sped up fast, so he was beside me, on my right blocking the exit. They knew where I was going.
The turnoff approached. I couldn't turn—I’d crash right into him. Then the first biker was on my wheel again, and the second rider was edging closer to my side, and there was a blind turn just up ahead—
I rounded the curve praying to anyone who would listen that there wasn’t a truck rumbling down the mountain. By some stroke of luck, the highway was clear, but that didn’t stop the riders from creeping closer, closer. I tried to get away, tried to take the turn harder, put some space between us, but they seemed to know every potential maneuver, and then—
One more nudge.
I wobbled. Braked. Started to lose control.
I had to avoid the worst. I laid the bike down.
I leaned hard into the turn and the bike went down beneath me, dragging me across the pavement and into a ditch on the side of the road. The bikers rode away, engines roaring, not even pausing to see how effective their little game of cat and mouse was.
My heart pounded hard in my chest and adrenaline shot through me, like an electrocution. Like now that the danger was gone, my body allowed itself to panic. I wormed my way out from under my bike—thank God I rode a smaller one—and lay flat on my back in the ditch for a long moment before I took stock of my condition.
Luckily, I’d worn my riding leathers—they were torn to hell, but the road rash on my leg was negligible. My ankle was twisted, but it didn’t look too swollen, and nothing was broken. I was bruised and battered and exhausted, but overall… okay. It wasn’t anything worse than I’d had before from my brothers.
But from the look of my bike, there was no way I’d be able to ride it home. Smoke poured from the engine.
I sighed and fished my phone out of my pocket, only to find it was cracked—I’d landed on it when I’d laid the bike down. And now it wouldn’t turn on.
I flopped back into the grass. “Fuck.”
There was no one there to hear me. So I said it again, louder: “Fuck!”
The sound carried into the valley below and echoed back up to me. It was a gorgeous day: the sky was clear, dotted with clouds, and a cool breeze rustled the trees on the edge of the road.
And it looked like I’d be hiking back to Elkin Lake.
With a sigh, I heaved myself up to my feet. My ankle throbbed a little as I began to walk the shoulder back to the turnoff. I could only hope I could make it back into town before dark.
And that those three wouldn’t show back up to finish what they started.
25
Dante
I knocked on the door to the Hell’s Ankhor clubhouse, looking forward to a quiet evening with Heath and some of the guys. No one answered, but I could hear the club members behind the door talking loudly and hurriedly to each other, not at all like the usual relaxed, teasing conversation. I couldn’t quite make out what was happening, but I had a hell of a bad feeling about it.
I tried the door and found it unlocked. Inside, Blade and Gunnar were standing at the kitchen island with Raven typing frantically on his laptop. The other enforcers were there as well, and everyone was talking over each other. Tensions were visibly high.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Blade glanced up, and then waved me inside. “Dante, get in here.”
I hurried into the room. The bad feeling in me only worsened, heavy and cold in my gut like a stone: the one person I wanted to see wasn’t in the room. “Where’s Heath?”
“He went on a ride,” Gunnar said. “And he didn’t come back.”
My heart leaped into my throat. “What do you mean he didn’t come back?”
“Can’t find him,” Blade said through clenched teeth. “He had his location on, but Raven isn’t able to access it. And his phone’s dead, goes straight to voicemail.”
“Where was he going?” I barked.
“Nowhere,” Gunnar said. “Just riding. He said he’d come right back here, but that was over an hour ago.”
“Fucking hell.” Anger roared in me—anger swirled with fear. An icy cold fear—fear like I’d never felt before. I’d faced plenty of threats as the Liberty vice president, but never before had I felt like this.
What if they’d found him? What if something had happened to him?