Page 60 of The Riders’ Reign

“Do it now.” Hector jerks his chin.

Ace shoves Jarrod forward hard enough that, with his bound feet, he stumbles and falls. Hector attempts to grab him, but with his gun still in his other hand, he’s not quite strong enough to prevent Jarrod hitting the ground.

Ghost hasn’t moved.

No, no, no. What’s he doing? He needs to go with Ace and get in the car with me. Right at that moment, shots are fired near the perimeter. Shouts filter across the still night air, and it’s clear some of Hector’s men have come across some of ours. Everything seems to happen at once.

Hector bends and drags the hood off Jarrod’s head. “Who the fuck—?” He roars like an animal. “Where is my son!”

Ghost spins, the piece of rope that had been binding his hands falling to the ground, and uses something to slash at Hector’s hand, the one holding the gun. Hector yells in pain and drops the gun. Moving with surprising agility for a man who has been held captive, Ghost kicks it away, sending it skittering across the asphalt. In my periphery, one of Hector’s men aims his weapon at Ghost and shoots.

A horrified scream tears from my lungs, echoing through the interior of the car.

Somehow, thank God, the goon firing at Ghost manages to miss, but it’s given Hector enough time to dive for cover. He’s bleeding, but it doesn’t look bad enough to kill him. More’s the pity.

The whizz of bullets flying fills the air, and I stare in horror, helpless in the back of the car. One of Hector’s men takes a bullet in the chest and goes down with a grunt. Others run for safety, people fleeing in all directions as chaos breaks out.

Ace, Rook, and Phoenix move, their legs pumping as they, too, try to reach cover. Phoenix grabs Ghost on the way and drags him with him as Ghost stumbles to keep up. It’s utter anarchy, and it’s hard for me to see what is going on. Everyone seems to be shooting at once, and bullets hit the side of the vehicle with metallic punches.

I scream again and duck, burying my head under my arms as though that can save me.

26

ACE

I have two objectives: keep Camile safe and kill Hector.

Actually, scratch that, I have three. Add ‘don’t get shot’ to that list.

Hector has dived behind one of his own vehicles and is being covered by his men. I exchange a look with Rook, and we both nod. We can’t let Hector get away.

I slam my hand against the side of the vehicle containing Camile and shout to Zoo. “Get her the fuck out of here.”

“No!” she yells back. “Not until Hector is dead.”

I growl. “For fuck’s sake, Princess.”

“Show me Hector’s body first.”

Fucking hell, I love the woman, but is she trying to get us killed? Her being here is a distraction from what I need to do. For the first time, I’m truly pissed at her, and I’ll be having words with her when we get back to the compound.

I drag my focus from her and make myself take in what’s going on around me. From the other side of the airstrip, men are running toward us. It takes me a moment to make out their cuts and jeans and figure out that they belong to us. I hope they’ve taken down a few of Hector’s men on the way.

Jarrod staggers to his feet, stumbling around like a newborn foal, and I watch in fascination as two bullets hit him. One in his side, and one in his leg. He screams and goes right back down again. The fool should have stayed down. Then he wouldn’t have been hit.

Hector is still hiding like the coward he is, with his men protecting him, and more shots are fired, sending our guys ducking for cover and returning fire.

There’s movement to the right of the vehicle, and I squint. Is that Hector? Yeah, only that fucker is out here wearing a suit. The cowardly piece of shit is running into the hangar. Crap. He’s going to have more cover there. I try to figure out how we can best go after him, but he has his remaining men between us and the structure, so we can’t get past them. It occurs to me that he’s deliberately set the airstrip up to make a quick escape if needed.

The men from our club reach me, panting and out of breath from their race across the strip. Big Mike nods at me.

“Took a lot of them out,” he confirms.

We left Saul and about ten other men back at the compound, guarding the club. Everyone else, we brought with us, and I’m glad we planned for enough men to handle whatever Hector had to throw our way. Saul was pissed about staying behind, but he agreed it was for the best. We already have our president in the hospital; we don’t need the VP getting shot, too. It would leave the club in a real mess.

From inside the hangar comes the roar of an engine even louder than that of our motorcycles.

I glance to Rook. “The plane. Fuck. He’s managed to get to his plane.”