The guard steps forward, questioning, “What’s going…”
“The ER called.” My voice shakes just enough to sound believable. I don’t hear engines roaring to life behind me, but I don’t trust that they aren’t coming after me, “They’re slammed tonight. If any of the brothers end up there I need to be on shift.”
He hesitates, but then waves me through.
The gate slides open.Slow. It’s too fucking slow. Then finally…
I’m through.
The gate slams shut behind me and a sob rips through me. I choke it back immediately.
Not yet. Keep it together.
I press harder on the gas, the engine revving harder. I need distance, distance from the clubhouse, from Razor… from Clutch. From the life I just burned to the ground.
The engine makes a choking sound, and I tap the dashboard whispering, “Come on, old girl, you gotta help me get out of here.”
I don’t know where I’m going, not yet, but I know one thing… I’m not looking back.
CHAPTER 19
CLUTCH - TONIGHT FEELS DIFFERENT
The ride back feels longer than the ride out and I am fucking terrified… because I have no idea what I am going to say to her when I get back. I have to saysomething. But what will be enough for her to understand? For her to stay.
Cold air cuts through my shirt, and the vibration of the bike runs straight up my spine, but none of it touches the noise in my head. Every mile the thoughts get louder and the memory gets sharper.
Her standing there with her cut in her trembling hands.
“I am property of no one.”
My chest tightens again.
Fuck is that what she thinks? That I think of her asproperty…
I lean harder into the throttle. Beside me Four rides steady and silent, Axel and Torch behind us, engines cutting through the dark highway like a pack moving through open country.
No one talks, because everyone knows something broke tonight. Lines have been drawn, and everyone knows nothing will ever be the same.
The club is broken, she said it, we… I feel it. The question is, how bad.
The compound finally comes into view just past the tree line, the tall iron gates and floodlights burning over the fence, indicating we are on high alert.
The same gates I’ve ridden through a thousand times, the same gates that always felt like coming home to safety, brotherhood, and family.
Tonight, something twists in my gut the second I see them, like theplace waiting on the other side isn’t the one I left. Like maybe it won’t feel like home if she walks away.
The guard waves us through fast once he sees who it is.
Four doesn’t slow as we roll through the entrance.
Engines roar across the gravel yard and lights blaze from the clubhouse windows.
People are moving everywhere,so much for lockdown…
Word has already spread. Four’s back.
Bikes and trucks are still missing; Angel must still be out.