Battle Cry by Dustin Stevens

Author:Dustin Stevens [Stevens, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-12-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Byrdie is careful to stay well back from the windows. Far enough that his shadow can’t be seen through the thin curtains hanging lank over the tinted glass.

Standing in the center of the room, his body is turned at an angle. Eyes narrowed, he stares out, willing the person that he spotted just a few moments before to reappear.

Not because he needs him to, there being no doubt about the identity of the man that just pulled up.

Because he wants him to.

When the manager at the front desk first mentioned two rooms being occupied, Byrdie had tried to tell himself not to read too much into it. There were two Ogo women. It wasn’t inconceivable they would take different spaces.

Just as likely was that there were two different parties staying at the place simultaneously. Or that other rooms had been rented over the weekend, those just being the last to still linger.

One at a time, he had run through the various possibilities. A few, he’d even tried to believe.

All the time avoiding the most obvious. The one that if he spoke aloud, or even permitted himself to focus on too much, might not be true.

Reaching to his rear pocket, Byrdie slides out his phone. Barely glancing down, he hits the most recent call in the log.

A moment later, Snapper is on the line.

“Yeah?” Unlike earlier, the word is clipped. The sound of voices in the background can be heard, making it clear he isn’t at complete liberty to speak.

Not until he hears what Byrdie is about to unload, anyway.

“I’ve got eyes on,” Byrdie says.

The voices fall away, gone in an instant.

“Yeah?” Snapper repeats. “Ogo?”

A thin smile comes to Byrdie’s face. “Among others.”

For eleven days, the Wolves have been trying to find Kyle Clady. The man that somehow lured Linc out of The Wolf Den and ended his life. The same one that shot Prince while sitting in his car and put Joker and Rocket in the hospital.

The one responsible for the underlying bruising on the side of Byrdie’s face.

“Among others...” Snapper repeats. He breathes sharply, trying to place what Byrdie is saying. “Who?”

Byrdie’s problems started years before, back when Ringer somehow leapfrogged him into the top position. An oversized oaf with an inferiority complex, the man had made it his mission to put Byrdie in his place. He’d named him a Deputy. Made a point of giving him the most tedious of tasks, no matter how far beneath him they were.

Always he’d been sure to cast a spotlight on any tiny misstep Byrdie committed. Any words that weren’t chosen carefully or choices that didn’t align exactly through the lens of hindsight.

That much is undeniable.

As is the fact that of everyone else that contributed to his recent demise, none is more prominent than the man that just climbed out of his vehicle a few doors down.

“Clady.”

“Are you...” Snapper mutters. His voice trails away, though Byrdie doesn’t need to hear the words to know the feeling. It is the same one he first had after seeing the headlights blink out and Clady emerge from his car.

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