Page 45 of Single Mom for the Bikers

“You sure?”

I’m fucking eager to get back to the clubhouse to see what happened with Shel tonight. I know she talked to Sledge this afternoon about what she wants. The thought of what could have happened while I’m stuck at the bar has been driving me crazy. I’m fucking jealous. Not of them touching her. I trust Sledge and Phoenix with my life. But because I want to fucking be there, too.

Maybe she’s still awake enough for a round two.

“Yeah, get back to your woman. I heard?—”

The whole fucking building rumbles with the force of a nearby explosion. Glass crashes to the floor and the door alarm starts blaring. Outside, there's a chorus of car alarms. There aren’t a lot of people still in the bar, but enough to cause a little chaos.

Quickshot vaults over the bar. “Go get everyone out the back. Make sure all the girls are?—”

“Like fuck I will. You have a baby at home. I’m not telling Natalie that I let you run into whatever the fuck just happened while I ran the other way. I’m going out there, you go to the back.”

He looks like he wants to argue, but nods and makes a break for the stage to check on any of the women who might still be left. Wild Child and Ripper come barreling out from behind the bar. They must’ve heard what happened from the office. We start heading for the door when a second explosion blows out the whole front wall of the building.

Debris flies through the air like shrapnel, tearing at my face and arms. The three of us are knocked back, and I hope to fuck nobody was any closer. If I hadn’t wasted those few seconds arguing with Quickshot, it would’ve been over. I can hardly fucking breathe. Soot and blackened particles float through the air, and there’s already sirens coming closer.

People are screaming outside, or at least I think that’s what I hear. My ears are ringing like fucking church bells. “Stay back! That might not be the end of it!”

“Everyone still got all their fingers and toes?” Wild Child yells.

Ripper lets out an anguished scream and holds up his stump hand. “Fuck! Oh wait. I was already down five fingers. Never mind.” He lost that hand years ago, but not his dark sense of humor.

“Who’s in there?” Sledge bellows from outside.

“Havoc!” Shelby screams. “Let me go, Phoenix. He was in there!”

I get as close as I dare, both because there might be another bomb, and because things aren’t looking real stable. “Still breathing! Stay the fuck back!”

“Do you hear that?” Wild Child asks, going still.

Me and Ripper pause, listening. There’s a woman screaming for help.

“Fuck! It’s the apartment upstairs.”

The floor directly above the Roost is partly rooms for the bar, but the building has residential apartments as well, and one is right above the entrance.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I growl as we run past the bar and head upstairs to see what we can do.

There’s an emergency exit into a shared hallway from the second floor. I throw it open, and immediately a cloud of dark smoke billows in. I can’t tell where it’s coming from.

After a moment, it clears a little as it drains into the Roost. There’s several apartments in this hall, along with stairs going down and up. But the apartment we’re looking for is gonna be towards the front.

We gotta be fast. I'm no fucking hero, but fuck if I'm gonna let someone burn in if I can help it. No death worse than that.

Except maybe what I'm gonna do to the fuckers who started this.

“Over here,” Ripper gestures with his metal prosthesis.

I put my hand on the door he pointed at. It’s warm but not so hot that I’m getting burnt. “Someone in there?”

A female voice screams from the other side. I try to remember who lives there. Some college kids I think. The only people willing to deal with living directly over a biker bar.

“The hallway’s safe. Come out!”

Quickshot shakes his head. There’s blood trickling down his face from a cut over his eye. “I think she would if she could.”

“Out of the way!” Barreling down the hall like a fucking manic, Sledge charges past, leading with his shoulder, and slams into the door. There's a splintering crack and it slams open. More smoke billows out immediately.

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