Chapter 24 Ranger
RANGER
“Goddamn it, come on,” I grumbled as I fumbled with my camera.
We were about five minutes away from the clubhouse and I wanted a fresh video. I wanted to be able to hand over all this footage to Cap so that he could see, step by step, exactly how this evening played out.
I couldn’t wait to send this shit to our contact at the DOJ.
“You okay?” Lizzie rasped out.
I finally got my phone slipped back into its pocket before a bullet pinged off the asphalt in front of me.
“I will be once we get back to the crew,” I grumbled.
We performed evasive maneuvers until we were blue in the face. I followed Ghost’s lead with anything he did, and we did our best to shake those tails. Ghost didn’t want to fire back, and I was glad that he didn’t. I had hours of so much footage of us just being pursued, rather than firing back.
That would look very appealing to the DOJ.
Thank fuck I kept this new phone air gapped.
I turned my helmeted head over my shoulder one last time, only to see someone aiming their sights at me through their fucking windshield, of all things. The damn thing was busted out, and my eyes widened as I honked my horn twice at Ghost.
We split to each side, and the bullet trail whizzed right through where we would have been.
I counted the cars. There were three of them. I wasn’t sure if they were emblazoned with that logo, but something told me they would be. I searched for any sign that the crew was ready for them. We were less than three miles out from the clubhouse.
Then I spotted it.
And so did Ghost, because he pointed ever so briefly.
Our sniper was up in his perch.
“Oh, hell yeah,” I muttered.
“What?” Lizzie croaked out.
“Stay quiet and keep tucked against me,” is all I said.
I watched as the sniper flashed something at us. Didn’t take a genius to know that it was morse code. I squinted my eyes, counting the blinks and the pauses as our sniper repeated one word over and over again with the glint of his scope.
‘Strip.’
I grinned as Ghost and I brought our bikes back together. The bullets stopped, so we had a moment before we needed to start our tactics once more. I wasn’t sure if he saw the sniper, so I rode close enough to him to reach out and touch his shoulder with my hand.
I pointed up to the sniper’s perch.
His helmet moved in that direction. It stayed twisted like that for a while. But then he looked back at me and nodded.
So we both sped up.
The cars kept with us, and I hated that. I hated that we couldn’t outrun those motherfuckers. But once the clubhouse broke the horizon and came into view, I set my sights on it. Just a little longer, and I’d be able to deliver on the promise I made to Marla.
“Come oooon,” I growled as I stepped on the gas, pushing my bike to the limit, “we have to create space.”
“Space?” Lizzie croaked out. “For what?”
I stayed silent while Ghost and I sped past the clubhouse. And sure enough, the instant I looked in the sideview mirror of my bike, I saw a shadowed figure tossing out our spike strips. I didn’t even get a chance to look over at Ghost and grin before we heard the bombastic sound.
Pop-pop, pop-pop! Pop, pop-pop-pop! Pop-pop!
Tires popped. Metal crunched. Gunfire ceased for a moment while the sounds of metal twisting in onto itself echoed from behind us. Ghost slammed on his brakes and twisted around, pulling a gun off his hip and aiming it, just in case.
“Hang on,” I muttered as I slammed on my brakes as well.
Lizzie yelped as I yanked the bike around, kicking up dust and sand as I did so. Ghost fired his weapon before pulling the other gun off his hip.
The dust still hadn’t settled enough for me to see through it.
“Get that phone safe!” Ghost called out over the ruckus.
I just nodded at him before I revved my engine and kicked up rocks, speeding back toward the clubhouse.
I searched for Marla in all of the chaos, but I didn’t see any of the women. Cap must’ve given the order to get them into the shelter. That was the best place for—
Wait a second, Marla was in the shelter.
Crammed in that little room.
“Fuck,” I hissed as I skidded to a stop at the porch of the clubhouse.
“Doc!” I barked as I yanked off my helmet.
The man was at my side in a heartbeat. “You must be Miss Liz. We’ve heard a lot about you. Let’s get you untangled from Mr. Hairy over here, yes?”
I shot Doc a look. “Really? Mr. Hairy?”
But Doc’s attention wasn’t even sort of on me.
His full attention was on Lizzie.
The fabric fell from around my stomach before he hoisted Lizzie into his arms. The two of us rushed inside, and I fumbled with my phone as I stood by the front door. I stopped the recorded video that was going and I cued up a new one, trying to find the best place to set it up.
But all hell broke loose much too soon for me to do that.
“Get those videos uploaded somewhere!” I heard Cap bark.
I stood at the window, watching as the gunfire rang out.
The cars were flipped. Tires were popped.
Their cars were useless. I made sure to zoom in on the logos that I saw, documenting everything that I could.
I zoomed in on the bodyguards, massive men who barely knew how to hold their firearms right, and I caught all of it on camera.
Every time they pursued someone on the crew with their bullets.
Every time they tried tackling one of my brothers to the ground.
Hell, I even caught one of the assholes shooting in front of him, dinging bullets off the front facade of our clubhouse as he tried making his way to the front porch. He didn’t get far, though.
Because a glint from a tree across the road shone just for a moment before a hole appeared between his eyes and I watched the life drained from his face.
“Stupid bitch,” I muttered as the body dropped to the ground on the porch steps.
“Now, Ranger!” Cap roared.
I wouldn’t disobey my president a second time, so I scrambled away from the window.
I tried not to think about all of the fighting.
I tried not to get myself caught up in the need to go find Marla just so I could take her into my arms and reassure her that I was fine, she was fine, and Lizzie was more than fine now that Doc had her.
But I had a mission.
And it wasn’t finished yet.
“Come ooon,” I growled as I waited for my computers to boot up, “let’s get on with this.”
My leg jiggled as the screens booted up.
My hands flew a million miles a second over the keyboard while I heard Cap barking orders.
Stray bullets clipped the clubhouse and slammed into the dirt.
The smell of engine fuel tainted the air.
I heard Cap barking orders about retreating from the cars, and it made my fingers fly even faster.
I waited until everything was booted up and running smoothly before I dared to plug my phone in.
Plugging any piece of technology made it vulnerable from the get-go.
People could hack anything nowadays, which was why I enjoyed operating on air gapped technology as much as possible.
When I slid the hookup into the port at the bottom of the phone, I already had plans on replacing its innards so that I could refresh it again.
I watched as my computer recognized the phone.
I clicked ‘yes’ to every screen prompt it gave me until the downloading of the videos began.
But even with our robust internet that I made sure to upkeep, it would still take a little while for these videos to download.
Ghost and I were gone for damn near four hours.
We weren’t too far out from sunrise, to be honest. And I had at least that much time in footage alone.
“Come on, please pay off,” I grumbled as I waited for my computer to calculate the download time.
I damn near leapt for joy when the computer told me it would only take thirty minutes to download four hours’ worth of footage.
“Yes!” I hissed as I shoved my fists into the air.
I heard a window shatter in the distance.
I wanted to leave and go see what in the hell that was about.
But I knew that if I was away from my post, Cap wouldn’t just give me hell, but Ghost would, too.
I knew it was a touchy subject for him, leaving a post. I didn’t know much about his background, he never really talked about it, but I knew enough to know that he blamed himself for a lot.
So instead of pissing off the guys, I swallowed my worry over Marla and watched the computer screen like a fucking hawk.
But that didn’t mean I wasn’t armed.
When I saw that the download would basically be uninterrupted for a while, I rushed out of my seat.
I went over to my closet that Marla camped out in for the longest time when she first got here and I reached up on top of the closet shelf.
I felt around for my shotgun. I felt around for the case of ammo I always kept stored up there.
And as I dragged the double-barreled gun off the shelf, I checked to make sure it was loaded.
I stuffed my pockets full of shells.
Just in case.
“Get the videos downloaded,” I muttered as I closed the barrel up. “Get them sent off to DOJ,” I said as I cocked the shotgun. “Get to Marla.”
I repeated that plan over and over in my head as I walked over to the computer. I checked on the downloads to make sure they were still doing their thing, and then I turned my office chair around and stared right at my bedroom door.
Because no one was getting to this computer unless I was dead.