Page 40

Using my speed, I side-stepped out of the way while simultaneously throwing out a kick that landed in his gut, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to bend over at the waist, clutching his stomach. Thank God for Mauy Thai lessons. Before he could recover and stand back up, I rushed in front of him, interlocking my fingers at the base of his neck and using my hands to hold him in place.

“Eat. A. Bag. Of. Dicks. Asshole,” I yelled out, punctuating each word with a brutal knee to his face.

My jeans were soaked from the blood pouring from his face. His anguished cries drowned out the city sounds around us. Including Sam. I hoped she was doing fine on her own. I hadn’t been able to get a good look to see how much damage she’d endured. But my focus was knocking this guy out before his brain caught up and he remembered the knife was still in his hand.

The asshole in my clutches went limp, and I let him slam to the floor before kicking him over to his back, exposing his throat. Seeing the bloody mess on his face brought a smile to my lips. Anyone watching this moment would think I looked like a bloodied, deranged psycho. But they hadn’t witnessed the bulge in this piece of shit’s pants when he talked about taking advantage of Sam and me. Crouching down, I let my blade spill the blood of a guilty man again, happy to reap another soul and send it to El Diablo.

Sam’s voice cut through the adrenaline fog of the fight. But not before a weight slammed into my back, sending me sprawling onto the asphalt. I threw an elbow and got lucky it connected, giving me an opening to flip over so he didn’t have my back. The man Sam had knocked out earlier regained consciousness and now had me pinned.

He was a big fucker, and there was no way to get his weight off me. My hips bucked up, attempting to create space and shrimp out, but it was no use. Meaty fingers curled around my neck, cutting off my airway. Black spots started appearing in my vision. I was fucked if I didn’t figure out something fast. Shards of asphalt and other shit embedded in my palms as I frantically swept my hands along the ground, searching for my blade.

The moment my hand wrapped around the hilt, I jammed the knife into his throat where I knew his carotid artery would be, desperately stabbing to get him to release my throat, knowing I didn’t have long before I passed out.

Moments before I was out of time, his grip loosened. Warm tears leaked from my eyes and ran down my cheeks.

The dead weight of his body was pressed on top of me, and I was too close to losing consciousness to move him. Everything was muffled and hazy, but commotion from the end of the alley still drew my attention.

Please, Santa Muerte, don’t tell me these douchebags had backup.

My eyelids strained to stay open, wanting to see who was approaching, but they felt too heavy. Seconds before everything went black, a familiar face popped into view, but my brain couldn’t register if it was friend or foe.

I huffed a laugh at the irony of my life being taken in the same place I’d first taken one.

Gunner

I hammered down on my throttle, weaving through traffic at reckless speeds. Not a single fuck given about my safety or potentially getting pulled over by some random Tucson cop. Any string that needed to be pulled would be.

We’d been sitting at the clubhouse playing a game of poker when the text came in.

“Ryan’s here. I think she’s hurt bad.”

The fucking chair broke under the pressure of me shooting up when I read those words. Blood drained from my face, and every rational thought left my brain. Thankfully, Dex took my phone to see what caused my reaction, and he called Torque to get the details of where we needed to go. I wanted them to get her an ambulance since she was lying there bleeding out. But they outvoted me. We were all involved in too much shady shit to call an ambulance or go to a hospital. I let them believe I agreed with them and took off on my bike. I would take her myself if she needed a real hospital, consequences be damned.

I’d acted like a bitch all weekend. Pissed off at the world—and Ryan—for not telling me she was engaged to Mario. A fact that honestly should’ve brought me relief, but it didn’t. So I’d sulked. Not even Dex wanted to be around me. Today was supposed to be about figuring out how to get my shit together before seeing her again. Because regardless of my conflicted feelings, there was still a job to do, and we still needed to get information out of her. But then that text came in, and all plans were thrown out the window. A burning need to make sure she was okay filled my body; nothing else mattered.

The city passed by in flashes, nothing registering. My sole focus was getting to the pin on my map. Getting to Ryan. The mouth of the alley came into view, and I took the corner into the alley at breakneck speeds, not bothering to slow down. Dex’s words popped into my head.

“Asshole, you won’t be any help to her if you’re splattered across the pavement,” he’d warned. Neither one of us commented about my reaction to the news—how out of my mind I was for someone I should have zero feelings for.

My breath caught in my lungs, and a chill ran down my spine at the scene in front of me. I didn’t even know how I got off my bike. One moment, I was at the mouth of the alley, and the next, I was crouched down, cupping Ryan’s face in my hands.

“What the fuck happened?” I hissed out to whoever the fuck was standing around.

My eyes were locked on Ryan, taking in the eerily calm expression on her face as she lay there in a puddle of blood. Scanning over her body, I looked for the source, worried I was already too late.

“It’s not her blood. I already checked her over,” Torque called out.

The fact that he was so calm pissed me off. Was no one else feeling as if they were being buried alive—suffocating and panicked? Squeezing my eyes shut, I forced myself to take calming breaths, needing to gain control of myself.

You can’t shoot everyone in this alley.

“She’s got a slice on her rib. Looks pretty shallow, but it’ll need cleaning, maybe stitches. Didn’t think you’d want me lookin’ too close. When I walked out, some asshole was on top of her, choking her out…” His stare burned a hole in the back of my neck. He was waiting for me to snap.

I looked at Torque with a murderous glare. His hands lifted in surrender. Logically, I knew he wasn’t responsible for this, but my rage didn’t care.

“Hey, Gunner, as soon as I saw what was happening, I started running to help. But your little badass there had it covered. Before I could reach ’em, she pulled a knife out of god knows where and stabbed him in the neck until he was no longer a problem.”

“That sounds ’bout right. She wouldn’t take a man’s bullshit.” I pushed her hair out of her face, gently caressing her tanned skin with my thumb.