Page 8 of Ruin

The thought made me grind my teeth in frustration, my fingers curling into fists inside the pockets of my jacket.

I hated the man, not necessarily for what he’d done to me, but for what he’d done to my men and my club—and now, what he’d done to Saraya. And though I’d never thought I would say anything like it, I couldn’t wait for him to be dead and gone. Everything would be so much easier, for my club and the people who lived around here.

Everyone would be able to let out a sigh of relief.

I jumped at a sound in the distance and turned my head, thinking that I could hear engines, but a moment later, the sound was gone and I was wondering whether I’d actually heard it at all. I turned my eyes back to Mandy, my mind on my mission, here: Keep Mandy alive. Kill Devil. Get us all out of this before it got any worse.

I’d just focused my eyes back on her when the lights in the building ahead of her came on, and the door opened. I tensed, my hand going to my gun, and tried to see what was going on. There was a figure there, but it was no more than a silhouette against the light. A dark figure standing up in front of a bright yellow glow. Dammit, I couldn’t see anything, and that was dangerous. I slithered to the side, gun up and eyes on the figure, trying desperately to figure out what was going on, and as the figure stepped toward her, Mandy paused, staring. She looked hard at the figure, but probably couldn’t see a face any better than I could.

I saw the moment she decided she had to keep going. Her shoulders stiffened, her back grew straight, and she started walking again.

“Mandy, no,” I whispered, knowing in my gut that something was wrong. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, with this slow approach from one of Devil’s men, and now that we were right here, I couldn’t escape the feeling that we’d walked right into a fucking trap.

I ran for her, not giving my brain time to consider, and prayed for wings on my feet to get to her before anything went wrong.

I failed.

Lights flooded the entire parking lot, streaming from every building around us, and a siren started blasting from somewhere. Mandy froze and looked around, her actions panicked, while I increased my speed, trying to get to her. I turned and looked at the man who’d come out of the building, trying to figure out who the hell was out here with us and why he was walking so slowly. Was it Devil? It seemed too big to be him, and I thought he must have sent someone else in his place.

Someone he didn’t value.

But who? Who would he have trusted enough to collect Saraya for him?

Then I caught the spotlight rushing over the man’s face and realized that it wasn’t one of Devil’s men at all.

It was Tinker. My man. And he looked terrified. He looked like someone had beaten him to a pulp and then kept right on going, his lips swollen and one eye nearly closed. He was limping, one shoulder lower than the other... and he was armed with a rifle, though it was down at his side, his grip loose.

A moment later, cop cars came rushing from every direction, screeching to stops in the gravel and throwing up rocks and dirt around us. The light from the spotlights grew hazy and hard to see through, and I glanced from Tinker back to Mandy, and then back again to my friend. The man who’d been a father to me in so many ways, and a mentor before anyone else would ever take me seriously.

He met my gaze, his eyes wild and horrified, and then he mouthed Run. He pulled the rifle up, sighted it on the closest cop, and started shooting.

“No!” I screamed.

But it did no good. The cops were already shooting back, their bullets tearing holes in Tinker where he stood. He jerked and shouted, dropping the rifle and putting his hands up like he was going to shield his face, but the damage was done, and within seconds, he was on the ground, twitching as the cops continued to shoot.

Mandy screamed, turned, and started to run toward me, her face still a shadow underneath the hood, but the cops were on her in moments, taking her to the ground and pinning her face into the dirt.

I watched for a split second, torn between trying to save my friend and knowing that it would be impossible. The cops already had her in cuffs. I couldn’t save her from that.

And I had to get the hell out of there if I didn’t want the same thing to happen to me.

I turned and ran, hating myself more with every step I took but knowing that I wouldn’t do Mandy any good being in jail with her. I had to get home, get the gang together, and figure out how to get her back out. I’d have to tell them that this had been a trap alright, and one that included the fucking cops. I didn’t know how Devil had done it, but there was no way he could have called and given them some random tip about a war between motorcycle gangs without incriminating himself. Which meant that he had a source on the police force.

If he had the police department in his pocket, our options were even slimmer than I’d realized.

I pounded across the gravel, my eyes on the bikes in the cactus patch and my men, who’d arrived back at the bikes before I had and were already on them.

“Go!” I shouted, turning my bike on and revving the engine.

The men screeched out onto the pavement, and I followed them, leaving Mandy behind and knowing that I’d never see Tinker again. He’d sacrificed himself to give me time to get out of there. The least I could do was take the favor and leave with my life, ready to fight another day. I had to get to the rest of the crew and warn them. Get home and make sure Saraya and Gemini were okay.

And then find a place to hunker down so we could figure out what we were going to do next.

CHAPTER 7

SARAYA

GEMINI PAUSED BEFORE we could get out of the house, and I stopped, curious. He’d said we needed to get out of the place and I agreed with him. The sooner we were on the road and far away from here, the better.