Waking up in a hospital bed, not remembering a thing sent me into a panic. A blood curdling scream leapt from deep within my chest. Ryder came bursting through the room’s door like a bat out of hell.

“Raine? Everything's okay, baby.”

I started hyperventilating. “What that fuck is going on, Ryder?”

He sat down on the edge of my bed. “What is the last thing you remember from last night?”

I tried to think but so much was fuzzy. “I remember figuring out who the guys actually were and trying to leave, but one of the guys forced me to have another beer and I got sleepy.”

Ryder laced our fingers together. “You were drugged last night, darlin’.”

I gasped. “What the fuck?” Tears started to stream down my face as I thought about all the fucked up scenarios that could have happened while I was too fucked up to remember what had happened. 

“Don’t worry, Raine. We got there just in time. Nothing happened.”

I let out a deep sigh. “How’d you know where to find me or that I was actually going to be in a shitty situation?”

Ryder started to stroke my hair, lovingly looking down on me. “Honestly, none of that matters.”

“What about Keira?”

Ryder looked down at our intertwined fingers, his lips forming a hardened line.

“Oh my God.”

“I’m so sorry, babe. No one meant for her to get hit, but she was in the middle of a firefight.”

“Holy hell! Is everyone else okay?”

He nodded. “Your dad got grazed, but other than that, none of our guys were hurt.”

Crickett came rushing into the room, running to my bedside. “For the love of God, thank you so much.” She threw her arms around Ryder’s neck.

“I promised you I would keep her safe and prove to you that I deserved to be with her.”

I grabbed Crickett’s hand. “How’s Dad?”

With a warm smile, Crickett brushed a tear away from my cheek. “He’s a trooper; one tiny bullet isn’t enough to even scathe your old man.”

Jesse knocked on the door and Ryder got to his feet, glancing down at Crickett. “Don’t worry, honey. I got her.”

“I love you.” He kissed my forehead before hugging Crickett. “Thanks.”

“Go find that fucker, Ryder.” Crickett winked at him as he started to follow Jesse out of the room.

“Oh don’t you fucking pay no mind to that, that motherfucker is going to wish he hadn't stepped foot into that house last night.” Ryder blew me a quick kiss and shut the door behind him.

“Did you find him?” I took a cigarette out of Jesse’s pack of smokes after Holt lit his up.

My dad nodded. “Yeah, we have Red tailing him right now, but we’re waiting for you and Abel to scoop him up.”

I slapped my dad on the shoulder. “Thanks, man.”

Abel came striding out of the front doors of the hospital. “Ready to blow this popsicle stand?”

We all followed him and piled into his old white Ford as he let the throaty diesel engine roar to life.

“We’re just waiting on your signal boss.” My dad glanced back at me from the passenger’s seat. “Didn’t want to take this one away from you and Ryder.”

“This one is for the kid and me to take care of solo guys.” Abel looked into the rearview mirror. “Ryder, you doin’ all right, son?”

“Yeah, I am hanging in there. I just want to make this son of a bitch fucking pay for what he did and almost did to Raine.” My palms got clammy and my heart was pounding out of my chest, rage just boiling up from the pit of my belly. There was no way I was going to let someone get away with treating the love of my life like a fucking hooker.

Abel smiled. “Oh, don’t you worry, that fucker will pay tenfold for what he did. We just have to be a little patient.”

* * *

After Abel and I talked with the guys and came up with a game plan, we laid low until nightfall. All I wanted to do was be near Raine, but Abel was worried the Sinners would try to retaliate at the hospital and the last thing either of us wanted was to put her in any more danger than she was already in.

“Your old man will keep a good eye on her, and Crickett just brought Collin over too.”

I flicked my cigarette butt onto the ground, blowing out my last drag into the still night air. “Yeah, I know, but you know how it is. If I am not there to protect her, something could go wrong.”

Abel put his hand on my shoulder. “Sometimes you just have to learn to trust the other people in her life, son.” He winked, taking a long pull out of his fifth of Wild Turkey before passing it over to me. “You ready to get this dude?”

I nodded, wiping the sweet whiskey off my lips with my new leather jacket sleeve. “I have never been more ready to fuck someone up in my entire life.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Abel made a call over to Jesse, who had been tailing our guy for the past few hours. Once we had a location, Abel and I were in his truck and ready to go douchebag hunting.

It only took us twenty minutes to get to the Sinners’ hideout.

“I’m counting three guards.” My low voice felt strained as I tried to keep my anger in check. My instincts were telling me to go in there guns blazing and just take them all out in one fell swoop, but the more rational side of me knew Abel’s plan was going to be way more effective.

With the truck in park, Abel started to trot to the front porch. I had never been in a situation like this with Abel, but the way he moved and executed everything was so clean and perfect. His gun fired two shots and mine one, and within seconds the three lookouts were dead as doorknobs, falling to the ground with fatal head wounds.

Glancing back at me, Abel smiled. “You’re a pretty good shot.”

I slapped him on the shoulder. “I learned from the best.”

Briefly my mind tripped back to Abel and my dad teaching me everything there was to know about guns right after I first came to Vilas. They really had taken me in right away, into a family I’d never thought existed.

“Ready?” Abel’s hand gripped the front door.

With one swift nod, the front door opened and we unleashed a hellfire of bullets into the one-room cabin. Our AK-47s rang out into the darkness, destroying the entire room. We took a step in, realizing our guy wasn’t anywhere to be found.

“What is this place?” I asked Abel as we slowly looked around.

“It’s their hideout for deliveries and shit, has been for years.”

I heard some thudding, like someone sprinting up the stairs. “There has to be a cellar.”

Before I could even finish the sentence, Abel and I were bolting out the back door to see our guy hightailing it for the woods. Abel took three shots, hitting the guy three times in the leg.

“Try to run now, fucker,” Abel yelled as we made our way up to him. With a gun trained on us, we casually walked toward him with our assault rifles, thirsty for more blood. “I wouldn’t even think about that, son.”

Abel kicked his handgun away from us as I hogtied the jerk while he screamed, pleaded, and tried to spit on us.

“Next time you have a young lady in your presence, you’re going to think twice about drugging her and trying to take advantage of her. You need to learn how to have respect for the fairer sex.”

“Fuck you,” he yelled in my face; I started to punch the shit out of him, but Abel stopped me.

“Not here, remember the plan. We need to stick to it. Now go light a match. I got this guy.”

Abel and I ran up to his truck. I grabbed gas cans out of the back before Abel drove into the backyard to get our guy.

Abel called over to me before climbing into the front seat. “Let’s make this quick. We don’t know how long it is going to take for the rest of the Sinners to realize their guys aren’t checking in.”

“Got it.”

Pouring the gas on the porch and through the small cabin as fast as I could, I felt liberation take hold of me. I knew that being an outlaw was looked at as being wrong, but teaching theses rapists and scumbags a real lesson did more than a slap on the wrist and some jail would have ever done for them. I knew deep down that what we were doing was the right thing. Throwing the final can down into the cellar, I flicked open my Zippo and took a deep breath. Abel was already up on the road waiting for me. It felt so fucking amazing to throw that lighter into the frame shack and watch it light within seconds.

With blazing flames getting farther and farther away, Abel and I drove to the house where we’d found Raine the night before. It was roped off as a crime scene already, but Jesse had taken care of the cops to make sure none of them would be anywhere near there by the time we pulled up.

I grabbed the guy from the bed of the truck, dragging him behind me up the front steps of the porch. “Remember this place you fucking piece of monkey shit?” I started kicking him in the stomach, stomping down on his jaw once with my boot. He cried his muffled screams through the gag Abel had put on him.

Abel walked up after shoving his phone in his pocket. “Jesse and Red will be here any minute.” He handed me a shovel. “Take your time with him, make sure he suffers.”

“But don’t you want to?” I reluctantly took the wood handle into my hand.

“Defend your girl, Ryder. I’m just so fucking proud of you and thankful that my daughter found someone that loves her as much as I love Crickett. I would do anything for my girls and now I know you feel the same way.”

It was the most fucked up moment for us to be bonding over, but in that moment, I knew Abel finally completely accepted me into his family and the role I was going to be playing in Raines life.

I started smacking and stabbing the guy with the shovel, making sure to wait a few seconds in between blows to keep it going longer. It was sick and twisted and completely vindictive, but my rage started to cool and my heart slowly started to mend. Vengeance was sweeter than I had expected.

I heard Jesse and Red’s motorcycles pull up. I kicked the guy one last time before trotting down the front steps to meet them.

“Is it ready?” Abel asked as Red pulled a box out of his saddle bag.

He nodded. “Give me two minutes and this baby will be ready to light up the sky like the Fourth of July.”

Red made his way inside while Abel and I carried the guy into the living room of the house. Even though Jesse was a hard as nails outlaw, he didn’t want to go into the home where his niece had been killed by his own men; it was a little too fucked up for any of us to process at that moment.

We made our way a safe distance away from the house. Abel held the detonator in his hand. After a deep breath, I slapped him on the shoulder. “Let that motherfucker burn.”

Under his breath, Abel counted to three and then we watched the house erupt into a blazing glory of victory over our enemy.

“Nice work, kid.” Red hopped onto his bike. “See y’all back at the bar?”

Abel and I shook our heads in unison.

“I think we need to head to the hospital.” Abel glanced over to me. “You ready?”

I let out a long breath. “Yeah, let’s go tell our women the good news. They’ll be able to rest easy tonight.”