Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC (55 page)

"To distract you."

"From what?"

And then I heard what sounded like loud pops, a string of them ringing out from the front of the club, shattering glasses, bottles and table legs, which must have sent the tables crashing to the floor; the chaos was followed up by piercing screams that sounded as if the could’ve come from Jolene, Candy and Miranda or any number of the other old ladies and wives. My first instinct was to jump up and run for the door, not only to know what the hell was going on but to get the hell out, but Courtney jumped up behind and slinked her hands around my arms, and violently dragged me down to the floor near the bed.

"GET OFF OF ME!" I tried shoving her back, but she wouldn’t budge.

"HE WANTS YOU DEAD!" she hollered, her eyes wild and red with panic. “DO YOU NOT GET THAT?! HE WANTS YOU DEAD, MIA! He wants your kid! He doesn’t want you
anymore like he first told me that he did because he thinks you’re tainted now in being with River, but he thinks he can save Avery. He wants Avery for himself and he wants to make sure that you are dead!”

"HE WANTS RIVER DEAD TOO!" I screamed in her face, so hard that she pulled back from me and started shaking. I had started shaking too, but for a very different reason. "I know that he wants me dead; I knew it the second that he found out Avery was his child, no matter what he ever said to me or told you before this. But do you not hear what the hell is going on out there? He wants River dead just as much as me – maybe more, given the kind of history they seem to have--”

"I hear it!" she cried. As the popping sounds increased, shattering more glass and bottles, Courtney raised her hands to her ears to block out the noise.

I ripped them away from her face and turned her head toward me. "What the hell did Ricky want you to distract me from?"

"Everything that's going on out there! He wants River and the club out of the picture and he wants to take you out himself!"

“Did he send you here to bring me to him?”

“No,” she said as more tears filled her eyes. “One of the Dragons.”

I narrowed my eyes and pinched my brows. “What?”

“One of the Dragons!” she said again. “Ricky’s been working with them this entire time. He says that Chino’s been in his back pocket since Nikko died.”

“Oh my God.” I jumped up from the floor.

“MIA! If you go out there, he’ll kill you! Even if Ricky wants to take you out himself, if you put up a fight, they’ll take you out.”

"That son of a bitch won't get that chance." I reached for the door, but she latched onto my ankle and tried dragging me back.

"MIA!"

I turned on the ball of my right foot and threw my arms and hands over my head, ducking the minute a bullet flew through the room, just inches above my head, and slammed into the wall on the other side. My eyes widened at the size of the bullet hole, my breath quickened at how easily it sliced through the wood; my heart was thumping so fast and hard that I thought I was suffering from an actual heart attack right then and there.

"YOU HAVE TO GET BACK DOWN!" she screamed.

"If I stay back here, they will kill him--!"

"Think about Avery!" she said. "About your child!" And I did. The minute that bullet had flown through the room, Avery was the first person who had come to my mind, the first face that I saw. Tears flooded my eyes then and as I stared down at Courtney, an unwilling but sad smile crossed my face.

"I
am
thinking about her," I said to her just before yanking the door back and bolting from the room.

"MIA!" I heard her cry out to me in the distance.

But I was already gone, snatched up with an arm sliding around my waist, past my breasts and a hand sliding over my mouth with the other wrapped around the grip of a revolver, and the muzzle pressed directly at the temple.

There was nothing I could do to stop him as he pulled back the hammer of the gun and slid his finger across the trigger.

It was already too late.

Chapter Forty-Six

When the mystery man who I had quickly realized was a member of the Dragons forcefully dragged me out to the front of the club, all eyes in the room, from Jolene to Candy and Miranda, to a handful of other old ladies who had been scared off into the corner with guns pointed at their heads, turned to me. My eyes shot around the room like a pair of darts as I noticed amongst the broken glasses and tables and chairs, and bullet holes in every wall, that nearly every man in the room had his gun on someone else, from the Shadow Riders' and their prospects to the Stark Bastards, to the Dragon Lairs, who seemed to be against literally everyone else in the entire room. It was like being dragged into the center of an ongoing battle taking place at the O.K. Corral.

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head when I didn't see any of the Dragon Lairs' old ladies or River, but I heard him when he called out my name from across the room. I turned my head only slightly and saw him pinned against the door with four guns pointed at him; two Dragons stood on either side of him with their guns pointed at both of his temples, while Chino stood in front of him and pressed one muzzle at the center of his forehead, and lifted another to press beneath his chin.

"Oh my God," I mumbled against the hand still clamped around my mouth. When the man finally released it, allowing me to breathe, Chino turned to me and grinned while clicking back the hammer of each gun and jerked forward as if he was going to shoot River right then and there. In a panic, I flinched. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I kept my eyes on River, whose face had gone completely stoic and pale while staring at me.

"It's nice to see that you finally joined the party," said Chino. He spun away from River and dropped his guns to get a better look at me. "Shit. You are lookin' sexy as fuck, doll. Ain't that what this motherfucker calls you? Doll?" He glanced back to River, who glared. "Fat tits and nice ass a motherfucker could sink his goddamn teeth into if he wanted.
Shit
. I’ve always been more partial to your kind than these motherfuckers. You must have some magic fuckin’ pussy to turn an ass like the one you’re with into prince fuckin’ charmin’." He raised his hand again and waved his gun over toward the couch. "Move her off to the side."

The man with his arm still around my waist dragged me over to the couch as directed and threw me down against the leather as if I was nothing more than a rag doll. As Chino waved the gun at him again, he backed away and headed over to take his place in front of River.

Chino stood directly in front of me and shoved the muzzle of the gun against the center of my forehead, forcing my head to drop back. I shut my eyes and heard River struggling to get loose from across the room, but couldn't bring myself to look at him again. In an instant, so much of my life had flown by and I wondered if this would really be it; would the last day I ever spent alive on this earth be spent inside a club surrounded by bikers and their women, and the man that I loved and not even my own child?

I opened my eyes again when Chino pulled the gun back and rested it at his side. "Mm, mm, mmn, I see why Ricky was so goddamn obsessed with you too."

"He was never obsessed with me," I told him. "Obsession requires someone to be passionate about somebody or some
thing
. That man is a certifiable control freak and there isn't a single damn thing that's ever been passionate about it."

"OW!" he said. "Bitch has got a nice sized mouth on her too, don't she? No wonder he dumped you off in the hopes that you'd bleed out. Now look." He bent forward and rested his hands on his knees. "I'm tryin' to make this shit quick, alright? I didn't wanna have any problems here tonight, but your boy back there seems to think that's what I came here for with my crew. All I need to know is where your daughter is so that we can get you both the fuck outta here and back to Ricky where you fuckin' belong."

"I told you, asshole," hollered River. Chino stood up straight and groaned while rolling his eyes. "She's no longer even in this goddamn state!" My eyes shot over to him and I grimaced.

"Yeah, motherfucker," said Chino. "You keep sayin' that shit, but somehow, I'm not exactly buyin' it. Now." He turned back to me and grinned. "Where the fuck is she, darlin'? Be honest with me."

I peeked over at River for less than a second, then refocused on Chino. "Like he said, she's not in Florida anymore."

"Really not a good idea to listen to that motherfucker, darlin'. Whether you're fuckin' him or not, he's still liable to get your ass killed."

"It's what you're supposed to do to me anyway, right? What Ricky's supposed to do once you take me to him?" I jumped up from the couch and he dropped back and raised both of his guns to me. I opened my arms wide, spreading them out like a bird and took a single step toward him. "Why not just take care of it right here and right now?"

"MIA!" River growled.

Chino laughed. "Your bitch is sick and fuckin' twisted, asshole. This the kinda shit game you two like playin'--?"

"Put me out of my misery," I told him.

Chino stopped laughing and looked me up and down. "Fuck," he murmured. "I think this bitch might actually be fuckin' serious." He raised his gun again and slammed the muzzle against my chest. Slowly, I breathed in and out as the metal clung to my shirt and dropped my hands to my sides. I didn't know what the hell I was thinking, but I knew that whatever the hell it was, was good enough to save Avery, and River.

"Mia!" a soft voice cried out from the other side of the room. All eyes turned to Courtney as she emerged from the back of the club. When she saw the gun pointed at my chest, she rushed forward in a flash and with every bit of strength she had in her arms and hands, leapt forward and shoved Chino out of the way. He knocked his head back against the pool table and as soon as he landed, more bullets started flying around the room, more screaming could be heard from the other women, more tables were broken, more chairs were being thrown.

I landed on the floor, on my back with Courtney falling on top of me.

"Courtney?" I called out to her. “What were you…?” She lifted her head and drops of blood fell from her mouth and onto the floor. “
Oh my God
.” Something wet pooled around my stomach and drained down my legs, and it was only then that I realized she had been shot, and that her body had shielded me from the spray of bullets that had started flying around the club.

"I'm...." She gulped back the blood in her mouth; her entire body started shaking and within seconds, her pale white skin resembled blank sheets of paper. Her hazel eyes slowly darkened as the whites of them became red; the veins widened around her irises and tears formed. "I'm... I'm sorry," she said.

I didn't have a single chance to respond to her as her head dipped down over my shoulder and her entire body went completely still. I didn't have the strength to move her. My eyes went straight up to the ceiling and my jaw rattled; I wanted to burst into tears for so many reasons in that moment and wrap my arms around her because it seemed as if no one else ever had, but I knew that it wouldn't do me, or her any good. But I felt the pain of her, of what she had gone through, of what it meant for her to have a brother like Ricky, to care about a man like River, and to have neither of them care about her in the way that she needed. I wanted to comfort her, I wanted her to find peace elsewhere since it was clear that on earth, she had never had that chance.

When the screaming from across the room died down, I turned my head and noticed Wolf, Snake and the other members taking out a few of the Dragons one by one with their weapons, as well as Laz and his crew who had joined in on taking them down as well.

The minute one of the Dragons caught a glimpse of me looking, he raced forward with the gun swinging in his hand. But before he could get too close, Blue ran up and shot two bullets in the back his head and neck. Blood spewed from his mouth and nose as he dropped down to the floor.

As the two men with guns now nervously pointed at River turned those guns on Blue, River raised his elbows and slammed them in the center of their necks, forcing them to drop their guns and fall to their knees to the floor. He caught onto the guns mid-air, and when the men realized what happened and tried reaching for another set, he crossed his arms one over the other to make an X and fired off a round of shots from their own guns right into their skulls. I shut my eyes the minute that wild spray of bullets sent their brains flying out from every direction of their heads and onto the floor.

As Chino started to regain consciousness, he raised an arm to shoot, though I wasn't sure of the actual direction he was aiming for. But before he could release any of his own bullets on me or anyone else in the room, Laz jumped over the couch and shot him square in both shoulders; he snatched each gun from his hand and sent another bullet straight through to his chest. Within seconds, he was gurgling spit and blood and had begun coughing up both.

Once the bullets stopped flying, the other brothers rushed over to check on their women. River rushed over to my side and stared down at my hands, my face, my eyes, legs, my entire body as I was practically covered in Courtney's blood. He bent down to gently lift her lifeless body off of me and slinked a hand around my waist to haul me up from the floor. He pressed one hand against the back of my head while keeping his arm tight around my waist. And he pulled me so close to him that I could feel his anxiety practically slamming into me straight down to my bones.