Page 79 of Ride Long
Chapter 25
Chaser
“Sloane!”
I watched her sprint into the desert after Marini and sprang into action. I’d barely taken a step when a hand grasped my ankle. Looking down, I saw Rocket clawing at me, blood seeping from between hislips.
“Bastard,” he rasped. “I’ll kill you, you piece ofshit.”
“Get the hell off me.” I aimed my gun, but he knocked my knee out from underneath me, and Istumbled.
The shot went wide, ricocheting off the hard ground and disappearing into thedarkness.
Shit, shit, shit!I needed to go after Sloane. Who knew what was happening outthere.
Rocket lunged and knocked me to the ground. We fell in a heap, the force dislodging my grasp on my gun, and it skidded across the packed dirt of the clearing. His movements were sluggish as we struggled, and it didn’t take me long to get him on hisback.
He was weak, the gunshot must’ve clipped an artery. Soon the blood loss would cause him to lose consciousness, and it would all be over. This was a last-ditch attempt to get another blow in before he bit thedust.
“Coward,” Rocket exclaimed, thrashing beneath me. “You were neverFortitude.”
Curling my hands around his neck, I squeezed, my face contorting as his eyes bulged. Sweat poured down my face and back as the heat from the fire radiated across theclearing.
He deserves it, I thought to myself.He deserves what he’s getting and then some. When had I become an executioner? Seven years ago that was when. I’d made an unspoken promise to Sloane that I’d stop being that person. The man who pulled the trigger…but he would’ve killed her. He would’ve caught her, freed Marini, and nothing would’ve changed. Sloane would be in the hands of King before the sun hadrisen.
I tightened my grip on Rocket’sneck.
“Chaser!”
I glanced up at Gasket, who’d appeared out of the smoke, and Rocket coughed beneath me.Just kill him, a voice in the back of my mind said.Just end italready.
With a roar of frustration, I smashed my fist into his temple, and he went slack. With any luck, blood loss would get him before he wokeup.
Gasket eyed him before grabbing me. “We need you around the side,” he said. “We’ve got the rest of them boxedin.”
“How many?” I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of myarm.
“Hard to say, but we’ve gotmore.”
“Where’s Sloane?” He glanced around, his forehead creasing. “Where isshe?”
I narrowed my eyes and nodded toward the desert. “Marini gotout.”
“What?” He took a step toward the darkness, but it was my turn to hold himback.
“I want to go after her, too, but we’re stuck here. She knows what she’sdoing.”
“Are you sure about that? It’s her father outthere.”
My lip curled. “If you’re implying she’ll hesitate, I’d thinkagain.”
He snarled before pushing me off him. “We need to end this.Now.”
He didn’t have to tell metwice.
I picked up my gun and followed him around the corner of the cabin, ducking behind the row of cars and joining theothers.
I counted over our remaining men, knowing Hopper and Deluca were out defending the women in the desert someplace. We were down a few, but I knelt beside Spike, Watts, Stewie, Bones, Ram, and Ratchet. Behind another car were more faces I didn’t know but were on our side of thedivide.
