by Lexy Timms
“None,” Skate answered. “Unless you count the front door. They fired off some shots and must have put a bit of C-4 near the hinges. It blew the door right off.”
“No one was patrolling outside?”
“I guess not.”
“What the fuck is wrong with the men? They forget their training just like that?”
“I don’t know. We’re short-handed too.”
“That’s no excuse. They should at least have had a lookout watching each exit.”
Skate nodded before continuing. “Our men chased them off before they did any real damage.”
“What about you two? Were you followed after you left the clubhouse?”
“No way. Impossible.”
I raked a livid hand through my hair. My teeth stopped grinding together and I was able to get in one, maybe two good breaths. I needed to think.
“What’s going on?” Kim’s voice asked from behind me.
She moved past me and turned sideways to look at me and the men. Damn, she looked fresh and wholesome in a mid-thigh length denim skirt and a white t-shirt, nothing at all like the sexy vixen who had taken charge and made me fuck her senseless a few hours ago.
“Nothing.”
“Come on, I heard you all talking. Is it my dad? Is he…” she trailed off and took a shaky breath.
“No. He’s fine,” I told her. “The clubhouse was hit. It’s nothing to concern you.”
Kyle turned off the TV and came over to join the rest of us in the kitchen. “What do we do?” he asked.
I was dying to get back to the clubhouse to see the damage for myself. That place was my home. Everything I owned was there. The thought of it being attacked made me want to punch something hard right now. I couldn’t do any of that. I had made a promise to Banner. Protecting his daughter came first.
“We move to the next spot. We’re exposed. For now, get back to your post until we leave.”
“Got it,” Kyle answered, and did an army-style one-eighty degree pivot turn before marching back to the living room.
“Kim, go get your bag,” I ordered without looking her way.
She did. I walked to the back door and looked through the window. The hall’s floorboards creaked as I returned to the men.
“Let’s go to the living room. Kyle needs to hear this.” They followed me there, and I continued after we were all seated. We’ll all go to the next safe house on Eastland,” I told the team.
They nodded and exchanged looks with each other.
“Did you stop by the club to see Banner?” Deuce asked Skate and Big Tom in a whisper, trying to ensure Kim didn’t hear.
Big Tom shook his head. “Didn’t need to. They moved him to the clubhouse. He’s staying in my room.”
“Good,” I said, then it occurred to me. “Wait a second…Shit. He was there when they stormed the clubhouse?” Skate nodded. I rested my elbows on my knees and dropped my head in my hands. “Fuck. He could have been finished.”
“He wasn’t,” Skate added.
“Anyway, how’s he doing?”
I didn’t want Kim worrying about her father any more than she already was, even if she probably believed his getting shot was all his fault. Telling her he had been shot last night was probably the wrong thing to do, but she needed to hear it to understand the seriousness of what was happening, and she would have found out eventually anyway.
Neither Big Tom nor Skate got the chance to answer my question, because the roar of a steady round of gunshots suddenly filled the air. We all hit the floor as plaster rained down from the ceiling and large buckshot holes pierced the walls, and from somewhere nearby Kim screamed out.
I snapped my head to look down the hall. Kim was just a few feet away, huddled on the floor with her bag.
“Keep your head down!” I yelled at her, just as another hail of bullets hit the house.
We were not prepared for this. Not so soon. My men un-holstered their weapons. They scrambled to return fire if necessary from behind the sofa or in the hallway.
“Damn it!” Deuce cursed, glancing at me. “How’d they find us?”
I shook my head. They probably had a tail follow Skate and Big Tom, but there was no time to worry over the possibilities. We had to move, and fast.
Chapter Eight
Kane
There were only two things we had going for us now. First, our rivals had not yet made their way to the back of the house so our bikes and the getaway vehicle we stored at each safe house weren’t hit. Second, we hated the police, but we were smart about leveraging their precinct locations when selecting the best safe houses. This one was the least ideal, sitting at less than eight minutes from the nearest precinct, but today, that fact gave us an advantage. It meant with this blatant daytime attack outside, they were probably already on their way here in full force. The Arroyos Bandidos had more ex-cons, exiled Mexicans and illegals as members, so there was no way they would stick around if the law showed up. It meant we had a chance to get out back, mount our hogs and make a run for it through the back alley. The only problem with that plan was I couldn’t risk putting Kim at the back of a bike at a time like this.
“I’m going to get Kim out first,” I told Deuce, looking him straight in the eye from our spots on the floor. “Is that Jeep still in the garage?”
“Yes. The keys are in it.”
“Okay. Can you hold them off to buy us some time? Distract them?”
Deuce nodded. “You know I can.”
“Good. Thanks, brother.” I clapped him on the shoulder before crawling over to Kim. “Follow me.”
When we got to the back door, I peeked out the window then we stood up. I ducked back down and found two of the bullet-proof vests we stored in a cabinet beside the door.
“Put this on,” I told her.
She did as she was told, and I grabbed her hand and pulled her outside, shielding her with my body in case there were Bandidos hiding outside, waiting to ambush us as we left through our only quiet escape route. Thankfully no one was there. Kim hesitated at first, but realized I wouldn’t let anything happen to her and allowed me to lead her to the garage. Behind me, Deuce yelled out orders at the others. His words were muffled over the din of gunfire.
Kim’s hand was shaking, and I gripped it tighter for a second before letting go. I tore open the door of the green Jeep and pushed her inside. The keys were in the ignition just like Deuce had said, and just as planned, my men’s return of gunfire ceased by the time I’d climbed into the driver’s seat.
The doorway we had come through was still open, and through it Deuce was visible. He was ducked beside the cabinet with the Kevlar vests, getting enough for the four of them. He caught my eye, then nodded his head and motioned toward the front of the house. The simple gesture was enough. It meant they would make an opening to help us leave out the front, as there really was no telling what might be waiting for us down the back alley.
“Keep your head down,” I told Kim.
I turned the key in this ignition, let the engine turn over, and reached out my window to hit the garage door button.
“You’re crazy!” she shouted. “We can’t go out there! They’ll shoot us.”
“Just keep your head down,” I said through gritted teeth, pushing my anger down. The plan to get our asses out of there would only work if it was executed with perfect timing, and I didn’t have time to stop and explain this to Kim.
Taking my cue, Deuce disappeared down the hall toward the living room. They resumed the shooting at our rivals, who were somewhere on the other side of the normally quiet street, mostly out of sight. I rolled the Jeep out slowly and lined it up so I could make a straight run along the driveway. Sunlight glinted off a pair of sunglasses behind a thick tree trunk, but that was all I saw before gripping the steering wheel and hitting the gas to speed up the side of the house and around the bend away from the Bandidos with everything I had.
I sped down the deserted street, tearing through a four-way
stop sign without slowing down. Sirens sounded somewhere in the distance. I crossed my fingers that my men would make their escape before the police got there. I had faith that they could do it. Deuce was crafty. The best right-hand man I could ever hope for.
“You can sit up now,” I told Kim after a few minutes.
Slowly, she eased up, looking all around her with the fear of God in her eyes. The houses on both sides got smaller and further apart as we headed towards the outskirts of Tucson. The Santa Catalina foothills beckoned us in the distance, and so far, no one was following us.
“What in hell just happened?” she demanded.
“Turns out our safe house may not have been so safe after all.”
“What do you mean? How could they have found us there?”
“I don’t know, but this means I can’t take you to any of our other places now. Big Tom and Skate couldn’t have been followed. They’re too careful. That could only mean someone close to Rugged Angels may have given us away. That’s the only explanation.”
“What does that mean for me?”
I glanced over at her before saying, “We’re on the run for real now, Kim.”
She said nothing. She was probably digesting it. Either that or she was in shock. I relaxed my grip on the steering wheel as we got further away from town.
She turned to look at me. “What does ‘on the run for real’ even mean?” she asked, her voice anxious and shrill.
I continued to stare at the road in front of me. “Try to relax.”
“Relax!” she screamed. She was losing it. Kim’s life was falling apart, and for the first time I felt for her. Knowing she resented her father and the outlaw motorcycle club he belonged to, as well as all of us members, a day like today made her perspective understandable. Just a few days ago she and her mother were going about their lives as usual, and then in a split second, everything went to shit. I knew what that shit was like too.
“Yes, Kim. Take a breath and calm down. What I mean by on the run is I’m taking you someplace that no one in Rugged Angels MC knows about.”
“What about the others back there? How do you know they’ll be all right?”
“They’re capable. Trust me. We’ve been through situations like this before. Some were much, much worse than this. They’ll be fine.”
“This is all so crazy,” she sighed, sounding exhausted.
I chanced a longer glance at her. She was looking down into her lap, her hair draped over her face. Damn, she looked vulnerable. It made me want to reach over and move it out of her face so I could look at her, or kiss her until she calmed down. She probably needed some comforting right about now, or more sex. I could use some myself.
“It’s not always like this.”
“Right,” she answered weakly. “When you’re not fighting gang wars you’re running businesses as a cover up for a crime boss. That sounds perfectly All-American to me.”
I nodded and faced forward. What she said was true. It was the life I chose, and I had no regrets. There were also aspects of being with Rugged Angels that were great, and a perfect fit for me. I was not going to spend a second debating with her.
“You’re probably thinking I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about,” she said softly, reading my mind.
“You’re right. That is what I was thinking.”
She crossed her arms and looked out her window.
“Your father was at the clubhouse when it was hit this morning. He wasn’t hurt.”
I regretted saying that the second the words slipped out of my mouth. It was clearly not the right timing to add to the bad news.
Her forehead wrinkled and she turned to me again. “What? You mean he’s not at a hospital?”
“You know he can’t go to one of those places.”
“Oh, you mean those places where he would have a chance at making a full recovery? Those kinds of places? I can’t believe you people!”
She was seething. I didn’t say another word. Not for a long while. The silence stretched on like the road in front of us. I waited for Kim to mete out whatever she still had on her mind, but she was completely mum. Much of the Tucson area countryside was completely behind us now. The traffic was very light. I glanced at the gas meter. It was half-full, but we had not eaten, so I figured we could stop somewhere to fill the tank and grab a bite.
“Are you hungry?”
She snorted. “What do you care?”
“I promised your old man I’d keep you safe.”
She shook her head and stared out at the desert. “That’s what he always said about my mom. Look what happened to her.”
Chapter Nine
Kim
“You know, being around you Rugged Angels men is probably the worst thing I could be doing right now,” I said after, pulling my legs up onto the seat and resting my chin on them.
“Think whatever you want, but you’re wrong.”
Ouch, I guess I poked the grumpy bear. “No offense and all, but does this other gang have it in for Rugged Angels? They’ll be looking for you not me, won’t they? How do I know that they even care about me? I’m sure until today they didn’t even know what I look like.”
“Trust me, they know. If they got to your mother, they could have gotten to you too.”
“And they only want that to send my dad a message, right?”
“Yes.”
“There you go.” He didn’t have anything to say to that, so I kept going. “How do I know you’re not just going to turn on your brothers and hand me over to that other gang for fifty bucks?”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Right.”
“I made a promise to your old man. We have a code, but you wouldn’t understand that. Besides, you’re worth a bit more than a fifty.”
“Gee, thanks. Good to know.”
“Are you gonna keep asking questions?”
“Plenty.”
“Do me a favor. Don’t.”
“I’ll keep it short. Why are you so sure that wherever you’re taking me is going to be safer than where we just came from?”
“There’s no place where we’ll be completely off the radar for those bastards. We just need to keep one step ahead of them. Listen, reach over behind your seat and grab that blue case in the magazine pouch, will you?”
I stretched around my seat and pulled it out. “This?”
“Yeah. Open it.”
I slid the zipper at the top and opened it. Black duct tape. “What do you need this for?”
Deadpan, he answered, “Ask me another question and I’ll stop this vehicle and show you.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“You want to try me?”
I put the case back and kept my questions to myself for the moment.
Chapter Ten
Kim
“So you’re never going to give your dad a break, huh?” he asked after a long while.
I scoffed. “You can ask questions but I get threatened with duct tape when I do?”
“Lighten up, firecracker. Your old man won’t give up on you that easy.”
“The fact that he’s run an outlaw biker gang for years and does highly illegal things are reason enough to keep him far away,” I finally answered. “The same goes for you, no matter how cute you are.”
“Of course I’m cute. Just look at me. I’m a gift to the female species.”
“Shut up,” I muttered, just as annoyed with myself for admitting he was attractive as I was with his answer.
His hazel eyes sparkled as he looked my way again, grinning broadly like I made his day. I made a note to keep that stuff to myself next time I spoke. Just like the mountain of questions I had for him about how good he was in bed. The only problem was my need to know was burning me up inside. Where had he learned to please a woman like that? Just how many women had he slept with? The next time I let him fuck my brains out again, and again, would he want to beg me to let him stay overnight?
“Last night was a mista
ke,” he said out of nowhere.
Christ, was he reading my mind?
His eyes flicked across to me. Smoking hot bastard. That look sent a warm tingle down my back. He had to be playing with me, because I was on board to have him again.
When he spoke again his words were slow and steady. “You don’t know why I’m in the Rugged Angels, and I’m not going to spend time trying to convince you that everything I do is for a reason. I do want you to know there’s not a place on Earth where brotherhood means more than in our Tucson clubhouse. I’d take a bullet for every one of my members…and I’d do the same for you.”
“As long as I stay out of your bed, right? I get it. Maybe you should keep your eyes on the road and cut the crap with those questions.”
Unperturbed, he flashed a slight smile before focusing on driving again.
I wound a finger through my hair and gazed out the window, the hot shame of his rejection sent my mind spiraling with conflicting emotions. Kane was a hard one to figure out. I’d thought I’d had him pegged. Dumb, gruff, alpha male, testosterone-driven biker outlaw dude. I could spot his kind coming from a mile away. He wasn’t only that. He was funny. Which meant he was likely pretty smart. He was skilled, and quick on his feet, and loyal. That thing he’d said about risking his own life for his men and me was something I’d heard before, though. Still, it made me weak in the knees when he said it.
Too bad he thought last night was a mistake.
“We need to stop for gas,” he said suddenly. “Before we do, I need to be sure we weren’t followed.”
I looked behind us using the passenger side rear view mirror. We were the only ones going this way, on an arrow straight road that went on for miles in both directions. Anyone following us would get spotted in short order.
“Maybe there’s such a thing as too cautious.”
He slowed down the Jeep and turned onto a dirt track, driving for about two hundred feet before he turned again and drove past an abandoned ranch house surrounded by shoulder high brush and weeds.
“What’s this place?”
