Page 37 of Obey

Enough time to get onto that street and figure out where it was going to take me.

It better be toward Knight, because I was going to need everyone in the Banshee club to protect me if I wanted to survive escaping Devil’s clutches again.

CHAPTER 17

KNIGHT

WE RODE THROUGH THE night like our lives actually depended on it, each of us pushing our bikes right to the limit and keeping our eyes on the road in front of us. Thank goodness we knew where she was, I kept telling myself. Thank the maker Frank had a spy in Devil’s midst who could tell us where to find her.

Otherwise, we wouldn’t know where she was escaping from—if she’d managed to escape at all. I still hadn’t heard anything from Frank, who had stayed back at the clubhouse with Gemini, and the silence was driving me insane. Had Sioux gotten back to him to let him know if everything had gone to plan? Had she gotten back to him to let him know that things had gone wrong? Where was Saraya? Was she safe? Had she made it out alive, or was she still a prisoner in Devil’s house?

Part of the needing to know was my desperate need for her to be safe. I wanted to know where the hell my girl was and if I would ever see her again. Part of it, though, was entirely practical. We needed to know what we were riding into. Was this going to be a war where I had to worry about getting into the house to get Saraya out? Or was it going to be a war where I had her behind me, trying to protect her as Devil’s men came after me? I was in the midst of planning things, and knowing what I was going to have to do once we got there would go a long way toward making sure we actually won the thing.

Knowing where she was would also have put my heart at rest, because right now I was hoping for the best while imagining all the most terrible things that could have happened to her. If I found out late that Frank had been holding information that could have set my heart at ease, I was going to kill him myself.

We tore through the night, getting closer and closer to Devil’s hideout, and now we moved into a battle formation. I moved into the lead and let my men fan out behind me, leaving them to sort out their positions as they would. This wasn’t the first time we’d ridden into a dangerous situation like this, and they had their own method of doing things. As long as that method resulted in us winning the coming battle, I didn’t care. I’d never bothered with trying to organize them myself, because I knew my men.

And I trusted them to do it in the way that worked best.

The engines were roaring now as we headed up the hill, and my mental map told me that once we were over that hill, we’d be able to see the house where Devil had holed himself up. There was nothing but open land around here, with one small, forested area to our right, and that would make for an intense battle. No one would have anywhere to hide. We had the upper hand, as Devil didn’t know we were coming, and that meant, I hoped, that we’d catch him by surprise. Even better if he was thrown off by Saraya having escaped.

Even better if he’d come after her without any of his men at his back.

If we could catch him alone and take him out, that would be the end of it. He’d killed his vice president over what I’d heard was nothing more than jealousy and paranoia, and had never trusted anyone else enough to name them VP, which meant there was no chain of command in the Steed. No one would automatically step up and take over once Devil was gone.

Kill him and the entire club would be leaderless. They’d disintegrate like dust in the wind. No battle. No loss of life.

Unless you counted Devil’s.

I felt a grin start to grow on my face at the thought of taking him out once and for all. It would be good for the entire state, good for everyone in an MC around here, to be rid of him. Good for me, and good for Saraya. We could stop living with the worry that he’d show up and make trouble. Maybe leave the MC. Make a life for ourselves that didn’t include guns and death.

I was jumping ahead of myself by three or four steps. But when a man was heading into battle, he had to have something to live for. And my something was Saraya. It had been, ever since I’d seen her on the ground at my feet, bruised, broken, and still fighting.

I wanted that girl back in my arms, and I wanted her now.

At that moment, someone came flying over the hill in front of us, the roar of their engine even louder than the chorus of ours, their body bent over the handlebars for better speed and their hair streaming out behind them.

It was the hair that told me who it was. Curling and rioting behind her, unencumbered by any helmet or control.

I knew that hair. I’d run my hands through that hair and clenched it in my fist as I entered her.

“Saraya,” I breathed.

She’d escaped. Damn, she’d escaped. She was by herself, though, and I had a split second to wonder where the other woman was—hadn’t she said she was going to escape with Saraya?—before Saraya saw us and stared shouting. She was screaming and waving behind her, pointing at the road and the hill she’d just crested, while hauling ass right for us.

“Split!” I bellowed, seeing that she wasn’t planning to stop.

My men split evenly to the two sides of the road, falling into single file while not breaking our speed, and Saraya shot through the pack, heading the way we’d come, back toward the clubhouse.

Toward safety.

I hesitated for a split second, wanting to follow her and make sure she was okay. I wanted to get her to stop so I could take her in my arms and make sure she was real. Every atom in my body wanted to hold her and tell her she was safe.

But I’d come here to deal with Devil, and running after Saraya wasn’t going to do that. I couldn’t leave my men to fight her alone. My place was here with them—even if it meant I didn’t get to go home to her.

If I could take Devil out and make sure she was safe for the rest of her life, it would all be worth it.

I sent all my best wishes after her, praying that she’d make it and that she knew the way. And then I saw what she’d been running from.