With any guys outside the main clubhouse focusing on the police presence and anyone not on guard in Church, making it to my escape point was easier than I expected.
The split in the fence wasn’t obvious or big.In fact, if I’d had to sneak Tillie out this way, it wouldn’t have been easy for her to get through.Bushes lined the area which hid my exit point.
I crouched behind the foliage for long minutes.This little adventure was turning out to be more nerve-racking than I’d thought.It was warm but not overly so.And I was sweating like it was the middle of summer.
I heard a dog whine softly but that was the only sound they made.Carefully, trying not to draw attention to myself, I leaned away from the shrub to get a better look at the immediate area.
When I was certain there was no one around, I slipped the dogs their treats through their fence, then headed out of the warehouse area on foot.Yeah.When Pain realized I was gone he was going to be beside himself, but this had to be done.He was also probably going to spank me when I got back.Which… I could totally get behind that.So to speak.
I walked between the warehouses, always doing my best to keep to the outskirts and away from the main road in and out.Once I was a couple blocks away from the compound, though, there was really no need to worry.I didn’t see another car or person anywhere.
There was a little diner about half a mile away and I thought that was the perfect place to settle in for ten or fifteen minutes, maybe drink a sweet tea or something, and wait to see if anyone followed me.Then I called an Uber.
I didn’t want to take too long on this excursion.I figured if I could get what I needed and get back in another hour or so, I should be fine.I’ll feel better and no one will be the wiser I snuck out.No problem!
The first place I went was a women’s reproductive health clinic.It was a local, privately funded clinic.I might not be familiar with the area, but bigger cities always had a place that operated on the down low.Not performing illegal or dangerous services, but providing birth control in all kinds of various forms, as well as the home birthing kits for emergencies.
As I’d hoped, I was able to get everything I needed for a home birth with no trouble once I assured the nurse in charge there would be a qualified medical professional with my friend when she gave birth.But honestly, once I explained the situation, the lady -- and every other person working in the place -- was ready to give me anything I wanted.I’d have to make sure to have Knuckles tell Mr.Miles to make a donation to the place.Like either man would listen to me.Then again, I’d been only half joking with Pain when I told him I’d gained my sass when I became a nurse.Working at that prison only strengthened my backbone.So maybe I could make that donation happen.
I made my way back to the compound.My phone hadn’t buzzed since I’d left so I hoped that meant Pain was still in his meeting.I rounded the corner to the beginning of the vast area filled with warehouses, of which the entire Kiss of Death compound was only a small part, and ran straight into Chief Benjamin Roscoe.
“If it ain’t little Miss Nadine Brentner.Fancy meetin’ you here.”
Chapter Thirteen
Pain
Some motherfuckers just didn’t know when to quit.
The rage that had been building in my chest for the past two weeks finally reached its breaking point when I saw Roscoe’s smug face on the security feed, standing over Nadine like some kind of predator who’d just caught his prey.Fuck waiting for Tonio to handle this.Fuck protocol.Fuck everything except getting to that bastard before he hurt my woman again.
“Go,” Knight urged.“I’ll send some guys to get rid of the garbage.”
He’d called me to his office when he’d noticed Nadine leaving the premises.An hour after she’d left.Not only had she slipped past the police, she’d made it past Knight’s security.Which was whole ‘nother problem.Knight called me to his office the second he’d realized what had happened, but Nadine had already been gone over an hour.I’d been looking over his shoulder while he moved through city camera feeds trying to find her.
I tore out of the main clubhouse and jumped on my bike.I’d normally never disrespect my bike or anyone else’s by peeling out in the gravel, but I was past caring.Nadine was the only thing that mattered.
I knew exactly where the break in the fence was, and that it was the perfect place to slip out of the compound.Or into it.I’d been watching it since I got out of prison.Because I strongly suspected the rat in the club who’d let Riot’s woman’s ex-husband inside the compound had been the one to cut the fucking hole in the fence, but that was something I’d deal with later.And confront Knuckles.I revered the man, but we had a traitor in the club, one with an unknown agenda who was willing to sell out our women, and Knuckles had let the guy live among them for months.But I couldn’t think about that right now.Getting to Nadine was my only priority at the moment.
The break in the fence was the only way to get out with any hope of not being stopped immediately by the police.That being said, I wasn’t going to be subtle about this.
Once I was free of the tightest gathering of warehouses, I opened up my Hog and sped toward the fence where I knew the break was.I had to duck and grit my teeth.The first to avoid was the horizontal aluminum bar running through the middle of the fifteen foot fence from taking my fucking head off.The second because the break in the fence wasn’t a hole.It was just what it sounded like.A vertical break in the fence from the middle bar to the ground.So both sides of my body got gouged and torn by the edges of the cut metal.
Once free, I raced to where we’d seen Nadine on the camera.She was on the very back end of the property, where she should have been safe.Yeah.There was no way Benjamin Roscoe found that hole in the fencing accidentally.
I rounded two corners in time to see Roscoe and Nadine facing each other just on the inside of the gate.The second I processed I’d found her, Roscoe backhanded her with a brutal, full-bodied swing.Nadine staggered backward and my world narrowed to the two figures ahead of me.
I.Saw.Red.
My vision tunneled, everything beyond Nadine and Roscoe fading to black.The world slowed down as I watched her stumble, her hand flying to her face, a plastic bag tumbling from her grip.Something inside me snapped.That final thread of restraint I’d been clinging to since prison fucking let go.
I gunned the throttle, the Harley’s engine screaming as I closed the distance.Roscoe’s head whipped around at the sound, his eyes widening as he registered me bearing down on him.Smart enough to recognize danger, he shoved Nadine hard and reached for his weapon.
Had we not been on the edge of a motorcycle club compound, with dozens of motorcycles moving around inside the place at any given time, I doubt I’d have had enough time between him recognizing me as an immediate threat instead of a distant bystander to reach him before he shot me.
Roscoe managed to get off a shot, but a fraction of a second after I hit him with my bike.Fortunately for me, his shot went wide.Unfortunately for him, I hit him dead center.
Roscoe’s body flew through the air over my head.I braked, cutting back to swing around to face Roscoe again.This time, I ran over him.Probably wasn’t enough to kill him, but he wasn’t going to be able to crawl to his gun where it landed on the ground when he was hit, and he wasn’t going to be able to get to Nadine.
