Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Bear
The house they were holed up in was large. I wasn’t going to understate that, but it wasn’t big enough that the Ghost Rebels and the Nomads wouldn’t be able to bust in. There was no way that they had everyone here, Flynn hadn’t warned the others we were coming.
Maybe I wouldn’t have to revisit his wife and kids after all.
I motioned to Ace and Hawk that I was going around back.
They nodded, and Rebel soon joined me. Kirby and Joshua were hanging back to make sure we didn’t get surprised, Viper and Savage were on the other side.
The Nomads were scattered around, all weapons drawn.
I made sure not to make a sound as I looked in every window I came across.
There were men scattered all throughout each room, drinking and having a good time. I didn’t see Neal or Flynn anywhere.
A booming voice could be heard from another room I hadn’t seen yet, and I recognised it as Neal’s.
Slowly, I edged up to the window and peered in.
He was on the phone, and he looked none too pleased at whoever was speaking.
I looked around to see if there was anyone else in there, and that’s when my eyes landed on her.
Fucking Enna.
Ace’s mum was here, and she was helping the enemy? I mean, it’s not like I was surprised, she’d done it before as well, but to this degree? Helping the man who was trying to destroy her son’s happiness?
Fuck. He was going to lose his shit. I got down low and continued around the corner to the back of the house, my gun raised in case I heard anyone approach us. The silencer was on my gun, which I rarely used, but it was needed to sneak.
I liked the sound of the gunshot, the way it echoed in small rooms, deafening you. It proved just how deadly they were with just one sound.
I heard Dempsey’s voice, rather his yelling, when I got to the door and edged my way in with Rebel.
I made quick work of securing the room we were in before I headed down to the door I knew Dempsey was in.
It was at that moment that I heard guns blazing and yelling coming from the front and sides of the house.
Fuck.
I raised my leg and kicked the door in, the wood splintered on the sides as the door broke apart from the impact. Dempsey backed up. Seeing me, he got Flynn in a chokehold and motioned toward the corner of the room.
Orla was bundled up on the side of a bed, her eyes wide until she saw me. She flung herself off the bed and into my arms. I wrapped mine around her for a moment, before I planted her on her feet and looked into her eyes.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head. “No, can we go?”
“Yes,” I said. “After I kill a couple of fuckers.”
“No,” she demanded. “Let the others do that. I need to be away from here. With you. Please.”
“Go,” Dempsey said to me, throwing a passed out Flynn to the ground, and retrieving a gun from his ankle. “Get her away from here.”
I was hesitant, and then I saw he was half naked, in a room where Orla was half naked. A growl ripped from my throat before I could stop it.
“Why are you half fucking naked?” I asked him.
“She needed a shirt,” he said with a shrug, but he didn’t meet my eyes. Orla dragged me down to her.
“Please, Alex, let’s go. I’ll explain everything later.”
I could barely say no to her, and I knew it.
“Meet us at the clubhouse later,” I said to Dempsey. He nodded and ran out into the fray. I wanted to grab Flynn but I couldn’t wait any longer. Orla was already half out the door, walking straight into a gun battle.
“Fuck,” I grunted as I ran and shoved her behind me. I aimed my gun out and looked for any danger as I held onto her hand and kept her behind my back. The sounds were growing more and more menacing. I should be out there, helping my brothers, but I couldn’t tear myself away from Orla.
Out of nowhere, a face appeared in the doorway, blood splattered over his face and a sneer on his face. He came for us. I raised my gun and shot him between the eyes, moving us to the door. Rebel was there, his own face splattered with blood and a deep gash in his arm.
“Shit,” Orla gasped.
“Reb, take her, do not take your fucking eyes off her. Get to the van.”
He nodded, grabbing Orla by the arm, her protests falling on deaf ears as I moved down the hall and shot at any fucker I didn’t immediately recognise.
Ace was in a battle with one particularly nasty biker.
I shot him through the side of the head, blood spraying across Ace’s neck.
The guy fell, dead immediately, as Ace thanked me with a head nod.
“Get the fuck to your woman,” Hawk yelled. “Now.”
I saw the fury in his eyes, having had to be separated from his own woman because of this shit with Neal.
He was not someone you wanted to piss off, no matter how long we’d known each other, I knew he’d beat the ever living crap out of me for fun if it meant to get some frustration out.
I shot at another guy coming for Hawk and took off back down the hall, looking through every room to make sure they didn’t have someone else’s woman locked up here.
But I already knew what this was about and it was nothing to do with keeping women, and everything to do with Sheridan.
I raced out the back door, keeping an eye out for anyone coming out of the shadows. Most of the Nomads and our club were inside, and out the front, fighting, shooting, stabbing. My mind was on the van hidden down the street where Rebel was tasked with taking Orla.
Fear suddenly shot through me when I realised it should have been me taking her there, holding her, especially after everything she’d been through.
Fuck I was an asshole.
I heard a car start up from behind me, a garage door was open and bright headlights almost blinded me.
The engine roared to life and I watched as it came toward me, with no swerve insight.
I jumped out of the way, letting off a few rounds of my gun.
Landing on the hard ground, I heard Orla’s scream in the distance from behind me, just as I locked eyes on the driver.
Neal fucking Foley. He sped off faster than I could get up. I ran for the car, pushing Rebel toward one of the other cars we brought.
“Follow the fucking car! Foley’s inside.”
Rebel didn’t wait around, he ran toward one of the other cars we’d brought with us and hightailed it after the disappearing vehicle. I got in the van with Orla, turning to her.
Her eyes were wide with fear, and I knew I was too amped up to calm her down, but fuck I wanted to.
“You’re hurt.”
She held her hand over my arm, blood pooling from a cut just above the elbow.
“It’s a scratch,” I told her. “Come on.”
“Wait. You want to be inside, don’t you?”
“No, I want to be with you.”
It was a partial truth. I wanted to be with her, but I didn’t want to leave my brothers alone inside.
“I can get back to the clubhouse, you go back in there and fuck up everyone in there.”
“Babe.”
“Alex, I am perfectly capable of driving this thing back to the clubhouse where I know I’ll have Maree, Shona and whoever else is there to help me.”
I was torn. I loved how independent she was, it was one of the first things I had fallen for back when we were kids, but I didn’t want to leave her. I wanted to stay glued to her side, forever.
She leaned across the console between us and planted her lips on mine. Her little moan as I deepened the kiss was enough to send the signal to my dick that I wanted to be inside of her, but I didn’t know what she’d gone through.
She needed to rest.
She needed to be safe.
“You drive this fucking van straight to the clubhouse. I’m calling Maree right now, and she’ll be expecting you.”
Orla nodded. “I promise.”
I kissed her again, my lips crushing against hers hard.
“I’ll see you in a few.”
I got out of the van before I changed my mind and called Maree to tell her to expect Orla or go looking for her if she’s not there in two hours. She agreed and I hung up. The van took off, speeding straight to the clubhouse, while I ran back into the fray.
Hawk was up against the wall, a knife protruding from his leg while he fought his attacker.
I grabbed the fuckhead by the back of the neck and yanked him off Hawk, throwing him to the ground and putting my boot into his face.
He grunted, blood spewing out of his nose.
Hawk grabbed the blade from his leg and slammed it down into the guy’s neck.
“You need to get to a hospital,” I yelled at him. “That’s deep, and Morena ain’t here to help you.”
He nodded. “Fuck, I think you’re right.”
“Go,” I told him. I found Ace finishing off a couple of bikers.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he rounded on me.
“She’s on her way back to the clubhouse, no way in hell I’m leaving you alone in here. Hawk’s down, he needs to be seen to. Foley’s gone.”
Fear shot across his face, and I saw the look of defeat in his eyes. This wasn’t over.
“Rebel’s on his tail, but I don’t see him wanting to take us on after this. He’ll go into hiding.”
A fucking beast broke through the room we were in and came for Ace. I pulled my gun up and shot him in the head. He fell back, dead against the wall, leaving a smear.
“We’re almost done,” Ace said. “Not many left, but I know they have reserves somewhere.”
I nodded. “Yeah, Dempsey said there were heaps of guys here, but we easily dispatched in the matter of twenty minutes. He must have another place set up.”
“We need to get back to Kilkenny,” Ace said. “Figure out what to do next.”
I nodded. “Any casualties?”
Ace grunted. “Yeah, we lost a couple of Nomads. Joshua is down, but Kirby put him in a car. We need to get him and Hawk to a hospital.”
“Where are the girls? Too far to take them to Morena?”
I knew there would be questions if we brought them in with wounds like these. That’s why we had an on-call nurse to help us.
“We’ll call Morena’s doctor friend to come and help us.”