“There are so many cars up there,” he says, sinking down beside me. His body may very well be shoved up against mine, but it’s Rebel he’s talking to. “At least seven. Julio’s Hummer is there, but it’s blocked in. Ramirez obviously had someone barricade him in in case things go south. There are motorcycles up there, too, man. Three of them. Harleys. Expensive ones.”
“You recognize them?” Rebel asks.
Carnie shakes his head. “They’re not local to here, whoever they are.”
Rebel raises an eyebrow at Cade. “What club would align themselves with Ramirez?”
“None that I know of. Hector hates the clubs. He does everything he can to fuck them over.”
Rebel’s brows bank together; he looks deep in thought. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about outside involvement now. Julio’s expecting us to break up this little dinner party in less than thirty minutes, so we’d better get moving. We’ll stick to the original plan.”
“What about their escape route?” Keeler asks. “If their Hummer’s blocked in, they won’t be able to book it out of there when the first explosions go off.”
Cade makes a tsking sound between his teeth, shaking his head. “That’s not our problem. Julio’s a grown ass man. He’ll figure it out.”
“Exactly.” Rebel places a hand on Cade’s shoulder, fixing those cool blue eyes of his on his friend. “You good to go?”
“Sure am.”
“Okay. Go and lay the charges. We’ll give you ten minutes. After that we’ll head through the back door and lay ours. We’ll wait for your signal.”
Cade nods. “I’ll be right behind you.”
“Don’t stand on anything stupid,” Rebel whispers.
Grinning, Cade pops up from the ground, tightening the straps of the backpack he’s wearing. “You know me. I never put a foot wrong.” And then he’s gone.
Rebel shifts the backpack he’s wearing, too—it’s identical to the one Cade just vanished with, and its contents are the same: fifteen pounds of C4. I cringe at the idea that he’s carrying that amount of explosives on his back, but no one else seems overly concerned. I know next to nothing about materials like that. According to both Rebel, Cade and the internet, C4 is fairly stable until you prime it with an igniter. We won’t be doing that until the very last second, after we’ve gotten rid of Ramirez’s guards on the lower floor.
Ten minutes tick by slowly in reverse.
After what feels like forever, a car alarm starts wailing around the front of the building, high-pitched and ear-shatteringly loud. Rebel smirks, pulling back the slide on his gun. “That’s it,” he says. “That’s our cue. Come on.”
My heart is in my throat as he gets to his feet, still bent low at the waist, and begins to run toward the farmhouse. Carnie and Keeler are up and following in an instant, and weirdly enough, so am I. I don’t think twice. My palms are sweating, my blood pumping in my ears, but I’m not afraid. I definitely should be.
I would be if I was following anyone else into this nightmare, but following Rebel is different. I trust him. I believe in him. I love him. I will follow him until the ends of the earth if needs be.
“Hey! Hey! ?detener! No te acerques más!” A loud shot rings out into the night, followed by a high, metallic zipping noise. I hunch down lower, still running, as a bullet rips through the air to my right, close to Carnie. Carnie swears under his breath, returning fire, but the report of his weapon is drowned out by a deafening, roaring sound that detonates somewhere around the other side of the building. A wall of light, sound and heat ripples past us, and twisted shards of metal rains down from the sky.
“Fuck.” Rebel dodges a piece of warped shrapnel. “Keep going! Keep running!”
Up ahead, the gunman who fired at us a second ago has his back turned on us, facing toward the house, obviously trying to figure out what the hell is going on. His body is lit up in silhouette, framed in black against the orange glow that’s spilling through the windows and the open backdoor of the farmhouse. Carnie takes advantage of the opportunity and fires his gun again, and this time he doesn’t miss. The guard jolts harshly, his arms rising in the air, and he lets out a strangled shout. He sags to his knees, his gun falling from his hands, and then topples forward into the grass.
We reach him just as Cade barrels around the side of the building. Rebel rounds on him, gun raised, ready to shoot, but then he sees who it is and turns away. He spins around just in time to catch another of Ramirez’s guards appearing in the doorway ahead of us.
The world is in chaos. Another explosion rattles the window frames of the building, so I don’t hear Rebel’s gun go off. I only see his arms kick back and then the guy’s head bursting like a watermelon as he tries to lift his own weapon too late. Blood and tiny fragments of bone shower Rebel and I, spattering our faces and our chests.
“Inside, inside, inside!” Cade hollers. “Move.”