Blood and Bone | 1

5 | 8

      "You still haven't told us where we're going," Finn reminded Jake as we all drove in the car that night.

     "That's right," Jake retorted mysteriously. "You'll find out when we're there."

      "I still don't understand why we're not going straight to the Club's headquarters," Riley put in, crossing her legs next to me. "It seems pointless to make a pit stop, especially now."

      "Do you want to win against Hundsen's superior forces and weapons?" Jake deadpanned in a chilly tone.

      "Of course," Riley responded more quietly than before; Jake's intimidating demeanor had an effect on even bold Riley.

      "Then we'll need to attain something that will even the playing field. And we are now going somewhere that will let us get exactly that."

      Dissatisfied with Jake's cryptic answer, Riley turned to me and asked, "Do you know what he's talking about?" She must have assumed that I knew more about Jake's plan than the rest of the team because of our strange alliance. I did, of course. But I wasn't going to tell them that.

"We need more reinforcements," I told her and left it at that. I made eye contact with Gigi as she listened to what I said. Quickly, I glanced away.

"Reinforcements meaning more weapons or...other people?" Finn asked slowly, looking between Jake and I.

"Let's hope it's weapons," Arlo said with a devilish grin on his face.

We didn't need more weapons; I was already armed to the teeth. I looked down at myself. My twin daggers hung on either side of my waist, as usual, but this time they were joined by a loaded handgun in a holster. Brass knuckles covered my gloved fingers. Sheathed on my thigh was another knife long enough to pierce all the way through a human torso.

The other members of the crew were armed similarly; Gigi with her bow and a quiver of iron-tipped arrows, Kane with his bone-shattering staff, Riley with a semiautomatic gun. Jaxon was armed with a few weapons that he'd made himself. We were ready for war.

  Jake turned off the car at the side of the road. As I stepped out of the vehicle, I recognized the place as the same area Jake and I had stopped in during the deal with the Needles.

Jake began walking across the street, mirroring the same path he'd taken the other night. The others reluctantly followed him, made wary by the sight of the bad area of town.

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you were taking us here just to murder us and steal our belongings," Jaxon commented as he glanced around us.

"Not tonight," was Jake's non-comforting answer as he led the group through the dark street.

We walked down the alleyway where I'd slit the throat of the man working for Sloane. The body was absent now. I didn't want to know where it had gone.

When we walked into the plaza, Jake held out his arm, motioning for the others to stop in their tracks. He then watched the opposite end of the square for any sign of the Needles.

"I can hear someone," Arlo whispered. "I hear footsteps. A lot of them."

"What the hell...?" Kane breathed out softly as gang members began to march out from the opposite alleyways and breaks in buildings. They kept coming like ants from cracks in a sidewalk, lining the other side of the square with their forces. The sounds of weapons clinking and boots falling onto the pavement filled the area.

"What is this?" Finn queried quietly from beside me, looking at the thugs in shock. "What is he doing?"

"How did you know about this?" Gigi asked of me, her quiet voice sounding panicked yet suspicious. I didn't answer her.