“We gotta go.” Cage hauled a crying toddler up into his arms. “You be quiet and stay still, you hear?” he warned the kid, not sure if the boy would understand. “You be good and you’ll be back with your momma soon.”
That the kid understood and he nodded as he hiccupped-sobbed, tears streaming down his face and snot bubbling from his nostrils.
Jesus fuck, he wondered how much Dyna had cried since they took her. If she was hungry. If her diaper was dirty. If she was scared.
As the five of them turned to head down the steps, they heard a banshee-like scream from the end of the hallway. One of the women had a shotgun in her hands and was raising it to her shoulder as she screamed, “Let ‘em go!”
Cage was standing at the top of the steps. Shade was right behind him with Dodge on his heels.
Shade shouted, “Duck!”
Dodge did and just in time.
The man’s hand became a blur and so did the knife until it stuck dead center in the woman’s forehead. Cage was surprised it didn’t twang from the impact. The woman’s eyes went wide and her mouth opened as she collapsed in slow motion, the shotgun dropping from her fingers.
“Damn! Gotta show me how to throw knives like that,” Dodge shouted, running over to pick up the shotgun. Shade, with a crying toddler of his own tucked under one arm, followed him. He planted his boot on the dead woman’s face and unwedged the knife from her skull.
As a final parting gift, he leaned over and wiped off the bloody blade on her homemade dress.
In front of Cage, Rook asked, “Where the fuck she get that shotgun?”
“Probably got ‘em stashed everywhere,” Shade answered calmly.
Well, that was fucking reassuring. “Eyes and ears open,” Cage reminded the rest of them. “Let’s go. Want my fuckin’ daughter back.”
It took almost ten minutes to get to the location where everyone else was spread out, waiting. Everyone except for Whip and Easy, who remained at the base of the mountain still on lookout.
When they got to where some of the Shirley inbred motherfuckers were holding Dyna, the rest of his brothers faded into the background. They kept the shed in their view, their ears open for any other Shirleys approaching, and their guns ready in case of a shootout.
Thank fuck Jemma wasn’t seeing this. Using kids as shields. As pawns.
But then, the Shirleys were doing the same with Dyna. Using her as a game piece in their fucked up game.
“We got three of your boys. Three of your blood. You got one of ours,” Cage yelled out toward the quiet shed. Too quiet for Cage’s liking. He’d rather hear Dyna crying because then he’d be assured she was still alive. “Thinkin’ it’s more than a fair trade. Three for one.”
Shade stood next to him with one boy held to his chest, Rook held another. His brother insisted on standing next to Cage, risking everything for his own niece. Cage was pretty fucking sure Dutch would have swapped out with Shade, too, if Shade would’ve allowed it.
He didn’t.
He said he had no family, no woman, no kids, he didn’t have a goddamn thing to lose. Unlike some of the rest of them. Like Cage.
But there was no way Cage was letting anyone else do the talking. Judge didn’t like it, but fuck Judge. He didn’t have to like it. He only had to respect Cage’s decision.
The club enforcer did, even though reluctantly.
“One of you motherfuckers come out with my girl.”
“Fuck you,” came a male voice from inside the windowless shed. The door was partially open and the interior was pitch dark.
“Which of these boys d’you want dead first?” Cage asked. “Pick one. Which one means the least to you? This one?” He lifted the toddler he held higher. “He disposable to you all?”
“Send ‘em all into the shed an’ will let your baby go,” the faceless voice shouted.
How the fuck was Dyna going to get outside to them? Crawl? She was barely seven weeks old.
Dumb motherfuckers.
“Send out whoever’s got her and will swap with the one boy I got.”
“Want ‘em all.”
“You’ll get them all once I got my girl back and we’re safely off this hillbilly hill.”
“Don’t want you fuckin’ with us after this,” came a warning from inside the shed.
No deal. “Just want my girl back. That’s it. You fucked with us first by takin’ her. By injurin’ my woman.”
Judge shuffled behind Cage. He ignored the big man’s reaction to his claim to Jemma.
“Send someone out with her and I’ll hand over this boy. He’s been cryin’ for his momma. We’ll take the other two to the bottom, then let them go. Deal?”
“Let ‘em all go now.”
“Nope. Once we reach the road. Not before. Ain’t negotiable. You can send someone down to get them then. When we’re gone.”