Sour Cherry(27)

“Dillan said he never got it, that you were supposed to be there at ten and you never showed.” Ryder set both elbows on his knees. “What note told you to be there at nine?”

My shoulders sank with my heart. I’d thrown away the one piece of evidence I had to prove my innocence. “I don’t have it anymore.”

“So you just want me to believe you?” His tone grew dark, along with his eyes. The President of Outriggers Motorcycle Club stared back at me, not Ryder, and it suddenly dawned on me that I wouldn’t leave this room.

I bolted upright and he did the same. “The guys I gave the package to posed as Hell’s Angels. How was I supposed to know the difference?” My explanation seemed pointless as Ryder advanced on me.

Backing myself down the hallway, I struggled to hear through my heart pounding in my ears. My feet shuffled on the hardwood floor, my hands steadying me against the walls on either side of me. I kept my breathing even through some miracle as Ryder followed. I had a small revolver in the top of my dresser drawer—at least I had before I’d run off. The club might have taken it when they searched my apartment.

“You were the one person I trusted with that delivery, Cherry. All you had to do was show up on time and hand it off. Do you know what you cost me?!” Ryder shouted.

I lunged into my room, effectively knocking the air from my lungs in one exhale when I landed on my side, but kicked the door shut behind me. The lock had broken long ago and I scrambled toward my bedroom window for a way out. The door slammed against the wall behind me right as I threw myself onto the fire escape. I took less than two seconds to right myself, but a hand flew out the window and griped my upper arm, right where I’d been shot earlier.

The pain sent white dots across my vision and ripped a scream from my throat. Ryder tried to force me back inside, but I could only focus on the flames licking straight down my arm and even into my chest as I wrenched my arm out of his grasp. Falling back onto the fire escape, I heard shouts inside my apartment and forced my feet down the stairs as Ryder’s attention was diverted toward the hallway.

With a glance over my shoulder, I saw Ryder had disappeared. A single gunshot echoed down into the alley between my building and the next, but I refused to stop. I hit the pavement, ignoring the tingling sensation in my toes from the jolt, and ran.

****

I’d left Cooper’s keys in the apartment and I definitely couldn’t go back, but I didn’t know how I’d get to the warehouse either. The friends I’d made consisted of groupies for the MC and I didn’t dare ask for help in case they turned me over.

The club had once been a home away from home for me. Now, however, it seemed running guns, drugs, and laundering cash had taken our focus over the past year. Can’t say it wasn’t partly my fault. I’d voted Ryder in, even supported some of his extracurricular activates to bring the club more cash. A lot of good my support did. Corrupt son of a bitch.

I kicked small rocks out of my way as I walked Ogden Avenue. Satan’s Army territory protected me from my club, but who knew when or if one of Vasquez’s guys would try to turn me over. Staying behind enemy lines would only be temporary, but I had no clue where I’d go next.

My plans to leave Vegas dimmed as I realized I wouldn’t be safe anywhere. I’d made an oath for life with the Outriggers and they’d never stop until I fulfilled my promise. I could run forever, assume another name, hell, maybe even settle down, but I’d always be looking over my shoulder or listening for the rumble of a bike.

That left me with only one option to avoid death at the hands of the Outriggers: I had to convince them of Ryder’s corruption.

Besides, the man I wanted was here and I wasn’t ready to give him up. I’d only met Cooper a week ago, but in that time, he’d saved my life—twice—and given me hope for a normal life. With him, I saw a future without guns, drugs, blood, and bad sex. Who could say no to that?

I laughed at my own stupidity as I rounded the corner of Ogden and Fourth. Cooper was CIA. He had no intentions of leaving as far as I could tell and I’d never have the balls to ask. “Somebody better send you back to school because you forgot how to leave guys behind without a second thought, idiot,” I muttered to myself.

“Cherry!”

The sound of my name drowned out the rest of my chastisements.

I froze in the middle of the sidewalk. No one knew where I was. Unless they’d followed me from my apartment. I stopped for only a second then quickened my pace, remembering where I was; Satan’s Army territory. Rounding yet another corner, this time onto Freemont Street, I decided to take my chances in the middle of chaos. Perhaps the crowds gathering for the Freemont Experience would actually be good for something other than making traffic a living nightmare. I entered the throng in a hurry. I didn’t care who’d followed me. It didn’t matter. Getting to my club and convincing them to overturn their presidential vote had made its way to the top of my list the second I’d jumped out onto my fire escape. I couldn’t take the chance of getting caught before then.