Page 23 of Ringo

“Take that motherfucker out, Ringo!” Her demand was growled through clenched teeth.

I snagged the gun from her. “Calista! Roll!”

I must have put enough command in my voice to penetrate because Calista didn’t hesitate to do what I said. The second she was away, I skidded to my knees beside Redwood, the barrel of my gun against his forehead. Calista’s knife was still sticking out of his chest and the man was bleeding like a stuck pig. Blood bubbled from his lips and nose with every breath.

“You fuckin’ piece of fuckin’ shit.” I snarled at the man. “You were my brother.”

Redwood snorted, spraying blood over my face. I spat back at him, digging the gun into his skin harder. He just gave me an evil smile. “I’m not the only one, Ringo. Dom and Rocket… are crazy to think… you’ve not got… enemies… here…” He was struggling with each word, and I knew he wouldn’t last long.

I pulled the knife from his chest slowly, taking great pleasure with every wince from the fucker. I put it to his throat. “Tell me who else, Redwood.”

He laughed. “Go fuck yourself, Ringo.”

“You first.” Very slowly and deliberately, I cut his throat. When the blood started flowing from one side of his neck as I severed his external jugular, Redwood whimpered, clamping his hand to the blood pouring from the vein. I kept going, inch by slow inch.

“Ringo?” He gasped, a look of surprise on his face. I paused, raising my eyebrow. When he sucked in a breath but said nothing else, I shrugged. Then continued cutting, slicing through his trachea to the other external jugular vein. He gurgled a couple more times, gripping my vest with his bloody hand. Blood flowed freely into the grass and gravel, staining our home with the blood of our own.

I stood, tossing the knife to the ground as I turned to find Calista. She was huddled beside Apple, her shirt off and bunched in her hand where she pressed it to Apple’s chest.

For her part, Apple appeared calm, but in pain. No doubt every single breath hurt. She met my gaze. “Will you get Lemon for me, please, Ringo?”

I nodded, pulling out my phone and calling Rocket. He answered on the first ring.

“What happened?”

“Redwood’s dead. Apple’s been shot. Don’t know how bad, but we need Bullet.”

There was a murmur of voices, then Rocket was back. “He’s on the way. Lemon too.”

“Good. She asked for her sister. Did you find anything on your end?”

“Dom found evidence someone was on the west side just beyond the boundary. That’s what triggered Crush’s proximity alert. Whoever it was is long gone.”

“Probably because he was alerted we were on to him.”

“What?” The president’s voice was suddenly sharp and angry. Even more so than he was when we first took off after an intruder into our territory.

“Redwood shot Apple. Calista stabbed Redwood. I cut his fuckin’ throat. He said he wasn’t the only one. Not the only enemy we have here.”

“You believe him?”

“Above my pay grade. My gut says he’s lying, but I’m not willing to take that chance.”

“Byte and Crush have it. They’ll get to the bottom of this, and they’ll get to the bottom of it soon.” The barely controlled rage in Rocket’s voice was very clear. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard my president this angry. There was a pause, and I knew what was coming next. “Why’d you kill Redwood?”

“You mean besides because he shot Apple and had turned back to either finish her off or shoot Calista?”

“Yeah, Ringo,” Rocket snapped. “Other than that.”

“He was dead anyway. Calista didn’t fuck around with him. Stabbed him at least five or six times with a fucking big-ass sharp knife. He was dying anyway. I didn’t want her to be the one to kill him.”

Rocket was silent and I could almost see him scrubbing a hand over his face. “Yeah. Sorry, brother.”

As I finished the call with Rocket, a big-ass SUV skidded to a halt in front of the house. Bullet jumped out of the passenger’s side while Leather and Falcon exited the driver’s side. Leather driving, Falcon in the back seat with a long backboard.

Bullet took a quick look at Apple before putting her on the narrow board Falcon laid beside her.

“Get her to the truck. I need to look Calista over.”