BLAKE

 

From the information we gathered, there were 13 Spades in total, one for every Spade in a deck of cards. Of course, the Spades were a bat-shit crazy supremacist group, so there was no telling if those numbers were accurate. There could have been a dozen more jokers waiting for us if we weren’t ready.

I’d killed four of the Spades who attacked me, meaning there were at least nine more men waiting for us.

If those numbers held, that meant the Cobras would give us enough men to compete with them. But just because we had an advantage didn’t mean we could be reckless. We were going to their hideout. We would be on their turf. We had a meeting just the night before but they could have discovered our plan if the information somehow leaked.

We had to be ready for anything…

 

* * *

 

It was late into the night when both crews headed to the outskirts. More than 10 bikers rode out of Ivory and headed to the destination. We didn’t ride in one big group, because that would have drawn too much attention. It took some time but we eventually made it to the location Ghost and I had scouted some time ago.

The Spades hideout was a makeshift shithole that you wouldn’t have paid any attention to if you didn’t know what it was. A couple of storage warehouses in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a bunch of trees and dusty roads. It was the perfect place for a bunch of lunatic skinheads to do their business.

I stood behind some brush with the rest of the Reapers as Garnet went over the plan.

“Sullivan and Petey, you guys stick back here, in case someone comes from behind us. Brawn, you watch my back while I flank from the left. Ghost, Needle, you two head around the last storage warehouse. That’s where the bulk of them should be.”

“Harris will be bringing some of his guys with us,” Ghost said to me. “We kick in the door and every skinhead you see—”

“I start shooting,” I said. “I get it.”

“Brawn and I will make sure that they can’t get through if they try to escape,” Garnet added. “We’ll also make sure that there aren’t any assholes hiding where we’re not looking.”

The entire club was staring at Garnet as he gave us our final orders.

“These assholes tried to kill Needle,” he said. “They put Michelle in a hospital. Let’s make these motherfuckers pay.”

We all nodded and headed toward our destinations. Ghost and I made our way around the hideout until we got to the back. Hiding behind some trees, I saw Harris with a couple of his men waiting for us.

“What took you so long?” Harris said to me.

“Shut the fuck up. We’re here.”

“Are you ready?”

I looked at Ghost one last time to get his confirmation. He nodded and I turned back to Harris.

“We’re ready.”

“Remember,” Harris said. “We wipe these guys out and that’ll be the end of it.”

“I know what’s at stake. Just make sure you do your part.”

“You know damn well I’m not about to let these punks ruin a good thing.”

Harris gave me a smirk. It was the first time I could remember he gave me anything close to a smile. Right now wasn’t the time to be his friend though. Right now, I had to make sure this plan went through.

I had a promise to keep. Nothing was going to stop me from keeping it.

“Let’s go,” Harris whispered.

He led us toward the building in the distance. We all had our guns drawn. I had two pistols up, ready for anything that might happen. As we got closer to the storage warehouse, I could hear the sound of chatter inside. The laughter told me they weren’t expecting us at all.

We all got up next to the wall where the backdoor was. Harris leaned up next to the door and looked at me. I gave him one last nod to confirm what we were doing.

He slowly reached forward on the door handle and turned it. He pulled on the door lightly then shoved it open.

“Go!”

Harris and I both rushed into the room with our guns drawn. The rest of the club members followed behind us.

The skinheads weren’t ready for us. All I saw was a split-second of surprise before I started squeezing. Gunfire and smoke filled the room as we lit up every bastard there. A fun night of cards for them turned into a bloodbath.

None of them even had a chance to pull out their weapons.

“Count!” I shouted.

We searched the room and examined all of the bodies. They were barely moving, lying in pools of their own blood as the last bit of life they had drained from them.

“Seven,” Ghost said. “There are seven.”

“That means there are at least two more—”

Bang. Bang. Bang.

The sound of gunshots in the distance interrupted me.

“Garnet,” I said. “Brawn…”

Ghost and I raced through the storage room toward the next warehouse.

The sound of more gunshots filled the air and echoed into the night sky.

As soon as we got to the next storage warehouse, we saw Brawn sitting and leaning up against the wall. His hand pressed down on his leg. I could see the blood gushing through his fingers.

“Garnet,” he said, stone-faced. “He went after two of ‘em. Go get ‘em.”

“You go,” Ghost said to me. “I have to get Brawn back to Ivory now. Before it’s too late.”

“Go!” I shouted.

I left the both of them behind and made my way through the storage warehouse. The place was nearly empty, but there was a chance that one of them was lurking in the darkness.

“Come on…” I muttered. “Where are these motherfuckers?”

I kept running until I made my way through the other side of the storage warehouse. Just as I got outside, I saw two punks getting on their bikes.

“Shit!”

I ducked out of the way just as they started to fire at me. I kept my head down and listened to the sound of exhaust peeling away.

“Dammit!”

As soon as they were gone, I got back up to my feet. I ran back to where we’d first started and saw Petey and Sullivan waiting for me. Garnet was getting on his bike, like he already knew they were getting away.

“They were hiding,” Garnet said. “Brawn and I missed ‘em. They snuck up on us and got Brawn before I spotted ‘em. I knew they would go running—”

“It doesn’t matter now,” I said. “Let’s go!”

I got on my chopper and sped off. Garnet by my side, the two of us raced down the dusty road in pursuit of the last two punks who’d gotten away.

It didn’t matter how far or how fast they drove. I was with Garnet, my brother. I was ready to ride all the way to Hell to catch these motherfuckers.

We didn’t have to go that far though. We’d gone several miles away from the Spades’ original hideout before we finally caught them at a small warehouse in the middle of nowhere. They parked their bikes then quickly ducked inside.

As soon as they disappeared into the building, Garnet and I pulled over.

“Nowhere to hide,” Garnet said to me.

“Let’s fucking finish this—”

The sound of exhaust rumbling filled my ears. I turned around and drew my weapon, expecting to see some Spade I hadn’t accounted for. But it was just Harris, all by himself.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I said to him as he pulled up.

“The rest of the boys are heading back to Ivory,” he said. “That other guy… Brawn… He’s a big boy. It’s gonna take a lot to get him back to Ivory to get stitched up.”

“You don’t need to be here. We can handle this—”

“Knock it off with the tough guy shit. I came here to finish a job. So let’s fucking finish it.”

I looked at Garnet and he gave me a nod.

We all drew our weapons and headed toward the storage facility in the distance.

The place looked like it hadn’t been used in ages. The walls were rusted, the glass windows were broken, and there was dust with every step we took.

We leaned up against the wall next to one of the entrances. Garnet gave us a second before he turned and kicked the door open with a violent thud.

The door swung open and we rushed inside. We didn’t see anybody immediately. Garnet put his index finger up to his lips.

The entire place was dead silent except for our footsteps. I held my breath, trying to listen for any sign of the assholes I knew were in here.

We made our way through all of the broken down equipment, searching every last corner of the place. We searched every fucking corner but there was no sign of them. We eventually worked our way back to the entrance without finding any sign of them.

“What the fuck is going on?” Garnet said. “There’s no way they could have escaped without us—”

“Look out!”

Harris leaned forward and shoved Garnet to the ground. I turned and saw one of the motherfuckers aiming his gun at me. Before I had a chance to react, Harris pushed me out of the way. I watched as a bullet tagged Harris in the shoulder and sent him flying to the floor.

I pulled my gun out and fired enough shots to fill the asshole’s chest. He fell to the ground, smiling at me like a madman as the blood gushed out of his mouth.

“Shit…”

Garnet muttered as he looked down at Harris. The president of the Winter Cobras was lying on the ground, blood gushing from his shoulder as he pressed down on it.

“We gotta get you back to Ivory—”

“No!” Harris shouted at Garnet. “We gotta finish this! I’m fine!”

“If we don’t—”

“Blake… If you leave just one of these motherfuckers alive, you know Katrina will never be safe. I don’t matter. You don’t matter. All that matters is her.”

I was breathing hard through my nose. With the amount of blood Harris was losing, I knew he didn’t have much time. But he knew exactly what to say to me. He knew what I needed to hear so that I’d agree with him.

“There’s one more in there,” I said. “I’ll find him.”

I raised my guns up and headed back into the storage facility. I started searching every corner. All of the shadows and up near the ceiling. I looked at every single place he could have possibly been hiding.

Time was running out for Harris.

As the seconds ticked by, my heart started to race. Sweat dripped down my forehead. I calmed my nerves the best I could. Then I noticed something.

What is that?

I closed my eyes for just a second and held my breath. But I could still hear breathing. And I knew where it was coming from.

There was a locker on the side of the wall I hadn’t seen the first time we scouted the place. I slowly walked toward it with my weapon drawn.

“Come on, motherfucker. There’s nowhere to hide.”

I walked right up to the locker and pulled it open. I fired my gun but I didn’t hit anything.

“What the fuck—”

Before I could finish, the violent swing of a bat collided with my forearm, knocking my gun out of my hand.

“Shit!”

I grunted in pain as I stumbled to the ground.

“Motherfucker!”

I looked up and saw the man who did it.

Shaved head. Tattoos. A look in his eyes like he wasn’t even human. A smile on his face like he took pleasure in hurting others.

“You should have left when you had the chance,” the Spade said.

“It’s over, motherfucker! The rest of your boys are dead.”

“As long as there’s one Spade, there’s still a chance. There’s always a chance!”

He took another violent swing at me but I rolled out of the way. My left forearm was throbbing in pain. It was probably broken. But I wasn’t about to let that stop me.

“Come on, pretty boy,” he said. “Why don’t you finish the job?”

He cackled at me as he rushed forward again. With one arm, I couldn’t fight off a man with a bat. But I had to try.

Just as he swung at me, I ducked and threw an uppercut as hard as I could. His head snapped and he reeled back. I hit him hard enough to knock the bat out of his hand.

I rushed forward and tried to jump on top of him to finish him off but he rolled out of the way. He picked the bat back up and swung at me. I turned and yelled as the wooden bat collided against my back.

“Why don’t you just fucking give up, pretty boy?” he said. “Stop working for those fucking chinks and I’ll let you live.”

“Fuck off!”

I rolled away from his next swing and got back up to my feet. Before he could swing again, I threw a fist right across his jaw. The sound of blood splattering and teeth splintering filled my ears. The pain in my knuckles told me I’d hit my mark.

“Now it’s my turn, motherfucker.”

I moved forward to finish him off. But he rolled over and picked up the gun I’d dropped earlier.

Fuck.

I looked down the barrel of the gun as he smiled at me.

“It’s over,” he said.

Bang.

I closed my eyes.

A gunshot filled the air. Gunsmoke filled my nostrils.

I was in so much pain that I couldn’t tell if I’d been shot or not.

I opened my eyes and saw the gun had been dropped from his hand.

Blood was flowing from a massive wound in his chest. I spun around and saw Garnet standing there, the smoke still fresh from his barrel.

I straightened up just as Garnet stood over the Spade. He struggled to breathe, blood trickling out of his mouth.

“Why?” Garnet said. “Why did you do it?”

The Spade furrowed his brow in anger, gritting his teeth defiantly.

“You… Doing business with a bunch of fucking chinks… Soiling this good town with the product of a bunch of slanty-eyed, Chinese cocksuckers…”

“You didn’t want us doing business with the Chinese?” I said. “That’s what this was all about?”

“You’re no better than the rest of them. A bunch of motorcycle clubs. Selling out your own race just for a couple of dollars. You were supposed to kill each other. Why didn’t you just fucking die?”

“I just want to know one thing,” Garnet said, his gun still pointed at the Spade. “Are you the one who stole the van from the Cobras? Are you the one who hit Michelle?”

“Why? Is she your bitch or something?”

“Yeah… Something like that…”

“Good. It was me! I was the one who hit her. It’s too bad I didn’t kill her. But at least I got a chance to put that dumb bitch in the hospital—”

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Garnet unloaded his weapon into the punk to silence him for good. Garnet kept squeezing his gun even after it was empty. I gave him his time to get the justice he deserved before putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Come on,” I said. “We gotta go back now.”

We made our way back to the entrance of the storage facility. Harris remained on the ground, pushing the wound on his shoulder to try and keep the blood in.

“Let’s go,” I said as I looked down at him. “Get back to your feet.”

“You know you don’t have to bring me back,” Harris said.

“What?”

Harris chuckled at me.

“You could leave me here,” he said. “Let me die. I’m the only thing stopping you from being with Katrina. You know I could never let her be with a Reaper.”

I looked into his eyes. He was serious.

If I left Harris here, there would be nothing stopping Katrina and me from being together. With her brother gone, she wouldn’t have any obligations to the Winter Cobras.

“Even if you bring me, there’s no guarantee I won’t bleed to death before we get back.”

Harris was giving me every reason to leave him behind. I turned to Garnet for some guidance but he didn’t say anything. He didn’t have anything to do with this.

This was my decision.

I knew what I had to do.

I clenched my jaw and shook my head before giving him my answer.

“I know what it’s like to lose a brother. I won’t let that happen to Katrina.”

Garnet and I helped him back up to his feet.

“You ready to get the fuck out of here?” I said to Harris.

He gave me a smirk and nodded.

“Let’s go home.”