by Hope Stone
Picking my bike back up, I saw that the side mirror had broken off, but I didn’t need it right now, anyway. I got back on and took off toward the road, joining my brother and sisters as we trailed behind Ryder’s truck. We all knew that his injury was serious, and I was sure that they were just as worried as I was. Ryder was a good man and a hell of a leader. I couldn’t imagine Outlaw Souls without him.
We all went to the hospital, parking our bikes in the lot as Yoda drove the truck right up to the Emergency Room entrance, running inside for help. I watched as a team of medical staff came hurtling out to the truck, where Ryder was sprawled out in the bed. Every face around me was grim, their anger and fear as potent as my own.
What just happened was a nightmare.
Las Balas had always been our enemy, but this took things to a whole new level. They’d stolen from us and tried to kill our leader. They would pay.
Two days later, I was back at Luca’s fighting ring. This time Trainer was with me, and we had an agenda.
It had been a shitty couple of days, with Ryder teetering on the brink of death after major abdominal surgery and the club in disarray over our attack. We had all spent hours in the hospital waiting room that night, ignoring the stares from the staff and family members. I was sure that we looked out of place, and none of us were talking, so that probably didn’t help the impression we were giving people.
I felt like I was in shock all night, not sure how to wrap my head around what had happened. It was too surreal. Even the pain of my broken ribs didn’t make it feel real.
There was a moment when Swole, Pin, and Trainer all called their wives to tell them what was going on, and I wished I had someone to check in with. I didn’t even consider Kat. I knew that she cared about me, no matter how much she tried not to, but she didn’t need to know about this. It would just put her in a tough situation.
Maybe she was right about not being together. This was exactly the kind of thing that could come between us, and I didn’t think it was ever going to go away. What if I ended up in a physical fight with her brother next time? What if the man I kicked in the chest was her father? She’d never forgive me in either situation.
So, I stayed in my seat in the waiting room, staring at the floor until the doctor came out and told Ryder’s wife that he was stable.
Now, we had a plan in place to seek retribution and get the weapons back. We just needed some extra manpower.
“Well, well, well,” Luca’s voice came from behind me. I turned to see that he had that damn snake draped over his shoulders again. “Look what the cat dragged in.”
“Hey, Luca. This is Trainer. Can we talk to you?”
I wanted to get straight to business. We needed to move against Las Balas now, before that sold the weapons they stole from us.
Luca narrowed his eyes at me for a moment, and I waited. I knew him well enough by now to know that he would take his sweet time before making any kind of decision, even something as simple as this.
“All right,” he finally said. “Follow me.”
This time he led me just outside of the hearing range of the crowd. He clearly had no idea how important this conversation was going to be.
“What’s this about?” he asked.
“I know where your weapons are,” I said. Luca’s gaze flickered to Trainer for a moment before he focused back on me.
“Is that so?”
“Yes. You ever heard of Las Balas?”
Luca’s attention on me was laser-sharp as I told him our plan and the part he needed to play in it. By the time we left the warehouse fifteen minutes later, Trainer and I were ready to join the others. We’d be moving against Las Balas tonight.
We pulled into the parking lot of the Blue Dog, where every other member of the club was waiting. I stayed on my bike while Trainer hopped off and addressed the group. He’d stepped up as a leader for us while Ryder was in the hospital, focusing on recovering.
While Trainer gave everyone a rundown on the plan for the evening, Lily, Ryder’s sister, walked around the parking lot, giving everyone a braided leather bracelet with a red thread added. She’d made them for each of us to wear tonight in honor of Ryder. The red represented the blood of our brother that was spilled and the reason that we were seeking retribution.
Mad Dog wouldn’t survive the night.
We rode out together, the rumble of our motorcycles was a deafening roar that felt powerful. We needed that—to feel like a strong, united group.
The Pit was a rundown bar on the south side of town, and the official hangout of Las Balas. It was where they could be found at all times, and tonight was no different. They must have heard us coming because they were all lined up outside the building when we turned onto the street. They were armed again, but none of the weapons came from the crate.
Good.
We had gambled on their greed making them decide not to use the weapons since they could be sold for so much money. Now we just had to find out where they were. We all parked and dismounted. Tonight, I had a knife on me, but I was supposed to be focused on getting into the bar and trying to find the crate.
It might not be here, but we had to check. Luca’s cooperation was dependent on getting those weapons back.
Trainer stood in front of us to address Mad Dog. This was ballsy, seeing as how Ryder was shot last time, but he insisted on doing it. We hoped that they felt secure on their home turf and wouldn’t feel the need to try an ambush again. We stayed on the other side of the parking lot for now, and tension hung heavy in the air between the two groups.
I scanned the Las Balas members, and this time, I caught sight of Jason. He looked nervous, and I felt an echo of that within my own body. I thought about Kat again. If something happened to him, I knew she’d be devastated.
“Impressive form,” Mad Dog said, addressing Trainer. “Riding in as a unit like that. Much more impressive than the last time we saw you all. Running away with your tail between your legs.”
Many of the bikers around him laughed, and I felt a hatred burn within me.
“You know why we’re here,” Trainer said.
It wasn’t a question, but Mad Dog answered anyway.
“I suppose you have a bone to pick with me,” He walked back and forth as he talked, looking unconcerned, even though he didn’t come closer. “Are you the new fearless leader now? I hear your boy survived, but now’s a good time to take control from him. I’d actually admire that.”
I couldn’t believe that this psycho was having a conversation with Trainer right now. We were here to fight, and everyone knew it.
“We remain loyal to Ryder,” Trainer’s voice was firm. “The question is, who will replace you?”
Mad Dog opened his mouth to reply, but before another word could be uttered, a shot rang out, cutting through the still night. Jagger, our enforcer, did his job, firing just once and sending the bullet straight into Mad Dog’s temple.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
Chaos ensued. As expected, the Las Balas members attacked, some shouting out in surprise or anger, while others closed the distance between us without a word. The fight was brutal and wild, with years of pent-up anger and resentment between the two groups making things so much worse. I called on my street fighting experience, focusing on my desire to avenge Ryder as I pummeled those who came at me, careful to avoid their weapons. I could hear the occasional shot going off, but none were near me. I just hoped that no one else I cared about was hit.
“Come on, Blade,” Pin called out from my left. He and Hawk were already together. Three of us were supposed to go into the bar to see if the weapons were stashed there. I fought my way through the crowd, stopping only once to pull a man off of Chalupa, who had been knocked to the ground. I made quick work of knocking the guy unconscious with three jabs to the temple before continuing on.
Once we worked our way through the battle, it was easy to get inside the bar. No one was guarding it. They were all in the fight. Jus
t before we went inside, Luca’s SUV rolled into the parking lot. His bodyguards got out first, followed by him. Backup had arrived.
Hawk pushed open the door of the bar, leading the way with his gun raised in the air, but no one came running out at us. In fact, there were only two people inside. One of them was a man behind the bar, looking scared, and he ran out the door as soon as he saw us. The other was Jason, and he was hurt.
“Don’t,” I cried out as Hawk pointed his gun at Jason, who was sitting hunched over at a table with his hand pressed against his bleeding shoulder, right next to his collarbone.
I didn’t think Hawk would shoot an injured man, but I couldn’t take the chance. I hurried forward and knelt next to him. He didn’t seem to recognize me at first, and fear was clear in his eyes, but after a moment, I could see him putting the pieces together.
“Blade?” he asked, his voice weak.
“What happened to you?” I asked, gesturing at his shoulder. I could feel Hawk’s eyes on me, but I couldn’t explain who Jason was right now.
“Shot, not sure by who,” he said, his breathing heavy. “Hurts like a son of a bitch.”
“I’ll bet it does,” I agreed. I looked over at Hawk. Pin had disappeared somewhere. I assumed to check the back room or basement. “I need to get him out of here.”
“What? No way. Forget him. We need to find the weapons or get back out there into the fight.”
“I can’t. He’s…” I almost said family, which wasn’t true at all. But he was Kat’s family, and damn it, I cared about her even if she refused to feel the same. I sighed. “He’s important. I need to keep him safe.”
Pin came back into the room. “Nothing here that I could find. There are no weapons.”
“Damn it, I knew that might happen, but it puts a kink in our plan,” Hawk rammed his fist into the wall angrily.
“Let’s get back outside,” Pin suggested. “We’ll subdue a member and make them talk when the fighting is done.”
“I’m leaving with Jason,” I cut in stubbornly.
“Who the fuck is this guy?” Pin asked, eying Jason suspiciously.
“A prospect,” I explained, “and a friend.”
Jason looked at me curiously but didn’t contradict that last part.
“We need to get out there. And find the weapons.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. I just couldn’t let Jason stay in here bleeding. I knew that Outlaw Souls would be fine. With Luca’s help, we outnumbered Las Balas. They didn’t need me. Jason did.
Hawk and Pin didn’t say anything. They just left me in the bar.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I told Jason.
“Why?”
“For Kat. She’s just getting over losing her mom. I won’t let her lose you, too.”
Surprise flickered through the pain clouding his eyes. “She told you about our mom?”
“Yes, now come on.”
I took hold of his good arm and pulled until he was on his feet. Then, I pulled Jason’s arm over my shoulder and helped him walk out of there. I was taking him home.
Twenty-Five
Kat
I hadn’t seen Blade in days. I knew that it shouldn’t bother me, given the nature of our relationship, but I couldn’t help frowning as I looked over at his empty workstation. He’d called Brie this morning to tell her that he wouldn’t be in today and to reschedule his appointments. She said he didn’t elaborate on why he was taking the day off, and she assumed that he was sick.
I had a feeling that something else was going on.
I had tried to get a hold of him yesterday, Sunday afternoon, to see if I could come over for a booty call, but his only reply to my text was to say that he was unavailable. It was stupid to feel rejected—the guy had a life outside of our casual sex—but I didn’t like it one bit. I worried that he was getting bored with our arrangement.
Then, I chastised myself for such an insecure overreaction. One polite decline didn’t mean anything. But now, seeing that he wasn’t at work, I couldn’t shake the feeling of foreboding that hung over me. Somehow, I knew that something was wrong.
I had just finished up with a client, an eighteen-year-old girl that wanted a butterfly on her ankle, and Piper was waiting for a customer that she’d been working with for the last few days to come in so that she could put the finishing touches on his full sleeve. I was chomping away on my gum, wishing that I had a damn cigarette on me.
“So, you’re tense,” Piper remarked, sipping from her Styrofoam cup of coffee. Piper was a caffeine junkie, so she usually had one in the morning and brought one back from lunch with her. I liked to tease her about it, but I didn’t have much room to talk since I guzzled sweet energy drinks to keep myself going. “Where’s Blade today?”
“How should I know?” I shrugged.
“Cut that shit out,” she said impatiently. “It’s me, Kat. I know you.”
“I still don’t know where he is.”
“So, that’s what’s bothering you. Have you called him?”
“I’m not his wife,” I said. “Not even his girlfriend. He doesn’t owe me an explanation.”
“No, he doesn’t. But I bet he’d give you one.”
I picked up on something in her slightly clipped tone. Disapproval?
“You have a problem with Blade now?”
“Of course not. But I think that it’s about time you decided what you want.”
“I have what I want. Great sex, no commitment, and plenty of freedom.”
“He had that freedom too, you know. He could go out and find someone that’s not too hung up on daddy’s approval to see that she’s blowing it with a guy that might be her perfect match.”
“Ouch,” I grimaced.
“The truth hurts,” Piper said unapologetically.
“And I’m not trying to get my dad’s approval. I just…” I trailed off.
Why was I so loyal to Las Balas? Because Mad Dog had called me family? It was a nice sentiment, but it would have been even nicer to be treated like family by my dad. The problem was that Las Balas came first, always. Maybe I thought that aligning myself with them would put me in that category for my dad.
That was pathetic. And to think that I had been silently judging Jason for letting Las Balas control his life. I was doing that same thing without even having the option to join the club. They were old fashioned in their no-girls-allowed stance. In reality, I had almost nothing to do with the club, and the more time I spent with Blade, the more skeptical I was of Outlaw Souls being troublemakers. Still, I’d taken a stand, and it wasn’t easy to backtrack at this point.
“You can do whatever you want,” Piper said, “but I think you need to realize that you can only keep Blade at arm’s length for so long before you lose your grip on him altogether. Because I can tell you right now, he has real feelings for you.”
I wanted to argue, but the words wouldn’t come.
The bell above the door rang, and Piper stood. Her customer was here.
“Take my advice or don’t. It’s up to you. I just don’t want to see you lonely anymore.”
She knew me too well. For the rest of the day, I couldn’t get her words out of my mind. When I first found out that Blade was an Outlaw Soul, I had been sure that he must be a bad person to be a part of an organization like that. But as I continued to get to know him, I knew that I was wrong. He was a good man.
But I couldn’t let my guard down with him again. I couldn’t let myself trust him.
Look where that’s gotten you.
We were stuck in a limbo where we fucked and fought over and over. It was exhausting, and mostly my fault. I knew that. Looking back over the last few weeks, I could see that I picked fights with Blade every time I started to feel too close to him, as if I was proving to him and myself that we were incompatible.
God, I was an idiot.
I wanted to be with Blade. Hell, I’d wanted him from the moment we met. When he got his patch, we’d only been toget
her once, and I told myself that I wasn’t attached to him yet. There hadn’t been enough time.
But I was wrong. I was starting to suspect that I’d fallen for him the first time he sent a flirty smirk in my direction.
My heart rate tripled, and I felt like a curtain had been pulled back in my mind, revealing what had been hidden just out of sight for so long. I wanted to be with Blade. I wanted it more than I wanted to connect with my dad. Because now that Piper had suggested it, I realized that was exactly what I was doing. I was trying to chase an elusive relationship with my dad through the damn motorcycle club that always meant more to him than I did. It was never going to happen, but I could have something good with Blade if I hadn’t blown it already.
I could hardly wait to get through the rest of the day after this revelation. I sent a text to Blade, simply asking if he was available to meet up this evening, but after almost an hour with no response, I felt my heart sink.
Why didn’t he respond? What was he up to?
That evening, I went to Piper’s house for our weekly poker game. I was distracted by my annoyingly silent cell phone, which made me a better player, to my surprise. I wasn’t too focused on the cards, making me a hell of a bluffer, and I wasn’t overthinking everything.
I still hadn’t heard back from Blade.
“You won’t believe what I heard,” Veronica was saying as she shuffled the cards. I was only half-listened to the conversation at this point. Tammy had been prattling on and on about her wedding plans for the last twenty minutes. I loved the woman, but it wasn’t the most interesting topic. Besides, I wasn’t in a good headspace to discuss her happily ever after.
“Oh, are we gossiping?” Piper asked as she walked in with a fresh beer for me and a glass of wine for herself.
“Most definitely,” Veronica winked. I took the beer from Piper’s outstretched hand and was in the middle of my first sip when Veronica continued, “Last night, someone shot the president of that motorcycle club. I think they’re called the Outlaws.”
