Chloe #3
The cabin appeared gradually through the branches.
The front porch was destroyed, and the door hung crookedly from one hinge.
Broken glass glittered across the ground, and bullet holes scarred the logs.
Two black SUVs were parked near the shed.
A man in tactical gear stood beside one of them, scanning the tree line.
Bowie raised his fist, and everyone stopped. He signaled to Ryder, and he disappeared silently to the right. Chloe’s pulse pounded in her ears. She tried to see inside the cabin. Nothing moved beyond the broken windows, and then a voice carried through the darkness.
“You brought company, Doc.” Doc froze as a man stepped from behind the shed—Marcus. She recognized him from old photographs Bowie kept in the club’s files. He was taller than she expected, with a rifle pressed against his shoulder and a smile that never reached his eyes.
“You should’ve kept running,” Marcus said.
Doc shifted in front of Chloe. “I should’ve killed you when you were sixteen.”
Marcus’s smile widened. “You had the chance.”
“I made a mistake,” Doc said.
“Yes, you did.” The shot came before Chloe saw Marcus pull the trigger and Doc jerked backwards. A dark stain bloomed across the front of his shirt.
“Doc!” she shouted. He staggered backward into Chloe, and she caught him.
Bowie fired almost immediately, and Marcus dropped behind the SUV as bullets tore into the side panel.
The clearing erupted into a war zone. Royal Bastards opened fire from the tree line.
Dante’s men answered from behind the cabin, the shed, and the vehicles.
Bowie grabbed Chloe and dragged her behind a thick oak as Doc collapsed at their feet. Chloe dropped beside him. Blood poured through his fingers as he pressed both hands against his stomach. “No,” she whispered. “No, no, no.”
Doc looked down as though mildly annoyed by the wound. “That’s unfortunate.”
“Dad, help him!” she shouted.
Bowie crouched beside them while continuing to scan the clearing. “Put pressure on the wound.” Chloe pressed both hands over Doc’s, and he winced.
“Harder,” Doc ordered.
“I’m hurting you,” she said.
“You’ll hurt me more if I bleed out,” Doc said. She leaned into him, putting more pressure on his wound as gunfire thundered around them. Doc’s face had already gone pale.
“You’re going to be okay,” Chloe said. He gave her a tired smile. “I’ve told that lie to a lot of people.”
“It isn’t a lie,” she insisted.
“Sweetheart—” Doc started.
“Don’t,” Chloe warned, sure that he was going to make some grand goodbye speech.
“Chloe,” he breathed.
“Don’t say goodbye.” His blood warmed her hands and tears blurred her vision.
“I have to get to Vengeance,” Doc whispered as he tried to get up from the ground.
“No,” Chloe said.
“He needs me.”
“He needs you alive,” she said. “He needs both of us.”
Doc smiled faintly. “That boy never needed me as much as he thought he did.”
“That’s not true,” she said.
“I gave him stitches and a place to sleep,” Doc said.
“You saved him,” Chloe cried.
“Savage saved him,” Doc insisted.
“You both did,” she said. Another burst of gunfire struck the tree, and Bowie leaned over them protectively.
“Ryder is moving toward the porch,” he said. “We’re getting into the cabin—one way or another.”
Doc coughed up blood, and Chloe’s panic became unbearable. “Please.”
Doc looked at Bowie. “Get them out.”
“I will,” Bowie promised. “Both of them.”
Doc turned his attention back to Chloe. “Tell Vengeance—” His breath shuddered, and Chloe pressed harder against the wound.
“You can tell him yourself,” she said.
“Tell him Savage was right,” Doc finished.
“About what?”
“He gets to choose who he becomes.” Doc’s eyes drifted toward the cabin. “And tell him the rest is beneath the floor.”
“The rest of what?”
“The proof,” Doc said.
“Where?” Bowie asked.
“At the old clinic,” Doc whispered. His voice weakened, and he coughed up more blood. “Room seven. Beneath the floor.”
Chloe leaned closer. “What’s beneath the floor?”
“The end of Dante Manzo.” A motorcycle engine roared suddenly from the far side of the cabin, and one of the SUVs started.
Bowie looked toward the clearing. “They’re pulling out.”
Chloe’s head snapped up. “What about Vengeance?” The cabin door burst open, and Vengeance stumbled onto the ruined porch with blood covering one side of his face.
His hands were bound in front of him, and Dante stood behind him with a pistol pressed to Vengeance’s ribs.
Dante’s gaze moved across the tree line before settling on Chloe.
Even from that distance, she felt him recognize her, and his smile turned mean.
“There she is.” Vengeance followed his stare, and the instant he saw Chloe, something changed in him. Relief—or maybe it was fear that she saw in his eyes- but it was all followed by fury when he noticed Doc bleeding at her feet.
“Doc?” His voice broke.
Doc’s eyes opened one last time, and he looked toward Vengeance and smiled. “You did good, kid.” The words were barely audible beneath the gunfire, but Vengeance heard them. Chloe saw it on his face.
Doc’s body went still beneath her hands. “No,” she sobbed. Vengeance stared at him and then lifted his head and drove it backward into Dante’s face as the clearing exploded into chaos.