Page 51 of Bowser (Dragon Riders MC 2)
And I smiled as I sat down.
“There we do,” I whispered.
I turned myself around and placed my hands against the ground. I felt the sharp piece of glass against my fingertip and worked it into my hand. It took some maneuvering and cussing before I got it hooked beneath the tape. But once I did, all it took was a forward force to shred the duct tape into nothing.
Yes!
I swallowed down my rejoicing and moved my hands to my face. I was free. They were free. And almost immediately, the feeling rushed back to my fingers. It hurt like a bitch, but my hands were mobile. My hands and my feet.
But I saw why my one wrist bled so much.
Oh, no.
In all of my raking and all of my struggling and all of my hastiness to get myself free, I tore into my wrist a bit too much. And the vein on the underside of my wrist had been nicked.
“Not good, not good, not good,” I murmured.
I searched for the tape on the ground and picked it up. It was still pretty sticky, so I used what I had. I wrapped the tape around my bleeding wrist, securing it as tightly as I could. And after rubbing the tape back down to try and stop the bulk of the bleeding, I peeked over the tops of the bushes I crouched behind.
Trying to see if I could figure out why the hell the gunfire had ceased.19Bowser“How the fuck did this happen?” Sly hissed.
I shook my head. “No fucking clue.”
“He’s been in front of us every step of the goddamn way. How the hell—”
I reached out and clapped my hand over his mouth. As we grew closer to the campground, the last thing I wanted was to alert people to the fact that we were here. It was a fucking miracle, in and of itself, that we had gotten to this place without being seen. And the last thing I needed was Sly blowing it with his bitching.
“You good?” I whispered.
He nodded quickly, so I removed my hand.
“I just want to say,” he started.
But when I shot him a look, his lips screwed themselves shut.
A gunshot popped off in the distance and my eyes widened. Sly’s eyes narrowed before his head whipped back toward the sound. I watched his entire body go on alert as my eyes scanned the woods. I gazed up and down the road as another pop graced my ears.
“That’s the campground,” Sly murmured.
“Woods. Now.”
I grabbed his arm and off we went. We dashed into the woods and used the gunfire as cover to keep our sounds under control. I didn’t know who was shooting or why, but I knew one thing: those girls could take care of themselves.
“Have you heard from Knuckles at all?” I asked.
“Nope.”
“Do we even know what happened to Ash?”
Sly stood behind a tree. “Not a chance in hell.”
I shook my head. “Something smells about all of this. And I don’t like it one damn bit.”
All of a sudden, the gunfire rained down. My eyes widened as I gazed through the trees at what I figured was the campground. Which we were still half a mile away from. What in the fucking hell was happening over there?
“We have to radio Link,” Sly said.
“There are a lot of things we have to do right now that we’re not capable of doing because it’s just us. So, right now? We need to get closer to figure out what the fuck is happening.”
Sly nodded his head, then the two of us took off. We used the blazing gunshots to cover our tracks as we came upon the edge of the campground. Well, not the direct edge. There was still about a quarter of a mile between us and the bikes in the weed-filled gravel parking lot. The place honestly looked like an abandoned R.V. campground, and as I narrowed my eyes I tried to figure out where the hell the girls were.
Until Sly tapped my shoulder.
“Is that who I think it is?” he asked.
I followed the point of his finger, but I didn’t see anything.
“What? I’m not following,” I said.
His hand turned my head. “There. Look. Behind the rock.”
The sunlight glinted through the tops of the trees and I froze in my tracks. And once my brain confirmed what I was seeing, I took off. I ran through the brush and shoved tree branches out of my way. Sly was hot on my heels, rushing after me and calling out my name. My heart slammed against my chest. I watched the weakened figure stumble around on its ankles before rushing to the nearest tree before leaning against it.
And when she turned to look at me, those beautiful eyes drew me in.
Before shock rolled over her face.
“Bow—Bowser!?”
I rushed right up to Hope and scooped her into my arms.
