Chapter 4 #2
It wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t the truth either.
He was more than okay with Winter by his side now.
He was standing on the edge of something he’d never let himself want — a life that could break him if he lost it, and that scared the shit out of him.
But it should scare him—right? He was on the cusp of having everything that he ever wanted, and one visit from the Dead Rabbits could take away his new happiness.
They lay in bed, tangled up in each other for what felt like an eternity.
And when she drifted back to sleep, he carefully slid out of bed, grabbed his jeans from the floor, and pulled them on.
The cold hit him as soon as he opened the front door of the cabin.
Snow glittered like glass in the early light, untouched except for the small circle of ground he’d cleared last night. Or so he thought.
Something caught his eye, and it just felt off. He crouched in the snow to assess the scene and groaned when he realized what he had found—footprints. They weren’t his, or Winter’s, and that meant that someone had been sneaking around his cabin while they slept.
The boot prints were big and heavy, with every step looking to be a deliberate mark in the snow. The prints came up close to the porch — close enough to see through the front window if the fire had been burning bright enough. Jace felt sick to his stomach seeing how close they came to the cabin.
“Jace?” Winter’s voice came from behind him, from the front door where she stood watching him.
He didn’t turn to look at her. He just barked an order at her to “Stay inside.”
Her bare feet crunched on the wood as she stepped up beside him, clutching a blanket around her shoulders. When she saw the prints, her breath caught. “Those aren’t yours.”
“No.” He straightened slowly, eyes scanning the tree line. “Someone was here last night, and I’m betting that they were watching us.”
Her voice trembled, but she kept it steady. “Do you think that it was the Dead Rabbits?” she asked. “Do you think they know it’s you?”
“They know someone’s alive out here and living in this cabin.” His jaw tightened, not wanting to say the next part. “I have no idea if it’s the Dead Rabbits or not, but having someone so close to the cabin is enough for me to worry.”
Winter looked toward the trees, her hand instinctively moving to her stomach. “What do we do now?”
Jace pulled out his phone and started dialing. “We call Rebel and Bolt. If the Rabbits are this close, we’re out of time, and we need an exit plan, fast. They will contact Savage and Banshee to get the Bastards and Harlots involved.”
The signal took a few seconds to pick up his call, static breaking the quiet. Then Rebel’s voice came through, clipped and sharp. “Jace? Talk to me. What’s going on?” It was how she and Bolt always answered the phone when he called on a day that he wasn’t supposed to be checking in.
He glanced once more at the tracks fading into the pines, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “We’ve got company,” he said. “And it’s time for us to move.”
Winter stepped closer, her hand brushing his arm, as though trying to steady him.
He didn’t look at her because the feeling of her next to him was enough to undo him all over again.
He felt as though he was letting her down, making her go on the run with him, but the thought of letting her go now wasn’t an option.
She agreed that they were in this together, and that was all he needed to make his next move to keep her safe—no matter where that move landed them next, they’d be together.
He’d promised to keep her safe, and there was no way that he’d be breaking that promise to her. Not for anything. The storm outside had finally passed, but the real one was just beginning. Jace just hoped like hell that they were both ready for it.
Jace ended his call to Rebel and Bolt and finally looked at Winter.
She looked as worried as he felt, and he couldn’t help but pull her into his body.
“We need to get you inside before you freeze out here,” he ordered.
She shivered against his body as though proving his point, and he led Winter into his cabin.
“Jace?” Her voice was laced with worry. He didn’t need her to ask him anything. He knew exactly what she wanted to know—what was going to happen next?
He didn’t answer at first. He needed to give himself a second to get his already racing heart time to calm down, because admitting to Winter what he had seen while on the phone with his sister wasn’t something that he wanted to do.
He hated that he was going to have to scare her, but it was the only way to get them both moving.
Down the slope, just beyond the tree line, two black SUVs sat half-hidden under the pines.
Their engines were off, but he could tell that they hadn’t been sitting there for very long.
He knew that their time at the cabin was up, and with Rebel and Bolt’s help, they’d come up with an exit plan that might just work.
“Pack what you can,” he said quietly, not giving her any other explanation. “Now.” He quickly added when she just stood there looking at him as though he had lost his mind.
Winter froze. “What? Why?” she asked.
He shook his head, not liking that he was about to tell her everything, but he was. “They found us.”
“I know,” she said, “I saw the footprints. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the Dead Rabbits or that they actually know that you are here.”
“Shit.” He grumbled, running his fingers through his already unruly hair.
He started pacing in front of her, not knowing how the hell they had found him, trying to work it all out.
“They must have followed you here,” he said.
The words came out rougher than he meant for them to, and guilt hit him the second they left his mouth.
She started to walk away from him, and he grabbed her hand, stopping her.
“It’s not your fault,” he added quickly.
“You said that you stopped at that gas station a few days ago to fill up. Maybe a camera caught you, and someone recognized you from the Harlots. Either way, they’re here.
I saw their trucks in the distance. I think that they are just waiting us out—maybe even waiting for some more of their guys to show up. That’s why we need to leave now.”
Winter nodded, and he released her. “How many guys do you think are out there?” she asked.
“Three, maybe four, from what I can see.” He caught her arm again, forcing her to look at him. “Listen to me. When I say move, you move. You don’t stop for anything, you hear me?”
She nodded, though her lips trembled. “Where are we going?”
“Home to Huntsville,” he said. “I’m done trying to do this alone. If the Dead Rabbits want a fight, they are going to have to come through the Bastards to get to me.”
“The Harlots too,” Winter reminded. “I can be ready in five. Do you think that it’s safe for us to go home?”
“Bolt thinks that it’s the only place the Dead Rabbits won’t expect us to go.
Bolt has informed the FBI about what’s going on.
He’s been keeping them in the loop. Between them and the Bastards and Harlots, I think that we’ll be safe enough.
But they found us up here, so apparently, no place is safe.
Grab your stuff, we leave in five,” he ordered.
He watched as Winter disappeared into the bedroom, and he quickly went to work, grabbing whatever he could and tossing it into an empty bag.
He knew that it would be some time before he’d be able to get back up to his cabin, and that thought kind of made him sad.
Here, he had spent so many nights thinking of a way to get back to Huntsville and to family, and now, he was thinking about how he was going to miss his cabin.
Winter walked back into the great room, just as a truck door slammed outside.
It was faint, but close, and Jace cursed under his breath.
He crossed the cabin in three strides, dousing the fire in the fireplace.
The room plunged into darkness, the only light now the pale gray from the windows.
He could see Winter’s silhouette, small but steady, holding her bag and her breath.
A shadow passed by the porch window. “Get down,” Jace hissed. He pulled her with him behind the couch as the first shot shattered the glass of the cabin’s front window. Winter gasped, covering her belly instinctively.
Jace returned fire through the window, trying to buy himself some time to get Winter out of the cabin.
He counted the echoes — two shooters, one covering the other end of the property.
It was a standard sweep—a move that he knew well.
The Rabbits weren’t playing around, but then again, neither was he.
Jace had too much at risk if he let them win this time.
“Go, go!” He pushed Winter toward the back door. “The truck is behind the shed. Stay low.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he promised
“Jace—” She started to argue with him, but he cut her off with a look.
“Go,” he ordered. Winter stayed low and got to the back door. She ran out to his truck, crunching snow under her boots as she went, and slid into the passenger seat. Jace turned back to the window and fired twice more, then ducked out the back, following Winter to the truck as promised.
He slid into the driver’s seat and squeezed off rounds to keep the shooters pinned in place.
Winter took the keys from him and got the truck’s engine roaring.
“Seatbelt,” he barked. Bullets struck the rear of the truck as they tore down the narrow mountain road.
Snow sprayed in their wake, and the tires screamed against the ice.
Making it to town was going to take a fucking miracle—especially with the Dead Rabbits on their ass.
Winter clutched the dashboard, her eyes wide. “They’re behind us!” she shouted.
“I see them,” he said, trying to stay calm, but feeling anything but.
He jerked the wheel, taking the back route he’d cleared weeks ago — a narrow logging trail that cut through the woods and came out miles from the main road.
The truck fishtailed hard, but he corrected it just before they hit the bend.
“Hold on,” he ordered.
Winter glanced back to see if they had lost their tails. The SUVs following them had hit the curve too fast. One slammed into a tree, metal crunching, but the other stayed on them, headlights cutting through the snow.
“Jace!” she shouted. “One is still back there.”
“I got it.” He slammed the brakes just enough to let the truck slide sideways, aimed his gun out the driver’s window, and fired at the oncoming grill.
The SUV swerved, caught a rut, and went over the edge of the mountain.
For a long second, all he could hear was their breathing in the cab of his truck and the grind of the tires on frozen earth.
Then silence. Jace didn’t let himself slow down until the cabin was miles behind them and he was positive that he had lost both of the SUVs following them.
Only then did he reach over, his hand finding Winter’s, where it gripped the door handle as though it was her only lifeline. “You okay?”
She nodded, though tears streaked her face. “Do you think that we lost them?” she asked.
“Well, I’m pretty sure that the guys that went over the mountain are dead, and the ones who hit that tree are banged up enough that they won’t be coming after us—not for a while at least. It doesn’t mean that they won’t call for backup, but we’ll be long gone by then,” he insisted.
The headlights carved through the dark, and they finally found the main road. They were going south—home to Huntsville, and he wasn’t about to let anyone, or anything, stop them from reaching their destination. He’d get her there if it killed him.