Bang.
A gunshot.
I was twirlin’, pushin’ Blue behind me as I faced the door ’fore I could even think about it. Z was already sprintin’ across the room, faster than he shoulda been able to at his age with his bulk, his gun in one hand.
“Get the Old Ladies and women to the back rightfuckin’ now,” he roared before pryin’ open the door and disappearin’ outside.
Axe-Man and Priest were on his heels, a gun and knife in their hands, respectively. They slithered out the front door behind him like shadows, soft and deadly.
I took a breath then, knowin’ Z had backup.
“Get to the back, yeah?” I told Blue, facin’ her to find worry etched into her white-washed face. “Stick with Mei and Harleigh Rose. They’re about as deadly as the rest’a the men in the club.”
“Aaron,” she whispered, clutching at my wrist. “Be safe, too. Okay? I had a feeling Otto wouldn’t give up, and…well, if I brought trouble to this doorstep, I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about that. Just go,” I ordered, punchin’ a kiss to her lips so she’d feel me even after I followed the rest’a the brothers out the door.
Curtains caught up to me ’fore we muscled through it, shovin’ me in the shoulder in a silent show’a partnership.
The Fallen MC Compound took up two acres’a land beside the West River that cut through Entrance and delineated the posh fuckers from the normal folk. Our main front, Hephaestus Auto, set back from the road behind an eleven-foot chain-link fence, took up most’a the front lot, but the clubhouse was tucked just behind and to the right’a it. Obviously, the motherfuckers had climbed the damn fence to get inside the locked gates.
They were idiots for thinkin’ that was our first and only line’a security.
Our prospect, Carson, had been keepin’ an eye on the monitors from behind the bar inside the clubhouse, but it was Wrath who’d been skulkin’ outside to brood and first seen the intruders. He stood head and shoulders above the one he held in a chokehold lookin’ like he could’a taken a nap even though the man struggled in his arms.
Dude was built like a brick shit house, and nothin’ ever got to him.
Not even four men with guns in our front parkin’ lot.
Another man lay on the ground moanin’, clutchin’ his right shoulder. Bat loomed over him, boot planted in the middle of the man’s chest, and his gun trained right between his eyes. Dane stood behind him like his shadow, mouth curled into a sneer as he trained his two Smith & Wesson pistols at Bat’s captive.
I wondered what the two of them had been doin’ outside when they came over the fence, but even brothers were entitled to their secrets.
Besides, the second my eyes caught on the bastard locked in a stand down with Zeus, I lost my motherfuckin’ mind.
It was Otto.
I swung over the railin’ on the clubhouse landin’ and stood easily, already springin’ across the lot in a jog ’til I reached Z’s side.
“Stand thefuckdown, or I’ll gun you down right here,” Zeus was growlin’.
Otto didn’t say a word, but even in the low light, I could see his hand tremble.
“I’d do what he goddamn says, Otto,” I said pleasantly enough, but my grin felt feral on my face, and I was one second away from foamin’ at the damn mouth. “He’s not the kind to fuck around with threats.”
“I’m just here for the girl.”
The three other men were standin’ free with their guns trained on our semi-circle’a Fallen brothers, but it was obvious they were takin’ their lead from Otto.
So I made a split-second decision from the gut ’cause instinct had driven me my whole damn life and rarely led me astray.
I stalked forward, ignorin’ the three guns suddenly aimed at me, knowin’ my brothers would have my back, and I didn’t stop’til Otto was within my reach. The gun shook in his grip but steadied when I pressed my chest into the barrel.
“Watch your––” he started to demand.
But the only authority I listened to my whole damn life was Zeus’s, so I didn’t heed his order.
Instead, I cocked my fist back and hammered it down on his weak motherfuckin’ chin.
