“She needed a shirt,” he said with a shrug, but he didn’t meet my eyes. Orla dragged me down to her.
“Please, Alex, let’s go. I’ll explain everything later.”
I could barely say no to her, and I knew it.
“Meet us at the clubhouse later,” I said to Dempsey. He nodded and ran out into the fray. I wanted to grab Flynn but I couldn’t wait any longer. Orla was already half out the door, walking straight into a gun battle.
“Fuck,” I grunted as I ran and shoved her behind me. I aimed my gun out and looked for any danger as I held onto her hand and kept her behind my back. The sounds were growing more and more menacing. I should be out there, helping my brothers, but I couldn’t tear myself away from Orla.
Out of nowhere, a face appeared in the doorway, blood splattered over his face and a sneer on his face. He came for us. I raised my gun and shot him between the eyes, moving us to the door. Rebel was there, his own face splattered with blood and a deep gash in his arm.
“Shit,” Orla gasped.
“Reb, take her, do not take your fucking eyes off her. Get to the van.”
He nodded, grabbing Orla by the arm, her protests falling on deaf ears as I moved down the hall and shotat any fucker I didn’t immediately recognise. Ace was in a battle with one particularly nasty biker. I shot him through the side of the head, blood spraying across Ace’s neck. The guy fell, dead immediately, as Ace thanked me with a head nod.
“Get the fuck to your woman,” Hawk yelled. “Now.”
I saw the fury in his eyes, having had to be separated from his own woman because of this shit with Neal. He was not someone you wanted to piss off, no matter how long we’d known each other, I knew he’d beat the ever living crap out of me for fun if it meant to get some frustration out. I shot at another guy coming for Hawk and took off back down the hall, looking through every room to make sure they didn’t have someone else’s woman locked up here.
But I already knew what this was about and it was nothing to do with keeping women, and everything to do with Sheridan.
I raced out the back door, keeping an eye out for anyone coming out of the shadows. Most of the Nomads and our club were inside, and out the front, fighting, shooting, stabbing. My mind was on the van hidden down the street where Rebel was tasked with taking Orla.
Fear suddenly shot through me when I realised it should have been me taking her there, holding her, especially after everything she’d been through.
Fuck I was an asshole.
I heard a car start up from behind me, a garage door was open and bright headlights almost blinded me. The engine roared to life and I watched as it came toward me, with no swerve insight. I jumped out of the way, letting off a few rounds of my gun. Landing on the hard ground, I heard Orla’s scream in the distance from behind me, just as I locked eyes on the driver.
Neal fucking Foley. He sped off faster than I could get up. I ran for the car, pushing Rebel toward one of the other cars we brought.
“Follow the fucking car! Foley’s inside.”
Rebel didn’t wait around, he ran toward one of the other cars we’d brought with us and hightailed it after the disappearing vehicle. I got in the van with Orla, turning to her.
Her eyes were wide with fear, and I knew I was too amped up to calm her down, but fuck I wanted to.
“You’re hurt.”
She held her hand over my arm, blood pooling from a cut just above the elbow.
“It’s a scratch,” I told her. “Come on.”
“Wait. You want to be inside, don’t you?”
“No, I want to be with you.”
It was a partial truth. I wanted to be with her, but I didn’t want to leave my brothers alone inside.
“I can get back to the clubhouse, you go back in there and fuck up everyone in there.”
“Babe.”
“Alex, I am perfectly capable of driving this thing back to the clubhouse where I know I’ll have Maree, Shona and whoever else is there to help me.”
I was torn. I loved how independent she was, it was one of the first things I had fallen for back when we were kids, but I didn’t want to leave her. I wanted to stay glued to her side, forever.
