I pause and listen. The sound grows louder, coming from the direction of the main road.
Multiple bikes. At least four, maybe more.
I push off the wall and hobble around the back of the building. A dumpster sits against the rear wall, overflowing with trash. I crouch behind it, press myself into the small space between the metal and brick, and try to make myself invisible.
The engines get louder and closer. They pull into the parking lot, and my heart stops.
Through the gap between the dumpster and the wall, I can see them. Five bikes. Savage Legion patches on their vests. They circle the lot slowly, like sharks looking for blood in the water.
“She came this way,” one of them calls out. “Her tracks lead here.”
“Check inside,” another says.
Two of them dismount and head for the building. They try the door, but it’s locked. One of them peers through the barredwindows while the other walks around the perimeter, coming toward me.
I hold my breath. Press harder against the brick. Every muscle in my body tenses. If he looks behind this dumpster, I’m done.
His boots crunch on the gravel. He’s maybe ten feet away. Then five.
Then I hear the sound of more engines from a distance.
The Savage Legion member stops walking. “The fuck?”
I risk a glance through the gap. Three more bikes roar into the parking lot, and relief floods through me so fast I almost sob.
Ash. Ghost. Titan.
“Well, well,” the Savage Legion member near the dumpster says. He walks back toward his brothers. “Look who decided to show up.”
Ash kills his engine but doesn’t dismount. “This is Ruthless Devils territory. You lost?”
“Looking for property that belongs to us,” the Savage Legion leader says. He’s older, maybe forty, with a scar running down his left cheek. “The president’s runaway bride.”
“She’s not property.” Titan’s voice carries a warning. “And she sure as shit doesn’t belong to you.”
“The wedding was supposed to happen today. That makes her Marcus’s wife.”
“Wedding didn’t happen,” Ghost says quietly. “No ceremony, no marriage.”
“She’s promised?—”
“She’s gone.” Ash swings off his bike. “And you’re trespassing. So, unless you want this to get ugly, I suggest you leave.”
The Savage Legion leader laughs. “Three against five? Those aren’t good odds for you.”
“I like those odds just fine.” Titan dismounts. He’s a full head taller than anyone else in the lot, built like a tank. “Let’s see how this plays out.”
The Savage Legion leader swings first at Ash. Bad choice. Ash ducks under the punch and drives his fist into the man’s stomach. The leader doubles over, and Ash brings his knee up into his face. Blood sprays. The man goes down.
Two more rush Titan. He grabs one by the vest and throws him into the gas pump. The metal clangs. The other one gets a punch in before Titan returns it three times as hard. The man’s head snaps back, and he drops.
Ghost moves like water. He takes down his opponent with three precise strikes—throat, solar plexus, knee. The man crumples without making a sound.
The last two Savage Legion members look at each other, then at their brothers on the ground, then back at Ash, Ghost, and Titan standing there barely winded.
“Go,” Ash says. “While you still can.”
They go. Help their wounded onto bikes and peel out of the lot, engines screaming as they flee. Silence falls over the gas station.
