Page 62 of Girth (Marked Skulls MC 1)
There was so much blood. So many small rivers of blood that had soaked into the concrete.
I saw Colt hovering over Rider as he grimaced on the ground. Blood was seeping from his shoulder as he held onto it, his face contorted in pain. I ran around to his head and fell to my knees, gathering his body and placing it on mine. I didn’t care that I was getting his blood on my jeans and I didn’t care that Colt was yelling at me to get back. I swatted at the men grabbing for me as tears rose to my eyes.
Rider had been shot.
Rider wasn’t opening his eyes.
“Just look at me,” I said in a whisper. “Just open your eyes, Rider.”
I brushed my fingertips along Rider’s forehead as I smoothed the dirt and sweat away from his skin. I could feel my body trembling as his blood soaked into my jeans. I started massaging his temples, looking for something to calm his shaking body as Colt peeled off his leather jacket. My brother pressed it into Rider’s shoulder, eliciting a moan of pain from between his lips as tears began to trickle down my face.
I watched one drip onto Rider’s forehead, prompting his eyes to flutter open.
“Zoey,” he said.
“‘Bout damn time you opened your eyes,” I said.
Colt pressed his jacket farther into Rider’s shoulder as he wailed in pain.
“Bullet’s through and through,” Colt said as he began wrapping Rider’s shoulder. “He’s gonna need the doctor.”
“I need you to keep your eyes open for me, okay?” I asked.
“Bit hard to do that,” Rider said.
“You’ve done hard. You keep those fucking eyes open for me, okay? You don’t have a choice.”
“Guess things could be… worse…”
Colt kept applying more and more pressure as the guys began to gather around.
“Will someone call a fucking doctor!?” I asked.
“Jax?” Colt asked.
“Already on it,” Jax said.
I smoothed through Rider’s hair as my other hand massaged his chest. He was trembling so badly, and I was scared he would lock up. I massaged any stiff muscle I could get my hands on as Colt watched me carefully. I could feel the tension growing. I could feel the worry mounting. There was so much blood, and Rider was growing weak, and I was helpless to help the one man that had helped me.
That had helped me tap into a part of myself I refused to acknowledge for years.
“You gotta stop bleeding, Rider,” I said. “You only got so much.”
“Not sure I got control over that,” Rider said. “Sorry.”
His teeth started chattering as my eyes rose to Colt’s. I could see the questions and confusion running through his eyes, but I didn’t have time to answer his questions. There was so much that had to happen in order to save Rider, and I wasn’t sure if whoever Jax was calling would get here in time.
“I can take it from here,” Doc said.
“I’m not leaving him,” I said.
“Zoey, look at me.”
I rose my eyes as my brother’s voice beckoned to me.
“Why the fuck do you think we call him ‘Doc’?” Colt asked. I shrugged my shoulders.
“Doc’s wife is a doctor.”
Chapter 13
Rider
The moment gunshots popped off I was behind a bike with Zoey. I was not going to let her get hurt. I was not going to allow the asshole moves of some bullshit rival gang hurt her in any way. I instinctively reached for a gun on my hip as my body covered hers, growing painfully aware of the fact that I didn’t have anything to defend myself.
But all the gunshots were coming our way, and I had to deflect them elsewhere.
I told Zoey to stay put then did the only thing I could. I hopped from bike to bike, drawing their fire with risky moves. Bullets were bouncing off reflective surfaces and shattering windows. Embedding themselves into bricks as I ambushed as man men as I could. I had their necks in the crook of my arm. I had their faces underneath the heel of my boot. Every man I came into contact with was disarmed and blacked out within the blink of an eye.
I could hear people shouting at me to get back. Yelling at me to get behind something and take cover.
But I wasn’t having it.
No one was going to hurt the only family I’d come to know.
I don’t even know when I got shot. It was sometime between the last man I took out and the time they started taking off like the pussies they were. All of a sudden, there was this searing ache in my shoulder. I could feel a warmth cascading down my arm as well as breaching the back of my shirt.
The bullet had torn through right through my rotator cuff.
Which meant it had torn right through my new leather cut.
I laid there on the ground, the world spinning above me. I could feel the pavement slowly growing warm and wet as I laid there, trying to figure out what to do next. The rumbling of the pavement was fierce as The Red Horsemen drove away, and I heard Colt shouting my name.
The panic in his voice told me it was serious.
Before I knew it, someone was lifting my head. My eyes were heavy, and my body felt like it was floating away. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get them to pry themselves open. And I knew enough from my combat days to know that wasn’t good. I had to stay as alert and as conscious as I could until I could get medical attention.
Could I even go to a hospital when I was part of a crew like this?
“Just look at me,” a voice whispered. “Just open your eyes, Rider.”
The voice was so sweet, yet full of so much despair. I felt the warmth of someone’s body underneath my skull, and it dulled the throbbing pain I was experiencing. I smelled a certain perfume that seemed familiar, and I felt something wet dripping on my forehead.
I managed to open my eyes and found myself face to face with the eyes of an angel. Zoey’s face came into view, her wild red hair fluttering down towards me as tears dripped down her cheeks. Why was she crying? Why did she look so scared? Was she hurt? Was she scared?
If she was hurt, I was going to kill the bastard who hurt her.
The moments that passed by were a blur. People were gathered around me, and something was pressed into my shoulder. I felt a searing pain shoot through my arm and rob me of my breath. I could hear Zoey’s voice penetrating the crowd, pleading with me to do unspeakable things.
Like, stop bleeding?
“Not sure I got control over that,” I said. “Sorry.”
“I can take it from here.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“Zoey, look at me. Why the fuck do you think we call him ‘Doc’?”
There were so many voices swirling around my head. I felt dizzy. Tired. Nauseous. I knew Colt was talking and I could hear remnants of Zoey’s voice through her sobs. But the voice I heard the most was Doc’s.
“All right, kid. I’m gonna have to move you, and it’s not gonna be fun. On the count of three.”
That fucker didn’t even get to one before arms hoisted me into the air. I cried out in pain, my voice peeling from my throat and shattering the walls around me. Holy hell, there was no bullet I had taken on the battlefield that sucked as much as this one did. I felt my body being moved. Being whisked away as the smell of the bar wafted back underneath my nose. Chicken grease and stale beer permeated the room as I heard the crashing of glasses and the stumbling of feet.
I heard table legs scraping across the floor before I someone took off my jacket and started tearing at my shirt.
“What happened?”
I screamed out in pain as vodka was poured all over my shoulder.
“Rider. Rider. Open your fucking eyes and look at me.”
I fluttered my eyes open, my teeth biting into my lower lip as tears crested my eyes. I was staring into the eyes of Colt, his body trying to block what Doc was doing as a numbness began to take over my body.
“Talk me through what happened,” Colt said.
“Are you… are you ser-?”
>
Another shrieking cry left my throat as Doc moved my shoulder around.
“Sorry kid, but it isn’t gonna get better. I got someone comin’ to help, but she’s about ten minutes out still,” Doc said.
“Distract yourself. Tap into that military strength. Tell me what happened out there,” Colt said.
“I-I-I… uh… well… I was out… side. The Zoey was, too. We heard… I heard… the motorcycles were coming. And I knew… it wasn’t our guys. Couldn’t have… have been.”
My teeth were chattering as the pain grew more and more intense. One sensation blurred into another, and I could feel myself being pulled under.
“Snap out of it, Rider. Why could it have not been our guys?” Colt asked.
