Page 80 of Ride Long

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“Rhodes?” Iasked.

“He was shot,” Spike said. “Butcher’s gothim.”

I nodded as Gasket peered around the trunk of thecar.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” he called out over the expanse. “Throw down your weapons, and this can all end rightnow.”

A voice echoed from behind their barricade. “Eatshit!”

I raised an eyebrow. “Creative.”

“Fortitude as you knew it is over,” Gasket went on, ignoring my sarcasm. “We can’t go back now. Only forward. Marini was leading the club on a path to destruction, and you know it. Is that how you want to live your lives? Murdering for sport? That was never the Fortitudeway.”

“EAT.SHIT.”

“I think they like the taste of shit,” I said, leaning against thecar.

“Courage in adversity,” Spike said with asigh.

“They’ve lost a lot of guys,” Ratchet noted. “There’s only gotta be a dozen of themleft.”

“You want to shoot it out?” Ram asked. “We’re running out ofbullets.”

“So arethey.”

“Wait.” Spike slammed his fist against my shoulder, forcing my attention to shift from the standoff behind me to the darkness infront.

A figure emerged from the desert, and I knew it was her. Sloane shuffled across the rocky landscape, the revolver hanging in her hand. She looked like a goddamnedzombie.

Thumping Gasket on the chest, I went to meet her, ducking low in case the renegades opened fire, panic flaring. It was an emotion I hadn’t felt for a very long time, and it unsettled me to my core. Was she hurt? DidMarini…

“Sloane?” I stood beforeher.

She stared at me, her eyesvacant.

“I killed him,” she said, shaking. “Myfather…”

Gasket’s head turned at her words, his face clouded with shock. “Youwhat?”

“Marini is dead!” Ratchet roared at the remaining renegades. “Give up now, and no one else has todie!”

“I killed him,” she muttered, the revolver slipping from her fingers and colliding with the ground with aclatter.

“There’s a problem with that,” the voice shouted. “We don’t believeyou!”

Sloane glanced over her shoulder. Following her gaze, I sucked in a sharp breath as I realized what had taken her solong.

“Gasket…” I gestured toward the edge of theclearing.

The old biker whistled, and Spike went to investigate. He cursed and bent over to finish the job Sloane hadstarted.

We all watched in silence as he dragged Marini’s body into the light of the inferno, in full view of everyone…including the men who’d come to fight for hisfreedom.

Sloane stared down at the carved-up remains of his chest, and I knew she’d fired at point-blank range. Marini had been executed with his own gun. The gun he usedto…

Sloane let out a choked sob and went limp, her limbs crumpling beneath her. I caught her at the last second and eased her down to the ground, my heart speedingup.

The moment she fell, chaoserupted.