Exquisite Redemption (Iron Horse MC Book 3) (7 page)

He didn’t even look at Sarah, something that instantly set me on alert. Hustler loved beautiful blondes and they didn’t come any better than the stunning creature nearly sitting on my lap. Normally Hustler would be eye-fucking her up and down instead’a staring at me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Smoke heading my way, minus the bitches and now accompanied by Thorn and a few more of my officers, along with some of the Wyoming and Montana members of the Iron Horse MC. The hard rush of impending danger made the hair along my arms raise up and the skin of my back prickled like someone was starin’ at me.

In Spanish, Hustler said, “Los Diablos is partying across the way and a little down from us with a couple of their affiliate clubs. Fat Perry and Suds are over there as well, and one of the brothers said he saw Digger earlier.”

The mention of the former Iron Horse brothers had me instantly pissed. “They fuckin’ dare? They fuckin’ dare show their face around me? Have they forgotten the only reason they got to live is with the understandin’ I’d never fuckin’ lay my eyes on them again?”

“Yep. Haven’t looked at or said shit to us, but just them bein’ so close is a fuckin’ insult.”

When I’d taken over the Iron Horse MC position as National President, we’d cleaned house of all the dipshits Red, the former Prez, had surrounded himself with. We’d gotten rid of every single man who’d been loyal to Red, and most of the ones we didn’t kill had ended up over with Los Diablos, a rival club of ours whose members were known to do anything for a buck. Sell their sisters, kill their mothers, pimp out their wives or children—you had the money, they’d make it happen. And now former Iron Horse members wore their fucking colors. Shouldn’t be surprised; reason I killed Red was because I found out he was into human trafficking on the side, and Los Lobos dealt heavily in that terrible shit.

Having them set up this close to us, out of all the fucking space here, was deliberate.

I put my fingers to my lips then whistled sharp and loud, “Yo, Rock.”

The dark-haired, older man still built like a brickhouse ambled over to us with a few of his Enforcers flanking him. Rock was the Vice President of the Rochester, New York, chapter of the Ice Demons, a club we were affiliated with, and also a personal friend. The Ice Demons had a few mutual business associates between them and Los Diablos, so while they weren’t friendly with Los Diablos, they kept the peace.

“Beach, good to see you, man.” Rock clasped my shoulder and squeezed, his craggy face lighting up with a smile.

“Good to see you too. Mind doin’ me a favor?”

Instantly his gaze sharpened and the men standing behind him tensed. “What’s up?”

“Los Diablos has a party goin’ close by and we need a little buffer between us and them. Got some old brothers from back in Red’s day who’re wearin’ Los Diablos colors now.”

“I can’t believe those stupid fucks would push their luck like this.” Rock shook his head. “That’s some bad blood right there. I’ll pull my people into neutral territory. Got a lot of brothers with me tonight so it won’t be an issue.”

“I appreciate it.”

Lifting his beer to me, Rock took off into the night, his Enforcers tagging other Ice Demons and their women as they passed.

With that shit show handled, I turned to check on Sarah, finding her pretending to look at her nails while she peeked at me beneath her long lashes. My dick urged me to get back to that fine piece of ass as quickly as possible and I bit the inside of my cheek. Fuck, those legs of hers were gonna be the death of me.

Grinning at me, Smoke said in Spanish, “What, you only doing one bitch tonight? Feeling tired, Prez? Brandy and Sandy wore you out?”

“Fuck off, Santos.”

Smoke chuckled, enjoying the opportunity to mess with me. Asshole. “Can’t remember the last time you didn’t need at least two bitches at once to get you off. You on Viagra now?”

“You wish you had such a fine piece waiting for you. Any of you shitheads would trade your left nut for a chance with her.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, Hustler smirked. “Gotta say, she’s hot enough I’d tag team her with your ugly ass in a heartbeat. Damn, she looks like the kind of bitch who can take more than one dick. After you’re done with her, pass her along to me, yeah? I don’t mind your sloppy seconds. You train ’em up right.”

Before I could tell Hustler to fuck off, knowing he was screwing with me because that was Hustler’s fucked-up sense of humor, Sarah said in decent Spanish, “Sloppy seconds? Are you kidding me? Like I’d ever let a no-class, nasty-ass piece of monkey shit like yourself ever come near me. You know what—fuck you all, I’m outta here.”

Her spectacular thigh muscles flex enticingly as she stood then started to move away from the bench. She’s taken no more than a step before I’m up as well, eyes glued to the irritated twitch of her sweet ass. Shit, even walking away from me she’s so sexy my dick hurts.

Inwardly wincing while my brothers laughed as Hustler sputtered, I turned, ready to do damage control, before gunshots filled the air and the night erupted into chaos.

The booms were still echoing in my ears as screams and shouts muffled my hearing further, the panic of the crowd so thick I could feel its sting against my skin.

Another couple gunshots, this time to the south of us, launched me into action.

“Smoke,” I shouted above the noise, “get everyone safe then grab some brothers and take these fuckers out.”

“But—”

“Fuckin’ do it!”

Hustler lifted up high enough to flip over the bench we’d been straddling. A solid piece of wood wouldn’t do shit against bullets but would at least provide us some cover for return fire.

Hustler and myself had just crouched behind it when a woman’s sharp scream rang out and I glanced over my shoulder to find two men in black t-shirts and black jeans attempting to snatch up Sarah.

Without thought, I lunged from my cover and took off across the packed earth of the campground, firelight throwing crazy shadows among the surging crowd of people. Hustler yelled for me but I ignored him, intent on getting to her. I knew that if I lost sight of her she was gonna be heading for a fate worse than death.

The gunshots had ceased, but a full-on stampede had started up, people pushing and shoving their way through the crowd in an effort to get away from the violence. At 6’3”, I could see over most of the people there and it wasn’t hard to spot Sarah’s bright blonde hair and sparkling red shirt in the surging mass. Looking pissed, she struggled against the two men who were obviously trying to drag her off somewhere.

No, she wasn’t struggling, she was fighting.

As I elbowed my way through the crowd, I saw one of the men slap her and my temper snapped. I was pushing through when the mass of fleeing people parted again and I had a perfect view of Sarah turning the tables on the men who were attempting to get control of her.

In a perfect move any of my Enforcers would admire, Sarah let her weight drop forward so the guy behind her was off balance, then twisted her hip and threw him to the ground. The other guy snarled something at her but she didn’t bother to respond, instead giving him a punch to the throat followed by a swift kick to his face that left me gaping. This bitch could fight.

Unfortunately for her, the fucker she’d thrown off her back was up, and I could easily see the gun in his hand aimed at her.

I was almost to them now, but still too far away to intervene. He motioned with his gun while his friend remained slumped on the ground, obviously knocked out by Sarah’s roundhouse kick to his head. Now, most females I know would be crying, begging, and pleading for their lives if some guy held a gun on them, but Sarah did none of those things. No, that ballsy bitch was pointing her finger at him like she was the one who held the gun, as fierce as any mythological Valkyrie who’d ever confronted her enemy.

I got shoved from behind by some bearded drunk dude running past me with his bitch then I glanced over my shoulder to see what was headed my way.

My gut tightened as I spotted a group of five men in the distance briefly illuminated by a big set of portable lights and random fires. They weren’t wearing cuts, and their lower faces were covered by the kind of mask I wore while riding to protect my lower face in dust storms. It obscured their features and in the low lighting, I had no idea who they were, but they were armed and they were carefully sweeping through the area where Iron Horse had been throwing their party with a military precision. Hit squad for sure. So far they seemed to be shooting to wound, and I knew they were on the hunt.

A gunshot sounded loud enough behind me that my ears rang with it. I shoved my way through the fleeing people, fully expecting to see Sarah either dead or seriously wounded, and instead I found her shooting out the guy’s knee-caps—with his own gun.

Then she shot him right in the dick.

Right in the fuckin’ dick.

Talk about insult to injury.

The casual brutality of the act, the cool and precise way she’d placed those shots, made me proud. Yeah, it was fucked-up to find the fact she was a stone-cold killer exhilarating, but a strong man needed a strong woman. I’d had more than one relationship fail because the woman couldn’t handle the violence of my life. The beautiful blonde I was starting at wouldn’t blink at some of the shit I had to do in order to keep my people safe. I knew this because she smiled down at the man screaming in agony and appeared to be telling him something while he writhed in the dirt.

Jogging now, I quickly made my way to her, intent on sweeping her up and getting her the fuck out of here. As soon as I got close, she whirled to face me in a shooter’s crouched stance, and I was pretty sure I was staring death in the face. An exquisite death for sure, but I wasn’t done enjoying my life yet.

“Easy, baby, it’s Beach. I’m friendly, yeah?”

The gun lowered and she gave the downed guy to her left a kick in the face with her sexy-as-hell boots that made the unconscious man moan in reflexive pain. “Yeah, but I got this, so off you go. I’ll email you or something. Later.”

“What?”

“I said I got this, so
largate
.”

“You want me to leave you alone? Here? Are you for fuckin’ real?” I threw out my arm. “Take a look around you. Bad shit is going down and you do not fuckin’ need to be here.”

Waving the gun at me, her finger carefully off the trigger, she sneered. “Really? Bad shit is happening? I didn’t notice because I was too busy being kidnapped by these soon-to-be-dead motherfuckers.”

I momentarily forgot the hit squad behind me, until a loud bang followed by a burning line of heat across my calf had me shouting out in surprised pain while Sarah dove for cover.

“Fucking shit,” I hissed as I scrambled to the dubious safety of an overturned chair and checked my leg.

My calf had been grazed from the side, and while it burned like a bitch, I didn’t think it was too deep. Gunfire roared through the night and I lay flat while Sarah sheltered herself behind a couple stacked kegs for minimal cover, then shot back at the advancing men like some bitch out of an action movie. There was a series of roars of pain behind me, along with a shout that someone named “Gilov” was dead.

Dust pinged around her as they returned fire, but it was far less than earlier. Anger roared through me and I pulled out my own gun, returning fire as I tried to limp my way to where an RV stood. I know I managed to hit at least one of them, and the gunshots ceased. My ears rang from all the explosions and I couldn’t hear shit outside my pounding heart. Dancing lights from the fires flickered over the mostly deserted area as I grit my teeth against the pain of putting weight on my leg. When someone grabbed me beneath my arms and began to drag me, I almost put a bullet into the person’s chest until I realized the body pressed up against mine was female with big round tits.

Sarah.

She hauled me across the open space while I favored my injured leg. “Woman, get the fuck out of here and get safe. I didn’t come back for you so you could get yourself killed. Now go, run!”

Ignoring me, her breath coming out in harsh grunts as she continued to take a good deal of my weight, she paused when the way became obscured by people who were terrified and running. I could see some Iron Horse men in a large group coming our way in the distance, and movement here and there that could be random people or hitmen. Either way, I needed to get her the fuck out and safe before I went back out to regroup with my brothers.

“
Mija
, let me go. Get safe and I’ll come for you.”

“Shut up. You’re beginning to sound like an ungrateful little bitch. I am not leaving you behind, and you’re going to help me get your heavy ass to cover before they regroup. Someone’s going to die soon, and I’d rather it not be us.”

Doing everything I could to help us move faster, I grit out through the pain, “I’m gonna spank your ass—”

Gunfire thundered through the air now from somewhere to our left with an ear-piercing boom and I struggled to stand up, but she had some kind of fucking hold on me that kept me confined in her grip, as helpless as a baby kitten.

If I didn’t think it was impossible I’d say she had some kind of Special Ops training, but a style I wasn’t familiar with.

My ears rang and I had to shout, “Sarah, fuckin’ listen to me, you need to get out of here, men are—”