Page 56 of Ride Long
Chapter 18
Sloane
IknewChaser would be gone for a few days, but it alleviated none of mystress.
The entire compound was on tenterhooks after Marini had executed Harley. The garage was alive with talk, not all of it pro-Fortitude, either. It was my chance to sow some seeds of dissent among the ranks, but I hesitated in the wake of what hadhappened.
I was a fool if I thought I could take the club without someone dying in the process. A big fuckingfool.
The morning after the chaos, I was changing a tire under Gasket’s supervision when I overheard talk about Sam. People were going to notice, especially those with malicious intentions and harddicks.
“Kane was recruiting a group last night,” Spike was saying. “Talkin’ about takin’ turns and all atonce.”
“We would’ve stopped them,” Ram said. “I know we do some pretty fucked-up things in the name of Fortitude, but there’s just some shit I can’ttolerate.”
“She’s gone,” Watts added. “She gotout.”
“She got out, or someone helpedher.”
Eyes turned toward me, and Gasket nodded at the spanner in myhands.
“You’re not putting enough tension on the bead breaker,” he said. “You’ll never get the tire off the rim that way. Put your back into it,girl.”
“But…”
“I know, but you did your part,” he murmured. “Your part in her story is overnow.”
“So I’m just supposed to change fucking tires and not do anything about gangrape?”
“No one gang raped anyone,” Gasket said with a scowl. “You put a stop to that, but if it becomes commonknowledge…”
Yeah, I knew. The sound of the gunshot that killed Harley had joined the one I’d been responsible for out on the road. What a fucked-upharmony.
I glanced at the bikers across the garage who were still talking about Sam’s disappearance and swallowed a pile of vomit. They were decent considering what they were—Spike, Ram, Watts, Rhodes, and co—but the rest of the club I couldn’t vouch for. They were the men I wanted to lead, not the violent, psychopathic followers my father hadcultivated.
“Yeah, but it’s just for now,” I muttered. “Saving one woman doesn’t fix theproblem.”
“Damn, we’ll be here all day.” Gasket snorted and nudged me aside. Taking the bead breaker, he wedged it between the tire and the rim, and the rubber came away from themetal.
“You need to work on your muscles, Sloane,” Watts calledout.
“Yeah, you got a set of weights?” I shot at him. “Give ’emhere!”
“Focus on what you’re doing,” Gasket said, leaning over me so the other men couldn’t hear what he was saying. “Your life is just as valuable,kid.”
“Iknow.”
“Doesn’t seem like you believeit.”
“I believe it.” Ihissed.
“When Chaser gets back, we have to talk,” he said. “The time for watching and waiting isover.”
“Do you know something?” I straightened up, the tireforgotten.
“I don’t trust Marini,” hesaid.
There was a slight hesitation, but I didn’t press it. He knew something, and my bet was Chaser did, too. If Gasket didn’t trust Marini, then that meant my time here was running out.Yeah, we were going to have a talk when we were all together. A long, in-depth and very animatedtalk.
