Page 134 of Dirty Salvation

Zara hugged all those moments close to her heart.

And then pulled the burned garlic bread out of the oven.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

“For our brother.” - The entire Renegade Soul’s MC.

Days Later.

It wasn't uncommon for the motion sensors to blip during the night. Not uncommon either for one of the brothers to forget the passcode and set it off. Rider and Preacher, along with Snake who was the last straggler still up and around, nursing a bottle of Jack in one hand and the remote in the other, porn paused on the tv, he'd jumped up to join them as they left the clubhouse to see what the fuck had set off the alarm tonight.

“I mean what is it with all the cum-guzzlers these days. Gimme the classicDebbie does Dallas. No fucking finesse in porn anymore.” Complained Snake, taking a swig of his booze.

Rider barked a laugh. “You want a romance story with your fuck-fests now, Snake?”

“Not even dwarf porn does it for me these days, fucks sake, Prez, and those little randy shitheads know how to screw. I might need to become a saint or some shit like that.”

“Goddamn, man, you’re a weird asshat getting into all that kink.“ threw in Preacher with his own cackle.

All three men’s boots crunched on the ground heading east towards the first gate. The snow might have melted, some bipolar as hell weather leaving behind patches of brown sludge, but Rider felt the cold seep beneath his cut straight to his bones, he should have grabbed his jacket. Him and his boys had had an easy night, making a change for once, thank god, he thought, ‘cause if any more crap came up with Grigori and the damn Russians wanting a part of Armado Springs for their businesses then Rider was gonna come out shooting and do the fucking time for it, he didn’t care, he was sick of the threats, and the attempts to bribe him. Moronic idiots didn’t know him that well yet because Rider only did what he wanted, he was never to buy, and now those RussianBratvaassholes were on his last nerve. It would be unfortunate for Grigori to be sent home in a body-bag as Rider’s response to hisPakhanAlexei.

It didn't take long for all three of them to clock the large mound just outside the security gates and for their strides to increase "What in the hell is it?" Preacher had pulled out his gun. The compound for good reason was out in the middle of nowhere, it took a good ten minutes to ride here from the main road ... so if something was outside their gates they sure as shit were on high alert because of it.

Rider side-eyed Preacher for a second.

Cautious ex-sniper never left anything to chance.

Rightly so most of the time.

Rider felt a shiver of foreboding the closer they got across the long stretch of forecourt between clubhouse and gate.

"Maybe someone passed out drunk. Remember that night you drank the moonshine, Preacher, and forgot where the club was, found you at Maurice’s barber shop holding onto his sidewalk sign and singing the national anthem." Offered Snake light-hearted humor. "It’s cold out tonight, could be one of those down and outs looking for some shelter, I’ll take ‘em in my Rig back into town. I saw on 60 minutes this guy who slept under a bridge for ten years and even though they tried to get him into a shelter, the fucker liked the bridge. Go figure, trolls are alive and well today."

“That crap was lethal, never drinking that again, it drove my granddaddy insane, or story goes. It’s too big for a baby drop off, you know those groupies are crazy as fuck wanting to get one of us to put a baby in it. I'm telling you, Beyoncé ruined it for us all, now they all want a ring.” he joked, his breath fogged the air, his gaze no less focused. Rider grunted a response not really hearing his men bantering because suddenly, he had a sense of dread niggling the back of his skull.

Through the second gate, the electronic metal whirring opened to let the men pass, the closer they got Rider’s bad feeling in the pit of his gut intensified.

And for good reason, as it turned out.

Two more strides they all saw it at the same time.

For a split second, each footstep halted in surprise, paused in that very moment of time, unclear what they were looking at, wanting to deny it, to pass it off as the dark fucking around with their vision, after all, it probably was a trash bag that had set the motion sensors off, that’s what Rider wanted to tell himself. Something grabbed at his belly, a tight unbearable clutch of trepidation washing over him.

If fucking only.He grimaced, his back teeth going tight.

It was no down and out.Please, god, no.

Rider’s gut lurched, his heart thumped hard and heavy.

Comprehension weighing into the situation like a drunk driver missing the stop sign.

"Shittin’ hell. Open this goddamn gateNOW." Clear it was not a drunk wanting to find shelter either, not according to the spill of blood continuing to ooze from a vicious head wound.

The body was slumped in an awkward position, battered beyond repair.

Snake radioed through to hit the twin floodlights that towered either side of the gates. The blaze of the bulbs popping on a second later only showed already what they knew.

"Oh shit."