by Addison Jane
His eyes scanned.
Growing wider.
“I heard you were renting, and you know, just lately, the club has been talking about how we really want to get into the rental market,” I explained, knowing the word eviction notice at the top of the paper spoke for itself. “I think it could be fun, you know… to be a landlord. Mostly because I get to say shit like this to bastards like you… get the fuck out of my house.”
He finally looked up, and those fiery pits of hell were back, and they were alight, attempting to burn me down as we went head-to-head right here on the sidewalk.
Men like Garrett didn’t like to be outplayed.
They didn’t like to be made to look like a fool.
Everything about them had to be hotter, faster, more expensive with things they could flaunt, things that made them better than everyone else. And as of right now, his high-profile God-like job had been taken away, and now he was losing his expensive apartment downtown. And not just that, but it was being taken by me. A biker. Someone who should not even fucking compare.
“You should have taken your bitch and your son and walked away the other day.”
I tried not to grin at his use of a curse word while burying the subtle threat into the back of my brain for later. “And you should have stayed the fuck away from her like I warned you.”
This was the plan
He was unstable.
Taking another step closer to that edge.
“You want to play this game? You want to take my shit? You keep pushing, and eventually, I’ll be a man with nothing left to lose.” His breathing was heavy, and he shifted on his feet, all the signs he was full of fucking shit and talking out of his ass. If he hadn’t killed Thayleah yet, he wanted her for something, and I simply needed to figure out how to get to her before that timeline ran out. “You really want to play this game?”
Yes.
“I do, because not only does the idea of you not having anything makes me incredibly happy, but killing you will be the icing on a very fucking satisfying cake.” If I played it right. “So, you wanna keep playing? Well, check-fucking-mate.”
AVERY
“How big are a baby’s lungs?”
I tried to laugh, but I knew exactly what Meyah meant.
Gage had been screaming for at least an hour with no sign of letting up. He’d been passed around to almost everyone at the clubhouse who was awake and had a hand free. He’d had more than his fair share of bottles and three nappy changes, though I was pretty sure at least two of them were dead dry.
Shotgun and a bunch of the boys worked at Empire until six this morning doing extra security for a private function, so I was trying to keep Gage downstairs so he wouldn’t wake them up, but it was now ten-thirty and his morning naptime had come and gone, and the less sleep he had, the more screaming he would continue to do.
“It could be a little bit of reflux,” Meyah offered, her smile letting me know she’d been there, done that with Juliet. “Or he’s at the point where he’s worked himself up so much, he’s overtired now, and he doesn’t even know what he’s screaming for anymore.”
We were all learning.
Masters at googling the symptoms of the two small babies who lived here.
“Why don’t you try putting him in the car and driving around the block? He falls asleep in the car every single time we go out,” Adrian offered from the booth in the corner. He wasn’t working right now, his headphones hanging from his ears and about five books and three notepads spread across the table as he studied for an exam tomorrow. “I would—”
“No,” I cut him off instantly. “You, focus. You’re right. I will take this kiddo out for a spin, let everyone get some silence for a while. Even if I have to drive around the block for an hour or park with the motor running… if I can get him to have even an hour’s sleep, he should be much happier on the other side.”
Meyah walked with me out to the car, her small child having behaved herself and gone down for a sleep in Shotgun’s office without even a peep so Shake could have the apartment quiet across the road.
“I’ll move the SUV out of the first garage bay so you can pull in and park in there if he falls asleep,” Meyah said as she watched me buckle him in, his little body kicking and screaming. “Then at least you won’t die of heatstroke or something parked out in the sun.”
“Thanks,” I answered with a heavy sigh, shutting the rear door and instantly being eaten up by guilt at his cries.
It swallowed me whole.
It made my heart hurt.
Because I knew I’d fallen in love with this little person, so capable of breaking me even without him knowing it.
You’re in too deep.
With Shotgun.
With Gage.
With the club.
You’ll never survive when they leave you.
But maybe I didn’t care.
Maybe the love I felt for them was so much stronger than the fear I felt of losing them. Even though Micah left me, I never regretted loving her. I never regretted all the things we did together, or the bond we formed. I never regretted the way she made me feel, how she saved me, how she fought for me and how close we were.
It was those memories that made losing her survivable. It was the love she gave me which made it so I could keep breathing without her. Because through that love, she was never really gone. And whether Shotgun and Gage at some point walked away too, I had this. My moments with them, my memories, and I would never regret my time spent here.
Even with the screaming.
“Ave?”
I shook my head and forced a smile. “Sorry, when I hear him cry, I just want to comfort him.”
She nodded. She got it. “If he doesn’t fall asleep after a couple of laps just come back. We will think of something else.”
“Thanks,” I answered with a sigh and climbed into the driver’s seat.
The engine started with a loud shudder, my car getting older now, and I either needed to get Crush to completely overhaul or sell it and try to purchase something a little newer.
Something more reliable.
It took me a second to realize that starting the car had halted the screaming, and I gripped the wheel in my hand, sinking back into my seat with relief and hope that this could be the savior to our problem.
Meyah waved as I pulled out of the compound and onto the road. A bump here and a bump there and still no peep from the back seat. Humming happily, I cruised around a few blocks, staying close to the clubhouse, but making sure my right turns were long enough that I didn’t have to stop often, scared it would be my downfall.
After about ten minutes of just roaming the streets, I stopped at a set of red lights and risked a glance into the little mirror that hung on the back seat. Gage faced backward, so the reflection let me see him—snoozing. Dead to the world. His lip quivering as he took each breath, still calming from his epic breakdown.
When the light went green, I turned, figuring I’d head back to the clubhouse, and if he was still asleep after twenty minutes in the car, I’d try to pull into the garage and hope for the best.
The streets were quieter the closer we crept to home, the clubhouse in a nice part of town, but sparsely populated with older buildings and businesses rather than homes. The clubhouse itself was an old mechanic shop, the clubhouse having been added on. There were apartments across the street and at the end of the dead-end, but our neighbors on surrounding streets were mostly businesses, small factories, workshops, and places where goods were made in-store.
Thump.
The car jerked forward, my face hitting the wheel and splitting my lip open on impact. The pain was intense, my eyes instantly watering and my foot pressing on the brake so I could pull over.
What the hell was that?
Did I hit something?
Thump.
This time it was harder, the safety belt doing its job and locking into place across my chest, but still forcing the wind out of me. I loo
ked up, catching sight of the car in my rearview mirror, blinking past the tears as I watched it speed toward me from behind.
“Oh God,” I cursed, moving my foot from the brake and pressing hard on the accelerator, my wheels spinning as they fought to catch traction on the road.
The car pulled away, our speed increasing down the empty back street, the smell of burning rubber irritating my nose, though that was the worst of my worries.
I wasn’t leaving these people behind.
They were catching up.
They were chasing me down.
My heart was in my throat as the car pulled out, its engine revving hard as it fought to pull up beside me. It was a newer car, much faster than mine, much more powerful. The shades at the front were pulled down, and I couldn’t see who was driving. Just the hands gripping the wheel, twisting at it, white-knuckled.
My eyes flicked back to Gage, the little man still sleeping peacefully while I struggled to think of what to do. I had to keep him safe. I had to be that momma bear he needed. There were cars coming toward us, yet my chaser was still pulling up beside us. I could see his hands on the wheel, gripping it with his fists together like he was going to make a hard tur—
No.
I slammed on my brakes and veered off to the side.
He jerked the wheel toward us, just skimming the door instead of the entire force of his vehicle being pushed through mine. It saved us from being put into a spin or being flipped over, but my maneuver propelling us up onto the curb on the other side of the road.
The pole appeared in a blink.
The airbag a moment later.
And that was it.
SHOTGUN
The scene was a fucking mess.
Shake, Slate, Kid, and Mix pulled up to the curb beside me, Adrian’s car squealing to a stop not far behind. I barely caught my bike on its stand, not giving a flying fuck if it toppled over in my rush to figure out just what the fuck was going on.
It was like the world around me was suddenly out of focus, and there were only two things I could see.
The officer holding Gage’s car seat.
And the mutilated car that had had an intimate meeting with a pole thirty feet down the street. Avery’s car.
Austin rushed over to meet me. “We got here first. Someone called to say two cars were racing down this street.”
“You think she was racing?” I spat, trying to step past him.
“No, I think she was being fucking chased.”
“Adrian, get Gage,” I yelled, pointing to my son while my feet carried me toward the car, where I could see a tuft of hair fluttering from the driver’s window. “Avery!” I roared, my heavy boots pounding against the road as I rushed toward the totaled vehicle.
“You need to wait for the fire brigade,” Austin snapped, attempting to step in front of me like it was going to fucking stop me from getting to my fucking woman. I slammed my hands against his chest, sending him stumbling backward, not giving a flying fuck if he was a police officer or not. “You need to leave her, Shotgun!”
Maybe I should have prepared.
Maybe I should have stopped and readied myself for seeing her like that.
Because it was going to haunt me.
It was going to plague my fucking nightmares and eat at me forever.
“Ave,” I hissed, acutely aware of the adrenaline that was pumping through me right now, making it so I could literally feel the blood rushing and whooshing through my veins. It was telling me to grab the fucking car door and rip it off its hinges. It was screaming at me to get her the fuck out of there because I could feel each second was getting a little closer to me losing the fucking woman I love.
“Baby…” I croaked and crouched down, so my eye line met hers. There was a streak of blood coming from her nose and smeared across her face where it looked like she’d tried to wipe at it. Her lip wasn’t much better off, with a split down the middle that was swollen and raw and looked like it might even need stitches.
The front of the car was pushed in from where she’d swerved off the road and hit a pole, forcing the steering wheel and motor toward her, pinning her against her seat. Not just that, though, the driver’s door had a huge scrape down the side, almost like the car that had run her off the road had aimed for the driver.
I better fucking be wrong.
Her eyes flickered, opening just enough so she could see me through her eyelashes. The single tear that slipped down the side of her face felt like a hand around my throat, squeezing, choking the fucking life from me. I reached out to brush it away—
“Stop! Don’t touch her,” Adrian snapped, throwing open the passenger’s door and scrambling in beside her, the guy completely ignoring the two cops who were chasing after him.
“That’s my fucking woman,” I snapped, clenching my jaw and curling my fingers into a fist, fully ready to layout anyone who stopped me from being with her.
Even my fucking nanny.
His eyes scanned Avery, completely ignoring me, which had become one of those things he seemed to do best. “And right now, she’s my patient, which means you need to calm the fuck down and go and be with your son, so I can help your woman stay alive.”
“We need to get her the fuck out,” I hissed, gripping the window frame, tiny shards of glass piercing my palms. “We need to get her out and to the hospital.”
“No, you need to leave her the fuck where she is and not move her,” Adrian argued, his tone sharp, but what was fucking new. “The wheel is pressing up into her torso, and for all we know, it’s the only thing keeping her from bleeding out if she has internal injuries.”
Bleeding.
Internal injuries.
I can’t lose her.
Avery’s chest was rising and falling, but only just. Each breath seemed like a struggle. Like her lungs were becoming smaller and smaller.
“Walk away, Shotgun,” Adrian ordered sternly, his eyes meeting mine. They were fierce with determination to get me to trust him, and maybe to keep me from seeing what could possibly be my destruction.
“Get the hell out of that car,” a cop snapped suddenly, rushing over from the cordon they were putting in and reaching into the car, grabbing Adrian’s collar. The kid swung his elbow back, collecting the deputy in the jaw.
“I’m a trained EMT,” Adrian threw back, the angry officer picking himself and his bleeding lip up off the ground, looking like he was ready to kill. “You want me to check her, or do you want to stand there and watch her fucking die? Because if that happens, I’ll make sure the entire world knows it was because of you.”
Austin clenched his jaw while I looked at the kid with a new fucking respect.
“Let him do his thing,” Austin finally gave in.
Adrian needed nothing more as he quickly turned his attention back to Avery. “Go to Gage,” Adrian ordered, his fingers pressed to Avery’s throat. “Your son needs you.”
I could hear him crying.
I’d know that sound fucking anywhere.
“Go, Shotgun,” Shake cut in, his hand on my shoulder. “I got your girl. I’ll sit with her. Your boy needs his dad.”
I felt like I was being torn in half. Everything in me screaming to protect them both but being forced to fucking choose.
“Get. Gage.” Avery’s pained whisper pulled me back, her eyes on me glazed with tears. It was the reminder of just the type of fucking woman she was. Just how goddamn strong she was, how I should have known she would put Gage first before herself.
It was also a reminder of how I needed to trust my men, my brothers, my fucking family—finally allowing Shake to pull me back from the wreckage. My feet felt like they weighed a ton, and now I was struggling to move to walk.
But then Gage cried, and I broke through those heavy weights holding me down and rushed across the street where Kid was fighting to settle my boy. “Give him here.” He handed him straight to me, and I pressed his tiny body against my chest, remembering how Avery had gotten him
to settle that first night.
It had become a thing.
A place he loved to be.
Lying across my chest, listening to me talk shit about nothing.
With his tiny head settled against my heart, I started to do just that.
“She’s gonna be okay, you know,” I told him, trying to keep my voice calm and even. An awkward balancing act when all it wanted to do was break. “The fire engines are coming…”
Gage’s cries became quieter and quieter.
Not even picking back up when the fire truck and ambulance came screeching around the corner.
I just kept talking.
My brothers standing beside me saying nothing, letting me ramble on as I explained what they were doing, and trying not to lose my shit when Avery’s painful scream echoed down the darkening street. My feet unconsciously carried me forward, holding Gage tighter, but also determined to do something.
Fucking anything to ease her pain.
To keep her safe.
Shake and Bandit grabbed me, Myth stepping in front of me and pressing his hand softly to Gage’s back, forcing me to take a step back onto the fucking curb and pace.
“It’s okay. She’s okay,” I whispered, bouncing and pacing.
I wasn’t sure at this stage who I was trying to convince—him or me.
“Let me take him.” I had no idea how long I’d been pacing the sidewalk, but I turned just as Adrian rushed across the road, his arms reaching out toward me. “If you hurry, you can get in the ambulance with her. I’ll take Gage home, look after him until you know more.” The look in his eyes was blank, almost as though he was looking straight through me.
He’d done this before.
Been through this.
But I understood the difference between helping a hurt stranger and helping a hurt friend.
