Chapter 27 Grave
GRAVE
We slid by the neighborhood the club was patrolling unnoticed.
Knox’s gun was ready and hanging out the window as we turned onto the back road that led us to The Black Saddles lodge.
Brewer was inching the van along the road, turning off its lights and riding as silently as he could.
Once we hit the corner of the lodge, Diesel and I jumped out of the back.
Rock opened the door for us and we silently cleared corners, working our way to the back of the building.
We hopped over the fence into an alleyway and poised ourselves at the back exit, ready to swing the door open and run in from behind.
I could see Mick and Rock standing at the other end of the alleyway, standing at the front corner as Brewer put the van in reverse.
Even in the dark, I saw the smile that crept across Knox’s cheeks.
Then, he let out a warning shot as Brewer rushed the van backwards.
Gunshots ran out from all angles as Knox mowed down the front of their lodge.
The second Mick and Rock ran from their position to infiltrate the front, Diesel opened the door.
We walked into the hallway and saw a guy getting off the floor.
The smell of bleach fumes brought tears to my eyes.
Diesel was coughing and my eyes were streaming with tears.
There was an open supply closet I rushed to in order to see if Everly was there.
Diesel put two in the guy’s chest, putting him out of his bleach-soaked misery as my eyes fell onto the chair.
And the blood-stained rope sitting on the ground.
“She was in here,” I said as gunshots rang out in the front of the building.
“Then we keep looking. She’s here somewhere,” Diesel said.
I walked alongside the President of the club as we shot everyone that came into our vision.
If they had a gun, they were put down. I could hear Mick and Rock firing outside, drawing the party to the front lawn as Knox and Brewer got in position to get us the hell out of here.
They were supposed to be around back so we could all hop in and get the fuck away from this place.
But if I did my job the way I wanted it done, there would be no one alive to run from.
Motorcycles revved in the distance and I knew more were coming. And if we became overrun, there was a chance we wouldn't be able to get out of here. I traded my empty magazine for another one, then jammed the empty one in my pocket.
“You need to go find Everly,” Diesel said. “I got this.”
“If those assholes roll up on you, we’ll need all the firepower we can get,” I said.
“And Everly will get killed.”
“I won’t let that happen.”
“Grave, look at me.”
My head whipped over to Diesel as a man jumped out behind him. I leveled my gun over his shoulder and popped off one round, catching the man right between his eyes. Diesel turned around and shook his head, then looked back at me as a grin slid along my features.
“You were saying?” I asked.
“You love her, don’t you?”
My jaw pulsed as Diesel leveled the gun over my shoulder. He shot off two rounds before a body dropped behind me and I nodded my head.
“Then find her and get her the fuck out of here. I promise you, we’ve got this,” he said.
“The only way out I’ve got is that van. We didn’t bring bikes.”
“Then take one of these fuckers bikes. They’re dead. The hell they gonna do with it?”
Both of us leveled a gun around the other and took out the men coming for us. One by one, they dropped to the ground as we slowly spun around in the hallway. Dropping them left and right until no one was standing but the two of us.
“If I take her, I’m not telling anyone where we’re going,” I said.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Turn off your cell phones and take the batteries out. When the two of you are recuperated, come find us. Trust me, we’ve got this,” Diesel said.
“You’re going to run out of bullets.”
“Knox won’t,” he said. “I loaded up four strings of those fuckers in a trunk in the van. Knox will be able to mow them down before they get around the damn corner from where they’re sitting.”
And on cue, I heard Knox let out his thunderous laughter as the buzzing of bullets sounded outside.
“You know he’s having too much fun, right?” I asked.
“It’s Knox. He’s about to have a kid. Things are tense. Let the man blow off some steam.”
“You good here?” I asked.
“More than good. Now go. Find Everly and get her the fuck out of here.”
I ran down the hallway and busted into the main bar area.
I took out three guys in front of me before I started yelling her name.
I roared as loudly as I could above the shower of bullets Knox was raining down on the fucking place, and a movement at the corner of my eye caught my attention.
I whipped my head around and saw a door swing open and I poised my gun.
Ready to shoot anyone who was waiting for me.
“Grave?”
Her voice. Everly’s voice. Filled with fear and tears and an odd sort of strength.
I raced behind the bar and dove for the door, crashing it open and turning on a light.
There she was, on her knees trying to get herself up off the floor.
Her wrists were bleeding and her ankles had no skin covering them.
And she smelled faintly of bleach.
“Come here,” I said as I bent down. “I’ve got you.”
“Grave. What’s going on?” Everly asked.
I picked her up into my arms and her head fell back.
The bruises around her neck and against her head made me irate.
Good. Those fuckers deserved death after what they’d done to her.
A bullet whizzed by my head and I turned around, pointing my gun underneath Everly’s ass at the man who managed to get by Diesel.
I fired three rounds at him, taking out his knees before planting one into his stomach.
Then I stormed out of the bathroom and ran back down the hallway.
We passed the guy dead on the floor that was covered in bleach.
I curled Everly into me so she wouldn’t see anything.
The last thing she needed to think was that she was responsible for someone’s death.
I carried her out into the alleyway and backed us into the darkness, watching as two of those Black Saddle assholes came running by us.
I stepped out and popped two in their backs, taking them down before they had a chance to get inside to Diesel.
“You’re not killing them, right?” Everly asked.
I looked down into her fear-filled eyes and shook my head.
I didn’t mind lying to her. Not at this point. She was in pain. Afraid for her life. In a situation she should’ve never found herself in. The last thing she needed to know was that the man holding her was an expert at killing.
Her safety was paramount, even if it meant lying to her.
I walked us down the alleyway and took a sharp left.
I had to find a bike to put us on. My eyes scanned the street as the gunfire grew farther and farther away, but the only thing I could find was an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road.
I checked the tires and things didn’t look to be flat.
I tried the doorknob and it was open. It was the only thing I had to get us out of here, so I had to try.
“Here you go,” I said as I slipped Everly into the back seat. “Stay here. Hold on. I’m getting us out of here.”
I opened the driver’s side door and ripped out the plastic undercarriage of the steering wheel.
I ripped out some wires and struck them together, seeing if I could get the car to start up.
It struck up like a dream and I checked the gas tank.
It had over half a tank, and the engine didn’t seem to be heating up.
It wasn’t until I got behind the wheel that I realized why someone abandoned it.
The power steering was out.
I shifted the car into drive and eased the gas pedal onto the ground.
I gripped the steering wheel as tightly as I could, then eased us onto the road.
The steering wheel was a bitch to fucking turn, but the car worked other than that.
I turned us slowly onto the main road that led into Redding, leaving the gunshots and the blood and the mayhem behind us.
I kept my eyes out for any signs of motorcycles.
Anyone that might pour out of one of the neighborhoods and follow us.
I inched by all of them without my lights on, hoping to stay concealed in the black car that had been abandoned on the side of the road.
And when the gunshots were nothing but distant pops, like fireworks in the sky, I put the gas pedal to the ground and raced us out of there.