Page 54 of Heartless
She nodded and slowed as I asked, allowing the crotch rockets to gain significant ground on us. I could practically see the smugness in the riders, thinking we were surrendering. To add to that illusion, I waved both arms above my head.
“Drop the gun, Steel Demon,” the first one ordered through his helmet, almost close enough to touch if I reached.
“Okay guys, I will.” I lowered my hands slowly, finger well away from the trigger. “Just promise you won’t hurt my wife, okay?”
The first one signaled to the rider behind him, who held up his semi-auto again and I sucked in a breath. My leg wound stung, the blood now making a dark trail on the road.Hades, Freyja, Horus, whoever the fuck is listening, please don’t let us go like this.
“Please,” I tried again. “We’ll pull right over and I’ll go with you, but do not touch her.”
The rear rider tapped off a few rounds and more burning pain shot up my leg. I groaned and doubled over, grasping on to the seat to stay on.
“Jandro!” Mari cried.
“We don’t need either of you alive, so fuck your demands!”
“Now, Mari!” I yelled.
She accelerated hard and my heart stopped for a moment, thinking I would tumble off. But I held on, squeezing both sides of the bike with my knees as I raised my gun, waiting for the crotch rockets to speed up after us. The shooter copied my movement, raising his weapon and firing off more rounds. An explosion of heat and pain hit my left shoulder before I fired, aiming low at the front rider’s tire.
With a loud pop, the rubber shredded and burned. Just as I intended, the bike wobbled and slowed too fast for the rear rider to react. The shooter crashed into his partner with a crunch of metal, my body growing cold and heavy as bikes and bodies skimmed across the road.
“Double back, Mari,” I panted, blood now coating the entire left side of my body. “Turn around.”
“No! I have to get you to the hospital.”
“Turn the fuck around!” I repeated. “We have to make sure they’re dead.”
I could feel her worry, her intense need to take care of me, but we had to have that sweet nurse and patient moment later. Thankfully, she did as I said and made a wide U-turn. Sure enough, one of our pursuers was stumbling out of the wreckage, dragging a lame foot behind him as he stepped over folded metal and the remains of his friend. His face was still hidden behind the black helmet visor as he raised his weapon.
“Bend down, stay low.” I pressed on Mari’s back until her chest met the dash, and not a moment too soon. The rider unleashed rapid gunfire on us.
I bowed over Mari to cover her, but her panic and lack of visibility took over. She made us sway to the side, wanting to get away from riding straight into gunfire.
“Babe, brake! BRAKE!” I yelled.
She braked too hard and we were suspended in midair for a split second before hitting the ground hard. I wrapped around her midsection despite the shooting pain up my shoulder, and rolled us away to minimize injury. My eyes shut tight and I thought my teeth were going to crack from how hard I was biting down. Every bump against the ground felt like my leg and shoulder were getting hacked off by a butcher knife.
We finally came to a stop. Her helmet had fallen off and I’d dropped my gun when I grabbed her. The world spun and I was so fucking tired. I’d probably lost a lot of blood. The one thing in sharp clarity was the black figure walking toward us.
“Run.” I slid off of Mari and shoved at her side with my good arm. “Get Gunner and Shadow.”
“I’m not leaving you!” Her shaking hand fumbled across my chest, reaching for my shoulder to put pressure on the wound.
“Esposa,” I groaned, pulling her hand away and bringing her blood-soaked fingers to my lips. “They can either kill us both, or just me. You have to tell the others—”
“Then let it be both of us! Because I am not leaving you here.”
“Mari, I’m sorry I don’t have time to be romantic, but this is bigger than us. You have to run!” I tried to shove her more forcefully but the weakness was settling into me everywhere now. She barely moved.
Instead she crawled over me, laying on my back to cover me as the black-clad rider approached.
“Mari, don’t,” I pleaded. My strength was leaving me with every breath, but I could not allow her to die with me out here. Not when she had three other men to love, and a whole town that needed her.
“Do you have another weapon?” she whispered. “Anything at all?”
“Knife. Inside left pocket. But babe—”
She started fumbling over the front of my shoulder, reaching into my cut to feel for the knife just as our attacker tossed his magazine and loaded a fresh one into his gun. If he wasn’t so close, I would’ve made some crack about bringing knives to gun fights.
