Page 4 of Hell & Back

Over Tuck’s shoulder, he watched an old dark green Chevelle with primer spots and blacked out windows creep into the parking lot.

It was like a sixth sense was screaming at him that something didn’t feel right. It wasn’t so much the Chevelle looked out of place, it was more of how sketchy the driver was acting. He was driving slow and without headlights. Why the fuck didn’t he have his lights on? It was dark outside, nearly eleven o’clock.

As if fate was determined to prove him right, the car came to a stop, the passenger door swung open and a booted foot dropped to the pavement. A man stepped out from behind the door and leveled a gun in Tuck’s direction. Darren’s heart started racing, a sick feeling clawing at his gut.

Shit! Tuck didn’t seem him. He had his back to the threat and didn’t see him.No. No. No. No.

Darren took off at a run, slamming his hands against the metal bar of the door, throwing it wide open. “Tuck! Get down! Get down!” Too late.

“Die you fucking Son!”

Instead of immediately dropping to the ground, Tuck frowned at Darren, then turned to see who was yelling behind him.Bang! Bang! Bang!For as long as he lived, he would never forget the way his friend’s body jerked as it took the impact from three different shots. Tuck’s body dropped to the ground, his head bouncing off the hard pavement with a sickening crack as he landed.

Darren’s attention shot quickly to the shooter. The son of a bitch was laughing and smiling as he dropped back into the car. Taking in as many details as possible, he quickly committed a clear image of the man he was going to kill for shooting Tuck. The man had dark greasy hair, a scraggly overgrown beard and a gold earrings in his ears. He also had a scar running through his left eyebrow and wore a Phantom Furies MC cut.

Dropping to his knees next to where Tuck lay in a pool of his own blood, he did a quick visual body scan, noting that his friend had been hit once in his right thigh, once in the stomach and, shit, had he been hit in the head? There was so much blood. “Fuck me. Tuck? Can you hear me? Hang in there, man.”

He felt for a pulse and found it weak and thready. Damn it. He needed to get the bleeding to slow down.

Stan the clerk came running outside, his hands full of towels. “I called 9-1-1.” He shoved the towels toward Darren.

“Here. I need you to hold pressure here.” He folded up a towel, then another and placed them over the stomach wound. Grabbing the man’s hands, he pushed them onto the towels and showed him how much pressure was needed to slow the bleeding.

Darren then folded a towel and placed it over the leg wound, securing it tightly with his belt. With the amount of blood surrounding his head, he couldn’t tell if he’d been shot in the head or not. If he had, did the bullet pass all the way through?He folded the last towel and applied pressure to the left side of Tuck’s head. All he could do until the ambulance got there was keep as much of Tuck’s blood in his body as possible.

“Tuck.” He could hear sirens getting closer. “Don’t know if you can hear me, but hang in there. You fucking fight with everything you have for Kylie. She loves you so damn much.”

“K-K-Kylie? S-s-safe?” Darren had to lean in close to catch what Tuck was trying to say. As if he’d expended the last of his strength to tell him to keep their woman safe, his body began to convulse.

The ambulance arrived just in time to swoop in and take over. Once he was stabilized, Tuck was loaded into the back of the ambulance and immediately transported to the hospital. Darren quickly pushed Tuck’s bike closer to the building and told the clerk someone from the club would be there to pick it up. Jogging back to his own bike, he called Race. “Are you still home?”

“Yeah. I’m home. What’s up?”

“The fucking Phantom Furies just shot Tuck. He took one in the leg, stomach and maybe the head. The ambulance just took off with him.”

“What the fuck?” Race growled.

“Can you get Kylie and meet me at the hospital?” He slung his leg over his bike seat.

“Yeah. I’ll get her to the hospital.”

“Hurry, Race.” Before he hung up, he also asked him to send the prospects to pick up Tuck’s bike. He disconnected the call, started his bike and shot out of the parking lot, racing to catch up to the ambulance.

He couldn’t believe this was happening. They’d finally found their happily ever after and everything was going great. Their new addition to the house was moving along and everythingwith the baby was going well according to their last doctor’s appointment.

And now this. How was he going to break the news to Kylie?

2

DARREN

Darren paced back and forth as he waited for Race to bring Kylie to the hospital. Was it him or was the room really small? With a detached eye all he could think was there was no way all of the Sons brothers were going to fit in this small room. He had no doubt that as soon as he got off the phone with Race, his president would be sending word out about Tuck and the rest of the club would soon be descending on the hospital to rally around one of their own.

He stopped in front of the only window in the room, running his hands through his hair. He pulled tightly at the dark strands, wondering what they could have done differently. They knew the Phantom Furies were on the warpath and had their sights set on taking over Redemption. He as well as the rest of the brothers had hoped that once they’d dealt with Chet and his buddies, the Phantom Furies would have backed off for a short time.

They should have known better. Tonight only proved how determined they were to take over their town.

Over the last few years, the Sons had backed away from the violent lives they’d been leading by opening legitimate businesses. Too many of their brothers, some of them original founders, had ended up in prison or worse, dead. Some of the brothers, like Race, Dagger and Maverick, had wanted more out of life than constantly being at war and always fearing for the lives of their old ladies and their children. The plan had been working well until recently.

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