Chapter 93: Clash Of Wolves 2

DRAVEN’S POV

Rex and his wolves pulled up to the garage and announced themselves the way cowards do ... two gunshots in the air and a microphone pointed at the building like he was hosting a damn show.

"Come out, you fools!" Rex’s voice boomed through the gramophone they’d brought.

We were watching all of it through the live camera feed on the system. Every single one of them on screen ... and there was Dorian with that huge stupid head of his, standing there like he always did, useful as a brick wall. If I was going to put a bullet in anyone first, it was going to land square between Dorian’s eyes. No question.

But Rex ... Rex was the one I couldn’t read.

I kept staring at him on that screen and asking myself the same question over and over. Why would he walk straight into a location that had been set and prepared specifically for him? Did he know what was waiting inside? Did he have something else running in the background that we couldn’t see?

Maybe he knew. Maybe he didn’t. Shit. My mind was going in too many directions at once.

"Come out, Jade. Come out, Draven. I know you’re in there." His voice came again, slow and unbothered. "We have scores to settle."

"Let’s stall him until the other team arrives," Lucas said.

Jade stepped up to the microphone that fed outside into the enclosed space below. Cars were parked down there so the sound didn’t echo much ... it just carried flat and clear.

"Hey, Rex." Her voice was pure silk and venom. "Wow, you actually found us. You’re so smart."

I almost laughed. That was a whole new level of sarcasm and she’d delivered it without blinking.

"Why don’t you come down here and we settle this one on one?" Rex called back.

"You really expect me to walk down there when you’ve got guns pointed at the door?" she said.

"You betrayed me, Jade. There’s a penalty for that ... one you won’t escape." A pause. "And over what? Your boyfriend? I didn’t think you were this foolish over someone who’s just fucking you."

"For your information, Rex ... who I’m fucking is none of your business." She didn’t miss a beat. "And second of all, you’re the one getting fucked today."

The moment she finished, the squeal of tires cut through everything.

Carlos and his team rolled in.

I watched on the screen as they jumped out fast, guns already raised and pointed directly at Rex and his wolves before their feet even hit the ground. No hesitation. Not a second wasted.

Rex’s side didn’t hesitate either. In a split second the whole garage was a sea of pointed barrels ... the exact same energy I’d been stuck in just a few days ago.

"Hmm." Carlos looked across at Rex, smiling. "You’re here."

"I should be asking why the fuck you’re here," Rex said, his gun still trained forward.

"Looks like we’re both after the same person." Carlos tilted his head. "I’ve got my own score to settle ... might as well kill two birds with one stone." He nodded to his men and they sounded an alarm calling us down.

"Get your weapons ready. We’re moving downstairs. Now." Lucas didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.

Everyone moved instantly ... aligned and armed. Guns, knives, everything. The remaining two from the Seven. The women who’d been with me the other night. Every last body in that room locked and loaded.

"Here’s how we do this," Lucas said, scanning us all. "There are three entrances to that garage. They’re concealed ... nobody out there knows they exist. We split up and come out through each one so we surround them completely." He paused. "And nobody shoots yet. I have scores to settle before bodies start dropping. Clear?"

It was clear.

We moved. Rex and Carlos were still going back and forth when we hit the doors. We didn’t wait.

We burst through all three at once ... guns raised, blades out ... and flooded the garage from every angle before either side had a second to think.

"Don’t. Fucking. Move." Lucas’s voice cut the space like a blade. "Either of you."

We had them completely surrounded. Outnumbered on every side.

"Don’t even think about whatever you’re thinking," Lucas said, his eyes moving between Rex and Carlos. "It won’t end well for you."

Rex was smiling.

Standing in the middle of all of it, surrounded, completely outgunned ... and the man was smiling. Like he’d already seen the last page of a book the rest of us hadn’t opened yet.

"Why are you smiling, Rex?" Carlos asked. "You got something else running?"

"I’m smiling because Jade isn’t here for you," Rex said calmly. "She’s here for me. You were just the bait she used to pull me in." He looked straight at Jade. "Nice work."

Jade stepped forward, gun still locked on him. Every eye in the garage shifted to the center. Nobody moved. Not even the Mafia Wolves ... they were smart enough to count the cost of trying anything. It would’ve been too bloody and they knew it.

"This is where it all comes to an end," Jade said. Her voice was steady but her eyes were burning. "And it didn’t start today. I maneuvered to get the almighty Rex into position ... and he’s going to die right here. The headlines will write themselves. How the mighty have fallen."

She was smiling too now.

I had my gun trained on Rafael, who was inching his aim toward Jade. If he so much as twitched his finger, he was done.

"So this is what it comes down to?" Rex asked quietly, like he was almost disappointed. "I took you in like a daughter. Built you up. Gave you a life. Is this really how you..."

"After making that life a living hell." Jade’s voice cracked hard. "You killed Alexa. My friend."

"You killed my best friend," she said, louder now, shaking. "And I vowed to see this day. I’ve belonged to the Seven from the beginning and I always will. Today I take revenge for every single one of them."

Rex started laughing. Not a nervous laugh. A full, deep, unbothered laugh like someone had just told him a joke he’d been waiting on for years.

"Why are you laughing?" Jade snapped. "You never saw this coming. You had no idea who was living right beside you."

"I knew."

The garage went dead silent.

"You what?" Jade’s voice dropped.

"I knew you were a spy," Rex said, completely calm. "I knew you came in to get revenge. But I took you in anyway because I saw something in you ... real potential. I loved you in my own way and I was hoping you’d change your mind. But I’m not a fool, Jade. I ran your background the day you walked in. I know about the mark on your back."

My mouth fell open.

The man talked like he had the eyes of the goddess herself and honestly, right then, it was looking exactly like that.

Fuck.

Jade went completely still. She couldn’t speak. The gun was still in her hand but she was shaking ... trying to hold herself together and losing the battle right in front of all of us.

"I wasted time trying to make you accept me," Rex continued. "A rebel is always a rebel ... I should’ve known from the start. But let me leave you with one lesson." His eyes hardened. "I will remove anyone who stands between me and the top. Anyone. Including your best friend."

Then Jade swung her gun and pointed it directly at me.

The shift knocked the air out of my chest.

"Jade ... what are you doing?" My voice came out unsteady. My adrenaline spiked so fast it felt like my blood had turned to fire.

"It was him, Rex." Tears were streaming down her face now, gun aimed straight at my chest. "He made me do all of this. It was him."

She’d realized she couldn’t pull the trigger on Rex.

And I was the softest target in the room.

My knees almost buckled.

"We are not in a cinema," Carlos said sharply. "Cut the damn drama." His men cocked their weapons. So did everyone else. Every gun in the garage went live at once and the tension became something physical ... something you could feel pressing on your skin.

I was completely at her mercy.

"Even if you choose Rex over me," I said, keeping my voice as level as I could, "I want you to know I love you. That hasn’t changed. It won’t."

A tear broke loose and ran down her face. "Shut up!" she shouted. "That’s what you always say!"

"Because it’s always true, Jade."

She cocked the gun. Her finger moved to the trigger.

"I’m sorry, Rex," she said, her voice breaking. "For the betrayal. That wasn’t me. I love you. I’m grateful for everything."

Then she spun on her heel and shot Carlos clean through the head.

He dropped before the sound finished echoing.

Everything exploded.

Gunfire tore through the garage from every direction ... a full bloody spree. I grabbed my gun and was about to plant my feet when Jade grabbed my hand, bent low, and hauled me through the second entrance at a dead sprint.

My heart was slamming so hard against my ribs I thought it was going to give out completely.

I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. But I knew from the noise alone ... the shots, the bodies, the chaos pouring out behind us ... that a lot of people had just stopped breathing in that garage.

How many? That was a question for later.