by Zoey Parker
“Okay, so you saw me working,” I said, trying to keep my voice even and hide the fact that I was quite shaken by this revelation.
“I even saw him toss a guy out for you,” Fang added, and I knew he wasn’t just grasping at straws, but I wondered. How did he know it was for me unless his guy was planted somehow on the inside?
I didn’t say anything. I figured I’d let him keep talking and give up more secrets. He may not have thought much about what he was saying—after all, I was going to be out of the picture soon—but I wanted to know everything I could about his little tail that he’d put on me. It sounded like it might have been more than one person because someone on the inside would have been noticed near the apartment.
“You seem pretty loyal to Cole, Sasha, and that bothers me,” he added.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean, it takes you days to call me sometimes. You can’t pull yourself away from your new boyfriend to make time for your boss, your employer, the man who brought you off the fucking street and gave you a place to stay. No, instead, you’re out there sleeping with my top rival when you’re supposed to be helping me take him down!” His usually calm tone was gone. He ripped it to shreds right in front of me as he let his anger out.
“You’re a traitor,” he added.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked.
“You are a traitor. Yeah, you may have called to let me know he was on his way to the hideout to take me down, but that was only after you’d told him where it was. Did he fuck that information out of you, or did you give it to him willingly?” He spat his words out in the darkness.
“He found out from people on the street, Fang. He told me as much himself that morning. He told me one of his guys called to say they had located you, and they were getting ready to go after you. So, of course I called you to let you know you were in trouble,” I defended myself. “I didn’t have to do that,” I added under my breath.
“No, and maybe you shouldn’t have. It might have saved you your life, but tonight, I’m going to handle you the way I’ve always handled traitors,” he threatened me.
“Fang, there’s got to be another way we can resolve this,” I said.
“Oh, all that sex talk from earlier? I could tell I was making your skin crawl. You didn’t like thinking about me having fantasies about you, did you, sweet little Sasha? No, I was just messing with your head. I would never touch you,” he said.
I didn’t know whether to be thankful or offended. He said it like he found me disgusting.
“You were never the right type,” he continued, insulting me even more. “You were always too rebellious and headstrong. When I picked you up on the street that day, you weren’t even attractive. You were a ratty little tomboy with a dirty face, matted hair, and dirty, grubby little hands. I’m impressed you turned out the way you did, but I guess it’s pretty amazing what a bath can do.”
I looked down, away from his hurtful words. I knew he was just saying them to be mean. The man I’d known for the last five years had been nothing to but kind and gentle with me. The man driving this car was a hateful asshole.
“Even once you cleaned up, you were still too headstrong to be attractive,” he continued.
I could feel uneasiness growing as the two other men in the car seemed to grow tired of listening to him insult me. We had been in such close quarters for so long that even the slightest shift in someone’s mood had become noticeable to everyone, even in silence. Especially in silence.
The silence in the car had become another passenger. It seemed to eat the rest of Fang’s words before he could say them, leaving him speechless in the dark and giving me time to recover from what he’d said. I knew he didn’t mean it, but still, he knew those could have been some of the last words he said to me. Once we made it to the cabin, he and the other two were going to take care of me, and I was going to be put down like some wounded animal.
I carefully glanced out the window. Hope sparked briefly as I saw headlights in the distance. They didn’t look like motorcycles, though, so my excitement passed pretty quickly.
“Still think there’s another way to work things out?” Fang asked me.
I didn’t answer. I looked at my ghostly reflection in the window and let that be my answer.
“I mean, I might take you up on the offer,” he continued. “You have turned into quite the nice young woman. I liked what I saw in those videos I received of you. Maybe I will see for myself what’s driving all these other bosses crazy about you. And if you’re lucky, it’ll change my mind.”
I shook my head. He was so sleazy, and he just wouldn’t quit.
Suddenly glass shattered as one of the windows was shot out.
“What the…?” Fang jerked the wheel and the car darted off in one direction, then the other, slinging me side to side in the back.
More shots rang out and I ducked down.
Suddenly, shots were ringing out all around me. Glass was shattering everywhere, letting air burst into the car. I could hear motorcycle engines outside. They were here! They’d made it! But we hadn’t seen any headlights.
Of course, I wouldn’t have put it past Cole and the rest of Hell’s Overlords to ride up on us in complete darkness without headlights. That definitely seemed like the kind of thing he would have “had the balls” to do, to use his words.
Fang cursed as the other two men drew their weapons and fired blindly into the night.
Then, there was a shot, and something blew out in the front of the car. It sounded like a tire, but the next thing I knew, we were flipping over onto the shoulder of the highway.
Glass went everywhere. I knew I wasn’t going to make it to the cabin at that point. I didn’t know if I would even make it out of the car unless I was thrown out by the flipping, and that seemed like a distinct possibility with my hands and feet tied together and no seatbelt holding me in place.
How ironic. Cole shows up to save me and ends up killing me in the process.
I closed my eyes as I tumbled inside the car.
Well, at least Fang didn’t get the satisfaction, I thought before something hit the back of my head and took all my thoughts away.
Chapter 22
Cole
I told her I would protect her. I’d told her that on multiple occasions. I had offered to help her walk away from Fang and the life she had been living for so long. I promised her I would take care of her.
The words I had pledged to Sasha weighed heavily on my mind as I rode into the darkness with my brothers around me. We rode like bats out of hell. We were on a mission, and we didn’t have a whole lot of time to waste trying to catch up to Fang and his men. We weren’t exactly sure what we were riding into. We didn’t know what kind of fight lay up ahead waiting for us, but we were determined to take him down.
I was determined to bring Sasha back unharmed and make her mine. Against everyone else’s best advice, I had already forgiven her for the things she had done and for the trouble she had caused. No matter what had happened so far, the fact remained that I had promised to protect her and to keep her safe from harm. I had learned at an early age in this MC that we always honored our word. People were far more important than the business.
There wasn’t much traffic on the highway, which I figured would help us spot Fang’s car, but it also meant that he would be able to spot us more easily as well. I began to worry that we’d lost him as the light began to fade around us.
I had no idea where this fabled upstate hideout of Fang’s was supposed to be, so if we weren’t able to track him down on the interstate before he got there, our chances of catching up to him were slim to none. It would take days to track him down through our usual street networks. We didn’t have days. The longer it took, the more danger Sasha would be in. Not catching up with him was not an option.
I gunned my engine, pulling ahead of the rest of the pack. Everyone sped up to keep up with me. I was pushing the old Roadster as hard as I could, and p
robably harder than I should have been, but if I had to sacrifice her to finish this job, so be it. It was worth it to me. Sasha was worth it to me. Getting Fang out of the picture was worth it.
Finally, as night began to take the highway, I spotted taillights up ahead. The trees lining the interstate on either side were fading into the darkness. The only thing I could see was the patch of highway passing underneath our bikes through our headlights. And the taillights in the distance, threatening to get away from us.
We were riding so close to each other that the glow from our headlights allowed us to see each other just fine. I signaled to Dante to speed up ahead and check out the car. He nodded and dipped out of the pack. He killed his headlights so they wouldn’t see him approaching. He disappeared into the night up ahead as he gunned it to catch up with the car the rest of us were beginning to approach.
My nerves began to ball up in knots deep in my gut. I wasn’t planning on getting into a gunfight in the middle of the night. I figured that at least the highway was pretty deserted other than the few of us and the other car. If that did turn out to be Fang, the lack of traffic would make handling him a breeze. Still, it didn’t feel right. I felt like so much could go wrong shooting at each other blindly in the dark.
Dante cut his lights back on as we caught up with him and gave me a thumbs up. It was Fang. I nodded at him and killed my headlights. The rest of my brothers followed suit. Suddenly, we were immersed in darkness. Luckily, the moon was full, and bright enough that we could sort of make each other.
Without our headlights on, the night around us became much brighter. We could see more details of the road and the surrounding woods. Fang’s car up ahead was a beacon glowing in the night, calling us to it. I took a deep breath.
As far as I could tell, Fang and his men only numbered three. We were riding up on him six deep. We outnumbered them enough to hopefully keep our losses minimal, or better yet, nonexistent. We’d lost enough men already for one day. I wasn’t looking forward to risking more lives.
We picked up the pace again, and I signaled to the rest of the guys to hang back behind the car as I rode up close beside it to make sure it was, in fact, Fang’s sedan. I couldn’t get a good look inside. I couldn’t tell where Sasha was sitting.
I backed off, not ready to risk taking a shot at the car and hitting the one person I didn’t want to kill.
Dante gestured back at the car but I shook my head and pointed at my eyes. Man, we were on same damn page. That was why he was my second-in-command. He knew exactly what I was thinking.
He pointed at the back passenger side, and I knew he was telling me Sasha was on that side. I didn’t know how he could have known that, but I trusted his judgment. He knew better than to try to screw me over, especially when it came to her.
I looked back at the car and started to pull up beside it again. I was honestly surprised they hadn’t tried anything. With six motorcycles right on their ass, it was amazing they hadn’t heard us and realized we were there.
I didn’t see who shot first, but a couple of shots rang out in rapid succession. Shots were fired at the car, and shots were fired from the car.
Motorcycle headlights came on. There was no need to try to hide in the darkness, and we had every reason to let them know how many of us there were. The car jerked one way and then the other. I had to jerk my bike to keep from getting hit as the sedan swerved back and forth across the lanes.
A shot rang out from my left side as one of my men pulled up beside and fired at the back driver side window. The glass exploded and rained down in sparkling shards all over the road. I saw into the car and watched as Sasha ducked to keep from getting struck by glass or bullets.
Dante had been right, and whoever it was who’d pulled up beside me to shoot out the window was an awesome shot. He took out one of the men who had apparently helped Fang kidnap Sasha. It still didn’t make any damn sense to try to kidnap someone who already worked for him, but that was him, not us.
I backed off so I could look inside the car as it pulled ahead of me. Fang was behind the wheel. I laughed to myself and finally drew my weapon. I had my target, but the front passenger had his target, too, and I was forced to back off again as he opened fire on us. He struck my brother on the left, sending him and his motorcycle crashing into the median.
I signaled to Dante and the others that Sasha was down in the back, and a few shots rang out, shattering the back window. The car swerved again.
I sighed. This wasn’t getting the job done. I shot at the driver side window, blowing it out. Fang jerked the wheel again, and I was sure the car was about to lose control for good when it righted itself again and kept going straight.
This asshole’s determined, I thought to myself.
Finally, sick of playing games, I took aim at the front driver side tire. I held my gun in place for a moment, keeping it trained on the tire. I knew what I risked by shooting out the front tire. Fang was certain to lose control of the car, and I was going to put Sasha in a lot of danger by taking that shot, but the longer we kept up this little cat and mouse shit, the more danger we put her in anyway. If things kept going the way they were, it wouldn’t be long before she took a stray bullet anyway.
“I’m sorry,” I said aloud, and I pulled the trigger.
The tire exploded, and the car jerked violently to one side. Suddenly, it was flipping, rolling on its side towards the shoulder of the interstate.
We slowed down, and I checked behind us to make sure no one was coming. A pair of headlights passed on the other side of the median, but they didn’t slow down to observe what was happening on our side of the highway.
I slid my gun back under my belt as we pulled up to the wreckage. It didn’t look like anyone could walk away from it. Steam came from underneath it. Well, the underside was facing us, as the sedan finally came to a rest on its side on the shoulder of the interstate, between the blacktop and the tree line.
I held out a hand to keep everyone back at first as we pulled over onto the side of the road. I killed my engine and listened as the others behind me did the same. I climbed off my tired old bike with my hand on my gun. Suddenly, putting it aside seemed a little premature. I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to spring out of the car and start shooting, or if we’d effectively eliminated the threat.
Gun shots rang out from the car. We couldn’t see the shooter, but they were taking aim at us as Dante and I approached.
We ducked and stepped back. Bullets hit the pavement around us and zinged past our heads. Whoever was shooting wasn’t a good aim. Knowing Fang and his mean, that was a pretty good indication the shooter was injured, meaning my shot in the tire had definitely given us the upper hand.
I tilted my head back to the bikes, and Dante nodded. We rushed back over to the bikes, where the rest of the guys were waiting with their headlights off. Fang and his last remaining goon weren’t likely to see us in the dark while we regrouped. We weren’t even sure if both of them survived the wreckage of the car.
“Did you get a look at who was shooting?” I asked Dante.
“Nope. I couldn’t even see where they were shooting from,” he told me.
“You don’t think it’s possible someone else could have shown up, do you?”
“What, like backup?” He shook his head. “We would have heard them or would have seen them if they had.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But he didn’t seem to hear or see us.”
“Yeah, but look around. It’s just us and whoever is left in the car,” he said.
“Good point.”
Our brothers stood with their guns ready, awaiting orders. Everyone knew how important this mission was, so no one really seemed to be in a hurry to rush over and just start shooting. They wanted to make sure they were doing the right thing and not putting Sasha in any more danger than she was already in.
It felt good to know that when things were really looking bleak, I still had so many men at my back. We were a family. These da
ys, we were a rather large family, and it was probably time to open up a second chapter within the same city or start shipping guys out to other chapters.
We were practically an army, which was appropriate, I thought, since it felt like we were at war with Fang and his goons. We were about to end that war, though, right there on the side of the interstate.
Chapter 23
Sasha
Gunshots rang out again as the car lay on its side. I flinched, unsure of where the shooters were or who was even shooting. I tried to pull myself together into a ball underneath the body that had fallen on me. I was beginning to grow claustrophobic underneath him, but I realized he provided cover.
