Chapter 7 Ambush
AMBUSH
TANK
We rode out at midnight. Eight bikes cutting through the darkness like a blade, engines growling in the kind of synchronized harmony that only came from years of riding together.
The sound was a heartbeat, a war drum, the voice of machines built for exactly this purpose.
Hawk led the formation, Axel at his right shoulder, the rest of us falling into positions we'd held through a dozen operations before this one.
The air was cold at speed, sharp with the promise of autumn, carrying the scent of sage and dry grass from the hills around us.
Stars overhead were bright enough to cast shadows, the moon a silver blade hung low on the horizon.
No headlights yet—we rode by moonlight and memory, the road a familiar ribbon beneath our wheels.
Tyler rode beside me on a borrowed Sportster—not the same one, never the same one, that bike was twisted metal and ash now.
But close enough in feel that his body had adapted quickly.
He'd been quiet during the briefing, absorbing Axel's intel about the route, the timing, the likely resistance.
His questions had been sharp, tactical: How many riders?
What weapons? What's their communication protocol?
FBI questions. The questions of a man who'd planned operations like this before.
I'd seen the look in his eyes when Hawk had handed him a weapon: not fear, not hesitation. Recognition. The look of a man returning to something familiar, something he'd been trained for, something that lived in his bones even when he tried to bury it.
He'd done this before. Not with us, not on bikes, but the shape of it—the planning, the execution, the controlled violence of a tactical operation. This was the world he'd lived in for years before Cross had poisoned everything.
The highway stretched empty before us, a ribbon of gray cutting through black hills.
The only other traffic was a distant truck, its lights a fading smear on the horizon behind us.
Fifteen miles to the intercept point. Axel's intel said the Wolves moved their shipment every Wednesday, same route, same timing.
Predictable. Vulnerable. They used a cargo van flanked by four riders—enough firepower to discourage casual interference, not enough to attract attention.
They weren't expecting us.
Hawk's hand signal rippled down the formation: five miles out.
I checked my mirrors, found Tyler holding position exactly where he should be, his posture relaxed but alert.
Even in the darkness, even through the anonymity of helmet and leather, I could read his readiness in the set of his shoulders.
The gun at his hip was a Glock 19—his preference, he'd said, from his Bureau days.
Fifteen rounds in the magazine, one in the chamber.
He'd checked it three times before we left.
The road began to climb, winding into the foothills where the terrain would work in our favor.
Narrow lanes carved into the hillside, blind curves that hid what waited around them, limited escape routes for anyone caught in the middle.
The Wolves would be boxed in before they knew what was happening.
Two miles. Hawk killed his headlight, and we followed suit, the formation going dark.
The moonlight was enough to see by, barely, the road a pale ghost beneath our wheels.
We slowed, engines dropping to a mutter, and I felt the familiar tension settling into my muscles—the coiled readiness that came before violence.
My heartbeat slowed, steadied, finding the rhythm it always found before a fight.
Not calm, exactly. Focused. The whole world narrowing to what mattered: the road, my brothers, the enemy ahead.
One mile. I could see the glow of headlights ahead, coming around a curve. The van first, white and unmarked, riding low on its suspension with the weight of its cargo. Four bikes flanking it, two front, two rear, their riders visible as dark shapes against the lights.
Hawk raised his fist. We stopped, engines idling, hidden in the shadow of a granite outcropping that had probably been here since the mountains were young.
The van approached. I counted seconds, watching the headlights grow brighter, listening to the rumble of engines that weren't ours.
The Wolves rode with the casual arrogance of men who'd never been challenged on this route—spacing loose, attention divided, one of the rear riders actually checking his phone.
The glow of the screen lit his face blue and careless.
Amateurs. Or just complacent. Either way, it would cost them.
Hawk's fist dropped.
We moved.
The first thirty seconds were chaos.
Phoenix poured onto the road from three directions—Hawk and Axel from the front, their bikes screaming out of a side cut that the Wolves hadn't even noticed. Blade and Irish flanked wide, coming up on the van's blind spots. The rest of us came up hard from behind, engines roaring, closing the trap.
The Wolves' formation shattered before they understood what was happening. Bikes scattered like startled birds, riders shouting, trying to process the sudden shift from routine to combat.
I heard gunfire—someone on their side, panicked, shooting wild. The muzzle flash lit up the night in strobing orange, and the shots went high, punching into the hillside twenty feet above us with sharp cracks of splintering stone. Undisciplined. Afraid.
Good.
Instinct took over. I dropped low over my handlebars and opened the throttle, closing the distance to the van in seconds.
The wind tore at my jacket, cold and fierce, and the engine beneath me roared its hunger.
The rear riders were trying to turn, to form some kind of defensive line, but we were already among them—too close, too fast, too committed to stop.
Tyler was at my left shoulder.
He moved like water—fluid, precise, every action economical.
No wasted motion, no hesitation. His Sportster darted between a Wolf trying to draw his weapon and the van's rear bumper, threading a gap that couldn't have been more than two feet wide.
I saw his arm extend, steady as stone, saw the muzzle flash bright against the darkness.
The Wolf jerked, his hand spasming away from his gun. His bike wobbled, then went down hard, sliding across the asphalt in a shower of sparks that traced a bright line across the pavement. The rider rolled clear, screaming—a sound that cut through the engine noise, high and raw.
Leg shot. Tyler had aimed for the leg. Disabling, not killing. The precision of a man who knew exactly what his weapon could do.
Another Wolf came at us from the right, emerging from behind the van with his gun already up.
I swerved hard, felt the bullet pass close enough to hear its whisper, and then Blade was there—materializing from the chaos like a ghost made solid.
His bike slammed into the Wolf's from the side, a controlled collision that sent both machines skidding across the asphalt in a tangle of chrome and limbs.
Blade rolled clear, came up with his own weapon drawn before he'd stopped moving, and put two rounds into the Wolf's shoulder. The man went down, clutching the wound, his gun skittering away into the darkness.
The van driver panicked.
I saw the brake lights flare red, saw the vehicle start to swerve as the driver tried to process what was happening around him.
Then Ghost was there—young, stupid, brave Ghost, cutting across the van's path with maybe three inches to spare.
His engine screamed defiance, and the van driver yanked the wheel to avoid him.
Too hard. Too fast.
The van fishtailed, its rear end swinging wide, tires howling against asphalt. The driver tried to correct, overcorrected, and then the rear wheel caught the soft shoulder of the road.
The van rolled.
Once, twice, the screech of metal against stone drowning out everything else. It came to rest on its side with a crunch that I felt in my chest, glass shattering outward in a glittering spray, cargo spilling from the buckled rear doors.
The remaining Wolves broke and ran. Two of them made it past our line, disappearing into the darkness with their engines screaming, choosing survival over loyalty.
The others weren't so lucky—Irish had one pinned against the hillside, his bike blocking the only escape route.
Hawk was already dismounting, his weapon out, moving toward the last rider with the unhurried confidence of a man who knew he'd already won.
I killed my engine and swung off the bike, my boots hitting pavement that was still warm from the van's tires.
"Tank!"
Tyler's voice, sharp with warning.
I spun.
The van's rear doors had burst open in the crash, and a figure was crawling out—a Wolf I hadn't accounted for, a fifth man riding in the cargo area. His face was bloody from the rollover, his movements unsteady, but the gun in his hand was plenty steady as it came up toward my chest.
Time stretched. I saw the muzzle, the finger tightening on the trigger, the five feet between us that might as well have been five miles.
Tyler's shot echoed across the hillside.
The Wolf's arm snapped sideways, the gun flying from fingers that could no longer grip. He collapsed against the van's twisted frame with a scream, clutching his ruined forearm.
"Clear!" Tyler called, already moving to secure him.
I stood there for a moment, my heart hammering, watching Tyler work.
He kicked the fallen weapon away, checked the Wolf for other threats with quick, professional pats along his body, zip-tied his wrists with the kind of practiced efficiency that spoke of hundreds of repetitions.
No wasted motion. No hesitation. Just clean, professional work.
A threat I'd missed. A bullet I would have taken.
Tyler had saved my life.
"Ghost is down!"