Nox (Untamed Sons MC #2) - Jessica Ames

1

Lucy

I’m covered in blood and fuck knows what else. As I push my foot heavier on the gas pedal, I try not to focus on that. If I do, I’ll freak out and I don’t have time for a meltdown right now. I hit the accelerator to the floor and the car surges forwards, narrowly avoiding clipping the back of another vehicle. I’m probably breaking every speed limit in the borough, but I don’t care. My only thought is on my destination, and getting there as fast as possible.

I glance up through the windscreen, pushing my blood-spattered hair from my face, cringing at the way the gore coats my fingers. I can smell the coppery-tang of the blood, taste its sourness on my tongue and it makes me want to gag. My hands are shaking as I wipe them on the leg of my pants suit and peer in the rear-view mirror, catching a glimpse of my haunted eyes, eyes that look like they’ve seen hell.

I can’t see if I’m being followed or not, which doesn’t help my anxiety. My heart is hammering in my chest, panic licking a path up my spine. I shouldn’t be driving. I can barely see through the blood in my eyes, and my fear is carving a path through my gut, but I’m running on adrenaline.

I don’t know how I’m still alive. I should be dead. I know the bullet got too close. I can feel the path it took burning like fire across my forehead. How it missed is a miracle, a one in a million chance.

I try to steady my fingers on the steering wheel, but I’m trembling so hard I can barely grip it. When the clubhouse finally comes into view, my breath feels like it catches in the back of my throat and relief floods my veins. I hit the accelerator harder as I approach the gates and duck down as I hit them. The car fights against the barrier for a moment before it breaches, the gates coming off the hinges with a screech of metal that makes my teeth hurt.

Losing my visibility for a moment beneath the twisted frame, I don’t see the post until it’s too late. I have a second to brace for impact, but it’s not enough. The car hits with a roar of noise that makes my ears ache. I’m flung forwards as the airbag deploys, my head pillowing into the material before I’m kicked back into my seat with the force of a wrecking ball. Pain explodes through my face and chest. It’s like getting punched with a titanium fist.

Then everything is quiet.

I don’t move, shock making me immobile, but when my body starts to wake up, I feel pain stabbing its way up my chest and through my skull.

I groan, smelling the acrid scent of burning and as I raise my head, I can see smoke billowing from under the hood of the vehicle. My head is throbbing, but even half-dazed, I remember my need to find safety.

I fumble for the door handle and get a couple of fingers to it. My vision is rolling and nausea climbs up my throat as I pull it. It opens with a creak and I try to get out of the car, but my legs are weak, so I tumble onto the ground, the tarmac scraping my palms.

There are figures rushing towards me. As I push my bloody hair from my eyes, I think I see the Untamed Sons insignia, but I can’t be sure. My heart is hammering in my chest as flashes of metal twinkle in the mid-afternoon sunshine and voices are yelling at me to keep down. My ears ring, and everything seems like it’s coming at me from underwater.

Through my haze, I can just about see the guns pointed in my direction. Did I leave the devil behind only to face new monsters?

I try to speak, to tell them who I am, but my words stick in my throat.

“Fuck! Lower your guns!” a voice I recognise yells.

Nox.

It’s a balm to my soul, and I cling desperately to the relief hearing a familiar voice among the angry ones brings.

“Lower your fucking guns.”

Then he’s in front of me. I blink rapidly, trying to clear my vision enough to see his eyes pierce mine and I see the cogs turning as he tries to work out the puzzle before him.

“Lucy?”

Tears bubble behind my eyes. I want to tell him of the danger I’m in, but