Renegade Path

Gunfire and shouting continued.

The urge to ask if everything was okay burned my tongue. But I kept my mouth shut. They were having a shoot-out. Things were obviously not okay.

Sirens pierced the air.

Cops. Shit.

My hand strayed toward the horn. But I didn’t actually see any cops. Yet.

Screams and more shouts.

“Wrap it up!” Merlin yelled. “Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“Ulfric’s down!” Whisper yelled from behind the van.

I jerked the door open and slid out, running toward the danger before I knew what I was doing. He might have brought me into this nightmare of a job tonight, but Ulfric had been good to me. If he’d been shot, I needed to help him, no matter what.

I stumbled over him just inside the door. He had one arm wrapped around a cannister. His other hand was pressed to his leg. Blood seeped out from under his fingers.

“Shit!” I knelt next to him and grabbed his arm. “Come on. Cops are coming.”

He blinked at me. “You’re s’posed to be in the van.”

“Whisper said you were down.”

He groaned as I helped lift him off the floor. Noise and shouting from the rest of the clubhouse increased. Gunfire sounded closer. We needed to get the fuck out.

I half carried, half dragged Ulfric to the back of the van. Merlin and Whisper helped me bundle him inside.

“Go grab his stash,” Merlin said.

“Cops are coming. We gotta get out of here.”

“Hurry up.” Merlin shoved me toward the open door.

I crept inside again. The cannister was right where we’d left it. I snatched it off the floor.

As I stood, there was a click behind me.

Something hard pressed into the back of my skull. “Set it down. Slow.”

Fuck.

It couldn’t be a Viper. They would’ve just blown my brains out.

“Lace your fingers behind your head.”

Nope, it was worse.

“You’re under arrest.”

Chapter Fifty-Five

Juliet

Ulfric and Roman never returned to the drive-in.

Worried, I finished closing down the ice cream shop. Usually Roman waited right outside the back door and we’d catch the rest of the second movie together.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” my co-worker, Chris, sneered at me. “He’s gonna get fired for taking off in the middle of his shift.”

I rolled my eyes. “He went to help the owner with something, so I think his job is fine.” I shooed him out of the way with the dishcloth in my hand. “Are you working or yapping?” If I didn’t stay on top of him, he’d let me do all the closing work myself.

“Working,” he grumbled.

We finished our tasks in silence and Chris left without slinging any more attitude. I checked the windows and locked the door on my way out. Outside, in the cool night air, I hesitated. Should I go home? Or wait for Roman? My gaze landed on a few other employees scattered over the grounds. There seemed to be more employees than customers.

Another horror movie was playing on the big screen to my left. I stood in the darkness watching the poor hapless babysitter hide from a knife-wielding madman for a few minutes. A chill ran down my spine. I’d been alone at the house before. But for some reason, tonight the idea of going home alone left me jittery.

I pulled out my cell phone and sent Roman a text.

Do you want me to wait or go home?

I stared at the screen for several minutes.

No answer.

He probably couldn’t check his phone. What had Ulfric roped him into?

I sat in the car, drumming my fingers against the steering wheel. Finally, I took out my phone and dialed Dex. He answered and by the background noise, I assumed he was at a party.

“Dex?”

“Give me a second, Julez.”

Eventually the noises faded and he came back on the line. “You okay, sweetheart?”

“I’m fine. I’m still at work. Roman took off with Ulfric tonight and they haven’t come back yet.” I swallowed hard. Directly asking about “club business” wasn’t allowed. It was an unspoken rule, and I’d always followed it. Until now. “Do you know where they are?”

A long silence stretched over the line. He didn’t like the question. Well, too bad. I wasn’t a little girl anymore. If Roman was involved, I was involved and Dex would just have to suck it up.

“I don’t know what Ulfric had him working on,” he finally answered. “But I’ll make some calls. See what I can find out. Do you need me to come over to the house?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

That was a lie. I’d be up all night worrying about Roman.

Dex must have heard the anxiety in my voice because when I pulled into my driveway forty-five minutes later, he was waiting for me. Casually leaning against his bike, the bright light of his phone’s screen lit up his face in an ominous way. Thank God it also helped me recognize him.

I slid the car in next to him and turned off the ignition.