I nodded. “Let’s go,” I rasped, barely recognizing my voice.
Skins and Levi helped me up while Op and Wrench assisted by carrying Romeo back down the mountain.
At high speed.
In the fucking rain.
We moved fast, this time, using the more solid path that Romeo had followed up. A lot of it was wood, having been built to make the tracks to the cabins easier, and since this one was the closest to the foot of the mountain, it had the most work done.
It was still slippery as hell, though, and we were lucky when we made it to the bottom with no broken bones.
The coughing fits started as we ran back through the farmland to our bikes, and they wouldn’t stop. I wanted to throw up, but I was already worried.
No evidence was great, but in the case that there was evidence—the less, the better.
“You okay to ride?” Skins asked quickly as he leaned me against my ride, shining his torch in my eyes and partially blinding me as he searched for signs that I was going to die.
I slapped his hand away. “I’ll be fine,” I lied. My throat felt like I’d swallowed acid.
“I’ll call Eagle and get him to grab Leo and his truck and meet us in Huntsville,” Op ordered, pulling his cell from his pocket. “I’m already gonna struggle enough with Romeo on the back that far without him falling off. Leo can bring Ham’s bike back, and he and Romeo can get in the truck with Eagle.”
Romeo instantly stood a little taller pushing away from the massive tractor he was using to balance. “Hey man, I don’t ride, bitch.”
Op scoffed. “Now you do. And tonight, you’ll be mine.”
I would have laughed had the situation not been so dire.
We killed a sheriff. We blew up a cabin. We now have to try and get home without people seeing us and putting two and two together. And I was really feeling the pain now that the adrenaline was wearing off.
My hip was hurting. My lungs were burning. I knew my head still wasn’t right.
“We need to take different roads. Spread ourselves around so if anyone hears us, they aren’t sure which way we were traveling or if there were more than one,” Blizzard rattled as we pushed our bikes down to the road, not too willing to start them that close to the crime scene.
I wasn’t going to admit it, but I was struggling. Just when I thought the fresh air was finally circulating through my body, the rain washing away the dirt and black shit from my skin, I would start coughing, wheezing, and fighting for breath.
“You just need to make it into town where we can find cover and meet the boys. Twenty minutes at the most,” Blizzard urged as we watched Levi and Kev both start their engines and take off in different directions. “I’ll ride with you. You fall off, I’ll stop and pick you up.”
I laughed, the sound coming out more like a cat with a hairball. “That’s not what you said last time.”
“Come on, kid, there’s a girl at home waiting for you,” he tried this time as another two brothers took off into the night, leaving just Blizzard, Op, Romeo and me.
“She won’t be waiting for long, she’ll be walking away soon,” I muttered, still fighting to hold my ride upright as we waited for the boys to get far enough away for us to leave.
Op raised his eyebrow. “What are you talking about? Thought you and Meyah were a done deal.”
“Ain’t gonna make her wait around while I’m doing time.”
“You get a fucking blow to the head or something?” Blizzard demanded, but when I looked at Romeo, he shook his head. He knew that shit was going to hit the fan. He knew he’d fucked this one up, and we were going to have to seriously think about what we were going to do next. “Hello?”
“Romeo borrowed my gun,” I answered.
Neither Blizzard nor Op commented, both of them staring at me like I’d lost my fucking mind.
Blizzard looked back at the mountain. We needed to be out of here before the firetrucks came, and they’d be here soon.
“He left the gun in the cabin.”
Blizzard and Op both looked at each other and muttered the same word.