“You win,” I answered. “Ten more minutes, and then it’s off to bed.”
I sat down on the sofa next to Wyatt and listened to Dusty explain all the different tricks he’d learned. The pain relievers were starting to kick in, so I rested my head on the back of the sofa, resting my eyes for a minute. I tried my best to stay awake, but with the calming sounds of the boy’s voices chatting back and forth made it too hard to resist. I’m not sure how long I’d been asleep when Henley came in and woke me.
“Hey there, sleepyhead,” she smiled. “How ya feeling?”
“Pretty good considering,” I answered as I looked around the room for Wyatt.
“I sent the boys to put on their pajamas and brush their teeth. Hope that’s okay.”
“Thank you.” I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and asked, “What time is it?”
“It’s almost ten,” she answered, looking down nervously at her watch.
“I must have dozed off,” I told her. “Have the guys made it back yet?”
“No, and it’s starting to worry me a little. We haven’t heard anything from them since Two Bit brought you back, and that was hours ago.”
A surge of panic rushed over me when I thought about Griffin being at that warehouse in the middle of all that gunfire. I couldn’t stop myself from asking the same questions over and over in my head. Why didn’t he leave with me? Why would he put himself in danger like that? I knew the answer. It was simple, really. He couldn’t leave. Leaving would make him something he’s not… the kind of man who’d walk away, and after listening to everything that Doc had said about him and his life at the club, I was beginning to understand why. Griffin’s very existence was defined in being there for others, protecting his brothers and protecting those that couldn’t protect themselves, and he would never walk away from that. And if I was being truthful, it was the very thing that I loved most about him. He’d been there for us all along, ultimately protecting us both from Michael and his endless abuse, and I knew deep down that he’d always be there.
Chapter 24
Stitch
?
Getting Wren to safety had only taken a few minutes, but when I returned, a full-on battle had ensued. An adrenaline rush instantly kicked in as I listened to the bullets whip past me, tearing into the terrain around me. An electric energy filled the air, making me even more eager to get into the mix. A lust for revenge washed over me as the image of Wren’s blood covered face and hands flashed through my mind. I wanted to fight – I needed to fight. These men had put my brothers through hell over the past few months, and the fact that they had kidnapped or attempted to get Wren only fueled my desire to take them down even more.
The fact was wars like these, men fighting for their own perceived truth, were messy and chaotic, and they never went as planned, making them almost impossible to prepare for. That’s actually what I loved about them. I was all about the hunt and kill, seeking my revenge for the unpunished sins of my enemy. I moved forward into the darkness of the night searching for my brothers’ location, but it was difficult to see. There was a haze of fog drifting over the warehouse as the clouds billowed in off the water, looming forward as if they were searching for their next prey. It was as if they were urging me forward as I finally made it over to Cotton and my brothers.
Cotton gave me the once over, checking to make sure that I was free from any bullet wounds and asked, “You good?”
After I nodded, he said, “Rip and his crew have already secured the perimeter surrounding the east side of the building.”
“What do you need us to do?” I asked.
Cotton turned to Guardrail and ordered, “Take Boozer and a couple of prospects with you and see if you can get eyes on these motherfuckers. I want to know every move they make.”
With that, Guardrail led Styx and Smokey off to find a safe place to scan the area. Boozer followed close behind, covering them as they moved into their new location. Just as they were about to be in the clear, Smokey was pinned down by a round of gunfire, forcing him to drop to the ground. Boozer and I both shot off several rounds, giving him a small reprieve to crawl to safety. Once he was hidden behind one of the large cargo containers, he gave us a chin-lift, thanking us for helping him out.