10
Thor
My heart frozelike ice when I saw Loki’s bike get hit not once, but twice. Whoever was in the Mustang wasn’t kidding around, and on the second ram, the force created a ripple effect and the Monster slid out from under Loki. He pitched across the road in a roll all the way over to the side, where he stilled on his back. His startling yell of agony dug itself into my chest, and I let out a breath, focusing on the Mustang that slammed on its brakes after hitting Loki. The engine revved before it surged forward again, careening its way toward me. I raised the gun, knowing this was probably my last day on Earth if I didn’t get this shot.
It was do or die.
I hit the trigger twice and the second bullet pierced the driver’s side of the windshield. The Mustang swerved, turned too sharply, and flew through the air, rolling a lot like Loki had, until it was a pile of metal on the side of the road.
I glanced at Loki, then toward the car as someone crawled out of it with a groan. Fire lit the bottom of the vehicle, the scent of gas filling the night air. I stalked over to the man and stopped, my eyes landing on the cut he wore and the words on the back. The Hellhound Souls arched over the top of a demonic looking dog, and on the bottom rocker the words Pala Mesa.
The Soul stared up at me from where he lay on the dirt, his legs still trapped in the car. Blood oozed down his temple and cheek, shining under the dim freeway lights. He grimaced. “Please.”
“How did you know where we’d be?” I growled out, stamping my boot down on his left hand.
He screamed in pain, fingers from his right hand grasping at the tip of my boot.
“How?”
He wriggled and punched at my foot, which made me press down harder. His screams filled the stagnant and quiet night. He sucked in a deep breath. “Don’t know. I swear, I don’t fucking know. The pres just told us two Lords were driving south into Pleasant Beach tonight. We were patrolling the roads.”
“You don’t know where the info came from?” I aimed my gun at his head, fury burning in my blood. The urge to take him somewhere and torture him sat as a lump in my throat, but I didn’t have time. Loki needed me.
“No.” His voice wobbled as I hit the trigger again, the bullet piercing his brain. Blood splattered across the ground and my boots, but I ignored it as I walked around the other side. The Soul in the driver’s seat was already dead.
I moved as fast as I could toward Loki, yanking out my phone from the chest pocket of my shirt as I ran. I dialed Odin’s number as I fell to my knees beside Loki, fingers going to his neck. His pulse thumped against my touch and relief washed through me. I considered taking off his helmet, but then thought better of it. I couldn’t risk hurting him. If he’d injured his neck or back, that kind of movement could permanently damage his spine. Blood drenched his shirt, and I lifted the fabric, wincing when I caught sight of a deep laceration across his stomach. Panic seized my lungs and I forced myself to breathe through it. I couldn’t lose Loki to an accident like this. Iwouldn’t.
“Are you nearly home?” Odin asked in greeting.
“Odin, we were hit by the Souls in a car. Loki’s unconscious and bleeding bad.”
The sound of something like a chair scraping echoed from the other end of the line. “What the fuck? Where are you? Does he need a hospital?Modi, get the boys, we need to head out. Get everyone!”
“We’re on the north side. We can’t stay here. The Souls’ car is on fire and someone will come across us soon. I shot one of those fuckers dead.” I ripped Loki’s shirt and pressed the material to his wound as I gave Odin our direct location.
“I’ve got someone who can be there in five. Hold on. We’ll get you boys out of there.”
The line went dead, and I shoved the phone back into my pocket. I trusted Odin, had since I’d met him. He didn’t bullshit around when it came to his men’s lives, but Loki was even more special to him. He was his son in every way but blood. We’d get out of this.
It took six minutes exactly for “someone” to turn up. I’d stiffened at first when I’d seen the headlights, hoping it wasn’t a random driver, but when I saw Milan Aquino’s white van pull up beside us, relief settled into my bones. A fixer for Odin, he often helped when he could. He was a jack of all trades, from fixing up minor injuries to gathering intelligence information. He always came to Odin when he heard juicy gossip the pres would want to know.
The freeway lights lit his narrow face, messy shoulder length dark hair, and wide brown eyes as he ran toward us, skidding on his knees beside Loki. The cargo pants he regularly wore were gone today and instead he was in what looked to be blue pajama pants and a plain T-shirt of the same color.
“Come on, brother. Let’s get him up,” Milan said in his thick mixture of accents. He was born in France and grew up in different countries around the world, finally settling in Mexico until he was twenty, then heading north to America.
Milan jerked open the front door of his van and dropped the front seat back before returning to me and Loki. We carried Loki to the van together and laid him on the seat, careful not to jolt him too severely. He handed me a fresh cloth, which I pressed to the gash on Loki’s stomach. We worked together to gather as many pieces of the Ducati as we could, throwing them into the back of the van before we carried the heavy main body and placed it in there, too. We’d only just gotten the rear doors closed when a set of headlights flashed on us and a car slowed down.
Milan made some hand gestures at the car that made him look like a wild man and the new arrival floored it, shooting down the freeway. If I had it in me to laugh, I would’ve, but pain and concern for Loki were too intense for my soul to handle.
“You’re crazy,” I managed to say.
Milan bobbed his head in a way that seemed almost dreamy, like he was half asleep, which wouldn’t have been completely strange. He went to bed at six some nights. “Better to scare people away first. Follow me, we’ll take Loki to a vet clinic for his injuries. Got a human doctor meeting us there. Go. Go.”
I made my way around to the front passenger side and opened the door, placing a gentle kiss on the glass of Loki’s helmet, but he didn’t wake up and smile at me like I wanted him to. “I love you. I’ll see you soon, babe.”
Milan hopped behind the steering wheel and raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t say a word as I stepped back and shut the door. He took off, and I watched him, unable to tear my gaze away until the van was gone. I rushed to my bike to follow.
Milan had stopped in at a veterinary clinic where the doctor he’d contacted met us. A vet the doctor knew handed them the keys before she disappeared, refusing to see anything we were doing. They X-rayed Loki and put him through an MRI, and when they told me he had no internal injuries other than broken bones, I let out a relieved breath. They stitched him up there as well before we finally left.
