The chatter on the radio was almost too much. Angel could hear them talking about the officer down. Someone had been shot, but they wouldn’t ever say who it was across the airwaves. Then suddenly Chris Matheson was on the radio:

“He knows we’re here, he’s taking off. We’re moving! Let’s go! Go!” Angel was itching to get out of the van. She had her hand on her weapon, her bulletproof vest was in place. She could hear the squeal of tires and the faint pop of gunfire over the radio but she couldn’t see what was going on. The bikers that had parked along the side of the road about a mile in front of them were taking off and a few more bikes sped past them at almost frightening speeds, making their own paths between the cars that had just been stopped by the black and white units rolling up and blocking traffic. Staying put was one of the hardest things she’d ever done—so hard, in fact, that she started to open the door of the van and David stopped her by saying:

“Who was it that just gave me a lecture on seeing it through to the end?”

“What if they need help?” she said. Suddenly Dax wasn’t the one on her mind. She still prayed that he was safe, but now she was thinking about her brother and Micah.

“They’ve got four black and whites and ten men on the task force. What they need from us is to stay here and let them know what’s coming up on them, and for you to not blow your cover just yet. Like you said about Dad, sis…Micah and Kyle know what they’re doing.”

Angel nodded. She knew he was right. She was already pushing the limits of what Matheson had told her to do just by being there. She’d not only blow her cover but she’d put her entire career in jeopardy if she did what she was aching to do, so she waited, and it was excruciating. It was probably only twenty minutes or so, but it felt like hours before they got the okay to go in. As they drove through the police barriers Angel looked out the tinted window at the mess around them. There were Harleys down in the street, wrecked cars and police everywhere. Before they made it all the way up to the lot an ambulance came screaming by with lights and sirens blaring, and then another…and then one more.

Brian parked the van in the street near a squad car and once again David stopped her from jumping out the door. “I promise, I’ll let you know what’s going on the second I find out, okay? Stay here unless Matheson tells you different.”

Angel nodded and again she waited. The radio was so full of chatter that it was hard for her to follow what was going on and when her own phone rang, she almost jumped out of her skin. She looked at the screen and saw that it was Captain Banks. That was when her hopeful attitude began to fade.

“Captain, hello.”

“Brady, what’s your 10-20?”

“I’m in the surveillance van, sir, just outside of the limousine office.”

“Okay. Stay there. I need to see you.”

“Sir, is my father…?”

“I’ll be right there.” He ended the call and once again, Angel had to remind herself to breathe as the clock seemed to stop ticking. When the door to the van was pulled open she gasped aloud and nearly pulled her gun. It was David, so thank God she hadn’t.

“Hey, Kyle and Micah are okay. Matheson took a bullet to the shoulder and Zandt and his partner crashed their car into one of the Harleys so that’s still kind of a mess, but I heard they only had minor injuries. Three of the bikers were shot. One dead is what I hear…What’s wrong?” Angel’s face must have given her away.

“Captain Banks is on his way. He said for me to stay put. He needed to see me.”

“Oh, well, it’s probably about the case, right?”

“I asked him about Dad.”

“What did he say?”

“Nothing, David, he didn’t say anything.”

“Shit.” David sat down next to her on the bench seat in the back. While they waited together, he slipped his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder. Ten or fifteen minutes passed when the door was once again pulled open and Kyle stepped inside. He looked at the faces of his siblings and said:

“I’m guessing the captain called you?” They nodded. He mumbled a curse word under his breath and sat down on the other side of Angel. That was when she realized he had powder burns on his hands and blood on his jeans.

“Are you okay?”

Kyle looked down at his pants. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s Chris’s blood. They got him in the shoulder, but he’ll be alright. We took down four of them. The one that shot Chris went to the hospital. Dax Marshall and his road captain got away.” Angel wondered if she would go to hell for being relieved by that. She was about to ask who died when Captain Banks pulled open the door. One look at his face was enough to make her want to vomit. Her brain was already searching for ways to deny what he was about to tell them.

“I hate this shit,” he said as he pulled off his hat and ran a hand through his hair. David still had his arm around Angel. Kyle took her hand in his and squeezed it. “Your father was shot. He didn’t make it. I’m so sorry.”

Angel had heard people talk about how the world suddenly stopped spinning, but she’d never experienced it before. When her mother died, she was eight and her father was there to hold her hand. She looked down at Kyle’s big hand wrapped around hers. It was sweet, but not the same. Nothing would ever be the same again.

* * *

Dax sat in the bar staring at the bottles on the wall. His mind was trying to make sense out of everything that had just happened, but it couldn’t. How the fuck did it all go so wrong? Handsome slid onto the stool next to him. “Any word from the ranch yet?”

Dax shook his head. They hadn’t gone back there for fear of leading the cops into a standoff that could get them all killed. Instead they had parked their bikes in the old barn down the road from Spirits and called Mikey, the bartender and a friend of the club, and told him they needed the place to themselves. By the time they got there everyone was gone except for a couple of old-timers who were too drunk to drive. Mikey had just poured them both into a cab and now Dax and nine of his brothers sat in the bar, numb and unsure of the future.

“Do we know anything about the other guys yet?”

“I got a text from Vaughn. He said he got a call from Bobby telling him that he needed to get down to County. They were taking Turbo in. He shot a cop. The cop died.”

“Fuck!” Dax picked up his glass and threw it. It hit one of the colorful bottles of liquor and knocked it off the shelf, where the sticky liquid slowly seeped across the floor. No one said a word, not even Mikey. Dax looked around at the men in the room. They all looked like death warmed over. “Where is Bobby?”

“He’s in the hospital. He shot a cop too. His didn’t die. The cop did some fancy driving shit and Bobby went down. The bike skidded underneath the car. Vaughn said he called from ER. I don’t know how because I’m sure they’ve got cops on him. Probably talked some nurse into using her phone or some shit. You know what a Casanova he is.”

“Shit. A Casanova who’s going to do some hard time now. Fuck! What the hell happened? Where did they all come from? How the hell did they know about this?”

“I don’t know, man. I wish I did.”

“Fuck!” he said again. “I spent so much time worrying that fucking Hawk was going to show up. Dan said Hawk was pissed because Dan’s used the Sinners in the past, but he had problems with a few of them, so he was going with us this time. You don’t think one of those assholes, maybe Hawk himself, called the cops? I’ve known Dan since I was a kid. I know damned well it wasn’t him.”

Handsome shook his head slowly. “The Sinners feel the same as we do about the cops…if not more strongly. Dax…whoever tipped them off knew where we’d be, all of us. They were behind us at every turn. Someone knew the plan.”

Dax shook his head. “No one knew except us. Dan didn’t even know the exact plan, but like I said, there’s no way he would have told anyone. Surely you’re not suggesting that one of us called the cops?” Handsome took a drink of the whiskey in front of him. He wouldn’t meet Dax’s eyes. Dax waited for him to respond for as long as his patience would allow it before finally saying, “Tell me straight, Hand. What the fuck are you suggesting?”

“How much do you know about Angel?”

Dax felt a surge of anger. “Fuck you!”

“Man, don’t get pissed. I’m not accusing her of anything…”

“Bullshit! That’s fucking exactly what you’re doing.”

“Okay, maybe I am. I like Angel, I do. But don’t you think it’s strange how this shit happens not long after she shows up? I mean, you said it yourself that none of us would have talked to the cops…”

“Shut your fucking mouth. This wasn’t Angel.” Dax clenched his fist at his side. They’d been through enough shit for one day already; they didn’t need him beating the shit out of his road captain to top off the day.

Handsome put his hands up. “Okay, man. I’m sorry.”

“Fuck you,” Dax said again. He drained the new glass of whiskey that Mikey had set in front of him and took out his phone. He dialed Angel’s number. It went straight to voicemail. The phone ended up on the floor with the last glass and the blue liquor from the shelves. Then he just sat there, next to Handsome, and they both stared at the wall.