Page 86 of Asking for Trouble

“We got to her.” My voice was wrecked with relief, cracked and fissured around the consonants so I hardly recognized it. “We got to her. That’s what matters.”

Carefully so I didn’t hurt her anymore than I needed to, I lifted her into my lap and stood with her cradled in my arms.

“Why’s she out?” Curtains mumbled, fixin’ her hair so it wasn’t in her face.

My throat burned. “Don’t know. Shock, I hope?”

Without a word, my brother moved in front’a us, leadin’ back out the field toward the farmhouse. The distant sounds’a warfare were infrequent now, a shout here and there, a last crackin’ gunshot, and then silence. By the time we wound our way outta the corn––I decided I’d never eat a fuckin’ cob again––the fight was over.

A half-circle’a Fallen men stood at the front’a the house, three Raiders on their knees with their hands behind their heads ‘fore them.

“She’s okay?” Nova asked, steppin’ outta line to go to us.

“’M fine,” Blue shocked me by whisperin’, blinkin’ up at me sluggishly.

I shifted to cover my hand with the sleeve’a my black hoodie and gently cleaned her eyes’a blood so she could see right.

“Bones,” she murmured, tears floodin’ those pretty blue eyes, vibrant even in the lowlight’a the porch security floodlight. “You came.”

“Told you I’d burn down the world for you, Blue,” I reminded her, duckin’ to press a kiss to her bloody mouth. “Nothin’ and no one could keep me from my girl.”

She sobbed, clutchin’ at my hoodie with her good hand. “God, I was so scared I’d never see you again.”

“Even when death comes for us one day, I promise, I’ll be waitin’ for you on the other side,” I whispered just for her, kissin’ the tip’a that pierced nose. Love crashed through me with tsunami strength, purgin’ my blood’a the violent rage and panic that’d consumed me.

“But first the ever-after shit, right?” she said with a crooked, pained smile.

“Exactly.”

Zeus appeared beside me. “Glad we got you home safe, girl.”

Blue’s smile wobbled, voice thin as she said, “Thanks, Zeus. I-I can’t thank you enough.”

“Lovin’ him,” he said, slappin’ me on the back. “’S good enough payment for me. But we got a job to finish ’ere. Know you’re injured, but you good to wait while we do what Boner promised and burn this shit down?”

I watched her swallow thickly and shift with a wince in my arms.

“Can you put me down?” she asked me, waitin’ for me to do so, hand still clutched in my shirt ’fore she faced Z again. “Okay, you can do it. I want to stand on my own two feet as we watch it go down.”

“We didn’t get Hazard and Rooster,” Priest said, appearin’ like a wraith over Z’s shoulder.

Blue only nodded. “Rooster had to clean up a mess in Alberta, and Hazard was meeting this ‘patron’ they’ve been trying to strike a deal with. A guy named Javier Ventura.”

Shook reverberated through our group as the familiar name took root.

Javier Ventura.

The same man who’d pitted the Nightstalkers against us years ago. The same man whose wife had nearly got Lila and Honey killed. The current beloved mayor’a Entrance.

He’d been curiously quiet for the past year, but we’d figured it had somethin’ to do with Lila. There was an unanswered question’a paternity there, a history between him and Li’s mother that made us wonder if he’d stopped targetin’ the club and decided to work around it to keep her from harm.

Apparently, that was no longer the case.

“Fuck,” I cursed, sharin’ a look with Z.

My Prez shook his head, lookin’ everyone’a his forty-some odd years. “We’ll deal with all’a that later. For now, let’s end this and get Bat and Blue back to the clubhouse and the Doc.”

Wrath, Wiseguy, and Shadow all stepped forward with gallons’a gas, Wrath headin’ in to soak the ground floor with the other two takin’ a side’a the structure, pourin’ as they went.