by Cox, Paula
“No!” Lily screamed. “Let her—”
Michael pressed his arm to the held her air and held her back. As Bruce kicked Ken hard, the other Diesel Devils appeared ready to waste him when Trevor forced Sally closer to his body and cocked his trigger.
“Let’s just all calm down,” Trevor said. “Bruce wants more than you fucks running away.”
He glared at Michael and released a vindictive laugh.
“I just want the slut I paid for.”
Keeping Sally’s wriggling form close to his chest, his gun still at her head, he kicked Ken’s side, and Bruce pointed his gun in Michael’s direction.
“On your knees,” Bruce hissed. “Now.”
Lily gripped his arm and stepped past him. “He’s not—”
“I’ll blow your head off if you don’t hold still.”
Shrinking back, Lily took Michael’s hand and whispered into his back. “Don’t let him hurt Sally,” she muttered. “She can’t take anymore.”
“Leave her alone,” Ken groaned. “Don’t—”
Bruce kicked his sides hard. Michael and the other Diesel Devils snarled at the sound of his strikes, and Sally struggled in Trevor’s arms as he pushed his hand between her legs and pressed his gun closer to her temple.
“What do you say, Michael?” Trevor challenged.
“We had a deal,” Michael said. “We’re clearing out in the morning.”
“Not before you’re in a grave beside my brother.”
Bruce charged forward, and a shot from Wesley’s gun brought him back to Ken’s prostrate form. Michael breathed hard and ordered the crew to stand down when Trevor tore Sally’s dress from her body.
“Don’t!” Lily screamed as she saw Sally’s naked body trembling in the night. As Sally struggled, Carr tugged at her nipples, and the Diesel Devils were ready to pounce when Bruce pounded Ken’s back with the butt of his gun and glared at Michael.
“Could all be over real quick,” Bruce said. “Come with us, Michael, and the others can go on their merry way.”
Glancing over his shoulder, Michael peered into her eyes, and Lily felt his longing to touch her even as he kept his hands around his gun.
“You’re asking me to trade myself for her. That it, Carr?” Michael asked.
As soon as he spoke, Lily stretched to the tips of her toes and clung to his neck. “No! That’s not what I want. I—”
“Lily.”
Kissing her quickly, Lily clasped his back as she peered at Ken and saw Sally shuddering.
“There has to be another—”
“Lily…”
He tossed his gun to Trevor’s feet and took her into his arms.
“What are you—?”
“I’m just glad that I had the chance to show you what you really were to me.”
He kissed her lips and raised his hands. Lily held her breath as he neared Bruce’s side.
“Do what you gotta do,” Michael said. “I’m here.”
Michael was unarmed. Lily’s eyes curled towards Brendan and Wesley, and she silently pleaded with them to make a stand and stop this. But the boys held back as Michael pressed his hands into the air and knelt by Bruce’s side.
“Do what you gotta do,” Michael said. “Just let her go.”
Bruce aimed his gun at Michael’s head. His eyes slammed shut, and when Lily saw that she was about to lose him, she charged forward and forgot all fear.
“Don’t you dare, you fucker!”
Bruce shifted his aim to Lily, and she paused as the bullet was ready to meet her brain. Ready to die without wanting to, Michael leapt from the sand, and he pressed Lily to the ground as the bullet whizzed over their heads.
“Why?” Michael hissed as he pressed her closer to the sand. “I told you that I—”
“And I don’t want to lose you. I… no!”
Bruce lifted her away from Michael’s side, and he ordered her to open her mouth. Lily pressed her lips together, and a few shots whizzed about her ankles as Bruce darted back and Michael waved his hands in the air.
“Stop!” he screamed. “Let’s just all take a deep breath.”
“Nicely put,” Bruce said as he pushed his hands to Lily’s throat and hissed into her ear.
“Open.”
Reluctantly, Lily curled her lips around the cold metal, and she could almost feel the bullet cutting into her brain when another shot rang out.
“Oh God!”
She fell from Bruce as his slipped to the ground in a bloody heap, and as Lily looked through the strands of her fallen hair, she saw Sophia charging forward with a shotgun in her arms.
Maybe Sophia should be the one in charge.
“Let her go, Carr!” Sophia ordered.
Sally was still in his hold, and when Lily saw her lip quivering, her body shaking, Lily charged forward and pushed Trevor from Sally’s side. His gun fell away, and Lily was on him, his fists flailing as she rained blows on his chest.
“You fucker!” Lily hissed. “You don’t touch her!”
Trevor wrestled her to her back and pressed her into the sand.
“Maybe I could touch you.”
She cringed at the feel of his fingers running up her skirt, and Lily heard Michael’s voice crying for him to stop when a bang hit the hair. Lily saw Trevor’s eyes grow wide, and his bald head started to leak blood into her hair when Michael pushed him away and took Lily in his arms.
“Are you okay?” Michael asked as he smoothed his hands through her hair.
“I’m fine,” Lily said. “I… oh God! Sally!”
She stood with the smoking gun in her hands. Her eyes were blank as she let the gun fall to the sand, and as Wesley helped Ken to his feet, he rushed to her side and took her in his arms.
“Sally,” Ken stated. “It’s okay. It’s gonna be alright.”
Sally’s eyes stayed vacant as Ken dragged her away from the bodies, and when he met Sophia’s eyes, the shotgun still in her hands, he narrowed his gaze on hers.
“What did you do?” Ken challenged.
“Saving your old lady,” she said as she gestured towards Lily as she lifted Michael off the ground. “But it looks like she knows how to hold her own.”
Maybe that was true. The blood pooling around their feet seemed to prove the point. But Sally was in a state of shock as Ken folded her close and pulled the gun from her hands.
“Sally?” he muttered.
Her body went limp in his arms, and even as Ken’s head dripped blood, he found the strength to hoist her into his arms. Ken spoke as he carried Sally away from the scene.
“Bury these bastards,” Ken said. “And get ready to leave now.”
“Uh, Boss?”
Brendan started to challenge him again when Ken whipped his head over Sally’s shoulder and lifted his voice to the night sky. “Three of them are gone.” Ken said. His eyes shifted back to Michael, and he sighed. “Think I’m gonna hand you over for revenge?” he asked. “Think I’m gonna let those fucks put their hands on her?”
He clasped Sally closer, and Lily felt Michael’s hand in hers as he stood tall and gestured towards his crew. “Fuck burying them. Leave them to the birds. Take their colors,” Michael said. “We go now.”
The Diesel Devils rushed into action, and Lily watched as the bloodied bodies were dragged away. Michael barked orders in every direction when she managed to grab his arm and turn him to her side.
“Michael, I—”
“Come with me.”
He pulled her away from the melee and sat her down in a dark shed as he pressed his hands to her face, his fingers seeming to search her skin before she rested his brow to hers.
“He touched you,” Michael muttered. “Even though I—”
“I’m okay,” she swore. “Michael.”
Lily kissed his mouth, and she smiled into his lips as his arms surrounded her waist. As their mouths parted, Lily found his eyes, and she read his expression perfectly. His eyes were full of want and need, and she was
ready to follow him into the depths of hell when he seized her face and spoke fast.
“Now we’re really on the run,” he said. “Sophia and Sally are in danger. We all are.”
Michael shuddered under her hold, and Lily gripped his arms tighter as she stared into his moist eyes.
“And me?” Lily whispered.
Taking her into his arms, Michael sighed into her hair, and he ran his hands down her back.
“Not if I do this.”
He pressed a pair of keys into her trembling hands and pushed a canvas cloth from a fresh bike.
“It’s gassed,” Michael said. “Ready to go.”
Confused, even as she held the new set of keys in her hands, Lily stepped to Michael’s side and reached for his face.
“You… you want me to go?” she gasped.
Michael groaned as he took her into her arms and held her close. Lily nearly relaxed in his arms when he pushed her back and peered into her eyes.
“Last thing that I would ever want,” he started. “But you gave me last night. You… you made me believe…” His voice trailed off, and Lily pressed her hand to his back, his scars resting under her touch, and she fell into him as he took a deep breath. “You made me believe that I could love someone again.”
“What?”
“Lily…”
He dragged her face to her lips, and Lily melted into his mouth as his lips surrounded hers. She savored his taste, and she sucked his tongue until she had no choice but to come up for air. When their eyes met again, he gestured towards the other bike, and Lily cocked her head in total confusion.
“You’re sending me away?” she asked.
Michael groaned as he took her back in his arms
“Last thing I want,” he said.
“So… so why…?”
“Because the deal is broken,” Michael said. “Too much blood. And… and the cops are still coming.”
And that would bring her back to Dan. How could she even pretend to be happy with him again when there was a man that had killed for her and would risk his own joy to keep her safe?
“Give me the keys,” Lily said.
Michael hung his head and helped her onto the bike, his hand trailing down the pinned fabric at her back.
“Wait until we’re gone,” he started. “Take off in the other direction. Get as far away from us as you can. And… and…”
Kissing her hard, he curled his arm around her, and when their lips parted, Lily reached for him as he stepped away.
“I thought you never wanted to let me go,” Lily said
“You think this isn’t killing me?” he challenged. “But it’s gonna get dark now,” he said. “Do you want to be on board for that?”
Lily didn’t speak as he stepped from her view. Maybe he was right. Maybe this was too much for her to take, but as she saw Michael mounting his bike, she turned her own bike towards him and raced to his side.
“What are you doing?”
Michael’s eyes were cold as he brought his bike to a stop, and Lily slowed to his side as she brushed her hair from her eyes.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
“Lily, I told you that you had to—”
He gripped her hands in his. Lily didn’t shrug him off. She held his hands tighter and pressed her brow to his.
“I don’t lie,” she said. “And I want to be with you.”
He started to protest, but as soon as their mouths met in a kiss, Michael relaxed against her body, and when he finally lifted his lips, his fingers stroked her face.
“It’s going to be dangerous,” he said. “I don’t want—”
“Do you want me with you?”
Michael hung his head and nodded. She kissed him again, and Lily held his hand as she sat tall on her bike.
“Let’s go then,” Lily said.
Michael revved up his motor, but before he drove into the dawn, he looked at her again, and his fingers stroked her cheek.
“You gonna stay where I can keep an eye on you?” he asked.
Lily found his lips and kissed him hard before running her fingers down his neck.
“As long as I can keep my eye on you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR Despite the chill of the desert night air, Lily’s body was dripping with sweat. As her hand gripped the bars of Michael’s spare bike, her heart thumped wildly in her chest. Her body moved with the bike as she worked to keep up with the club. Michael was still in her sights when the bikes started to round a corner. He started to slip away from her point of view when Lily rolled her neck and hit the gas harder.
Not happening. I gave him my word.
Turning with the curve in the road, she started to pass the other members of the crew until she found herself at Sophia’s side. The redhead winked under her helmet and fixed a curious smiled to her face.
“So you really are in this for the long haul?” Sophia asked, voice mingling with the wind that whipped over their bodies and the sand and stones spraying into the air.
“Where else would I want to be?” Lily replied.
Sophia offered no answer to the question and focused on the way ahead. With nothing but the silence and the roar of the engines hitting her ears and flooding her mind, Lily knew that there was someplace else where she could go. Where she should go. Whether it was the law or the Mad Angels that caught up with them first, she was in more danger than now than she had been at her night on the auction block. Casting a quick glance over her shoulder, she felt sure that she saw strange bikes not belonging to the Diesel Devils or the flash of red and blue sirens. Which was the worst fate? She had received a taste of the Mad Angel’s treatment. Even with Trevor and Bruce dead and buried in what had to be shallow graves, Noel still breathed. And there would be a price to pay for the club’s most recent transgression. Only thing to do was make tracks and hope that they couldn’t be traced.
Speeding away from Sophia, Lily found her way back to Michael’s side. Leading the charge, he barely registered her presence until she raised her voice to capture some of his attention.
“So what’s the plan?” she called out.
“You having second thoughts?” Michael asked as he denied her his stare and started to turn another corner. Following his lead, Lily managed to catch up and hold her own with him. When he started to pull away from the group, Lily kept up the chase. For a second, the bike rocked in her hands and under her body. Fearing that she might fall, she felt a hand on her back. Startled by the touch, she turned and saw Brendan steadying her in her seat as he gave her a quick nod.
“Easy,” Brendan cautioned. “Think there’s been enough fatalities for one night.”
He moved his bike towards Michael, and Lily slowed up some as the dust swirled under her eyes. The man was right; no way was she going to become one more unmarked grave in the wild stretch of desert sand. Keeping pace with Sophia again, Lily looked furtively over her shoulder and found the woman’s ear.
“So what now?” Lily asked. “We go underground or something?”
“Listen to you,” Sophia teased. “You picked up some of the lingo right quick.”
That was a good thing. Because if she did this, and despite the pictures from her past that still invaded her brain, there was no way she could go back. Not after what she had seen. And the way that Michael made her feel.
“Sophia?”
“Something like that,” Sophia answered as Lily fought to keep up with her pace.
“But what happens if—”
“One turn at a time, honey,” Sophia said. “Let’s just get where we’re going first.”
Wanting more, wanting to know what or if there was a Plan B if the worst came to pass, Lily forced herself to swallow those fears down. She was better off here than if Michael had never staked his claim when Trevor wanted her for something far darker. There was no way to know if she would even still be drawing breath if she’d fallen into the Mad Angels’ hands. No. No this was better. Better for her and far better for…
Sally!
Riding away from Sophia, she drew nearer to Michael. He pointed out a possible route with Brendan at his side. Shouldn’t Ken be privy to this conversation? Where was he now?
Looking back, she failed to find Ken’s face among his crew, and the thought of that scared her more than all the maybes and potential possibilities. Had they already fallen into the wrong hands, and was it just a matter of time before the wrong men caught up with them?
