by Lilly Atlas
Emily sighed and rocked the stroller back and forth. She cast her gaze in the direction of the coffee shop then wiped her tear-stained face with the back of her hand. “Jester will be back any second and he’s likely to not take this well at first. Let me speak to him before you say anything. Last thing we need is some biker brawl in broad daylight.”
“Thank you,” Nick said. “It’s more than I deserve.”
“Yeah, well, if you’ve changed as much on the inside as you have on the outside…” She shrugged then stood on her toes and peered over Amanda’s shoulder. “Hey, do you know that person? There’s someone headed right toward us and she looks sick or something.”
“Huh?” Amanda spun and her jaw dropped. About twenty feet away, Kat staggered toward them, her steps unsteady. At some point in the month since Amanda had last seen her friend, she’d dyed her hair an almost blue-black. Giant hoop earrings she’d have made fun of in the past hung from her ears, and…was that a tattoo peeking out of the neckline of her tank top? “Kat? What are you doing here?”
Kat halted when she was ten feet from Amanda. Her spiky hair stuck out in a hundred directions as though it hadn’t been taken care of. Her eyes were wide, wild, and glassy. A thin sheen of sweat coated her face. If she didn’t know better, Amanda would swear Kat was on some kind of drugs. Heck, maybe she didn’t know better. This Kat was a stranger to her.
“Kat? Honey, what are you doing here?”
Kat stared at her and Amanda shivered. Her eyes grew flat, lifeless. “I’ve been with a club in New Mexico on and off for the past few months. Research at first. Then…” She frowned and shrugged, fidgeting where she stood. “I came here with a biker. There’s some boxing match at a club here or something.” She shrugged. “We came for that. And the party. I saw you. In your truck. I couldn’t believe it.” She laughed, a harsh and bitter sound of disbelief.
Amanda swallowed and glanced at Emily who wore a confused expression and stood in front of the stroller, shielding her child from Kat’s view. Nick stood statue-still and stared at Kat with a deep scowl.
Something was very wrong with her friend. She looked horrible, sick like Emily said. “Kat, are you okay?”
She shook her head. “You don’t know, Mandy. You just don’t know.”
With her heart lodged in her throat, Amanda could only shake her head. She didn’t know. She had no clue what Kat had endured recently. It couldn’t be good by the look of her.
“Kat.” Nick’s soft tone cut through Amanda’s fear. “Why don’t you let us take you back home. We can get you some help.”
Kat looked at him and her eyes grew wild. “What? Leave one psycho biker just to go with another? Not happening, Snake. Oh, I know who you are,” she said as Amanda gasped and Nick let out a warning growl. “I know it all, Snake, and soon everyone will know.”
Oh shit.
Chapter Thirty-One
The situation was straight up fucked.
Nick wasn’t the only one who’d changed in the past few months. Kat had hardened. So much that she now looked like a typical used up biker whore. Also, she was coming down from some kind of high and probably about ten minutes away from losing her shit. He’d seen it countless times before. A good girl sucked into the MC world by the wild parties, plethora of experienced dick, and the air of danger. By the time these dumb girls realized the danger was real, the dicks were attached to coldhearted bastards, and the parties were rife with every drug imaginable, they were in too deep and a shadow of their former selves.
But Kat wasn’t one of the naïve girls just looking to take a walk on the wild side. If he had to guess, he’d say Kat jumped into club life with both feet thinking she could handle it. She pumped a little too much shit into her veins and said yes to one too many horny bikers in her quest to earn their trust. Wouldn’t take much until she was sucked in and couldn’t dig her way out.
“Kat,” he said again, stronger this time. “How about you let Amanda drive you home. I won’t go with you. She can help you.”
Amanda made a small noise of protest and stared at him, but he gave a minute shake of his head. He could ride Casper’s bike back to Idaho and Amanda could take Kat in the truck.
Kat laughed, the sound on the hysterical side. “You can’t help me, Snake.”
As though doing nothing more than scratching an itch, Kat reached around her back and removed a pistol from the waistband of her tight jean shorts. Her hands shook as she pointed it toward him.
Emily, who’d been silently guarding her child, gasped. “Oh my God,” she whispered.
“Kat, what the fuck?” Amanda stepped toward her friend. “Where did you get that? What are you doing?”
Nick couldn’t have said it better himself, and a what the fuck from Amanda’s clean mouth perfectly echoed the shit storm this situation had deteriorated into.
“I got it to protect myself. So no one else can hurt me. Now I can protect you. Come here, Amanda. He’s not who you think he is. I can help you get away.”
“Don’t go over there,” Emily whispered from behind Amanda, echoing Nick’s thoughts.
They were standing in a triangle, with Nick and Amanda closest to Kat. A few feet separated them. Emily was set back about ten feet and centered between him and Amanda.
He was confident she’d never shoot Amanda or Emily, but her fuckin’ hand trembled so much who knew what the hell she’d end up hitting if she took a shot.
“You on anything, Kat?” he asked as he glanced around the park. There weren’t many people milling about at that time of the morning, but a few passersby gasped, pointed, then scurried off, phones in hand. It would only be a matter of minute before the cops showed up in droves.
She kept her visual focus on Amanda while pointing the gun at him. Her arm drooped a bit so she now was aiming around his kneecaps. If they could get her talking, she just might become distracted enough to shift the weapon off him. Then he could take her down before anyone got shot.
“Please come here, Amanda. I can help you get away from him before he hurts you.”
“He’s been with me for many months, Kat, and you know he hasn’t hurt me at all. You know he would never hurt me. Now answer Nick’s question, Kat. Have you taken anything?” Amanda’s voice was edging toward shrill.
“No. I haven’t had anything in two days.” Well, that explained the shaking, sweating, and fidgeting like she was trying to jump out of her own skin. “Do you know what they did to me, Nick?”
If she’d been with a man who hooked her on drugs he could only imagine what happened. “I can guess what you went through, Kat. And I’m sure it wasn’t pretty. It’s a rough lifestyle.”
She laughed again. “Rough? A long hike on a hot day is rough. Being treated like some sexual toy for a bunch of gang members is a bit more than rough.”
This time both Amanda and Emily gasped. Hearing this would crush Amanda. Kat broke down in sobs. Amanda flinched like she wanted to go to her friend, so Nick gave her another shake of his head. Not until that gun was out of her hands.
“Kat,” he said. “I’m so sorry for what you went through. Hand me the gun and Amanda will help you. I’ll stay back, I promise.”
“Kat?” Amanda’s soft voice broke in. “Honey, let me get you some help. Nick wasn’t one of the men who hurt you, you know that. Why don’t you put down the gun and we can go across the street to that coffee shop and talk?”
The choking sound of Kat’s sobs lessened and she nodded. She looked so defeated, it had to be difficult for Amanda to see.
As Amanda continued urging Kat to drop the gun, Nick cast a glance toward the coffee shop. In that one instant, all hell broke loose.
Jester stepped through the door of the coffee shop calling a goodbye to someone over his shoulders. He had a cardboard coffee cup in each hand and a giant grin spread across his face. His focus immediately went to Emily and the smile turned into a scream.
“Emily!” Jester’s booming voice reached them from across th
e street as loud as if he’d been screaming in Nick’s ear.
The very moment he screamed, Kat, who was skittish as a wet cat, yelped and jumped. Her startled action caused her hand to jerk to her right, her finger to tighten on the trigger, and discharge the gun. Nick saw it all a fraction of a second before it occurred.
He reacted without thought, throwing himself at Emily and knocking the stroller out of the way. Across the street, at the very same moment, Jester dropped the coffee cups and sprinted toward the group.
Fiery pain lanced across Nick’s shoulder and the soft body of a woman cushioned his fall as he crashed to the ground. He’d tried to turn, tried to take the brunt of the landing, but the hit to the shoulder knocked his trajectory to shit.
Jester pounded the pavement and drew closer with each lengthy step. Kat screamed and dropped to the ground rocking back on her heels and sobbing, “I’m sorry,” over and over. Amanda dashed to her friend and retrieved the weapon, tossing it on the ground, out of anyone’s reach.
“Emily!” Jester screamed as he reached them. Strong hands ripped Nick off her and tossed him aside like he weighed no more than a bag of feathers. The next thing he knew, six-foot-five of pissed-off male hovered over him and another gun was pointed at him, this time dead center, pressed against his forehead.
Both Amanda and Emily were screaming, but he couldn’t make out the words over the rush of blood in his ears.
After what seemed like the standoff would last an eternity, some of the background noise started to make sense. Amanda still stood near a hysterical Kat, begging Jester over and over to spare Nick’s life. She babbled nonsense about how he was a good and changed man. Jester would never buy that, but he hadn’t killed him yet.
“Jester.” A small, feminine hand landed on Jester’s arm and seemed to draw him out of whatever hatred-fueled trance he’d gone into. “He’s not here to hurt me. He saved my life just now,” Emily said.
Jester glared at his woman, then his face morphed from a mask of hardness to mushy love, but he didn’t lower his weapon. Nick held his breath, not daring to move a muscle.
“Look.” Emily pointed to his blood-soaked shoulder. “He took a bullet for me. He saved my life, Jester. The woman over there, her name is Amanda. She said he’s changed. He’s not affiliated with the Grimm Brothers anymore and he wants to try to make amends. I’d say he’s off to a good start, keeping me from taking that bullet and all. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be cautious, but maybe we could hear them out before you put another bullet in him.” She pushed Jester’s bulging forearm and eventually the man lowered the gun.
Relief flooded Nick. He wasn’t afraid of death. A man couldn’t thrive in the type of life he’d lived and fear the visit from the reaper. Imminent death was a reality he’d faced on more than one occasion, but Amanda witnessing his execution? Yeah, that wasn’t high on his list.
“Who’s that?” Jester asked. Everyone seemed to forget about the woman who fired the gun for a moment. Everyone except Amanda, who cradled her crying friend in her arms.
“She’s someone who needs help,” Amanda said. “Please,” she begged Jester. “Can I go to him?”
Emily looked at Jester then Amanda, nodding while she tugged her ol’ man a bit farther away from Nick. Jester didn’t ease up on the scowl, but he allowed Emily to draw him back so Amanda could have access to him.
Amanda released Kat, flew past the couple, and dropped to her knees beside him. “We need to call you an ambulance. Your body has already been through so much, it can’t take something like this.” As she spoke at a rapid clip, she pressed a baby blanket she’d obviously taken from the stroller to his wound. “Keep pressure on it and don’t move. In fact, lie down while I call for an ambulance.”
He cupped the back of her neck and silenced her babbling with a quick, firm kiss. “I’m fine, baby.”
Tears erupted from her eyes and she shook her head. “You are not fine. You’re bleeding like crazy.”
“Hey,” he said as he cradled her cheek and used his thumb to swipe away the raining tears. “It just grazed me. I’m sure it looks impressive and I’m bleeding like a stuck pig, but I’m really okay. Nothing a few heavy-duty Band-Aids won’t fix.”
Hovering like he still didn’t know what to make of Snake’s presence, Jester stared at him with an expression Nick couldn’t decipher. Probably, the other man was just in shock to see Nick acting like something besides a complete asshole. Seeing him respond to a woman with tenderness was probably quite the shock to Jester’s already stunned system.
Sirens blared in the distance. “I guarantee no less than ten people called the cops and those sirens are for us,” Jester said. “So, unless we all want a free ride downtown courtesy of Crystal Rock’s finest, it’s time to beat feet.”
Nick couldn’t be arrested. As far as anyone besides Jester and his ol’ lady knew, he was still dead. If they hauled his ass to jail, it would take the cops exactly two point five seconds to connect the dots between yesterday’s fire, some missing Grimm Brothers, and a reincarnated dead man.
Amanda rose to her feet and held a hand out to Nick.
“I got him, honey. His bleeding ass is too big for a little thing like you to be hauling around.” Jester bumped Amanda aside and extended one of his giant paws.
Nick didn’t know whether to laugh at Jester’s misconception of Amanda or be shocked by the offer of assistance. If he only knew the size of the patients Amanda hauled around each and every day.
Jester snapped his fingers. “Meet us at the No Prisoners clubhouse. Stitch will look at your shoulder and we can talk.”
With a snort, Nick shook his head. “Nice try—”
“Look, asshole, I ain’t about to get my ass arrested, so take my fuckin’ hand and we can all get the hell out of here. It ain’t a trap. Swear it on my bike. My woman and my daughter will be there. No way in hell I’d let them anywhere near the place if I were planning something. Bring the other girl too. Stitch can help her.”
Nick stared at that outstretched hand like it was a snake, ready to strike, and the irony wasn’t lost on him.
“Nick,” Amanda whispered. “The sirens are getting loud. There’ll be here in a few seconds. We need to go, now.”
He nodded and grasped Jester’s hand. The bigger man towed him up, using more force than was probably necessary. They’d never be friends, and despite any cordial truce they may come to today, Nick was well aware of the fact that Jester would always harbor some hatred for him.
He glanced at Amanda and tried to imagine the reverse situation. He got it now, and didn’t begrudge Jester the beating he received one bit. In fact, he was impressed at the man’s restraint in letting Nick live after treating his woman the way he had.
Snake damn well wouldn’t have left any man alive if they’d done to Amanda what he did to Emily.
He looked right into Jester’s eyes. “We’ll be there,” he said as he turned and grabbed Amanda’s hand. “Let’s roll, babe.”
Amanda squeezed his hand then let go, helping Kat to her feet. Kat was a crying, shaking, mess, but somehow, they got her to the truck. Amanda slipped behind the wheel.
“Tell me how to get to their clubhouse.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Amanda’s stomach flipped and flopped like there was a whole theme park full of rollercoasters inside of her as she steered the car through a heavy-duty gate. Beside her, Nick sat, straight and steady as a rock despite the bullet wound in his upper arm that still oozed. Kat rested with her head against the window, trembling and sweating. Her eyes were closed, but no one could sleep through shakes like she had. Amanda hoped Stitch could help her devastated friend.
“Relax, babe, it will be fine.” Nick squeezed her thigh and gave her a reassuring smile.
Was he really that confident, or was it an act to appease her nerves and calm her churning gut?
She didn’t have long to delve into that question because the door swung open and a devastatingly handsome,
glowering man around Nick’s height and age stepped out of the large building and into the parking lot. If this was Striker, he didn’t look like he was too keen on welcoming them to his turf.
“You got any weapons on you?” the man asked as she then Nick climbed down from the cab of the truck.
“No, Striker, none.” Nick held up his hands and slowly did a three-sixty under Striker’s watchful eye.
When he returned to the starting position, arms still raised, Striker grunted and nodded. “You?” he asked looking at her with icy blue eyes.
“Me? What? A gun? Uh, no. I don’t have a gun.”
Striker grunted again and her stomach dropped to her feet. Hell, she may be sleeping with one of these outlaw guys, but what the hell did she really know about their world?
To her surprise, Striker turned and walked into the clubhouse. “Follow me,” he said. “Jester tells me I need to hear you out. That you saved Emily’s life today. Sounds like you also brought the crazy bitch that tried to kill her. Leave her in the car. Someone will bring her in.”
Amanda frowned. Kat wasn’t a crazy bitch. She was someone who got in over her head and was abused. She needed help, not condemnation. And she wasn’t about to leave Kat in the car like a dog, so she hung back.
“Come on, babe. We’re not on solid ground yet. They won’t hurt Kat. Someone will get her in,” Nick whispered in her ear.
Left with no choice, Amanda followed Striker into the clubhouse.
A beautiful woman with shoulder-length chestnut hair waited for them in an open area of the clubhouse. She wore a genuine, but somewhat uneasy smile as she nodded at Snake and Amanda. In her arms, various medical supplies appeared ready to tumble to the ground.
Striker tugged the woman close and kissed her. He whispered something in her ear that had her rolling her eyes but smiling at him in way that held sexy promises. Amanda couldn’t help but smile herself. As guarded as these people were around her and Nick, she liked them and if circumstances had been different, she could have seen herself befriending this group.