Under Fire (Winged Enemy MC Romance) (15 page)

“I came here a few times back when I dated Brad. It was only briefly, but I know that he loved it here. He used to hang out here with his brother all the time while they grew up. Still did up until he died, I bet.”

“Brad?”

“Yeah, he was a part of the club. Got killed in the ruckus a few weeks ago, so you might not have met him before that happened. It was a shame, he loved the guys and the lifestyle, and his little brother adored him.”

I looked at the board with the mangled photos. There was a lot of pent-up rage there. Could losing a brother cause that much hate?

“Who was his younger brother, could he be the killer?” I still wasn’t certain of Kat’s innocence, and it was entirely possible that she could have set this whole scene up, but the way that she spoke and looked around didn’t have the feel of someone trying to sell an act.

“That would be…” she trailed off. “I mean, it’s possible. He’s a lot better now, but he used to have some pretty big anger management problems. Brad was the only one who ever managed to hold him in check. I was surprised that he had joined the gang when I came back, he had never liked the other men too much, and they teased him relentlessly as he tagged along behind Brad.”

“Kat, who is the brother?” I had a sinking feeling I knew who it was. There were a couple of the younger members who had just been inducted, but there was only one who I saw still getting rough treatment from everyone else. Even just the other day, Tim’s final day on earth, he had been the subject of ridicule.

“It’s Zach.” We looked at each other. It felt right, but at the same time it felt crazy. How could someone who had been raised in the town and around the gang for their entire life be able to wreck so much havoc on them?

“I talked to Zach a lot over the past couple days, and I never even guessed…” It made me feel sick to my stomach. “I can’t believe that little bastard almost killed me in my sleep.”

“Leslie, we need to warn the others. We need to… Oh shit! I just remembered!” Kat’s face went white as a ghost.

“What, Kat? What is it?”

“Jed went out on patrol with Zach! It was just going to be the two of them out past the city limits driving around. Oh my god, we need to warn him!”

I patted my pockets instinctively. I hadn’t had the time or warning to grab my phone before I ran out of my apartment.

Kat already had hers out and to her ear. “Come on, Jed, pick up.” She paced restlessly. “Voicemail.” She left a quick message for Jed. “Jed, it’s Kat. I was wrong, it’s Zach. You hear me? Zach’s the killer! You have to get him before he gets you!” She hung up.

I grabbed her arm. “Let’s get out of here, we need to find them before it’s too late.”

Kat nodded at my words and we both took off running.

I cursed how far into the brush and away from the road we had come. It hadn’t seemed that much distance when I was running for my life, but now that every single second counted for getting to Jed in time to save him, it was too far, and too hard. My sides throbbed but I refused to give up.

The running I had been doing around town helped to get me through, but I didn’t know how Kat managed it. She kept slightly ahead of me the whole way, and I found my mind idling wondering what her workout routine was and how far she could run. I realized that I knew nothing about her, so consumed with my jealousy and my righteous certainty that she was a ruthless murderer.

Finally we got to the road. There was only one bike and I looked at Kat uncertainly.

She swung a leg over and gestured at me impatiently. “Hop on.”

“Do you know where they will be?”

It felt silly, but I felt naked on the back of her bike. With Jed on Nightshade I always felt secure, safe, and ready to go anywhere, but with my arms around Kat’s waist and her smaller frame I felt like we might blow over at any moment.

“I know they were doing loops around town, but I don’t know any more than that. Here’s my phone, keep calling him and tap me on the shoulder if you get an answer so that I can pull over and you can talk to him. Otherwise we just have to hope that we get lucky. It’s not that big of a town.”

She was right. Our chances weren’t as terrible as they might have been. The problem was knowing just how far out of town Jed and Zach had gone.

I held on for dear life as Kat drove far more aggressively than I had ever experienced on the back of Jed’s bike. To her credit, she handled the machine like a professional driver, never wavering and with consummate skill. If the circumstances hadn’t been so dire and I hadn’t been so concentrated on reaching Jed, I would have been impressed enough to consider asking her to teach me how to do it at some point in the future. We may still have been rivals for Jed’s affections, but at least we weren’t at each other throats any more.

The afternoon sun baked into us as we drove out. I let Kat worry about keeping an eye out as I hammered away at her phone, dialing Jed’s phone over and over.

Come on Jed, pick up. Pick up, you son of a bitch.
I hoped that the reason he wasn’t answering was because he was riding and couldn’t hear it, and not because he had suffered a fate similar to Patty or Nathan.

Why the hell didn’t he take someone else out with them?
He had made it a policy that there always had to be three members out together ever since I had made my observation at Tim’s house that the unfortunate victim must have known the killer. Then Jed went ahead and broke his own rule, and it may end up being the death of him.

Kat’s phone chose that moment to run out of batteries.

“Fuck!”

The fact that it wasn’t my property was the only thing that saved it from getting smashed against the asphalt that rushed by underneath our feet.

Instead I used my anger and energy to scan the horizon. It was open enough that we could see a fair distance in every direction.

I thought I saw something out to the east, but before I could nudge Kat she already veered in that direction, taking the first cross road that led that way.

My eyes hurt from squinting against the sun and the wind, but I still couldn’t make out the bumps off the side of the road. Metal flashed in the sunlight.

The bike under my thighs strained to deliver the speed that Kat demanded from it as we put on a last burst of speed down the straightaway. There were no more obstacles between us and what increasingly looked like a pair of bikes standing at the side of the highway.

Kat slowed down as we got close, and although we couldn’t look at each other I could tell we had the same thoughts in our minds. Jed and Zach weren’t anywhere to be seen, but these had to be their motorcycles. We had to be cautious; as much as we wanted to rescue Jed, rushing into a trap and getting ourselves killed wouldn’t help him any.

The wind died down enough to speak while we were a hundred yards away.

“I don’t like it,” I said into her ear.

“Me neither. I think we may have gotten here too late.”

I looked to either side of the road, trying to spot the danger that we may be running into to. If we were lucky beyond belief, Zach had only injured Jed and there was still a chance of finding him alive.

“Careful,” I said.

The road was elevated, and there was more of the thick brush and stunted trees in copses to either side. There was no sign of anyone, but that didn’t mean anything. A whole company of men could hide in this crap.

Kat rolled to a stop, and we both got off. Tension gathered in a knot at my shoulders, and I rolled my arms to try and keep limber. The fight with the other woman earlier had strained a few muscles, but I may have need of them in the near future.

“Do you still have your gun?” I whispered. She looked at me and nodded.

I crossed to the side where the bikes were. There was no noticeable damage on either of them, but there were a couple boot marks in the dust off the shoulder.

“Over here!” I hissed. When she got to my side I pointed down at the ground. “They must have gone out there, in behind the stand of trees out there.

There were a few taller trees a couple hundred yards out. Whoever was out there had likely heard the bike drive up. We wouldn’t have the element of surprise unless we got really lucky.

With unspoken accord, Kat surrendered the gun to me. I felt touched by her trust, and it was the right move. Not only had I always been a natural, but I had proven myself in the attack on the Devil’s Roost where I shot three men dead with three quick shots. If either of us had a chance of knocking Zach out before he could get one of us, it was me.

There was a bit of a trail out towards the grove, which surprised me. There didn’t appear to be anything special about it but obviously someone came here fairly often. It must be another one of Zach’s special hangout spots. I wondered if he had some kind of voodoo doll setup out there. Considering what the other campsite looked like, it wouldn’t surprise me.

I gestured Kat to stay back when we got closer. She shook her head.
Stupid girl. She won’t be able to do anything without a weapon.
I had to admire her guts though. Hopefully we both got out of this alive and I had the chance to actually get to know her. I had the feeling that I might be pleasantly surprised.

I took us off the trail and into the dark woods, careful to keep the gun out and ready in case Zach laid in wait for us. There was no sign of him, but as I had proven earlier that didn’t mean that he wasn’t there.

I heard a faint scraping noise, and held my arm out to stop Kat. We looked at each other. Puzzlement registered on her face as she listened to the repetitive sound.

At least it wasn’t that close, and it didn’t sound like Zach was trying to hide what he was doing. Maybe he didn’t hear us come up the road after all.

We continued forward. We were close to the other side of the stand of trees, and I put my shoulder to one as Kat did the same beside me. I held up a finger and pointed at my chest. I’ll look. She nodded.

I leaned out carefully, ready to pull back in an instant if I saw the slightest hint that I was about to have my head blown off.

I was dumbfounded by what I saw.

Jed stood there, patting dirt down over a short mound.

“Jed!” I shouted. I couldn’t stop myself. I ran out and threw my arms around him. His shoulders and back were reassuringly solid under my hands. I hadn’t been sure that I would ever embrace him again.

He looked down at me and smiled. “Hey Leslie. I wondered when you would get here.”

Kat and I fired off questions without giving Jed time to actually answer any of them.

“Are you ok?”

“Did you get our messages?”

“Where’s Zach?”

He grinned and put his hands out. “Girls, slow down. It’s ok, no need to rush through anything.”

I stomped my foot. “I thought we were going to find you dead, what do you mean there’s no rush? Where’s Zach? We can’t waste time when he’s out here somewhere! We have to find him and stop him!”

A serious look took over Jed’s face.

“It’s a bit late for that, Leslie. He’s already stopped. You don’t have to worry.”

“What? What do you mean? Where is he?”

He pointed down at the fresh dirt underneath his shovel.

“What?” I stared at the ground. My worries flew around my head, beating against my skull, and I couldn’t process what was going on.

“You killed him?” Kat’s voice was low and uneasy. “Oh, Jed, I’m so sorry you had to do it.”

Then it clicked. Fresh dirt. Shovel. Two bikes. One man.

Jed had killed Zach. All that worrying, we had assumed that Jed would be in trouble, and he had been one step ahead of us. He’d already taken care of the menace that plagued the club, just like he’d promised he would. I remembered how serious and low his voice had gotten when he’d woken up in the hospital, and that was even before Tim was murdered and Nathan was shot.

It reminded me that I never wanted to really piss Jed off. It was scary to realize just how capable he was.

At the same time, I was glad he was fine. More than glad. My heart, which had slipped into an irregular pattern of fits and starts ever since Kat had told me that he had put himself in danger unknowingly, finally settled into a relaxed rhythm.