Page 76 of Pirate

He sped his Charger up, needing to get to his club brother. Whoever the fuck this bastard was, he was dead!

Pirate braked, turning his wheel so he was blocking oncoming traffic from behind him. He saw the club’s SUV just about to crest the bridge and hoped that a club brother was inside with Frankie.

Throwing his Charger into Park, he was just about to get out when he heard a loudpopand saw a muzzle flash through the darkness of the storm.

“Get down!” he shouted exactly as something pinged off of the hood of his cage.

A barrage of bullets came after the first, telling Pirate they were using automatic weapons. Sophia ducked down into the wheel well just as the windshield shattered above them. The squeal of brakes was barely discernible over the hail of gunfire. He prayed that was Frankie stopping from coming closer. If she had any sense, she would back the hell up and call for help rather than try to assist them herself. Especially if she had any club kids in the cage with her.

Glass shattered, tires popped, and rain came pouring in on them. The Charger jolted with every hit. From the quick succession of bullets, Pirate guessed two guns were being used, but didn’t know if it was one gunman with two weapons or two gunmen with one weapon each. The front and driver’s side was the most susceptible due to the angle he’d parked the cage. His Charger was not armored and the bullets were cutting through it like Swiss cheese.

“Sophia!” he shouted. He didn’t dare pick his head up to see where she was.

“I’m okay!” came her loud reply.

“Unlock your door! We need to get out of here!”

She didn’t waste time arguing with him. He listened for the sound of her door being opened but the clatter of the bullets was too loud. Adrenaline was coursing through his system like an old drug. He hadn’t felt anything like it since the day he’d lost his leg when his unit was ambushed.

“I’m out!” Sophia shouted.

Pirate lifted his head enough to see her empty seat and immediately felt something akin to a bee sting against his leftear. Gritting his teeth, he ignored the sting. He clamored over the center console, adding to cuts he was sure he already had as his hands and side touched the glass shards from the windshield. The rain was an obstacle, but it hopefully helped shield them too.

Pirate crawled out face and hands first then torso and legs. The hard, wet pavement was a welcome contrast to the interior of the cage. He quickly sat up, kneeling on his left leg. Sophia was crouched by the side of the rear passenger door. He reached for her face.

She had a deep gash on her temple and glass in her hair. Other than that, she seemed unscathed.

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

She nodded, and then her eyes went wide. She reached for him. “Areyou?” Her right hand pulled away from his face with blood on it.

Pirate reached up and felt his ear. It stung like a sonofabitch, but he knew he hadn’t been shot. “It’s only a graze,” he told her. Damn lucky, that one. If he’d raised his head any higher, he would not be here. “Get in front of the rear wheel. It will help protect you!”

One of the guns had stopped and then started up again. Soon after, the second one did the same. The bastards had brought enough ammo with them to reload!

Fury coursed through Pirate. Not only were they shooting at Sophia, but they were keeping him from getting to Pumpkin to check on him.

Pirate opened the rear passenger door. Like most club members, he owned multiple guns. Part of the club’s bylaws was that no member was allowed to have an unregistered weapon or carry a weapon without a permit. Jumper was the only member who did not have a permit because he did not carry or ownany firearms. All of Pirate’s were kept in lockboxes and he was licensed to carry concealed.

In addition to his nightstand, he had a lockbox in his room at the clubhouse and one in his cage. Unfortunately, it was under his driver’s seat.

Once more sliding onto his side, Pirate wormed his way back into the cage. He was on the floor between the bench seat in the back and the front seats. Not much glass was still flying. But the seat cushions above him were now spraying memory foam, which meant the bullets had pierced through the shell of the cage.

Fuck! He hadn’t expected the Charger to shield them forever but damn it had not survived long.

Ignoring the bits of glass, Pirate reached under the driver’s seat from behind and searched blindly for his lockbox. Just as his fingers touched the cold metal, a very specific smell reached his nostrils.

Fuck!

Pirate quickly grabbed for the box, not bothering to open it. He needed to get out of this fucking cage! The bullets must have pierced through the gas tank. The reek of perfumed benzene permeated the air around them. All it would take was a lucky—or unlucky—shot to create sparks and the gasoline would ignite.

Pirate fell gracelessly out of the cage. He hit the ground harder than intended. Scrambling up to his knees, he set the box on the pavement. Looking around, there were no good options. He could not see headlights from Frankie’s SUV, which was good but also bad. Sophia had no place to run to.

They were on the very end of the bridge, the incline directly behind them. To get to the woods and cover, they would have to runatthe gunmen. They couldn’t go under the bridge or through the river. The current was too deep, too fast, and too cold this time of year. They were, in essence, trapped.

But there was one small chance. TheHummerhad its taillights to them. The red glow did not illuminate much.Ifthey didn’t have night vision scopes andifPirate could draw their fire, Sophia might be able to make a break for it by going up the bridge. She was small and it was harder to shoot a moving target than the movies made it out to be. She would have to be fast.

It was a chance. A small one, but it was better than staying where they were with a gasoline leaking cage for cover.

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