Chapter 25
Pyre
“No one’s found the mass grave we stuck those assholes in yet,” Scythe told our group as we sat around the table during church.
“Doesn’t mean they’re not looking,” Warrant replied.
“Oh, they’re looking,” Cypher said with a grin. “They’re just not going to find them. I’m planning to-”
The door slammed open and hit the wall so hard it nearly shut right back in Ainsley’s face. She slapped a hand on it to keep it from nailing her.
I was out of my seat before the others. She wasn’t storming in because she was angry with us—or Warrant—the look on her face was sheer panic. Ainsley was not prone to panic. Normally we’d skin someone for interrupting church, but she was as pale as a ghost and breathing hard. Her eyes locked on me.
“Rae’s in trouble.”
You could hear a fucking pin drop.
“And Owen.”
We were all on our feet now.
“What happened?” Cypher barked.
“I was listening to the police scanners.” She always had those scanners going off in her office. She’d been working late, waiting on Warrant to finish with church. “Rae’s out at the old covered bridge. She called out officer down.” Her eyes flashed over to Warrant.
“Get me one of those scanners,” Cypher ordered. “Demo, Rotor, Glitch, get some rifles. We’ll need to take the cages. They’ll be faster going down Warren Road.”
“One pot hole and everyone will be on their asses on the bikes,” Jury said in agreement as everyone began moving for the door.
Ainsley stepped inside the room and out of the way, handing over a scanner to Cypher. “She said there were four men out there tearing apart a vehicle looking for something.”
“Fuck,” I hissed, pulling my gun out and checking that it was loaded. Of course it was. I was out the door before Ainsley had time to give Cypher a full report.
I grabbed a set of keys off the wall where we hung them and was running for the door when Jury caught up. “Wait for the others,” I told him. “Wait for the guns.”
“And let you have all the fucking fun?” He smirked at me. “Not happening.”
“You’re not going!” Warrant’s voice floated after us as Jury and I beelined for the back door of the club.
I didn’t slow down to listen to Ainsley try to make her case for why she should come with us.
Every second fucking counted when my woman was out there with four armed men and one injured cop.
She wasn’t going to leave Owen. She didn’t have it in her to abandon him.
Which meant it was only a matter of time before they found her.
The vehicle started and I threw it into drive. A hand hit my window. Scythe hit it again. “Don’t run me over while I fucking climb in, asshole.”
Both back doors opened and Scythe, Cynic, and Torque jumped in the back. Warrant wasn’t going to be far behind, knowing Owen was out there and injured meant he didn’t have time to argue with Ainsley and would let her come. But I wasn’t waiting on him. He could take his own ride.
Jury half turned and gave the guys grim looks. “You guys manage to grab any more guns?”
“No,” Cynic answered.
“You even know what’s going on?” Jury asked, rooting around under the seat.
“What are you doing under there?” Cynic asked him.
Jury’s hand came up with a beer, then a pistol. He grinned back at Cynic. “I always stash an extra, just in case.”
“In every fucking cage?” Scythe asked.
Jury just shrugged. “I like to be prepared.”
“Saw you all running out like the hounds of hell were chasing you. Figured we’d help out,” Torque’s reply was to me, but he snatched the pistol from Jury.
I stomped on the gas, racing out of our complex and onto the road while Scythe explained what we knew to him.
I wasn’t hearing shit anymore. Barely saw what was happening.
Tunnel vision had set in and all I could think about was getting to Rae.
I wasn’t outrunning my headlights just yet because I was still trying to get out of town.
But once I hit the highway I didn’t give a shit if I couldn’t see in the darkness, I wasn’t slowing down.
It was four against one. Every round in our pistols was going to be lethal to the fuckers going after my woman and our friend. Worst case? I’d beat them to death with my two bare hands if I had to.
“Can you try to get us there in one piece?” Jury asked, holding onto the ‘oh shit’ handle as I took a corner and two of the tires lifted slightly off the ground.
“I fucking plan to,” I growled.
“Maybe I should drive,” he said as I blew through a red light and we barely missed getting t-boned by a truck.
“Not stopping,” I muttered, hands gripping the wheel until my knuckles were white.
“Leave him the fuck alone,” Scythe said from the back. Then he answered his phone as it started ringing. “Yeah, Prez. We’re already on the way.” He craned his head. “About to hit the highway. You’re not far behind.”
The buzzing in my head was making it hard to focus on his side of the conversation, or on the cursing from Jury and Cynic as I swerved when a cow stepped into my headlights.
“Who the fuck’s cows are out?” Cynic barked.
Torque was sitting in the back seat, watching everything with a neutral expression.
The kid was nearly always smiling. Not now.
He had his game face on. I was glad to have each of my brothers in the car with me.
It wasn’t like I couldn’t take on four assholes alone.
But taking them on and ensuring neither Rae nor Owen were hurt in the process?
That was a harder ask. I wouldn’t hesitate to throw myself into danger for anyone.
But with them as collateral damage, potentially hostages? I had to think before acting.
I wasn’t worried about getting pulled over.
An officer down call over the radio? Every cop in the vicinity was heading that way.
Hell, you could go do burnouts in the station’s parking lot and the deputies would ignore you right now.
I honestly didn’t even give a fuck if they got there first. As long as Rae and Owen got some damn back up.
“Don’t take that turn too-” Jury swallowed back the words as I turned onto Warren Road at nearly full speed and the back tires fish tailed. He fell silent after that, resigned to accept I’d get them there in one piece or today was the day he’d die.
“Up ahead.”
I reached my hand back and smacked Cynic in the forehead because he’d said that right in my ear as he leaned forward between the front seats to stare at the scene ahead.
As if I hadn’t seen the fucking fire fight between the police vehicles and who we all suspected was the Iron Circle Crew.
Who else would be in this area in force?
There were vehicles strewn everywhere. There were way more than four men out here now.
The bitch of it was this wasn’t even where Rae and Owen were. The bridge was still at least six miles away. Which meant reinforcements had been called for the Iron Circle. I didn’t even want to think about what that meant for Rae. It was something I couldn’t think of or I’d lose my shit.
“Get ready,” I told the others before sliding the vehicle to a stop. The dust cloud I created wafted over the group exchanging rounds. Everyone had their headlights still on, providing the only light out here as they fought.
We were out of the cage in a hurry and I ended up behind a police cruiser near a younger deputy named Joel. Poking my head above the hood, I surveyed the area, then ducked back down. “Hell of a day for a gun fight.”
“It’s night,” he said, looking at me in bewilderment. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Going to get my old lady… and Owen.”
“How’d you even… Wait, Rae is your old lady?” A grin formed on his face even though we didn’t have time for this conversation.
“Who’s in charge out here?” I asked, ignoring his question.
“Shane. He’s over by the furthest left squad-”
I didn’t let him finish. Dashing from car to car, I made my way over until I saw Shane. I ducked down behind his car. “How many?”
“You can’t be out here,” he barked, glaring at me.
“You seriously are turning down help when you’re outnumbered three to one?”
He considered that. “Damn it.”
“Did someone go ahead to help Rae and Owen?”
“Like who?” he asked. “We’ve got our whole fucking force right here. Bastards ambushed us as we came in.”
“They were waiting for you?” I asked, eyes narrowing.
“No. Came up on our asses and forced our hand. We had to stop to take care of them or risk them fucking following us to the bridge.” He gave me a grim look. “There’s too many of them. If we led them there, we would just bring more danger Rae and Owen’s way.”
That was pretty much why I’d stopped. I wanted to keep going but if these fuckers joined the others, it was going to be too damn dangerous. I just had to hope Rae was holding her own while we helped clear the rest of these fuckers out.
“Cypher and the others are on the way,” I told him. I popped up over the hood, aimed, and fired three times before ducking down again. Someone had screamed so I was sure my shots had landed.
“Not sure how I’m going to explain this one to the sheriff,” Shane told me.
“Tell him you deputized us in order to save his ass.”
He made a face. “Yeah, I don’t have that authority, but whatever.”
“Cavalry’s here,” I told him. “I’m going after Rae and Owen.”
I ran back to where new headlights were pulling in. “Give me a rifle and more mags,” I ordered Demo as I ran up to his vehicle. Dust spit up all around me as the fuckers across the road shot at me.
Demo handed the weapons out the window while Jury, Torque, and Cynic fell in behind me to grab more weapons as well. I’d just gotten back into the vehicle when Warrant and Ainsley climbed into the front seat.
She sat on his lap, scowling over at me. “What are you waiting for?”
Nothing.
I turned the vehicle on and cut the wheel hard to the right. Gripping the steering wheel, I floored the gas. Cypher, Scythe, and the others would stay behind and help the deputies take care of the fuckers pinning down the deputies.
“Go around the other way asshole!” Warrant barked as he wrapped his arms around Ainsley and pulled her down as much as possible.
Bullets pinged off metal and one of the back windows shattered as I drove around behind the Iron Circle.
“Then I can’t do this,” I told him as I mowed down two men in a row.
Hitting them was like hitting pot holes and it jostled all of us in the SUV as we ran over them.
There wasn’t time to turn and keep running them over though, so I cut back onto the road as soon as I cleared Shane’s cruiser and the last Iron Circle rig.
“Okay, that’s not fair,” Jury said from the back. “I want to run over shit bags too.”
“You’re all insane,” Ainsley said with a shake of her head. “But I’m so damn glad you’re on my side.”
We were quiet after that. There were six torturous miles to go, hitting ruts and washboard that caused the others to hit their heads on the top of the roof because I refused to take it at a gentler pace. My woman was out there and I wasn’t fucking stopping until I got to her.