Sentinel - Devil Riders MC Book 1 (MC Romance Novel with FREE Bonus Novel!) (26 page)

She looked to him for a few moments, and then just nodded.

“Okay then. Wake me when we need to leave, I’m a deep sleeper.”

She smiled wryly.

“And if I’m in a bad mood you’ll have to forgive me.”

It was Eli’s turn to smile.

“Alright then, I will. I’m not really a morning person myself.”

She gave him one last lingering look, eyes meeting his in a tacit invitation to him. Eli knew that look. He knew what she wanted, and he knew that he wanted it too. But it wasn’t the right time. It just wasn’t.

Maybe when they’d got themselves out of this mess, then he could think about it. So, he looked away from her gaze and settled himself on the floor using his jacket as a pillow. He heard Tess let out a sigh of frustration and exhaustion but he didn’t say anything.

He was so tired that he was asleep in seconds.

*****

Chapter Thirteen

Tess

Tess awoke with a start; there was a hand clamped across her mouth and another pressed on her shoulder shaking her awake.

“You need to wake up,” Eli hissed. “We need to leave. Now.”

Tess’ heart was pounding with the panic of the unexpected awakening. She glanced out of the window to see that it was still dark. She could just about see the sun rising on the horizon, signified by a soft golden glow that was just beginning to illuminate the sky. She watched as Eli stalked to the window and lifted the blinds, peering surreptitiously out. He turned to face her and in the gloom Tess could see that he was gripped with panic.

She jumped out of bed and quickly pulled on her clothes. Had the Sons caught up with them? Adrenaline coursed through her veins.

She went to the window and put her lips close to Eli’s ear.

“What’s going on?”

Eli put a finger to his lips and indicated that she should crouch out of sight.

“I think they found us,” he whispered. “Or if they haven’t yet, they’re going to soon.”

“What do we do?”

Tess could hear the panic in her voice, but tried her best to push it down and not let it overcome her.

She peered around the edge of the blinds and into the empty parking lot beyond. There. Four bikes, parked next to one another near to the entrance to the motel reception. The owners of the bikes weren’t visible, but Tess could only assume that they were in the reception.

She heard an intake of breath from Eli. He looked down at her, his face half shrouded in the gloom.

“Here is what we’re going to do. When I open this door, you’re going to run round back where the bike is parked. I’ll be right behind you. Don’t stop, don’t turn around, just run for the bike. It’s our only chance. Understood?”

Tess nodded, not trusting her voice. She didn’t want to think what would happen if they caught them.

“Right. On three. One. Two.”

Eli paused, as if he was waiting for the right moment.

“Three.”

He threw open the door, and without thinking Tess charged out and did exactly as she had been told. She ran left and then round the back of the motel building. Eli’s bike was parked there, just as he said. She jumped on the back, and a second later Eli was there, clutching the suitcase and the rest of their meagre possessions.

He slammed the bike into gear as the engine roared into life. They tore away through the motel parking lot, and as they were leaving Tess glanced behind them and saw four leather – clad bikers come running out from the motel reception area. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the expression on their faces told her everything she needed to know.

Anger. Excitement. They’d found their quarry.

Three of the bikers jumped onto their vehicles, while the other pulled a cell phone from his pocket and talked into it for a few moments before starting his own bike.

That was all Tess could see before they were out of sight. Eli was accelerating dangerously fast, faster than Tess had ever gone before. Luckily, the roads were still empty.

Tess leaned forward and shouted into his ear.

“What are we going to do? Where can we go?”

Eli didn’t respond. He was focused on the road, his jaw set. Tess held on for dear life as the bike kept on going faster and faster. The engine was singing, a throaty roar that in any other circumstance would have been impressive. However, at this moment all it was doing was signifying to her just how much danger they were in.

It only took a couple of minutes for them to reach the edge of town. The road stretched out in front of them once more, endlessly into the desert. The only small blessing was that the sun was still very weak and low in the sky. Before long though, it would start to heat up again. Tess didn’t know if she could take another day underneath that relentless heat. She had been doing her best not to complain, and not to show Eli how much she had suffered the previous day, but she didn’t know how long she could keep this up. The three hours of sleep hadn’t been enough, and it was only the adrenaline that was currently keeping her alert.

She chanced another glance behind them, and when she did her worst fears were confirmed. The sons were minutes behind, and while not yet gaining on them she knew it was only a matter of time.

Tess was scared; she felt utterly powerless. Her life was in Eli’s hands, and she had no idea how he was going to get them out of this mess. She decided to ask him again.

“Eli. Please tell me you have a plan. They are gaining on us, and fast. We can’t stay ahead of them forever. What are we going to do?”

He glanced around at her, and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly when he saw how close the other bikers had gotten already.

“We just need to get to the next town,” he shouted over the roar of the engine. “I made a call, before you woke up. There should be someone waiting for us there.”

Tess felt a surge of hope, a lifeline where before there had been only despair.

“How far to the next town? Do you think we can make it?”

No response. Eli was focused on the road once more, and Tess knew that she wouldn’t get any more out of him. She felt like they were racing inevitably towards some sort of climax, some sort of conclusion. She just hoped it would go however Eli had planned it.

A sign raced towards them. Tess just about caught sight of it as it whizzed by.

Hope spring. 12 miles.

Twelve miles. Tess began to believe they could make it. She trusted Eli to get there before they were caught. She knew he could do it. He
had
to do it.

She could hear the roar of the bikes behind them now, closer, ever closer.

Something kicked up some dust and masonry from the road just to her right. Tess frowned, confused.

What was that?

It happened again, closer this time.

Tess’ blood run cold as she suddenly realized what was happening.

They were bullets, hitting the road right next to the bike.

“Eli! Are those bullets? They’re shooting at us!”

Panic threatened to send Tess over the edge, and she could hear it in her own voice.

“I know,” Eli shouted. “Stay calm. They’re just trying to scare us. They won’t risk losing the drugs, and if they shoot us or the bike there’s a risk of that. Just hold on tight and I’ll get us there.”

More pinging sounds from all around now, more bullets whizzing through the air. But it seemed like Eli was correct - they were far enough away from the bike that it seemed to be deliberate. No matter what Eli said though, Tess was still terrified. She’d never been shot at before, and it was something she would have been happy to have lived her entire life without ever experiencing. The sound that the guns made caused Tess to flinch every time - each was an explosion of sound clearly audible even over the angry whine of the bikes.

When it became clear that Eli wasn’t going to be intimidated by the gunfire, the Sons tried a new tactic. At this point they were only a few meters behind, keeping pace with Eli. Tess’ attention was drawn by movements in the corner of her eye. She looked over and to her horror, saw two of the bikes pulling up beside them.

“Give it up, Eli,” they shouted. “You ain’t got nowhere to go. Pull over and make this easy on yourselves. Nobody gotta get hurt. You’re just makin’ it…”

Whatever the guy had been meaning to say was lost in the wind as Eli wrenched on the throttle and pulled away from the bikes.

Tess could just about make out what Eli said next.

“Fucking lies. Soon as Tex arrives we’re good as dead if we stop.”

The road and the sand were passing in a blur. Tess’ hair was whipping every which way in the wind, and her knuckles were sore from gripping the seat. Her heart was pumping at a hundred miles a minute and she was shaking all over from the massive amounts of adrenaline in her bloodstream.

It couldn’t be far now, surely. Everything would be okay. Tess just had to trust Eli.

Not far now...

*****

Chapter Fourteen

Eli

Eli had never driven this fast this far before. He didn’t know how long the bike would be able to handle it without overheating. The sounds coming from the engine were worrying him, but as long as it got them to the next town he could worry about everything else later.

He was trying to maintain a calm demeanor for Tess, but it was getting more and more difficult. If those men behind them caught up, if they decided to make a move, the two of them were finished. At these speeds, it would only take a slight nudge for everything to end in disaster.

That morning, just before he’d woken Tess, he’d used her cell phone to call the Hope Springs PD. Eli knew that it would probably mean he would end up back in prison before the end of the day; one stipulation of his parole was that he was to have no contact with any member of a biker gang in any capacity. But he had no choice. If he was alone, maybe he would try to go out fighting. But with Tess here he needed to think about her safety. This was the only way, and it was still dangerous - things could still go wrong, people could still get hurt. But one thing was for certain; Tex and the Sons of Flame would be going down with him.

Eli knew how reckless and impulsive Tex got when someone crossed him. Eli was leading him into a trap, and he just hoped that Tex would fall into it without causing any more harm and suffering.

Almost there now. If he did go back to prison, he hoped Tess would be able to forgive him and that this entire experience wouldn’t scar her too much. She was a good woman, and she didn’t deserve to have been caught up in this whole sorry mess. If anything happened to her, Eli would never be able to forgive himself.

Just a mile. One more mile. The engine was whining and the gears were grinding, but they would make it. The first houses were coming into view now, squatting on the horizon. Hope Springs was yet another sad, dying little desert town, and Eli knew that the PD here would be just a few guys, ill-equipped to deal with the entire sons of flame. During his hurried phone call that morning, he’d told them to call for backup. He could only hope that they had listened to him, because if it was just going to be the sheriff and a couple of his deputies, everything was going to be ruined. Tex had over a dozen men, all armed, and if they were cornered they wouldn’t hesitate to use their weapons. Eli prayed that it wouldn’t come to that. He didn’t want to see any more bloodshed. His own freedom was worth sacrificing if it meant an end to the Sons of Flame.

Tess was clinging onto him for dear life, her fingers clutching his jacket and her legs gripping his waist tight. Eli could only imagine how scared she was; hell, he was scared himself and he’d been in worse situations than this during his time in the Sons.

Less than a mile now. Those little buildings were growing larger and larger, approaching at breakneck speed. Eli shot a glance over his right shoulder and saw that their pursuers were shouting to each other, pointing at the approaching town. Eli knew that he would not be able to maintain his speed once they got into the town proper, and he also knew that the Sons would take this opportunity to make their move. He had to get to the place he had told the police to be waiting before the Sons could stop them.

There was a car on the road in front of them, moving slowly. Just a red sedan, and Eli was going to have to swerve around it. He made the manoeuver skillfully and swiftly, but someone behind him was not so lucky. Eli heard a crashing sound as one of the bikes went flying off the road in a terrible squeal of burning rubber and twisted metal. The biker’s compatriots made no move to stop or even turn to check on his condition, but Eli knew there was little chance that the man had survived, considering the speed at which they were going. He briefly felt a twinge of guilt that a man had probably lost his life, but cast it aside. The blood was on Tex’s hands - the Sons leader was the reason they were all out here anyway.

But the fact that not one of the Sons had stopped for their fallen brother demonstrated to Eli exactly how much Tex wanted him. Brotherhood was such an important tenet of the biker code that for the other guys to have abandoned him meant that Eli and the suitcase he was carrying was priority number one, above all else.

Tex wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Eli prayed that no more blood would need to be spilled before this day was done.

They were inside the town now, and it looked almost exactly like the one they had spent the previous night in. Just another dead or dying desert town; dry, dusty, hot. But today, Eli knew there was to be a reckoning here, in this otherwise meaningless place. He couldn’t help but laugh dryly to himself - this place, where nothing of any importance ever happened was to be the place that would define the rest of his life, and maybe Tess’ too.

They were racing down what passed for a main street here, at a lower speed than they had been on the open road, but still dangerously fast. There was more likely to be traffic here, other vehicles just going about their day, and all it would take was one wrong move and they were dead.

Eli had been here before, once. He had told the police to be waiting in a strip mall parking lot, and he was nearly there now. Eli turned the corner, expecting to see the blaring lights and wailing sirens of the police.

But there was nothing. The parking lot was empty. They hadn’t showed up, and Eli was now trapped. He pulled into the lot and drove to the far corner in a futile attempt to put as much distance between his bike and the Sons’. The parking lot was enclosed, which was precisely why Eli had chosen it. He had thought it would make it easier for the police to surround the Sons, but now it looked like it was also to be the reason for his downfall.

He stopped the bike, turned off the engine and stood to face the incoming bikers. There were four of them now, the arrogance of victory written clearly across their faces.

They stepped off their bikes and began to walk slowly towards him.

*****