He roars. Blood spurts.
He swings with one heavy fist and connects with me right across the jaw.
My lights go out.
I lose time, hit the ground, and snap back to a dizzy alertness.
See Ruby scramble for the gun, see Slade do the same. See the desperation in her eyes as she gets her hands around the pommel of her pistol, only to have Slade put his hands on her.
Shouting, she throws the gun toward me as Slade hammers her with a heavy elbow on the back of her head, a blow that sends her limp to the ground.
I reach for the gun. But I’m not close enough. All I hear is the pounding in my ears, the desperate beating of my heart, as I crawl toward the weapon.
I reach it before him, hold the steel in the grip of my hands, twist and aim the barrel right at his head.
“Don’t move,” I growl. “Don’t give me an excuse to pull this trigger.”
There’s a rumbling noise in the distance. It blends with the thunderbeat of my heart.
A motorcycle engine.
Snake?
I don’t have time to look. All my attention is on Slade.
And the way he cocks his head to the side. The dire smile that slants across his face.
He takes one step toward me.
“You don’t have it in you.”
The engine rumbles closer. I see the sun flash off chrome. See a familiar, leather-wearing shape.
“Don’t move, Slade,” I say.
My voice wavers.
Do I have it in me? Can I shoot him?
Another step. That smile grows, turns my stomach to lead.
One more step.
“Don’t move or—” I start.
But he leaps.
And I pull the trigger.
But there’s no crack. No concussive snap in my hands. It’s jammed.
Slade hits me like a malevolent ton of bricks. Drags me to the ground. Perches above me like a menacing gargoyle, all fangs and a gory face and bloodthirsty hands ready to throttle the life from me.
“I can’t wait to watch you die.”
Then there’s a crack.
A look of pale shock covers his sinister face. Blood wells from his shoulder, spills from him like a waterfall. Drips on my face, my mouth, my chest.
He slumps, falls to the side.
All I can do is scream.
Then he starts to stir, recovering from the shock.
Snake plants his foot on his chest, pinning him, holding the gun aimed right at his face.
“You think you can touch her and live?”
Slade grabs at Snake’s leg, trying to wrench him off him.
Snake’s answer is a hammer blow to his face that cuts the air with a sickening snap.
“You worthless son of a bitch. You touched the woman I love. Now you’re going to feel the wrath of a fucking Army Ranger and Twisted Devil. Hooah,” he yells and, with the pull of a trigger, turns Slade’s head into a bloody mess.
Eyes on fire, sprayed in Slade’s blood, Snake turns to me and offers his hand. I take it and he lifts me to my feet.
“It’s time we end this,” he growls. “Whatever it takes.”
Chapter Twenty
Snake
I help her to her feet. She’s unsteady in my arms, hurt and shaking from everything that Slade has put her through. This is too much for her; a woman like her shouldn’t be a part of a life like this — it’ll break her, and it’ll break my heart to hold her like this every time some menace tries to tear our lives apart.
She’s too good for this.
And if she stays here, eventually this life will extinguish that bright spark in her that makes everything around her brighter. Warmer. That allows dark-hearted men like me to bask in the brilliance of her love.
If she stays, the Adella that I know will die; I know it deep in my soul. The same way the military screwed me up — waiting until I was nearly free to rip my best friend from me and leave me in the hospital with shrapnel in my body and scars on my heart — this life will get to her too.
It’d be a betrayal of everything I believe in to let that happen.
Even if it means turning against the president of my club, I have to get her out of here.
“You’re alive. You’re alive and you’re safe,” I murmur to her as I hold her to my chest. She shakes against me, seeming as fragile as a dry autumn leaf.
It won’t take much more of this to break her.
No way in hell I can let that happen.
“It all happened so fast,” she says. “You were gone, and I looked out the window and saw they were coming. I tried to fight them, Snake, I tried.”
“You made it. You’re alive. That’s all that matters. And we will get you out of this for good,” I say. “We will end all of this. It’s time to go with your plan. And, when we’re done with all these assholes, you will get out of this town and away from this life. You have too much to live for to let all this shit bring you down.”
“Out?”
“Away from all of this. The club. The violence. The danger. We can’t be together, Addie. I’m a soldier, I’m made for this, but you? I hate to see this break you. You’ve talked about going your own way, so here’s your chance. You can get out of town — to LA or anywhere else, it doesn’t matter, because you’re talented and you sure as hell can build a life wherever you choose. You’ll be safe, you can start over.”
Those words hang in the air and it looks like she’s going to argue.
With her eyes wide, she nods.
“You’re right, Snake.”
Even though I know it’s the best
