I set the phone down. Pick up the gun. Check the magazine again and then head to the truck to get the supplies he bought. Then I drag a chair to the window where I can see anyone approaching and settle in with the gun across my lap.
If Savage Legion comes for us, they’re in for a hell of a surprise.
I will protect my baby.
I will protect this man.
31
ASH
Ihang up and the phone drops from my hand.
For three seconds, I can’t move.
A bullet punches through the window frame six inches from my head and sprays splinters across my face.
“Ash!” Titan’s voice cuts through the fog. His hand clamps on my shoulder and shakes me hard enough to rattle my teeth. “What the fuck are you doing? Get your head in the game!”
I snap back to reality. The compound is still under siege. Brothers are still fighting and dying. The Savage Legion is still trying to tear down everything we’ve built.
And I’m standing here frozen like a goddamn rookie.
I grab my rifle from where it’s propped against the wall and move back to the window. Glass crunches under my boots. The air reeks of gunpowder and burning wood, thick enough to choke on.
Outside, the Savage Legion is regrouping for another push. I can see at least fifteen bikes circling beyond the fence line, riders armed with everything from pistols to automatic rifles. They’re not backing down. Not even close.
I raise my weapon and start firing.
The rifle kicks against my shoulder with each shot, and I force myself to focus on the mechanics. Breathe. Aim. Squeeze. Follow through. The same motions I’ve performed thousands of times, so ingrained I could do them in my sleep.
A Savage Legion rider goes down. Then another. But more keep coming to replace them.
My hands are shaking. I can see it in the way the barrel wavers, in the way my aim is off by inches when it should be perfect. Every shot I take, I’m thinking about Ghost. About Bonnie alone and terrified with blood on her hands.
About how I just told her I wasn’t coming.
“West wall needs backup!” someone shouts from across the room.
“Barnes, take three men and reinforce!” I order without looking away from my target. My voice comes out steady even though everything inside me is screaming to drop the gun and run.
More gunfire erupts from the west side. One of our brothers—kid named Martinez who just got his patch last month—takes a round to the leg and goes down hard with a scream that cuts through the chaos. Two prospects drag him behind cover while he clutches at the wound.
The garage is fully engulfed now, flames reaching twenty feet high and casting orange light across the compound. Black smoke billows into the predawn sky. If the fire spreads to the main building, we’re finished.
“Get the hoses on that fire!” I shout. “Now!”
Three brothers break from their positions and sprint toward the hose hookups. A Savage Legion rider sees them moving and opens fire, bullets kicking up dirt at their heels, but they make it and start spraying water on the flames.
Titan appears at my side again, breathing hard. Blood streaks down his face from a cut above his eyebrow, and his shirt is torn and filthy. “They’re hitting us harder than we expected!”
“Mona gave them everything!” I fire three more shots and watch two riders go down. “They know exactly where we’re weak!”
“We can’t hold all three sides forever!” Titan reloads his weapon with practiced efficiency, the magazine clicking home. “We’re spread too thin!”
“We don’t have a choice!” Another explosion rocks the east wall and I feel it through the floorboards. “Just keep fighting!”
But Titan’s right. We’re losing ground. Brothers are getting wounded faster than we can patch them up. Ammunition is running low. The fire is spreading despite our efforts.
