“I should have known you wouldn’t need saving. You’re a lioness.” I breathe her in.
“Your ass is hanging out,” Lily announces to Ruby, coming up beside us.
Jameson jogs toward us, and I reluctantly release Ruby, pulling her dress into place so she’s not flashing her ass. I cup her cheeks, scanning her face. “You hurt?”
“No.” She shakes her head, her brow pinching when she sees the blood soaking through my t-shirt. “Oh god, I hurt you, though.” She winces.
“No. I did this helping Drew and Animal.”
“Oh god, is Drew okay?” She covers her face with her hands, tears leaking from her eyes.
“She’s been taken to hospital to have everything checked,” I say, trying to comfort her, but she’s losing it.
“How did you get away?” Jameson asks, drawing her attention.
“Lily,” she says, crying. “She made a move, and we went with it.”
She throws her arms around her sister, and Jameson tugs them both into his chest.
“Your mother?” Jameson asks after a second.
“Dead,” she says, shaking her head. Well, that’s a blessing.
Brothers surround us, a relieved chatter filling the night. “Who is that?” I jerk my head to the body a few yards behind their vehicle.
“Fisher,” she says, tucking her hair behind her ear and pulling away from her brother to stand beside me.
Copper and Rage take off jogging toward the body. I want to go and tear at the mangled mess but there’s nothing left to take apart.
“It’s not Fisher,” Copper calls out, standing over the body.
“What?” Ruby and Lily gasp. We all walk to where the body lay like roadkill, the guts squeezed from him, bones torn through the skin, chest almost flat with tire marks over it.
“Oh my god, it looked like him.” Ruby gags. The gravity of the night hits her, making her skin pale. Her hand goes to her stomach, and she lurches forward. Turning her body, she vomits. I gather her hair up and guide her to the side of the road, rubbing a hand up her back. “It was just one of his men. He’s still out there,” she heaves.
“Not for long,” I assure her.
“You need a doctor. You’re in shock,” Jameson booms.
“We need to go get that fucker,” I say, not wanting to waste any more time on the side of the road.
“Here comes a doctor now.” Rage gestures to the doc, who’s running from a car toward us.
Jameson takes off, grabbing his woman in his arms. She’s crying and apologizing, trying to look around him to the girls.
They rush over to her and all huddle together before Lily announces, “That’s enough of this happy, lovey shit. We need to go get the rest of these fuckers.” I hate to admit it, but the kid thinks like me.
“Who even are you?” Jameson throws his hands out, confused by the fearless kid who has an attitude and the courage to back it up.
“I’m you, but with a vagina and better hair,” she snips.
Koyn comes to stand beside me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I’m glad this is the outcome. If you want me to watch over them while you go finish this, I will,” he offers.
“I’d prefer to be in play but will sit this out too if it gives you some peace of mind,” Loki announces, straddling his bike.
“I appreciate that,” I tell them both.
“But he doesn’t speak for us,” Lily scoffs, kicking the wheel of Loki’s bike. “Haven’t we proved ourselves enough? We’re coming with.”
The brothers look to Jameson for confirmation, and he once again throws his hands up in defeat. “Let’s go.”
The factory is less than a couple minutes up the road. We haven’t heard any engines close by, which tells me they haven’t left.
“You okay?” I ask Ruby, hugging her trembling body to mine as she sits on my lap in the car. Ink gave up his seat to Lily and the doc, riding with Mason instead.
“Nervous,” she says, her voice shuddering.
“You’re safe now,” I reassure her, palming her thigh and squeezing, trying not to think about her bare pussy being on my lap.
Her fingernails dig into my shoulder as we pull into the factory.
There are a few bikes and a truck in the parking lot. A floodlight beams, lighting the place up like a beacon. “There’s my mom.” Ruby points to the dead body being picked up and moved by one of the brothers. “She tried to fight in the end,” she murmurs.
“Then that’s how you can remember her,” I tell her.
“Why didn’t Fisher run?” Rage muses aloud, looking around every inch of the space before us.
“He has some kind of delusion that he’s more than he is,” Ruby says. “Or he thinks Fallaci did the job of taking us out.”
Car doors open and bikes idle. Our brothers, armed and ready to go for round two, prowl toward the shutters at the front of the factory. We took casualties tonight but we’re still greater in numbers.