Page 49 of Ride Forever
“Bingo, sweetheart. Where there’s an opportunity for profitable mayhem, we’re goin’ to take it. Fortitude was going down, with or without you shootin’ your daddy. You gave us an opportunity to spread our wings.”
“Some fucking wings,” Chaser muttered.
“You made a deal.” Rocket hawked, then spat on the asphalt. “You’re past due, and we’re here to collect. You know what that means.” He straightened up and aimed his gun at us, and the other men followed suit. “On your knees.”
My fingers itched to curl around some mother-of-pearl. There was no way in hell Rocket and his gang of rejects were going to best us. Not after everything we’d struggled through to get here. I glanced at Chaser, and he nodded.
“Be quick,” he murmured, letting me know he was on the same wavelength. “I’ll follow.”
I slipped my free arm through the second strap of my bag, wearing the duffle like a backpack.
Reaching behind me, I wrapped my fingers around the revolver and pulled it out. I fired, making the bikers scatter, and dove behind our car. Chaser was beside me, his own gun in his hands, the safety off.
“Bitch!” Rocket roared.
“Eat shit, asshole!” I screeched as gunfire rained down on us. Thankfully, the car took most of the brunt, though the motel behind us had a few new holes in the wall.
We returned fire, spraying the lot, pinpointing where the enemy was taking shelter. There were six of them and two of us. Uneven odds and we were low on ammo. This was a temporary solution to a situation going bad faster than we could keep up with.
The trigger clicked on my revolver, and I cursed. I reloaded, spun the barrel back into place, waited for a break in gunfire, then poked my head back up. Firing, I used my last six shots as best I could. I aimed for Rocket, but he ducked behind the drug dealer’s Chevy, and the bullet sailed right past. I tried again and again and felt like I was playing a sick game of whack-a-mole.
I pulled the trigger, and nothing happened. Cursing, I knelt back behind the car.
“I’m out,” I said to Chaser. “Got any bright ideas?”
“We’ve got to get away from here,” he replied.
“Where do we go? We don’t have a plan.”
Another wave of gunfire pinned us behind the car. A shotgun pellet shattered the window above our heads, and I shielded my face, flinching as granulated glass fell down the back of my jacket.
“Fortitude,” Chaser said, shoving the last clip into his gun.
“LA?” I exclaimed. “That’s hundreds of miles away!”
“We have no other choice. We’ll be protected there.”
“How?” I covered my head with my arms as another rain of bullets smacked into the car. “They shot out our fuel tank.”
Chaser pointed to the row of motorcycles. “Do you know how to ride?”
My eyes widened, and I nodded. Gasket had taught me when I was a teenager, then I’d had a refresher when I started my apprenticeship upon my return. I hadn’t gone further than around the neighborhood back then, so cruising the highway at full tilt had my blood running.
“We’ll have to be quick,” he added.
“Quick won’t matter if there are no keys in the ignition.”
Chaser was right. We had to make a break for it before the cops arrived.
“They’re cocky,” he said. “They didn’t expect a firefight. There’ll be keys.”
The gunfire subsided when the renegades realized we weren’t fighting back.
“It’s over!” Rocket shouted. “Come out, and we’ll make this easy on you. King wants you both alive, but he said nothin’ about the condition.”
Chaser looked at me. “I’ll cover you.”
“What about you?” I whispered.
