Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51889 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
I was charming as hell when I wanted to be. And I was funny as fuck the rest of the time. Trace thought it was hilarious when I was surly. Sometimes he tried to piss me off just to get a reaction, just like a little brother.
So yeah, he was worried.
“What you got?” I asked when he didn’t immediately start speaking.
“I am gonna send an armed drone.”
“That would take too long. And that thing is not super reliable,” I said, frowning slightly, my eyes trained on the road. I could still see his spikey hair in my peripheral vision. “If it was just me, then maybe.”
I cast a glance at Anastasia. We were not going to risk blowing up her precious ass. “Plan B?”
“Cain wants to call in some other clubs, make a swarm and switch.”
I nodded slowly. That was a damned good idea.
“How soon can that be arranged?”
“Already in motion. I’m tracking you on your phone. I’d say you have about three hours until you converge.”
“They’ll have a trade for us? How many wheels?”
“Two would be better, in terms of tracking.”
“They better bring some old ladies, or we will still be easy to spot.”
“Yep, on it.”
I exhaled sharply.
“I will hang back and then speed up when we get close. You’ll ping us when I am ten miles out?”
“You got it. And Vice?”
“Yeah?”
“Try not to get yourself killed.”
I nodded curtly. The old me would have cracked a joke about Valhalla, or something fatalistic. But not the new me.
The new me wanted to live.
“What is a… swarm?” Anastasia asked, sounding just as worried as before. She lowered her arm , still clutching my phone.
“Swarm and switch. Also known as a ‘CO2 Cloud’.”
She waited for me to continue.
“It means a swarm of bikers on the road. They will surround us, take our car and give us a new ride. It’s dangerous as fuck,” I added, giving her a worried look. “But it is our best chance, short of pulling in somewhere, hunkering down, and starting a shootout.”
“Oh. Why is it dangerous?”
“Because we have to stop in the middle of the road. There might other people driving through who won’t know what is happening. Almost a hundred guys on motorcycles. Lots of moving parts.”
“Oh.”
“Grab anything you want to hold onto and put it in your backpack, then wear it. Start preparing now.”
“Okay.”
“It might be hard to get anything back if they ditch the ride.”
“I understand. Should I pack for you, too?”
I inhaled sharply. I hadn’t expected her to offer that. I was not used to anyone other than my brothers having my back. She was looking out for me, just the way a loving wife would.
“That would be great.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Shane
I heard the engines before I saw them. The sky was still dark, but I could feel the dawn. I had been riding for hours already, enjoying the cool and quiet.
I turned onto the highway and there they were, a dark moving swarm on the road. It was a straight stretch that swept up and down on gently rolling hills. Still far off. But not more than a couple of miles. Nearly a hundred bikers, barely visible in the early morning light. I leaned forward, eager to join them.
I could see individual riders as I approached the swarm. I could identify most of them from their patches. Mostly Untouchables, but also some other clubs from further up the coast. And I saw Doc and Law from my own club, which I was still running, despite my best efforts to get someone else to take over.
Anyone, really. As long as they weren’t insane or flat out evil, like the former Club Prez and his cohorts. But Doc was the front runner. He was not interested, however.
I’d work on him today, I decided, assuming that he was in the crew and we ended up riding together. He definitely had a knight in shining armor syndrome, just like the rest of the crew. Not any of the clubs at large. Just the inner circle.
The cream rises to the top, even in outlaw motorcycle clubs.
“Don’t get too banged up,” my gorgeous wife had said when she kissed me last night. We hadn’t spent a night apart in years. I didn’t like it. But my brother needed me.
Lord knows Vice had had my back without fail when I needed him. He’d been part of finding my brother’s killer, and part of putting him down, too. And washing me clean of my sins after the fact.
‘Sins’. As if an eye for an eye was anything less than Biblical justice. The lord knew that my brother’s killers had deserved everything I had done to them, and more.
Much more, after that sick fuck had dared to touch my woman. More than touch. He had terrorized her.
I pushed the engine harder, eager to join the pack. I didn’t usually ride this fast. Not anymore. Not since I had released the demons inside me.