by Anthology
“We vote on this.” He pointed for Gold to attend him. “You better be goddamned sure this is going to work. I’m not putting Rose in any danger if your fucking email or reconnaissance is wrong.”
“I’m not wrong.” Gold spoke with absolute confidence. “And you aren’t the only one putting the woman you love in danger. This is gonna work.”
I hoped so.
We didn’t have any other options. The only way to prevent bloodshed was to end it before it started.
Anathema didn’t have the luxury of second chances. Not like me. Not like Gold.
This was it.
And it was going to be ugly.
Chapter Eleven
Annie
If a pumpkin spice latte in our hands made Rose and I look the part of innocent college students walking back to the dorms late at night, then the guns we holstered under our hoodies made us as much Anathema as any of the men.
And why weren’t we?
Rose was the daughter of Blade Darnell, and both her brothers were lifelong members and officers of the club. At least, until her oldest brother, Brew, was apparently killed by Thorne. No one bought it. No one said a damn word about it though. And I understood why. Loyalty. My family was just as embroiled in Anathema as hers. I thought a degree in veterinary medicine, my own practice, and years free of drive-by shootings and stake-outs somehow made me immune to the insanity that was the Anathema MC.
I was wrong. It wasn’t the ink and cut that indebted us permanently to the club. It was blood.
The night was cold, but we huddled close. Rose wasn’t permitted to leave Pixie until the call connected with Thorne. Gold didn’t have the luxury of a constant level of communication with me. His fierce kiss goodbye was the only luck I had. But it was all I needed.
It would be done quickly. As soon as The Coup landed on the street, I’d make the call, we’d run from the scene, and Gold and Thorne would be there to grab us before anything got complicated or messy.
Or bloody.
“Think you’ll be much longer?” I asked. My latte went untouched. Rose finished hers, but it wasn’t the caffeine that trembled her hands. “They should’ve been here by now.”
Rose covered the mouthpiece of the phone and shrugged. “Any minute. I’m sure of it.”
“Why?”
“Because if they take any longer, Thorne’s pulling me out.”
I studied the empty street. Eleven o’clock wasn’t too late for a normal campus, but we weren’t on the side that housed the dorms or the row of fraternities. A couple lonely agricultural engineering buildings framed us against the street. It wasn’t exactly a good place for two women to wait in the dark, and our backup lingered in an alley three blocks away. Gold was fast on his bike, but a bullet was much quicker.
I didn’t like what I saw.
“Shit,” I whispered. I edged close to the sidewalk and stared. A truck pulled under a broken streetlight a block up the street. “Uhoh. Rose, we gotta move.”
If she swore, she did it quietly. Her steps hurried after mine.
Of course The Coup would take out the streetlight for their deal. I was too far away to catch anything that would pin them on the crime. Without license plate numbers or driver identification or any discerning information about the drop, I had nothing.
The deal was cleaner than I thought it’d be, especially for The Coup. But Knight was their president, and he wasn’t a man who left himself open to the law or his enemies. Whoever drove the truck parked, hopped out, and left the door unlocked. They meant to switch off the merchandise without the driver or the mule ever meeting.
I had to get there and see what was happening before The Coup arrived and stole the truck away.
Now or never. I hurried along the sidewalk, gripping the book bag Gold strapped over my back. The last time I shouldered a bag like that I was carrying a thousand dollars’ worth of books for my veterinary degree. Studying for finals and classes and coursework was a pain in the ass, but I preferred it over the box of ammunition rattling in the pockets.
Rose grabbed my arm. The warning was too late. She threw me against the brick wall as three lone headlights pierced the empty street. We hid our faces, but it was unlikely they recognized us. Bikers were rarely interested in anything above the lips or below the hips.
Three bikes crossed our path in a blaze of engines and fury. They parked beside the truck.
I didn’t have a choice.
I pushed Rose back towards the college and pointed.
“Tell Thorne and Gold to get out here. Now!”
I burst forward, running to the truck and releasing my cell phone. The first image came out blurry. I swore. The second picture cut perfectly. The license plate framed in the center of the picture, capturing every last detail of the truck and its identification.
But the flash blitzed the night twice.
The third time caught all three of the bikers in the same photo.
That was one picture too much.
I turned and sprinted before they realized what happened, while they still figured a curious college girl got a cool picture of a bike to post on Instagram. Rose didn’t wait for me. She burst over the sidewalk, sprinting towards the campus. Her words yelped into the phone for Thorne to hurry.
I hauled her from the sidewalk and into the campus’s recreational quad. My call connected with the police within seconds. I shouted directions and incoherent addresses and frantic descriptions of the truck and what men I saw.
The dispatcher wasn’t convinced until the gunshots rang over the connection.
It wasn’t a great plan. It was worse now it went off the rails so badly—I not only tripped over those tracks, I got hit by the train. My car parked in the student section near the auditorium. I reached it first, launching into the driver seat. Rose followed, tumbling into the cabin. I started the car and threw it into reverse, peeling out from the lot before she slammed her door.
The bikes followed.
We hadn’t lost them.
We hadn’t even been close.
Neither Rose nor I prayed. We knew we didn’t have a shot in hell at being heard.
The gunfire shattered through the rear window. Rose ducked down, shouting into the phone for Thorne and Gold to find us.
“Right, right, right!”
Rose shouted directions, like I hadn’t lived in the Valley my whole life. I took her advice anyway. The wheels squealed, but the bikes peeled out behind us and nearly sideswiped a car. Bullets shredded the back panel.
“Down Washington and out Fifth!” Rose peeked behind the seat and tried to ID those chasing. “Don’t let them force you to the river! We can’t get anywhere close to their territory!”
I got that, but what was close to their territory? I had no idea where the lines drew now. I thought the River delineated everything, but Rose was right. On a night like this, with this much money on the table and in the truck, all of The Coup would be mobilized. They’d flood the city from their hole in the ground, and everything they touched would erupt in flame.
But where would we go? Leading them towards Pixie would only end in blood. I couldn’t let them anywhere near the bar, especially as Anathema’s women and kids swarmed in the safehouse.
I couldn’t lead them close to Silver.
Goddamn it.
I took a hard left and spun away from the highway and into the city. We had to stick to the original plan. Drawing The Coup away from the truck would lure the police too far to be any help, and, without the cops, the war would end only when they hauled everyone off the streets in body bags.
I circled through the commercial district, ignoring Rose’s frantic cursing. She screamed for me to duck, and I lurched to the side.
Bullets blew out the backseat. One of the tires banged, hard.
Not good.
“Oh, fuck.” I jammed the accelerator, but the car shuddered and shook. I checked the rearview mirror. Not what I wanted to see. Two bikes pulled into my view. They rode cl
ose, angry. “Hold on. I have an idea!”
“Annie!” Rose ducked again.
The gunfire went wide. In the distance, entirely too far to be of any help, twin sirens wailed against the night. We would make it to the police, but I wasn’t trying to get to safety. I just needed a quick place to ditch the car so we could hide.
I had no speed, but the car was out of control anyway. I jammed the wheel to the left and spun from my lane into the next. The car squealed as I jerked the emergency brake. We lurched over the crumbling section of pavement and smacked hard into the walls framing a narrow, industrial alley.
Rose groaned. She nearly smacked her head off the console, but I didn’t have to yell for her to move. Something told me this wasn’t her first chase or her first tussle with The Coup. I kicked the door open, and she followed, clambering over the seats. She pushed off the door and propelled into the alley.
We didn’t make it very far.
Headlights of two bikes cut off our escape route. My gun aimed, but Rose jumped at me. She batted the weapon from my hand as Thorne and Gold rumbled to our sides. Both men leapt over us as The Coup’s bullets raged overhead.
Gold drug me to the car and hid me behind the rear wheel. He and Thorne took cover, but he reached over the trunk and fired return shots at the bastards who nearly killed us.
“Take the bike! Get Annie out of here!” Thorne pushed Rose toward the motorcycles.
Rose fought him, grabbing his arm. “I’m not leaving without you.”
Gold yelled for me. “Go with her! Now!”
I shoved the backpack at him, offering my gun as his emptied. He fired, and I reloaded for both him and Thorne. A stray shot screamed by too close. Rose grunted, knocked flat. She scrambled, and, fortunately, the bullet only grazed over her leg.
“We’re fucked!” Gold shouted. “Priest is on the bike! He’s coming back!”
“Shoot him!” Thorne aimed for the asshole who nearly hit Rose.
“Get down!”
Gold threw himself over me and Rose. The automatic weapon fire blanketed the alley, illuminating the damp brick in a flash of hellfire.
Priest had better weapons, was mobile, and called in The Coup.
This wasn’t good.
Gold shouted at Rose again. “Get Annie out of here! You gotta go! Someone’s gotta get back for Silver.”
“Don’t fucking talk like that!” I aimed a gun as well, but my shots didn’t land anywhere near The Coup bastards. “You’re coming with me!”
“Keep Silver safe, Annie!”
“Gold!”
Priest’s AK fired again. We ducked down in a hail of shattered glass. The bullets slammed into the brick and mortar, cracking down over us in flecks of destruction.
“I need you to take care of Sophie!”
“Gold, please!”
“Fucking go!”
We missed our chance.
Another bike stormed through the intersection. Four members of The Coup blasted at us from the street. Even if we could get out, Rose and I couldn’t stand to leap onto the bikes without being riddled by their fire.
Gold grabbed me, shielding my body with his, screaming a barrage of profanities, threats, and apologies that didn’t scare me as much as his professed love. He shouted it, again and again, aiming the gun, but losing the war.
I loved him too, and it was my fault we were going to die.
But the wailing sirens shrieked over the intersection. Blinding red and blue lights overpowered the blitz of bullets and their fiery heraldry.
Thorne and Gold swore. The gunfire ceased, but we didn’t wait. Rose and I were yanked from the ground and forced on their bikes. The police helicopter roared overhead, but the spotlight focused only on the four Coup members scattering within the intersection.
I clutched at Gold. Thorne and Rose led, roaring through the alley and bursting out the back just as the cacophony of police cruisers and bikes blended in a mass of confusion and sirens.
The Coup knew better than to shoot out with cops. Four bastards in tarnished and betrayed colors fell to the ground, hands on their head. The circle of police officers pointed guns and shouted orders.
Gold and Thorne split up, racing the bikes in opposite directions to confuse the last of the officers still responding to the scene. We sped through the darkness, beyond the university and commercial district, and onto the highway just to avoid the chaos. An exit later, and a short ride through a deserted road, and we were clear.
We survived.
Gold raced to Pixie and stashed his borrowed bike in the warehouse. He pushed me into his truck, racing inside only to grab Silver before the police descended on the safe house as well.
I didn’t know where we were going, but it didn’t matter. A hotel or a house, a safe place or just the open road, for now anywhere was good. Gold took my hand. He checked the rearview mirror to look only at the baby.
And for now, we were safe.
For now, we were together.
And I knew why. I felt it too. With every beat of my heart, with every straining moment of panic and relief and love and devotion, I understood.
This was how we were meant to be. It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t appropriately timed, and it would never be neat and tidy, but we were meant to be together regardless of circumstance or danger.
And it would stay that way.
Me and him and the baby.
Forever.
Epilogue
Gold
The new bike roared like a lion and rode like a kitten.
I ordered it in silver, not gold. Felt right.
I pulled into the house behind Annie’s new car. The insurance dragged their feet, but the police’s bullshit investigation took longer. Annie gave up and bought a safe, practical Honda from her savings.
She had a fucking savings account. I was the damn treasurer of Anathema, and even I couldn’t fathom something so wonderful.
She had the house repaired too. Keep and I did the work. Ordered new glass, patched the walls, painted it a homey little yellow.
We had to paint the nursery anyway.
The door slammed behind me. I kicked my boots off before I dragged mud through the house.
“Annie?”
Nothing.
I hated silence like that. My chest still tightened at the possibilities. I didn’t hear the kid. Didn’t hear my old lady.
I dropped the helmet by the door and called her name again. Nothing.
Silver wasn’t crying, but that didn’t stop my stomach from lurching. I hunted through the kitchen, the living room, glanced into the exam room. They weren’t there.
Fuck.
I bolted to the little nursery—painted pink and purple and dazzled with silver accents. It filled with shadows.
The crib was empty.
“No, no, no.”
I darted into the bedroom, practically leaping at the bathroom door as a sliver of light passed from the crack by the floor. I slammed the door open.
Annie jumped, but Silver squealed in a perfectly happy, adorably delighted screech. Her little arms splashed in the bath, and Annie ducked away as the water doused her shirt.
“Daddy’s home!” Annie raised an eyebrow. “And he’s acting crazy.”
I’d answer as soon as my heart started beating again. She wrapped the baby in a thick towel and pulled her from the water. Silver buzzed her lips and grinned at me. Another little tooth poked from her smile now. Her fist jammed into her mouth, but she reached for me as soon as she did it, offering the little slobbered fingers.
“Nah, thanks, Silver.” I took her from Annie. “I’m good.”
“Everything okay?” Annie drained the tub and followed me to the nursery. “You’re freaking me out.”
“Yeah…” I dried off the kid and tucked her into a tiny onesie—Annie found it, something frilly that read My Daddy Rides A Harley. “Everything’s fine. Just didn’t know where you guys were. I thought…” I knew the look Silver gave me. The kid
immediately wet her diaper and laughed about it. I grunted and undressed her, starting again. “Thought something happened.”
Annie kissed my shoulder. “We’re okay. Had a big day. She saw her first Great Dane and she even petted a kitten.” She nudged me. “Silver said she wanted a kitten.”
“Did she?”
“She might have said she already picked one from the litter I vaccinated today.”
“I don’t doubt it.” A baby and a kitten. Oh, we were motherfucking hard in the eyes of the MC.
Didn’t matter. I blew bubbles over my baby’s chubby tummy just to get a giggle. “She can have whatever she wants. Same goes for you.”
Silver was fed and bathed, wearing appropriately sized diapers and clothes, and she was in bed before seven o’clock. It was a goddamned miracle, and I owed it all to Annie.
The baby fell asleep in the crib immediately. Annie pulled me to the dining room.
“Dinner’s warming in the oven. Made lasagna.”
I smirked. “Can’t tell you the last time I had that.”
“I made it for our third date.”
Time had a way of isolating me and crushing me all at the same time. I took her in my arms.
“Seriously?”
Annie tugged her fingers in my cut. “Thought it was time to try it again.”
“It’s just pasta. You could have made it before now.”
Her grip tightened. “It means more to me than pasta, you jerk.”
I knew that, but it was still bizarre to me that a woman as wonderful and perfect as Annie would throw together a goddamned dinner for me when I got back doing whatever godforsaken job Anathema planned.
But we weren’t bleeding, and all the guys made it home, and Silver was safe.
It was a great day made better by the love of a good woman and the promise of something better than dinner in the oven.
I pushed Annie to the kitchen, settling her on the counter. She welcomed me with arms open.
Didn’t want her arms.
I wanted to spread her legs.
I grinned as I tugged her pants down. Annie didn’t protest. Her breathing panted the instant I ripped the panties over her ankles.
