Page 165 of I Will Revel in Glory (Death by Daybreak MC 3)
Besides, Crown is right: the compound might burn, too. We’re further north than Ashbury, but so what? That doesn’t mean it’s safe here.
The thought of losing the yellow farmhouse makes me immeasurably sad, but my insistence that it belonged to me, that Crown accept my ownership over it, was never truly about the house itself. It was about the symbolism behind it. We belong together, me and him. Me and Beast. Me and Sin. Me and Grainger.
This is it.
It doesn’t matter where we live; that’s geography.
“I’ve got men working on a firebreak on the southern side of the compound,” Cat muses aloud, his rust-red eyes dark as he thinks things through. “We have the hoses and the trucks. But is it enough? Is it worth our time to sit here and fuck around?”
“There’s always a chance the wind could shift.” Crown turns and peers out the window at the dystopian landscape outside. He looks back to his president, acting as the voice of reason, as he’s always done. “But if we wait around, we’re off the compound anyway and the mafia has the upper hand. Leaving later gives them the chance to set up and anticipate us.”
“They’re going to want to battle this out right here and now,” I agree, and all eyes turn to me. Not sure anyone expected me to speak up again. “They don’t want us to retreat and then return after the fire with reinforcements. The more this war escalates, the more chapters will pledge to help, the higher our numbers will grow. Alvise is going to push this today. It’s in his best interest.”
Cat listens to me and then turns to look at Sin.
“How fast can we move?” he asks, and Sin crinkles his brow, staring down at the floor in thought.
“Honestly, it’s just us here now. We don’t have anyone else to move. We could be up and out the doors in … fifteen minutes?” Sin looks back up, meeting my father’s gaze. There’s no tension or politicking happening in here right now. It’s as if Gaz never showed Cat that damn picture. DBD is functioning the way it was meant to: as a single unit. “The problem is that with the fires the way they are, we only have two routes out of town at this point. One goes straight through the center of Ashbury, the other goes by the Artefact.”
“We’d never go through town,” Grainger adds, looking over at Beast who nods once. He isn’t the type to brainstorm or throw out ideas. He’s waiting until he’s certain of the right move before he speaks up. “The mafia could set up, what, two dozen guys? The buildings are all abandoned now; everyone’s evacuated. If they’re up there with long-range precision rifles, they could just pick us off as we rolled into town. Even if we reacted quickly, left our bikes, searched the buildings, then what? They could bring their army anyway. Or hell, maybe the fire would catch up with us.”
“That means we have one choice: take the back road that connects with the highway,” Sin agrees, tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“Wait here and pray the wind changes, take the alternate route out of town and fight another day, or attempt to engage the Don—whether he’s with the bulk of his army or not—at the intersection near the Artefact,” Cat reiterates, looking over at his vice president. “I say we move now and beat a hasty retreat. There’s no sense in waiting around here and getting cornered between the mafia and the fucking fire. We’re in a far worse position if we wait and things go south—which they usually do.” My father’s already rising to his feet. He looks from Crown to Beast. “Any objections?”
“We should leave,” Beast agrees, nodding and then moving forward to pause beside me. “We may still run into trouble. I’d be surprised if we left this town without bloodshed.”
He takes off and the others follow behind me, Cat included.
My heart is racing as I realize that we’re not going to get the chance to kill the Don today. Instead of finishing this, we’re going to run and postpone it for another day. It makes sense, what the men are saying. I even agree with it all.
But goddamn it.
When are we going to get another chance to face off against the Don? He isn’t like Cat. He doesn’t ride into battle with his soldiers. That’s why there’s such a thing as RICO charges, to nail the leader of a crime syndicate who never gets his hands dirty.
There’s no time to worry about it or to wonder if Cat won’t hold this against me. Reba is gone, but he doesn’t have Grey’s head. I did, at least, deliver on the information he asked me for. We know where Grey is going to be; we just won’t be there when he arrives.
