I’m lying on the couch in Gabe’s apartment waiting for him to finish up at the shop. He should be closing up right now. I sound needy, counting the minutes until he’s back with me. It’s just that I’ve never been around someone who makes me feel like Gabriel does. Like I’m important and he genuinely wants me around. I’ve spent the night with him damn near every night for the last eight weeks, and every night he still asks me if I’ll stay with him. Like he wants to make sure I know that he wants me here.
Pop!
I sit straight up at the sharp crack coming from downstairs and pause the TV.
Silence.
I settle back onto the couch, chalking it up to someone dropping something.
Pop!
This time I recognize the noise as a gunshot.
I stand, scrambling across the room to slip on my shoes as my heart pounds against my sternum. I rip open the door and race out of the apartment, shooting down the stairs.My pulse speeds up, matching my feet. After I make it to the last step, I barrel down the hall in the direction of the shop.
Pop!
I jump and quicken my pace.
As I round the corner, a large arm wraps around my shoulders, his forearm pressing on my throat. Cold metal presses into the side of my head.
“Don’t fucking move, bitch,” an unfamiliar voice demands.He smells like cigarettes, and his hot breath on my face reeks of whiskey. “If you say a word, I’ll shoot you.”
I look out of the corner of my eye. His deep brown gaze narrows, and he smirks. When he opens his mouth again to speak, his words snake out between crooked yellow teeth. “Do you understand?”
I nod, feeling all the blood rush from my face.
He pushes me forward. My feet shuffle, and my hands tremble at my sides.
As we get through the doorway and around a car, my heart sinks.
“Oh my god,” I mutter under my breath. The man’s grip tightens, and I swallow the sob building in my throat.
A few feet from us, Rider’s kneel on the concrete floor with their hands up. A dozen men I’ve never seen litter the shop with guns drawn. I frantically rake my eyes over every face, taking inventory of the men I’ve spent my summer getting close to. At the front of the pack are Gabriel, my brother, and JT.
My chin quivers, but I don’t make a peep. JT’s eyes full of pain flick to the side before closing, a deep crease forming between his brows. I follow his line of sight and bile churns in my stomach.
No.
My legs start to buckle, but the arm around me tightens, holding me up.
Blood pools, slowly inching away from the body lying face down. His blue work jumpsuit is darker in the places where the blood soaks into it. Crimson paints a chunk of his light hair in the back. His head’s turned so I can’t see his face, but I know him. I’d know him anywhere because he’s my friend.
Akers.
I don’t have to see that his chest isn’t rising to know he’s gone. There’s too much blood for him not to be, and I can’t hold back the whimper that bubbles up from my core.
“Look what I found,” the man says from behind me, pulling my racing thoughts out of the tundra of pain I’m paralyzed by.
I have to peel my eyes away from Akers, my chest burning.
Shane sees me first, flinching as his eyes bulge. His hands clench and release as his chest rises and falls faster with each ragged breath.
I drag my eyes down the row of Riders until they land on Gabriel. He shakes his head, his whole body tensing—frozen for a moment with his eyes glued to me. The terror clears from his stare, replaced by something darker. His nostrils flair, and he grinds his teeth.
“If you don’t get your fucking hands off her, I will kill every fucking one of you.” He’s not yelling, just cold. He looks every bit the criminal he is.
A man my dad’s age steps forward, running a tattooed hand through his slicked-back dark hair and snorts a laugh. “Now, I don’t think you’re in any position to be making threats, boy.”
