Tinker's Dilemma: Devil's Henchmen MC Next Generation, Book One

by Samantha McCoy

  Oh my God! Where was Tinker?

  Keily scanned the crowd of bikers, but he wasn’t among them. Her eyes collided with Abel’s and she watched as he made a small gesture with his head before mouthing one word: Run.

  She didn’t think twice.

  Dropping the curtain back in place, she rushed back into the bathroom and stood on the toilet. She fought to pry open the small window, but it was sealed shut.

  “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

  She needed to break the window, but fear had her rooted in place. What if they heard the noise? If they did, they would be in her room before she’d have a chance to get away.

  If you don’t break it, they will catch you anyway, the voice in the back of her head said.

  Stepping off the commode, she ran back into the room. She spun in a circle, searching for something to break the glass. Her eyes zeroed in on the remote. It would have to work. Racing over, she grabbed it from the table and ran back into the bathroom. The noise from outside was getting louder.

  Standing on the toilet, she reached for a towel and wrapped it around her hand. She didn’t want to slice herself in her attempt to get away. When she was satisfied, Keily took a deep breath and reared back.

  A gunshot fired from somewhere out front and she screamed.

  She wanted to go back to the window, but fear had her slamming the controller into the glass and when it shattered, she didn’t waste any more time. Using the towel, she brushed away the glass and tossed the shards onto the ground outside. She grabbed the towel from her hair and laid it over the windowsill, then climbed through the hole.

  Keily fell to the ground and winced as a piece of glass cut her side. She slapped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out.

  Another gunshot rang out and Keily closed her eyes.

  Please, God! Let them all be okay. Keep them safe. Please! she begged as tears started to flow down her face.

  Slowly, with a hand pressed against her side, she climbed to her feet, breathing hard. Taking a few deep breaths, to fight off the wave of nausea, Keily glanced down. Too scared to lift her shirt to see the cut, she pushed off the wall and staggered away from the scene.

  Come on, she told herself, putting one foot in front of the other. An image of Emily’s smiling face popped up in her mind. Mommy’s come, Princess.

  Keily stayed behind the buildings that lined the street. She ducked in and out of small spaces to keep from being seen. So far, she had been blocked by the backs of the buildings, but soon she wouldn’t have that luxury anymore.

  As she reached the corner of another building, she peeked around to see the chaos and her heart stopped beating. There, lying on the ground, were two bodies dressed in Devil’s Henchmen MC cuts. From where she was, Keily couldn’t tell who the men were, but it didn’t matter. They had been killed because of her. This was all her fault.

  Her stomach tightened and she thought she was going to be sick.

  She pressed her back against the wall and closed her eyes as she leaned her head back. She took several deep breaths, but it only made the pain worse. She opened her eyes looking for her next hiding place when a movement to her right caught her attention. But she couldn’t see clearly, and for someone with perfect vision, that scared her.

  Keily narrowed her eyes to tiny slits, trying to better focus on what she thought she saw, but it didn’t work. She blinked several times. Finally, they focused enough for her to make eye contact with Tinker, and she thought she would collapse in relief.

  She sagged against the building as he made his way toward her and when he finally reached her side, she threw herself into his arms and buried her face in the crook of his neck and cried out her fear, pain, and shame…

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Tinker

  When he’d first heard the gunshots, his heart had sunk. Fear clawed at his gut. And without a second thought, Tinker had dropped the food he had just ordered on the ground and ran back to the hotel.

  His fear had only increased when he saw that the FBI and local law enforcement had swarmed the place and two of his brothers were lying dead on the pavement. He wanted to run in, guns blazing, but he knew he would be killed before he even made it across the street.

  He looked through the crowd to see if they had gotten Keily, but the vehicles were too dark for him to see inside of and he couldn’t get any closer without being seen. It wasn’t until Abel had glanced his way that Tinker had finally started to calm down. He’d seen the other man jerk his head, indicating that Keily was still inside.

  Tinker had forced himself to leave the scene and make his way back down the street before doubling back behind the businesses using them for cover. His heart had still been pounding in his chest and fear clawed at his throat.

  However, as he peeked out from behind a rusted-out dumpster and saw Keily standing against the side of a used car lot office, it was like the vise around his lungs released and Tinker could finally breathe again.

  And now that she was in his arms… Tinker felt a relief that he’d never felt before in his life. “Thank God, you’re safe.” He hugged her a bit tighter.

  Keily groaned.

  Tinker quickly loosened his hold on her and when he did, that’s when he finally noticed the blood.

  “Were you shot?” he asked, a new fear gripping him.

  “No,” she shook her head. “I cut myself on glass from the window.”

  “What?”

  “I had to break the window,” she told him. “And then I fell and ended up cutting myself.”

  He lifted her shirt to examine the wound, but she smacked his hand away.

  “I’m fine, Tinker,” she said. “But what about them? He killed two of them.” The tears started to fall again.

  He pulled her into his arms, this time careful as he hugged her close. “They will be fine,” he told her. “But we need to get you out of here.”

  “We can’t leave them,” she argued.

  “Yes, we can.”

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her along as he ran back behind the dumpster and made his way back to the bike that he’d left at the diner down the street.

  “Tinker, wait!” she begged. “We can’t leave them.”

  He turned around and grabbed both sides of her face. His eyes bore into hers, and he prayed that they conveyed his feelings. “Keily, we cannot go back,” he said. “Hound and the boys will be fine. They knew this was a possibility when they offered to come. If we go back, Williams will take you, and Jett and Reeds’ deaths will be for nothing! Now please, just run.”

  He released her face and grabbed her hand again, before continuing his run. They moved in the shadows of the businesses. Hiding behind structures, garbage bins, and cars, as they worked their way back to his bike. At one point, Tinker dove to the ground behind a parked car, yanking Keily down with him, as a local cop and two FBI SUVs flew by.

  He heard her hiss of pain and felt like shit for causing it. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

  “It’s okay,” she breathed heavily.

  Helping Keily to her feet, Tinker looked both ways before racing across the street and ducking behind the back of another local store.

  “Tinker…” Keily said, breathless. “I… I can’t...”

  He turned around to look at her, and his heart nearly stopped. She had lost all her color as her eyes rolled back into her head.

  “Fuck!”

  He caught her as she tipped forward and lifted her into his arms. He had to find somewhere safe for them to hide. There was no way she’d be able to ride on the back of a motorcycle. Keily needed medical attention, and she needed it fast.

  “In here.”

  Tinker spun around, gun drawn.

  “Whoa!” The young kid, maybe in his early teens, held up his hands. “No need for that, sir. Bring your girl and come inside.” Then the guy ducked back into the store.

  With little to no other options, he ducked under the low-hung door and walked into the building.

&
nbsp; “Up here!” the voice called.

  Turning sideways, Tinker climbed up the stairs into what looked like some type of loft. In the far corner of the room was a twin-sized bed, but it was the table on the other wall that had his brows raising and him staring at the two men in the room.

  “This is a farming supply store, son,” the older one said. “Animals aren’t much different than humans. And it looks like your friend could use some help.”

  Tinker nodded once.

  “Lie her down on the bed,” the old man instructed. “And then go wash up. There’s a sink over there.”

  Tinker turned to see the sink against another wall, with a standing shower and toilet next to it. He walked over to the bed and carefully placed Keily on it and took a step back.

  The old man and younger kid were there only a second later. They placed an IV into her arm and when the old man lifted the side of her shirt, Tinker watched him grimace.

  “This isn’t a gunshot wound.”

  “No,” Tinker said. “She said she cut it on a piece of glass.”

  The older man nodded. “That would make more sense. It’s a clean slice, but deep.” Then to the younger one, he said, “Grab me a suture kit and some lidocaine.”

  The kid hurried over to a cabinet and grabbed the items the man had asked for and quickly brought them back. Tinker watched as the man worked. He was skilled with his hands which made Tinker think that at some point, the man was a doctor of some sort; which didn’t matter one bit to him, as long as the man saved Keily.

  “George, go to Doc Henderson's office and tell him we need some type O blood,” the older man ordered.

  “Yes, sir,” the kid replied.

  “Wait!” Tinker said. “You can’t do that.”

  “Why the hell not?” the old asked. “This girl will die without blood.”

  Tinker looked at Keily. For the first time in his life, he didn’t have an answer. He didn’t know what to do. For the first time in his life, Tinker understood the true meaning of panic.

  “Look, son,” the old man said. “I don’t know what you did…”

  “We didn’t do anything,” Tinker interrupted.

  “Okay.” He held up his hands. “Either way, I don’t care. I’m not in the business of letting people die. So, this girl needs blood. Quick. George is going to go get it. He is not going to go to the police. He is not going to tell anyone you’re here. Got it?”

  Tinker looked at the kid.

  “I’m just trying to help her, mister,” the boy said.

  Tinker didn’t know whether to believe them or not, but he couldn’t let Keily die. He’d just gotten her. He couldn’t lose her.

  Before Tinker could make up his mind or even utter a word, the kid was gone.

  Tinker walked over to the tiny window and looked out. He watched as the cars drove by and tried to get a view of the hotel down the street, but he couldn’t see it.

  He pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a quick message to Sledge to bring him up to date on everything that had happened since they left the Colorado chapter. He expected a message back, but instead, his president immediately called him.

  “Yeah,” Tinker said when he answered.

  “What the hell happened?” Sledge asked.

  “As I said, I don’t know,” Tinker told him. “I left Keily at the hotel while I went to get her something to eat, and then next thing I know there’s a shot fired.”

  “Keily going to be okay?” Sledge asked.

  Tinker looked back at the woman lying on the bed. “I don’t know,” he answered, forcing the words past the lump in his throat.

  “So, Jett and Reed are gone?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Shit.”

  “We have to figure out a way to stop Williams, Sledge,” Tinker replied. “Too many people are getting hurt and a dirty FBI agent is never a good thing. Innocent people are dying.”

  “I know,” Sledge said. “Diesel just got back from another D.C. meeting and while they opened an investigation against Williams, we both know that could take years. They will want concrete evidence of his involvement. Something that can’t get spun into something else by a shit ass lawyer.”

  “Then how do we get it?” Tinker asked. “Because Keily didn’t deserve this. She should be home with her daughter, baking brownies, and all that other shit that women do. Not running for her life from some nutjob psychopath.”

  “We’ll figure it out.” Sledge sighed. “For now, get her well enough to travel. I’ll send your dad that way tomorrow to pick y’all up and get you both back home. Then I’ll figure out something for Hound and the boys.”

  “Alright.”

  “Stay safe.”

  “Will do.” Tinker hung up the phone and slipped it into his pocket.

  He turned back to the window just in time to see the kid dart around the side of the building. A moment later, Tinker heard the back door open and then close as footsteps stomped up the stairs. Tinker watched the kid handed the old man a bag of blood and then rush over to an IV pole. The two of them worked quickly to get another IV started in Keily’s other arm for the blood transfusion. And the entire time, Tinker stood there, watching and praying…

  He couldn’t lose her…

  He’d just found her…

  His life couldn’t be that fucked up… Could it?

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Keily

  She felt like she was swimming in a sea of glass. Her entire body ached, but more than anything, her side felt like it was on fire. She tried to readjust, but she couldn’t move.

  Keily cracked open one of her eyes and looked down to see that her hand was tied down to the bed. Fear caused her heart to jump in her chest. She tried to jerk it free, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Hey. Hey. Hey.”

  She turned to see Amber, Beth, and Rachel rush over to her side.

  “It’s okay,” Beth soothed. “Calm down.”

  Freaked out, Keily looked around the room. How were they here? Where was she? “Wh… What…” Her throat was so dry, that it made speaking too difficult.

  “Hold on.” Beth moved away from the bed and came back a moment later with a plastic cup and bendable straw.

  Rachel removed one of the cuffs from her hand while Amber carefully helped her to sit up. The pain in her side just about took her breath away.

  “Whoa,” Beth said. “Easy. Move slowly or you’ll rip the stitches.”

  Stitches? she thought, wondering what they were talking about.

  She moved her free hand to her side and felt the large bandage that covered her. She tried to remember what happened, but for whatever reason, it was a blank.

  Beth held the cup as she took a long, deep drink. Her mouth, tongue, and throat felt like sandpaper. Like the desert. And when the cool water passed her lips, Keily shivered. It felt like heaven to her and she greedily took every bit of it.

  “Not too much,” Amber warned. “It will upset your stomach and the last thing you need right now is to start puking.”

  Beth pulled the cup away and Keily almost groaned in protest, but she knew Amber was right.

  “Rach, why don’t you grab a few more pillows?” Amber asked. “I’m sure Keily would like to sit up for a bit.”

  “Sure.”

  Rachel walked out of the room and Keily took a moment to look around. Now that she was fully awake, she recognized where she was but had no idea how she’s gotten there.

  “What happened?” she asked, her throat still sore.

  “What do you remember?” Beth countered.

  Keily tried to think back. She remembered being in Colorado. She remembered Tinker finding her and then Williams showing up… She remembered giving Emily to Kailyn…

  “Wait.” She looked around the room. “Where’s Emily?” She needed to see her daughter.

  “She’s with Tinker,” Amber answered. “He took her to the kitchen to get something to eat. They should be back in a few minutes.”


  “I need to see her,” she replied. “Go get her, please.”

  “Okay.” Beth held up a hand. “Calm down. Just breathe.”

  Keily shook her head. “No.” What part of I need to see her did they not understand? Keily was about to demand that they uncuff her other hand when the door opened, and Tinker walked in carrying her baby.

  “Oh, my God,” she said on a breath. Tear sprung to her eyes. “My baby.”

  “Good afternoon.” Tinker smiled. He looked down at Emily and said, “Look who’s awake, Peanut. It’s momma.”

  He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge. Keily tried to reach for Emily, but the cuff on her right arm stopped her. “Take this off.”

  Beth quickly walked around the bed. “I don’t think you should try holding her yet. You don’t want to strain the stitches.”

  Keily didn’t give two shits about stitches. She wanted her daughter. Once her hand was free, she reached for her.

  “Easy,” Tinker scolded. “I’ll set her on your lap. Just, be careful. Please.”

  Tinker placed Emily on her thighs, and Keily thought she would burst. Happiness unlike anything she’d ever felt filled her heart and soul. “Thank you,” she cried.

  “Hi, my baby,” she said to Emily. Hugging her against her chest, Keily whispered, “I missed you so much.”

  Emily squirmed and it caused Keily to wince. Tinker pulled the baby back toward him and Keily protested. “Give her back.”

  He stared her down, stopping her from saying anything else. “She is right here. She’s not going anywhere. Love her from here so you don’t hurt. Please.” The last word sounded like it was squeezed out of a tight throat.

  Keily swallowed as she witnessed the emotions in Tinker’s eyes.

  She looked around the room at the three women, and again, she wondered what had happened. So, for the second time, she asked, “What happened?”

  “You don’t remember?” Tinker asked.

  “No.” She shook her head. “The last thing I remember was you showing up at my house in Colorado, and then Williams chasing us and Emily going to Kailyn so she would be safe.”