Mason

 

I told her I would protect her. I’d told her that on multiple occasions. I had offered to help her walk away from Skull and the life she had been living for so long. I promised her I would take care of her.

 

The words I had pledged to Clara weighed heavily on my mind as I rode into the darkness with my brothers around me. We rode like bats out of hell. We were on a mission, and we didn’t have a whole lot of time to waste trying to catch up to Skull and his men. We weren’t exactly sure what we were riding into. We didn’t know what kind of fight lay up ahead waiting for us, but we were determined to take him down.

 

I was determined to bring Clara back unharmed and make her mine. Against everyone else’s best advice, I had already forgiven her for the things she had done and for the trouble she had caused. No matter what had happened so far, the fact remained that I had promised to protect her and to keep her safe from harm. I had learned at an early age in this MC that we always honored our word. People were far more important than the business.

 

There wasn’t much traffic on the highway, which I figured would help us spot Skull’s car, but it also meant he would be able to spot us more easily, too. I began to worry that we’d lost him as the light began to fade around us.

 

I had no idea where this fabled upstate hideout of Skull’s was supposed to be, so if we weren’t able to track him down on the interstate before he got there, our chances of catching up to him were slim to none. It would take days to track him down through our usual street networks. We didn’t have days. The longer it took, the more danger Clara would be in. Not catching up with him was not an option.

 

I gunned my engine, pulling ahead of the rest of the pack. Everyone sped up to keep up with me. I was pushing the old Roadster as hard as I could, and probably harder than I should have been, but if I had to sacrifice her to finish this job, so be it. It was worth it to me. Clara was worth it to me. Getting Skull out of the picture was worth it.

 

Finally, as night began to take the highway, I spotted taillights up ahead. The trees lining the interstate on either side were fading into the darkness. The only thing I could see was the patch of highway passing underneath our bikes through our headlights. And the taillights in the distance, threatening to get away from us.

 

We were riding so close to each other that the glow from our headlights allowed us to see each other just fine. I signaled to Mick to speed up ahead and check out the car. He nodded and dipped out of the pack. He killed his headlights so they wouldn’t see him approaching. He disappeared into the night up ahead as he gunned it to catch up with the car the rest of us were beginning to approach.

 

My nerves began to ball up in knots deep in my gut. I wasn’t planning on getting into a gunfight in the middle of the night. I figured that at least the highway was pretty deserted other than the few of us and the other car. If it did turn out to be Skull, the lack of traffic would make handling him a breeze. Still, it didn’t feel right. I felt like so much could go wrong shooting at each other blindly in the dark.

 

Mick cut his lights back on as we caught up with him and gave me a thumbs up. It was Skull. I nodded at him and killed my headlights. The rest of my brothers followed suit. Suddenly, we were immersed in darkness. Luckily, the moon was full, and bright enough that we could sort of see each other.

 

Without our headlights on, the night around us became much brighter. We could see more details of the road and the surrounding woods. Skull’s car up ahead was a beacon glowing in the night, calling us to it. I took a deep breath.

 

As far as I could tell, Skull and his men only numbered three. We were riding up on him six deep. We outnumbered them enough to hopefully keep our losses minimal or, better yet, nonexistent. We’d lost enough men already for one day. I wasn’t looking forward to risking more lives.

 

We picked up the pace again, and I signaled to the rest of the guys to hang back behind the car as I rode up close beside it to make sure it was, in fact, Skull’s sedan. I couldn’t get a good look inside. I couldn’t tell where Clara was sitting.

 

I backed off, not ready to risk taking a shot at the car and hitting the one person I didn’t want to kill.

 

Mick gestured back at the car but I shook my head and pointed at my eyes. Man, we were on same damn page. That was why he was my second-in-command. He knew exactly what I was thinking.

 

He pointed at the back, passenger side, and I knew he was telling me Clara was on that side. I didn’t know how he could have known that, but I trusted his judgment. He knew better than to try to screw me over, especially when it came to her.

 

I looked back at the car and started to pull up beside it again. I was honestly surprised they hadn’t tried anything. With six motorcycles right on their ass, it was amazing they hadn’t heard us and realized we were there.

 

I didn’t see who shot first, but a couple of shots rang out in rapid succession. Shots were fired at the car, and shots were fired from the car.

 

Motorcycle headlights came on. There was no need to try to hide in the darkness, and we had every reason to let them know how many of us there were. The car jerked one way and then the other. I had to jerk my bike to keep from getting hit as the sedan swerved back and forth across the lanes.

 

A shot rang out from my left side as one of my men pulled up beside and fired at the back, driver’s-side window. The glass exploded and rained down in sparkling shards all over the road. I saw into the car and watched as Clara ducked to keep from getting struck by glass or bullets.

 

Mick had been right, and whoever it was who’d pulled up beside me to shoot out the window was an awesome shot. He took out one of the men who had apparently helped Skull kidnap Clara. It still didn’t make any damn sense to try to kidnap someone who already worked for him, but that was him, not us.

 

I backed off so I could look inside the car as it pulled ahead of me. Skull was behind the wheel. I laughed to myself and finally drew my weapon. I had my target, but the front passenger had his target, too, and I was forced to back off again as he opened fire on us. He struck my brother on the left, sending him and his motorcycle crashing into the median.

 

I signaled to Mick and the others that Clara was down in the back, and a few shots rang out, shattering the back window. The car swerved again.

 

I sighed. This wasn’t getting the job done. I shot at the driver’s-side window, blowing it out. Skull jerked the wheel again, and I was sure the car was about to lose control for good when it righted itself again and kept going straight.

 

This asshole’s determined, I thought to myself.

 

Finally, sick of playing games, I took aim at the front tire. I held my gun in place for a moment, keeping it trained on the tire. I knew what I risked by shooting out the front tire. Skull was certain to lose control of the car, and I was going to put Clara in a lot of danger by taking that shot, but the longer we kept up this little cat and mouse shit, the more danger we put her in anyway. If things kept going the way they were, it wouldn’t be long before she took a stray bullet anyway.

 

“I’m sorry,” I said aloud, and I pulled the trigger.

 

The tire exploded, and the car jerked violently to one side. Suddenly, it was flipping, rolling on its side towards the shoulder of the interstate.

 

We slowed down, and I checked behind us to make sure no one was coming. A pair of headlights passed on the other side of the median, but they didn’t slow down to observe what was happening on our side of the highway.

 

I slid my gun back under my belt as we pulled up to the wreckage. It didn’t look like anyone could walk away from it. Steam came from underneath it. Well, the underside was facing us, as the sedan finally came to a rest on its side on the shoulder of the interstate, between the blacktop and the tree line.

 

I held out a hand to keep everyone back at first as we pulled over onto the side of the road. I killed my engine and listened as the others behind me did the same. I climbed off my tired old bike with my hand on my gun. Suddenly, putting it aside seemed a little premature. I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to spring out of the car and start shooting, or if we’d effectively eliminated the threat.

 

Gun shots rang out from the car. We couldn’t see the shooter, but they were taking aim at us as Mick and I approached.

 

We ducked and stepped back. Bullets hit the pavement around us and zinged past our heads. Whoever was shooting wasn’t a good aim. Knowing Skull and his men, that was a pretty good indication the shooter was injured, meaning my shot in the tire had definitely given us the upper hand.

 

I tilted my head back to the bikes, and Mick nodded. We rushed back over to the bikes, where the rest of the guys were waiting with their headlights off. Skull and his last remaining goon weren’t likely to see us in the dark while we regrouped. We weren’t even sure if both of them survived the wreckage of the car.

 

“Did you get a look at who was shooting?” I asked Mick.

 

“Nope. I couldn’t even see where they were shooting from,” he told me.

 

“You don’t think it’s possible someone else could have shown up, do you?”

 

“What, like backup?” He shook his head. “We would have heard them or would have seen them if they had.”

 

“Maybe,” I said. “But he didn’t seem to hear or see us.”

 

“Yeah, but look around. It’s just us and whoever is left in the car,” he said.

 

“Good point.”

 

Our brothers stood with their guns ready, awaiting orders. Everyone knew how important this mission was, so no one really seemed to be in a hurry to rush over and just start shooting. They wanted to make sure they were doing the right thing and not putting Clara in any more danger than she was already in.

 

It felt good to know that when things were really looking bleak, I still had so many men at my back. We were a family. These days, we were a rather large family, and it was probably time to open up a second chapter within the same city or start shipping guys out to other chapters.

 

We were practically an army, which was appropriate, I thought, since it felt like we were at war with Skull and his goons. We were about to end that war, though, right there on the side of the interstate.