by Jade Kuzma
I ducked out of the way just as they started to fire at me. I kept my head down and listened to the sound of exhaust peeling away.
“Dammit!”
As soon as they were gone, I got back up to my feet. I ran back to where we’d first started and saw Petey and Sullivan waiting for me. Garnet was getting on his bike, like he already knew they were getting away.
“They were hiding,” Garnet said. “Brawn and I missed ‘em. They snuck up on us and got Brawn before I spotted ‘em. I knew they would go running—”
“It doesn’t matter now,” I said. “Let’s go!”
I got on my chopper and sped off. Garnet by my side, the two of us raced down the dusty road in pursuit of the last two punks who’d gotten away.
It didn’t matter how far or how fast they drove. I was with Garnet, my brother. I was ready to ride all the way to Hell to catch these motherfuckers.
We didn’t have to go that far though. We’d gone several miles away from the Spades’ original hideout before we finally caught them at a small warehouse in the middle of nowhere. They parked their bikes then quickly ducked inside.
As soon as they disappeared into the building, Garnet and I pulled over.
“Nowhere to hide,” Garnet said to me.
“Let’s fucking finish this—”
The sound of exhaust rumbling filled my ears. I turned around and drew my weapon, expecting to see some Spade I hadn’t accounted for. But it was just Harris, all by himself.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I said to him as he pulled up.
“The rest of the boys are heading back to Ivory,” he said. “That other guy… Brawn… He’s a big boy. It’s gonna take a lot to get him back to Ivory to get stitched up.”
“You don’t need to be here. We can handle this—”
“Knock it off with the tough guy shit. I came here to finish a job. So let’s fucking finish it.”
I looked at Garnet and he gave me a nod.
We all drew our weapons and headed toward the storage facility in the distance.
The place looked like it hadn’t been used in ages. The walls were rusted, the glass windows were broken, and there was dust with every step we took.
We leaned up against the wall next to one of the entrances. Garnet gave us a second before he turned and kicked the door open with a violent thud.
The door swung open and we rushed inside. We didn’t see anybody immediately. Garnet put his index finger up to his lips.
The entire place was dead silent except for our footsteps. I held my breath, trying to listen for any sign of the assholes I knew were in here.
We made our way through all of the broken down equipment, searching every last corner of the place. We searched every fucking corner but there was no sign of them. We eventually worked our way back to the entrance without finding any sign of them.
“What the fuck is going on?” Garnet said. “There’s no way they could have escaped without us—”
“Look out!”
Harris leaned forward and shoved Garnet to the ground. I turned and saw one of the motherfuckers aiming his gun at me. Before I had a chance to react, Harris pushed me out of the way. I watched as a bullet tagged Harris in the shoulder and sent him flying to the floor.
I pulled my gun out and fired enough shots to fill the asshole’s chest. He fell to the ground, smiling at me like a madman as the blood gushed out of his mouth.
“Shit…”
Garnet muttered as he looked down at Harris. The president of the Winter Cobras was lying on the ground, blood gushing from his shoulder as he pressed down on it.
“We gotta get you back to Ivory—”
“No!” Harris shouted at Garnet. “We gotta finish this! I’m fine!”
“If we don’t—”
“Blake… If you leave just one of these motherfuckers alive, you know Katrina will never be safe. I don’t matter. You don’t matter. All that matters is her.”
I was breathing hard through my nose. With the amount of blood Harris was losing, I knew he didn’t have much time. But he knew exactly what to say to me. He knew what I needed to hear so that I’d agree with him.
“There’s one more in there,” I said. “I’ll find him.”
I raised my guns up and headed back into the storage facility. I started searching every corner. All of the shadows and up near the ceiling. I looked at every single place he could have possibly been hiding.
Time was running out for Harris.
As the seconds ticked by, my heart started to race. Sweat dripped down my forehead. I calmed my nerves the best I could. Then I noticed something.
What is that?
I closed my eyes for just a second and held my breath. But I could still hear breathing. And I knew where it was coming from.
There was a locker on the side of the wall I hadn’t seen the first time we scouted the place. I slowly walked toward it with my weapon drawn.
“Come on, motherfucker. There’s nowhere to hide.”
I walked right up to the locker and pulled it open. I fired my gun but I didn’t hit anything.
“What the fuck—”
Before I could finish, the violent swing of a bat collided with my forearm, knocking my gun out of my hand.
“Shit!”
I grunted in pain as I stumbled to the ground.
“Motherfucker!”
I looked up and saw the man who did it.
Shaved head. Tattoos. A look in his eyes like he wasn’t even human. A smile on his face like he took pleasure in hurting others.
“You should have left when you had the chance,” the Spade said.
“It’s over, motherfucker! The rest of your boys are dead.”
“As long as there’s one Spade, there’s still a chance. There’s always a chance!”
He took another violent swing at me but I rolled out of the way. My left forearm was throbbing in pain. It was probably broken. But I wasn’t about to let that stop me.
“Come on, pretty boy,” he said. “Why don’t you finish the job?”
He cackled at me as he rushed forward again. With one arm, I couldn’t fight off a man with a bat. But I had to try.
Just as he swung at me, I ducked and threw an uppercut as hard as I could. His head snapped and he reeled back. I hit him hard enough to knock the bat out of his hand.
I rushed forward and tried to jump on top of him to finish him off but he rolled out of the way. He picked the bat back up and swung at me. I turned and yelled as the wooden bat collided against my back.
“Why don’t you just fucking give up, pretty boy?” he said. “Stop working for those fucking chinks and I’ll let you live.”
“Fuck off!”
I rolled away from his next swing and got back up to my feet. Before he could swing again, I threw a fist right across his jaw. The sound of blood splattering and teeth splintering filled my ears. The pain in my knuckles told me I’d hit my mark.
“Now it’s my turn, motherfucker.”
I moved forward to finish him off. But he rolled over and picked up the gun I’d dropped earlier.
Fuck.
I looked down the barrel of the gun as he smiled at me.
“It’s over,” he said.
Bang.
I closed my eyes.
A gunshot filled the air. Gunsmoke filled my nostrils.
I was in so much pain that I couldn’t tell if I’d been shot or not.
I opened my eyes and saw the gun had been dropped from his hand.
Blood was flowing from a massive wound in his chest. I spun around and saw Garnet standing there, the smoke still fresh from his barrel.
I straightened up just as Garnet stood over the Spade. He struggled to breathe, blood trickling out of his mouth.
“Why?” Garnet said. “Why did you do it?”
The Spade furrowed his brow in anger, gritting his teeth defiantly.
“You… Doing business with a bunch of fucking chinks… Soiling this go
od town with the product of a bunch of slanty-eyed, Chinese cocksuckers…”
“You didn’t want us doing business with the Chinese?” I said. “That’s what this was all about?”
“You’re no better than the rest of them. A bunch of motorcycle clubs. Selling out your own race just for a couple of dollars. You were supposed to kill each other. Why didn’t you just fucking die?”
“I just want to know one thing,” Garnet said, his gun still pointed at the Spade. “Are you the one who stole the van from the Cobras? Are you the one who hit Michelle?”
“Why? Is she your bitch or something?”
“Yeah… Something like that…”
“Good. It was me! I was the one who hit her. It’s too bad I didn’t kill her. But at least I got a chance to put that dumb bitch in the hospital—”
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Garnet unloaded his weapon into the punk to silence him for good. Garnet kept squeezing his gun even after it was empty. I gave him his time to get the justice he deserved before putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Come on,” I said. “We gotta go back now.”
We made our way back to the entrance of the storage facility. Harris remained on the ground, pushing the wound on his shoulder to try and keep the blood in.
“Let’s go,” I said as I looked down at him. “Get back to your feet.”
“You know you don’t have to bring me back,” Harris said.
“What?”
Harris chuckled at me.
“You could leave me here,” he said. “Let me die. I’m the only thing stopping you from being with Katrina. You know I could never let her be with a Reaper.”
I looked into his eyes. He was serious.
If I left Harris here, there would be nothing stopping Katrina and me from being together. With her brother gone, she wouldn’t have any obligations to the Winter Cobras.
“Even if you bring me, there’s no guarantee I won’t bleed to death before we get back.”
Harris was giving me every reason to leave him behind. I turned to Garnet for some guidance but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have anything to do with this.
This was my decision.
I knew what I had to do.
I clenched my jaw and shook my head before giving him my answer.
“I know what it’s like to lose a brother. I won’t let that happen to Katrina.”
Garnet and I helped him back up to his feet.
“You ready to get the fuck out of here?” I said to Harris.
He gave me a smirk and nodded.
“Let’s go home.”
Chapter 24
KATRINA
It was hard to forget a man like Brawn, at least that’s what I think they said his name was. It was pretty fitting for a guy his size. His muscles bulged like he took steroids instead of eating normal meals like everybody else.
I remembered the first time I saw him. The night he abducted me, he wore a mask. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t see his face. There wasn’t anybody in Ivory that was his size.
He was just as tough and strong as I figured he would be. He was surrounded by a few club members as well as the doctor I remember Jordan hired to do some work for the club. Whenever the club had to deal with injuries, they never went to the hospital because there were always questions they had to answer.
I watched from a distance as they held the big man down. He sat across the table with his legs sprawled in front of him. They dug into the wound on his leg. The blood gushing was enough to make me nauseous. The sound of it was even worse.
“Hold on,” the doctor said to comfort him. “We just have to get the bullet out and we’ll patch you right up.”
Brawn was calm as they tended to his injury. I suppose when you were as big as he was you could treat a gunshot wound like a papercut.
I spun around when I heard more commotion behind me. Teddy entered the bar with a couple more Cobras walking behind him. I rushed up to him, my mind frantic as I tried to put the right words together.
“Where are they?” I said. “Where are the rest of them?”
Teddy gave me a somber look as he shook his head.
“W-what?” I said. “Don’t tell me—”
“I don’t know,” he said with a shrug. “Shooter and two Reapers went after some of the Spades that got away. Shooter told us to come back. We had to bring the big guy back before he bled to death. Shooter said he would handle it himself.”
“But—”
“I’m sorry,” Teddy said as he put a hand on my shoulder. “Shooter is the president. I would have stayed and gone with him but when your brother gives orders, I have to follow ‘em.”
“Yeah… Yeah, I know…”
My head dropped to the floor. Teddy didn’t try consoling me because he knew there was no point.
The Bone Pit was closed for the night because of the operation the Cobras and Reapers were trying to pull off. They needed the space in case anything happened. In this case, Brawn had gotten shot and they needed to tend to him on one of the larger tables in the bar.
It appeared they’d fixed his injury up and he was going to make it. But even though one man had been saved, there was still a somber atmosphere in the clubhouse.
I walked up to the bar and took a seat. I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes.
Please. Come back to me. You promised.
I kept my head down. I wasn’t much for praying but I would have done anything to bring everybody back.
I raised my head up but my prayers hadn’t been answered. Brawn was being helped up from the table, his leg heavily bandaged. Nobody else in the bar was injured. Despite that, the mood in the clubhouse hadn’t changed. Everybody was waiting for two club presidents to come back.
And I was waiting for him, too.
Him.
Blake.
The father of my child.
I closed my eyes, my hands still clasped together. Palms sweating, body shaking, I chanted another makeshift prayer, trying to will everybody back to me.
Please… Please…
The door to the clubhouse suddenly burst open. Everybody turned toward the entrance.
The president of the Black Reapers rushed in with my brother in his arms. Blood smeared on both of them wasn’t a good sign.
“Clear a fucking table!” the president shouted.
Both clubs rushed to push bottles and glasses out of the way so Jordan could be laid upon it. His eyes were flickering. The blood was draining from his shoulder like a faucet.
“Jordan…”
I reached a hand out but there were too many people crowded around him.
“Give me space! Gimme space!”
The doctor shouted his way toward Jordan and went to work. I looked at Jordan’s eyes. I couldn’t tell how close I was to losing him but I knew it was closer than I wanted to be.
“Hey…”
I spun around when I heard a voice. I looked up and saw Blake there. He was covered in blood but he was still smiling at me. The fact that he was standing up straight told me he was okay.
“Blake! Oh, God!”
I squeezed him in my arms, holding him tight like he was going to slip out of my grip. His hard body vibrated against me as he chuckled softly.
“I’m fine,” he said. “I’m fine…”
I finally pulled away from him and saw how much he’d been through just from looking into his eyes.
“How is he?” Blake asked.
We both turned toward my brother. The doctor had his head over Jordan as he examined him. There were so many people in the clubhouse but everybody was silent, waiting for the doctor to give his prognosis.
He wasn’t about to give us the answer we wanted so easily. He just kept his head down and picked at his tools.
Blake kept his arm wrapped around me the entire time as we watched and waited.
“It looks like a clean wound,” the doctor said. “The bullet passed through completely, so there’s no s
ign of infection… No major arteries hit… I just have to stop the bleeding…”
He began stitching Jordan up.
I held my breath. I didn’t care if I were going to pass out. I needed to know if he were all right.
A few more moments passed and the doctor straightened up.
“That should do it.”
I looked at Jordan and watched his eyes blink open.
“Doctor…” he whispered, barely able to get the words out. “How am I doing?”
“You’ll be just fine. You just need some rest.”
“I need a drink. Somebody get me a drink.”
Everybody in the clubhouse cheered when they heard the president of the Winter Cobras was going to make it. My head dropped and I sighed a deep breath of relief. Blake squeezed his arm around me and pulled me closer.
The club members handed Jordan a bottle of whiskey as he sat up. His shoulder was bandaged and bleeding but he seemed to be doing all right.
“Not too much now,” the doctor said.
“Thanks, doc,” Jordan responded. “But I can take it from here.”
The doctor shrugged and smiled at my brother as he took a swig of whiskey. While everybody celebrated the return of their president, the doctor turned and walked toward Blake and me.
The doctor looked down as Blake held his arm up.
“I’m pretty sure it’s broken,” Blake said.
The doctor only needed to examine it for a second before agreeing.
“Come over here,” he said. “Let’s stabilize it.”
We walked over to the side of the bar. Blake was calm as the doctor put a couple of boards together to create a makeshift splint.
“I suggest you go to a doctor for an exam,” he said. “They’ll tell you if there’s anything else you need to worry about but it looks like a clean break. That’s what blunt objects will do…”
The doctor raised an eyebrow at Blake and patted him on the shoulder before leaving him be. Blake turned to me and I couldn’t help but rush my arms around him again.
“When you didn’t come back—”
“I promised you,” he said. “I told you I would keep my promise.”
I looked up into his eyes and felt so many emotions. I shook my head, unsure of where to start.
“What happened?” I asked.
“You didn’t need to worry about that. Just know that it’s over. And… We can be together. I can be there for you, for us.”