Several of them laughed. My eyes darted around as Ogun’s jaw worked and his body tensed.
“Now why would we do that?” Mule asked. “If we let her go, how will we keep you in line? Something tells me you’ll be a bit more amenable to our needs if me or one of my brothers has a cock about to go up her pretty little ass.” He laughed, as did the majority of the group.
“You dirty motherfuckers!” he roared as he lunged at the nearest guy. It didn’t seem to matter to him that his hands were fastened behind his back. Mule didn’t hesitate for a second. He raised his hand and shot Ogun, who spun and fell to the ground as I screamed.
“Shut her up!” Mule growled. Skid slapped me across the face so hard I saw stars, stunning me into silence.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” Gambler yelled at Mule. Then he told another guy to get Ogun in the truck.
Right as they were dragging Ogun toward the truck I’d been in, there was a quietpop.The guy dragging him stopped, blood trailing from a hole in his head, and he dropped like a rag doll. The sound he made as he hit the cracked asphalt was one I’d likely never forget.
The guy I’d noticed as out of character with the Bloody Scorpions pulled a gun and searched the area wildly. His nostrils flared as he swallowed hard and glanced in an oddly longing way at the guy with the blood pooling under his head. When he looked back up, our eyes locked and I noticed a shimmer in his that seemed almost animal-like. Without batting an eye, he shot one of his own guys who had started shooting wildly around them.
“What the fuck?” Mule shouted before he too was missing the back of his head and lying lifeless at my feet.
Gambler grabbed my hair and pulled me in front of his body. He was using me as a human shield. My mouth fell open as another one of the guys dropped to the ground. Blood spurted from his neck wound. He tried to hold it for mere seconds before it was apparent he was gone.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Skid scaling the fence, but I was terrified to scream, because Gambler held his damn gun to my head.
“Gambler. Let her go. It’s not worth it,” the guy tried to reason with him. I had no idea what his name was because his cut only said “prospect.”
“Shut up, prospect! You killed one of our patches!” he screamed in my ear. The prospect guy tried to reason with Gambler.
“He was going to bring the cops in. He was shooting erratically. Not to mention, innocent people could’ve been harmed as well. Chill out, Gambler. Let her go and let’s get out of here. She’s only going to slow us down.” His eyes held mine again, and I knew he was trying to get me to understand something. The problem was, I had no idea what.
When he kept looking at me then down, I took a calculated risk, made myself dead weight, and dropped. My knees hit the hard asphalt, and I whimpered. He shot Gambler, causing him to stumble back from me. Because I had no way to catch myself, I fell forward and whacked my chin on the ground.
Groaning, I rolled to my side.
The prospect seemed to be the only one of the Bloody Scorpions still standing. He carefully sat me up. As he assessed me for damage, his hands framed my face. Then, his eyes shimmered again, and he leaned in. In shock, I sat there as his lips brushed mine and his tongue ran along my bleeding lip.
Except, he definitely wasn’t kissing me. Because he then held his tongue under my chin where warm blood was continuing to drip.
“If you don’t get your mouth off my woman’s face, I’ll peel your skin from your body.” It was said in a pained and growling tone, and I sucked in a startled breath as I saw Ogun struggling to sit up.
The prospect pulled out a wicked-looking blade, and I paused. There wasn’t any need to be concerned, though. He only sliced the ties from around my wrists before moving over to do the same for Ogun.
Except he hesitated. Then he said, “If I cut you loose, you can’t kill me.”
Through gritted teeth, Ogun said, “You’re not in a position to barter. In case you didn’t notice, your club members are dead.”
“They weren’t my club and they certainly aren’t my people,” the man spat in disgust as he cut Ogun free anyway. He even helped him sit up as Ogun groaned and winced in pain. When he brought the knife toward Ogun’s neck, I cried out.
“Please don’t!” The man raised a brow at my outburst, gave me a half smile, and sliced through Ogun’s T-shirt. He did it again and pulled the pieces off to wad up and press to the wound on Ogun’s shoulder. Ogun flinched and nodded.
“Thank you. I owe you.” Ogun held the man’s gaze, but I didn’t like his labored breathing, and I still wasn’t sure who had been doing the shooting. Nor did I know where they were. It was like they were ghosts.
“Lay back,” he said to Ogun, who reluctantly obeyed. Gambler groaned behind me, and I whipped my head his direction. He wasn’t going anywhere, but I still scooted away from him.
“Kira,” Ogun gasped out. I crawled over to him. “There’s a gun in the pocket of that jacket. Get it out.”
Fumbling, I checked the pockets and found a small pistol. He nodded at me. I chambered a round and held the weapon pointed at Gambler. Brow furrowed, I glanced around. “I think Skid got away.”
“Who the fuck is Skid?” Ogun grunted.
“A Bloody Scorpions member. Piece of shit,” the guy muttered.
“Why are you helping me?” Ogun asked as he stared up at the man who was holding pressure on his wound.