Heart of Steel

by Cathleen Cole

  Gunnar was the sexy as sin MC guy I’d been dating that my dad had made me break up with because ‘he was too dangerous’. I sneered over at my father. Who was the dangerous one now? Of course, my dad didn’t know I’d been in a warehouse a few days ago during a shoot out between two rival MCs, trying to save Remi’s life. He also didn’t know that Gunnar and I had gotten back together the same day as the shootout.

  What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, I thought guiltily. My life sure had gotten exciting lately. I missed the good old ‘boring’ days sometimes.

  Movement from the SUVs jerked me out of my thoughts. Three men stepped out and started approaching our car. Two were carrying really big rifles. My mouth went dry as fear raced through my body. I shot dad a look and noticed he was pale and sweating slightly but he didn’t say anything.

  I went back to quietly watching the men approach. I thought about grabbing my phone out of my purse now, but I didn’t want one of these men thinking I was going for a gun and shooting me. Instead, I stayed still. One of the men with a rifle opened my door and I shrank back. I felt dad put a hand on my shoulder. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be comforting, but it didn’t have that effect.

  “Brent. So good of you to save us the trouble of picking your daughter up ourselves.” The man behind the one who opened my door spoke with a heavy Spanish accent. My eyes widened as we stared at each other. He was probably five-eleven, dark hair, dark eyes, and he had a mean-looking face. Not one of these men looked friendly in the slightest, and not just because of the guns.

  “Miguel, I told you before, she has nothing to do with this. I’ll handle this little mishap, but you need to leave my family out of it.” Dad’s voice came out sure and strong. He was putting on a better show than I was. I could feel my body starting to shake. It was the beginning of June, and very warm but I couldn’t stop the tremors.

  “You had your chance to fix it already. Now, we’re fixing it. Take them,” Miguel said with a little flip of his hand as though we were nothing but a pair of pants he wanted brought home from the store.

  The second man went around the car and opened the door. Dad stepped out, adjusting his suit coat, and stood next to him. Everyone stared at me. Fuck all of them if they think I’m going to willingly just go with them. I glared at the man as he held his hand out to me and clutched the rifle in the other. Anyone who knew me would have seen my chin jut out stubbornly and would know they were in for trouble by that action alone. Luckily, this guy didn’t know me. I was also thankful I was wearing shorts and sneakers today, instead of my usual skirt and heels. Thank God I’d been late for class that morning and thrown on casual clothes.

  Shimming backward, as quickly as I could I squeezed through the front seats and into the back. This was one of those times when my five-four, smaller frame came in handy. The man frowned and started to move to the back passenger door, so I turned and bolted out the back driver’s side door. The other gunman hadn’t been watching or expecting this, so he wasn’t blocking it. I quickly started running as fast as I could away from all of the cars. If I could just find someone to help me.

  I heard shouts behind me, but I was making good time. I may be a girly girl, but I was still athletic. I knew I shouldn’t look behind me. Every horror movie told you to keep running and just look forward. I glanced back and couldn’t help the small shriek that escaped when I saw the gunman gaining on me. There were three more men not too far behind him either. They must have come from the SUVs.

  Shit! I looked forward but couldn’t pour on more speed because I was going as fast as I could. I was starting to tire out too and I’d run into a field that was across from the road we’d been stopped on so there was nothing around us. No buildings, no roads, no other cars, I started to lose hope. I doubted I could outrun these thugs and the heat had me sweating. I was sucking in deep pulls of the heavy, hot air. I wasn’t willing to stop and give up though. Think Bridget!

  Suddenly, I heard the pounding of footsteps behind me. Oh God, oh God, oh God. As soon as I felt the man’s body get close to mine, I pivoted and switched directions, running off to my right. I was banking on the fact that the other three guys were still far enough behind that this wouldn’t put me directly in their path. The plan paid off. With a curse the man who’d been about to grab me stumbled forward, off-balance, and crashed to the ground. The other men were still a little ways away, but far too close for comfort. I ran, kicking as hard as I could, lungs screaming at me for relief. I prayed I’d find something this way. I needed help because I couldn’t keep going much longer.

  All of a sudden, the ground started sloping downward. I slowed slightly and took in the valley below; we were on a hill that looked out over grazing land. There were cows and a cattle tank but no houses or barns to be seen. I started making my way down the rocky cliffside as quickly and carefully as I could. It wasn’t straight down but it was steep enough that I needed to be careful and find my footing. I froze when I heard something that caused me to glance up. A few feet up was one of the men chasing me. We locked eyes. I watched as he swept his gaze down the hill then looked back at me.

  My eyes widened when I realized what he was about to do but I couldn’t make my body move quickly enough. Sure enough, wouldn’t you know it? This asshole yeeted himself off the side of the hill, slammed into me, taking us both down in a rolling pile of limbs. I don’t know how long we tumbled or how many times I caught an elbow or knee to sensitive areas but once we finally started to slow, I was about to be grateful, then my head slammed into a rock and everything went dark.

  About the Author

  Cathleen Cole currently lives in Utah with her husband Frank, their six dogs, four goats, and flock of chickens. Cathleen and Frank have nomadic souls, so they don’t expect to be tied down to one place indefinitely.

  Animals, dog sports, traveling, scuba diving, and everything books are just a few of Cathleen’s passions in life. She measures her quality of life based off the different experiences and adventures she gets to have.

  You’ll see every book written by either Cathleen Cole or Frank Jensen will always credit the other as co-author and that is because they use each other as sounding boards during their writing processes as well as they are each other’s main beta readers. As husband and wife, they insist on sharing all successes and failures equally.