Then he sobered and urgency returned, stress flooding the loose embrace he still held me in. “No. Don’t come here. Turn around. Go to the warehouse.” He rattled off Butch’s evil tale, the horror returning to his dark eyes. “He’s dead, Lexi. Bullet in the brain. Don’t worry about that. Just get there. I can’t live with myself if we can’t fucking save them.”
His voice cracked.
I took the phone from him, but Alexei was already gone and the dead line fucking terrified me. “How far out are they?”
“Thirty minutes. We need to go.”
Cam still had one hand locked around my wrist. He tugged me out of the shadows and set off running.
I followed, passing the scene we’d skinned out of when the Russians had opened fire, racing for our bikes.
Brothers joined us.
Rubi and Nash last.
Fuck.
Nash couldn’t walk.
Couldn’tride.
“Leave me.” He leaned against a dead tree trunk. “Get the fuck out of here.”
I was already on my bike. “We can’t leave you.”
“Yeah, you can. I’ll limp myself into the wilderness and get Decoy to pick me up.”
It was a stupid fucking plan, but there was no time to debate it.
I met Cam’s gaze.
He nodded. “Go. I’ll catch you up.”
With Rubi at my side, we revved our bikes and roared away. It killed me to leave Cam behind, but we were more than lovers.
More than brothers.
He was my president, and this thunder-fucking night wasn’t over.
We rode like the wind, tearing up the miles. Rubi didn’t share the pull in his heart for Alexei, but he knew as well as I did that if our warehouse burned with those girls inside, every drop of blood we’d spilled tonight was for nothing.
The road to the remote warehouse site was slick with rain, forcing us to slow down. To focus on not wiping out before we got there.
Rubi’s radio was still crackling in my ear. “Can’t see no smoke. Reckon it was a blag?”
I scanned the horizon, sky thick and grey, no stars or moon. It felt too good to be true. Fake, as if the stillness of the night was the fucking blag.
Waving at Rubi, I pushed on, risking acceleration, tracking the skyline. The warehouse loomed in the distance, vast anddark. No security lights.
They’re in there.
I knew like I knew Cam was on my tail, speeding towards me, my salvation, like he’d always been.
Orange light broke the calm. An explosion that destroyed the left side of the warehouse. The impact hit the road, shuddering through my bike, tyres screeching with the effort to keep purchase on the tarmac.
My arms shook as I fought the torque and Rubi cursed long and loud in my earpiece. “Fuck, Saint. We’re too fucking late.”
No. I didn’t believe that.