29. Chapter 29
Chapter 29
BERNIE
F ord and Emma stood behind me as I knocked on Kat’s front door. Back that afternoon after I’d reached out to Emma, there was something I wanted to do that I’d never had the chance to do before. And it was something I no longer wanted to do without her.
Footsteps neared the entrance, and then the handle spun. Kat’s dad’s face appeared in the entranceway. His brows furrowed, the tips dusted with gray. “What do you want?”
“To see if Kat wants to go out for a bit. With all of us,” I replied, gesturing to the two behind me.
“Who’s that?” her dad asked, nodding at the big man I called best friend and brother.
“Ford. My buddy,” I said.
“We were also wondering if we could borrow a couple ATVs?” Emma added with a smile.
Kat’s dad glanced around us, squinting through the darkness. “Quite a storm.”
“Quite some deep mud,” I replied.
A twinkle danced behind his eyes as he returned his focus to me. “Rumor has it, you’re from the city. So, how do you know about mudding?”
“I’ve traveled quite a bit. And it’s not something I’ve been able to do for fun yet.” I kept my gaze locked with his, hoping beyond hope he really had as poor of eyesight as Kat said and didn’t notice the outline of my dog tags beneath my damp shirt. Nor Ford’s.
He crossed his arms. “She can if Levi and Beau are good to join. I don’t need y’all doing something too stupid. Plus, Sawyer’s out with Wyatt, and this would let me have some time with their mom,” he said, offering me a condition.
And clearly supervision whether he totally knew it or not.
“No problem,” I replied.
He nodded curtly. “Emma, you know where the four-wheelers are. Take these two men to grab them from the barn, and I’ll send Kat with her brothers to meet y’all. Be smart, and if I get so much as a whiff that someone ended up in the fucking hospital, one of you will be six feet under and someone else will be behind bars. Don’t care who.” His gaze narrowed on me.
“Understood.” I rolled my shoulders. “My mom said something similar when Raiden left with his girlfriend a bit ago.”
Kat’s dad stared for a moment longer, and then slammed the door shut in my face. I glanced over my shoulder, raising a brow at Ford and Emma as my eye caught sight of Wyatt jogging across a pasture. Parked alongside the fence line was a truck with passengers I couldn’t quite make out.
Something rumbled with suspicion in my stomach, but the door creaking open tore my attention away.
Kat.
With my legs draped on either side of her, I twisted my palms tighter around the black metal bars, stabilizing myself as she gunned the four-wheeler. Her laughter echoed through the pouring rain as mud sprayed up on either side of us. Emma followed us next, driving one ATV with Levi holding on to her waist, and Ford brought up the rear, letting Beau be in charge of the throttle on his ATV—mostly.
Kat’s hair stuck to her cheeks and back; what little modesty the black T-shirt offered her did nothing to hinder my wandering thoughts. Every roll, every curve, every sweep of her body as she muscled the four-wheeler through feet of mud and brown sludge had me dripping with more than water.
The clouds still dark above let loose with torrential rainfall. One that hadn’t ceased in the past hour or so. Adrenaline flooding thick in my veins kept the cold at bay as we careened around another corner. My grin widened, watching this woman outdrive even me. She might possibly give Mikey a run for his money too, and I took a mental note to have Mikey and Scottie out the next time it rained like this. Just to see .
As Kat straightened the ATV, having lost Ford and Emma in the sheet of thick mud spraying up around us, I reached forward and took advantage of our momentary solitude. Snaking my hand up her soggy shirt, I found her breast and squeezed. Her giggle permeated the air, sweet like honey and warm apple pie on a chilly autumn afternoon.
She shook her head, whipping the four-wheeler around another corner, and I used her boob to help keep me steady along with the metal bar still clutched in my other hand. Peppering her wet neck with kisses, the serenity surrounding us heightened as we broke through a band of trees into this small, secluded meadow.
Pines reached toward the sky, scraping the black clouds with Aspens swaying against the storm. They encircled this solitary meadow where a field of small, short, wild sunflowers had once been growing. Most of the stems were missing the heads, and the yellow petals had all but blown away.
Except for one.
Within the center of this small, secluded grove, resting on the ground, was the last broken sunflower. I slid my hand out of Kat’s shirt and tapped her on the waist. She let her thumb off the throttle as I raised my finger and pointed at the singular sunflower head, cradled at the bottom of the flower bed.
“Wait here,” I said, sliding my legs out from around her. The four-wheeler bobbed as I jumped off the back and raced around the front. Kat waited, seated on the ATV behind me as I sloshed through the thick field; mud caked my boots that had been untouched by any machine.
Pausing, I stood above the final slice of yellow amidst such dull colors. Dampened by the rain and storm, everything but this flower looked to be a pale shade of gray. What were bright greens and browns on a typically sunny day, had turned cold.
Much like I once was.
Much like I still often was.
But, amongst the depraved, tortured corners of my soul, waited someone who was warm and kind. Feisty.
And after this damn prom shit got fixed, someone who would be mine.
Inhaling deeply, the rain crashing thick droplets down my neck, I felt none of the piercing cold as the thought of Kat warmed my heart. Breaking down barriers that I hadn’t realized I’d built, she’d come crashing into my world to make it better.
Fuck was I grateful that she’d forgiven me for hitting her with that bottle cap.
Stooping, a crack split the air as I reached for the flower.
A crack I was all too intimately familiar with.
The bullet sliced right above my back, narrowly missing me. Snapping my hand to the revolver waiting in my waistband, I ripped it out as a thwunk saturated my ears.
And a scream shot through the air.
The blood stilled in my veins. My muscles seized by the haunting sound of a bullet ripping flesh.
Duncan.
Duncan right behind me had just been speaking. His voice now a haunting echo in my mind. “I bet Crow had to teach Viper how to properly pull out,” he said. A damn fucking joke.
Cement flashed across my vision, blackened from the night sky. Dust swirled in the air as my laugh twisted.
My peripherals darkened. Nothing but the helmet of Ford in front of me was visible. A sniper had dropped someone I called friend. Someone I called brother.
And I’d laughed.
I’d fucking laughed.
My fingers tightened on the gun, pointed forward. A weapon that no longer collected dust in a glove box.
Wait, forward.
A glove box. A revolver.
I wasn’t overseas. Snapping my mind away from the deserted village that every thought swam toward, I breathed in sharply. That was all in the past. That sound. That bullet. That event. I was in the middle of a beautiful grove.
With Kat.
But that scream was real and hadn’t come from Duncan.
Lifting my gaze from the flower in one hand, my focus slid down the sight of the revolver and locked onto a face of none other than Wyatt across from me with two men I only vaguely recognized on either side of him. Wyatt’s eyes were wide, frozen over my shoulders. The rifle he had tucked against his body remained trained in my direction, but a smidge too high.
If I’d stayed standing for another half a second, it would’ve hit me.
So, why had he screamed? Where had the thwunk come from? A bullet hitting a tree trunk did not sound the same as when it hit flesh. I knew the difference too intimately and—
My muscles convulsed, twitched. A rattle shot through my bones as I slowly spun on my heels, denying the devastating thought that shot into my head.
“No,” I whispered as the four-wheeler behind me came into view.
Duncan’s grin flashed in front of me. Everything real was as fuzzy as the sky full of rainy clouds.
Blood clung to the back of my neck, sticky and hot. My laugh rang through the dark, echoing long after he crumpled to the ground.
Mikey’s face paled and twisted into confused rage. He stared down at the man who’d only a moment ago been speaking. So casually.
“Kat?!” A voice shrieked.
My brows knitted together. Kat? There was no one out here with the name of—
Feet crashed past me, a blur of jeans and cowboy boots thrashing through mud as I remained locked in a squatted position.
“KAT!” the man shouted again.
A man I knew. Not Mikey.
Wyatt.
Blinking rapidly, the rain resumed, cold on my neck.
Kat.
The ATV crystallized in my vision again, and there she was, slumped backward against the front of the four-wheeler, unmoving.
“No,” I roared, spinning around as a body slammed into me.
This wasn’t happening. Nobody was shot. I hadn’t failed to protect her. The sound, the frenzy was all because of… of Duncan? Of… Kat ?
Sludge slid up my nostrils as I gasped for air. Pressure against the back of my head kept my face shoved into the mud. Water beat down upon my body.
I’d failed.
Again.
Releasing a guttural bellow, I slammed my palms against the mud and threw myself backward. I needed to get to her. I wouldn’t be the reason she died too. As I rolled to the side, I caught the wrist of the man who’d kept me pinned to the ground and crashed on top of him. With a glance at the wrist in my hand, a spider tattoo peeked out beneath my fingers.
And his fist slammed into my jaw.
Stars swirled in my vision as the dust settled around me. Cold concrete beneath my feet sent shivers up my spine as a pounding against my skull heightened. I shook my head in a daze.
I’d failed to protect Duncan.
His lifeless body, crumpled at my feet, was all that remained of the man who’d just been joking with the rest of us. Mikey seemed as frozen as the ice crystallizing in my veins. But despite the intense shock, I knew I needed confirmation for myself. I needed to know if he was truly…dead.
Stooping, I placed my fingers to his neck, desperately begging that a pulse would pound beneath my touch. But nothing.
Another rattle through my jaw split the scene in front of me.
The dust and concrete zapped away, and my knees sunk deeper into the mud. Beneath me, a man covered in sludge squirmed, and he twisted his wrist caught tightly in my grasp.
Wait, spider tattoo. Cartel .
“KAT!” I shouted, glancing up from the assailant as I slammed my hand around his free forearm, blocking a third blow.
Shouting echoed amongst the downpour, a jumble of curse words and instructions crashed from a swarm of people rushing toward the one woman I cared about. They all sprinted after Wyatt who slid to a stop in front of Kat. I released one wrist I held and slammed my elbow against the nose of the enemy keeping me from reaching her.
“KAT!” I bellowed again and pummeled the man once more. Like dry wood splitting, his bones shattered beneath the force, and he fell limp.
Rising, the world swayed and spun as rain flashed to dust and then back to a blurry scene of a different man rescuing my woman. Wyatt scooped Kat’s body into his lap, and he whipped his head around in a frenzy.
I sprinted forward, and like a wrecking ball to brick, a body barreled into my back. The world turned dark as mud coated my vision and flew up my nose. Rolling to the side, I thrashed at my new attacker and managed to throw him off to the side. Scrambling upright, I wiped the sludge off my eyes to the best of my ability.
Wyatt raced around to the side of the four-wheeler, climbed up, and grabbed the handlebars with Kat flopped carelessly across his lap. Two hands latched around my ankles. With a jerk, the man ripped me to the ground again. Digging my fingers into the mud, I attempted to drag myself toward Kat.
Through the blurred muck another ATV roared into view, and a man I knew drifted his tires to a halt. Ford launched himself off the vehicle. “GO GET EMMA!” he shouted at Beau as he raced directly toward the woman I’d failed. Beau slammed his thumb against the throttle and disappeared back into the trees.
“KAT!” I screamed through the silt sliding down my throat. Kicking against the restraints holding me to the ground, I pointed a finger at Wyatt and Kat. Ford gave me a quick nod without faltering in his sprint toward her.
And two cartel members launched themselves at Ford, tackling him to the ground.
Wyatt grabbed the handlebars. In a flurry of mud, he zoomed off, leaving the rifle that had just shot Kat behind.