Chapter Twenty-Five
Zach struggled against Rocket’s unbreakable hold. He was going to kill his brother the second they were free of this fucked up situation.
The only reason he didn’t let his rage fly and take Rocket down was that he couldn’t put Toni at risk any more than she was already.
She had to be terrified, standing behind Shark, knowing what would happen to her the moment Maverick reached the group. Blood ran in small rivers down her arms and face from what looked like dozens of scratches. They’d better just be from the trees in the woods. If the fucker that brought her from the car had laid a hand on her, he’d be dying a slow death as well.
“I’m cool,” he said to Rocket who loosened his hold. That was a damn lie. He was about as hot as it got, but his hands were tied. Used to being in a position of power, being rendered impotent and unable to help his woman was torture. There might not be anything he could do in that moment to save Toni. But he damn sure could end Shark’s life when this was done.
As he watched, Maverick took a staggering step forward then stopped to catch his breath. After a few seconds, he managed another step that looked agonizing.
Mav would need to be transported straight to the hospital. For a second, Mav’s gaze found Zach’s and Zach worried his friend would turn and charge Shark. He wouldn’t survive it and Toni might not either. He gave Mav the smallest head shake he could manage.
Mav struggled forward another step and then a loud bang rang out. Shark made a strangled noise, clutched his abdomen and fell to the floor.
Zach gaped at the gun hanging limply in Toni’s hands and her dazed expression before all hell broke loose.
Zach and Rocket both charged forward. Rocket grabbed Mav around his waist and swung him toward the building. Zach plowed into Toni. He tackled her to the ground and shielded her with his body while the pop of assault rifles sounded around them.
It didn’t take long before quiet ensued. Zach lifted his head and did a quick count. Ten Handlers were milling around. Mav was over Rocket’s shoulder in a fireman carry that must have hurt like a sonofabitch but was the easiest way to get him out. The two rooftop guards weren’t anywhere to be seen but were probably dead on the roof, and the man who’d escorted Toni out of the woods was dead as a doornail. Shark lay unmoving just feet away in a pool of his own blood.
The only thing Zach regretted was not being the one to dish out a little MC justice before killing Shark himself.
Beneath him, Toni squirmed. “Let me up. Are you hurt?” She pushed against his chest until he sat back on his knees. Scrambling to her knees as well, she ran her hands over his body. “Did you get hit anywhere?” Her voice was one breath away from hysterical.
Zach grabbed her hands, stilling her frantic search for bullet holes. “Baby, I’m fine. Not a scratch on me, though I can’t say the same for you.” He ran his finger over an angry gouge running up the side of her porcelain neck.
Toni didn’t even seem to notice she was bleeding. “Is everyone else okay?” She tried to shove him away with thrashing arms, but he yanked her close and held her head against his pounding heart. “Everyone is okay. You did good, baby. You are fucking amazing. Shit, I can’t believe you had a gun.”
“Oh my God. I shot him. I had to do something.” Trembling in his arms, she burrowed as close as she could get without climbing into his skin. “The guys on the roof! Did they kill anyone? Should I have waited? Oh my God. Did I get someone killed? Let me see. Please, I need to see everyone.”
She shrugged out of his embrace and Zach helped her to her feet. The red, ragged scratches covering her skin looked worse up close. Her hair was a snarled mess, falling out of its band and with twigs scattered throughout.
“Wait,” he said, lifting one of her arms. “Baby, you’re scratched to shit. I promise everyone is okay and you can see them in a minute. I just need to know you’re okay. Scared ten fucking years off my life just now.”
She met his gaze and he saw that she wasn’t quite as good as she claimed. Hell, she’d just taken a life. But being the fierce woman she was, she didn’t fall apart. She shoved it down and straightened. Later, in private, might be a different story, but Zach planned to be there for every tear, every second of guilt, every worry, and he’d soothe them all away.
“I’m good,” she whispered.
Zach cupped her injured face and pressed his lips to hers. He’d come so close to losing her. To losing the fragile connection they shared but had yet to define. That was going to change. Once this was over, he was locking that shit down. No more running. No more games. She was going to be his if he had to handcuff her to her bed and make her come until she was too exhausted to fight anymore.
“Z, we need to roll, brother. Mav ain’t good.” Copper stood behind him. “Your truck is closest. I’ll ride with you, and we’ll bring him to the hospital in Townsend.”
Zach nodded. “You okay to walk, Toni? We have flashlights.”
“Yes, I can walk it,” she said.
“Where’d you get that gun, baby?”
Toni gasped and grabbed his arm. “Oh, Zach!” Her eyes flooded. “It was Special K’s. He was k—I mean they sho—” She shook her head and pressed a fist to her mouth. “I can’t even say it.”
Zach felt it like a sucker punch to the gut.
Copper nodded, his face impassive.
“I’m so sorry,” Toni said, tears falling freely now. She shook her head and a sob broke free. “I tried to stop the bleeding. And I didn’t want to leave him, but they found me.”
“Not your fault, babe,” Zach said, rubbing a hand over her back. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Copper just turned and started through the woods. “Get movin’, you two. We need to catch up.”
“It’s okay, babe,” Zach said as he caught Toni’s stricken look. “He doesn’t blame you for a thing. He blames himself.”
She nodded and took a deep breath, straightening her shoulders. “Let’s go.”
They made their way back to the truck at a rapid clip. Toni shielded her eyes from the blood spot on the ground where Special K’s body had been. His brothers must have moved him to one of the trucks farther out.
Her eyes were solemn as she climbed into the pickup. With Copper and Rocket’s help, they were able to maneuver Maverick into the back seat with her. He lay across the bench with his head in Toni’s lap.
Copper drove like there was no such thing as a speed limit. The car was quiet but for Toni’s occasional whispered words of comfort to Mav. She stroked her fingers through Mav’s hair as she spoke, telling him they all loved him and they’d take care of him. That with a little time, he’d be good as new. He didn’t move and his breath whistled in and out of his lungs.
She’d just been injured, watched one man die, killed another, and was probably out of her mind with stress, yet her only concern was for Maverick’s comfort. If he hadn’t fallen for her before, seeing her care so much for Zach’s brother would have done it.
She was a gift he sure as hell didn’t deserve but was selfish enough to keep.
They made it back to Townsend and to the small hospital in record time. Copper ran in through the Emergency Department entrance while Jig and Rocket darted over from their SUV to assist in getting Mav out of the vehicle.
Zach helped Toni out of the truck. “I want you to get those scratches checked,” he said, gently running a hand over her arm.
Toni shook her head. “No. It’s just scrapes. All I want is to go home.”
Zach considered her. A few of the gashes were angry and ragged, but she was right. They were just scratches. Some soapy water and Neosporin and she’d be just fine. “Okay, but you can’t go home. I’ll have Jig take you to the clubhouse and show you to my room. You can hang out there. Shell and Beth should be there.”
She rubbed her arms as though cold, so Zach shrugged out of his black hoodie and draped it over her shoulders. “You’re not coming?”
“I’ll be there as soon as I know Maverick is stable.”
“Okay.” She stepped close and stared up at him. “Zach, I—”
He placed his hand over her lips. “Shh. We’ll talk later. Everything is going to work out, baby, I promise.”
She nodded then raised up on her tiptoes, parting her lips. Despite all the shit of the past few hours, happiness filled Zach. Toni was hurt, scared, feeling guilt, and trying to hide it all. And she was turning to him for comfort, reassurance, care.
He pressed his lips to hers, planning on a chaste kiss, but she gripped his T-shirt and held him close. He deepened the kiss and tasted her until she moaned. A throat cleared nearby making Toni jump and pull back.
“I needed that,” she whispered, then turned and disappeared into the SUV with Jig.
Once inside the hospital, he quickly found Copper and Rocket looking like giants in flimsy plastic waiting room chairs. The six or so other people waiting around all stared like his brothers were leather-clad chimps at the zoo.
“Outside,” Copper said when he saw Zach. He and Rocket followed Zach back out the way he came in.
“What are they saying about Mav?” Zach asked.
Copper pulled out a cigarette and shoved it between his lips. “Not a fucking word,” he said, throwing Zach a pissed off glare. “They took him for a bunch of scans. We’ll know when they know or some shit like that.” He inhaled and flew a long stream of smoke into the sky. “Fuck. Fuck!”
An elderly woman being wheeled in to the hospital in a chair shot Copper a disapproving glare.
“Gimme one of those fuckers.” Zach held his hand out to Copper. “We got guys on clean up?”
Copper handed him a cigarette and his lighter. “Yeah, guys are gonna torch the place. Mav said something about a girl being held prisoner, so we’re gonna search for her first.”
Zach couldn’t have been more shocked if Mav came walking out the door dancing a jig. “Seriously? Think he was delirious?”
Copper shrugged. “Fuck if I know. While the nurses were moving him to a bed he kept mumbling some shit about someone named Stephanie. Then he grabbed my hand, looked me straight in the eye, and begged me to save her. Last thing we need is some kidnapped teenager all up in our business, but I can’t let the girl burn to death either, can I?”
Rocket shook his head. “Shit,” was all he said.
They headed back inside and an hour later were told Mav was asking for them. Copper’s phone rang just as a nurse in hot pink scrubs came to retrieve them. Rocket had gone off in search of caffeination, so Zach made his way in by himself.
“Hey, brother,” he said when he reached the bed.
Mav turned and grabbed Zach’s arm with his left hand. The right one was bandaged from wrist to elbow where Shark burned off the Handlers’ brand. “You find her? The girl?”
“Shit, Mav, you look like hell. What did the docs say?”
Mav shook his head and squeezed Zach’s arm with a surprising amount of strength. “The girl.”
“All right, man, calm down. Cop is sending men to look for her. We’ll get her.”
Sagging against the pillow, Mav licked his chapped lips and nodded. “She’ll need help.”
“We’re on it, brother. Just worry about doing what you gotta do to get sprung from this joint. Now what’d the doc say?”
“Broken ribs, bruised all to fuck, infection in my arm.” He lifted his bandaged arm and grimaced. “It’s fucking gone, Z.”
“Don’t worry about that now, Mav. We’ll work it out.”
“How’s LJ?”
“Fucked up. He’s home now, though. I’m sure he’ll be in tomorrow.”
Zach stayed with Maverick until Copper and Rocket joined, then took off to meet Toni back at the clubhouse.
As he drove the truck back to the clubhouse he couldn’t help but replay the night’s events over and over.
And with each passing mile the part that stuck in his brain the most was Toni selflessly offering herself up to Shark in exchange for Mav.
By the time he reached the clubhouse he’d gone from irked, to mad, to fucking furious.