“Let her go. If he starts shooting in a small room, any of those women could be hit by a bullet. If she could get his back to the door, then we can take him,” Shade said grimly.
Stud hesitated before agreeing.
Sex Piston went to the door alone and unlocked it. Then, holding it open, the men moved silently into the shop, hiding behind the counter, trying to keep their reflections from the mirrors.
At Shade’s nod, Sex Piston walked toward the back of the shop while Shade and Stud maneuvered themselves closer to her, trying to stay out of Joker’s line of vision.
Stud had a gun in his hand while Shade’s remained empty, but he wasn’t worried about it. He wanted his bare hands on the mother fucker, and with the deadly look in his eyes, he was every bit as frightening.
Joker jerked the pistol toward Sex Piston when he saw her in the doorway. Shade managed to see past her to where Crazy Bitch was kneeling on the floor, her lip bloodied and a bruise forming on her cheek. Killyama was holding Lily protectively, Lily’s hand a mangled mess. Joker must have found the cell phone lying on the floor. T.A. and Fat Louise were standing on opposite sides of the room.
The amazing thing to Shade was that none of Sex Piston’s crew were showing fear. Shade, during the time he had been in the military, had seen men break down under pressure, whereas those women were holding it together.
“Looks like you’ve been busy, Joker,” Sex Piston smarted off.
“Where’s Dale?” he asked, his eyes going to the doorway behind her.
“He said to tell you to go fuck yourself and took off,” she taunted the man.
“You’re lying!”
“No, I’m not. When we got outside, he took off.” Sex Piston shrugged, looking at one of the women in the room. “I always told you he was a pussy.”
Joker moved toward her, and Sex Piston tried to shift to the side so she could get his back to the door, but Joker was too lost in his anger. Reacting violently, he grabbed Sex Piston.
However, before he could do anything, Killyama was on him. She picked up one of the break chairs and crashed it down on the back of his head.
Stud and Shade were already running in, but they couldn’t get past Sex Piston fast enough and into the small room before Joker fired his gun.
As the women screamed, Shade had to force himself to go for Joker, despite his first instinct to rush to Lily.
He managed to grab the gun away from Joker. Turning it to point directly at him, Shade fired a bullet into the side of Joker’s abdomen. When he killed the fucker, it wasn’t going to be painless—Joker was going to suffer the terror Shade had felt trying to reach Lily.
“That will keep you busy,” Shade’s voice was cold.
Shade ran past Crazy Bitch who was getting to her feet while Lily shakily scooted closer to Fat Louise as T.A. rushed over to them. Fat Louise was lying on the floor with blood pouring from her leg. T.A. grabbed some towels from the shelf to try to stop the bleeding as Lily sank down next to her, taking Fat Louise’s hand with her good one. Her other hand fell uselessly to her lap as Bear and Pike came in the door.
“The state police are outside, and an ambulance is on the way,” Bear informed them.
Shade stood, letting Lily comfort the woman while fighting off the need to reach down and take her into his arms.
“You’re going to be okay,” Sex Piston told her friend.
Fat Louise nodded, trusting her friend’s judgment without question. Shade had never witnessed the depth of friendship the women shared. The Last Rider’s women were friends with each other and got along well, but those five women would die for each other.
The women finally moved away as the ambulance technicians came through the door. It was too cramped in the small room, so everyone was forced to move outside to the front of the shop as they worked on Fat Louise and checked on Lily, who was turning pale. The red rubber band on her broken wrist was a reminder that she might not be handling the situation as well as she seemed, and Shade wanted nothing more than to be with Lily.
He was about to go back to the room where she was being treated when two state troopers came into the shop. They had waited until the technicians had cleared out. If he made a fuss, he knew they would arrest him, and Shade didn’t want to be locked up behind bars when Lily needed him.
One approached Sex Piston, asking questions, while the other came to him. He told them the story from being on the call with Razer when Lily called to disarming Joker.
Part of the way through being questioned, Shade noticed Killyama was moving toward Sex Piston, but Shade stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, ignoring the officer.
“I saw you putting yourself in front of Lily.” His hard face stared at the obnoxious woman. “Then you tried to take that bastard out before we could touch him. If you still want that ride with Rider, it’s yours.”
Killyama’s face broke into a vindictive smile. “I’ll take you up on that, Shade.”
Shaking his head, he turned back to the man questioning him.
The trooper had just finished questioning Shade when a stretcher with Lily on it was rolled out. He quickly followed them out the door, daring anyone to try to stop him. His hands clenched at his sides as he saw her face had become even paler.
There were two ambulances outside. The EMTs lifted Lily’s gurney into the back of the one not holding Joker, and Shade followed in.
“You can’t ride in here.” The EMT gave him a stern look, which he returned with one of his own.
“I’m family.” Shade took a seat on the bench next to Lily who was staring at him with wide eyes at his answer. After they put an emergency splint on Lily’s wrist, Shade reached out, gently touching it.
“You doing okay?”
“Yes.” Her lips trembled, and she began shaking. Her violet eyes darkened as they stared up at him. “I’m not acting like a baby this time; did you notice?”
“I noticed.” His voice was hoarse. He knew the signs of shock, and Lily was beginning to exhibit them.
“Get an IV in now!” Shade snapped at the EMT who was making notes on his pad.
The man jumped, laying the pad down then looking at her blood pressure.
Shade scooted off the bench to lean over her gurney. “Lily, did you get hurt anywhere else?”
“I bumped my head when I fell.”
Shade looked at her blood pressure. “Get the fucking IV in now, or I will.”
As the EMT reached into the cabinet, taking out the IV bag, his eyes met Shade’s, both of them aware of what was happening. A few seconds later, she slipped into unconsciousness.
Shade yelled out to the driver, who turned on the siren and picked up speed. The EMT worked on her while Shade backed out of the way.
The ambulance came to a stop at the emergency room entrance and Shade jumped out of the back, already getting Lily’s stretcher before the driver could get out to help.
“Go wait in the lobby. Someone will be out to talk to you soon.”
Shade tried to follow them inside the entrance, but two security guards blocked his path. Shade wanted them concentrating on Lily, not him, so he backed off until he heard Lily’s scream of pain outside the door. Shade lost it at the realization that she had come to, was in pain, and he wasn’t with her.
Shade tried to get inside where the patients were being treated, but the two guards held him back, threatening to place him under arrest. He just slammed the men together, knocking them on their asses.
“Shade.” Sex Piston tried to intervene, but when he turned angrily toward her, she hastily backed away.
She didn’t have to worry. Shade wasn’t going to touch her; he only wanted her to back off so he could bust down the door separating him from Lily.
The sliding doors opened behind them and Stud, Viper, and Razer entered, seeing him banging on the door with his booted heel.
Razer and Viper tore Shade away from the door while Stud helped the security guards to their feet. He wanted to knock them b
ack down again, but Stud moved them farther away.
Shade shook off Viper then rounded on Razer, throwing him up against the wall, his forearm pressed against Razer’s throat. “I’m fucking done. You hear me, Razer?”
Razer managed to nod against the pressure Shade was exerting against his throat.
“That woman in there could die, and I haven’t even been able to touch her yet, feel her against me, or even fucking kiss her, because I’ve let what little conscience I have left and my friendship with you stop me. No more. You deal with Beth however you want, but I’m done with everyone telling me to stay away from her. Do you fucking understand me?”
Again, Razer nodded.
Shade stepped back, moving away from both Viper and Razer, who stood watching while he fought for control. Running a shaking hand over his short-cropped hair, he finally managed to gather himself before turning back and catching sight of Sex Piston.
The sudden blaring over the intercom calling a code had his eyes going wild again. Shade took a step toward the closed door when Sex Piston blocked his path, grabbing his shirt in a tight grip.