Chapter Twenty One
Raven
JET HAD BEEN AGGRAVATING MAX all evening, teasing him that he was going to marry Flick and he was going to take her away from him. Max hadn’t been happy and had clung to Flick all night to the point that she couldn’t even set him on his feet without him throwing a fit. When he’d started yawning, Flick had given in and offered to take him back to the clubhouse for the night. I was thanking every damned deity in the sky for that small blessing now. Just as I was thanking them that Lexa’s gunshot wound hadn’t hit anything major.
But the sight of my daughter standing in the middle of bullets flying all around her was going to haunt me for the rest of my fucking life. Her sweet face had been white with fear and pain as the blood had oozed out of her gunshot wounds. All I could think about was getting to her, making sure she was okay, that I wasn’t going to fucking lose her.
As soon as I realized she was going to be okay, that it was nothing life-threatening, the rage had boiled up fast and hot.
Outside, I saw at least four vehicles that shouldn’t have been there at the end of the parking lot. Men in suits were standing behind them, their powerful guns pointed at my family’s bar, at my friends and family.
At Bash.
The brothers were all ducked behind vehicles and motorcycles, shooting back at the suits. “You want some of this, Enzo, come get it!” Hawk yelled. “I’m right fucking here, pussy.”
I could tell where my brother was, not just because of where he was yelling insults at the men with guns, but where the bullets were suddenly being directed.
I ducked down behind a row of motorcycles as a stray bullet whizzed by my head, unsure it was friend or foe who had nearly shot me. On my hands and knees, I crawled through the maze of bikes toward my SUV. Bash didn’t know it, but I had a stash of guns where my spare tire should have been. I had started my little arsenal when Hawk had been shot a while back trying to protect Gracie from being taken. There was no way in hell I was going to chance being out with my kids and something happening to us that could have easily been avoided if I’d just had a gun.
It felt like it took forever to reach my blacked-out SUV. I opened the back and started moving shit around. My fingers shook with reaction as my hands wrapped around the butt of the shotgun I’d filched from Spider’s basement. Willa had caught me taking it, but she hadn’t said a word about it. The next day, she had done the same thing with her own vehicle.
The gun wasn’t loaded, so I grabbed the box of shells that was right beside it. Dropping the shells onto the ground beside me, I grabbed the two Glocks as well but left the second shotgun.
“Fuck!” I heard someone groan and realized it was Uncle Chaz. “Bastard got me in the belly.”
“No,” I whispered and prayed it wasn’t true. In my experience, gut shots were usually fatal.
One of the tires on the other side of my SUV suddenly exploded, making me tighten my hold on the shotgun. Gritting my teeth, I loaded the gun and jumped to my feet. Leaning around the back of the vehicle, I shot twice at the group of cars and was rewarded when I heard an agonized bellow of pain as one of my bullets found a new home in some bastard’s shoulder. I didn’t feel the pain from the force of the kick; I was too full of adrenaline to feel anything but the need to make them all bleed.
“That’s for my daughter, motherfucker!” I yelled as I reloaded.
“Raven?” Bash roared. “Raven, where are you!”
“Fuck, Raven, get your ass back inside!” Spider yelled out next.
One of the suits laughed. “So these pussies have their women doing their dirty work?”
“Nope. You just pissed off the wrong mother,” I called back and edged around the back of the SUV. I aimed for someone’s head and pulled the trigger. His brains splattered across the top of his car.
With a howl of outrage, bullets shifted from Hawk and the others to start flying in my direction.
“Come out, you fucking bitch!” the suit who had laughed roared now. “Come and face me!”
Dropping the shotgun at my feet because it took too much time to reload, I checked to make sure the magazine in one of the Glocks was full.
“Goddamn it, Raven,” Bash snarled, sounding closer now. “Stay where you are. I’m coming to get you.”
That wasn’t going to happen. I made myself as small as I could as I ducked and ran for the next vehicle that was big enough to give me some protection. It was Willa’s massive Suburban. It was off the ground a little more than my own was, and I crawled under it. Using my new position to hide and protect myself, I aimed at the guy who was now calling me names in Italian.
But one of the other suits kept getting in my way. “Fuck it,” I muttered under my breath and pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. A third time. The first shot lodged in his arm, the second missed him as he jerked at the pain, but the third got him right in the neck.
Blood gushed from the artery I had just hit, then poured out of his mouth as he choked on it. The first squirt of blood from the wound hit the guy I had wanted to shoot, and he pushed the other man to the ground in disgust. I aimed again, but something seemed to catch his attention, and he ducked down and ran for the first of the four cars he was hiding behind.
In the distance, I thought I heard sirens. As they grew louder, the idiots in suits seemed to realize they were about to have the law to deal with, something their boss had already figured out because he was pulling out onto the road and hauling ass in the direction of the highway.
A hand snaked around my ankle, and I kicked out in instinct before I realized it was Bash. My booted foot made contact with his chin just as I turned to look at him. Blood spilled from his mouth, and he spat it out before grabbing me. Pulling me to my feet, he crushed me against him. “Thank God you’re okay.”
I hugged him back, but only for a few seconds. The cops pulled into the parking lot, their sirens and lights pulling us apart. I turned and started running again, needing to get to Lexa to make sure she was okay.
There were women still lying on the ground, crying and sobbing in fear. I stepped over them to get to Rory, who was still lying on top of my daughter. “Lexa!” I cried, and Rory’s head snapped up.
The other woman’s face had small cuts, and I figured it was from some of the glass that was in her hair. “Is it over?” she asked in a shaky voice.
I nodded as she got to her knees, and Lexa jumped to her feet. My daughter threw herself into my arms, her sobs making both our bodies shake. “Momma, I thought you were gonna die!”
“No, baby. No.” I held her close, stroking her hair back from her face. Kneeling down in front of her, I moved the dress that I had used to slow the bleeding and saw that her arm was still bleeding pretty freely. She was going to have to have stitches and some antibiotics.
“Rave…” Bash had been slower to follow me, and when he saw our daughter in only a pair of panties with her bloody dress tied around her arm, he seemed to lose his shit.
He pulled his cut off and then undid his shirt. He wrapped the shirt around Lexa before putting his cut back on, and then he turned and left us. If Enzo or whoever the fuck that had been shooting at us had still been out there, I knew he would have been hanging by his entrails from a tree.
Outside, the cops were all over the place and so were paramedics and the local news. I stood outside the ambulance as Lexa was given an IV, and they prepped her to be moved to the hospital. Uncle Chaz had been taken immediately to the local hospital, but by the time the EMTs had gotten him inside the ambulance, the old man was already looking poorly. I had a bad feeling about him, and my heart broke as we waited for news on the Original.
Bates was ready to arrest anyone wearing an MC cut, but after the recent shooting of Quinn and Kelli’s house, and having taken statements from everyone, they realized all our guys had been shooting back in self-defense. Bates didn’t arrest anyone, but he told everyone not to leave town.
“We’re ready when you are, ma’am,” the paramedic told me after making sure Lexa was strapped onto the gurney.
“Just a minute,” I muttered and glanced around for Bash.
He was standing in the middle of all the brothers, his face set in stone. I waved to get his attention, and he broke through the men to come over to me. Like this, Bash Reid had never looked scarier, but I wasn’t afraid of him. He was in killer mode, but he wouldn’t hurt me or his children even if a gun were put to his head.
I touched his bare chest, but he didn’t even blink. “Lexa is ready to go. Give her a kiss, and tell her you love her.”
“I don’t want to scare her,” he bit out.
“You won’t,” I assured him. “Just a small kiss, Bash. She needs to know you love her.”
Without another word to me, he ducked into the back of the ambulance and kissed Lexa’s forehead. “Daddy loves you, pumpkin.”
Her little hands caught the flaps of his cut and held on. “Love you, Daddy. I hope you get those bad men.”
He stroked a tender finger over her cheek. “Don’t you worry, little one. Daddy will make sure you’re safe.”
“Is Max safe too? Are Aunt Flick and Uncle Jet okay?”
“Your brother is fine. Uncle Jet is taking good care of both of them,” he promised, then stepped out of the emergency vehicle. “Be a good girl for Mommy, okay?”
She nodded, looking small but brave, and my pride in her doubled. She may not have been mine by blood, but she was one hundred percent mine in spirit.
Bash grabbed me and pulled me roughly against him. For a second, I saw the flash of emotions churning in his electric-blue eyes. The rage, the fear, the need to maim and kill those who had hurt his family. I stroked a hand over his jaw, letting him know it was okay to feel those things—to do them. His dark lashes lowered for a moment, and when he lifted them, they were emotionless once again.
“I love you. Take care of our daughter.”
“Always.”