One minute Ash was standing at the bar in the little dive off 99 where they were asking questions, hoping to find someone that knew about what happened to Tex...and the next, there was a big hand on his shoulder, spinning him around so a fist could bury itself in his stomach. He doubled over and stumbled backwards, righting himself in time to see a huge ape with a skeleton mask that went from the bridge of his nose to his chin. The guy was in a plain white long-sleeved shirt...probably so none of his tats would be visible...jeans, and motorcycle boots. His eyes were dark and shot through with blood like he had either been up for days, or was as drunk as a skunk. Either way, Ash was pissed and since he’d already been in a badass mood for over a week since Mack chose to leave instead of coming clean, this guy was about to catch the brunt of it.

Ash caught his breath just about the time Sledge slammed the ape in the back of the head with a beer bottle. “Damn it, Sledge!” he said, as they watched the guy teeter back and forth, deciding if he was going to hit the floor or the bar. “I wanted a crack at him.”

Sledge shrugged. “He’s still standing. Go for it.”

Ash doubled up his fist and landed his first punch in the soft part of the big guy’s belly. The guy still didn’t go down, so his next punch was a right hook to the side of the guy’s face. It was hard, and it landed just under the side of his chin. Jacob Wright had taught him that one and it worked like a charm. The big ape finally lost his balance and went careening down like a steel bridge, slamming the other side of his head into the bar and landing with a thud on the wooden floor. He was still looking at them with bloodshot eyes, but he looked dazed and confused and Ash would have been surprised if the guy remembered his own name. Still, he knelt next to him and said:

“You stupid, or blind? Did you not know who you were messing with before you decided to play?” When the guy opened his mouth to answer, a bubble of blood and a big tooth ran out from under the skull mask and down his neck, staining the front of his white shirt. Ash heard Sledge chuckle over him.

“He’s gonna be stupid and ugly now.”

“I think he was ugly to begin with.” Ash grabbed the mask and pulled it off. The guy’s face was bruising and there was blood all over his mouth...but Ash didn’t recognize him at all. He looked around toward the little crowd of four or five people that hadn’t run out of the bar when the fight started. About a dozen of the Skulls had left the club together, but when they got to Merced County, and it was a friendly county with a lot of ground to cover, Wolf had them split up. Ash, Sledge, and Smoke had gone off together and this was the first stop they’d made. Smoke was in the bathroom when this guy attacked, and as Ash looked around, it dawned on him that he’d never come out, which was strange. He looked at Sledge first and tipped his head toward the can. He saw that he wouldn’t have to say the words; Sledge’s face showed he understood. He headed that way as Ash said, “Anybody know this asshole?” Wide eyes and shaking heads were his only answer. Ash slapped the guy on the side of his face and said, “Hey! What’s your name, numb-nuts?” The guy was trying to say something, but it was coming out in a breathless whisper. Ash lowered his head down, still holding onto the front of the white t-shirt, and put his ear as close to the guy’s mouth as he could without touching him. “What was that?”

He heard the gunshot out back almost simultaneously with the guy’s words... “I said, you’re a fucking dead man.” Ash was on his feet, pulling his own gun out of his jeans, before the guy finished talking.

“Where’s the back door?” he yelled at the scared bartender. When she pointed toward the alcove where the bathrooms were, he heard more gunfire and his heart began to race as he ran toward it. As soon as he turned into the little alcove he saw three doors. The one on the end said “Exit” and that was the one he pushed open. The sounds of motorcycles and the smell of gunpowder and gasoline were what he was met with as he did. Three Harleys were pulling away and Ash could see the colors on the back of the last guy in line...it was one of Ogre’s bunch. He leveled the gun and shot. The biker’s body flew off the bike sideways, landing in the dirt, with the bike landing almost on top of him...still running. The other two, his “friends,” didn’t stop. Ash kept shooting until they were too far out of range and only then did he assess the damage around him. Sledge lay in a heap a few feet from him and just beyond that was Smoke. He could hear Sledge cursing and groaning. He was trying to push himself up off the ground...but Smoke wasn’t moving.

“Fuck! What happened?” He jogged over to where Smoke lay on his back. His eyes were closed, and Ash couldn’t tell if his chest was moving or not. He didn’t see a bullet wound or blood anywhere, though. He put his hand on Smoke’s chest and shook him. “Smoke...fuck...hey! Open your eyes!” He felt Sledge standing over him by then and saw the blood as it dripped off his friend onto the ground next to him.

“Is he breathing?”

Ash leaned down and put his face next to Smoke’s. He couldn’t feel anything. “Fuck, I don’t know!” He put his fingers on Smoke’s throat and felt around until finally he felt a very faint pulse against them. “He’s got a pulse! We need to get him to the hospital.” He finally looked up at Sledge. The big guy’s face was as pale as a ghost and blood covered the front of his shirt and vest. “Fuck! You too. Sit down, I’m calling a fucking ambulance.”

“No! No ambulance. They’ll bring the cops with them. Call Wolf first. The closest hospital is in Merced anyway. It’d take an ambulance half an hour to get out here to Bumfuck.”

Ash’s hands were shaking as he slid them underneath Smoke, trying to figure out where he was hit. He lifted him up just enough to feel the slick, warm blood that had pooled underneath him. He’d been shot in the back. Anger slithered through his veins like a snake. What kind of fucking pussy shoots a man in the back? “He’s hurt bad, Sledge. We have to...” He stopped talking when Sledge’s eyes rolled back in his head and suddenly he toppled backwards, landing in the dirt and striking his head on the ground. “Fuck! Sledge?” Ash pulled his hands out from underneath Smoke and wiped the blood on his t-shirt. He took out his phone and called Wolf.

“Yeah?”

“Sledge and Smoke have been shot. It’s bad, Boss. I need to call an ambulance.”

“Fuck. Call ’em, and send me your location.”

Ash ended the call, texted their location to Wolf, and then dialed 911.

Wolf surveyed the mess in front of them as they rolled up to the bar. He counted four sheriff’s cars, two black unmarked cars...and his stomach rolled when he saw the black station wagon that read Merced County Coroner along the side. He didn’t see any of his guys, or an ambulance. He was with Bruf, Manson, and a kid named Ransom who he had just patched in at the party a week before. Wolf wasn’t worried about Ransom being able to handle a situation like this so early in. The kid was called Ransom because at the age of six, he’d been kidnapped and held for ransom for five days. He was finally rescued, after his old man paid the kidnappers the hundred grand they were demanding...but the kidnappers hadn’t ever been caught. Fifteen years later, Ransom didn’t seem to have any residual problems...at least none that had gotten him into too much trouble. The whole incident seemed to have toughened him up...but it also made him want nothing to do with the trust-fund lifestyle he had been destined to live. Wolf cut his engine and looked over at Bruf, whose green eyes were lingering on the coroner’s wagon. “You see them?” Wolf asked.

Bruf shook his head and climbed off his bike. The officer standing outside the tape, guarding the scene, was immediately at attention. “Sir, you’ll need to stay back.”

“A few of our guys were in there. We just want to know if they’re okay.”

“You’ll have to wait until the detectives finish clearing the scene.” Bruf opened his mouth to say something else when the sound of a vehicle driving from around the side of the bar caught his attention. He looked at Wolf and Wolf nodded. As Wolf got off his bike he told Ransom:

“Wait here and don’t get into any trouble.” Ransom nodded, slipping off his helmet as Wolf and Bruf headed around the tape and toward the back. As soon as they stepped around the side, Wolf stopped dead in his tracks. There was an ambulance, back doors open, an EMT in the doorway on the phone and issuing instructions loudly to whoever was inside...there were puddles and drips of blood all over the ground...but worst of all was the black body bag on the stretcher near the back door. Detectives combed through the scene, a photographer was taking pictures, and uniformed officers guarded the roped-off area there as well. Ash wasn’t anywhere in sight. The EMT on the phone yelled:

“Okay, clear us a path, we’re heading out.” Wolf and Bruf looked at each other. They had to know who was in the ambulance and who was in the body bag. As soon as the cops went over to move the ropes for the ambulance, Bruf went in that direction and Wolf slipped underneath the ropes in front of him. Everyone was so busy that he almost actually made it all the way to the body bag before one of the detectives said:

“What the fuck? Who are you?”

“Name’s Wolf. I’m the president of the Westside Skulls. I think that’s one of my guys. I just want to know who it is.” He held his hands up, palms facing out. He expected the cop to be a dick and tell him to get lost, or even arrest him for crossing the crime scene tape. But he had been wrong. Sadly, the cop walked over to the black bag that lay motionless on the gurney and unzipped it. It had been a lot of years since Wolf was brought to his knees by anything...but the sight of Smoke on the gurney, gray and lifeless, was enough to make him dizzy and nauseated, but just for a second. He’d save time to grieve for his friend later, probably a lot of it. But just then all he wanted to do was hold onto the anger, just in case he got lucky and got to kill a motherfucker.