Cobra growled and stood then got on his phone, “I’m going to text you all an address. It’s not gonna be easy, but Brago’s men are getting set to burn a priest at this location.” He paused to listen. “Yeah, A priest…that’s what I said. He’s the priest that helped my mom. Brago is going to kill the man.” He listened again. “Ok.” He swiped his phone. Looking up at Python, he said, “I’m sending Lost Sons and Chaos over there.”
“But that’s half of our guard,” Blitz stated.
“Yeah, it is but we can’t just sit here and watch this,” Cotton told him as he motioned to the laptop.
Cobra’s phone went off and he answered, “Yeah.” He listened for a couple of minutes. “Yes, we saw that.” He paused. “How many?” He listened again. “Okay, well we can handle that. Okay man, you be safe.” He swiped his phone and looked up at Python and Cotton. “That was GTO, he and the Hells Riders, along with Savaged Souls are our guard out front and Cartel men are headed here. Their lookouts all reported this. Looks like Luis himself and his two sons are coming here personally to kill you.”
Python snorted. “Well, I’m fucking honored.”
Cobra called out to his men, “Turn the tables, get to window positions!”
Python checked his two guns and went to the ammo table to get extra clips. He was stocking a belt clip when he looked up and saw Tory at a window. She was set up for war…war fucking three it looked like. He looked closer and could tell she wore the Kevlar. The helmet was hooked to her belt.
Shaking his head, he went back over to take position.
“They’re coming in hot!” Blitz yelled from his corner on the floor as he stared at footage on his laptop. “Big Humvee… strike that,” he corrected as his eyes rounded. “A steel fortified Tank Humvee. Boss, they are gonna ram the fucking gates!”
Python shook his head. “Calm your ass down. We can handle it.”
Cobra yelled out, “Everyone, back to this part of the room! Clear away from the front.”
Ten or so men all pulled tables backwards.
“Fire in the hole!” Blitz yelled out.
“Hang onto your asses!” Python shouted as he ducked down behind a table with his sons. Protect his home, again. This time, he had his Peggy Sue to protect as well. They would only get to her over his dead, fucking corpse.
Next thing they knew— the front of the building was blew in as the Humvee tank made its way in.
Then the deafening, blinding, smoking…hail of bullets started.
All hell was breaking loose as the room rocked as if a bomb had hit the compound. The sounds of the shootout and the booms was making her cringe. Peggy Sue was all balled up in a corner of Python’s tub room. The sounds of gunfire, men screaming, and cries of pain reached her and she just knew in her gut that couldn’t stay here anymore. If she were going to stay with her family, she needed to be out there with her men.
She knew she would probably just be in the way but damn it, this was her home once upon a time, and she would have given her life to defend it back then, so how could she do less than that now?
She took a deep breath, stood up, and left the tub room. Yes, he said not to, but she refused to hide anymore. She’d been hiding from Brag for too long now. She would not do it anymore.
With the booms growing louder and the room’s windows shattered, she crawled to Python’s gun safe and prayed the combination was still the same. Her birthdate. She turned the old fashioned dial. When the lock clicked open, she sent a prayer up and pushed the door open to take stock of what weapons were still there.
Python had bid her to stay out of harm’s way but she couldn’t stay here. If she were going to die, she would rather do it on her terms, not Luis Brago’s terms. He had his chance to kill her but now, it was her turn to see if she could stop him from harming her family.
She grabbed two handguns then checked them to make sure they were loaded and turned to the door. Opening it, she slipped into the hallway.
Smoke hung in the air —it smelled like blood and death.
Inching down the hall, she could hear the sounds of the battle even more as she got closer.
Peeking around the corner, she saw Luis along his son Jesus and Fernando hiding behind a turned over table. They were firing at another turned over table. Peeking further into the room, she could see Python and a few of his brothers firing back.
Others were firing at the table as well. Sounds of the real battle were coming from outside and she could see the fight through the broken double doors.
In a moment of ceasefire, Luis spoke out, “You tell your woman I do not regret what I did to her all those years ago. I took her to get revenge on you for the death of my son. You shot him down in cold blood and today, I will avenge his fallen honor. You tell her instead of her on the pyre, I will burn Father Spado. He will take her place in the pits of hell for helping her escape my vengeance.”
“You would kill a man of God!” Python called out. “You really are a bastard aren’t you?”
“You have no idea what kind of man I am.” Luis snarled at him.
“Oh, yeah I do!” Python bellowed. “I know you’re a fucking coward, hiding in the shadows and using women to get your jollies on. You would rather stab a man in the back than face him head on. You dickless freak. You deal your fucking poison to kids and weaker men for nothing more than the green you get for their souls. You are inhuman, you aren’t even worth the effort to kill.”
Luis got to his feet and fired bullet after bullet at the table Python was crouched behind. His sons both got to their feet as well and began firing. No one on the other side had the chance to fire back, their bullets were coming so fast.
Then Python shouted out and tipped over on the floor.
Peggy Sue cried out at the sight of seeing him down and bleeding. Finally, all the hatred, all the misery and pain came rushing up inside her as she turned both her weapons on the trio behind the table. “You fucking devil. You and yours deserve to die today!” She screamed as she began squeezing the triggers while aiming at their bodies. She fired round after round toward them, not stopping until she heard the empty chambers do little more than click, click, click.
When the smoke cleared, all three men were down. Luis looked badly wounded and his two sons were lying next to him… They were bleeding and very still. Hopefully, they were very dead. All three had taken more than one bullet.
The men behind the table got to their feet and it was Cotton who went over to Luis and his sons. He checked all three men while taking any weapons around them and tossing them to the far wall. He then turned back to his mother. He just stared at her for a moment with a small smile then went back to his where his dad was.
Cobra held his bloody arm, as he made straight for his mother. “Mama, are you okay?”
Her eyes were huge in her face as she focused on him. “Y-you were the only one to ever call me Mama.” He voice came out soft and wistful.
He nodded. “And you are still that to me. I’m sorry. I…”
She could see he had trouble with saying this, so she gave him a slow nod.
They both looked over at the commotion on the other side of the room.
Python was awake and his wounds were being tended by Doc as Blitz helped.
Python pushed everyone away from him as he struggled then got to his feet. “Get the fuck off me!” He finally stood. Walking slowly, he made his way over to where Peggy Sue stood, glass, and metal crunching under his large boots
This was when they all noticed the sounds of the battle outside had stopped.
The silence felt like being in the eye of a hurricane, an eerie quiet after the din of the storm.
Cobra’s phone buzzed. He answered it, “Yeah.” He listened. Then his head rose up as he announced, “They saved Father Spado and all of the lieutenants are dead or injured.” He turned away while talking some more on his phone.
Python now stood in front of Peggy Sue. He looked at her as he reached out and took the guns from her shaking hands. He raised bloody hands to either sides of her face. “Are you all right? You didn’t get shot?”
She shook her head. “I saw you on the floor and thought he’d killed you. I couldn’t bear it. If I was going to die, I figured it would be on my terms, not his.” She planted her face in his chest as her hot tears dropped onto his t-shirt. “I thought you were dead and I couldn’t bear it. I love you too much to lose you like that.”
With her admittance to loving him, still…Python tipped his head back and closed his eyes.
Peggy Sue looked worried. “Are you all right?” She checked his upper arm where his Python tatt had been bloodied and then she noted he had another wound through his shoulder. “Tiberius, you got yourself shot. TWICE!” She seemed to snap out of her fear and dive right into indignation. “How dare you do that! You promised to come back to me in one damn piece.” She ripped at the material of her beautiful lavender blouse and tried to make a purple tourniquet of sorts, but it wouldn’t fit around his huge arm. “Damnit, why do you have to be so big?”
Python was grinning at this point. He dropped the empty guns to the floor and grabbed her up. “Shut the hell up, Peg.” He cupped her chin and brought her head up. Then his lips crushed hers and the kiss went on and on.
When he finally lifted his mouth from hers, they were both lightheaded.
“I love you back, woman,” Python whispered to her trembling lips.
