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But Uncle Jack’s skin was already bloodless, the life fading from his eyes right in front of us.
“No!” Hawk said with a growl. “No, you can’t fucking die. She loves you too. Don’t die. Don’t leave her.”
The EMT knelt on Uncle Jack’s other side and felt for a pulse. Sympathy flooding off him, he looked up at Bash. “He’s gone, sir.”
Hawk grabbed the EMT by the shirt and jerked the poor bastard forward. “Bring him back. Gracie needs him.”
“He refused my help, sir.”
“Hawk, brother, you know he wouldn’t have wanted to be attached to tubes and shit.” Bash pulled the other man’s fingers from the EMT’s shirt. “Let him go.”
“Bash…?” I turned to find Raven standing only a few feet away, her stricken gaze on her brother who was still kneeling beside Uncle Jack. “Is… Is he…?”
“Matt, go with her to the hospital,” Bash commanded, his focus on his brother-in-law, but I still saw the raw emotion in my cousin’s gaze. The same emotion that blasted out of every one of my MC brothers’ eyes. The same emotion that was churning in my gut and burning the backs of my eyes.
I gently took hold of Raven’s upper arm and turned her back toward the ambulance that the EMT was now standing beside. “Let’s go, Rave.”
She walked beside me, but her head was turned so that her gaze could stay on her husband and brother, on Uncle Jack’s lifeless body. “He’s gone?”
“Yeah, honey.”
“But he can’t be gone,” she whispered. “He’s Uncle Jack. He’s immortal.”
Over the years, it had felt like that at times. I swallowed around the lump in my throat that was trying to suffocate me. “I’m sorry.”
She dug in her heels outside the ambulance doors. “Give me a minute. I… I can’t let Lexa see me like this.”
She had silent tears running down her face. Needing to comfort her—fuck, needing to comfort myself—I pulled her head to my chest and held her there. The sound of her sobs was muffled against my chest, and I patted her gently on the back as I swallowed back my own tears. First Tanner, now Uncle Jack. Maybe even Uncle Chaz.
I was losing people I loved left and right in this fucking war.
Chapter Twenty Three
RAIDER
I DROPPED QUINN OFF AT the clubhouse but didn’t get out of her car. Instead, I drove across town to the house she had rented with Kelli. Colt had texted me that morning to ask me to check out something for him, but I’d been busy all day and hadn’t had the chance to do it.
I parked in the driveway and walked up the sidewalk to the front door. There was still broken glass everywhere from where the fucking Italians had shot at my girl. I stepped over the splintered wood and bullets that littered the living room and walked to the back of the house. I knew which room was Kelli’s, but when I turned the knob, it was to find the door locked.
Kicking it in with one booted foot, I pushed the now broken door aside and crossed to the bed. The sheets were a mess, and there were clothes spread around the floor like she used them for rugs. The room was messy but in an almost organized kind of way.
I pushed the bed out of my way and felt along the floor for the loose plank. It took me a few minutes to find the right one. Lifting it, I stuck my hand into the dark hole and pulled out a small velvet sack. As I opened it, a plain black USB drive fell into my hand. I didn’t know what was on this thing, but Colt had made it sound important.
Pocketing the USB drive, I replaced the plank and then fixed the bed back where it had been.
As I was closing the front door behind me, I got a text from Hawk, then just as quickly, one from Bash.
Italians ambushed the bar. Get to the hospital. Uncle Chaz got one to the gut.
I didn’t waste time. Climbing back into Quinn’s little car, I hauled ass to the hospital. As I was pulling up, an ambulance came into the ER bay. Two EMTs jumped out with Trigger right behind them, and the three of them pulled Uncle Chaz out on the gurney.
I ran across the parking lot just as a team of doctors and nurses came out to meet them. The doctor was shouting orders to the nurses, while one of the EMTs gave a summary of what was wrong with the old man. “GSW to the stomach. Lost a good bit of blood on the scene.”
“Let’s get him up to surgery,” the doctor ordered the nurses, and they wheeled the old biker away.
“Trigger,” I greeted my MC brother as I reached him. “What the fuck happened?”
The older man glanced around suspiciously at the EMTs. “It was bad, man,” he muttered. “Real bad. Lexa got hit. The women were all screaming. Gracie was so scared and giving Hawk hell when I left.”
