Forty-Five
Leo
The Bridgemen worked fast. Disguised as the everyday people, they were the eyes and ears of the High Table. Using them was like flashing a giant sign to the entire Table. They were going to know very quickly about it, which meant Leo needed to act fast.
The Walker brothers owned a storage facility in the heart of the city. It was a front: filled with storage units rented out by clients, it operated by the books. It looked clean from the outside, and hell, if you dug a little deeper, it was legit in most ways.
Most, but not all.
The facility went three floors underground, the final floor swamped with another front: fake clients who stored their units with mattresses and all kinds of bedroom furniture bullshit. In actuality, this floor stored and moved a lot of contraband. It was also where the Walker brothers operated when they were doing deals or moving said contraband in from the port and out to the buyers.
When the Warlords attacked, they did not do it under the cover of darkness. Time was not on their side. They used Leo’s intel and decided to come in hot.
Leo knew he was dragging his family name into this if he proceeded.
He didn’t care.
He also knew that the ramifications for this would be astronomical.
He still didn’t care.
Something within him was unravelling, and underneath that layer of conformity was a hunger for disobedience.
They had parked their vehicles on a trail in a nearby park. They had waded into the bush, coming up from behind the facility, away from the eyes and ears of the everyday person. It was quieter on this side, more conspicuous. This ambush would not be expected, so they had the advantage of surprise. These precious moments were pivotal.
“Are you certain?” Shane had asked him as they stood before the back of the giant depot, two outsiders among a sea of enraged bikers. They were armed to the teeth, the impending destruction minutes away from being unleashed.
It was going to be bloody.
There was going to be death, and there was going to be ruin, and that was what Leo wanted.
Just then, he caught Roy’s eye as they slowly advanced. Their stare held for a few solid moments, and the conversation they had earlier ran through him again.
The distress.
The anger.
The demons that exploded out of Roy and Leo in a flurry of punches could still be felt in his ribs and back. Roy was a fucking devil, and without Kayla to contain him, he was looking wild.
Because a good woman contains the monster within a dangerous man.
These men, these broken fucked up men, were lost without that gentle touch.
Leo tried to hold on, tried to remind himself that his woman was safe, that his brother was healing, that everything was going to be okay. But…a bad feeling swept through him then, a harsh tug in his chest that spoke to him, said things like,maybe you’re wrong, maybe everything isn’t as it seems, maybe you’re losing your control…
“I am,” Leo finally returned, and that was all he was going to say about it. There would no conversing, no warnings, no advice to be heard from Shane who stood beside him with a look of disbelief.
Leo cocked his shotgun and ran with the men past the forest line and to the massive parking lot. He was locked and loaded. He was ready.
And gone—gone was the fucking gentleman.