Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Closer to the gate, the second Cartel guy prowls, waving his piece at the crew and barking in Spanish. He’s sloppier than the man on Mera, keeps his finger way off the trigger, always looking behind him like he expects company. Rookie. That’s a good thing. It means I only need a clean shot on the guy with Mera—the second one will go down easy.
The man holding Mera barks, “Eighty seconds to comply or I blow her fucking head off. I want your entire stash. Here. Now.” I listen as the club drags out their arsenal, stacking it in the dirt. A black duffel bag, a scatter of handguns, a dozen gleaming rifles.
If they count them, they will know one is missing.
Because it is in my hands right now.
I shift toward the open window, leaning down and angling the rifle on a crate. My old man used to say, “You aim to shoot once, and once only. Any more than that, and you’ve failed.” I’m not sure if that’s better or worse. Either way, my hands are steady and my whole body is glass, waiting for the right moment.
Mera isn’t crying, not even fighting, just standing with her chin up, glare set on the man’s face.
She’s a god damned warrior.
I know how scared she is, but she’s refusing to show it.
My finger slips easy onto the trigger. I drop my eye down to the scope, carefully placing it on the man’s temple, waiting for the right shot. If he twitches, if he even flinches, Mera’s face is gone. I have one shot. One only.
He screams the count: “Fifty, forty-nine...”
The other guy bends to the duffel, raking through the pile, barely looking at the crowd. His head is right down, offering me a clear line to move to him once I take the main man out.
I take a deep, shaky breath.
The world goes quiet. I aim for the man holding Mera, lining him up perfectly, and squeeze.
The gun cracks.
The echo is a whip of lightning and the man doesn’t even realize what has happened. He drops before the blood even stains his shirt. Mera falls, knees hitting the ground, and Wolfe’s men are already moving before the echo fades. The second guy leaps up, but he has no chance. I have him down before he even takes a step.
It goes quiet. For a second, nobody moves. Then all at once, the club is in motion, charging like rabid dogs. Kael’s already halfway to the gate by the time I prop the rifle and push up, and I run, body on auto, into the bright air.
Mera is coughing, streaked in blood that isn’t hers. She’s already up, being pulled behind the wall by Zane, who swears so much half the words are lost. The rest of the MC swarms the dead first guy, stomping and spitting even though he’s already out of this world.
Kael’s eyes find me over the blur and motion and noise. He walks, not runs, up to where I stand in the open, my chest rising and falling with a mix of adrenaline and relief. His face is a storm of things I can’t read, but he doesn’t say anything at first. He just stops and stares down at me with pure confusion.
“Who the fuck are you?” he says after a long time. Not angry. Just in complete shock.
I shrug, because there’s nothing to say. I don’t know who I am.
I just know I can shoot a gun.
Wolfe, Mera, and Steel walk over to me, their eyes wide with something I can’t quite understand.
Wolfe steps forward, his eyes narrowed. “You do that?”
I nod, swallowing.
He shakes his head in disbelief. “Ain’t never seen someone shoot a gun like that before. We’re goin’ to talk about how you learned that, but for right now, I am forever fuckin’ grateful.”
Mera launches herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck, squeezing as tight as her shaking hands allow. “You saved my life, you fucking crazy, gun-wielding legend.”
I laugh.
Zane lets out a whistle, walking over, pulling a cigarette out and pressing it to his lips. “She just put a hole in two men and didn’t even flinch. Fuckin’ hell, Thorn, you really know how to pick ’em.”
It gets crazy after that, the MC boys start bagging up the bodies, prepping for the cleanup crew, and the girls swarm around Mera and me, half-hysterical, half-starstruck. Their voices moving at a rapid pace, asking a million questions I can’t answer.
I need to sit, so I find myself a log by the fire, planting my butt down and exhaling. Kael finds me, sitting down and pulling a joint out of his cut, lighting it before taking a deep inhale. Then, he offers it to me. I take it without thought, my nerves are shot. I have killed for Gage, more times than I can count, but it doesn’t even feel good.