Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC

by Kiki Leach

  As River sat back in his black pickup, his only other form of transportation outside of his bike, and kept his eyes on the gates of the prison, Blue ripped a joint from his pocket and quickly lit up.

  River looked over at him and soured. "You really think that's a good goddamn idea so early in the day, motherfucker? And considerin’ where the fuck we’re sittin’ right now?”

  "We're miles away from the prison, asshole," said Blue. "It's not like they can smell the shit from here or even put us away for it if they did." He pat the top pocket of his cut and grinned so goddamn hard that his face nearly got stuck from it. “Got a goddamn prescription for it this time from Miranda’s old man at the doctor’s office. One good thing I could say about Snake marryin’ that crazy bitch is the goddamn connections she’s got inside her own fuckin’ family. ‘Specially when it comes to needin’ shit like this.”

  “Need?”

  “Yeah, need brother.” He took a hit and bumped River on the arm. "You could use a goddamn hit of this shit as it is, fucker. Maybe it’ll help bring down some of those giant ass nerves you been luggin’ around for nearly a fuckin’ month."

  River stared down at the joint, then snatched it from between Blue's fingers and took a long, long drag of it for himself. "Shit." As the effects of it started to take over, he adjusted his cock and sat back even further in his seat, then tossed his arm over the window of the truck and exhaled.

  "See?” asked Blue. River nodded. “Brother, you, uh…” He cleared his throat. “You ain't said shit about how it's been goin' with you and Mia these last few weeks with her and your kid all up in your goddamn house."

  He adjusted his cock again and grunted. "We're good."

  "How fuckin' good is that, brother?" he asked.

  River shot his eyes back over to him and sneered. "Pretty goddamn good, asshole. A lot fuckin’ better for her now that she’s got Avery bein’ homeschooled.”

  "Hm." Blue turned back to the prison and made a face. "She know the deal about Courtney? ‘Bout why the fuck you put her up in that goddamn, fleabag motel?"

  He sighed. "No. I don't need her knowin' any more than what she already does 'cause the shit'd just freak her out and send her runnin' off someplace, and I can't have that shit."

  "Yeah, VP, we know just how fuckin' much you can't have that shit when it comes to this bitch," mocked Blue. "You know, I still can't get past that bitch Courtney bein' that motherfucker's sister. Even if it ain't full-blood."

  "Yeah." He took another hit of the joint before passing it back over to Blue. "But truth is, if you think about that shit, it makes alota fuckin' sense. They're both fucked up in the head and seem to think that the only way of fixin' shit is by fuckin' it out outta their systems with whatever the fuck seems to move anywhere near 'em."

  Blue chuckled and held the joint between his fingers; he stared down at the lit tip and frowned. "You think he fuckin' set her up to infiltrate the club somehow? Get her involved with you, make you be the one she decided to fuck 'cause of Mia? 'Cause when I tried for her that day, she turned me down flat."

  River shook his head. "Maybe if she'd have popped up after Mia came back around and askin' for my help, but not with her comin' back before we even knew where her goddamn head was at. Or that she was even on her way to see us."

  "See you, motherfucker," he said. "See you. And if you honestly think about this shit, maybe that asshole already knew she was comin' before she even made it outta her goddamn house. Ever think of that? Mia told you that her comin' to see you wasn't just some spur of the moment shit. She went to other people first and when she realized you were her last great goddamn hope in all this shit, she thought that shit through and then decided to come around. You ever think it's possible Fontaine learned the truth about her intent to get involved with the club back then?"

  River turned straight ahead and shoved his brows together. "Shit."

  "I'm just sayin', brother. Are we sure that aside from the cops that Mia never told a single person about--?"

  "She's got no goddamn friends," he said. "Not like that. Nobody else she could’ve said a single fuckin’ word to when even her goddamn parents still didn't know.”

  "What’s up with that shit, by the way? Where the fuck do they think she is now? Still at Disneyworld with Avery after almost a goddamn month?"

  "She finally told 'em about Fontaine bein' Avery's dad and comin' after 'em," he said. "She couldn't keep holdin' 'em off about that Disneyworld shit after about the second goddamn week. And they know we've got people watchin' after 'em now too."

  "What the fuck did they say to all that shit?"

  "They freaked the fuck out, wanted her to come home and shit, the fuckin' works. I sorta convinced 'em to just keep their asses where they are after they threatened to come and get her--"

  "You? You, motherfucker, talked to a goddamn preacher on the phone?" He laughed. "Maybe there is in fact a God up there for you, asshole, and maybe He just saved your goddamn life."

  "Saved my life from what?"

  "Bein' struck the fuck down by a goddamn lightnin' bolt for spitin' those motherfuckin' preachers for all these goddamn years, brother." He laughed again and smoked more of his joint. "But back on this shit about Fontaine and him maybe knowin' about Mia 'fore she showed up. If she's got no friends and didn't tell her folks till only after she was down here, and the cops she went to were too busy pissin’ themselves after his name was mentioned, maybe she mentioned it out loud to herself, like talkin' shit through to make sure it's what she wanted. Maybe she looked at herself in the goddamn mirror or said some shit to herself in her car on her way out to the club."

  "We checked her car for trackers."

  "Yeah, but I don't remember you or anybody else wonderin' or askin' her about the possibility of bugs and shit that coulda been hidden anywhere, the seats, the dashboard, even the fuckin mirrors. I know it's been a few weeks, and we shoulda thought about this shit long before now, but the fucker or any of his people that he had followin' her could've easily slipped one those goddamn bugs into her house or her car or some shit."

  "Fuck. Jesus." River couldn't believe he didn't think about this shit even after being inside her goddamn house that day. Everything had been so fucked up for him since then that he hadn't been thinkin' like he normally would've had she been anyone else. He dug inside the pocket of his cut and pulled out his phone, then quickly dialed Trucker. "Yeah," he said once Trucker finally answered. "I need you to do me a goddamn favor. Get to the club if you're not already there and check Mia's car for any goddamn bugs. It's possible this crazy fuck put some in someplace. Once we finish with this Ricky shit, we'll head out to her house and do the same. And call up Styx. Have him check all around Courtney's shit to make sure she's still clean and...." He pulled his brows together and turned his mouth toward the phone. "What?" River pulled back and stared at it for a second before placing it back up to his ear. "Alright, thanks. Just check out Mia's car, then."

  After hanging up with Trucker, River stuffed that phone back inside his cut and pulled out another one, the one he used to contact the more important people in his life like his mother and daughter, and Blue, as well as the one he used to keep track of Mia.

  "What's the deal, VP?" asked Blue as he watched him switch from one pocket to another.

  "The goddamn motherfuckin' deal is this shit," muttered River. Once he unlocked his phone and pushed a few buttons, he tapped into the monitor around Mia's neck and saw that via her surroundings, she was at the club with Verna and his mother. He couldn't tell if Avery was there, or even Madison, but he did get a glimpse of Courtney sitting on the other side of the room. She was there, just like Trucker had said, and seemed to be in a better mood than she had been over the last few weeks. “Christ," he mumbled.

  "What?"

  "This bitch is at the goddamn club."

  "Mia?"

  "No... I mean, yeah she's there, but that's not who I'm talkin' about. It's this fucker's sister."

 
"Courtney? Why the fuck ain't she back at the goddamn hotel with Styx?"

  "'Cause this fucker's there with her too." River looked closer into his phone and in fact saw Styx sitting at a table on the opposite side of Mia. They were laughing and talking about something, but since she had apparently turned off the mic, he couldn't hear exactly what the fuck was taking place up there, or why. The longer he stared at them, and saw the looks Styx was giving his girl, the angrier he seemed to become. So much so that when he wrapped his hand around his phone, he nearly cracked it in half.

  Blue stared down at the screen, watching it darken, and glowered. "Those two been chummy as fuck ever since he picked her up from her house that night and drove her back to the club."

  River sneered. "What the fuck have you been gettin' at with this son of a bitch and Mia, asshole? You’ve been droppin’ hints about shit to do with this motherfucker for the last few goddamn weeks.”

  "I'm just sayin', they seem to be gettin' along mighty fuckin' well for two people who don't know each other all that goddamn well."

  "She's not fuckin' that son of a bitch," he shot back.

  Blue narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "I didn't say she was, Riv--"

  "'Cause if she was fuckin' somebody, I'd know about that shit. We may not talk every goddamn minute of every single fuckin' day, but I know she's home every goddamn night with Avery and Madison and my mother a fuck of a lot more than me since dealin' with this shit, so I'd know if she was fuckin' somebody else."

  "Fuckin' "somebody else", like she's your bitch to claim 'cause you've finally hit it?"

  River clicked off his phone and dropped it back inside his pocket. "I ain't hit shit."

  "Not even Courtney again?"

  "Motherfucker, I'm not tryin' to get back up in that shit, alright? Not after knowin' who the fuck her family is."

  "She's free pussy, asshole. Put a goddamn bag over her head and make that shit work--"

  "I don't wanna fuck her anymore. I wanna fuck--"

  "Mia."

  River opened his hands wide across the wheel and sighed deeply. "Other bitches, asshole."

  "Other bitches named Mia."

  Just as River was about to respond to him with his fist, the gates to the prison opened up and a black car rolled inside.

  Blue frowned. "That shit ain't normal."

  River started up the engine on his truck. "No, motherfucker, it sure the fuck ain't." He ripped the gear out of park and shoved it into drive. He slammed his foot down on the accelerator and sped across the street so hard, his tires screeched and left black marks across the ground. And just as the guard was about to close the gate, he slammed the nose of his truck right between the doors, keeping them halfway open.

  "HEY!" the guard screamed out.

  Blue shoved his door back, stood on the edge of the truck and jumped up to lean over the roof. He pulled his piece from his cut and pointed it directly at the guard, who he quickly surmised had been unarmed. "Just be cool, motherfucker," he said. "Alright? Just be fuckin' cool." The guard raised his hands and backed against the gate. "Where the fuck is your piece?" he asked him.

  The guard, who had begun shaking and nearly pissed himself while staring between both River and Blue, shook his head. "I don't have one. I don't--"

  "What the fuck kinda guard mans a prison gate without a gun or Taser or even a goddamn fuckin' baton of some kind?"

  "Shit,” muttered River. “The kind that ain't one." He kicked open the door to his truck and jumped to the ground. He looked all around the top of the prison, expecting snipers at any minute, but saw absolutely no one in sight. When he looked in between the gates, he saw someone who appeared to be Fontaine being dragged out in handcuffs. But on further inspection, he realized the asshole was nothing more than just a straight up and down look-a-like. "FUCK!" He turned to his truck and slammed his fists down on the hood. "FUCK, FUCKIN', FUCK!"

  When the guard tried reaching for his walkie-talkie, River reached out and grabbed him by the throat before he could even move. He jacked him up from the ground so high that his feet wiggled above it, and he threw his back into the gate. "Where the fuck are the people who are actually supposed to be runnin' this shit? It's like a goddamn hospital with no doctors runnin' around and the fuckin' nuts are runnin' the goddamn asylum."

  "That's exactly what this shit is, VP," said Blue. "That's exactly what this shit is -- the goddamn nuts of the place took over. Or in this case, the fuckin' criminals, but I don't see any other motherfuckers from the inside burstin' up outta there to get out here."

  "SHIT." River slammed the 'guard' into the gate again and tightened his hand around his neck, holding tight until his face turned red, then purple. "WHERE THE FUCK IS FONTAINE?!"

  "I don't know, I don't know!" he cried. "They took him out of here hours before you guys showed up. I was just put out here as a lookout."

  "A lookout without a goddamn gun or any other form of protection, which meant they didn’t give a shit whether you lived or fuckin’ died as long as they got what they wanted, and that was to get the fuck outta here. Shit! We got fuckin' played." River dropped the 'guard' back to the ground; he tumbled over on his side and grabbed his own throat as he had started choking on his own spit. "That motherfucker knew we were comin' out here ahead of time. He knew the fuckin' time we'd be waitin' for him to come out and follow wherever the fuck he went, and he fuckin' played the SHIT out of us! GODDAMNIT!"

  "Who the fuck you think tipped 'em off? 'Cause it's obvious that asshole wasn't workin' alone."

  "It was either his piece of shit fuckin' sister who's playin' us too, or one of those goddamn Dragons that he might be fuckin' in Nikko's place."

  "You don't think it's Chino?"

  "No," said River. "Tiny's an asshole, but he was right about one thing, Chino's not that goddamn stupid. And after talkin' to him, I'm convinced more than fuckin' ever that he wants this son of a bitch put to ground more than even goddamn Wolf."

  "Speakin' of Wolf, what the fuck are we gonna tell him about this shit?"

  River slammed his fists down on the tuck again, leaving dents this time. "FUCK!" He turned back to the inside of the gate and glared at the black car, which still had yet to move after sticking the decoy inside. "Get in," he told Blue.

  "What?"

  "GET THE FUCK BACK INSIDE THE GODDAMN TRUCK, MOTHERFUCKER."

  "Alright, asshole, fuck!"

  Blue quickly jumped back inside and just as he closed his door, River slammed his foot back down on the accelerator and sped forward, bursting through the gates, not giving a single shit about the damages done to his truck, and stopping just before ramming into the tail end of that black car. When he hopped out, he left the engine running and stepped to the driver's side of the car. The window rolled down then and a bald-headed man with bright green eyes and a sinister smile looked up at him.

  "Ricky," the man started, his Czechoslovakian accent clearly on display, "wanted me to tell you that he sends his very best, and that he's coming for what's his." When his hand reached for the keys which had already been stuffed inside the ignition, River's eyes grew wide and he screamed for Blue.

  "It's a bomb, motherfucker!" he hollered out. "They fuckin' bombed this thing!"

  River and Blue hopped back into the truck and sped back as hard and as fast as they could until they landed in the middle of the street, forcing cars left and right that had been coming from either direction to screech on their brakes. Two seconds later, the car on the other side of the gate blew up into what looked like over ten thousand pieces of leather, metal and flesh.

  They each looked up into the sky with wide eyes and shook their heads as the once white clouds suddenly turned dark from smoke.

  "Jesus," said River, as blood and flesh covered the walls of the prison.

  "Mother of fuckin' God. This son of a bitch is even crazier than we fuckin' thought he ever was before now."

  "Shit. We gotta get back to Crescent Beach and the goddamn club ASAP. Call Sty
x and tell him to get my mother the fuck outta there. She still doesn't know Fontaine is the one who fucked Mia up. Tell him Courtney's gotta stay and that we need Wolf and Verna, and that Mia's gotta stick around too. I got no choice but to fuckin' tell her about this asshole bein' on the loose now and sendin' out decoys to bomb and throw us off our fuckin' game." He threw his hand into the horn. "FUCK!"

  The minute they heard police sirens, along with the ambulance and fire trucks, River wrapped his hand around the wheel and spun a three-sixty in the street and sped off before they could be seen, stopped, or asked any goddamn questions about what in the fuck had just happened outside the prison walls, and why.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  The minute River stepped back inside the club ahead of his best friend and locked eyes with the woman he had kept his mind on from the time they had fled Tampa up until that point, as she sat at that table with Verna, chewing her lip, tapping her feet and panicked the fuck out of her goddamn mind until she saw him standing in front of her again, it was as if the clouds had opened up in front of his eyes and that motherfucker had just seen the face of the goddamn sun up close and fucking personal. The shit seemed to burn him like hell, but goddamn, was it beautiful enough to be worth it.

  As Mia stood up from her chair and walked over to him, a half smile ticking up the corners of her mouth with each step taken, he met her halfway and stared directly down into those big grey eyes that seemed to speak right down into his goddamn soul like nothing else in his entire fucking life had ever seemed to do before, and he knew probably never would again. And he was good with that shit, strangely good, because if there was something of himself that had to be spoken to by somebody like that, he was damn glad that somebody was her.

  After a few deep breaths that she used to force her nerves aside, she widened her smile and lifted herself up to the balls of her feet as a balance, and draped her arms around his neck, forcing him into their only second ever hug.