Outlaw's Ride: An MC Romance by Carter Steele (books recommended by bts .txt) 📕

over and lit the rags by hand all the while keeping his gun on us keeping us from moving. The fire was slow to start, but would quickly spread being how the trailer was part house part garage. Patrick made for the exit but paused, then turned back in a few steps, picked my scarf up off the ground and smelled it. “I bet you’re wondering how I even found this place especially after our lovely girl there threw the phone away.”

Oh no… I sucked in a sharp breath but the air was heavy with dread.

I meant to fully come clean, I really did! With all the death and insanity over the past few hours I'd forgotten that I'd never told him everything about my deal with Patrick. I'd be lying if I said I was waiting for the right time. Honestly I was just terrified to admit what I'd done. Wreck had been nothing but wonderful to me and I had to go on and tell him that I betrayed him. It was too hard at the time and now he was going to find out in the worst possible way.

“Every conversation, every secret, every plan you and your club made...They were all mine.” Patrick ripped my scarf and pulled out a little device I’d never seen before. Holding it up for us both to see he marvelled at it with smug, self satisfaction. Whenever possible, Patrick could never resist letting everyone know he was the smartest person in the room. “Location pinging, audio recorder. Our dear Jezebel was working for me the whole time”

How? When had he bugged my scarf? I always had it on…

Then it dawned on me. When he found and destroyed my evidence against him, he must’ve slipped the device into the same hidden pouch in my scarf! That bastard!

“Well done. You’ve earned every bit of your freedom, girl.” Patrick threw the ruined scarf into my chest, then turned his attention back to Wreck and offered an almost mournful shake of his head. “You and your silly club never had a chance, Stewart.”

20

Wreck

“You…” The words dried up and died in my throat. I tore away from her support and staggered backwards into the club meeting table in the center of the trailer. Sarah immediately started to sign but I turned away. Looking into her eyes after what Patrick had just told me was more painful than the hole in my bicep. The tears welling my eyes and the stinging smoke that was filling the room made it hard to concentrate, but that wasn’t the real reason I couldn’t look at her. Instead I forced myself to sweep the room looking anywhere but her as if there would be any comfort left in what would soon no longer be my home. First Dunk and how we left things, then my uncle and now everyone else…

It wasn’t just the trailer. My whole world was on fire.

“Well then, I’ll be off. I’ll leave the door open for you, but I get the feeling neither of you will be leaving. Why would you? There’s nothing left for you out there.” Patrick shrugged, tucked his gun into the back of his pants and began climbing out of the trailer.

All the strength drained from my legs with that one final stab from Patrick and I fell to my knees next to the bodies of Yoga and Buck. The worst part of it all was that Patrick was right. There wasn’t anything left for me in here either. The only family I’d ever had was lying in pools of their own blood and the girl I’d fallen in love with had been selling my secrets to the enemy this whole time.

When I found the courage to look up I saw her sobbing near uncontrollably having also collapsed into a sitting position. I studied her as she fumbled with something in her pocket, hating myself for still finding her so beautiful. Even now after everything she helped Patrick do to me and my family every part of me wanted to go and hug her until the end.

Did I ever know anything real about her?

Flames were licking up the rear gate door and while I could only slightly feel the heat the ceiling was heavy with smoke. Between that and the blood loss it wouldn’t be long now. The pain was almost over.

There was suddenly more gunfire outside. Patrick’s pistol and the heavy fire of an assault rifle. Could’ve been Mikhail’s guys double-crossing Patrick or even the remnants of Billy Bones’ crew looking for revenge. Patrick sure made his fair share of enemies so much so that I wasn’t all that surprised to see him climb back into the trailer for cover. The trailer walls were reinforced against small and medium arms fire. It’d repel anything short of a rocket. If he hadn’t lit the damn thing on fire he could stay in here indefinitely. Patrick cursed between bouts of coughing as he stumbled around looking for a fire extinguisher. I could’ve told him that it was too late for that but I didn’t care anymore.

My part in this whole clusterfuck was over.

Sarah had crawled over to me and slid a well-worn picture across the floor to my hand. It was a professionally taken family-style photo that was commonly done with a department store photographer. It was of a fair-skinned woman in her mid to late forties holding a boy who couldn’t be older than ten. Both wore their Sunday best and easy summer smiles. There was no question about the resemblance. This was Sarah’s family.

I felt a pang of sympathy that Patrick made them think she was dead, but so what?

They were still alive. If Sarah wanted to, she could walk out of this inferno and go see them. I began to slide the picture back to her when she stopped me. Her hand quivering, Sarah turned the picture over. It’d been pressed flat like that for so long that I