Ash (Hounds of Hellfire MC #5)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

ASH

“ S on of a bitch!” I roared as I staggered backward, my shoulder on fucking fire. The bitch had shot me!

My club brothers, Wizard and Echo, disarmed her while I checked the wound. It wasn’t deep and probably only needed a few stitches, but the bullet was still lodged inside. The wound hurt like a motherfucker.

“Ash?” Echo called.

I tore off a strip of fabric from my shirt and pressed it over the hole in my arm to control the bleeding.

“The safety was off?” Cynthia shrieked at the top of her lungs, drowning out my response. Her voice was shaking with panic. “Oh, fuck. Did I kill him? Shit!”

Figured she’d freak the fuck out. Her real name was Jean, and she was the con artist, burglar, and gold digger we’d set up. She was a shrew but not a killer. I took sinister pleasure in the fact that she was listening to the sirens getting closer and terrified that she was gonna go down for murder.

I looked over at where Wizard and Echo had her restrained. Thankfully, despite being a tech genius, Wizard was tough as shit. Echo, a surveillance specialist, was also our Road Captain and as lethal as the rest of us.

She struggled like a lunatic—which didn’t seem that far off at this point—and screamed, “Let me go! I’ll kill you! Let me go, you bastards!”

“Ash!” Echo shouted again, demanding a response.

“Yeah, yeah. Just a fucking nick,” I grunted. It was bleeding pretty profusely, so the wound looked worse than it was. I dropped onto a chair in the living room that was open to the hallway, so I still had eyes on the action in case the guys needed an extra hand.

A relieved breath whooshed from Echo’s lungs, but then Cynthia’s elbow landed hard on his sternum.

I winced. Fucking ouch .

“Wiz…” he gasped, his eyes glazing over from a lack of oxygen. “Take…can’t…oh, fuck.” He tried to choke in some air unsuccessfully, then hit the floor.

Thankfully, Wizard had her in a fierce grip.

I couldn’t help barking out a laugh when Echo hit the floor. He was gonna get so much shit for that.

Cynthia was whining and spitting curses, making my head hurt. I was so fucking tired of being around her.

She was the head of a con ring who’d been taking people’s life savings. Unfortunately for her, one of her underlings had set his eye on Echo’s woman.

Messing with my MC, the Hounds of Hellfire, was stupid as fuck, but going after an old lady was signing your death warrant. She was lucky we’d decided to only ruin her and get her arrested. But we didn’t want her disappearance bringing heat down on us since her organization was pretty big.

King, our president, had talked me into playing the part of her next mark.

I was the club secretary and lawyer, but I’d been born into a very wealthy family. My father was a Texas politician, and my mother was more concerned with her status in society than her only child. With a platform heavily focused on family values, having a kid had been good for their image. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t exist.

They’d expected me to follow in their footsteps, which meant they were ecstatic when I decided I wanted to attend law school.

But I wasn’t interested in being their fucking puppet. So I’d worked my ass off to be a straight A student and got scholarships to cover my bachelor’s and law degree. I worked for anything I needed and didn’t take a single cent from them.

Obviously, they weren’t happy when I decided to work as a public defender, but they managed to “spin” it to make themselves look good.

That got shot to hell when I patched with the Hounds. I gained a real family, one where bonds were forged by something stronger than blood. It was just a perk that my parents cut me out of their life.

But my background was the perfect cover to get Cynthia’s attention.

We played up my role as the senator’s son—making it look like I’d simply been a recluse all the years since I dropped out of the media.

My brothers thought it was hysterical when my parents called, trying to reconnect. They’d thought I’d changed my tune and was returning to their society. Obviously, they wanted to take advantage of the situation or clean it up, depending on my motives. I told them to go fuck themselves and hung up.

I’d taken Cynthia to a black-tie charity event and let her record my voice, thinking she was creating a key to my safe without my knowledge. Then Echo had concocted a bullshit excuse about my dad being in the hospital to give me a reason to bolt.

I hadn’t been amused.

We staked out “my house” and waited for her to break into my server room and hack my bank accounts. While she transferred the funds—which were tagged so we could follow the money to all of her accounts and assets—we called the police.

Getting her for attempted murder was an unexpected plus.

The police burst in the door, and I scowled when EMTs followed them. Fuck . They were gonna be a pain in the ass.

“Sir. Hello, my name is Nora. I’m here to help. Are you alright?” My head whipped around at the sweet, musical voice.

Bright blue eyes stared at me with concern as she approached me. Her pale skin was sprinkled with adorable freckles, emphasized by the long red hair twisted into a bun thing on the back of her head.

The gorgeous EMT was tall, but at six three, I still had at least half a foot on her. Her body was athletic, but she still managed to look sweet and fragile. Her mouthwatering tits were high and round, not big, but perfect for my hands and mouth. Damn, her body would fit against mine like they’d been made from the same mold.

But as I studied her a little more, I realized she was young. Too fucking young. I probably had fifteen years on her, at least.

She was also too innocent for the world I lived in. Not to mention all the filthy ways I wanted to fuck her.

Nora knelt in front of me, and I gulped as I tried to hide my reaction from the onslaught of dirty thoughts that hit me. Her Cupid’s bow mouth would look amazing wrapped around my cock.

“Holy cow!” she exclaimed. “You’ve been shot!”

A lazy smile curved up my lips. “I’ve had worse.”

Her concerned expression turned into confusion until she clocked my crooked grin, then she rolled her eyes and turned away to unzip her bag. “I don’t want to know,” she muttered as she withdrew a pair of sterile gloves and put them on. “Right now, I’m only concerned with your current wound.”

“Nothing to worry over, baby girl,” I murmured. “Just a nick. My friend over there needs you more than I do.” The statement left a dirty taste in my mouth and made me feel a little homicidal. What the fuck was that?

“Why don’t you let the person with medical training assess your wound before making assumptions?” she snapped, turning back to me with gauze in hand.

I pulled away the cloth I’d been using to stanch the bleeding and replaced it with the gauze. When she put pressure on the wound, I winced, and her eyes narrowed on me.

“Turn around so I can locate the exit wound,” she instructed, her tone stiff, making me silently chuckle. I was pretty sure she felt the same spark between us and was fighting it. I wanted to push her to admit it, but there was no point when we had such a huge chasm, and I didn’t only mean our age difference.

When Nora gently took hold of my arm, I remembered she wouldn’t find anything on the back. And I was pretty sure that if she knew the bullet was still inside, she’d use any and all tactics to get me to the hospital.

Hospitals reported gunshot wounds. The club had two patches who were qualified doctors, and they were used to this kind of shit; gunshots, stabbing, broken bones from physical fights or weapons, motorcycle accidents…and other stuff that would make a hospital suspicious. And eventually, the police weren’t gonna believe the innocent lies we’d have to concoct. Even though they were already involved in this takedown, it was better if I didn’t draw too much attention to myself.

“Told you, baby girl, just a nick. No need to make a fuss over me. At least, not about this.”

She glanced up at me, and her blue eyes clouded with suspicion. “What is that supposed to mean?”

I winked. “Let me take you to dinner, and we’ll talk about it.” Why the hell did you just ask her out, idiot?

Her lips pinched, and she glared at me with annoyance written all over her face. “Dinner at the hospital cafeteria? No thanks.”

My lips curled down. “Who said anything about the cafeteria?”

Nora’s eyes blinked innocently, and her tone was overly sweet when she replied, “Where else? You’re going to be in the hospital.”

I almost laughed at her response. She was definitely innocent and sweet, but there was a little spitfire in there too. I was pretty sure my little vixen was a virgin, and fucking hell…I wanted to be the one who popped her cherry and freed that fire in bed.

“Not going to the hospital, baby girl,” I informed her, my tone final.

“I really think?—”

“Forget it.”

“But—”

“Baby girl,” I warned, “if you don’t drop this subject, I have many creative ways to shut you up.” A wicked smile curved my mouth. “Although, I promise you’ll enjoy every one of them.”

She gasped. “That’s—that’s—how dare you. You—you—you presumptuous dingus!”

My eyebrows hit my hairline, and a laugh burst from my chest. “You’re adorable, baby girl,” I told her, surprised when she frowned.

Then her back straightened, and she stood before looking down her nose at me. “For your information, Mr.…Mr.…”

“Ash,” I inserted for her.

“Mr.…Ash. No woman wants to be described as ‘adorable,’” she said with a haughty sniff.

“Okay. How about cute?”

“No. Not that either.”

“I see. Going more for something like gorgeous? Sexy? Fuckable? Because you’re all of those, baby girl.”

A deep blush stained her cheeks, and she tried to look stern, but her blue eyes sparked with pleasure.

“Perhaps. But not by a stranger who is too dumb to accept that he should go to the freaking hospital.”

Echo moaned, clearly coming around, and Nora glanced in his direction.

Her partner was already beside him, but she called his name, and he looked up.

“Can you check this guy’s vitals? He seems fine, but I’d like a second opinion. I’ll handle the other one.”

He glanced at Echo, then back at her with confusion, then shrugged. “Sure.”

She faced me and gave me a brittle smile. “I hope you don’t die, Mr.…um, Ash. Have a nice day.” She pivoted just as her partner arrived.

He tried to keep his voice down, but I heard him tease, “Pawning the difficult one off to me, Stoll?”

She paused and leaned in to whisper, “He asked me out.”

“Another one?” her partner asked, his face screwing up in annoyance.

Another one? How many guys have asked her out on the job? I was gonna find them all and beat the shit out of them.

Nora nodded, and I completely ignored her partner, watching her kneel beside Echo as he blinked. She pulled a flashlight from her pocket and shined it in his eyes.

“Shit! Stop shining that thing before I go blind,” he muttered as he sucked in lungfuls of air.

“You fainted, man,” I told him before bursting into laughter.

Nora sighed and shot me a disgruntled frown. “He didn’t faint, you butthead. His brain shut off from a lack of oxygen. There’s a difference.”

“Not when I tell the story,” I choked out through my chortling.

“Sir?” Nora said more quietly. “Can you sit up and open your eyes? I just want to make sure you don’t have a concussion from the fall.”

She checked his pupils, then gave him a soft smile.

I hated it. I wanted all her smiles to be for me.

“Doesn’t look like a concussion,” she decided. “That was a hard hit you took to the chest. How’s your breathing?”

He nodded. “I’m sore, but nothing seems to be obstructing my flow of oxygen.”

“Good,” she replied with a smile. “I’d prefer to take you to the hospital to be checked out and just make sure she didn’t crack your sternum. But…” She scowled at me. “With how freaking stubborn your friend is after being shot , I’m guessing a little pain in the chest is nothing compared to dealing with that…pain in the butt.”

He chuckled and nodded, earning himself a high spot on my shit list—he’d made it on the list for making her laugh. “You’re right on all accounts…” He looked at her expectantly.

I didn’t want him to know her name, but that was illogical.

“Oh, my name is Nora,” she told him with another smile, making my chest burn with jealousy.

“Well, Nora. You’re doubly right. Ash is a pain in the ass, and it’s unlikely you’ll talk me into going to the hospital.”

She sighed and shook her head.

“I promise to get checked out, though, okay?” he offered.

She crooked up one corner of her mouth and gave him a small wave. “I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and believe you. It will help me sleep better at night.”

He laughed and turned away, only to see me glaring at him.

“What?” he asked, his head tilting to the side as he observed me curiously.

“Nothing,” I gritted out. My jaw was so tight, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I broke a few teeth.

My attention was stolen by Nora as she walked past me. My hand shot out, but my grip was gentle when I pulled her to a stop. “Only one you should be dreaming about tonight is me, baby girl.”

She stiffened and raised her chin to a stubborn angle. “Dream on,” she snapped.

“Oh, I will,” I murmured before releasing her.

I watched her walk away, my mind swirling with conflicting feelings and trying to figure out where to go from here.

But all it took was seeing her disappear out the door to make up my mind.

Nothing was gonna stop me from making Nora mine.