas jumps in the driver’s seat while Ry climbs in back with me, pulling my shirt up to check for wounds.

“Goddamn,” he hisses when he lifts it.

“That bad?”

“That is some nasty bruising already starting, Hunter.”

“Fuck,” I hiss.

“I texted the Doc. He’s going to meet us at Chaos,” Rylan adds. I nod my head.

“Good.”

“I hope this shit didn’t hurt anything internal,” he adds.

“You worried about me now, little brother?” I tease him.

“Hell no. You’re a stubborn motherfucker.” Damn right, I am. And I have a car full of bastards who need my attention.