Bounty:Fury Riders MC(41)

"How long do we have?"



I checked my watch. "Four and a half minutes." I looked at the door,  then at her. "This is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna open the door and  go out, and I want you to run. Just fucking run as fast as you can. Go  and don't look back. Got it?"



"Where will you be?"



"I'll be right behind you. I'll be shielding you." I looked at the man  on the floor. He had a gun his waistband. Why the hell hadn't he pulled  it? He might have thought he was saving me for York. The joke was on  him. I took it. It was loaded.



"Scratch that. I'll cover you. The important thing to me is that you get  out safe. Keep running. The guys are at the end of the lot, on the  street. We drove here in black SUVs. They'll be waiting. All right? Just  run and don't look back. Please promise you won't look back or even  slow down for a second until you reach the cars."



"I promise." She was still softly crying.



I kissed her, hard. I hoped it wasn't for the last time.



"All right. Let's go." Just as we turned to the door, it opened. I  pushed Erica behind me, leveling the gun at the person coming through.



It was Onyx.





Chapter Twenty-Nine





Seeing him there knocked the breath from my body. I knew he worked with  York. I knew he kidnapped Erica. But seeing him made it really real.



I shook myself. There was no time to think about that. I looked at my  watch. Four minutes to go. Ralph's C-4 would blow us all to pieces.  Leave it to Onyx to get in the way now. I looked at him, hoping he was  together enough to remember our friendship. I would need him to remember  that if we had a chance of getting out alive.         

     



 



"Onyx. Let us go." I held Erica behind me, shielding her. "York's dead. It's over, man."



"I know." He stared at me, his voice flat. Was he thinking about killing us where we stood?



I kept my voice tight, controlled. "I don't wanna have to hurt you, but I will if you don't let us go."



He laughed harshly. "What difference does it make if you kill me or not?  I'm a fucking dead man either way." He looked over my shoulder at  Erica. "You're right. I have nothing now."



I wondered how much they'd been talking about before I got there. It  didn't make a difference. I was desperate, knowing the clock was  ticking. But I couldn't leave him behind. My conscience would kill me  every day for the rest of my life, no matter what he did to the club and  me.



"You have to come with us," I said. "And we have to hurry. Let's go."



"For what? So you can kill me?" He shook his head.



I could have screamed with frustration. Why was he being so difficult?  My heart raced, my body shook with the need to run. I couldn't run  without him. "Nobody has to die. Shit, you don't even have to come with  me. You can leave, run away. I won't tell them, and neither will Erica."



"I swear," she whispered from behind me.



"I don't deserve it. I turned by back on everything. I let him use me."



"We can talk about it later. We have to go, now!" I heard Erica  whimpering behind me. I knew that if it came down to the choice, I would  choose her. I'd run. But I had to give Onyx a chance to live, too. I  didn't want him dead after everything.



He still shook his head. I looked at my watch again. Three and a half minutes left.



"Onyx … " I hesitated, wondering if I should tell him. I didn't wanna give  him time to alert the rest of the Wolves, but I had to give us all time  to leave. Would he tell them? Could I trust him?



I felt Erica's hand squeezing mine. Reminding me we had to leave.



"Ralph rigged the place with explosives. We only have a little over three minutes before it blows."



He didn't even look surprised. "I knew you would do something," he said.  "You couldn't just walk in here and take her. I would be disappointed  if you did."



"Come with us," I said. "Just run, you know? You don't have to go to the  clubhouse. You can go anywhere, do anything. Nobody has to know.  They'll think you died here. We won't tell them."



"Like Lance? Living on the run? Shit, the club is the only life I know. I  couldn't live like a normal person. I don't blend in either." He  motioned to his face. "It's better this way. I don't have anything  anymore. I don't even have self-respect. Let me go, brother."



Two minutes. Time was slipping by too fast. "I can't."



"Even after what I did?" His voice was almost a whisper.



"Yes. You're still my best friend. I can't let go of that just because you fucked up. Come with us, please."



It looked like he was thinking it over. We had a minute and a half to  get out of the building and far enough from it to avoid the blast. "It's  now or never, man. Come on. We've gotta go, now."



"No, I won't go with you. But I'll cover you." He pulled his gun.



"It's suicide," I whispered. I was horrified.



He smiled grimly. "I know. Better to go this way than put a bullet in my  head. You don't know how many times I thought about doing that tonight  when I knew I had nowhere to go after this."



Erica squeezed my hand again. I knew we had to do it, though my chest  ached when I thought of my best friend giving up his life like this.



He sounded very tired when he said, "You would do it for me. Or you  would have before I fucked it all up. Let me make it right, a little."



I couldn't spend any more time trying to convince him. I felt the clock  ticking away the last seconds of his life, and maybe of mine if we  didn't run soon.



I nodded, crossing the room. "I love you, brother," I said, hugging him briefly.



"Same here. I'm sorry." He looked at Erica, standing to my side. "I'm sorry."



"I know," she said. She was crying.



He looked at the door. "Let's do this. Stay low behind me."



I checked my watch. Thirty seconds.



So much happened at all once. He opened the door quickly but quietly-not  that it mattered, since the music from the radio was blaring so loudly.  It was still a celebration as far as they were concerned. At first,  nobody even looked up.



Onyx walked out in front of us, shielding us with his big body. He waved us on.



"Come on," I whispered, taking Erica's hand and pushing her out first. I  wanted to be behind her on the way to the door. If shooting started, I  wanted to be between her and them. We dashed for the door.         

     



 



"Hey! Wait!" Chairs overturning, bottles breaking. Shots fired. Erica  screamed, but I pushed her on, screaming back for her to keep moving. I  didn't dare turn around. I could only hope Onyx had got a few of them  before they took him out. The door was just in front of us.



We ran out the door, flying past the long row of bikes along the front  wall. "Run!" I screamed. I took her hand again, pulling her along this  time. "Keep going! Don't look back!"



We almost reached the end of the block of warehouses before the  explosion rocked us. We fell to the ground from the force of the blast. I  threw myself over Erica, protecting her from the burning bits of wood  which fell around us. Windows shattered, car alarms went off for blocks  all around.



I saw feet running toward us. I couldn't hear anything but a low  roaring. Somebody pulled me to my feet. Axel. He was screaming at me. I  couldn't hear anything but the roaring in my ears and a faint sound from  him. Like there was something over his mouth. I saw Frankie and Ralph  dragging Erica to her feet. She looked all right-in one piece. They  threw us into the back of one of the SUVs and we sped away.



It was over. I couldn't believe we made it out. I held Erica tight,  looking out the window at the inferno behind us. Ralph had done the job  and then some. The building was gone, a pile of burning rubble.



I looked down at Erica, who looked up at me. Her face was dirty and  streaked with tears. We couldn't have spoken to each other if we  tried-her ears had to be ringing as badly as mine were. We didn't need  to speak, though. I saw everything in her eyes.



***



"He covered us. He gave us the chance to escape. He was sorry for what  he did, and he told me this was his way of making it right. He wanted  you to all know how sorry he was for everything."



I looked over the room, everyone gathered on the sofas and chairs in the  lounge. It had been a few hours since we got back, but my hearing had  only started to return. Nobody could wait any longer to find out what  happened.



I knew I had to tell them about Onyx. He wouldn't have wanted me to, but  I couldn't let him die as a traitor in their eyes. They had to know he  cared enough about me, and them, in the end to do what he did.



I took a swig from my beer, thinking it over. "I honestly don't think he  had any idea how big it would get. I think York told him what he wanted  to hear, just like he did to Lance. Probably like he did to all the  guys in his club. He was a master at manipulating people. Probably a  psycho, or a sociopath. He didn't care about anybody but himself." I  shrugged. "It's over now."