Holding onto her was like holding onto Taylor. She was his sole reason for walking into the sun for the first time in four years—the last time he’d attempted escape—and the only reason he didn’t will himself to take the gun from her hand and pull the trigger.
I’m coming home, Taylor.
At the thought, he started falling to the ground, and again, the woman lifted him up to force him to run at her side. Nearly useless, Gavin was half-lifted and half-shoved inside a vehicle, then he felt her body dive on top of him as the door slammed and a hail of bullets pinged against the SUV.
“Phase four, complete! Hostage is secured. Fall out, now! Go, go!”
The driver gunned the vehicle as the bullets continued to hit. He felt the floorboards bounce at the speed they were traveling. Just as the woman lifted off him, she jerked back down when a bullet hit the back of the vehicle.
“Son of a bitch hit my car.”
Gavin heard a curse from the front seat.
“Take that southpaw out, or I will.”
He heard the voice coming from the front seat when he’d first been shoved into the vehicle. A faint memory teased him, then faded when he felt the vehicle swerve again.
“Stay down!” another male yelled from the front, but Gavin felt the woman rising slightly despite the order.
He was getting nauseous at the way the vehicle was being driven, his empty stomach rolling at each screech of the brakes or dip on the road.
“I hope the one that will be spitting glass out of his mouth in the ER was the southpaw,” someone muttered.
When the SUV turned another corner, Gavin screamed, his fevered imagination thinking a bomb had gone off. The woman holding him crooned softly, talking to him. When she reached up to take her mask off, he realized it wasn’t a mask but goggles and a headset.
“We have you, Gavin. You’re safe now.” Pushing his greasy hair back, she stared down at him, her face silhouetted in the dark. “You know, you’re better-looking than your brother Viper. I bet the women fought over you. Viper’s married and now has a baby girl, but he’s missed you every day. All of The Last Riders have. You just need to hang on a little longer until we can get you to a place where you’ll be safe. Can you do that for me?”
“Who … Who are you?” he was finally able to get his thoughts organized enough to ask.
“I’m Rae.”
“Take me back to my room. If they catch me, they’ll hurt you,” Gavin warned her. He didn’t have enough strength to save them if they were caught.
“Sweetness, no one is stupid enough to mess with me. You’ll never go back to that room again—Viper will see to that. When he gets finished with the Road Demons, their club won’t be standing.”
Gavin felt her reach for something. Then he felt something damp wiping at the dirt and grime that must have been on his face. “That feel better?”
He couldn’t remember the last time they’d let him take a shower. The little water he’d been allowed had to last until they were ready to refill it.
The sickening churning in his stomach was becoming worse, as was the pounding in his head. He just wanted to sleep—and that way if he went to sleep and didn’t wake up, he’d die freed from that stinking basement.
“Gavin! Listen to me! Don’t you quit now. I’m still here. I’m not going to leave you, so you better not leave me!”
“W-Why? No one else came for me. No one.”
It wasn’t going to take them long to regret they found him. He had killed Memphis and Crash a million times in his mind. It was only going to take him once when he was able-bodied. He’d exact his plan of revenge.
“No one knew. They thought you were dead. They all did. Viper and Ton still don’t know you’re alive. They wouldn’t have left you there if they had known. Not one day, not for one second. Sweetness, you weren’t left behind or forgotten.”
“Viper was mad at me. He … They all left me to die. Crash told me it was Viper’s punishment.” Crash enjoyed talking to him from the top of the steps. The fucker knew Gavin’s mind. If he’d come any closer to him down the stairs, it would have been worth the bullet Slate would’ve put in him, just to kill Crash.
“Crash lied. Viper would have killed everyone in there if he had known. There isn’t a man in the club who wouldn’t lay down his life for you.”
Gavin felt her rest her head against his shoulder, the wetness of her tears on him.
“Did you see Train and Shade? I should have taken a box of Kleenex inside with me; they were crying so hard.”