I had no idea there were this many people in Axel’s club.

We were at the south entrance of the town waiting for the corrupt police to finally show up and there must have been nearly 350 men there. Each and every one of them was armed. Pistols, hunting rifles, assault rifles, they all looked like they just walked out of a warzone. They had barricaded all the southern streets with cars, benches, old motorcycles, and whatever else they could find. Kind of made me feel how real all of this was.

In addition to all the men there were a couple dozen women, I recognized most of them from the bar when Clay had passed away. They were the women that the men either passed around for fun when they wanted some private company and the group of girls that just liked hanging around the club. I don’t think they would have ever been asked to stand and fight alongside the rest of the club but I guess desperate times calls for desperate measures.

We pulled up to the group and I got off of Axel’s bike, after so many hours of riding it was nice to finally get off that thing. I mean I loved riding on it with him, but at the speed we were going I felt like if I let go I would have flown through the air like a bird.

“About damn time you two showed up” Wyatt said to both me and Axel. I noticed that something about the way Axel’s brothers looked at me had changed, before they looked at me like I was just his distraction, that maybe I was just a gold digger who wanted to be draped around their president for superficial reasons. Now they looked at me like they accepted me, maybe they thought that I couldn’t handle the lifestyle? I couldn’t blame them, I didn’t think I could handle the lifestyle either, I mean I did try and run away. Now that they saw me standing here though, and just moments away before the attack on this town, they must have realized that not only did I care about Axel but I cared about this club just like all the other women who chose to stand alongside them.

“Sorry about that Wyatt” Axel said. “We ran into a… minor bump in our trip. Everything is sorted out now though.”

I looked at Axel and tried to contain my grin, what we did together back in the building of the gas station was one of the best moments of my life. I never thought I could feel so close to another person like that.

Just then we heard the sound of engines coming towards us, some of the men immediately took cover behind their barricade and aimed their guns straight towards the road.

“Relax everyone” Wyatt said. “That isn’t nearly loud enough to be them, sounds like search party I sent out an hour ago.”

The brothers lowered their weapons as the outline of 5 bikers appeared on the horizon, speeding right towards us. Axel held my hand and pulled me close to him as they got closer, protecting me with his body just in case they weren’t who we thought they were.

When the brothers finally made it to the barricade they practically fell off their bikes trying to get off and run over to us.

“They’re almost here!” one of them called out. “I wouldn’t give us more than 20 minutes, there’s fucking HUNDREDS of them!”

The whole club started to murmur amongst themselves as doubt set in on their faces.

I saw Axel looked around at his brothers, looking at the faces of each and every one.

I took his hand and whispered to him.

“Clay made you president for a reason, for years he knew that you were ready. I know you can lead all of them, show them that you’re the leader that they need.”

He leaned over and kissed me, it was only for a moment but it was just as deep as all the other loving and longing kisses that he gave me.

He let go of my hand and walked towards the barricade, climbing up on top of it so that he overlooked the entire club.

He waited for a few moments as the crowd slowly grew silent.

Everyone looked at Axel, waiting for him to speak, but while their eyes were on him his eyes were on me. I could see the fire in his gaze that I fell in love with, the desire for all of his club to be better off.

“I’ve known most of you, nearly all of you, for most of my life. I never asked to be president, and I know I could never fill the hole that Clay left behind, but when I see you all standing here with me I can’t help but think how far we’ve come… and where we’re going to go next.”

With his left arm he pointed straight out to the road. “Right now there are god knows how many Scorched Satan sons of bitches coming for us. They’re cops who have been masquerading around as a second rate motorcycle club, bullying us for years and all we could do was lay down and take it or else we would have put the whole club at risk. Today we’re standing up for ourselves and we’re gonna etch the name “Desert Vultures Motorcycle Club” so deep into the history of the southwest that nobody will ever forget us… and that’s the legacy we’re going to leave behind when we roll out of here forever.”

The whole club began murmuring again, I watched as Wyatt made his way through the crowd to get closer to Axel.

“What do you mean leave behind? We’re leaving Los Aves?” he called out.

Axel raised both of his hands and settled the crowd down, I looked around at the faces of the men and women around me and saw that there wasn’t anger, only confusion and uncertainty.

“The Scorched Satan police fully intended on destroying this club, they planned on using this town as a new base of operations and they were prepared to slowly wipe us out to do it. They don’t know that we’re leading those bastards into a trap, I sent a group of people to give the Los Angeles Police Department all the evidence they need to come here and arrest the Satans. The California State Police and the feds will be here in a few hours to put every last one of them in chains. In the meantime we’ll do our damn best to put a Satan in the ground for every brother they took from us.”

He paused for a moment and looked out at his club before continuing.

“On Clay’s deathbed… he told me how he wanted us to leave Los Aves. Clay knew that we had ambitions far greater than this town and that’s why we need to move on. I know it’ll be hard to leave this town, it’s been our home for so long, but I promise you that if you follow me in fulfilling Clay’s dream that we’ll reach heights we never thought were possible. We’ll leave this town with a bang! A bang that shows that we as a brotherhood could not be contained.”

Axel’s brothers began cheering for him, clapping their hands as one by one they fully accepted the future that was laid out for them. As I looked around many even seemed to be excited, if they got through this then it would be a new start for everyone, it would be a change of scenery that we could all call home.

“So while you fight I want you to be ready” Axel continued, talking over the cheers. “Because when the feds come to arrest every Scorched Satan that’s in this town we’ll ride out to Wyoming and never look back. In the confusion we’ll disappear from this town, and I can guarantee you that no fed is going to even think about putting handcuffs on a Desert Vulture when he’s staring down whatever crooked cops we left for them to clean up.”

Axel stepped down from his applause and into the crowd of his brothers. I saw them hand him a rifle and a handgun as they all prepared for their final fight in Los Aves.

Axel walked over to me, pulling me into him as I held him by his face and kissed him.

“You’re going to be the best leader they have ever had” I whispered to him in between kisses. “Please just stay safe during all of this, if we come out of this we’ll get to start our new life together.”

“I’ll be safe, I promise” he replied. “But for now I need to get you into hiding, somewhere safe where I can come and get you once it’s time to leave.”

“What about the garage? They won’t expect anyone to be there” I said.

“Sounds like a good enough spot.”

He took the handgun his brothers gave him out of his pocket and handed it to me.

“I don’t want you to have to use this, but if it comes to it you need to have protection.”

I looked down at the gun in my hands, my finger grazing the trigger. I hoped I would never have to use it, but I understood why he gave it to me. Better safe than sorry.

As the club prepared for the Scorched Satans closing in on us Axel waived over Sharpe, the brother who had found him after his fight with Donnelly, and another brother I hadn’t met before.

“I have a very important job for both of you” Axel said putting his hand on Sharpe’s shoulder. “I’m taking Hannah to the garage to make sure that she’s safe during all of this, I want you both to keep an eye on her to make sure nobody hurts her.”

Sharpe nodded his head. “I was looking forward to shooting at some of those Satan bastards but for you Axel, I’ll do it.”

“Anything for the club” the other one responded. He eyed me up and down for a second, which made me a little uncomfortable but I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by it.

“Come on, we don’t have much time. I should be back here for when the Satans first arrive” Axel said walking towards his bike.

I looked back at the hundreds of brothers who were taking the position along their barricades, on top of nearby buildings, and behind alleyways. I watched them say what could possibly be their final goodbyes to each other in the event that they didn’t make it.

As Axel and I got on his bike I just hoped that everyone I had seen would make it out alive, even though I knew that was a possibility. Yet as I looked at them I realized that not a single one was sad, to them even if they didn’t make it out of here they were with their brothers and avenging their fallen friends.

One day I would tell them about what the Satans did to me and to so many other girls. One day they would know the impact they were about to make.