I laughed, chokin’ on the end’a it ’cause half’a me was over the highway down in Furry Creek with Blue, hopin’ like hell she was okay.
“Let’s go get yours,” Curtains said, slappin’ my shoulder.
“You’ll be nice to her, this turns out okay?” I quipped ’cause humour was always my defence. “Save the asshole act for Eugene and Wrath, yeah? It doesn’t suit your Archie comic face.”
“If I’m Archie, you’re fuckin’ Jughead,” he countered.
“Boys,” Zeus said, slottin’ two guns into holsters on his belt. “Get that shit outta your system ’fore we ride out, yeah? I wanna come back with every single brother intact.”
“Blue told me they’ve got twenty-four men in the club,” Lion said as everyone piled into the main room’a the clubhouse, armed to the teeth and shiftin’ on their feet with restless violence. It warmed me to think they were all fired up tohelp Blue not just ’cause’a me but ’cause they’d fallen for her themselves over beers at Eugene’s. “They have loose shifts of the property, six at a time, three in front, two in back and one waitin’ at the entrance to the only road in and out. Apparently, they’re about to make a deal with some other enemy’a The Fallen to join forces against the club, so look out for more people on the ground than just the Raiders.”
“Never a moment’s peace,” Nova muttered, but there was a curlin’ grin at the side’a his mouth.
“You’d get bored otherwise,” King said, nudgin’ him.
Nova raised his brows. “With a woman like Lila? Yeah, not likely.”
“Game faces on, boys,” Zeus said, voice low and rumblin’ like thunder, shakin’ our bones so sombreness settled over the group. “We ride out to getta woman’a The Fallen outta those bastards hands. She could be hurt, so be careful. You get her, you get out. Leave the others to the rest’a us. Reconvene back ’ere when it’s over, and by over, I mean that clubhouse is burnin’ to the ground with dozens’a bodies in it, ya hear?”
We roared in tandem, a swell’a savage voices raised in war.
“Let’s end this ’fore they get a chance to take anyone else from us,” Zeus concluded, harkenin’ back to the people we’d lost in the club over the years. “Let’s remind them why people don’t fuck with The Fallen.”
Another roar of brotherhood and bloodlust that filled me with hope.
No matter what, we’d bring Blue back into the fold, and this time, I’d never let her go a-fuckin’-gain.
We rode out in perfect formation, Zeus as our leader at the front’a the pack with King ridin’ at the back as Road Captain, our future president. Curtains at my side keepin’ perfect pace with me as we raced down the ribbon’a road toward Blue.
It was almost enough to distract me from the vision’a Blue that kept eruptin’ behind my eyes. Broken, battered, even dead, those neon blue eyes dimmed’a their vibrant light forever.
All I could think as we rounded each corner wasno, no, no.
Please, please, please.
Don’t end this ’fore I can give her the happiness she deserves.
Don’t end an unhappy story unhappily.
I didn’t know who I spoke to, God or the universe as a whole, but I wasn’t above beggin’ and pleadin’ for her safety. I would’ve fuckin’ made a deal with the devil himself for an eternity’a servitude if it meant keepin’ her alive.
We split into two factions near Furry Creek, one portion led by Priest takin’ the back exit to the roads behind the farmhouse where they’d ditch the bikes and approach by foot through the backwoods.
The other led by Zeus would go round the front, hidin’ the bikes in the corn crops ’fore the road split off into dirt and led down to the farmhouse.
I stayed with the latter ’cause Blue’d told me her bedroom was at the back’a the house, and I wanted to go straight for it. Curtains was at my side, my twin shadow, as we left the bikes and hiked on foot through the trees for twenty minutes, guided only by small flashlights and the GPS on Curtains phone leadin’ us to the heart’a Raiders territory.
As we got close, gunshots rang out through the still night, stirrin’ birds from the trees above us.
My blood froze in my veins, and without sayin’ a word, our group shifted to a swift jog, headin’ toward the light filterin’ dim through the trees ahead. We crouched at the edge’a their cover, usin’ a pair’a night-vision goggles to sweep the perimeter.
Three assholes by the barn shootin’ bottles and drinkin’ swill, another set up at the back’a the house in the shadows near the porch with a rifle in his lap, head leaned back against the house.
Not exactly vigilant, but why the fuck should they be?
They didn’t know we were closin’ in like a pack’a hounds on the scent’a fresh meat.
The part’a me that rested deep in the pits’a my gut, a darkness without end, unfurled through my blood ’til my tongue and toes tingled with it.
