Outlaw's Promise(52)

I’d never, ever rat out the club. But that image of Annabelle had actually made me consider it and that scared the shit out of me. And Trent had seen it, too: that’s why he’d smiled.

I leant low into the next bend, my anger pushing me to ride faster and faster. I have to fix this. Not by ratting out the club. Not with the club’s help, as Mac would want me to do. The club had suffered enough. I had to do this myself.

And suddenly, it was all clear to me. I had to kill Volos.

Violence and killing were what I was good at. Kill him and all my problems went away. My hands tightened on the handlebars. All I had to do was find him. But how did I do that when even the FBI couldn’t catch him?

I had the bike pushed to its limits, now, leaning hard over to make each turn. I had to find someone who’d know something. The Blood Spider’s President, Hay, had known almost nothing. Someone else….

My hand slipped from the throttle and the bike began to slow. I feathered the brakes and brought it to a stop, right in the middle of the road.

There was one other person who might know something. Someone I’d happily take apart to get the information out of him.

Someone who deserved to die.

I made a tight turn and then blasted back the way I’d come, heading towards Teston.





30





Annabelle





Back at the compound, I chopped onions and fried off chunks of steak with Mom. But once the chili was slow-cooking for the members’ return, there was nothing else to help with and she chased me out of the trailer and told me to go enjoy myself.

With most of the members helping clean up after the fire, the compound was spookily deserted. Every hour or so, the van would return to drop off another load of rescued stock, but Carrick was never in it and the faces of the Prospects driving were grim. The guilt ate me up. I checked with Scooter but there was nothing that needed fixing so I couldn’t even help out that way. And the last thing I wanted to do was sit around.#p#分页标题#e#

Eventually, I borrowed the spare bike members used while theirs was being fixed and practiced riding. It was much harder without Carrick to guide me. He was right: I didn’t have the muscle to haul the big bike’s weight around. But I’d never get stronger unless I tried.

I gritted my teeth and started riding in slow circles and figure-8s around the compound. It took all my concentration, which was a blessed relief: it took my mind off Volos. I’ll tear your club apart, the note had said. Now it had begun. What if they couldn’t stop him? What if it got so bad that they decided to—

I shook the image from my head. Stop it! Carrick and the club had promised to protect me and they would. I had to trust them. But if they wouldn’t give me up...how much would they lose?

The bike teetered and it took all my strength to keep it upright. Concentrate!

After a few hours, my thighs burned and my arms ached but I welcomed the pain: I felt like I deserved it. I only stopped when I heard the throb of approaching engines. I climbed off the bike and ran over to the clubhouse as the members rode up. But Carrick wasn’t among them. When I asked, everyone said he and Hunter had been the last ones to leave. I waited...but still he didn’t show.

Then Hunter rode up, a crate of beer strapped to the back of his saddle. “Have you seen Carrick?” I asked immediately. I was starting to get a bad feeling.

Hunter frowned. “Weird thing,” he said. “He was ahead of me. I stopped to get beer and then I saw him race past the store the other way, heading out of town.”

“What’s out that way?”

Hunter shrugged. “The highway,” he said. “Teston.”

I walked away, completely confused. Could he be going to the Blood Spiders? Why? To try to track down Volos? They’d already interrogated the Blood Spiders’ President. And there was nothing else in that direction, aside from—

I stopped dead.

Aside from my house.

I spun and raced back to Hunter, catching him as he climbed off his bike. “We have to go after him!”

“Why? What’s the matter?”

I unstrapped the beer and climbed onto the bike behind him. “He’s going to question my step-dad,” I said breathlessly. I looked him in the eye. “Hunter, he’ll kill him.”

Hunter nodded grimly. “Hold on tight.”

We roared off. And I prayed we’d be in time.





31





Carrick





The drive to Annabelle’s farm was like stepping back in time ten years. I could still remember every twist and turn of the approach...hell, I’d even been on the same bike. Except, back then, I’d been looking over my shoulder for the bikers chasing me, feeling the blood soak slowly through my t-shirt. I’d lost control right outside her house. Right...here.