Ashe snapped off another shot before Alejandro could even pick up his jaw at how Mom had just gone down. Even with the element of surprise, he reacted at the last instant so that instead of a bullet through his throat, he caught it in the shoulder. He stumbled back from the impact, two of the men moving themselves between him and Ashe’s continued fire, stepping sideways to get to the rear of the van even as Crystal did the same at the hood. From above, more shots rang out, others dropping from the high powered sniper fire and five-five-six support.

Then there was Robbie, throwing the van door open before unleashing a hail of gunfire into the chaos with his LMG.

Ashe couldn’t spare him any additional attention at the moment, as bullets sprayed in all directions from Alejandro’s men. The opening act had kicked off pandemonium, and Ashe just had to hope that everyone did their part. She scrambled behind the van, dropping to the ground and rolled over onto her stomach so she could see under the van, and opened fire at the few men she could still see through the heavy downpour. Not everyone knew where there was safe cover, what with fire coming from multiple angles, and she could see men going down from the others’ efforts.

Crystal wasn’t far from her, kneeling behind the front wheel and engine block. She glanced over, and grinned. She knew her mom might very well be bleeding out on the ground, just out of sight, but Ashe couldn’t help it, she grinned right back. There was something about working with her team that made her feel alive in a way few things did.

She felt like she belonged.

“Alejandro’s falling back, he might be trying to bug out,” Brie called. “Wonder how long until he realizes that I shot out all their tires…”

That girl had really taken to field work, given how she started off. Ashe hadn’t expected it, but between her support at the warehouse, dressing up as Riptide to fool the police, and the attack on the apartments, she had come into her own. Now they were ass deep in trouble and Ashe had zero doubts that Brie had her back no matter what fecal matter hit the fan.

“Plenty of other vehicles to choose from,” Keiko said, then a deafening shot rang out from on high. “Not that this baby can’t punch through them.”

“Why haven’t you just shot him?” Crystal demanded, popping up just long enough to put a few rounds down range before ducking back. “That thing should be able to punch through any cover he takes out here.”

“He’s slippery,” Keiko said. Another shot rang out. “Plus I have to keep the other assholes down so they don’t actually hit Linda down there. No point adding more injuries to her.”

Ashe winced at the reminder. Even if she had used a less than lethal round, that would still hurt like hell and do some damage. Thankfully her mom had the sense to stay down. If someone had spotted her crawling off, they might just have taken the shot that actually ended her life.

The risk was still there that a stray bullet might do that anyway, which was why Ashe wanted nothing more than to rush forward and save one of the women that raised her. Yet, that would only draw more attention to her. She couldn’t do it, she had to be patient, let Keiko and Brie pick off as many as they could while Robbie soaked up ammo in that damn juggernaut suit of his.

Much as Ashe wanted to make sure Alejandro died tonight, her mom took priority. The man’s reputation would be shot after this, it would take months to recover face with his people, assuming one of them didn’t shoot him in the back with the intention of taking over once the chaos died down.

That would be too clean of an end for the man, but Ashe would take it at the moment if it meant her loved ones made it through this mess alive.

As if the universe was mocking her, one of the assholes broke cover, spraying full auto towards the van. Ashe ducked aside, shifting so she could get a better angle, and see her mom better, when a splash of blood sprayed up from where her mom laid. Her mom cried out, curling around her leg where the round had struck.

Keiko was quick to put a round through the guy, turning him into pink mist, but Ashe couldn’t just leave her out there anymore. The con was known, and all it would take is one asshole looking to make the boss happy now.

“Cover me,” Ashe yelled, breaking into a sprint the moment she rounded the van. The speed at which the bullets coming from her side of things increased, and a few more of Alejandro’s men took cover, giving her the opening she needed to get to her bleeding mom. “How bad?”

She wasn’t able to look, not yet, she was too busy looking for targets while also passing her pistol over to her mom so she wasn’t unarmed.

“Hurts like a bitch,” Mom said. “Could have warned me.”

That unfortunately wasn’t an option. Ashe snapped off a shot at one opportunistic fuck, sending him scrambling back for cover. She needed to swap mags, but doing so would invite others to shoot at her. She shifted, firing another two rounds towards a flash of movement, and shifted again, firing off yet more towards the prior asshole.

Then, her gun clicked empty.

Ashe’s eyes went wide, her hand already reaching for another magazine, the current one ejecting in slow motion as she watched two guns shift to zero in on her location. She didn’t have time to get the fresh mag into the rifle, chamber a round, and drop both of them. Hell, she didn’t have time to drop even one of them, and their angle put them out of sight of Keiko and Brie up top.

Rapid shots came from right next to her, one man went down, his head bursting pink as he dropped. The other jerked before Linda could zero in on him, dropping back to cover before the rounds hit where he had just been lining up his shot on them. Ashe finished reloading, then took one more look around, clear as it would get.

“Let’s get you to cover, see about getting some dressing on that,” Ashe said, shifting to help her up.

Her mom chuckled breathlessly, grunting in pain as she got back on her feet with Ashe’s help, arm over her shoulder for support. They moved quickly, though the limp was slowing her down considerably. They were moving backwards, her mom snapping off a shot whenever she saw movement, and Ashe was all but certain at least one of those had been a kill shot.

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Her mom truly was a nightmare when she had a gun in her hand.

Ashe didn’t want to risk trying to get her behind the van and into the bar, not just yet at least, so Ashe settled for one of the cars out of the direct firing lines. She looked around, even as gunfire continued just feet away in multiple directions, the rain and thunder doing little to overpower it.

Helping her mom to the ground, Ashe pulled her first aid kit from the pouch she kept it in. The little thing was only good for emergency aid, nothing long term, but it would have to do. She pulled out a wad of gauze, the rain having already soaked it through, and pressed it into the wound on her mom’s leg.

Linda hissed, and Ashe felt bad about that, but that was the nature of treating injuries in the field. Unfortunately, she had a fair bit of experience at this point. She wasn’t about to attempt to dig the bullet out, that would just cause more harm than good, and unlike most present, her mom could go to a hospital with zero risk.

“Ashe, I’m coming over,” Crystal said, her voice coming over the com just before she rounded the car, rifle up. “How’s she look?”

Winding the bandage tape tight, Ashe winced as Linda muttered curses through grit teeth as Ashe tied it off.

“I’ve seen worse,” Ashe finally said.

“Had to do that often,” Linda asked, eyes screwed shut.

“A few times,” Ashe said, double checking for other injuries and thankfully finding none, though her mom did wince when she pressed where the rubber round hit her in the chest. “I’ve had to patch up most of my friends at least once, and I’ve been stitched together more than once myself.”

“I remember,” Linda said, her voice resigned. “That wasn’t a ricochet,”

“Nope, got it while saving the girls,” Ashe said, not wanting to have that conversation right then. Instead, she passed her personal phone over. “Okay, you should be okay for a few minutes. Give Mother a call, she was worried.”

“You told her?” Linda asked with wide eyes.

Ashe nodded, though she was more focused on the firefight. “She knows about everything, so no need to dance around things.”

“Shit. Fuck, just. Ashe,” Linda said. Glancing back, Ashe couldn’t tell if it was rain or tears falling down her mom’s cheeks. “Promise me you’ll come back to us.”

Ashe opened her mouth, then promptly shut it. That would be an empty promise at best, and one she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep besides. Crystal was right there too, eyes shimmering in the weak light.

Instead of acknowledging any of that, Ashe stood and pulled Crystal in for an all too short kiss. Her girlfriend looked back with wide eyes and Ashe bit down on saying those fateful words that might doom her.

“Keep each other safe,” she said instead, and charged back into the battle.

Her mom yelled after her, but Ashe didn’t slow, she couldn’t. Ashe wasn’t the person that was needed for what came next, Inferno was.

She rounded a car, finding two men ducked behind various vehicles in her line of sight. Her rifle came up mechanically, two shots per figure, and both dropped before they even realized she was there. Someone screamed out an order, and Inferno turned her gun towards the sound, barely taking a moment to sight the target before another two rounds were sent down range.

An angel of death, that was what she needed to be if they were going to turn things around. It was clear that the Viuda were going to sit tight in their safe little bar while Ashe cleaned up the mess or died trying. A disaster that was admittedly all on her, in the end, but that was beside the point. Her crew were the ones putting themselves on the line to defend the Viuda, providing some fire support was the least they could have done.

Then again, the Viuda prided themselves on their neutrality, even if Alejandro had tried to subvert them, the same was true for Ashe and her crew. She had very much tried to take the Viuda down, and now they were going to sit back and let two of their enemies fight it out. Ashe supposed that was only fair, even if she hated every moment of it.

A stray bullet punched into her armor, ceramic flaking on impact. Ashe grunted, adrenaline keeping her upright despite what would likely result in a heavily bruised rib. She pressed on, seeking out the fucker that had done it.

“Inferno, guy circling behind,” Brie called over the com.

Ashe spun, gun up, and the poor bastard barely had half a second to realize he was already made before a bullet tore through his neck in a spray of red. The second capped him in the dome and he went down with the strings thoroughly cut.

“Thanks,” Ashe said.

The storm still wasn’t letting up, and she was honestly surprised that Brie could even see that far across the lot from her little sniper nest. Actually, she might have grabbed the thermal scope from the armory when they were loading up to ride to war. Smart of her, if she had checked the weather and saw the coming storm.

That was just the sort of thing that always slipped Ashe’s mind, and Brie seemed to think of. It was part of how she had become an integral part of what they were building. Something that she was starting to think might not survive the night.

Even if Ashe did manage to survive the night, there was no way her parents would look the other way when it came to her crimes. She was going to jail, which might as well be a death sentence on its own. That was why Ashe was fighting so hard, ducking down when she saw a gun aimed her way, hearing the sharp whistle of a near miss as she rose back up and put another man down.

Her blood thrummed with adrenaline, the terror of each near death was thrilling in so many ways. It was something she didn’t like to think about, but ever since that first firefight in the basement of the pawn shop, she’d relished in the thrill of the fight.

Another bullet clipped her side, the same one that had taken a hit just a month prior, the dull ache of that not-quite healed injury shooting through her as she ducked behind a car and reloaded. She was on her last magazine, and she didn’t have her pistol to fall back on. Ashe muttered a curse, looking around. One of the dead assholes was close, and his own pistol was still holstered.

“Three more coming towards you,” Keiko said. “Keep your head down.”

Before Ashe could fully understand that, the crack of the fifty sounded, and the car parked just ten feet away nearly turned inside out as the door was punched through. People on the other side cursed, not that she could understand the words over the thrum of the storm.

“Reloading,” Keiko said.

Still, that was all she needed. Ashe slipped between the cars, and came out shooting, putting both men down before they could even scream. Not that they needed to, as all eyes were on the man that was now a blood smear and half a torso. Even Ashe had to stop and blink at the mess that used to be a person.

That was a mistake.

Bullets punched into her back plate, a searing line burned across her thigh, and she dropped from the force of it all. The air was driven from her lungs, but she still rolled over onto her back, rifle coming up, and shot the first two that were on approach. She scooted back, right through the mulch that remained of the man, and fired several more rounds as covering fire.

Her rifle was violently ripped from her hands, part of it shattering from the impact. Ashe sat up, reaching for the pilfered pistol, only to freeze when something rather hot was pressed to the back of her skull. She swallowed, slowly raising her hands. Three men came into the open and all the sounds of shooting ceased.

“Well, this has certainly been a colossal cock up,” Alejandro said with a deep exhale. “Though, I suppose you know all about those.”