Page 119 of Bleed Me

Roar! “Are you trying to piss me off? Too late! I’m fucking livid!”

“Can you please stop screaming in my ear?”

He leaned forward to get even closer to my helmeted ear. “You mean like the bitch who will be riding my dick soon?”

I reached back, over my shoulder, and tried to thumb him in the eye.

Holding his face, he bitched even more. “You almost blinded me!”

“If you were wearing a fucking helmet, it wouldn’t matter!”

Turning down Redemption Ryder’s road, I gasped and slowed us down. We were far away, but I could already see flashes, bullets firing from guns. Giver reached forward from my waist and to his handlebars, flicking his lights off. Then he tapped my chest to make sure I was still in my bulletproof vest. He had the balls to sneer, “Just making sure Dick didn’t take this off when you fucked.”

“Giver—”

His lips pressed to my helmet so hard I could feel him shaking. “Any storm. Fucking live, babe.”

My heart melted. “You too.”

It’s amazing how fast one fight can end when facing a much bigger one.

He gestured ahead. “They’re preoccupied now, but we’ve gotta go in hot as fuck. We’re sitting ducks.”

My hands opened and closed on the handles. I was going to have to hit a high speed in no time. The problem with speed was that it also meant the harder we were going to go down. Being shot? Going down was happening. “How close do you think we’ll get before they notice us?”

Men on each side of the dirt road were running from cover to cover—bikes, trees, whatever they could find for shelter from the bullet storm. It looked like my Stallions had rolled up into a war zone and got caught in the crossfire.

We had hoped to catch this new club unprepared, but they had more men than us. I growled, “Giver, we gotta get in there.”

“I know. I know. But we also have to be effective.” I could feel him behind me, looking around for a solution. A crazy hail Mary of sorts.

All I knew was every second that passed meant I could be losing a brother. My jaw tensed even more. “I’m about to hit this throttle and take my chances.”

“Easy, girl.” He pointed to the woods to the right. “Can you get me in there so we can circle a bit and come up behind the ones shooting into the compound?”

Giver getting off as many rounds as possible, before we were to give our position away, was crucial. Torque believed in Giver’s abilities. I believed in Giver.

Already turning the bike to the right to take action on the best plan we could muster in fifteen seconds, I told him, “Brush looks thick as hell, but I think so.”

Bouncing, to clear the shallow field we were crossing, Giver kept a strong eye on the enemy. “Still in the clear.”

We slipped into the trees unnoticed.

I couldn’t drive very fast through all the debris, trunks, and shrubbery, but, fuck it; I let the bike take a beating. Screech! went his paint and chrome. A bike could be fixed. Not the lives of our brothers.

Giver teased, “Think I should text them and announce our pending arrival?”

Scared, I appreciated his humor. It helped me breathe. “Yeah! Sure! They don’t seem too busy to get on their cells right now.” I exhaled, my chest pounding. “I guess now is as good as any time. Giver, not knowing what would happen here, I wrote up a Will and forged your name. Ice and Grace go to Elle—”

Reaching in front of me, he pushed a limb out of my way. “Stop talkin’ like you ain’t a badass bitch and we’re ridin’ to our deaths. Now get us in there so we can save the motherfucking day.”

I smiled. “I love you, James Gunn Dalton.”

His laughter made his chest rumble against my back. “You’re just talkin’ sweet to get out of trouble for fucking Dick. Nope. Over my knee, babe.” He palmed his guns at my stomach.

At the edge of trees, I turned the bike toward the war zone. It was Hell, right before my eyes, but I had Giver at my back. “Giver, you know better than to turn me on before a fight.”

“Hungry and horny makes you shoot better.” With his gun, he pointed. “That fallen tree is your goal. We may have to lay the beast down and army crawl for shelter when they recover and start in on us.”

We both took a deep breath and then raced into battle.

Jenny, watch over us.