Shade's Fall (The Last Riders 4)

“I didn’t mean to pry.”

“I know you didn’t.” Lily smiled tremulously, getting to her feet. Rachel reached out to steady her and Lily felt the warmth of her hand against her arm. She managed to get herself back under control with that comforting gesture.

When they went back to work, Lily was quiet at first but couldn’t remain so for long in Rachel’s cheerful presence. Rachel told her how one man had flown in from England so that she could perform her healing on his penis when he could no longer get an erection.

“I thought I would die, I was so embarrassed,” Rachel said, describing the incident. “My brothers refused to leave the room.”

Lily was laughing so hard she almost dropped a box she was carrying. “Did it work?”

“He’s had two children since then. Of course, I got a text from his wife who asked if I could turn it off again.”

Lily’s laughter bubbled over, enjoying spending the day with Rachel.

As they finished up for the day, Lily got a text from Beth, telling her to meet her at the fair when she was done. They had worked most of the day and only had a fourth of the store completed.

“See you next Saturday?” Rachel asked as they grabbed their purses.

“Absolutely.”

They left each other in the parking lot, each heading their own way.

Lily went home and showered, changing into a pale blue sundress then a matching sweater in case the night turned cool.

She drove to the outskirts of town to the fairgrounds, where there was already a huge crowd. She managed to find a parking spot at the end and began the trek toward the fair when Lily heard several motorcycles pull in.

She glanced back, expecting to see some of The Last Riders or even a Destructor, but she didn’t recognize the jackets of the riders pulling in. Lily wondered how Treepoint was going to deal with yet another motorcycle club.

Chapter 5

Lily got in line to purchase her entrance tickets, texting Beth that she was at the fairgrounds. After purchasing her ticket, she wandered through the various booths before Beth texted back that they were on their way to meet her. Lily smiled when she read Beth’s text that said Razer had decided to hit the hot dog stand when they’d arrived, thinking it was more likely Beth had joined him in getting one.

Lily stopped at one of the booths, looking over the delicate glass figurines. There was one of a delicate flower with a tiny crystal raindrop dangling from one of the petals. It was beautiful.

“How much?” Lily was in awe of the skill it must have taken to make the beautiful art.

“Twenty,” the vendor quoted. Lily reached into the pocket of her sundress for her money, pulling out a twenty, unable to resist the buy.

“Thank you,” Lily said, taking the piece, which had been wrapped in tissue paper. Afraid it would become damaged if she packed it around for the rest of the evening, Lily decided to take it back to her car.

Texting Beth that she would be right back, Lily walked back to the parking lot. It was just beginning to get dark, yet there was still plenty of light. She was halfway back to her car when she had the feeling she was being watched. Lily looked around casually. There were several people still coming and going to the fair, so she didn’t worry about her safety; however, she began to feel uncomfortable and didn’t understand why.

She was almost to her car when a truck door slammed shut. Lily swallowed hard when she recognized who had gotten out of the truck. He was already striding angrily toward her.

“You fucking bitch!” Gaige stopped in front of her, looking down at her angrily. He had a busted-up lip and a black eye that was half-closed.

“Gaige,” Lily greeted him, despite his hateful words.

“I hope you’re happy. I lost my job because of you. How am I supposed to feed my kids with no job?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to be fired,” Lily said, taking a step back at his aggressive stance.

“I was only joking around.”

“It didn’t feel very funny when you put your hand on my butt,” Lily snapped.

“Then you sent Train to beat the hell out of my face.”

“I didn’t,” Lily protested.

“At least I got out of there before Shade came after me. Now I have to leave town for a few days. He’s been all over town looking for me today. You need to call that psycho off.”

“I’ll talk to him,” Lily promised.

“You do that, because if he comes after me, when he’s finished I’m going to come after you,” he threatened.

Ripping the tissue with the delicate glass from her hand, he tore the fragile tissue away. “Well, isn’t that pretty.” Turning sideways, he threw the glass at her windshield, breaking both in a shatter of flying glass.

Lily gasped as tears came to her eyes at the wanton destruction of something so beautiful. She didn’t care about the windshield; she was more upset about losing the glass figurine. She hardly ever splurged and bought herself something like that.

He caught her arm in a tight grip when she would have stepped back.

“Now is that any way to treat a woman?” a hard voice came from behind her. From Gaige’s widening eyes, she could tell it wasn’t good. Turning her head, she saw the motorcycle riders that had pulled in after she had arrived coming to her aid.

“I don’t want any trouble with you,” Gaige said. This time it was him taking a step back at the three men coming toward him, releasing his tight hold of her arm.

“I hate it when pussies start crying before I can even get my hands on them,” the biggest one complained. He was huge, almost rivaling Knox in size. While Knox appeared fiercer, this man looked like he would beat the crap out of you while laughing about doing it.

The remaining two, on the other hand, didn’t look like they ever laughed. One was blond with a look of hardness and the other was just plain scary with his dark hair and scar down his cheek.

“Pretty little thing here don’t need to watch me beat the shit out of you, so why don’t we go over here and take care of some business.” The huge man slung a meaty arm around Gaige’s shoulder, turning him toward a group of trees. Gaige’s frightened expression tugged at Lily’s conscience.

“Wait, he just lost his temper.”

“That’s okay, sweet thing, I’m going to help him find it.” He was leading a struggling Gaige away.

Lily took a step forward when she felt an arm slide around her waist. “Let Max deal with him. He can’t look much worse than he does now,” an amused voice said in her ear.

Lily stiffened, beginning to get frightened.

“Lily!” Beth’s yell as she drew closer was cut off when Razer grabbed her arm, preventing her from coming any closer.

Lily turned her head as The Last Riders appeared in mass.

Viper, Cash, Razer, Shade, Train and Rider were covering the parking lot with the rest of their members following behind while the women members kept Beth from running to her sister.

“Want to take a bet on which one she belongs to?” the one with his arm around her waist spoke.

“Don’t have to. I know,” the dark-haired one said in amusement, moving in front of Lily and blocking her from view.

“Let me go.” Lily tried to wiggle from the grasp around her waist.

“Calm down. I’m going to let you go.”

Viper’s harsh voice could be heard over the thrumming of her heart. “Let her go.”

The one with Gaige in a stranglehold turned back, moving closer to his friends.

“I have every intention of letting this sweet thing go. We’re not out for trouble; just passing through.” He nodded his head at Gaige. “Found him giving her some trouble.” Nodding his head at Lily’s car, he then said, “Decided to step in. Seeing she’s yours, we’ll step back.” His arm slid away from Lily, releasing her.

Lily took a step forward toward Razer while none of the men took their eyes off each other. The one with the scar stepped to the side. When Lil

y passed him, she brushed against him and his jacket moved to the side. Lily saw the gun clipped to his waist. Terror almost took hold of her, yet Lily knew she didn’t want anyone hurt.

“He’s telling the truth, Viper. Gaige was angry that he got fired and they made him leave me alone.”

“Lily, go to your sister,” Shade spoke.

Lily had done what she could, so she went to Beth. Neither group of bikers was interested in her opinion at this point. It was now a standoff between the two groups.

“Are you all right?” Beth asked.

“I’m fine,” Lily answered, turning around to see what was going on.

Seeing the one called Max hand over Gaige to Shade, Lily started to go back.