I see the only good Christmas I had when I was little, the one when my grandparents were both alive and I was staying with them while my mothersorted herself out.
I see the day I brought Fabio home and feel the joy he gave me, the meaning he brought into my lonely life.
The day I met Summer, years of our shenanigans and fun, times she was there for me when no one else was. Like the day I walked across the stage at NYU and accepted my double master’s in computer science and graphic design.
Then I see Zak, his gorgeous face with piercing green eye and lopsided grin. In a split second every moment I’ve shared with that man races across my mind like a movie set to fast forward, and dammit I really wanted to tell him how I feel before it was too late.
But then I see nothing.
Nothing but black and I hope beyond hope that there really is a heaven and they take bikers because if I can’t tell Zak I’ve fallen in love with him in this life, my only chance to do that is in the next.
Just when I’m positive this is the end, the pressure on my throat releases and I lurch forward as I cough and drag lungful after lungful of air into my body.
“You ok, Blondie?”
I blink about a dozen times as I’m pulled upright, seeing through the haze to find Spider looking down at me with concern all over his handsome face.
“I’m... I’m good...” The words sputter from my lips. “Thank... Thank you.”
He nods. “I got your back, Theo.”
I try to smile and hold his gaze, get my bearings a bit, but that’s when I notice the blood dripping from his brow, splattered all over the front of his clothes and not caused by a noticeable injury.
I don’t have to look to know that some of it probably belongs to my attacker and is why I’m not dead.
Oddly enough, it doesn’t scare me.
It really just makes me appreciate Spider in a different way, a way that absolutely proves he is too good for anyone less than his soulmate because if he was willing to do that for me simply because I’m dating one of his brothers and stood up for him, then whoever that person is will be treated like gold for the rest of their life. And that means they will treat Spider the way he deserves to be treated too.
“What’s the latest...” I clear my throat and it hurts so bad. “What’s the latest status report?”
A smile pulls at his lips as he braces me, keeping me from falling when I step over the body. “Nothing good I’m afraid, but it isn’t over yet. A lot of the guys wound up outside but—shit!” Spider grabs me by the shoulders and shoves me behind him as another wave of Cobras come in through the windows and I take off in a sprint. “Theo!”
I shake my head as I tear through the destroyed rec room, send up a prayer that whoever is listening keeps Spider and all my new friends safe. But I can’t stick around, not when the man I love the most isn’t anywhere to be found as I run through the worst kind of mess I’ve ever seen, and when I get to the front door, my heart drops all the way to my toes before it shoots up into my aching throat.
There are bodieseverywhere.
I thought inside was bad with maybe ten or so lifeless men, but the yard where all hell is still breaking loose? The count has to be doubled out here.
With trembling hands, I bend and take the gun from the hip of the closest Cobra, thankfully their casualty numbers are greater than ours, then start into the yard, scanning every face I come across for the one I don’t want to see.
I can’t lose Zak.
Not now, not after I just found him.
I’ve never felt so much in such a short period of time for someone and if I lose Zak, especially like this, I know there’s no way I’ll recover. My heart is his if he’ll have it and I want so badly to be able to give it to him.
Please, God, let him be ok.
“Theo!”
My eyes dart left to where Marbles is propping Prez up against a tree, the two of them semi-hidden from the gunfire raging in front of the clubhouse. Like a gazelle, I fucking run and leap my way to them, dodge and weave the fighting relatively unnoticed and when I’m finally close enough to touch them, that’s when I see Prez bleeding from a hole in his stomach.
“Oh my god!” I shove the gun at Marbles and tear into Prez’s shirt. “Oh no. Oh this—“
“It’s not... not that bad, Blondie.” He smirks down at me through his freckles and orange beard. “Definitely had... had worse.”
Ignoring some macho shit in order to make sure he doesn’t bleed out, I tear the sleeves off of my dress, tie them together then rip what’s left of Marbles button up off of him so I can fashion a bandage to keep pressure on the wound.
