Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 73680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73680 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“Fuck,” Alpha grunts and puts his heavy hand on my shoulder. He nudges me forwards until I’m right behind Blade. “Be ready to run when I say. I love that pain in the ass but things are about to get interesting.”
Ripper disappears around the corner, and a moment later we hear him yell, “Hey, looking for us, motherfuckers?” A gun goes off with a boom and I barely flinch. A couple days ago I’d be on the floor crying. Is this progress? It doesn’t feel like the right direction.
“They’re running,” says Blade. “Quick, Faith, on my bike.”
Does he think I’m going to argue? I’ll do whatever I need to do to not get shot. “Is Ripper—” I can’t even finish that.
“Not now.” Blade takes the lead, darting across the parking lot with knives ready in both hands.
Alpha takes my hand and pulls me behind him, keeping his big frame between me and the Pit Vipers. I have to sprint to keep up with his big strides, and I’m pretty sure he’d just throw me over his shoulder if I stumbled.
Once we’re close, I risk glancing towards the front of the rest stop. Shovelhead’s there with the rest of the Pit Vipers. More must’ve come while we snuck around the back, but Ripper’s got them distracted so they’re all looking the other way, for now.
Blade throws himself on his bike, and I get on behind him, gripping his jacket for all it’s worth. The shocks on Alpha’s bike creak slightly as he settles his weight on the seat.
“On one,” says Alpha quietly. “Three, two, one.”
They fire their bikes at the same time, both of them revving hard to make them roar. Pit Vipers whirl to face us, several with weapons out already.
From behind a car on the far side of the building, Ripper comes running. “Go go go!” he shouts.
Blade’s bike lunges like a horse out of the starting gate. He and Alpha gun straight for Ripper, sliding around him to buy him enough time and cover to get on his own. I hold tight to Blade’s back, praying that none of the bullets find their mark. All around us, people are screaming.
“Watch it, you fuckers!” yells Shovelhead’s growly voice! “He wants her alive!”
Bikers dive out of the way to avoid getting run over as we come through. Those farther away are already throwing themselves on their bikes. This is far from over. Maybe I should be glad they want me alive, but I’m not. Alive doesn’t mean unharmed.
As we plow past them and veer towards the on-ramp to get back on the highway, a loud roar comes up on our left. My fingertips dig so hard into Blade’s jacket that I can feel my nails bending, but I chance a peek over my shoulder. It’s Ripper, grinning like a maniac as he places himself behind us, right between me and the Pit Vipers. I just want to be safe again.
We weave onto the shoulder to get past a minivan, and the rumble strip nearly shakes loose a filling. The driver looks out their window and panics, veering hard in the other direction and nearly slamming straight into an SUV in the next lane.
Blade takes the lead like earlier, while Alpha and Ripper fall in behind us. With the two of them behind me, I’m the most sheltered of the four of us. They’re taking care of me as best they can in a crappy situation, and I owe them more credit than I’ve been giving them. They’re not taking this lightly. We might just make it out of this.
The guys ride like madmen, but so do the Pit Vipers, and since we’re on their turf, they have us wildly outnumbered. A mass of bikes unlike anything I’ve seen stretches across the lanes behind us. The reinforcements have just kept on coming. I feel so helpless, with them focused on saving our lives, and me unable to do anything but hold on for my life and try not to think about the odds.
“Motherfucker!” The wind whips Blade’s curse past my ears.
I stretch to see what the problem is.
The highway is blocked. They’ve packed the lanes with trucks, leaving no room to navigate around. Guys in leather cuts ride in the beds, taunting us. Caught between a rock and a hard place, we don’t have much choice but to let them funnel us onto an exit and off the highway.
They don’t let up, never giving us more than one direction to ride, until a place that looks ripped straight out of Mad Max comes up on our left.
The Pit Viper compound.
The last time I was here, I was too young to worry about directions, so I didn’t recognize the way, but the compound itself? That’s burned in my memory. Our house was only a couple miles away, off club property, but close enough for Dad to get back and forth quickly.