Battle Hearts (Storm MC Reloaded 3)

“Yeah, and tell Bourne hi from me. Tell him we’ll dance when I get to hell.”

The line goes dead and I pass Ransom his phone. Looking at Cole, I pass on King’s information.

Before he can respond, Zane bellows, “It’s time. The vans are parked downstairs, loaded and ready to go.”

I follow everyone out to the vans and jump in the one I’ve been assigned to. The first part of this mission is to kill the leaders of Zenith and Silver Hell in each city. I’m heading with a team of ten to Zenith’s main warehouse. This is the location Torres gave us, and after staking it out before Christmas, we know Bourne both lives and works there.

We travel in silence, each turning inward to prepare for the battle ahead. When we arrive, I signal for everyone to take his place as directed by Axe and Zane. This location has a high wire fence, so we’ll cut a hole in it at the back of the property and enter through that.

It doesn’t take us long to cut the hole. Nash holds it open for everyone to crawl through, at which point, we carefully make our way through the trees to the back door. We’re each wearing a comms headset that’s connected to Axe and Zane in the surveillance room. They’ve got drones patrolling each location and are communicating with us to let us know when to expect trouble and when to change directions.

Zane’s voice sounds in my headset. “You’ve got two coming up in about thirty metres. After you clear these trees.”

I aim my gun, ready to shoot. As I finish making my way through the trees, the two men come into sight. Hunt moves next to me, and we take them out before jogging the rest of the way to the door.

Once we reach it, Hunt picks the lock, and we’re in. The plan is to quickly make our way through the building to locate Bourne. Our intel picked up that there’s usually no more than six guys here at a time. Most of their gang work out of their other location.

I signal to my men the direction I want us to move in. It’s where I hear sound coming from. We walk quietly and with determination until we reach the destination. Once we’re all lined up against the wall, I use a mirror to check the room, noting three men in there. Bourne doesn’t appear to be one of them. Gesturing, I let the team know how we’re going to enter. They move into place before I turn and enter the room, firing to kill. I take two of them out; Hunt takes the third.

Signalling, I tell everyone where to go next. We’re almost out of the room when gunshots sound and one of our guys goes down.

Fuck.

I turn back in time to see three guys coming at us.

“Winter!” Hunt yells, and I instinctively crouch, narrowly missing a bullet.

Zane sounds in my ear again. “You’ve got one leaving the back door, heading to the garage out back.”

“Fuck!” I roar.

“I’ll cover you,” Hunt says.

I nod, and while he does that, I make my way through the battle of knives and guns that’s taking place, to run to the back of the warehouse where we came in. Exiting, I race to the garage just in time to stop whoever it is start the car in there.

I shoot the tyres and duck as I’m shot at. Looking under the car, I see his boots hit the cement ground before he walks around to the back of the vehicle.

“We finally meet,” he drawls.

Bourne.

Motherfucker.

Zane comes through my headset again. “Shoot him. We’re running out of time.”

I pull myself up to a standing position, coming face-to-face with my nemesis. “Finally.”

He points his gun at me. “You won’t stop me, Winter. Not when there’s a higher plan here.”

Fuck, he’s insane. A higher fucking plan?

“And what’s the higher plan?”

“I will rule this country once I complete my work.”

“As in politically, or criminally?”

“Fuck politics. That’s not where the real power is.”