Page 51 of Tanner (Dirty Misfits MC 5)
I wiped away her tears before I relinquished her, and she hobbled over to Cole. I watched him scoop her up into his arms the best way he knew how, and a few seconds later the fire trucks appeared out of nowhere. They barreled down the deserted road and dumped out in front of the warehouse. And as Tanner wrapped his arms around me, everyone else slowly made their way out of the smoke and gathered at the treeline behind the fire trucks.
While we all watched as the firemen got to work.
“What are we going to do?” I asked breathlessly.
I looked up at Tanner and watched him draw in a deep breath.
“I don’t know where we’ll go, but I know what has to happen.”
I swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”
And when he looked down into my eyes, I saw an angry determination behind them.
Before he foreshadowed what was to come with his words.
“We need to end this, Summer, once and for all. That’s what needs to happen.”
Twenty-Five
Tanner
“Really, I’m fine,” I murmured.
Cole dabbed at one of the burns I had on my right forearm. “So you say.”
“Dude, the paramedics even cleared me.”
He peeked up at me. “Because you kept cursing them out whenever they hit you with an alcohol swab.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatev—holy fuck! What the hell?”
He ripped open another alcohol swab. “Sure you’re fine?”
I peered over my shoulder to try and distract myself while Cole essentially tortured me, and I saw the paramedics looking over Molly. She kept her eyes locked with mine while they poked and prodded, testing her pupillary responses and measuring her oxygen intake and output.
Hey, I picked up a few things being around Cole, all right?
“I can’t thank you enough, Tan.”
Archer’s voice caught my ear, and I turned my head to face him. “It’s really not a problem.”
“You tugged me out of there when I had no issues with killing myself trying to find Josie. You’re the one who told me she was probably already outside.”
I chuckled. “I’m also the one that stuffed your ass through that window so you could catch Raven.”
“I owe both of you a debt of gratitude,” Brooks said as he walked up.
He patted both of us on the back as he blinked back tears.
“Man, it’s okay. You would’ve done the same for us,” I said.
Archer nodded. “He’s right. Had it been one of our girls, you would’ve run in without a second thought.”
Brooks swallowed hard. “Just—thank you. Both of you.”
I patted his knee as he stood behind me. “If you really want to thank me, tell Cole to cut the shit and bandage me up.”
Cole groaned. “A fully grown man can’t handle an alcohol swab.”
“On a burn, man,” I hissed.
Brooks snorted. “Just let him do what he does best. That way, you risk not getting your arm infected, got it?”
My face fell flat. “So much for brotherhood.”
We all busted out laughing, trying to relieve the tension as we watched the black flames from our warehouse barrel into the sky. None of us caught those two asshats that had escaped, and now we had nowhere to go.
Our homes weren’t safe.
The clubhouse wasn’t safe.
And now, our warehouse was ruined beyond immediate repair.
“What do you think happens now?” I asked.
Archer shrugged. “No clue.”
Cole finally bandaged up my forearm. “Guess we’ll have to scatter to the wind for a while.”
I shook my head. “You know that won’t do shit. They’ll track all of us down so long as Chops is calling the shots.”
“Shh,” Brooks said hotly behind us, “not now. Not while other people are around.”
Summer came to sit beside me and I wrapped my arm around her. She laid her head against my shoulder, watching gallons upon gallons of water spew to the ground and toward the warehouse as the firefighters put out the steaming embers. They wrapped around the back of the warehouse, and I could only assume it was to retrace the steps the fire itself took.
And as we all gathered around Cole—men and women alike—we all stayed silent until the firefighters finally packed up and left.
Then, Brooks cleared his throat. “Church.”
I sighed. “I’m not leaving Summer. Sorry.”
Cole nodded. “Same, but for Molly.”
Brooks puffed his cheeks out with a sigh. “I meant ‘church’ for all of us.”
Archer furrowed his brow. “Have we done that before?”
I grinned. “With Summer’s eavesdropping skills, we might as well have.”
She pushed me playfully and everyone got a little giggle out of it. But we quickly settled back into “fix it” mode.
“So, anyone got any ideas on where we go from here?” Brooks asked.
Cole packed up his things and stood. “I still say we scatter to the wind a bit. Let the heat die down, literally and metaphorically.”
But Molly shook her head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. If we scatter and they come after us, then it’s just one or two of us against all of them that track us down. That doesn’t seem safe.”
