Chapter 31 Ash
ASH
Ihang up and the phone drops from my hand.
For three seconds, I can’t move.
A bullet punches through the window frame six inches from my head and sprays splinters across my face.
“Ash!” Titan’s voice cuts through the fog. His hand clamps on my shoulder and shakes me hard enough to rattle my teeth. “What the fuck are you doing? Get your head in the game!”
I snap back to reality. The compound is still under siege. Brothers are still fighting and dying. The Savage Legion is still trying to tear down everything we’ve built.
And I’m standing here frozen like a goddamn rookie.
I grab my rifle from where it’s propped against the wall and move back to the window. Glass crunches under my boots. The air reeks of gunpowder and burning wood, thick enough to choke on.
Outside, the Savage Legion is regrouping for another push. I can see at least fifteen bikes circling beyond the fence line, riders armed with everything from pistols to automatic rifles. They’re not backing down. Not even close.
I raise my weapon and start firing.
The rifle kicks against my shoulder with each shot, and I force myself to focus on the mechanics. Breathe. Aim. Squeeze. Follow through. The same motions I’ve performed thousands of times, so ingrained I could do them in my sleep.
A Savage Legion rider goes down. Then another. But more keep coming to replace them.
My hands are shaking. I can see it in the way the barrel wavers, in the way my aim is off by inches when it should be perfect. Every shot I take, I’m thinking about Ghost. About Bonnie alone and terrified with blood on her hands.
About how I just told her I wasn’t coming.
“West wall needs backup!” someone shouts from across the room.
“Barnes, take three men and reinforce!” I order without looking away from my target. My voice comes out steady even though everything inside me is screaming to drop the gun and run.
More gunfire erupts from the west side. One of our brothers—kid named Martinez who just got his patch last month—takes a round to the leg and goes down hard with a scream that cuts through the chaos. Two prospects drag him behind cover while he clutches at the wound.
The garage is fully engulfed now, flames reaching twenty feet high and casting orange light across the compound. Black smoke billows into the predawn sky. If the fire spreads to the main building, we’re finished.
“Get the hoses on that fire!” I shout. “Now!”
Three brothers break from their positions and sprint toward the hose hookups. A Savage Legion rider sees them moving and opens fire, bullets kicking up dirt at their heels, but they make it and start spraying water on the flames.
Titan appears at my side again, breathing hard. Blood streaks down his face from a cut above his eyebrow, and his shirt is torn and filthy. “They’re hitting us harder than we expected!”
“Mona gave them everything!” I fire three more shots and watch two riders go down. “They know exactly where we’re weak!”
“We can’t hold all three sides forever!” Titan reloads his weapon with practiced efficiency, the magazine clicking home. “We’re spread too thin!”
“We don’t have a choice!” Another explosion rocks the east wall and I feel it through the floorboards. “Just keep fighting!”
But Titan’s right. We’re losing ground. Brothers are getting wounded faster than we can patch them up. Ammunition is running low. The fire is spreading despite our efforts.
And Ghost is dying.
I fire until my magazine runs dry, then slam in a fresh one and keep going. My shoulder aches from the recoil. My ears are ringing so badly I can barely hear the orders I’m shouting. Sweat and smoke sting my eyes.
The Savage Legion launches another assault on the front gate. At least eight riders converge on the weakened section, laying down suppressive fire while two of them plant what looks like more explosives.
“Front gate!” I bellow. “Don’t let them breach!”
Our brothers concentrate their fire on the gate. The two riders planting explosives go down in a hail of bullets, but the damage is done. The charges are already set.
“Everybody back!” I grab the nearest brother and shove him away from the windows. “Get back from the—”
The explosion tears through the front gate and blows it completely off its hinges. The shock wave rattles every window left intact and knocks two brothers off their feet. Flames and smoke pour through the opening.
For a moment, there’s silence. Eerie and wrong after so much noise.
Then engines roar and three Savage Legion bikes pour through the gap.
“Kill them!” Titan’s moving, firing as he runs toward the breach.
I’m right behind him. We converge on the opening with every brother who can still fight. The three riders make it maybe ten feet into the compound before we cut them down in a cross fire that leaves their bikes leaking oil and their bodies sprawled in the dirt.
But the gate is destroyed. The compound is wide open.
“Seal that breach!” I point to the nearest prospects. “Drag anything you can find! Bikes, furniture, bodies if you have to! Just block that opening!”
They scramble to obey, hauling wreckage and debris to pile in the gap while the rest of us provide covering fire.
The Savage Legion pulls back slightly, regrouping beyond the fence line. I can see them talking, gesturing. Planning their next move. We have maybe two minutes before they hit us again.
Titan leans against the wall beside me, chest heaving. “We’re not going to last much longer like this.”
“We will.” But my voice lacks conviction.
“Ash.” He turns to look at me. “What happened on that phone call? I heard you talking to Bonnie. What’s going on?”
Ghost is shot. Bonnie is alone. And I’m here.
“Ghost got shot,” I say. The words come out flat and empty.
Titan goes completely still. His face drains of color beneath the dirt and blood. “What?”
“He went out for supplies. Ran into Savage Legion on the road. Got shot in the side.” I reload my weapon mechanically, not looking at him. “Bonnie’s trying to keep him alive. She’s terrified.”
“We need to go.” Titan straightens, already moving toward the door. “Right now. We need to—”
“We can’t.” I grab his arm and stop him. “Look around, Titan. We’re in the middle of a war. If we leave now, everyone here dies.”
“So we let Ghost die instead?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“Then what are you saying?” He shoves my hand off his arm. “Because it sounds like you’re choosing this compound over our brother!”
“I’m choosing all our brothers!” The words explode out of me. “Ghost knew the risks! He volunteered to take Bonnie to the safe house. And now we’re under attack and if we don’t hold this line, the Savage Legion will slaughter everyone here and then go after Bonnie and Ghost anyway!”
Titan stares at me like he doesn’t recognize me. “You’re really not going.”
“Not until this is done.” My hands curl into fists at my sides. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”