Chapter Nineteen
DREW
My boots hit the loose stones at the bottom of the porch, kicking up dust after I’d jumped down the steps in one. When I looked up, my men were standing by the gate of the yard, their circle formed, and the confusion on their faces clear.
Ayda lingered somewhere behind me. I was aware of that. Right now, I had to be the president of the MC. Family life had to be put on hold when the enemy was currently riding up and down the street your home was built upon, revving his engine for the whole of Babylon to hear.
Slater and Jedd flanked either side of the opened gate, their guns aimed high and their bodies following the direction of the single bike that seemed to be taking great pleasure in riding back and forth for the joy of taunting us.
Shrugging my shoulders in my cut, my footsteps fell heavier the closer I got, and soon Kenny was beside me, his words rushing out.
“He just keeps riding up and down the street this way, Drew. He’s taunting us, playing some kind of game. Moose can’t see anything or anyone else on all the surveillance cameras, and Slater wants us all to stay behind the gates untilwe know if anyone else is out there. He thinks it could be a trap to lure us out there into open space.”
I chucked my chin to acknowledge him, my strides determined until I was among my men. They parted for me, letting me through to the front. When I walked past Slater and Jedd, I heard their cries and ignored them anyway.
“Tucker!” Jedd called out.
“Get the fuck back here, Drew,” Slater cried.
The men grumbled behind them, but I never looked back as I stepped out into the middle of the road, watching as the bike holding the Nav in question spun around to face me. When he saw me standing there, he twisted the throttle over and over, making noise and waiting for me to cower. My response was simple: he was in my town. These were my streets. I wasn’t going anywhere.
Standing with my legs apart, I carefully folded my hands over my chest and waited.
Slater and the guys were muttering among themselves, while I stared at the Nav in front of me.
He set forward at once, the slow build of his engine gathering power, making the town around us vibrate with his attempt at intimidation. He was aiming straight for me, no other direction in mind, his speed growing while my feet remained planted on the asphalt.
The Nav was getting closer, closer, his path set to go straight through me if he had to.
I held my position, not moving an inch.
If I could have seen his eyes behind his glasses or hear the words falling free from his moving lips, I’m sure I would have known for sure that he thought I was a crazy bastard.
The guy had no idea how crazy I could be.
“Drew!” Jedd called again. “Get out of the fucking—”
He rode closer, and just when I wasn’t sure if he was going to swerve, the Nav twisted his bike to the right, gliding aroundme in a flurry of activity, his body nothing more than a black mass of leather and grease as I slowly spun on my heel and turned to face the direction he’d ridden off in.
Had the guy had any sense, he’d have carried on and hit the roads out of Babylon, but he wasn’t here by chance, and I, more than anyone, knew this little performance was both planned and for my benefit.
When he stopped and spun the bike around again, his hand twisting the throttle as he revved the engine, I tilted my head to one side and offered him a sarcastic smile, my slow blink controlled.
Ayda is going to kill you,I thought to myself.
The Nav set off again, repeating the same process, testing my nerve and seeing defiance glaring back at him before he swerved around me on the right, riding back to his original position.
“I don’t like this, Drew!” Slater called out to me.
“Stay where you are, Sarge,” I warned him calmly, never taking my eyes off the target in front of me—the enemy on my turf.
“He’s not going to go around you a third time.”
“I’d be pissed if he did,” I muttered to myself, holding my position.
The Nav’s bike roared to life again, charging straight at me.
I waited.
