Buried Treasure

Jose Correira’s POV

Orlando

We were in four vehicles, and we made Orlando just after sunrise. The Cartel provided us with fully automatic AK-47’s which would give us an advantage in firepower. Daylight wasn’t the best time to be doing this, but they wouldn’t expect it. My driver, a female Cartel intelligence operative, gave us the information they had gathered while I was gone. “The Steel Brotherhood left the hospital and have returned to the Clubhouse. They are on lockdown; the families are in there too. We estimate eighty to a hundred people. They have eight armed men on patrol inside; two at the gate, two roaming and four on the roof. They also have two canine patrols outside the gate.”

“Can we get close enough for a truck bomb,” Ghost said.

“You’d need a lot of explosives for that and we don’t have time,” she said. “Too much space between the gate and the building, and unless you are talking Oklahoma City level bang, it won’t get there with the truck blocking the gate.”

“How are the surrounding buildings?”

“Similar in height or higher. Good sniping positions.” I liked the sound of that, except they would just hole up inside. We had to smoke them out. “How far are the side and back fences from the building?”

“Ten to twenty feet on the sides, maybe thirty in back. The main parking lot and garage are in front.” I smiled, that was perfect. “What about cops?”

“Three vehicles in the area, none closer than three blocks.” We’d take them out first so they couldn’t warn anyone. I started making a list of what we would need, and we got to work.

It took until almost nine in the morning before we were all in place. We had ditched the cuts and dressed like normal people, our cars dropping people off out of sight of the Clubhouse. I walked up to the unmarked police car that was parked a few blocks away. The windows were down and the guy was eating a breakfast burrito. “Officer,” I said. When he looked up, my silenced .22 pistol put a hole in his forehead, and he slumped down into the seat. “Car three down.”

The other two reports came in shortly after, now the Brotherhood had no protection. I made my way to the building we had selected as the prime sniping position and climbed the ladder to the roof. This building was about fifty feet from the front gate on the right side; other men were taking positions on four other buildings. Keeping down, I made my way to the other side where two other men were waiting with their rifles and mine. The radios we were using were the same ones Special Forces used, with earpieces and push-to-talk microphones. I had the teams on a card and marked them off as they reported in. We had everyone in place; I looked at my watch, it was eight fifty-five.

“Go in thirty seconds,” I said. This was the signal for the throwers to take their positions just around the corner from view. “Ten seconds.” Eight men lit the flares attached to the gallon jugs of kerosene and readied themselves for the run. “Five, four, three, two, one, FIRE.”

At the signal, all of the snipers raised up from their hiding positions and opened up on the guards. The volley of fire caught them by surprise; I fired at one of the dog handlers, the shot hitting him in the chest. The woman standing with him I ignored as she ran away from the gate, the dog following her. Jugs of gasoline were hurled over the chain link fence, crashing into the building and the rooftop and setting everything ablaze.

Ten seconds into the attack and things had gone perfectly. My men had eliminated all armed threats, and now the shooting gallery would commence.

The doors burst open and men ran out, and that is when we opened fire with the AK-47’s. The front door was a kill zone, the first men out lasting as long as the first men in a landing craft on D-Day. It only took a few seconds for the men behind them to realize this was a bad idea. They went back inside and closed the doors as we continued to fire through them.

I was looking for targets; there were about a dozen men down, and the building was rapidly catching fire. Soon they would have no choice but to come out, and we would cut them down when they did.

Alpha Rori King’s POV

Outside the Gate

Chase was exhausted, so I let him sleep while I went outside the gate to check on our patrols. I was talking with Nate and out front when the wind shifted. I didn’t recognize the smell, but my wolf didn’t react well to it. “You smell that?”

Both of them took a deep smell. “It’s.” BANG.

It sounded like firecrackers going off as rifle fire started. Nate was hit in the chest. “RUN,” I said. “CHASE, ATTACK IN PROGRESS, SNIPERS ON THE ROOFTOPS.” I ran for the building on the left as I sent Connie in her wolf to the one on the right. “Find a way up and take out the snipers.”

There was no way up in front, but there was a ladder in the back. I ran up the stairs, cursing that I hadn’t armed myself when I left. When I reached the top, I saw three men with rifles firing on my people. I shifted into my wolf, my clothes shredding as I did, and charged for them.

The first man I came to I caught in the neck, my teeth tearing it apart. He started spraying blood, and I dropped him before I went to the second man. His eyes went wide and he tried to bring his rifle around on me, but he wasn’t fast enough. I barreled into him, my teeth around the front of his neck as we crashed to the ground. I bit down hard and pulled back, taking a chunk with me. I spit it out and looked at the third man.

It wasn’t a man.

A huge male cat faced me, its long body spotted and tail twitching. “Chase there’s a jaguar here.”

“Kill it, kinda busy.”

I growled at the big cat, who probably outweighed me by a hundred pounds. He pounced towards me, and I barely escaped being torn by his razor-sharp claws as I moved to the side. He turned quickly, and I dodged again with my speed.

I didn’t know what to do; wolves didn’t fight with claws as the big cats did. I had no advantages here. I kept dodging as the gunfire stopped. “Guys I’m totally defensive here, on top of the building to the left of the front gate.”

Connie replied first thanks to them joining our Pack temporarily for just this reason. “Coming, Luna. Snipers down on my building. Alpha, send people out the front and take out the snipers on the buildings to the side and behind.”

“Brent and I are almost there,” Laura sent. “He’s wounded but can shift.” They were Pack members that had been on patrol on the perimeter of the fence and must have barely escaped the opening volley.

“Do it out of sight,” Chase reminded us. “We’re coming out now.”

“We’re leaving the hotel now,” Charlie said. “We’re two minutes out, bringing guns and the Suburban.” Charlie and Bonnie were the other pair, they were resting at the hotel while the other two patrolled.

I knew I just had to stay alive until they arrived, so I kept ducking and weaving. I wasn’t entirely successful, as claws grazed my shoulder and my jaw. This had to be Jose, and he needed to die on this rooftop.

”Coming on your right,” Connie sent. I dodged left, and Connie’s teeth tore a strip from his flank before he could react to the new aggressor.

“Watch the claws, distract and attack,” I said. Laura joined us, followed by a limping Brent. The tide had turned now, and the jaguar was now on defense. I saw his eyes flick to the edge of the roof and figured it out just before he did. “He’s going to jump.” When he lunged towards Brent then sprinted for the edge, Connie and I were already moving.

He leaped off the edge before I could get there, but Connie was closer. She leaped for the man responsible for her mate’s death as I came up short of the edge. I watched them tumble through the air, her teeth still holding the back of his neck, until they landed with a liquid splat on the parking lot below.

Chase’s POV

Orlando Clubhouse

Rori’s voice in my head that we were under attack had me up and out of bed in an instant. I pulled on my boots and grabbed my pistol, not bothering to dress further before rushing out of the room. The sound of automatic weapons fire was all around, as were the shouts of ‘FIRE’ as the flames erupted everywhere at once. “Get the women and children to the bar,” I yelled as I ran down the stairs. It was pandemonium; kids were screaming, and gunfire was everywhere. I reached the bottom of the stairs just as the first group of men armed up and headed out the front door.

They were cut down in seconds. “BACK INSIDE NOW,” I said. Moving to the door, I pulled a wounded brother back in and we closed the doors. The glass was bulletproof, our people weren’t. I pulled the fire alarm as I moved back inside, this would at least notify the Fire Department we had a problem.

At least if World War Three out there didn’t get their attention.

I stood on top of a chair and yelled to get their attention. “Everyone who is armed, stay near an exit. Adults that aren’t, grab a fire hose or extinguisher and keep the fire out. Kids, get all the bar towels out and wet them down in the sinks. Pass them out, keep them over your heads and breathe through them when the smoke gets bad.”

“Chase, there’s a jaguar out here.”

“Kill it, I’m kind of busy.” I couldn’t get out there yet, we had to find a way to bust everyone out of the Clubhouse before the fire got too bad. I continued to get people organized. The Pack link let me know help was on her way.

“Slick, when we get out you need to head to the truck and move it out from the gate. Take four men with you, take up cover near the fence and take out the rest of those snipers. Ratchet, you five with rifles head up to the roof. The rest of you move quickly to each corner of the clubhouse and take out the ones to the side and back. As soon as it’s clear, we get everyone the fuck out of here. Got it?”

They nodded. “Head up to the roof, the rest of you to the front. It sounds like the sniper fire is dying down.”

They followed me to the front door; I pushed it open, but I knew from the sends from my Pack that they had taken out the shooters on the buildings out front. The Jaguar wasn’t going to fire a rifle. “Stay right behind me and don’t stop moving until you’re in cover,” I said. Pushing the door open, I sprinted across the parking lot to the front gate.

The Prospect was dead, and I grabbed his rifle off the ground as I went to the concrete pillar. Raising the rifle, I saw nothing, so I took cover behind the parked motorcycles and looked to the buildings on the left side. I got one shot off, the man dropping like his battery had been removed. Slick moved the truck out of the way, and another man slid the gate open. “SEND THEM OUT FRONT,” I said. “HOLD AT THE WALL.” We needed to take out the rest of the shooters before we got them away from the cover the building gave us. At least outside they could breathe.

The men heading to the roof had to turn around and come outside because the flames were too much. The gunfire finally stopped. “Head out, check out these buildings and make sure they are all dead,” I said. The Brothers ran out the front gate and to each side while I ran to the building on the left.

I got to the back and saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Freezing, I watched in horror as a huge Jaguar leapt off the building, a wolf latched onto his neck as they tumbled through the air. They landed with a splat, her teeth pulling free in a spray of blood as she landed on top of him. “NO,” I screamed.

I was on her in seconds, and it didn’t look good. The jaguar moved, and I shot him in the head with my rifle before I dropped it on the ground. Connie was panting hard and wheezing, and blood was coming out of her nose. “Connie, you can’t shift.” She whined. “Just hold still.”

I checked her over, she had broken ribs and a punctured lung and Luna knows how many other injuries. Her breathing became more labored. ”Bury us together back home,” she said, then she went limp. I let her down, my fingers pulling her eyelids shut.

Brent limped down the stairs from the roof, Laur and Rori behind him. They had pulled on bloody clothes from the men they had killed.

I looked around, the building had cameras under the eaves. We couldn’t shift or move evidence without the cops getting the tape. “Leave him there, the cops will think it was a mascot,” I said. I could hear the sirens approaching, and smell the people heading our way.

“What about the men?”

“Leave them. Before the police arrive, you two shift back to wolf form out of sight and get your vests on. We’ll say our patrol dogs took them out.”

I don’t know what story we would need, but we were going to need a lot of ambulances. Many good people had died this morning.

I picked up the brave warrior wolf and carried her towards the street as the first responders arrived.