Fox (The Road Rebels MC Book 4)

by Savannah Rylan

  Then, we heard a thundering crash.

  In an instant, Syd grabbed my hand. She tossed me into a corner, my back knocking up against another door. I turned around and fiddled with it, ripping the door open as the three of us barreled inside. A startled cry came from behind the shower curtain, and Syd rushed over to the tub. She pulled it back revealing the other woman I saw huddled in the tub.

  “Gemma!” Syd exclaimed, and they hugged each other tightly.

  I backed up until I could feel the cool bathroom counter against the small of my back, my hands trying to scramble for anything I could use to defend myself.

  Just in case someone found us.

  I heard Emery whimpering again. Sniffling and trying her best to conceal her sobs. I reached out to where the small voice was coming from and found her head, petting it to try and relax her. I moved closer to the shaking little girl as the darkness surrounded our bodies. Shielding us from the evil that was just outside our bedroom door. I placed a chaste kiss on Emery’s cheek as another tear slid from her face, then I maneuvered my lips to her ear.

  “I promise you, everything’s gonna be okay,” I said in a whisper. “Your mother and I are going to protect you.”

  I gathered the girl from Syd’s arms so she could take a rest. We were leaning against the bathroom counter, trying to make sense of the sudden silence. But then a voice boomed out. A loud, unadulterated voice that caused me to cling to Emery even tighter.

  “Quit being scared little fucking pussies!” someone exclaimed. “Come face me like the men you claim to be!”

  “Beast,” Syd said with a whisper.

  “Who?” I asked.

  “Beast. The President of The Devil’s Saints. That’s his voice. That’s who’s shooting at us.”

  I felt my blood run cold at the mention of that club’s name. Them? The people my father were defending were the ones doing this. Shooting up some club lounge and wreaking havoc on a place where women and children were stashed. These were the ‘innocent men’ my father was defending!?

  I felt bile rise up the back of my throat.

  These were the people my father was defending. These were the people my father had been defending his whole life. These people who had ridden up on their motorcycles and were unloading round after round into a building were the same people my father was trying to claim as innocent. They weren’t innocent. They were monsters! If my father knew what the hell they were doing right now, especially to me, he would have a fucking heart attack. Did he even know where they were right now? When he left the house for ‘work,’ had he gone to meet with these guys?

  Holy hell. Was this something my father had helped to orchestrate?

  I shook the thought from my head. I couldn’t imagine something like that ever happening. The more that man’s voice boomed out, the tighter I clung to Emery. I felt my own body shaking from the reality of my father’s profession and what he had been doing my entire life. I trusted him. I painted him as a hero. I worshipped him and revered him and loved him unconditionally. I allowed him to take me on wild goose chases and treasure hunts and stick me with bodyguards.

  This was why he stuck me with bodyguards.

  Because the men he defended in court were doing shit like this.

  I felt Syd wrap her arms around me and pull me close. Emery wrapped an arm around my neck and an arm around her mother’s. The only thing we had going for us was the fact that the light at the end of the hallway was out. Our room door was shrouded in thick darkness, and if we were lucky, those assholes wouldn’t travel down this far.

  But my heart was hammering too loudly in my ears to convince me that we were going to be okay.

  I didn’t stop the tears that ran down my face. I didn’t try to stop my body from shaking. I was never in any danger with Fox. He wasn’t the threat. It was my father. My father and his antics for defending people like this. If he had stepped aside and let the DEA or whoever else put this fucking club away, I wouldn’t be in this situation right now. I wouldn’t have bullets whizzing by my head and a child stifling her sobs in my neck. My father tried to convince me that men who looked like Fox were the enemy. He tried to convince me that they were the bad guys and that men like him were the good ones.

  But that wasn’t the case. Fox was the one who had thrown me into his room. Who was willing to do anything in his power to protect me from the mess he had created with his world.

  But my father?

  H was the one responsible for this. He was the one that allowed the circumstances for this to be orchestrated. As far as I was concerned, he was just as guilty as the men firing bullets into this place.

  And my father wasn’t doing a damn thing to stop it.

  Suddenly, another gunshot went off. Only this time, it wasn’t muffled by the outside walls. I jumped at the sound as three more rounds fired off. Gunshots that could’ve only come from the outside. I grabbed Emery and held her close to me, then grabbed Syd’s wrist and tugged us all towards the bathtub. We gathered in and pulled the curtain, hunkering down as silent prayers fell from my lips. There was a loud crash that thundered to the floor, shaking the ground underneath us as my lips moved silently. I prayed to God and bartered with my own life. My own strength. My own soul.

  Get us out of here alive, and I’ll do whatever it takes to bring them to justice.

  Get us out of here alive, and I’ll listen.

  Chapter 27

  Fox

  Laiken’s eyes were wide as I popped off four separate rounds. I saw Snake come out of the shadows and Hawk move from behind the front door. Our guns were trained on those two assholes as blood dripped down their stomachs, the holes in their clothing filling with their life support. My eyes connected with Calais as he teetered, his body falling against Beast’s as the two of them swayed on their feet. Calais was holding his shoulder and his leg while Beast held two wounds in his stomach. The two of them fell to the floor, gasping for air and groaning in pain.

  I trained my gun on the two of them as I stalked towards them. I looked over at the massive granite statue people called ‘Beast’ and saw he wasn’t getting up. His blood trickled down his side and pooled on the floor beside him as he groaned out in pain. His eyes were fluttering open and closed like he was bouncing between fighting for his life and accepting the end.

  As far as I was concerned, he was no longer a threat. So, I trained my gun on Calais.

  I side-stepped over towards Calais and shoved my gun into his face. He was staring up at me, his eyes cold and his mouth pulled tautly. I could feel my entire body buzzing with anger as I stepped down onto the hand holding his gun. He cried out in pain and released it, allowing me to kick it over to Snake.

  I watched my comrade pick it up and train both of his guns on the men on the floor.

  “I’m only gonna say this once,” I said as I looked Calais in his eyes. “The drug deals are off. You and your gang? You can get your drugs elsewhere.”

  “You’re a… pussy,” Calais said. “Can’t even hold up… your end of… of a deal.”

  “I did for years,” I said as I stepped down harder onto his hand. “Gave you more business than you would’ve ever had. Not my fault we’re lookin’ to clean up our act. The deal stops now.”

  “What about… we still have…”

  “Keep what you sell. I don’t give a shit. But if you ever come back around here with the likes of anyone even close to the asshole you came in with, you’re dead. I’ll put a bullet between your eyes and smile at your funeral. You hear me?”

  “You’ll… never get away with-”

  I removed my foot from his hand and moved it over to his leg. I pressed down on the wound, watching as he cried out in pain. I saw Laiken grimacing from the refrigerator, her eyes taking in the entire scene with a turning stomach. I knew this was hard for her, but I didn’t care. I had a bone to pick with her later about who the hell she was willing to sacrifice to fuel her own personal agenda. She wasn’t a part of this gang. Just becau
se she rode, Snake’s cock didn’t give her the right to sacrifice whoever she fucking wanted.

  I looked over at Snake as he cocked both of his guns to shoot.

  “Okay! Okay! Okay! Deal’s off. Deal’s off. Shit. Get your… move… please…”

  “Please. That sounds more like it,” I said.

  Calais was nodding his head furiously as I removed my foot from his leg. I trained my gun between his eyes, studying the pathetic man below me. It was a shame. We really had a good thing going for many years. I still didn’t have a financial plan in place to recoup the money all of this was going to cost me, but I didn’t care. Harlow was safe, and I would be able to take her in my arms soon enough. No matter what she did, whether she testified or not, I would stand by her side just like she had mine before this shit-show started. I would support her and defend her and protect her in all the ways I knew I could.

  Whether or not Laiken approved.

  “Now get up and get out of here,” I said. “You’re bleeding on my fucking floor.”

  “And if you or anyone else in the KG9’s ever bother us or anyone we love ever again,” Mac said, “you’ll have the entire club to deal with.”

  I looked over at my President, his body standing tall and strong behind the couch. He, too, had a gun trained on the man as Calais scrambled to his feet. I sighed as we all watched him limp out the door, relief flooding my veins. Trails of blood followed him as he stumbled down the steps and out the door, making his way for the woods as sirens off in the distance grew closer.

  “That your backup?” I asked.

  “Hope so, ‘cause you’re gonna need it.”

  Beast’s voice caught me off guard as I whirled around on my feet. How the hell that man was standing was beyond me. The two wounds in his stomach were dripping down the front of his shirt as he towered over me, his gun rising up to from his side. Everything was moving in slow motion, and my body was frozen solid. How the hell did this motherfucker take two bullets to the stomach and still manage to stand? How the fuck was that even possible? Even with a man his size, the pool of blood that had been surrounding his body was enough to knock the greatest of athletes out of the game.

  I didn’t pull myself from my shock until Beast’s gun was leveled right at my head.

  I scrambled to raise my gun up as a shot rang out. I flinched, bracing myself for the pain I knew I was going to be feeling. But as I stood there, listening to the sirens grow closer and closer, no pain took place. No life that fled from my body. No blood that trickled down my skin. I looked up and saw Beast’s eyes go cross-eyed, a bloody hole dripping brain matter down his nose. I scrambled off to the side as he fell forward, dead on impact as my chest heaved for air.

  And when I looked to see who had shot him, I saw Laiken with her gun trained in the air.

  “You good?” she asked.

  I heaved a deep breath as I nodded my head.

  “We need to talk later. About why you didn’t want me shooting those guys when they were heading straight for where the women were,” I said.

  “‘Figured you’d wanna talk about that,” she said. “But once you go find them, you’ll see why I kept trying to get you to stop. I’m not an idiot. And neither are Syd, Emery, or that little girl of yours.”

  I furrowed my brow as I looked around the room. Everything was an absolute mess. Sirens were wailing in the distance, and I could see the worry clouding everyone’s vision. Their heads were on a swivel, trying to figure out what to do next.

  “You guys leave them to me,” Laiken said. “Just go get those girls and get those fucking guns out of sight.”

  Mac started racing around the room, taking our weapons and stashing them in random places. Underneath floorboards and in concealed safes in the wall. My eyes kept taking in the devastation. The bullet holes in the walls and the glass shattered on the floor. The lodge furniture was riddled with bullet holes, and the stuffing from the cushions was scattered all across the floor. There wasn’t a door or window that was still intact, and pictures we had on the walls had come crashing down and shattered into pieces.

  It would take us months to rebuild this place. Months to come up with the money to fix it up.

  I was rooted to my spot. Trying to digest what the hell had just happened. My deal with the KG9’s was done as far as I was concerned, but shit with The Devil’s Saints had just gotten worse. Harlow just witnessed first-hand what the men her father was defending were capable of. The fear that was coursing through her veins right now was something I would never understand. Being privy to that kind of event while trying to digest a truth about a man she loved and revered was going to be hard on her.

  I had to get to her.

  I had to make sure she was okay.

  I raced to my bedroom and threw the door open. The carnage in the room turned my stomach. It stunned me in my spot as I took stock of the glass on the floor. The wood that had splintered. The mattress that had taken a beating. Nothing was intact, thanks to that fucking semi-automatic weapon one of those assholes had. The chair I had sitting in the corner was torn to shreds, and the bullet holes in the wall made it look like a demolition team had been in here.

  I was almost afraid to approach the bathroom.

  Walking towards the door, my hand shook as it reached out for the doorknob. I just knew I was going to see her dead. I just knew I was going to see Harlow lying in a pool of her own blood. I tossed the door open and turned on the light, taking in the few bullets that had made it through the first wall and lodged themselves into the bathroom wall. The mirror was shattered, and the toilet was leaking. The bathroom countertop was intact, but the nozzles on the sink weren’t. Water was pouring everywhere as I looked towards the shower, fearing the worst as I reached out for the curtain.

  But when I pulled it back, no one was there.

  Holy shit. Harlow wasn’t there.

  I raced out of the room as Hawk came out of his. He shook his head at me, and I shoved past him. His room was just as bad off, if not worse than mine was. But as I dashed to the closet and looked under the bed, I saw no one. I strode into his bathroom and ripped the curtain back, but no one was there.

  They weren’t in their rooms.

  Where the hell had they gone?

  I turned and looked at Laiken as a grin crossed her cheeks. She holstered her gun as the sirens grew steadier still, cresting the horizon of the road and racing down towards our compound. Her eyes darted down the hallway as she nodded her head, then she turned her back and made her way towards Snake. She planted a small kiss on his cheek before he patted her on her ass, then the two of them parted ways to go do what they needed to do.

  Hawk and I panned our gazes down the hallway, taking in the darkness of the last stretch. The light was out, and it was shielding the door at the end of the hallway. It was the only room in the lodge with no windows. There was only one way in and one way out of it, and that was the door we couldn’t see because the light was blown out at the end of the hallway.

  Mac’s room.

  Holy shit. The girls had made it into Mac’s room.

  Chapter 28

  Harlow

  I was holding both of the women and Emery against my body as my lips continued to mutter prayers. I was petrified. Gemma was huddled to my side, while Sydney could no longer hold back the shaking of her body and Emery’s face was pressed deeply into my chest. My skin and my clothing were muffling her sobs, but I knew the closer people got, the more they would stand a chance of hearing her. I kissed her repeatedly, trying to soothe the small girl as her mother and Gemma huddled close to me. I couldn’t hear anything over the sounds of sirens in the distance. After the thunderous crash, there was simply nothing. No screaming. No gunshots. Just sirens and screeching tires.

  I was worried about Fox.

  I was worried he had been injured. That the crash we heard was him dropping to the floor. I was worried for Hawk. Leaving behind a wife and a child to fend for themselves after something like this if it
had been him. I thought about all the other guys. Men’s names I couldn’t remember, but men that were important to Fox. I thought about how they had been yelling at him. Cursing him and calling him all sorts of names, like shit, didn’t matter.

  Until it did.

  Shit always mattered when lives were on the line.

  “Should we try to go out?” Syd asked in a whisper.

  “No. They need to come looking for us. Sirens mean police. And police means there’s a better chance of someone coming for us that isn’t going to harm us,” I said.

  “How do you know?” she asked.

  “I watch a lot of television.”

  It was the truth. I had found myself in a situation I had no idea how to navigate. The only thing I had were the things my father taught me and the situations I’d seen on television. And I knew it wasn’t real. I knew the characters weren’t real and the scenarios were fake, but it had some decent information. Lay low when windows are being shot at. Stick to the dark when moving around a threatening area. Keep as quiet as you can so no one can hear you. All stuff that helped to keep myself safe.

  I thought about my father. I wondered about the part he played in all of this. I wondered if he was still ‘at work.’ I wondered if he had any sort of hand in what was going on right now. Was this his idea? To come after this club? Was this somehow orchestrated by him to try and help his case in court? My mind was spinning with realizations and understanding. The longer I stayed in that bathtub with those girls, the more I came to hate my father. The more I can to resent him for the things he had done to me growing up. All the lies I fed myself and all the covering up my mother did for him.