Give Me War - Kate McCarthy Page 0,28

behind me as I fly out onto the road.

Evie’s voice bursts through a second later, her voice muffled but harsh. The relief is so intense my vision blurs through the windscreen of the car. “Put the phone down or I swear to God I’ll put a bullet in you.”

“Christ,” Mitch mutters. “Is that Evie?”

“Yeah it is. How did you get this number?”

“She’s got a gun?” my brother asks.

A sense of pride sweeps through me. That’s my fucking girl.

“Yes she does.”

“Your wife scares me almost as much as our sister,” Mitch mutters before speaking to Rossi. “You’re in a safe house?”

“Yes?”

“Where?” he barks, wanting confirmation that the address we have is the right one.

“I can’t tell you that.”

“You sonofabitch!” I shout. “Tell me where my goddamn wife is or your life is over!”

“No,” Rossi replies. “You need to back off.”

“Are you kidding me right now?”

“You just need to attend the meeting like planned and do what the fuck you’re told to do. Evie stays here. The safest place for her is nowhere near you right now.”

“Put Evie on the goddamn phone!” my brother orders.

“No, I’m not putting her on the phone. You heard her speak. She’s fine.”

“Mitch!” Evie cries out.

“I’m hanging up now,” Rossi tells him.

“Don’t come!” I hear my wife yell. “Please don’t come for me! Don’t!”

“You heard her,” he adds, and hangs up.

I glance across at my brother before turning my eyes back to the road.

“We have the address, Jared. She has to be there. We’re going to get her back before this meeting happens,” my brother vows.

“And after that?”

His jaw hardens. “After that, fuck the AFP’s undercover operation. We’re taking the Vipers down.”

7

EVIE

My feet seem to take control, powering me down through the back of the house. Adrenaline is surging, giving me speed. My hands push off against the walls when I stumble but my lungs aren’t working because I can’t catch a breath.

I risk a glance over my shoulder. I’m being watched with razor-sharp eyes, but they’re not chasing me down. It’s then that I realise, and dread grips me in its dark clutches. My efforts are already futile. There’s no escape. Renny held them back to give me a chance, but even if I get out of the house, where would I go? The neighbour’s house? They’re likely members. The whole street probably belongs to the Vipers. There’s no one to help. I’m on my own, and as I reach for the back door and rip it open, my worst fears are confirmed.

Three steps lead down into a yard where, spread out along the back of the house, must be at least fifty bikers or more. They all appear larger than life itself, as if Grudge handpicked every Goliath in existence to build his merry band of bastards. The wide shoulders, meaty fists, and biker cuts seem vast as I look out over them all.

“Dear God,” I mumble, praying for a tornado to come along and wipe them all out.

But just as I suspected, it doesn’t happen. I don’t even feel the faintest flicker of a breeze.

Not even God can get me out of this one.

My best bet here would be to … to …

Shit.

I’ve got nothing. No sudden brilliant plan comes to mind. If Mac were here, we’d already be on our way home, likely wounded, but victorious with guns in hand and bullet holes in the car she’d have managed to steal along the way.

Then I see her, almost lost amongst the sea of giants. The flash of long, pale hair catches the early morning light. I cry out on instinct. “Angel!”

She turns her head to the sound, as do several others.

The slender biker pushes her way through the Vipers until there’s nothing standing between me and them but her. Angel’s left eye is horrendously swollen from Kermit’s fist, her skin coloured red and a deep, deep purple. It should be unbearably painful, and yet she stares at me with hardened eyes.

I take in the worn leather jacket she hadn’t been wearing earlier. It’s cropped, and only serves to highlight her Viper tattoo, a permanent reminder of who she belongs to. Maybe calling her out was a mistake, despite knowing her and Gabriella had some kind of past connection. It doesn’t mean she’s willing to help me because of it, but I have to try.

“Angel,” I croak, my eyes pleading, asking what I can’t voice.

She shakes her head. “Get back inside the house.”

“I—I can’t. They shot Renny.”

Her eyes barely flicker and her voice is