Page 38 of Texas Hold Em’ (The Devil’s Luck MC #3)

CARRIE

I rode like a Devil.

The wind ripped at the sleeves of my T-shirt. Up ahead, the taillights of Caroline’s SUV appeared and disappeared as they tried to lose me.

I grinned into the wind, thinking about how scared she must have been. She had her father bleeding out in the back seat while they fled a psycho giving chase on a motorcycle, who they probably thought was one of the Devil’s Luck.

And maybe I was. At least, I wanted to be. And as I sat in the saddle riding the yellow line in the middle of the road, I certainly felt like one.

Hell, I felt invincible. Unstoppable.

Tex was still standing. He was alive. Brody would be able to get Jackson the help he needed. None of the corpses back at the landfill belonged to any of ours. Even though Bates still had breath in his lungs, as I closed in, I truly felt like this was going to be it.

I would be the lucky one to put a bullet in his skull. It worried me only briefly that my gut instinct was to kill him, not arrest him. But only briefly.

He deserved death. He deserved to writhe in pain in the back seat while his daughter tried to save him. I hoped they were scrambling and full of panic. Nothing would bring me greater satisfaction than to know they were afraid.

I was surprised when they didn’t head into downtown. Instead, they headed the other direction once we left the landfill, heading for the interstate and out of town.

He was running. Coward, I thought.

I couldn’t get the bike to go any faster. I was riding at my absolute limit. If I pushed myself any harder, I might crash, and that wasn’t how I wanted this night to end. A crash wouldn’t be good for me. All I had on was a T-shirt and jeans. I’d be chewed up by the road.

The SUV disappeared around a bend. I accelerated as hard as I could, making up in advance for the time I’d lose in the corner, and took the speed off before I came into it. I couldn’t lean like I could on other bikes I’d ridden, so I had to ease my way into and out of the corner.

Up ahead, I’d gained several more yards on the Rover. We zeroed in on a straightaway and I seized my chance. I dropped a gear and opened up the throttle.

The engine roared and the bike bucked beneath me before shooting forward. I kept low in the seat, tucked my knees in, and kept my eye on the prize. I gained on them quickly and we still had plenty of road ahead of us.

This was the best chance I was going to get.

With one hand steady on the handlebars, I drew my gun, took aim, and fired. The back right tire blew out. The SUV swerved, tires squealing, brake lights flashing.

I pretended to hear Caroline screaming from inside the car.

I took another shot, but it deflected off the back bumper.

Cursing, I pulled away from the yellow line and veered off to the right side of the lane.

I rode the shoulder and crept up on the righthand side of the car.

I took another shot, this time blowing a hole in the side of the car right where the fuel tank was.

I was rewarded by a steady line of fluid staining the pavement.

Sooner or later, they’d run out of gas .

Suddenly, the passenger door of the SUV swung open.

I didn’t have time to veer away. I hadn’t left enough space between me and the back tire of the SUV. Moss, holding on to his seatbelt to stay in the car, let his whole upper half fall out of the side of the car. With his free hand, he trained a gun right on me.

Fuck.

I hit the brakes hard. Moss pulled the trigger. The bullet just missed my knee and caught something in the exposed engine of my bike. It shuddered and groaned, and within seconds, I lost stability.

The front tire began to wobble and nothing I did helped me regain control. The wobble only got worse until I was all over the road. Moss took another shot, which burst my headlight.

I hit the brakes hard, knowing I was going down. I had to take off with as much speed as I could before I crashed. Otherwise I’d be in big trouble.

As soon as my tire hit a patch of gravel on the shoulder, it went down.

I let out an undignified scream as I fell, and I was lucky that I hit the grass of the shallow ditch.

The bike slid down and out from under me, and I rolled head over heels about six feet into the grass, where I landed on my back in a few inches of stagnant water.

As I stared up at the starry night sky, I heard the Range Rover peeling away.

“Fuck,” I hissed between clenched teeth. I slammed my fists down at my sides, splashing water on myself. “Fuck!”

That was it. My one chance. The closest I was going to get to ending this. Now it had all been in vain. All our efforts, risks, and sacrifices had led to this moment, and I’d let the bad guy get away. Again.

I closed my eyes. You were so close.

If I’d gotten him, I could have killed him.

Or arrested him. I could have arrested Caroline and Moss, too.

Bringing them in would bring down the entire police department, and maybe I could have transferred to work here in Reno and helped with the foundation of building a new police force free of corruption.

That dream went up in smoke as the night fell quiet .

Bates was gone.

There was no way to know where he was going. Clearly, they weren’t taking him back to Reno. They were running.

How many of his men had the Devils killed? What power did Bates have in Reno? Would he need to regroup? Rebuild? Would he bother coming back, or would he leave it to those who ran it before he ever got here?

I doubted he’d stay away for long. He’d be back when he recovered. If he recovered.

I propped myself up on my elbows and looked down at myself. I was soaking wet. My wet shirt was stained with muck—grass, dirt, and ditch sludge. Grumbling, I managed to climb out of the ditch. On the side of the road, I inspected my body to make sure I didn’t have any wounds I couldn’t feel.

I pulled off my helmet, shook out my hair, and looked both ways down the road. How was I going to get out of here? I hadn’t thought that through.

Irritated with myself, I started walking back the direction I’d come.

I only made it about thirty paces away from the bike in the ditch when a headlight swept around the last corner and a bike raced down the street toward me.

I leapt off to the side and hunkered back down in the ditch, worried it might be one of Bates’s men, but as the rider got closer, I recognized the bike and the man in the saddle.

I hurried up out of the ditch and met Tex on the road as he got off his bike. He wasn’t wearing a helmet. He bled from a cut in his lip, a gash in his cheek, the top of his ear, and his hip.

Looking him over, I opened my mouth to ask if he was okay, but he gathered me up in his arms and hugged me to him.

Then he unceremoniously held me at arm’s length. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

I blinked. “What?”

“What were you doing, riding after Bates like that? And I told you to stay at Grant’s! What got into your head, Carrie? You could have been killed!”

“But I wasn’t. ”

He plunged his fingers into his hair and stared at me with wide eyes. “I thought… I thought… fuck.”

“You thought what?” I pushed.

“None of this would have been worth a damn if you went off and got yourself killed! You’re supposed to stay away from shit like this. Let us handle it. You did your part last night.”

I grinned up at him.

“What’s funny?” he growled, taking a menacing step forward.

“It sounds like you were worried about me.”

A vein grew near his temple. “ Worried ?”

I nodded.

He threw his hands in the air. “Of course I was fucking worried! I was more than worried! I thought you were going to get yourself killed. And you know who isn’t worth your life? Bates and his sadistic daughter.”

“But they were worth you risking your life?”

“Don’t test me, woman.”

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do,” I bit back.

“How is it any different when I want to take matters into my own hands compared to when you do? I’m a Ranger, not a damsel.

I knew what the risks were. And I know how to handle myself.

I couldn’t sit back at the house twiddling my thumbs pretending there wasn’t something better I could be doing with my time.

If not for me, the cops would have been on you guys back at the landfill and you’d all be dead.

” I folded my arms and glared expectantly at him. What could he say to that?

“We would have figured something out. We always do.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh please. Just admit it. I helped.”

He glared hotly at me. “It didn’t feel like help when you rode off without me.”

I shrugged. “What did you want me to do? Bates was getting away. I knew I stood a chance of stopping him, so I went for it.”

“You’re a selfish woman.”

“Selfish?” I asked incredulously. “I was doing it to save your ass. Forgive me for not wanting to follow orders. I was going crazy back at the house. I felt so powerless. ”

“And I felt powerless watching you drive off!” He got in my face, and I glared hotly up at him. His eyes flicked back and forth between mine and I felt anger rolling off him in waves. “What do you expect from me, Carrie?”

“I expect you to trust me to handle myself.”

“I do trust you,” he said, his voice rising, “but I don’t trust anyone else. And how can I protect the woman I love when she’s riding away from me?”

His words hit me right in the chest. The anger in me immediately softened. “Did you just say ‘love’?” I whispered.