Just then, a sudden shout came from above. All our heads shot up to the ceiling towards the thundering of footsteps.
Snake’s gaze immediately connected with mine. “Go!” he commanded.
I turned to Volt to come with me.
We hurried up the stairs to retrieve the guns that we had surrendered. I quickly found mine while Volt did the same and we rushed towards the front to see two of the Mexicans crouching and peeping through the window.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Rose turned to me, fear in his eyes. “The cops are here. They’ve fucking surrounded the building. How the hell did this fucking happen?”
“Remain calm,” I said to him.
“How the fuck are we going to get out of here?” he shouted.
I could see that the entire house was surrounded by almost a dozen Dallas police cars, if not more. They were all stationed out of their cars, their guns at the ready. I gave Rose the only answer that would be suitable, “It’s going to get bloody.”
“Fuck!” he screamed.
I hurried back down to the basement to inform the rest of the men of the situation.
Panic instantly broke out.
“What the fuck!” RJ’s cousin Marcus turned to Snake in fury. “Did you fucking do this?”
Snake was immediately triggered. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Then how the fuck is this happening?” Marcus asked. “We only sent you this location an hour ago, so how the fuck is this happening?”
“You got a fucking snitch in your nest?” one of the Mexicans screamed.
Another of his companions spat, “RJ, what the fuck is this?”
RJ’s hands were on his head. He looked doomed. I had never seen him so quiet as he shook his head, wide-eyed with confusion. “I c-can’t understand.”
“We need to figure out how to get out of here,” Snake said, his voice cold and measured as usual.
“Should we surrender?” I asked.
They all looked at me like I was insane, the previous suspicion of my loyalty flashing across their eyes, but in that moment they had bigger fish to fry. Mainly how to get out of this death trap alive.
“We don’t have that much ice in here,” I explained. “Perhaps the cash would be the biggest problem.”
“With this much cash present, they’ll be on the fucking look out for the rest of the shipment. We’re going to fucking lose everything,” Tyler said.
“We can burn the money,” I suggested. “Without that, they’ve got nothing.”
The room was silent as everyone contemplated my suggestion. They knew it was our only hope. Suddenly, Skippy flew down the stairs. “They’re advancing!” he cried. “We need to get out of here.”
We all exchanged looks with Snake, but it was the Mexican gang’s boss who made the call, “I’m not getting arrested. I either walk out of here on my own two feet or as a corpse.”
That ended any debate we could have had.
Snake stepped forward and we all headed upstairs. From the window, we assessed the situation.
Tyler straightened and said, “We need a hostage and it has to be someone big.”
I studied the area and knew exactly who to point to. “Him,” I responded, the sheriff at the back who was on the phone. “He seems to be the one in charge.”
“We might not be able to get to him,” said one of the Mexican dealers. “Any one of them is just as good. The moment someone gets out here and just before you’re arrested, disarm someone and place the gun to his head.”
“That’s fucking risky,” Snake said. “They might—”
“It won’t be,” Marcus countered. “We’ll attack from here. Which of your men have clear shots? We’ll use that to startle them before they put him in handcuffs. From this distance, they can’t fucking miss.”
The room went quiet. A few seconds later, it was broken by Tyler as he cocked the gun in his hand. “I won’t miss,” he said with steel resolve in his eyes.
“Neither would most of us here. The real question is who’s going to take the risk and go fight for a chance for the rest of us?”
The room went even more silent, the only sound was the loudspeaker outside commanding us all to step out in surrender.
Suddenly the last voice I wanted to hear spoke up, “I’ll go.”
We all turned to RJ.
“I set this up in the first place, I’ll be the one to end it.”
Tyler immediately retaliated. “I’m not fucking putting my life in the hands of a madman like you.”
“So what the fuck are we going to do then?” RJ roared.
Tyler pointed the gun at him. “Just fucking stay put. If you’re itching for a bullet through your head I can help you out with that, but not at the risk of the only shot we might have of getting out of here.”
The room went silent again.
“If we mess it up this once, they won’t fall for it again,” Marcus said.