Page 42

41

WRAITH

T he weight of her words crushes my ribs.

Let me see my son again.

I’ve said a similar prayer many times since I lost Hallie and Lottie.

But now, two people need me. Raven, to love her for the rest of her life. And Fen, to love as my own, to help raise into an adult he can feel proud to be.

And no one is taking my future from me again.

I refuse to let them. Even if that means I have to deal with them alone in the event the club doesn’t make it here by the time I face that fate.

Raven is doing her best to keep it together. I’m proud of her efforts, but I can feel the stress in her body as she clings to me and stiffens.

“You’re doing great, Blue,” I say. “Relax with me when we go into the bends in the road.”

“I’m trying, but I keep seeing the way Fen sticks his tongue out while thinking. How his hair is always so sweaty at the back of his neck when he wakes up in the morning. That the legs of his pants looked a little short today.” Her voice wavers on every word.

If my brothers were here, we’d be laughing about what was happening. Taking bets on who was gonna get shot this time. While I can’t do that to Raven, I can bring normalcy in the chaos.

“I’ll take him shopping on the weekend for some new ones. Wanted to grab him his own fishing rod anyway.”

The wing mirror shatters, a bullet blowing it off its hook and shaking the whole steering system. The handlebars twitch; the wheel slips.

The bike careens like I’m gonna go straight into the fence. I fight to wrangle her back under control and swear my knee skims within a hair’s breadth of the fence post.

“Wraith!” Raven cries, and I’m gonna fucking kill the motherfuckers for putting that fear in her voice.

“Try to breathe, sweetheart. We’re gonna have to run when we get there.”

“I need a weapon,” she says suddenly. “A gun. I can fire back at them.”

“It’ll be impossible to hit them until we’re all stationary,” I say.

“I can’t just be a bystander in this, Wraith. Not like last time when I hid. I need to know that this time I can fight.”

If there was even a shred of doubt that this woman was the one for me, her words just blew them away. How can I second-guess a woman who would stand and fight by my side?

“Got extra weapons hidden on the bike, but we’ll have to be really fucking fast to get them.”

“Talk me through it.”

A third bullet hits the bike, and I’m terrified they’re going to hit a fuel line and set the damn thing on fire.

“In the saddlebag is a knife. Beneath your seat, a pistol. Grab both when we stop, but for now, hold on tight. It’s going to be a sharp turn at the last minute. Three, two, one…”

The trail is so rough, the bike almost skids as it bounces around. It fights me every step of the way. But I see the buildings ahead. There are five or six of them. A large barn, once painted red and white, now looks like it’s painted in gray scale. The cattle shed is missing a portion of the roof after one of the storms hit it last year. And above the entrance to the stable there is a painted rainbow.

Do I now believe in signs from loved ones who have passed?

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Thanks, Hallie.

In my other mirror, I see the maneuver bought us some time. Without the mobility of the bike, the truck is unable to make the sharp corner. It’ll have to turn up the road and come back for us.

“We lost them for a minute,” I say to Raven. “That’s all we’ve got, but it’s enough if we move.”

“I’m ready,” Raven says.

A complex mix of anticipation and adrenaline fuels my heart rate as I turn off the lights of the bike, plunging us into darkness.

“When I stop, grab the knife and pistol and run to the stable. See the building with the rainbow over the door?”

“I see it,” she says.

“Keep your helmet on. Just get to cover.”

I pull the bike to a halt and kill the engine. Raven jumps off first, but she stumbles, unused to the kind of riding we just did. She grabs the seat to stabilize herself for a second as I step off the bike and look up the farm road to see the lights of the truck headed towards us.

“You’re okay, sweetheart. Grab shit and run.”

She does as I say, while I pull as many other weapons off my bike as I can. The oil dipstick shortened and turned into a shiv. The repair kit attached to the side of the bike that contains ammo and another knife.

Two guns, three knives, one shiv. There’s more, but I can’t waste time finding them. We need to be hidden before those fucking floodlights on the top of that truck find us.

“Run, Raven,” I say, coming up behind her. At first, her steps are short, slow, uncoordinated.

But she finds her feet and speeds up. I jump as I run through the slightly ajar stable door, slapping my palm to the rainbow.

There’s a comfort and reassurance that comes from knowing Hallie and Lottie are looking out for me and Raven.

It’s enough to get my frenetic heart rate under control.

“Think, think,” I mutter as I tug off my helmet, allowing my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the barn.

Raven does the same, then stands awkwardly with the sheathed knife in one hand and a small pistol in the other. If we make it through this, I’m gonna teach her how to shoot to kill. I want her as confident and capable of taking a man’s life as I am.

In the light of the half-moon, there isn’t much to see. Stale hay litters the floor, and ropes sit in coils in the corner. There is a small office at the back of the stable, which might be enough if we can somehow barricade ourselves in it.

But if they have any kind of heavy weaponry with them, it will blow straight through the wooden structure.

Light floods the exterior of the buildings, and gravel crunches beneath tires. After the driver kills the engine, and the doors slam as the occupants leave the vehicle, everything goes quiet.

“Rurik Zakharov wants the girl. Her husband’s phone says he was here, so she must know where he is.”

Fucking Russian accents tell me all I need to know. Their two sentences tell me why they’re here.

Fucking Marco.

If I survive this, I’m gonna round Marco up and offer a deal with the Russians. Marco, if they stay away from Raven and Fen.

“You know how to fire that?” I whisper, leading us farther away from the stable doors I left ajar. Closing them would be a sure sign someone was in here. All the other doors were slightly open, so this one needs to remain that way too.

Raven shakes her head. “No.”

I take it from her hand. It’s an older weapon with a manual safety, which I release. “It’s live,” I whisper, handing it back to her. “Just point and shoot.”

I hear the footsteps moving away from us. They must have decided to check the barn first. With its loft, it’s the most obvious choice of hiding place.

The stable is probably the least secure, and therefore least obvious, place to hide.

When Raven looks up at me, eyes wide with fear, her hands shaking while holding the weapon, I reach for her. Gently, I hold her wrist and point her hand to the floor, so the weapon won’t hurt either of us if it goes off, and then kiss her.

As our lips touch, I’m reminded of everything we’re fighting to stay alive for. It grounds me and slows my breath in a way only Raven can do.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” I say as I lead her to the back of the stable stalls. “I promise.”

The office is disappointing. I was hoping to find supplies I could reinforce the walls with, like a desk I could upturn. A quick glance at my watch says it’s six minutes since we called Butcher.

“Seven more minutes.” I close the door and glance through the dirt-stained window that looks into the stable. “That’s all we need. Seven minutes and the score will turn in our favor.”

I tentatively push the exterior window open and see there’s a smaller building on the other side of the paddock.

Not sure what it is, but it’s a wide-open run from here to there.

Then a plan formulates.

“We’re safe here for a minute,” I whisper, nudging Raven to sit in the corner. I crouch in front of her, and she places the sheathed knife in her lap so she can grip my hand.

“Total honesty?” she says as her eyes fill with tears. “I’m terrified. My hands so shaky that I doubt I can shoot straight.”

“Then I’ll shoot straight enough for both of us. But if we hear them come into the stable before the club arrives, I’m gonna boost you out the window, and I want you to run in a straight line to the building across the paddock.”

“Which building?”

“There’s only one, love. You can’t miss it.”

“You can show me.”

I shake my head. “No. I’m gonna buy you enough time to get over there without being seen.”

Her hand tightens on my arm. “No. Axel. You have to run with me.”

“In an ideal world, I would. But no point risking both of us dying in this stable.”

She shakes her head, and the tears spill over. “Please. We need to go together.”

“I’ll follow you, but I need to cover your back as you run.”

“But who will cover yours?”

That harsh Russian bark echoes across the lot in a tone that is taunting, even though I can’t make out the words.

“The club.” If they get here in time.

Raven places her palm on my cheek. “I love you, Axel.” The words are whispered, but the impact loud.

I stroke her hair. “I love you and Fen too. With all that I am.”

It’s alleged John Lennon once said, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” I’m not sure how that applies in a situation where the end might be death, but I cling to it like a life raft as I look into Raven’s eyes.

A creaking floorboard and booted footsteps at the far end of the stable get me on the balls of my feet as I stay low to peer in their direction. There are four men, which is a relief.

Four feels manageable. Two strong first shots with good aim and I double my chances of survival.

Quickly, I lift Raven to the window.

“I love you,” I say without making a sound. “Run.”

Bile rises in my throat as I watch her sprint across the field. A thousand thoughts cross my mind. I should have given her the keys to my bike. Should have entered Butcher’s number into her phone. I didn’t get around to updating my will.

But none of it matters. She likely can’t ride my bike. Butcher will be here any minute. And Smoke knows my wishes.

Now I just need to live.