Page 64 of Kiwi

She moans. "Tai."

"Babe," I get myself into a seated position and carefully ease her to do the same. "You hurt anywhere?" I'm looking her over before checking myself out.

She's still wearing her helmet, and I thank God for that. "My ankle hurts," she looks down at herself, and I take in her ripped jeans and skinned knees that are bleeding slightly. "Are you okay?" she asks.

I ignore my pain. "I'm good," I tell her and take in our current location. I notice my bike several yards away, the frame wrapped around a tree, and that we slide between two large pines. Literally three feet in either direction, we could have been in worse shape than we were.

"Are they gone?" Piper asks.

"We don't need to stick around to find out," I tell her. We're stuck out here, with no transportation, no phones, and I've lost my weapon. Before I can get to my feet and search for my gun, twigs snapping beneath heavy footsteps has me pulling Piper behind my back.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here," a familiar face smirks as he and his brother walk toward us. The younger Thibodeaux, the one who's dick I broke, carries a rifle at his side, his dark eyes filled with hate.

"What a small world. Never thought we'd run into one of you sorry bikers again, but," the older brother spreads his arms wide, "here we are."

"It's our lucky day." The younger brother sneers, his eyes looking past me to Piper.

"Take your fuckin' eyes off my woman," I warn him.

He laughs. "You hear that, Earl?"

Piper tugs on my arm and whispers. "Look down to your right." I quickly glance down and spot my gun, lying about two feet away.

"You have no one to rescue you out here," Earl says. "I'm thinking we'll kill you first, then my brother and I will have a little fun with your girl there." He spits at the ground. "What do you think, Carl?" they continue to trudge down the hill in our direction.

"Move when I move, and stay behind me, got it?" I whisper to Piper as low as I can. Her fingers clutching my cut tells me she understands. I only have one chance at getting to my weapon, before trigger happy there takes a shot at me.

Keeping in front of Piper, using my body as a shield, I reach for my weapon, lift my arm, and take aim. The moment I squeeze the trigger, I watch the younger brother's knees buckle, just as a force propels my body backward.