Under Fire (Winged Enemy MC Romance) (7 page)

I let them go without a fight. I couldn’t blame them for wanting to take a break, but I wasn’t going to go chasing after them and demand that Jed let me ride on the back of Nightshade. As much as I loved that bike and the feelings that it always created in my body, I was too conflicted to want to put myself through that at the moment and have that power taken away from me. Kat’s words when we first met still stuck with me, about how I was another girl breathless from the bike’s incessant vibrations.

Well screw her, anyway! I threw a notebook across the room. Who does she think she is coming in here and making me feel so shitty about myself?

I knew that it wasn’t anything that Kat was actively doing, though. She was just a plain better match for Jed than I was, and I knew it. I didn’t sense any hostility from her but I just couldn’t let myself try and get to know her.

Ugh.

I turned back to the work of trying to force some sort of order in the apparent chaos. There was still a suspicion creeping in the back of my mind that Frank had left everything in some sort of precise arrangement, and if we only knew what the key to deciphering it was we would be able to find everything we needed.

My feet went on the desk as I let my eyes close and my mind work.
If we can draw some sort of pattern maybe we’ll be able to crack this. We should start taking notes on what topics come up the most often and the most randomly, and maybe we can luck out to try and find some matches. I should probably try to get some of the code guys in here from the office and see if they can makes sense of any of this. It would help if -

A huge boom interrupted my thoughts.

The shock wave rattled the windows and the building swayed underneath the chair enough that I almost tipped over.

What the fuck was that?

I sprang to my feet and listened. There was a lot of shouting going on down in the shop.

At least whatever that was didn’t kill everyone!
It had been one powerful explosion, whatever it was.

I ran out the door and down the stairs as fast as my feet could take me. I didn’t let my mind race ahead of me to what I might find. About who had just been leaving and most likely to be the target of a bomb.

All of the men who had been in the shop when I’d arrived were standing out on the driveway. I saw pieces of debris strewn across the ground visible through the open garage doors. Twisted chunks of metal, and most of them were black.
Oh god.

I sprinted towards the exit and pushed my way through a few men. Everyone stared at a heap of smoking leather and denim lying on the ground. Kat knelt beside the pile, hands hovering above the body.

“Jed!” My throat went raw from the intensity of my shout. I skidded to a stop on the opposite side from Kat and dropped to my knees on the hard asphalt.

Kat had rolled him onto his back. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

I felt for a pulse, but didn’t get anything. It was impossible to tell if it was because there was nothing to feel or if my hands were shaking too much. When I leaned down close to his face I could feel the bare whisper of a breath.

His face was cut up and bleeding. Kat had torn a piece of her shirt off and was blotting the worst of the gashes. I did the same with my shirt and tried to figure out where the fabric would be put to best use.

I looked up at the closest man. It was Zach, straining to get a close view of Jed around me and Kat. His face was scrunched up.

“Zach, go get the first aid kit from the garage and call an ambulance, got it?” He nodded, but didn’t move. “Zach! Go!”

“Right, sorry Leslie.” The teenager ran off inside.

“What happened?” I asked Kat, eyes narrowed.

“We had just gotten out to our bikes and climbed on. When Jed started Nightshade he said that something didn’t sound right and we started to take a look at it. I didn’t see anything before he grabbed me and shoved me away. A second later the bike exploded.” Kat looked down at Jed and continued to work on his face gingerly. “I’ve never seen anything like it. If he didn’t pull my face away from the bike I would have been a goner.”

I looked at the unconscious man. Always trying to be the hero.
Damn it, Jed.

Tim came close. “Is there anything you want us to do, Leslie?”

At that moment Zach came back, breathless, with the kit.

“I don’t think so, Tim, I think Kat and I can hold him together until the ambulance gets here. Any more people will just get in the way. I’ll need some statements from you and the rest of the men, though, so I can get a better picture of what exactly happened here.”

“I don’t think any of us saw it happen, but I’ll make sure everyone sticks around.” He frowned as he looked at a small piece of scrap he had picked up. “What a shame. He loved that bike.”

“I know. She was a beauty.” It wasn’t something I had thought I’d ever say about a motorcycle a few months ago, but it was the truth. Jed had gone out of his way to create a unique and absolutely stunning one-of-a-kind bike that he could be proud of, and he had succeeded.

Sirens floated down the road. There wasn’t a hospital in the town, but there was one ambulance stationed at the fire station in case there was a medical emergency. Jed miraculously seemed to have escaped any life-threatening injuries, but we wouldn’t know what was happening inside of him until we got him to the hospital. I’d seen men bleed to death internally from less.

“I’m worried that he hasn’t come to yet, isn’t that a bad sign?” Kat asked me anxiously.

I gnawed on my lip. A bad habit that I couldn’t break when I got too stressed. “It’s not great. We’ll have to wait and see what the doctors say.”

The hospital waiting room was a dreary place. One lone window high in the wall provided a small stream of light that illuminated a paltry collection of ragged magazines. They were the same ones that had been here three weeks ago, and I had already read them all once while waiting for Jed to wake up from an injury.

Kat and I had driven to the hospital in my car. I had to sprint all the way home in order to pick it up, and I had seriously considered leaving Kat behind and going by myself. Her bike had gotten dinged up from the tangled shards of Nightshade and wasn’t going anywhere. If I left her behind then I wouldn’t have to deal with her and could also get the first time alone with Jed since she had rolled into town. Win win.

Unfortunately my conscious nagged at me and I couldn’t go through with it. The ride to the next town had dragged on in stony silence, neither of us willing to bend from our thoughts and make conversation. It had been one of the most awkward car rides of my life.

“Do you think he’s going to be OK?”

It seemed as though Kat wasn’t able to bear the silence anymore.

I sighed. “He should be. There’s really no way to know for sure. I didn’t see the explosion, but I felt it up in the office. I don’t know how Jed is still in one piece, to tell you the truth.”

She nibbled at her fingernail. It was kind of adorable, but I shook that thought out of my head. “I didn’t see it. I felt the heat though, and the shock wave. It felt like I got punched in the gut really hard by some giant. I didn’t even know what to think. And the ringing in my ears… I don’t want to experience anything like that ever again.”

I could almost empathize with her. She had almost died, and a man that she used to date and likely loved had saved her life while shielding her body from the brunt of the blast. It was romantic enough to make me sick to my stomach.

“Well, there’s no guarantee. After first Frank getting shanked in prison, Patrick’s death and now this, I wonder if Jed might be right and there is some sort of reckoning that’s going on with the club. I mean, I could easily see Frank getting on someone’s nerves or pissing someone off, so that wasn’t too big of a surprise, even if they haven’t found an obvious connection yet. And Patty drank way too much and drove, so that’s plausible although Jed hadn’t been convinced. This though, this was a blatant attempted murder.”

It was Kat’s turn to sigh. “You really think they’re related?”

“Of course. First time is an accident, the second time is a coincidence and the third time its enemy action. That’s three members of the brass taken down so far, and with Gus dying three weeks ago there’s only one original member left alive. That’s Nathan, who…” I trailed off.

“Oh shit!” I saw that Kat had come to the same realization I had.

I whipped out my phone and dialed Nathan. The phone rang ounce and went straight to voicemail. “No good,” I said. “You try Tim while I try Zach. We have to warn them that someone is targeting the club’s brass and that Nathan may be next.

I had finished selecting Zach’s name before I had even finished speaking to Kat. I pulled the phone to my ear.

“Hello?” Zach’s voice sounded thin, as though I was speaking to him through an old tin can connected by a string.

“Zach? It’s Leslie. Listen, do you know where Nathan is? Is he around you at all?”

“Nathan? No, why? I’m at home now, just flipped on the TV. What’s the problem?”

“Look, I need you to stay home. Don’t go out wandering, it may not be safe.”

“What’s going on Leslie? You think whatever happened to Jed wasn’t an accident?”

“That’s exactly what I think, Zach. You’re a smart kid, now stay home and lock the door. Only trust other members of the gang, you never know who might cause trouble.”

“Alright, I’ll stay here for now. Leslie… how is Jed doing?”

“I don’t know yet Zach. Stay there, OK?”

“Sure, I’ll see you later.”

I hung up, and found Kat already off her phone. “Any luck?”

“Tim was at the bar, Nathan wasn’t there. He’s going to track him down and I’ve told him to warn everyone he comes across that we may be dealing with some retribution from a few weeks ago and to stick together.”

“Good. That’s wise advice for everyone to follow until we know what we’re dealing with here.”

We sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. Every time my leg twitched I thought it was a vibration from my phone and checked it, but my screen remained stubbornly clear of any notifications.

“Excuse me, you two ladies are waiting for Jed Turner?” A nurse stood at the hallway.

“That’s right,” I said. “Can we see him?”

“Sure, he’s just waking up now.”

We walked side by side as we followed the nurse to Jed’s room. I had to stop myself from grabbing her hand and giving it a comforting squeeze.
Damn it, Leslie, you’re supposed to hate her, remember.
Kat didn’t make it easy, though. I could see why Jed got along with her so well, she was a remarkably easy person to talk to, and beyond the beauty she was funny and seemingly well-intentioned.

I stepped through the door first; I wouldn’t give up that right just yet.

Jed’s eyes blinked wearily at me as I walked straight up to the side of the bed. I leaned down and gave him a big kiss on the lips. He responded sluggishly and I held it for longer than necessary, luxuriating in the feeling of his lips on mine. After a close call like that it was stupid to be petty and avoiding him the way I was, at least until I knew for sure if he was going to stop seeing me in favor of Kat.

When I finally broke the kiss I pulled back just a couple of inches. “You scared me, Jed. I had hoped that I wouldn’t ever have to wait for you to wake up in one of these hospital beds ever again.”

He groaned. “What happened? Trust me, I really hope this doesn’t become a habit, either.”

I sat down beside the bed to make room for Kat. She gave Jed a close hug and whispered in his ear. I caught “Thank you,” but everything beyond that were soft sibilant sounds that I couldn’t catch.

After what was far too long for me, Kat pulled back and sat down in the other bedside chair.

“So what am I doing here this time?” Jed asked. “I remember leaving the clubhouse and getting ready to take a ride, but then…” His face contorted as he tried to recall a memory that just wouldn’t come.

“There was an explosion,” Kat said with a soft voice. “Someone had rigged Nightshade to blow when it was started, and we’re both very lucky that neither of us is dead right now.”

I looked at her as she spoke. For someone who presumably had been almost as close to the source of the blast as Jed, she didn’t appear to have any injuries at all. I filed that away in the back of my organized mind.

“So Nightshade is…?”

“Gone.” I hated to be the one to say it, but it didn’t look as though Kat was able to give Jed the confirmation that he didn’t want to hear. “I’m so sorry Jed.” I reached across to take his big hand in mine. “I know how much she meant to you.”

A grimace marred his face and he looked away for a moment. His hand balled into a fist underneath mine.

I expected him to shout, yell, or try to throw something across the room. He did none of those things.

His hand relaxed under mine, and he looked from my face to Kat’s and back.

“When I find the person who did this, I’m going to kill them.” He said it calmly, with no emotion at all. I couldn’t stop a shiver running through me at how matter-of-factly he said it. There would be no discussion around it, no matter that I was a member of the government. I could tell that he didn’t care and wouldn’t hide his intent from me.