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29
Orion
It’s been a while since I’ve worn Kevlar and combat equipment, but it feels like a second skin. The setup is lighter than my usual motorcycle gear, but that’s because this whole thing was designed to help me move around with athletic agility while also shielding my vital organs from most bullets. It adds a certain gravitas to the whole situation, though, bringing back memories, the kind I worked hard to shove to the very bottom of my consciousness.
But I need to tap into my past version of myself to do what we’re about to do.
We’re gathered outside of Foothill Ranch. There’s a big house in the middle of an open field, surrounded by a plain net fence and flanked by two red barns. According to FBI intelligence, floodlights mounted on the house and on several of the wooden pillars of the fence are motion-sensor-activated.
Dale looks over a blueprint of the property while Kai, Drake, and I double-check our equipment, weapons, and ammunition. There’s an army of SWAT officers doing the same, black vans lined along the side road and out of sight. It’s an abandoned area in an open field, so we’re able to observe any movement.
There are plenty of motorcycles pulled up outside the ranch house, and Colton’s meeting is likely already in progress. The Feds have listening equipment tuned in and are scanning the whole property, constantly updating us on everything.
“I’m surprised that Kessler stayed back for this,” Dale mutters. “I could’ve sworn I’d have to lock him up for his own good.”
“His fighting days are long behind him, and he knows it,” I reply. “Besides, you’ve got the three of us. We’re all you need.”
Dale chuckles lightly. “God, I hope not.” He switches back to serious mode in the blink of an eye and points at the blueprint. “Are you clear on how we’re going to do this?”
“Yes, sir,” I promptly reply.
“No cowboy bullshit,” he insists.
“No, sir,” Kai chimes in. “We’ll let your SWAT boys from team Alpha handle the ranch house. We’ll simply go past it and work with team Beta to tackle the hunting cabin.”
“That’s two miles northwest of the ranch,” Dale reminds us. “You’ll need to be extra careful. If that’s where Colton keeps his victims, then he probably has some kind of surveillance system set up around the cabin. We can’t get a chopper overhead to assist you—not if you want to take him by surprise.”
“Yeah, we know,” Drake says. “We’ll go stealth. The Beta team already briefed us on every movement.”
“Good. And remember, I want Colton alive,” Dale replies.
I hesitate with an approving nod, and he knows I have no intention of letting that fucker live unless his SWAT officers get to him first. “My focus is on getting Nadia out of there alive,” I say.
“You have your heat scanners, right?” Drake asks one of the Beta guys, and he gets a muffled yes in return. “We’ll need every heat signature before we storm the cabin.”
“It’s a shame we don’t have a blueprint for that place, too,” Kai mutters.
“It was built in the early twenties,” Dale says. “Any paperwork pertaining to that entire property hasn’t been digitized or scanned yet, and we simply didn’t have any time left to dig through county hall records.”
“All right, let’s move,” I tell the guys.
Drake pulls me aside for a hot second. “You ready for this?” he asks in a low voice.
“Yeah.”
“Just like the old days,” he says.
“Damn straight.”
A devilish grin appears on Kai’s face. “I think we needed this. It sounds sick, I know.”
“Yeah, we needed this,” I humbly concede.
I just hope it leads somewhere good because the thought of losing Nadia drives me insane. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to envision a future without her in it, especially knowing that we have two new souls on the way. She must be scared out of her mind.
A few minutes later, we’re carefully cutting through the eastern sector of the ranch fence. Using long-distance EMP pulses, the SWAT officers disable the motion sensors and the CCTV cameras while the rest of us dart across the open field, black shadows bolting through the night. Above us, the moon rises, our quiet mistress with her dress made of stars.
I count twenty motorcycles outside the house. I recognize most of them, and I can’t say I feel sorry for what’s about to go down. We tried to help them, and they chose to turn their backs on us. The Sea Snakes, the Black Wolves, the Sabbath MC, the Crimson Knights … they’re all going down tonight. I just hope they’re wise enough not to open fire on six dozen SWAT officers. They may have received orders to keep things as clean as possible, but they will not hesitate to kill on sight if needed.
