Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC

by Kiki Leach

  Her eyes shot straight up to mine in surprise before she finally bobbed her head and dropped her face into her hands. Immediately, I closed the door and joined her on the bed. And I took her in my arms the same way she had with me before, and allowed her to sob until she just couldn't anymore and her entire body nearly gave out beneath me.

  "And he didn't actually 'find' you on the side of that road did he? He knew that you would be there," I finally said while doing as best as I could to hold her against me as she sobbed. When she didn't respond, I turned my eyes up to the ceiling and cursed myself for being able to actually put everything together; from the way Verna spoke about them, from what Jolene herself had told me earlier that day in the park, to the look on both of their faces as they exited the kitchen, to whatever the hell it was they were doing before I had walked in on them. She started sobbing even harder, shaking and rattling her head, and I slightly pulled back to look her in the face. Her eyes were completely bloodshot, red as beets just as much as her cheeks and the tip of her nose. "You have to tell your son the truth about this," I said. "He and Wolf are on the verge of killing each other at this point, and if you continue not to say anything about this, it's only bound to get worse."

  "It's been getting worse, honey," she said, pulling out of my arms. "Long before you ever thought to show back up here, it's been getting worse." She rested her hands on her knees and breathed in and out slowly to calm her sobs.

  "Then why continue to keep quiet about it after all these years? Why not speak up about it and end all of this?"

  "Because it wouldn't end anything between them. Learning the truth would change nothing for River in terms of how he feels about Wolf. In fact, I think he'd be even worse off in knowing. They both would."

  Seconds later, there was a knock at the door.

  As she finished dabbing her eyes, I hopped up from the bed and opened the door to a panicked and pale, yet unexpected face. "Courtney?" I asked, eyeing her up and down. "What the hell are you doing here--?"

  "River wanted me to come and find you," she said.

  I arched a brow and leaned back on my heel while glaring at her. "Did he?" I asked, my tone stern.

  She made a face and slightly rolled her eyes. "No, not really. He doesn't even know that I'm here yet, I don't think. But one of the girls out front said that I could find you back here and I was hoping that we could talk." She peeked behind me at Jolene. "Alone."

  "That should be my cue," said Jolene, standing from the bed and wiping her face.

  I spun back around to her and frowned. "Where are you going?"

  "She said she needs to talk to you alone, Mia, and the last thing I want is to get in the middle of two women who've been with my son."

  I turned back to Courtney and sneered. "Depending on how the hell this conversation goes," I said, "you might need to."

  "It won't be anything like that," said Courtney. "I swear it." She raised three fingers and crossed her thumb over the tip of her pinky. "Girl Scouts Honor."

  "Somehow I'm having difficulty picturing you as much of a Girl Scout, though I'm sure you enjoyed the skirts."

  She looked down at my shorts and smirked. "Takes one to know one," she shot back.

  I grinned and chuckled, though both were anything but sincere. "Fair enough." I remained skeptical as hell, but stepped back from the door anyway and allowed her inside, while Jolene took a quick exit to the right and hurried down the hall. "We'll finish this later!" I hollered out to her before hesitantly closing the door. When I turned back to Courtney, she moved around the room like a snake, just slithering from one side of it to the other. She dropped her head when she realized I was staring at her and turned back to me with tears in her eyes.

  "The last time I was in this room wasn't such a happy memory," she said. "I had just been with River--"

  "Oo-kay." I folded my arms.

  "And I had lied to him about my age," she continued. "He was on the verge of kicking me out after I told him."

  "How the hell old did you tell him that you were?"

  "Seventeen," she told me.

  "And... how old are you?"

  "Nineteen."

  "Wow." I crossed the room, shrugging. "What do you want?"

  "I want to know why he chose you."

  I peered. "What?"

  "I mean you're pretty and you seem smart, but..." She waved her hands and dipped her head back. "Why did he choose you over me?"

  "Outside of the fact that you still have the word 'teen' still attached to your age?" I said.

  She fell to the edge of the bed in almost a collapse. All I could hope was that she didn't start sobbing uncontrollably because comforting River's mother was one thing. A girl he had previously used for sex, who also happened to be Ricky's sister, was most definitely another. "I know that I've made mistakes," she muttered. She brought her hand up to her mouth and chewed her nails. "It's what people my age do, right? We make mistakes all the time and we try to learn from them, but... Deep down, I still think that I'm a good person. I am a good person. But he didn't think so."

  "To be quite honest, I don't think that River thinks about you all that much. But if he did--"

  "I'm not talking about River," she snapped. Her eyes shot straight up to mine and she sighed. "I meant Ricky. He knows that I went to see River... and he knows that I'm here tonight."

  "What?"

  "He found out where I've been staying, and contacted me at the hotel this morning--"

  "Did he ask you to come here tonight?" I asked her. My pulse started thumping out of control the moment she nodded her head. "Why?"

  "To distract you."

  "From what?"

  And then I heard what sounded like loud pops, a string of them ringing out from the front of the club, shattering glasses, bottles and table legs, which must have sent the tables crashing to the floor; the chaos was followed up by piercing screams that sounded as if the could’ve come from Jolene, Candy and Miranda or any number of the other old ladies and wives. My first instinct was to jump up and run for the door, not only to know what the hell was going on but to get the hell out, but Courtney jumped up behind and slinked her hands around my arms, and violently dragged me down to the floor near the bed.

  "GET OFF OF ME!" I tried shoving her back, but she wouldn’t budge.

  "HE WANTS YOU DEAD!" she hollered, her eyes wild and red with panic. “DO YOU NOT GET THAT?! HE WANTS YOU DEAD, MIA! He wants your kid! He doesn’t want you anymore like he first told me that he did because he thinks you’re tainted now in being with River, but he thinks he can save Avery. He wants Avery for himself and he wants to make sure that you are dead!”

  "HE WANTS RIVER DEAD TOO!" I screamed in her face, so hard that she pulled back from me and started shaking. I had started shaking too, but for a very different reason. "I know that he wants me dead; I knew it the second that he found out Avery was his child, no matter what he ever said to me or told you before this. But do you not hear what the hell is going on out there? He wants River dead just as much as me – maybe more, given the kind of history they seem to have--”

  "I hear it!" she cried. As the popping sounds increased, shattering more glass and bottles, Courtney raised her hands to her ears to block out the noise.

  I ripped them away from her face and turned her head toward me. "What the hell did Ricky want you to distract me from?"

  "Everything that's going on out there! He wants River and the club out of the picture and he wants to take you out himself!"

  “Did he send you here to bring me to him?”

  “No,” she said as more tears filled her eyes. “One of the Dragons.”

  I narrowed my eyes and pinched my brows. “What?”

  “One of the Dragons!” she said again. “Ricky’s been working with them this entire time. He says that Chino’s been in his back pocket since Nikko died.”

  “Oh my God.” I jumped up from the floor.

  “MIA! If you go out there, he’ll kill you! Even if Ric
ky wants to take you out himself, if you put up a fight, they’ll take you out.”

  "That son of a bitch won't get that chance." I reached for the door, but she latched onto my ankle and tried dragging me back.

  "MIA!"

  I turned on the ball of my right foot and threw my arms and hands over my head, ducking the minute a bullet flew through the room, just inches above my head, and slammed into the wall on the other side. My eyes widened at the size of the bullet hole, my breath quickened at how easily it sliced through the wood; my heart was thumping so fast and hard that I thought I was suffering from an actual heart attack right then and there.

  "YOU HAVE TO GET BACK DOWN!" she screamed.

  "If I stay back here, they will kill him--!"

  "Think about Avery!" she said. "About your child!" And I did. The minute that bullet had flown through the room, Avery was the first person who had come to my mind, the first face that I saw. Tears flooded my eyes then and as I stared down at Courtney, an unwilling but sad smile crossed my face.

  "I am thinking about her," I said to her just before yanking the door back and bolting from the room.

  "MIA!" I heard her cry out to me in the distance.

  But I was already gone, snatched up with an arm sliding around my waist, past my breasts and a hand sliding over my mouth with the other wrapped around the grip of a revolver, and the muzzle pressed directly at the temple.

  There was nothing I could do to stop him as he pulled back the hammer of the gun and slid his finger across the trigger.

  It was already too late.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  When the mystery man who I had quickly realized was a member of the Dragons forcefully dragged me out to the front of the club, all eyes in the room, from Jolene to Candy and Miranda, to a handful of other old ladies who had been scared off into the corner with guns pointed at their heads, turned to me. My eyes shot around the room like a pair of darts as I noticed amongst the broken glasses and tables and chairs, and bullet holes in every wall, that nearly every man in the room had his gun on someone else, from the Shadow Riders' and their prospects to the Stark Bastards, to the Dragon Lairs, who seemed to be against literally everyone else in the entire room. It was like being dragged into the center of an ongoing battle taking place at the O.K. Corral.

  My eyes nearly bugged out of my head when I didn't see any of the Dragon Lairs' old ladies or River, but I heard him when he called out my name from across the room. I turned my head only slightly and saw him pinned against the door with four guns pointed at him; two Dragons stood on either side of him with their guns pointed at both of his temples, while Chino stood in front of him and pressed one muzzle at the center of his forehead, and lifted another to press beneath his chin.

  "Oh my God," I mumbled against the hand still clamped around my mouth. When the man finally released it, allowing me to breathe, Chino turned to me and grinned while clicking back the hammer of each gun and jerked forward as if he was going to shoot River right then and there. In a panic, I flinched. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I kept my eyes on River, whose face had gone completely stoic and pale while staring at me.

  "It's nice to see that you finally joined the party," said Chino. He spun away from River and dropped his guns to get a better look at me. "Shit. You are lookin' sexy as fuck, doll. Ain't that what this motherfucker calls you? Doll?" He glanced back to River, who glared. "Fat tits and nice ass a motherfucker could sink his goddamn teeth into if he wanted. Shit. I’ve always been more partial to your kind than these motherfuckers. You must have some magic fuckin’ pussy to turn an ass like the one you’re with into prince fuckin’ charmin’." He raised his hand again and waved his gun over toward the couch. "Move her off to the side."

  The man with his arm still around my waist dragged me over to the couch as directed and threw me down against the leather as if I was nothing more than a rag doll. As Chino waved the gun at him again, he backed away and headed over to take his place in front of River.

  Chino stood directly in front of me and shoved the muzzle of the gun against the center of my forehead, forcing my head to drop back. I shut my eyes and heard River struggling to get loose from across the room, but couldn't bring myself to look at him again. In an instant, so much of my life had flown by and I wondered if this would really be it; would the last day I ever spent alive on this earth be spent inside a club surrounded by bikers and their women, and the man that I loved and not even my own child?

  I opened my eyes again when Chino pulled the gun back and rested it at his side. "Mm, mm, mmn, I see why Ricky was so goddamn obsessed with you too."

  "He was never obsessed with me," I told him. "Obsession requires someone to be passionate about somebody or something. That man is a certifiable control freak and there isn't a single damn thing that's ever been passionate about it."

  "OW!" he said. "Bitch has got a nice sized mouth on her too, don't she? No wonder he dumped you off in the hopes that you'd bleed out. Now look." He bent forward and rested his hands on his knees. "I'm tryin' to make this shit quick, alright? I didn't wanna have any problems here tonight, but your boy back there seems to think that's what I came here for with my crew. All I need to know is where your daughter is so that we can get you both the fuck outta here and back to Ricky where you fuckin' belong."

  "I told you, asshole," hollered River. Chino stood up straight and groaned while rolling his eyes. "She's no longer even in this goddamn state!" My eyes shot over to him and I grimaced.

  "Yeah, motherfucker," said Chino. "You keep sayin' that shit, but somehow, I'm not exactly buyin' it. Now." He turned back to me and grinned. "Where the fuck is she, darlin'? Be honest with me."

  I peeked over at River for less than a second, then refocused on Chino. "Like he said, she's not in Florida anymore."

  "Really not a good idea to listen to that motherfucker, darlin'. Whether you're fuckin' him or not, he's still liable to get your ass killed."

  "It's what you're supposed to do to me anyway, right? What Ricky's supposed to do once you take me to him?" I jumped up from the couch and he dropped back and raised both of his guns to me. I opened my arms wide, spreading them out like a bird and took a single step toward him. "Why not just take care of it right here and right now?"

  "MIA!" River growled.

  Chino laughed. "Your bitch is sick and fuckin' twisted, asshole. This the kinda shit game you two like playin'--?"

  "Put me out of my misery," I told him.

  Chino stopped laughing and looked me up and down. "Fuck," he murmured. "I think this bitch might actually be fuckin' serious." He raised his gun again and slammed the muzzle against my chest. Slowly, I breathed in and out as the metal clung to my shirt and dropped my hands to my sides. I didn't know what the hell I was thinking, but I knew that whatever the hell it was, was good enough to save Avery, and River.

  "Mia!" a soft voice cried out from the other side of the room. All eyes turned to Courtney as she emerged from the back of the club. When she saw the gun pointed at my chest, she rushed forward in a flash and with every bit of strength she had in her arms and hands, leapt forward and shoved Chino out of the way. He knocked his head back against the pool table and as soon as he landed, more bullets started flying around the room, more screaming could be heard from the other women, more tables were broken, more chairs were being thrown.

  I landed on the floor, on my back with Courtney falling on top of me.

  "Courtney?" I called out to her. “What were you…?” She lifted her head and drops of blood fell from her mouth and onto the floor. “Oh my God.” Something wet pooled around my stomach and drained down my legs, and it was only then that I realized she had been shot, and that her body had shielded me from the spray of bullets that had started flying around the club.

  "I'm...." She gulped back the blood in her mouth; her entire body started shaking and within seconds, her pale white skin resembled blank sheets of paper. Her hazel eyes slowly darkened as the whites of them became red; the
veins widened around her irises and tears formed. "I'm... I'm sorry," she said.

  I didn't have a single chance to respond to her as her head dipped down over my shoulder and her entire body went completely still. I didn't have the strength to move her. My eyes went straight up to the ceiling and my jaw rattled; I wanted to burst into tears for so many reasons in that moment and wrap my arms around her because it seemed as if no one else ever had, but I knew that it wouldn't do me, or her any good. But I felt the pain of her, of what she had gone through, of what it meant for her to have a brother like Ricky, to care about a man like River, and to have neither of them care about her in the way that she needed. I wanted to comfort her, I wanted her to find peace elsewhere since it was clear that on earth, she had never had that chance.

  When the screaming from across the room died down, I turned my head and noticed Wolf, Snake and the other members taking out a few of the Dragons one by one with their weapons, as well as Laz and his crew who had joined in on taking them down as well.

  The minute one of the Dragons caught a glimpse of me looking, he raced forward with the gun swinging in his hand. But before he could get too close, Blue ran up and shot two bullets in the back his head and neck. Blood spewed from his mouth and nose as he dropped down to the floor.

  As the two men with guns now nervously pointed at River turned those guns on Blue, River raised his elbows and slammed them in the center of their necks, forcing them to drop their guns and fall to their knees to the floor. He caught onto the guns mid-air, and when the men realized what happened and tried reaching for another set, he crossed his arms one over the other to make an X and fired off a round of shots from their own guns right into their skulls. I shut my eyes the minute that wild spray of bullets sent their brains flying out from every direction of their heads and onto the floor.