Chapter 23 #2
With a shake of his head, Chaos tried to open the driver’s door, but it was locked. “Open the damn door.”
The second Bri unlocked the doors, Chaos flung hers open. “What the fuck happened?”
“You want the short or long version?”
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” Chaos bit out. “Souls do this?”
“Well, we certainly didn’t run into the White Tail Deer MC out here.”
Lyric groaned at Bri’s attempt at levity.
The rear door closest to Lyric was jerked open and luckily, she didn’t have a seat belt on, because with one yank, Ash had her out of the back seat and onto her feet. He glanced over at Reaper. “Check on the big mouth in the passenger seat while I deal with this one.”
This one?
Avery climbed out. “Did you call me a big mouth?”
“Am I fuckin’ wrong?” Ash snarled at her.
“Eh,” Avery responded with a shrug.
He bared his teeth at her, adjusted his firm grip on Lyric’s bicep, then pulled her a few yards away from the car. He spun her around to face him and visually inspected her from head to toe. “You good?”
“Yes.” She kept her answer simple because now was not the time to get into the smaller details, like batting practice and nut relocation. No, that could definitely wait. “How did you find us?”
“Vi has a way to track your phones. Thank fuck.”
“Wait. What?” They were being tracked? Or was it possible because of their cell phones?
“She said you were chasin’ some goddamn Souls.” The first part came out tightly controlled, but the roar that came next made her wince. “Are you fuckin’ crazy?” He didn’t even wait for her answer before grinding out, “Where are they?”
“We…uh…”
Reaper was suddenly standing next to Ash with his nostrils flared and his body tight. Was he worried Ash would flip the fuck out and hurt her?
Lyric wasn’t because she knew Ash would never do that.
“Where?” Reaper asked her in a more reasonable tone.
“The last we saw them was maybe five miles south of here?” She wasn’t great with distances.
Ash and Reaper exchanged glances. “Let’s go.”
The three of them closed the short gap between them and the others. Ash turned toward Chaos. “Get ‘em home.”
“Brother…”
“No, someone needs to get them the fuck home ‘cause I got some important shit to do.”
“We,” Reaper corrected.
Ash took a breath. “Yeah, that. Grim, Ghost,” he called out, “you’re with us. Chaos is escortin’ the women home. Got no time to waste if we’re gonna track those motherfuckers down.” He met Lyric’s eyes. “Go home and stay there.”
“What do you plan on—”
“Go home, Lyric.”
His tone brooked no argument. That meant the five men got back on their sleds while the ladies returned to the car.
Reaper, Grim, Ghost, and Ash raced south to find the Souls, while Chaos waited for Bri to pull out and head home.
Lyric turned to watch Ash and the rest vanish in record time to deal with the Souls. If the outlaw bikers were still where they’d left them.
If so, it would now be a fair fight.
If there was even a fight at all.
Rage took the lead as they raced south on Fisher Road. He wanted to catch up to the Souls before they got away. He had a message to give them.
When they came up over the rise in the road, Rage had to do a double-take.
It didn’t look like the four Souls were going anywhere anytime soon. One was sprawled on the pavement and the others stood around him.
Was he fucking dead? And how the fuck did he get that way?
Taking in the whole scene, he noticed a couple of those outlaws slightly hunched over with one cupping his crotch and another bleeding from his head. From which orifice, Rage had no fucking clue, but he also couldn’t care less.
Fuck those motherfucking assholes. If they weren’t bleeding out now, Rage would fix that for them.
Before they got any closer, Rage and the Shadows slowed to a stop.
Grim yanked down the bandana covering his lower face. “Holy fuck.”
Ghost did the same. “Think the women did this?”
“It sure wasn’t the White Tail Deer MC,” Rage muttered. “Must be why the front of Bri’s car’s fucked up.” The vehicle was the biggest weapon the women could’ve used.
Reaper whistled softly. “No shit.”
Grim chuckled. “Bunch of fucking pussies. Let three women best them. Look at ‘em.”
“Fuck. They’re now looking at us,” Ghost announced. “We’ve been spotted.”
“Think they’ll leave their buddy behind?” Grim asked.
Handguns appeared in the three upright motherfuckers’ hands.
“Fuck no, think they’re gonna try takin’ us on,” Rage announced.
“Dumb fucks,” Reaper muttered. “Probably best we head for cover. Not a fan of giving them a clear fucking target.”
None of them were.
They quickly moved sleds off the road and into the wooded area. The second the first shot whizzed by them and struck a tree, they ducked for cover a lot fucking quicker.
Rage hid behind the widest tree he could find and pressed his back to it. “Everybody armed?”
Grim shot him an are you fucking serious? look. Yeah, dumb question. They were Shadows, of course they’d be fucking armed.
He pulled out his Ruger G43. Being sub-compact and light, it was easy to conceal inside his cut. Only, it wasn’t great for long distance accuracy. At least for his skillset. It was much better when his enemy was up close and personal.
Glocks appeared in all three Shadows’ hands as they also used nearby trees for cover.
“Want a shootout or them dead?” Reaper asked only loud enough for Rage to hear since he was the closest.
“Fuck the shootout. Dead is best. We’re on a fuckin’ public road, fast will be better than fun.”
Another shot rang out and bark from a tree less than ten feet away exploded around them.
“Then you won’t need your weapon,” Reaper said calmly, but also warned, “They’re all about to go night-night, so you won’t be able to get any info from them. You good with that?”
“Don’t need to hear any bullshit they gotta say.”
With a single nod, Reaper turned his attention back to the Souls. The three still-mobile bikers hadn’t even gone for cover. They seemed to be protecting their fallen comrade.
That would make taking them out easy as shit. Especially when it came to a former Marine recon sniper.