Page 45

45

Raven

T he drive to the bar was somber, quiet. No one dared even breathe too loudly in the tight quarters of the van. It was eerie.

Raptor held Nix's hand up front as his eyes scanned the road. His free hand gripped the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles were nearly translucent. Stress. Fear. Anger. It was all visible in all our faces as we waited to see what fate Jesse and the others succumbed to.

Trapped, Viper said, inside a burning building.

My heart clenches. Jesse and I aren't messing around anymore, but he's my friend. It kills me to think I'll no longer have him in my life. To not be able to walk into the clubhouse or the bar and see his smiling face. To no longer be able to laugh and joke with him on a daily basis. Just the thought of it hurts.

He's good. He and Miguel and Bones. They all are. Even with their affiliation with the Sons, they're still good. They aren't like Dom and his Bastards, who find entertainment in maiming, taunting, and torturing people. They're good men deep down. They're like family. My family.

No one hurts my family and gets away with it. I stew in the back of the van, dreaming up ways to exact my revenge on Dom and his cronies. They'll pay for this. The Sons will make sure of it. I'll make sure of it. And our price is blood.

I can feel Reaper's eyes on me the entire ride, watching, searching. His gaze bores into me, searing my soul. He's as angry as the rest of us. I can tell by the tick in his jaw. His brothers were attacked, burned, and he'd give them retribution. After all, the Grim Reaper always comes to collect.

The intensity of his stare is too much. I have to look away. When I do, I see a parade of flashing lights up ahead. Cops, firemen, and paramedics are swarming the bar parking lot as we pull up. So many are standing outside the yellow police line, watching as the building that was once my sanctuary crumbles beneath fire and smoke.

Nothing is left but charred brick and beams. Rubble. Ruin. Ash.

Nothing else could have survived the flames. No one could have escaped that blaze alive.

My heart clenches again as we pile out of the van, soon finding Bear and Viper talking with the cops. Tears swell in Nix's eyes as we start toward them. We only make it a step before a familiar voice stops us dead in our tracks.

"What's with the long faces, fam? You'd think someone died or something."

A loud gasp leaves my sister's lips as we all turn to see the owner of that voice grinning at us from the back of an ambulance. I almost lose my footing as I blink at him, not daring to believe my eyes. Jesse is holding up a mask to his face as a paramedic looks him over. He's covered in soot with burn holes in his clothes and a mean gash in his forearm.

Alive. A little worse for wear, but Jesse is alive .

I'm not in control of my body as I race forward, wrapping him in a tight hug. The force of my impact throws him off balance for a moment before he resets and returns my embrace.

My voice hitches as I choke back a sob. "I thought you were dead."

I can hear the smile in his voice as he replies, "Nah. It'd take more than a little gas and a match to take me out."

When I pull back, I see his smile doesn't reach his eyes. He was scared. We all were, but he survived. He made it out, which means—

"Playing it up for attention, Son? I see how it is." Miguel's voice cuts through the crowd as he approaches us, Bones right behind him.

Alive. All three of them made it out.

A whoosh of breath leaves me as I take in the new arrivals. Raptor pulls Miguel, then Bones in for a long embrace, finally releasing some of the tension in his veins. Reaper claps them each on the back, the most familiarity I've seen him show anyone so far, other than when we're alone.

Tears are falling from Nix as she hugs all three men, sobbing with relief as she tells them how glad she is to see them. And fuck, is it good to see them. The Bastards tried to cut us down, but they failed, and I've never been happier about anything in my life.

Stepping back to get some air, I take in the three men who escaped a fiery death. Miguel and Bones look dirty, the soot and ash on their skin matching Jesse's, but he looks far worse for some reason. The burns on his clothes, the cut on his arm, the oxygen he's huffing. Why the hell is he in such bad shape?

I'm pulled from my thoughts as Miguel tells the others what went down. They'd been locked in. Doors and windows jammed shut from the outside. The fire was too hot, burning too fast for them to break down the door. They had to break one of the small windows around the back to climb out. Jesse did that, slicing his arm in the process. He insisted his dad and Bones go out first.

" . . . then, with flames closing in, this dumbass runs back toward the smoke."

What?

All eyes snap to Jesse. He looks at his brothers and his dad and shrugs. "I went back for it," he says cryptically. "Church wasn't completely engulfed, so I went back to grab it."

He pulls a leather bag from behind him—the thing he had to save. At the site, the men go silent. Whatever's in that bag was important enough for Jesse to risk his life to retrieve. And it's enough to scare the hell out of five grown men.

Miguel puts a hand on his son's shoulder. "You did good, kid. Real good."

Jesse shoots his dad an appreciative smile, placing his hand over Miguel's. Their Hallmark moment is short-lived as Bear and Viper appear beside us, eyeing me and Nix before addressing the group.

"Sheriff's askin' a lot of questions," Bear says quietly. "First the sweetbutt, now this."

"What's he know?" Miguel asks.

Viper looks over his shoulder before answering, "Nothin' yet. The cops on our payroll will make sure it stays that way. The Sheriff knows we have beef with another crew, but no one's talking. We gotta keep it that way. Better we handle this than them."

"If the Sheriff gets ahold of the Bastards, they'll sing about everything they know. We'll be done, and every one of us will get locked up," Bear adds angrily.

Viper nods. "That's why we need to handle this fast. Cover our tracks and take out the Bastards before they do any more damage."

The men nod in silent agreement as Jesse clutches the leather bag in his fists. "Prez," he says just loud enough for Viper to hear.

"I saved this from the fire. Thought we may need it."

He hands the bag to his MC president solemnly. Viper takes it, eyes wide like he hadn't noticed the pack until now. Letting out a long breath, he nods to Jesse. "Good work, J. Really fuckin' good work."

Nix and I exchange a look. Whatever is in that bag may hold the key to destroying the Desert Bastards and ending the war they started for good. But what the hell is in it?