Page 101 of Endure the Pain

“They’re over an hour away and we might miss our window,” I answered.

He nodded. “Buck will flee from the fire escape behind the bakery. I’ll keep watch there and shadow them to their next location,” he said and left us to get into position.

The plan was to pick off Buck’s Aryan lackeys one by one, keeping him running scared. Once he was all alone, feeling as helpless as I had felt when he'd sent Alex Roth after me, we’d close in on him and then kill him.

Brenna and I stared through our scopes at the bakery and waited.

It was an hour later when the door leading up to the apartment opened and two Aryans stepped out.

“Blue shirt,” I called out.

“Gray shirt,” Brenna called next and we locked onto our named targets as they headed for the bakery doors.

Brenna pulled her trigger and blood sprayed out of the side of her Aryan’s head. I pulled my trigger a second later, but Blue Shirt ducked out of the way and my bullet shattered the bakery’s front window.

“Fuck!” I hissed and cocked my gun for another shot.

Brenna did the same.

Blue Shirt was hiding behind a car.

“Come on,” I growled.

“We’ll get him,” Brenna assured.

After an agonizingly long minute, he tried to dash for the bakery doors. Brenna and I both fired. Blue Shirt took a hit in the back of the neck and the center of his back before falling to the ground.

Sirens could be heard in the distance. Brenna and I rushed through the process of dismantling our rifles.

Three shots rang off in the distance. Brenna and I paused for only a second.

“Asher,” Brenna said, worry etched in her voice.

We got our BFGs packed up and rushed toward the door. As we sped down the stairs, our heavy breathing and bootsteps echoed off the walls. We burst through the back entrance into the alley. Given how loud the sirenswere, I’d have said they were already at the bakery. We needed to get out of here, now.

We threw our BFGs in the back of the van and climbed inside.

“Call him,” I ordered as I turned the van on and shifted it into drive.

Brenna pulled out her burner and called Asher. I got the van out on the main road and, as planned, drove away from the scene as inconspicuously as possible.

“He’s not answering!” Brenna said, panic overtaking her. She dialed him again and her knee bounced as she listened for him to pick up. When, I assumed, it went to voicemail again, she growled, “Fuck! We have to go back for him.”

My hands squeezed the steering wheel, debating.

“Maura!”

“I know!” I snapped and turned the van around.

We couldn’t even get within a block of the bakery. The cops had it all sealed off. There was no way in and no way out.

“Call him again,” I said as I got detoured away from the bakery.

My burner started ringing. I pulled it from my back pocket and brought it to my ear. It was Dean.

“Dean—”

Before I could utter another word, he asked, “Where are you?”