Don't You Come Crying When They're Rippin' Out Your Throats (Sequel to AsHollow)

19 - That They Don't Know We're Here

 "WE FOUND LAURENCE!"

Everyone in the room jumped and turned round to face the three of us as we broke in, Luke and Crilly on their feet in case it was someone else other than us. Not that I could blame them to be honest, and now that I realised how recklessly I had barged in here I was surprised I was still standing, and that I hadn't been taken down - however I was thankful for it at least.

"Where about?" Nico said, standing up from the bed and turning to face us.

"They're holding him down a dingy alley like street and inside there"

"Yeah, and we went there, thankfully not being seen, however we did see The Cardinal slaughtering one of his own men. He doesn't give a fuck who it is now!" Drew continued, "He's proven that now we're all just collateral damage in his game, he doesn't care who he kills no matter if they work for him or not."

We had everyone's attention, all of them listening and thinking things over. Luke had a look about him that said he was trying to think about our next move, as he turned his back on the three of us and went back over to the little pile of papers that was scattered out over the desk and he looked them over.

I wasn't too sure how much longer we could stay in this place without someone spilling the beans on where we were, and to be honest I was surprised that someone hadn't done it already. We were sitting ducks here. For the last three days we'd been staying at a small inn in the center of town, making it easy for us to fan out around the city and still know where we were wanting to go at the end of each day. It was above a bar where a bunch of Luke's friends were so we knew that we would be safe here, at least for a little while. But I was still on edge despite all of this, as I'm sure a lot of the other guys were too.

We didn't have much time to sort things out and move on before we were taken down.

"Right," Luke finally said, after a few moments of eerie silence, "We need to go after them and strike them down where you guys saw them, even if Laurence wasn't there. We need to take out as much of those guys as we can without too much hassle. We can't show any mercy to them because they won't do the same for us, they're all a bunch of idiots for siding with The Cardinal. Even if it becomes apparent that Laurence isn't being held there, we still need to kill some but don't endanger ourselves doing it," the last part was directed at me as Luke turned and raised his eyebrows at me, knowing that it would be me to run off and do something silly.

He knew me well then.

Everyone nodded along, agreeing with what the bearded man had to say. Even though I didn't quite like the thought that even after all of that, Laurence might not be in there. He had to be, I wasn't leaving today without him.

From there the weapons were handed out, everyone picking their favourites, the easiest to carry yet still good at causing a lot of damage. I took my gun and a couple of knives, putting them in my pocket and through my belt to keep them all in place. Everyone seemed quite comfortable with their weapons as they looked them over to make sure everything was intact and they were going to cause the necessary damage needed, most seeming happy with it.

Barrone was sitting fiddling with one of the guns he'd made himself, tongue sticking out at the side as he concentrated, Drew sitting at his side and watching him intently. Nico and Jim were both pocketing as much as they could, the two Adam's were looking over the map of Grandomina and pointing out a few places, maybe for hiding or staking out later on if this place wasn't the one we were looking for.

That only left Luke and Rose, both who were sitting on the small single bed that was tucked into the corner. He squeezed her hand before standing up and going to the weapon table, picking up the remaining things. Rose was handed a fairly big dagger, hidden inside a small leather pouch. She looked scared for a moment, but Luke gave her shoulder a small squeeze to comfort her. She smiled and stood up, kissing his cheek gently before she wandered away to put her boots and jacket on.