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.”
“Some presidents would argue that.”
His lips flatten and he walks closer to me. “You’re not smarter than me.”
“Never said I was. King, on the other hand, probably thinks he is. Oh, and he said to say hi. Mentioned something about dancing with you in hell.”
Hatred glitters in his eyes as he presses his gun to my head. Yes, asshole, now we’re playing. Keep it there. Just like that. “Hell is not for men like me. King will find that out soon enough.”
Fucking. Deranged.
“Winter.” Zane again. “Fucking kill him. You’re out of time.”
Yeah, I’m fucking trying, Zane.
Bourne opens his mouth to speak again at the exact moment I move into action. Before he sees it coming, I swap my gun to my left hand so I can use my right one to swing up and knock his gun out of place, away from my temple. As it crashes to the ground, I lift my foot and kick him hard in the groin. He stumbles back, crying out in pain, and I step forward and point my gun at him.
“I wish we had more time together, because I’d take great fucking pleasure in making you wish you’d never fucked with me, but we don’t. And one last tip: when you do get to hell, make sure you find your brother and let him know to run like fuck. King and I will be down there soon enough looking for the both of you, and when we find you, it ain’t gonna be fun fucking times for either of you.”
I pull the trigger.
Watching him die is un-fucking-satisfactory, but knowing his gang won’t exist after tonight is, so I take it.
Hunt and the team explode into the garage, coming to a stop when they eye Bourne on the ground.
“Fuck,” Hunt says, “Zane is losing his shit. We need to get out of here.”
I speak into my headset microphone. “He’s dead, Zane. We’re coming in now.”
“Fuck,” is all I get back, and I grin as I follow the team back to the van. Fuck, I miss our army days. Riling Zane up never gets old.
We make the drive back to Zane’s compound. The roller door opens for us and we circle down to the underground car park. When I enter the surveillance room, I catch Zane’s eye. He shakes his head at me as I make my way to him.
“Is the second team in place?” I ask.
He straightens and folds his arms. “Yeah, no fucking thanks to you. What the fuck happened out there? Every other team managed to get in and get out fast. Even King, who, to be honest, I thought would be my problem child.”
“He had the upper hand. I had to wait for the right moment. Trust me, I wanted to take my time with him, but I didn’t. I only waited as long as I had to.”
Axe cuts in on our conversation. “You guys ready? It’s about to go down.”
Everyone in the room turns to watch the big screens on the wall. Zane has an entire wall filled with them. Ten to be exact. Tonight, we only need five to watch everything unfold.
The second part of the plan involved a second team in each location who went in and planted bombs throughout each building. These were Zane’s guys, all ex-military, all highly trained for this exact task. What we’re about to watch is every fucking location blow the fuck up.
My phone rings.
King.
“I gave Bourne your message,” I say.
Mass explosions flash across the screens on the wall as King says, “Thank fuck this is over.”
I hear his exhaustion; I feel it, too.
This battle has raged on for long enough.
“Yeah, brother. I couldn’t agree more. We’ve got one more ahead of us, though.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“When we get to hell, we’re dancing together. We need our time with the Bourne brothers.”
40
Birdie
* * *
“What about putt putt?” I say as I smooth balm over Winter’s beard early on the Saturday after he came home from Brisbane. We’ve had nearly a whole week of starting our days like this. Well, that is, after he wakes me up with his mouth to my pussy exactly how he promised on Christmas day.