Heartless (Steel Demons MC #6) - Crystal Ash Page 0,57

too soon. The rider unleashed rapid gunfire on us.

I bowed over Mari to cover her, but her panic and lack of visibility took over. She made us sway to the side, wanting to get away from riding straight into gunfire.

“Babe, brake! BRAKE!” I yelled.

She braked too hard and we were suspended in midair for a split second before hitting the ground hard. I wrapped around her midsection despite the shooting pain up my shoulder, and rolled us away to minimize injury. My eyes shut tight and I thought my teeth were going to crack from how hard I was biting down. Every bump against the ground felt like my leg and shoulder were getting hacked off by a butcher knife.

We finally came to a stop. Her helmet had fallen off and I’d dropped my gun when I grabbed her. The world spun and I was so fucking tired. I’d probably lost a lot of blood. The one thing in sharp clarity was the black figure walking toward us.

“Run.” I slid off of Mari and shoved at her side with my good arm. “Get Gunner and Shadow.”

“I’m not leaving you!” Her shaking hand fumbled across my chest, reaching for my shoulder to put pressure on the wound.

“Esposa,” I groaned, pulling her hand away and bringing her blood-soaked fingers to my lips. “They can either kill us both, or just me. You have to tell the others—”

“Then let it be both of us! Because I am not leaving you here.”

“Mari, I’m sorry I don’t have time to be romantic, but this is bigger than us. You have to run!” I tried to shove her more forcefully but the weakness was settling into me everywhere now. She barely moved.

Instead she crawled over me, laying on my back to cover me as the black-clad rider approached.

“Mari, don’t,” I pleaded. My strength was leaving me with every breath, but I could not allow her to die with me out here. Not when she had three other men to love, and a whole town that needed her.

“Do you have another weapon?” she whispered. “Anything at all?”

“Knife. Inside left pocket. But babe—”

She started fumbling over the front of my shoulder, reaching into my cut to feel for the knife just as our attacker tossed his magazine and loaded a fresh one into his gun. If he wasn’t so close, I would’ve made some crack about bringing knives to gun fights.

“Stand up,” he ordered Mari, pointing his barrel straight at her.

“Listen, I’m a medic,” she said, her voice taking on that calming but authoritative tone as her fingers brushed the handle of my knife. “I can help your friend if he’s still alive—”

“He’s not. And you’re nothing but rotten Steel Demon cunt as far as I care. Stand the fuck up.”

“I can help that foot of yours too.” She nodded toward his bad ankle, her fingers wrapping around the blade handle. “But if I get up, he’s going to bleed out.”

“Do I look like I care, bitch?”

Mari began sliding the knife out of my pocket, but my eyes were on that gun pointed straight at my woman. His gloved finger rested on the trigger and that fucking barrel was less than a foot away from her head. Bleeding out or not, I’d spend my last few breaths taking that fucker down if he shot her.

“I’m not gonna ask you again.” His trigger finger squeezed just a hair, enough to make my heart stop. “Stand the fuck up.”

Mari pressed her knees to either side of my body, her left hand flattening on the ground to push herself up. I felt the knife withdraw from my chest pocket and held my breath. I had no idea what her plan was, but he wouldn’t hesitate the moment he saw her holding a weapon. Each second felt like an hour as she slowly rose to standing, my body braced for the sound of the shot. When none came, I turned my head against the ground, squinting up to look.

Mari stood over me with her hands up and no knife in sight. I blinked in confusion, then the fear overtook me as our attacker leaned in and pressed his gun barrel directly against her sternum.

“General Tash wishes the Steel Demons a long and prosperous life,” the rider sneered under his helmet.

“No.” I thrashed on the ground, reaching for a leg, a kneecap, anything. “No, not her!”

I got a swift kick to my stomach for my effort, the air leaving my body in a