Chapter 6 Diesel
We fucked up.
I could see the anguish on Rev and Void’s faces. This was a fucking mess that could have been prevented if we had been honest with Becca. Instead, we chose to keep secrets, not only the order from Hades, but also our own.
“She loves us.” Void choked on the words, sounding shocked.
Rev hung his head. “Fuck.”
I wasn’t surprised. Hell, I saw the way she looked at all three of us. That was why I decided to make a move and take her up to my room. We had to claim her. Becca needed to see how we felt about her.
Surely, she knew. This wasn’t a quick fuck for any of us.
The only way this worked was to claim her, tell Hades, and let him know she was gonna be our ol’ lady. Well, at least me and Rev. I was still on the fence about Void—the dick.
We should have sat down with her and confessed everything the night after we fucked her. Now she was out there during a blizzard alone. What if Becca got hurt?
“Why the fuck are we standing around? Our ol’ lady is out in this fucking snowstorm without a coat.”
Rev nodded. “She needs us.”
Void shook his head. I could tell he was twisted up from what happened. “I can track her from here.”
I strode forward and gripped his shoulder. “No. You have to be in the truck with me. If something happens, I’ll need your skills.”
He slowly nodded. “Yeah.”
Releasing him, I turned to Rev. “We need to hurry. Grab blankets, water, snacks, and her coat.”
“On it.”
He took my order only because I outranked him.
Being former active duty, he followed a strict regimen, and the military lifestyle was deeply rooted in him from all the years he’d been enlisted.
Everything was planned, structured, and controlled.
He never let his guard down, and he always stood with his back against a wall, aware of his surroundings, all exits, and doors.
Once a Marine, always a Marine.
As he rushed off, I refocused on Void. “How do we find her?”
“Easy. Tracker on her cell. She probably didn’t think to power it off. Unless she does, we can find her location without an issue.”
Good. “We leave as soon as Rev is ready.”
I gave him the job of gathering what we needed because he thrived on any mission, no matter how small. Rev was handling his shit. No other option for him.
But Void? He was a loner. Kept to himself. Always had the back of any member in the club. Brilliant, but fucking obsessed with Becca.
He didn’t think of her as family the way Hades and most of the club did. I saw how he watched her. Fuck, he probably stalked her ass online and had multiple cameras keeping her in view at all times. Wouldn’t surprise me none.
“She’s so angry and upset.”
“But we can fix it,” I replied firmly.
“If you say so.” He didn’t sound convinced.
“You gonna give up? That what you’re sayin’, Void?”
The right corner of his lip lifted in a snarl. “No.”
I didn’t think so. “Then grab your fucking coat. We’re going after our woman.”
In less than five minutes, we were loaded into my truck, backing out of the driveway, and merging onto the street. I drove, of course. Rev sat in the front seat. He didn’t give Void an option.
In the backseat, Void had opened his laptop, clicking away on the keys. He was detail-oriented and thorough, and he found her location so quickly that I had to adjust the direction we were driving as he called it out.
The problem turned out to be the condition of the roads.
Snow and ice were accumulating in layers, making the roads slick no matter how much salt the city trucks tried to lay down.
The wind had grown bitterly cold and vicious, whipping around my truck and reducing visibility.
I couldn’t see more than a car length or two in front of us.
Rev clenched the dashboard as he leaned forward, trying to see around us. My windshield wipers could hardly keep the snow off. It was near white-out conditions. “Diesel.”
“I know.”
He didn’t have to tell me if we were having this much trouble; it was probably worse for Becca.
“She stopped moving,” Void informed us. “Fuck.”
“You can’t track her anymore?” Rev asked, glancing over his shoulder to peer into the backseat. “Did you lose her?”
“No.” His gaze shifted to mine in the rearview mirror. “I mean, her vehicle stopped moving.”
No. I wasn’t going to think the worst. I couldn’t focus and drive if I did that. “Then we get to her as quickly as possible. Do you have her location pinned?”
“No, but I can tell you where she is. Almost halfway to Clarise’s house. I bet she was on the way to Sydney.”
Of course. She was upset and needed her best friend.
“Which street?”
Since we all lived in the Hocking Hills area, we knew the streets.
Not to mention that our clubhouse was located here, and so were the businesses the club ran.
We had two main sources of legit income: the repair shop, which also focused on custom bikes, and the security business, where we provided muscle and discreet services to our clientele who asked for them.
Most of the guys in the club were either good at auto and bike repair or at security.
We earned a decent wage and paid our fucking taxes, but that wasn’t how the club made its steady income.
Our security business provided the front for our other, more profitable and illegal services, such as forgery, IDs, birth certificates, and other paperwork that either created a new identity or erased one already in existence.
Void was the skill and expertise behind it, and he trained several brothers in the club so they could help. It never failed to surprise me with how often people needed these services, or why they needed to disappear.
My job as the Sergeant at Arms ensured peace in the club, that everyone paid their dues and worked, respected the president and officers, and followed the bylaws.
I was the primary enforcer and the chief of security, handling any disciplinary issues and maintaining order. Code was strictly enforced.
Revenant often helped me when an issue arose, along with our enforcer, War. With his military background, he had the grit and brute force to back us up. Luckily for everyone else, it rarely happened.
“Turn right at the light.”
I focused on the road, taking the turn more slowly than I wanted, but it was necessary. It wouldn’t help a fucking thing if I crashed trying to reach Becca.
“Is she moving yet?” Rev asked, tapping his fingers on his thigh with impatience. “Fuck. I forgot the first aid kit.”
“I have one,” Void replied. “And no, she’s stayed in the same spot.” He typed something on his keyboard, then paused. “No cameras by her to get a visual. She could have slid into a ditch or pulled over. I’m betting she had to stop.”
“I hope so. We’re barely crawling along, and that’s in a truck with Four Wheel Drive. Her little SUV is gonna be shit in this weather.”
Rev agreed with me.
“That’s not the issue. Fuck!”
Void’s panic set me on alert.
“What is it?”
“I set up her Apple Watch so I could track her blood pressure, oxygen levels, and overall health. Don’t look at me like that, Rev. It was fucking necessary.”
Rev narrowed his eyes, his lips curling back in a sneer. “You don’t have any fucking boundaries, do you?”
Void ignored him. “I can’t track her vitals. At all. There’s nothing.”
“But there are lots of reasons that could happen, right? Like a malfunction or interference because of the storm?”
Focus, Diesel. Don’t lose your shit.
He cracked his neck. I heard it pop behind me. “Yeah. It could.”
Even if it weren’t likely, I’d take it. It was the only thing keeping me sane since we got in this fucking truck.
“We’re almost there,” I announced. “We should be spotting her vehicle soon. Void? Still no movement?”
“No,” he croaked.
Rev saw her vehicle first. He had crazy good vision.
It was probably why he was an expert rifle shot when he enlisted.
And he still outshot my score every time when we went to the firing range.
And by firing range, I mean the setup we put together behind the clubhouse, away from civilization and deep in the woods.
“Stop the fucking truck!” Rev shouted, already opening the door as I stomped my boot down on the brake.
He slammed it shut, leaving me to throw my truck into park and slip on my jacket, gloves, and hat before I joined him.
I couldn’t drive with all those layers. I would have sweated to death before we ever arrived.
Void was already scrambling from the back, pushing his laptop aside, following me out of the same door. I heard him shut it, racing after me as we approached Becca’s SUV.
It was fucking totaled. Broken glass and twisted metal littered the ground around her, a stark contrast to the fallen snow.
I didn’t know how she survived this crash.
The front end had smashed into a tree, and my heart nearly leaped into my throat as I hollered her name.
Judging by the damage centered on the right panels and front, she narrowly missed being pinned and possibly killed.
Rev had managed to yank her driver’s side door open. I knew he had medical training and had seen horrific shit overseas. He told me about the brothers he lost in combat and how he saved one of them after his leg got blown off by an IED. If anyone could help her, it was Rev.
“She’s unconscious!”
“Does she have a pulse?” Void tried to move closer, but there wasn’t room for all three of us in the tight space.
It felt like minutes before Rev answered, sticking his fingers against her carotid artery. “Yeah. Steady, but I can tell she’s in pain, and there are signs of trauma. There’s a laceration on her forehead from broken glass. One of her legs is pinned. I’m going to need help getting her out.”
I swallowed down the worry and guilt I felt, trying to stay focused. “Is it safe to move her?”
“I think so.”
“We can’t fucking leave her there,” Void snapped.
I flipped him off. “Fuck you, Void.” Shoulder-checking him, I moved his ass out of the way. “Tell me what you need, Rev.”
He gave instructions to both Void and me, and between the three of us, we safely extracted her from the vehicle. By the time we carried her to the truck, we were getting soaked from the falling snow. Sweat coated the back of my neck, growing cold from the freezing temperature outside.
“I’m going to ride in the back with her, Diesel. She needs to remain as stable as possible.”
Nodding, I turned to Void. “Spread out those blankets, and we’ll try to make her as comfortable as possible. The roads are going to justle my truck.” I shook my head. “I won’t be able to help it, Rev.”
“We go slow. It’ll be fine. I’ve got her.”
The hair on the back of my neck prickled. I couldn’t explain the reason. Maybe it was because my entire life focused on the club and safety for its members, families, and those I cared about. That lifestyle honed my instincts.
Rev’s were sharpened by active duty and combat. He felt it at the same time as me, pausing as we secured Becca in the back of my truck. Once he climbed in and held her, I would pull the truck bed cover over them, shielding them from the snow and ice.
That was the last thought in my head before I heard gunshots.
My head lifted, and I hollered Rev’s name as a bullet hit him in the left shoulder, knocking him onto his ass. He almost toppled out of the truck.
Void shocked the shit near outta me when he pulled out a gun and began firing back, hollering for me to drop low.
Something nicked the side of my upper arm, and I felt a sting, followed by a warm, wet trickle down my elbow.
Blood.