MINE: Fury Riders MC

by Sophia Gray

  “C’mon!” I said to her. I motioned for her to follow me. “Stay low.”

  For a long moment, she didn’t move. I worried she was in too bad of shock to be able to. That would be a problem, because under the circumstances I didn’t think I could get her out of here if she couldn’t get herself moving. And it was too late to play some hero shit and try to sacrifice myself to save her. Whoever was shooting at me had seen her. If I took off, he’d take her in my stead. Likely as ransom or bait.

  “Move!” I yelled at her as another shot shattered more glass.

  I didn’t know if it was my yell or the shot, but she seemed to come to. She blinked once, then nodded. Quickly, she began to crawl after me. I led her across the floor of the shop, moving behind the toolboxes as best I could to try to provide some kind of cover. When we ran out of that, we made a break for it. The back door was only a few feet. A short distance unless you were running from a psycho with a gun aiming your way.

  The gunman fired several more times, the echo of the shots ringing in my ears. I shoved Elle out the back door and back into the snow.

  “We need to get the hell out of here!”

  “In what?” Elle demanded, the fear and panic clear in her voice. “We don’t have a car!”

  I looked around. No cars in the lot. No vehicles of any kind. I should have listened to my instincts; I knew something was off. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, I thought grimly.

  Grabbing Elle’s hand, I jerked her through the snow and began to run. She had trouble keeping up. It wasn’t as bad here as it had been at the cabin since the city maintained the roads, but there were plenty of banks filled with dirty mounds of snow and where the sidewalk had been half-assed cleared was icy instead. Not exactly helpful when you’re running for your life.

  More shots were fired and I knew we didn’t have a lot of time. We needed to get out of here fast, but without a car. And we needed to be able to hide.

  That was when I thought of it. I just had to get there.

  I dragged Elle behind a dumpster, motioning for her to be still and quiet. Then I reached into my pocket. Right before the first shot, I’d spotted a cellphone. It looked like Mitch’s. I swiped it just before realizing what was going on. I was glad I had.

  I dialed Devlin first, but there was no answer. It went straight to voicemail. Maybe he would have picked up if it had been my number, or maybe it was just dead. Either way, I wasn’t going to waste time with a message or calling again. I tried a couple of the others, but wasn’t having any luck. And I didn’t have time to try any more of them.

  When I saw the gunman, all dressed in black, leaving the shop, I reached for Elle. In a soft, quiet whisper I said, “C’mon. Time to go.”

  She didn’t protest, didn’t say a word, just let me pull her along. We ran through the snow, trying to be quiet but move as quickly as possible. Elle tripped twice, but I thankfully caught her both times and she managed to stay quiet at the very least. We couldn’t afford too much noise right now.

  It was four blocks and I noticed the gunman wasn’t the only one out tonight. What had seemed deserted before was now a minefield. They were Shane’s men, I was sure of it, and they were everywhere. I worried the boys were hurt, killed even, but there was no time to focus on that. I had Elle with me and she hadn’t signed up for any of this. I couldn’t let her get caught up in it.

  We finally made it to the old bar. Relief flooded me.

  “Here?” Elle asked, sounding still scared and a little skeptical of my choice in hiding spots.

  I couldn’t blame her. From the outside, Sullivan’s looked like crap. Once, it had been one of the biggest bars in town. It had flourished thanks to the industrial boom, but when the businesses started leaving, this old place dropped out. It was okay, though. It coincided with Pa’s retirement and Ma never much complained about the place being empty. She always said she liked the quiet.

  Even when things got a little better around here, the bar remained closed except for those with personal connections to the owner. That being said, there was an apartment above the place where Ma still lived. It was a risk to come here, but it was the only place within walking distance.

  I was going to have to take a chance.

  I pounded on the front door and tried to remind myself to be patient. If she didn’t answer in the next thirty seconds, I promised myself I would go inside, which was hardly what I considered patient, but it was all the time I was willing to give the older lady.

  Turned out, she didn’t need more than that.

  She opened the door, smiling as soon as she met me. “Oh, thank heavens, Ciaran! The whole neighborhood is up in a tizzy over this mess! Have you heard what Shane—” She broke off when she spotted Elle beside me. The poor girl was looking pale and wide-eyed, still in shock.

  “Sorry, Ma,” I told her contritely. “But we need a place to hole up for a moment. Just until I can get ahold of someone.”

  She nodded quickly and I could see in her face that she knew what I was getting at. She ushered us inside. “Well, come in, come in. Don’t just stand there freezing your buns off in the cold.”

  I pushed Elle in ahead of me, gave one quick look at our surroundings, then went inside myself. I didn’t see anyone and hoped that meant they hadn’t followed us here, but even if they didn’t, I knew this was only a temporary safe haven. After all, Shane would know this would be one of the first places I’d go for refuge.

  Which meant Ma was in danger now, too. I cursed in my head, fully aware that cursing in front of her was more trouble than getting caught by the Irish Hounds.

  Ma was fussing over Elle, getting her a mug of something warm and draping a blanket across her slender shoulders. Ma came maybe up to those same shoulders and had white hair pulled back into a long braid that made her look almost whimsical, which she was anything but. Ma was the force in the family and always had been. Pa may have worn the pants, but Ma was the one who gave them their iron. If she didn’t give the okay, it wasn’t a go.

  Elle seemed to relax a little beneath Ma’s soothing motherly touches, and even smiled a bit when Ma patted her cheek like she was just a child. Ma always was the type to take in strays.

  Like me, I thought.

  When Elle was settled and taking a sip of what was probably hot chocolate, Ma came back over to me. “You know what’s going on with Shane?” she said in a calm but quiet tone. Ma was good about making sure people didn’t think she was talking about anything important. Being casual about stuff meant no one felt the urge to eavesdrop or butt into your business. I glanced over at Elle and was pretty sure that in this case Ma was right.

  “I’ve got some ideas,” I said. “I’ve been out of the picture for a couple of days.”

  Ma nodded. “I know. The boys have been trying to get ahold of you.”

  “Yeah, well, I haven’t had much luck getting ahold of them,” I responded, glancing down at Mitch’s phone. “I’m going to try again while we’re here.” I paused. I needed to gently remind her that things were getting hairy and she could wind up in the thick of it. I opened my mouth to tell her as much, but she held up a hand, instantly silencing me.

  “I don’t want to hear it,” she told me sternly in that motherly voice I remembered so well from my childhood. “You’re my boy and I’m not leaving you to the cold. Or whatever might be wandering it.”

  I wanted to protest, but knew there was no point. When she’d made up her mind, there was no changing it. Ma was stubborn as a mule and sharp as a tack. I nodded my head once, though I was still worried for her. “Thanks, Ma.”

  “Of course. Now, about Shane…”

  She proceeded to explain what I’d managed to miss over the last two and a half days. As I thought, Shane was telling everyone I was dead. It confirmed that he’d been the one to attack me and that he thought he’d managed to kill me. The first place the Irish Hounds had hit was the shop. Ma said it with anger, fire and brimstone burning in her eyes. O’Paddy’s had been Pa’s fir
st, and upon his death she’d insisted in me taking it over. It was one of a thousand things that built contention between Shane and me.

  “You were always the favorite,” he had told me once, and it was pretty damn clear he’d never gotten past that.

  Ma continued, telling me that O’Paddy’s had been closing up when it happened. They’d killed everyone there—only four—then dumped the bodies so in the odd event that the police decided to get involved the Hounds wouldn’t be implicated.

  I cringed at the knowledge that four more of mine were gone. “Do you know who?”

  “Morrison, Daniel, Carlisle, and Mitch,” she told me solemnly. These boys were as much her own as I was in the end. She’d taken care of them since the times when Pa still led the Lucky Skulls. I knew she mourned probably even more than I did.

  “What about the others?” I asked hopefully.

  She shook her head. “Holed up somewhere. The Hounds are running around everywhere. It isn’t safe to have any association with the Skulls. And with you dead, they’re trying to recoup. They need a leader and they need a plan. They have neither. But you can give them their leader back, at least.”

  I nodded in agreement. “I will.” I glanced over at where Elle stared into her mug, watching the steam rise from it. “But I need to get her to safety first. She doesn’t have anything to do with this and it’s not fair to involve her.”

  Ma agreed quickly. “Poor thing looks plum scared to death. You never should have started anything with a pretty little thing like that,” she scolded me lightly. It wasn’t that Ma didn’t like her. She wouldn’t have been so sweet or sympathetic if that had been the case. It wasn’t even that Ma didn’t want me to settle with some nice girl eventually. But Ma was a good judge of people and probably had picked up right off the bat that Elle wasn’t the type to be involved in this sort of excitement. I’d put her in danger and Ma was wagging her finger at me for it.

  “It wasn’t intentional,” I assured her. “When Shane tried to crack open my skull, I blacked out. I lay in the snow unconscious and probably would have died. But she found me. She saved me, Ma, and I didn’t even know it until it was way past the point of no return.”

  She fell silent for a moment, considering me. Then she glanced over at Elle. When she looked back at me, I saw unmistakable hope in her eyes. “She overly fond of you?” she questioned, attempting to sound casual.

  “Ma,” I warned.

  She held up her hands for peace. “Alright, alright. I was only asking. But you’d better figure out what to do with the little thing before things get really hairy.”

  I nodded. “I know. I’m just worried it’s too late to get her out of this. They’ve seen us together. I can’t risk sending her in public transportation and her car’s buried under about six feet of snow.”

  Ma considered this for a long moment. “Well, I’ve got Pa’s old truck out back. I don’t use it much anyhow, but I always make sure she runs. You tell her to take that and when things settle down, maybe she can deliver it back to me. Or you could go and get it from her.” She winked at me and I knew she was trying to play matchmaker games. Ma didn’t approve of dragging people into danger unwittingly, but I hadn’t meant to and Elle had done more than half the work herself. I wasn’t sure what Ma had spotted in Elle that she liked so much, but when she got an idea in her head it was almost impossible to get it out of there again.

  “Hush, Ma,” I told her, dropping my voice lower so Elle wouldn’t hear anything. Not that she was even looking our way. She was likely lost in her own thoughts, trying to calm down after everything. “I’ll get your truck back to you, but that’s it. Leave her out of this.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “You telling me you haven’t even thought about it?”

  I didn’t answer her and she grinned. Truth was, I had been thinking about it. After all of this blew over…But seeing her scared and in shock after everything, well, it reminded me that I couldn’t do that to her. Even if I cleared things up with Shane, there would still be trouble. Another rival club, the cops, dissention from within. They were bound to happen. Did I have any right dragging her into it? Serious, not serious, either way it was dragging her into a dangerous world unnecessarily. That wasn’t fair to her.

  “Don’t worry so much, m’boy. Things’ll work out. They always do.”

  Before I could say more, she ushered the pair of us upstairs where we could shower and find some clean, dry clothing. I let Elle shower first, tried not to picture her naked, glistening body and the things I’d like to do to it. Then when she got out, wrapped in a fluffy bath towel, I slid in after her. Ma would find her some things to wear. I took a little longer in the shower than I usually did, because I had to work out a little frustration. It was a bad time for it, but Elle was driving me mad, and imagining her in the shower definitely hadn’t helped. When I finished jerking myself off, I washed again, then got out of the shower. I towel dried, then went in search of clothing.

  Elle wasn’t in the room when I got out, but I heard soft conversation floating up from downstairs. She was talking with Ma, who was probably putting little ideas in her head. I let out a frustrated sound. Ma was not making this easier on me.

  I dug into the closet and found some of my old things, kept for just in case situations. I pulled out some flannel lined jeans, a long-sleeved black t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and a coat to go on top of it. The coat had been Pa’s and still smelled like the laundry soap he’d always used and just a little bit of vanilla tobacco.

  I was pulling on an old pair of work boots since my others were soaked when I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. A second later there was a knock. “Are you decent?” came Elle’s voice.

  I smirked, thinking of how I should have waited for her naked or at least answered her cheekily about didn’t she wish, but ultimately I remembered that I was determined to leave her behind now. I had decided she wasn’t the kind of woman for this sort of life. That meant I needed to cut out this tongue in cheek crap. So I called out simply, “Yeah.”

  The door opened and my mouth opened a little in surprise.

  Ma had found Elle some clothes that fit, but they were old. They must have been from when Ma was just a girl herself, because the dress was tight in the waist, but modest. It was probably shorter on Elle than on Ma given the height difference, but even then it fell halfway past her knees. It was a deep navy blue color from just below her breasts down. The top was a snow-white color that traveled down the sleeves. There were silver buttons with star designs on them traveling down the entire front of the dress. The collar was a V-neck with little collar flaps on the side. The sleeves were long and buttoned at the wrists.

  I could picture Ma as a young woman in that dress, dancing the night away with Pa until they were both laughing and exhausted, and probably a little intoxicated.

  It was strange to see Elle in the dress now, but I admitted she looked beautiful in it. Her hair was still drying, putting see-through spots on the white fabric and hinting at the lack of a bra she wore beneath. I had the feeling that Ma didn’t have one in her size in her wardrobe.

  “A dress?” I managed to get out, realizing I’d been staring for a long while and my gaze was lingering a little too long on her breasts. I could see her peaked nipple. From the cold? From desire?

  She shrugged a little. “Your mother said there weren’t a lot of choices for someone as little as me.” She smoothed out the midnight blue skirt. “Is it really terrible?”

  I stood, shaking my head. “No. It’s…” I broke off before I said something stupid like it’s beautiful. “You’re probably going to be cold.”

  She looked a little disappointed, but nodded. “Your mom gave me wool tights to wear with it and some boots that are a little small on me. But they’ll do for now. She said she had a coat that I could use, too.”

  I nodded, trying to remain calm, but all I could think about was wool tights and her in nothing else. Maybe they were the thigh high kind and she could skip the p
anties. I could tear off that dress and leave her in just the tights. It would be easy to spread her milky thighs and expose that perfect, pink core of hers.

  Taking a deep breath, I ground out, “Good. I need to make some calls, then we’ll go.”

  She nodded, but before either of us got anywhere, we heard the knocking on the door.

  Chapter 10

  Elle

  I was busy being disappointed that Ciaran didn’t seem all that interested in the beautiful dress his mother had given me when I heard the knock coming from downstairs. The look on Ciaran’s face told me he’d likely heard it to. I opened my mouth to ask if this was something normal or something to be worried about when he put a finger to his lips. Silence.

  Panic washed through me all over again.

  Was it the man from the shop? The one who was shooting at us? God, he tried to kill us! And if the look on Ciaran’s face had been any indication, he wasn’t just going to give up either. I waited with baited breath as we both listened for any other sounds coming from downstairs. Quietly, Ciaran walked over to me, deliberately stepping across the floor like he knew where all of the squeaky floorboards were. Which he probably did.