Page 18 of Revenge Saints (BloodHawks Duet #2)

W e move fast, breaking into a run, the only sound our boots pounding the dirt. No talking. No looking back. Just distance. We’re not heading to the farm yet; it’s too dangerous. That place has to stay clean, untouched. It’s our last card.

Instead, we veer toward the nearest town, get lost in it before doubling back. The farm’s buried deep in trees and brush, hidden so well it took us years to notice it was there. But he will track us. Every footprint, every broken branch.

So we give him a trail, let him follow it all the way to nowhere.

Dante’s breathing starts to hitch. I throw my fist up, halt. Max and I stop, still listening.

Nothing.

Silence so thick it chokes.

“Let’s slow down,” I say, lowering my voice. “We’re good… for now.”

I catch Dante out of the corner of my eye, rolling his shoulder, jaw tight.

Max shoots me a look, then pulls his bag around and digs.

“Here,” he says, handing Dante a bottle of water and two pills. “These have probably been in that house for a decade, but Aspen’s stash worked, so I’m betting these will too.” He gives a soft, forced chuckle.

Dante takes them and downs the water.

“Thanks, man.” A worn-out smile flickers across his face, but it dies quickly. He looks at Max, then me.

“Aspen gave you pills?”

His gaze sharpens like a blade.

“Yeah.” I grunt, fists already clenching. The simmering rage I’ve been pushing down starts to crawl up my spine again. “Our girl drugged Max. Hid it in tea. Then ran.”

“What the fuck was she thinking?” Dante snaps.

“She thought she was saving you,” Max mutters. That one stabs harder than I want to admit.

I trusted her. Looked her in the eyes. Felt her hand in mine.

She made a promise, and she broke it.

Now she’s gonna feel what that costs .

“Knox.” Max says my name carefully. Like he knows what I’m thinking.

I keep walking. Eyes ahead. If he looks at me too long, he’ll see it. He’ll know what I plan to do the second we get to her.

“Did she leave a note or anything?” Dante asks.

I shake my head. “No.”

Max chuckles dryly. “She knocked me out and tied me to the table legs.” Humor lacing his face, but there wasn’t any when we found him, cold and passed out on the floor. Took forever to wake him. Ryker was beyond pissed. So was I. Hell, even Max, once the haze cleared.

We found the radio. Ran like hell. No idea how far she’d gotten.

And for a second, I didn’t think we’d make it. I thought we’d lose her… again.

Then Dante’s crackled through the static, and we had a choice to make.

Aspen or Dante.

Ryker, he’s Recon. The ghost in the trees. Our best shot at tracking her down before she completely torched the plan.

So we split.

Now we’ve got Dante back.

Next,

She’s going to look me in the eyes again.

And this time, she’s not going to like what she sees.

The sun is rising now, bleeding gold over a ruined world. We’ve been walking for hours. Legs burning. Mouths dry. Hunger twisting in our guts. But we keep moving, always fucking moving.

The town finally comes into view. What’s left of it.

Nature reclaimed everything. Grass crawls over cracked pavement. Bushes claw up buildings. Trees split the sidewalks like they’re taking revenge. Cars swallowed whole by vines. Ghost town doesn’t even cover it; this place is dead .

Worse than the last town. And I already hated that one, probably where Roman ran into Ethan. Probably where all that detouring started. I should’ve seen it coming. Should’ve asked more questions. But I didn’t want to see what that piece of shit was planning.

Now it’s too late. All I can do is keep us breathing.

We’re low on bullets. If we run into civilians, we’ll scare ‘em off, rifles pointed, no hesitation.

We move through the empty streets, slow and steady. Then I see it, the bar we used to hit. Or what’s left of it.

Windows shattered. Branches hanging through the broken door. Mold on the walls. Faded red letters spray-painted across the brick:

NO ONE IS SAFE. BEWARE.

No shit.

I remember when this place was alive. Schools, shops, and bars stacked around military contracts. The two bases nearby made this a party town for soldiers. We didn’t serve here, but once the Bloodhawks were born, we came for supplies, maybe a drink or ten. Now it’s all rot and dust.

“Like the good old days,” Max mutters, kicking the door open .

We step inside. Empty. No bottles. Just glass, blood, and the thick stench of death.

“Even the smell brings back memories,” Dante jokes, trying to lighten it.

“We need to find somewhere else. This place reeks,” I snap, rubbing the bridge of my nose. My patience is short.

We move on. A building with five floors comes into view, mostly intact. Doors hanging open, but it’s better than nothing. We clear it floor by floor until we reach the fourth. Empty offices. Dust, busted computers, and a few broken chairs.

It’ll do.

Dante kicks open one of the doors, and we pile in. He drags two busted tables to block the entrance while Max slumps onto the floor.

“Let me check your wound,” Dante orders, already pulling one of the chairs over.

Max huffs but obeys. Dante cleans it with water and tears part of his sleeve for a makeshift bandage. I unbuckle my belt and toss it over to help hold it in place.

Not as bad as Aspen’s was.

Max kneels and pulls a couple of tuna and bean cans from his bag, part of what we stashed at the farm. We came prepared this time, thank fuck. We’ll stay here ‘til nightfall. We need food. We need rest.

I drop my bag, pull out six apples and two bottles of water, and pass them around.

Dante sits, jaw tight, eyes sharp. He rolls his shoulder with a hiss.

“Bryn’s alive,” he mutters .

We nod. We already knew.

“Ryker told us. Aspen told him ,” Max says, digging into the can with his knife.

Dante freezes. His face drains of color. That barely-there composure shatters.

“Aspen knew ?”

“Easy, Dante. She didn’t know for long,” It comes out harder than I mean, but I don’t soften it. “Some guy came for her and told her. That’s what Ryker said.”

“Is she a prisoner?” Max asks, but his tone’s already bitter, like he knows the answer.

Dante shakes his head slowly. His jaw twitches. Rage simmering just under the skin.

“She’s the main reason this whole fucking mess happened. She helped Roman. She betrayed us. She knew Ethan’s plan and made a new one with Roman.” He cracks on the last part like it still burns to say it.

I clench my teeth. I knew it. Deep down, I fucking knew it. I should’ve ended both of them the day we found them. Should’ve, but then there’s Aspen.

And no matter how much rage I’m choking on, I still see her face, still hear the way she said my name.

“That bitch,” Max growls.

Dante hardens. “She kept me alive just long enough to lure Aspen in. Once she surrendered, she knew you three would follow.”

“So what, she wanted Aspen just to get us?” I bark, shoving another spoonful of beans into my mouth.

Dante nods grimly. “She talked about this bullshit of protecting Aspen. Giving her a chance at a normal life. And that…” He swallows. “Aspen could have a normal relationship and maybe even get pregnant since she’s young enough for it.”

I go still.

“What the fuck ?” I roar, slamming the can down so hard it cracks.

Max snaps his head toward him, eyes wide. “Normal relationship? With one man? And get pregnant? Out here? With no medical help ?”

He snarls; his face twisted in disbelief.

“Bryn’s fucking lost it,” Dante grits out. “Last thing she said was she’d use Aspen to sway the other men. Turn them against Roman.”

“So Aspen was her bargaining chip,” I say flatly.

A fucking trading coin.

And the second we take the base back?

I’m putting a bullet in Bryn’s skull.

I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t care who tries to stop me.

Dante nods, silent, but I see it in his eyes, the tension winding through his jaw, the way he keeps rolling his shoulder even though it’s clearly fucked. He’s in pain, but his rage runs deeper.

“She’s even more insane if she thinks Roman gives a shit about her,” Max mutters, eyes fixed on his half-empty can.

“He’s sick,” Dante spits, and both of us snap our heads up.

“What do you mean, sick?” Max asks sharply.

Dante exhales, slow and bitter.

“There was this guy, Sean. A doctor. He was part of some community Roman, and his men raided. Sean said Roman was hunting women, but I think he already knew a doctor was there.” Dante looks straight at me, hard.

“Sean?” I ask. “Was that the man you had with you?”

He nods. “He kept me alive. When I was in the living room with a gun to his head, Bryn tried to shoot me, and some of Roman’s guys stopped her. Said Roman needed Sean.” Dante shakes his head. “His man would rather have me escape than kill Sean. He needs the doc.”

“Fuck.” My brain starts firing. Connections snapping together like wires sparking.

“So that’s why he wanted the base. Water. Power. Clean floors. Security. If his health’s deteriorating…” I trail off, fists curling.

Now it makes sense. He wasn’t after us; he was after survival. The base is a fortress, and Roman’s finally scared.

Too bad he isn’t dying faster. A desperate man’s the most dangerous kind. And Roman? He’s the type to burn everything down with him.

“So we kill Bryn. Roman. Every last one of his men.” Max spits out. “And deal with the destruction later.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Dante mutters with a tight smile.

But I don’t smile back.

“Aspen will never forgive us if we kill Bryn,” I say quietly.

And just like that, the tension cuts the air.

“She can’t stay alive,” Max growls. “There’s no fucking way.” But I hear it. The flicker of doubt behind the anger.

Dante stares at the floor, his face hardening. “So we lose Aspen too?”

“Never.” I growl, closing my eyes and leaning back. “She might get pissed. She might hate us. But she’ll never leave us.”

They don’t answer.

They don’t have to.

I know what they’re thinking. But I don’t give a shit.

When I said she was mine, ours, I meant it with everything inside me.

I’m not letting her go.

Yeah, it’s cliché as fuck. But I don’t care. Even before the Crimson Plague, I’ve never felt this way about anyone. That need to have her. Touch her. Taste her. Destroy anything that looks at her wrong.

She doesn’t just belong to us; she completes us. Like she was made to fill the cracks we didn’t even know we had.

So she can scream.

She can cry.

She can call me a monster.

But she’s not walking away.

And Bryn?

She’s about to find out exactly what we do to traitors.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Dante mutters, exhaling hard. “You two get some sleep. You look like shit. I’ll keep watch.”

I grunt, nod, and drop down onto the floor near the inside wall, away from the windows. Max does the same. Dante sits in the corner, angled just right, watching both the door and the windows, like the trained bastard he is .

He’s right. I’m tired as fuck .

Haven’t slept more than two hours since Dante was taken. Even now, with him back, I can’t stop thinking, how the hell are we gonna take the base back?

That place was ours. After the plague, we built a life that almost felt normal. Our own fucked-up version of peace.

When Bryn and Aspen came along, I really thought it meant something. Like, we might actually make it .

Happy. Alive.

Then Ethan got it all: the house, the power, and the girl.

The girl who was supposed to be his everything… But instead she lied to him like she did to us.

The fucking irony.

I close my eyes, just for a second, and the thought slams into me—

Maybe we should let the base go, find a new place. Start over.

Fuck.

Is it the base I’m mourning… or the idea of Roman living there, sitting in our kitchen, touching our shit?

“Fuck.” I whisper and snap my eyes open.

“Reaper,” Dante murmurs from across the room, “you need to rest, brother.”

“Can’t shut my brain off.” I shake my head, dragging myself upright and moving closer to him. “What if we just walked away? Left the base behind?”

Dante studies me for a second, then smirks .

“You wouldn’t make it a fucking day knowing Roman’s still breathing.”

He’s not wrong. Maybe I’d try. For them. But it would eat me alive.

“What if we get killed?” I whisper, my eyes flicking to Max. Just looking at him makes my chest clench. If either of them dies trying to take the base…

“We won’t.” His eyes burning. “We’re the fucking BloodHawks . And Roman? His time’s up. He’s getting a bullet between the eyes.”

I nod slowly.

“You sure?” I ask.

Dante doesn’t hesitate.

“Fuck yeah.” He slaps a hand on my shoulder. Solid. Certain.

From across the room, Max grunts without even opening his eyes.

“We fuck him up. For good.”

Of course he’s not asleep.

“And I’m sure Ryker will agree,” Dante adds with a grin.

I push to my feet, my body aching but something new burning in my chest.

“Then let’s plan.” I look between them. “We need to raid the city. Get supplies. And since we’re all wide awake, let’s fucking work.”

Max lets out a breath like he was hoping for a nap. I snort and shake my head.

“And as for Bryn? She goes down. Aspen stays. Whether she wants to or not.”

I stop and lock eyes with them.

Dante nods. Max grins.

“Deal,” they say together.