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Bikers dive out of the way to avoid getting run over as we come through. Those farther away are already throwing themselves on their bikes. This is far from over. Maybe I should be glad they want me alive, but I’m not. Alive doesn’t mean unharmed.
As we plow past them and veer towards the on-ramp to get back on the highway, a loud roar comes up on our left. My fingertips dig so hard into Blade’s jacket that I can feel my nails bending, but I chance a peek over my shoulder. It’s Ripper, grinning like a maniac as he places himself behind us, right between me and the Pit Vipers. I just want to be safe again.
We weave onto the shoulder to get past a minivan, and the rumble strip nearly shakes loose a filling. The driver looks out their window and panics, veering hard in the other direction and nearly slamming straight into an SUV in the next lane.
Blade takes the lead like earlier, while Alpha and Ripper fall in behind us. With the two of them behind me, I’m the most sheltered of the four of us. They’re taking care of me as best they can in a crappy situation, and I owe them more credit than I’ve been giving them. They’re not taking this lightly. We might just make it out of this.
The guys ride like madmen, but so do the Pit Vipers, and since we’re on their turf, they have us wildly outnumbered. A mass of bikes unlike anything I’ve seen stretches across the lanes behind us. The reinforcements have just kept on coming. I feel so helpless, with them focused on saving our lives, and me unable to do anything but hold on for my life and try not to think about the odds.
“Motherfucker!” The wind whips Blade’s curse past my ears.
I stretch to see what the problem is.
The highway is blocked. They’ve packed the lanes with trucks, leaving no room to navigate around. Guys in leather cuts ride in the beds, taunting us. Caught between a rock and a hard place, we don’t have much choice but to let them funnel us onto an exit and off the highway.
They don’t let up, never giving us more than one direction to ride, until a place that looks ripped straight out of Mad Max comes up on our left.
The Pit Viper compound.
The last time I was here, I was too young to worry about directions, so I didn’t recognize the way, but the compound itself? That’s burned in my memory. Our house was only a couple miles away, off club property, but close enough for Dad to get back and forth quickly.
There’s a reason I kept weapons in every room of my house and a gun. Why my panic attacks started. Why I don’t trust bikers. It all started here. I didn’t think I could grip Blade any harder, but I wince when one of my nails snaps. I don’t ease my hold, though. Not now with my darkest nightmares nipping at my heels.
Alpha, Ripper and Blade have done their best to keep me safe, but they aren’t miracle workers. Our time is up.
The compound walls loom over me, casting an ominous shadow. Was it always this bad? It was never cheery, but I don’t remember it feeling like a prison.
“What’s going to happen now?” I ask Blade, swallowing bile. We’re rolling slowly enough that I don’t even have to yell.
“I don’t fucking know,” he growls. “If they want to hurt you, they’re going to have to go through us to do it, but we need to play this smart. Don’t antagonize them. If we get an opportunity to get out of here, be ready to fucking take it. We took out a bunch of their guys, but they wouldn’t expect anything less. Don’t mean their friends won’t get trigger happy, though.”
As bad as that sounds, Blade’s focused intensity and matter-of-fact nature makes me feel a little better. If there’s a way out of this, I trust him to find it. I just hope it happens soon, because if there’s anything my whole body is aching to do right now, it’s to get the hell away from here.
We pass under the gate and into the courtyard, an open area circled by buildings in various states of disrepair. Right in the middle is the biggest, a blocky, three story structure that could’ve been a mansion at one point, but now the first floor is boarded up and metal plates added to reinforce the walls.
The door opens, and a rangy man with his long hair tied back with a leather thong comes out. He’s flanked by a couple of grim bikers who are nearly as big as Alpha. Metal studs his face in a whole array of different piercings. His black leather cut has a small Pit Viper patch on the chest and he’s got his hands stuck in his pockets. When he grins at us, it’s ugly.
“Crow,” Blade hisses.
13
BLADE
As soon asthey cut us off at the exit, I knew where they were sending us, but like sheep to the slaughter, what fucking choice did we have? The old clubhouse looms over me like a bad fucking dream, a reminder of a part of my life I’d rather forget. Can’t say I thought I’d ever be back.
And I know I’m not the only one. Faith’s clinging to me. She’s fucking terrified, her eyes wild and darting from face to face. She was just a kid when her momma ran. Fuck, at eighteen, so was I. This world doesn’t let you keep your innocence long, though, that’s for damn sure.
I place myself right in front of Faith, shielding her the best I can, but we’re in the heart of the lion’s den. We can’t just fucking muscle our way out of this one.
“Let us go.” Alpha steps forward, his voice calm and steady. He’s standing his ground with a hand on the gun in his belt. “This isn’t a war you want to start, because if anything happens to us, the Screaming Eagles will level this whole fucking place to the ground.”
Crow laughs, confident that he’s won. The years haven’t gone easy on him. He’s only a little older than me, but looks twice my age. Is that what would’ve happened to me if I hadn’t gotten out? If Eagle-eye hadn’t given me the chance to make a new life? I might be fucked up, but Crow is still rotting in old grievances.
He spits on the ground. “Don’t be a fucking idiot. I’ve got three times the members of the fucking Eagles, and I’m not a geriatric pussy like your prez. Toss your fucking gun on the ground before we fill you with holes and take it from your bleeding corpse.”
“Alpha—” starts Ripper, but Alpha cuts him short with a sharp gesture, heading him off at the pass before he says something stupid.
“They’re too many. Stand down.”
