“Mack!” Anna shouts above us, her hands pulling me away from the chaos, “It’s Zeke!” I have only seconds to process what she’s saying before I see it. It’s him. He’s barely moving with his arms clutched around his side, but it’s definitely him.
“What the hell, man?” I say, completely befuddled. “What are you—how are you—” I kneel down beside him, wrapping my arm underneath his to hoist him up. He lets out a terrible grunt of pain. Something warm trickles between the two of us. I look down to see blood from a bullet wound seeping from his chest onto my flannel shirt. The smell catches me next—infected flesh. Zeke may be alive, but it won’t be for long like this.
“Anna,” I say in a low tone. I turn back towards her, but she’s already running towards headquarters, her arms flailing for attention. I scream, “Tell them to call the doctor! He needs help!” I look down at my best friend, his face still that strange dusty purple it was when we left him on the floor of the Knights headquarters. His lips are covered in dry blood, his cheeks sunken and dry, but there’s a light that flickers impossibly in his pale gray eyes.
I take off running after Anna. I move as fast as I can on the slick sidewalk while still cradling him in my arms. The whole sprint, I lay out everything that I need to say before it’s too late again, “I’m sorry, Zeke. I am so sorry. We shouldn’t have left you back there. We should have come back for you.” It’s a day of firsts—two apologies in one.
As we reach the door to the building, he takes my hand and pulls it into him. I place him gently on a blanket someone has brought from the stockroom. The men gather around as Anna sits so that his head can lay across her lap. I lean down to whisper as he says to me, “Don’t apologize, Mack. You did what you had to do to survive. I’m not going to be pissed about that.” He takes a deep breath in, his eyes darting from guy to guy. “Damn. It’s good to be back here. I thought I was going to die in that shit hole they kept me in.”
“Why did they let you go?” one of my men asks while the others shush him back down. I agree that we need to let Zeke rest if he is going to have any chance of getting out of here, but the truth of it is that those swollen, festering bullet holes have the look of death on them. Wasting time could ruin just about any chance we can get at some real answers.
“They kept me around, bandaged me up, made me take some strong shit for the pain. They tried to beat out answers from me, but they were pretty disappointed with the results.” He shifts slightly, showing his battered face to the light. Anna gasps, placing her tiny hand to his jawline and around the broken bridge of his nose. He winces but then relaxes to her touch.
“Then tonight,” he continues, a little more out of breath the more he speaks, “Riley had his guys stop giving me the drugs. He told me he wanted me to go find you guys to give Mack a message. So I had him drop me off about two miles from here. I walked for a good hour before I found this place. I think he’d figure I’d either die before I got here or I’d die as soon as I got a foot in the door.” He smiles slightly as he says, “I guess I’m proving him wrong.”
“You hang in there, brother. The doctor is on his way. We’ll get you to a hospital if we need to,” Larry, my temporary Second, offers.
“Don’t bother with me. I’m only good at relaying some information.” He sighs heavily as he reaches across his chest and pulls out a piece of paper stained with his blood. “This one’s for Mack. I didn’t get to read it. My eyes haven’t been working that well in a few days.”
I peel open the paper and struggle read the message scrolled in some weird mix of cursive and print. Anna takes my hand and slips out the paper as she says, “He can’t write for shit. Let me look at it, and I can translate.” She smiles slightly at our touch. I still really haven’t registered that she’s actually here. She came despite everything that happened in that cafe. There’s hope.
“Mack,” she reads out loud to the men gathered around her as if it were story time at Dragon’s headquarters, “This is a truce. I will hold truce as long as you stay the fuck away from my girl. Break it, and we will be back at war.—Riley, President and CEO of the Knights.” She places the paper down on her lap, just to the side of Zeke. Both of them, and the rest of my guys, turn towards me.
“What does this mean?” a faceless voice asks tiredly. “Are we done?” Another person shouts, “What about her? If we’re trying to stop the killing, she’s risking everyone’s life by being here.” The group turns quickly with each murmuring about how dangerous it is having Anna here. Even Anna herself seems to be uncomfortable with where she is. She shifts slightly, moving Zeke’s head off her legs. I watch her attempt to stand, but there’s nowhere for her to go. Everyone waits for me to say something.
“No!” I growl as loudly as I can. The room grows cold and still. Not a soul dares to move a muscle. I stand up, offering my hand to Anna. “If Riley thinks he can just call a truce after what he did to this club, to our property, to Zeke, he’s got shit for brains. We’re Dragons. We don’t just forgive and forget because someone says we should. We get our fucking revenge!” The men shout loudly, their arms raised to the sky in defiance.
“Mack…” Anna cries towards me as the room continues to erupt in support. “It’s done. Just let me go back home, and you guys can be free. You won’t lose another guy or have to worry about your territory.” Her eyes slightly swell as she blinks frantically, attempting to hold back tears. She brushes away long strands of frazzled blonde hair that have stuck to her pink, frosty cheeks.
“If you think I’m going to let him come after you, you’re wrong. The only reason why he is calling truce is because he knows where you are, who you are with, and that you don’t have my protection anymore. You’re the sacrificial lamb here, and I ‘m not giving you up to be slaughtered by him.”
“But what if that’s not what he wants!” Anna shouts, holding onto my arm as she rises to her feet. “I know Riley. We dated for years. He loved me. He probably still does or he wouldn’t be risking his club to come after you all like this. Maybe this wasn’t about killing me all along. Maybe that tattoo thing was meant to scare me back to him or to get his revenge on me for calling the cops and taking off like I did. If I have to go back to him to save you, I will do that. I will!”
“Anna,” I sigh, “I’m not going to let you do that. Even if he did just want you back, I wouldn’t be able to stand the thought of you being his bitch. You think that after all that we did to him, what you did to him, that he’s going to treat you right? We both know that you’re walking to your death if you head back to him now without me to follow you.”
“What do you mean?” Anna asks.
Zeke sits up slightly, staring up at us as he says, “Now that’s fucking brilliant, Mack.”
“I… I don’t understand…” Anna struggles to keep up, but the wheels are already turning and I kneel back down to Zeke to pepper him with questions about Riley, his men, and any other information he can provide me with.
Zeke looks almost revitalized as he answers them one by one, finally saying, “They’re pretty depleted, and there’s talk. But I think you know that. If you went in tonight, you’d have a good chance of catching him when his guard is down and the patches are off. And there’s the hotel on 80th street—the Jade. We could use that. They owe us a favor for the job on Highland.”
Anna looks down at us as if we’re speaking in tongues. “Please, can you just tell me what you’re planning so I can say no to it?”
“We’re going to use you as bait again,” I say, forcing myself not to look at her. “You tell him that you want to meet him, and we sweep in and get him. We end this thing once and for all, for both of us.”
“It’s not as easy as that, Mack!” Anna cries out to me, her hands to her face in a near panic.
“I know that. But if we keep letting Riley rule our lives, we’ll never be able to be together. That building I built out there is all for nothing. And what’s to say that his word is good?” I pick up the note, holding it before her. “This fucking note could be nothing but a way to get our guard down. I’m not going to take it, Anna. This ends tonight.”
Anna grabs my arm, pulling me up. She races me upstairs, past the men too preoccupied with their own celebrations to care or notice. We head straight to our office where she watches me unlock the door. Without even turning on the light, she pulls me inside and towards the wall. Our shadows fall low on the floor from the light of the window behind us. With me pinned in place, she leans her body up against mine. She places my arms around her shoulders and back as we freeze here.
Finally, she whispers into my chest, “I can’t lose you again, Mack. I came back here because I wanted to move on with you. But now I am going to lose you again to Riley.” I can barely make out her words through the tears.
“That’s the point Anna,” I say as I lift her chin so that our eyes are level. “I can’t lose you either. We’ve been through hell and back and lost it all already. There’s nothing left to lose if this goes wrong. Let’s at least try to end this thing once and for all so that we could be together or die trying.”
“Mack… I—”
“I love you, Anna. You don’t have to say anything else tonight. I love you, and I am not letting anyone or anything get in between that.” I reach behind her, grabbing hold of her purse. I fish through it quickly as she watches me. Handing her the phone, I whisper as firmly as I can muster, “Now call him. Tell him to meet you at the Portland Jade Hotel at two a.m. It’s in his territory so it shouldn’t set off any alarm bells.”
She swallows, nods, and begins to dial. Her hands shake viciously and I can hear the phone ring on the other end. I pull her closer to me, cradling her tight against my chest. My hands float to around the curve of her waist and on the top of her hips. The thin fabric of the tank top under her sweatshirt clings to her soft skin.
“Anna Fox…” Riley’s voice is as skunky as I remember it. He slurs his words, barely able to contain himself. “And what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call?”
Anna looks up at me for guidance, but she needs to do this on her own. She closes her eyes as she says lightly, her real voice masked, “I want to see you, Riley. I’ve been thinking about us since my mom died, and, well, I came to some conclusions that I need to change.”
“I heard about your mom, Anna. It’s a shame. I also heard you weren’t at that hospital because of that fucking tool you were with.” I bite my lip listening in to this bullshitter.
“Yeah. It’s one of the reasons I want to talk to you. I can’t… I can’t do that anymore.”
“Do him, you mean?” Riley’s voice hits another octave with excitement.
“Yes. I can’t be with him. I just want to talk to you about everything’s that happened. I’m staying at the Jade Hotel right now while Roxy’s staying at my new place. She wouldn’t want to see you there, and I don’t want to go back to your headquarters. Could you meet me there tonight? Maybe around two?”
His voice is flat when he finally responds, “Is this some fucking trap? Like that tattoo stunt?”
“No, Riley, I’m serious. I’m done with the Dragons and Mack. I just want to talk to you. Please…?”
A few long, agonizing seconds tick by. I bury my head into her hair, praying that he’ll respond so we can get this plan in motion. “Fine. I’ll be there. Text me your room number.” There’s a click as Anna’s phone goes dark. She leans her head back into my shoulder, pressing her warm lips where the neck of my shirt meets my skin.
“Are you sure about this, Mack?” she asks, but I have no answer for her. I just hold her tighter than I have ever held anyone before. The sweet smell of lavender floats back through my senses.
Outside the protection of our office, my men suit up to ride. Zeke, basically reading my mind, leads the charge from the filth blanket on the floor. In a few moments, the doctor would arrive to take him to his office to hopefully save his life. But for now, he’s a commander working out the logistics of an attack he can only be a part of from afar. Still, our men ready to his orders. Tonight we’ll all get our revenge for what Riley and the Knights have done to us. And that’s all that matters.