Maxwell cain 2 with a si.., p.13
Maxwell Cain 2: With a Side of Vengeance,
p.13
“What made up your mind?” Max asked over the howl of the wind.
Johnny grunted. “You’ve saved my life twice now, Cain. Killed me once, and I saved you once. We’re square, but now we’re in the habit of saving each other. That’s not something I’ve experienced before, and now you’ve put me through it twice.” He turned to smirk over his hulking shoulder at Max. “Or maybe your heroic stupidity is rubbing off on me.”
Max slashed the last Blood Sparrow rider from the sky. As the dead man fell away into the city below, Max smiled. “Welcome to the Reapers, Johnny. Glad to have you aboard. You and me, we’re gonna kill us a whole heap of dirtbags.”
Johnny gunned his throttle and rocketed away from the concluded battle. “I can’t fucking wait.”
Chapter 24
Together Again
“Put us down over there,” Max told Johnny, pointing to a warehouse district about a mile north. He waved at Hank to get his attention. Johnny turned toward the target, and Kate and Nick fell in behind them as the five Reapers headed toward Max’s location.
“That’s our base,” Max said, indicating a nondescript brown warehouse with boarded-up windows and a grungy-looking rooftop. The mechs would have to crawl in through the roll-up delivery doors and lay down inside to hide out of sight.
“Looks like shit,” Johnny commented. “You take a pay cut after getting fired?”
“Big raise, actually. Ugly attracts the least attention. Don’t want to get your car stolen? Drive a beater.”
Johnny set them down outside the brown warehouse. Hank landed beside them, and Kate and Nick stomped up and knelt their mechs just outside the building. Kate’s cockpit hatch popped open a moment after touchdown, and Nick’s was just a second later. Both pilots wore gray flight suits which stuck to their bodies like second skins. They kicked rope ladders from the cockpits and climbed down at top speed. Kate leaped the last few feet to the ground and rushed at Max to lock him in a desperate hug, and he stood up to take her in his arms, but she drew up short when she saw Johnny rising from the bike behind Max.
In a flash, Kate yanked a pistol from her belt and took aim at Johnny’s face. The big hitman froze, his eyes hard, as Kate waved Max away. “Max, get out of the way and I’ll shoot him!”
Max took a slow look back at Johnny, then stepped between them with his arms spread. He made eye contact with Kate as she looked up at him with confusion written plain on her furrowed brow.
“Max, what are you doing?” Kate demanded.
“Johnny’s with me,” Max said simply. He stared her down, not angry or intimidating, but willing her listen. “He chose to join us, he saved my life, and I trust him.”
After just a moment, Kate lowered her pistol. She still looked wary, but she pointed the gun at the ground.
“Good choice,” Max told her approvingly.
“I trust you, Max.” His bride-to-be peeked around him to glare at the hitman. “I don’t understand it, but I trust you.” Then she rushed at him and threw her arms around his neck, practically yanking him over before smothering his mouth with her lips in a frenzy of desperate kisses.
Nick came walking up with a measured stride. He eyed Johnny and Hank, then turned to Max, who was still being assaulted with love. Kate continued to pepper Max’s face as he turned to Nick.
“Thanks for coming for me, Warrant Officer Sharpe,” Max told him.
Nick smiled. “I always will. Though this time, your beloved Sergeant put in more work than I did.”
“That’s right,” Kate declared. “I swore I’d never rest until I got you back. And I did! Max, we’re getting married!”
“Damn straight,” Max said. He swept his arms around to introduce Hank and Johnny. “We’re gonna have to expand the guest list for two more. Johnny you already know, but this here’s Hank. He’s good people, though he’ll probably eat the entire buffet at our reception.”
“I’ll do my best,” Hank promised. He shook hands with Nick, then with Kate, who still hadn’t unwrapped herself from Max’s neck and looked unlikely to do so anytime soon. “Pleasure to meet you both. Hear you’ve got work for me.”
“And for me,” Johnny rumbled.
“Don’t worry, boys,” Max told them. “There’s plenty of work in this miserable city. We won’t be done for a long time yet. But our first mission is to attend a wedding.” He squeezed Kate in his arms and kissed her so deeply her legs gave out. She fell against him, sighing in bliss.
Chapter 25
Dearly Beloved…
“By the power vested in me,” the priest declared, “I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Dressed in a fine black tuxedo with long tails, Max turned to Kate and gazed into her tear-filled eyes. He took her in his arms, her white wedding dress crinkling as she pressed herself against him, and their lips met in a deep kiss that set the entire audience cheering so loud it shook the church’s vaulted rafters far overhead. Warm sunlight from twelve massive stained glass windows lining the long church bathed the hundred assembled guests in rich light as they rose from the pews to their feet, whistling and stomping their approval.
Up in the front row, Johnny Legion in a crisp white suit stood applauding beside Hank, who’d somehow found a purple suit large enough to accommodate his mammoth frame. The dreadlocked titan paused his raucous cheering only long enough to wipe copious tears from his eyes.
Max and Kate broke their kiss as last, both gasping faintly for breath. Max leaned his forehead down against his wife’s and drank in her scent, holding her close. “I love you, Kate.”
Kate sobbed with joy, nuzzling her nose against his cheek. “I love you too, Max.”
Max gave her another squeeze, then eased her back to look around. He nodded his thanks to the priest who stood beside them in his white robes. The old man smiled back in approval. Next, Max glanced at his best man, Nick Sharpe, standing in his own black tux beside him. Nick shot him a discreet thumbs-up, which made Max grin.
The Reaper leader swept his gaze over the assembled audience, seeing Johnny and Hank in the front row. He grinned at his old cop buddy Hunter March standing beside them in the front row as the bearded man pumped his fist in elation.
Max stepped down the first step from the altar and reached back to take Kate’s hand and lead her down the aisle, but before she could follow him, the twelve stained glass windows lining the long church crashed inward in a shower of colored debris. Two men in navy pinstripe suits swung through each shattered portal on long ropes with submachineguns clutched in their hands, firing as they entered. The two dozen men tore up the wooden pews and tiled floors with automatic fire, and the guests screamed and dropped to take cover.
“Gear up!” Hunter March shouted. The new groom turned to see his friend yanking a black duffel bag from under his seat. Hunter unzipped it in a flash and tossed Nick an automatic rifle, then handed two to Hank. Johnny pulled his hulking golden pistol from his hip. Max noticed the gunman had polished it thoroughly since Max had returned it the day before.
Max unbuttoned his tux and yanked his dual pistols from their armpit holsters and blew away the two nearest gangsters in a hail of gunfire. Their blood splashed across the walls as they collapsed to the floor.
Hank, Johnny, Hunter, and Nick returned fire on the gangsters. Several audience members, Max’s former cop buddies from districts across San Pajita, pulled guns as well and laid down suppressive fire, forcing the gangsters to huddle down for safety in the pews.
Max offered one of his pistols to Kate, but she just laughed. “You think I’d marry you and not come prepared?” Kate hiked up the right side of her wedding gown’s skirts and pulled a chrome-plated pistol from a thigh harness.
Max eyed her exposed leg, then winked at her. “I knew I married the right woman.”
“Better make sure you lock me down with a baby quick,” Kate told him. “I mean real quick. As in, today. I want to be a mother soon.”
“Promise.” Max turned to the priest. “Forgive me, Father, I have sinned by spilling blood in the church.”
The old man looked grim but shook his head. “Don’t worry about that right now, just keep these people safe.”
“Father,” Max said as he raised his pistols, “I hear and obey.” He turned and rushed down the center aisle, firing as he went. Kate and Nick filed in behind him. Together, the three charged down the aisle and filled the vaulted rafters with the crack of gunfire.
The armed members of the audience charged after Max. The gunfight was intense but short, and by the end the twenty-four pinstripe gangsters lay sprawled across the church as Max and his crew reached the front doors. Max put his shoulder against the rightmost heavy oak door, then turned to Nick as his second-in-command braced against the left door. The two friends reloaded their guns as they made eye contact.
“A gunfight on our wedding day,” Max said. “Figures.”
Standing in cover against the stone wall at his back, Kate laughed. “For us, this is downright romantic. Our first gunfight as husband and wife.”
Johnny stood silently reloading his golden pistol, his sunglasses reflecting Max and Nick like mirrors. He raised the gun and aimed silently at the gap between the doors.
Hank swapped out his two rifles’ magazines and looked to the two leaders bracing against the doors. “What’s the play?”
“They’re almost certainly waiting for us outside,” Nick said. “The pinstripe suits indicate these are the Uptown Boys, one of the better-funded gangs in the city. The window infiltration was likely just to set the stage. I’m sure their main force lies beyond these doors. You ready, Captain?”
Max grinned. “I am always ready to dispense justice, no matter where it’s needed. No Prohibition-era wannabes are gonna prevent me from keeping a promise to my bride. Not to mention we’ve got a burrito buffet waiting for us at the reception hall. You think some measly little army is gonna stop me now?” He racked the slides on his reloaded pistols. “Come on, Reapers. Let’s snuff out a few dirtbags.”
The end.
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About the author
Adam Lane Smith is an all-American husband and father. He has lived in the North, South, East, and West of the United States. He spends his days on a farm in Wisconsin telling bad jokes to his patient wife and kids who have a secret love for bad jokes. He believes that the Oxford comma is worth fistfighting over. In his spare time, he studies psychology and is a student of the human spirit. He wanted to grow up someday to become a productive member of society, but became an author instead.
The author can be reached by email at AdamLaneSmithBooks@gmail.com, on Twitter as @adamsmithauthor, and on Instagram as @adamlanesmithbooks. His website is AdamLaneSmith.com, where readers can sign up for his email list to be notified of upcoming new releases.
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Adam Smith, Maxwell Cain 2: With a Side of Vengeance
