Page 18 of Falcon

A few onlookers still watched and covered their mouths in shock as the music kept playing. Still holding the chair, my knuckles white from holding it so tightly, I swung it again but panicked when arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me away. I kicked my legs and wouldn’t let go of the chair, shouting “no” over and over.

“Darlin’, put it down.”

I looked down at the pile and my biker wasn’t in it. Tony was laid out, blood dripping down the side of his face where I landed the blow, and the sound of flesh hitting flesh filled the air as the bikers kept beating on the men. His arms squeezed tighter as he walked us backward. I let go of the chair and sagged in his arms.

My feet hit the ground and Lacy rushed over. “Holy fuck, you knocked out Tony!”

“Go grab your clothes and head on home,” my biker said.

“No!” I shouted before I could stop myself. We had maybe a few minutes to get out, but the taste of freedom was so close. Lacy and I clasped hands. “We can’t go back there.”

One of the other bikers, the black-haired guy that seemed to be in charge, shouted over the music, “We gotta get the fuck out of here. Now.”

My biker rubbed his hand down his face. “Well go get some fucking pants on and let’s go. You can’t wear that on a bike.”

Lacy squeezed my hand harder, but when I looked over her eyes were pleading. “What about my friend?”

“Both of you get your shit and let’s go before the cops show up.”

I nodded furiously and dragged Lacy toward our dressing room. Looking back, my biker had followed behind and was carrying Tony’s gun as he looked around. When we got down the hall, I told Lacy to get my change of clothes and meet me in the bathroom.

Running into the restroom, I looked around and there were feet in the stalls, but it was other dancers from the looks of their shoes, probably hiding from the chaos. I reached my hand through the hole in the counter and felt around for my cash. I was still trying to tug the whole bag down when Lacy came in with our clothes and shoes.

“Get dressed, quick.” I stopped trying to pull the bag off, yanked off my heels, and grabbed my clothes, jumping into my jeans and pulling my t-shirt over my sparkly top. Looking down at our slip-on shoes, my mouth twisted. I hadn’t ridden on a motorcycle, but I was pretty sure those weren’t recommended riding shoes. At least we had jeans and not the leggings we often wore at home.

We had no other options and had to move fast, so I slipped shoes on and then reached back under the counter. I must have taped it too well, because I couldn’t get it off. I unzipped it and started pulling cash out as Lacy watched in confusion.

The door flew open after a bang and we both jumped and screams came from the stalls. “We gotta fucking go,” my biker said as he grabbed my hand.

“But my cash!”

He didn’t even look back, just kept pulling me. “Unless you want to stick around for the cops and wait for the asshat to wake up, we’re leaving.”

He was dragging me behind him, and Lacy caught up. We rushed out the back and he pushed Lacy toward the other guy with hair like his. He picked her up and put her on his bike and she looked over at me, her eyes like saucers. He slammed a helmet on her head then climbed on as my biker lifted me onto his bike and did the same.

Once he straddled the bike, he reached back and grabbed my arms. “Hold on tight. If you fall off, you’ll lose a foot with those fucking shoes.”

Before I could say anything back, he revved the engine and all four bikes hightailed it out onto the road.

My whole body was wracked with confusion. I was tucked up right against my biker, but I didn’t grab much cash and had nothing besides that and the clothes on my back. Was I free, or riding into some more bullshit?

I wouldn’t know for a while, so for now, I let myself relax against him as I held tight. But just as I did, my body began to tremble uncontrollably.

His hand reached down and rubbed over my arm then squeezed my hand. While it didn’t help the shakes, it did give me a little reassurance. But I couldn’t be so gullible. The last two men I thought were decent humans turned out to be terrible.

Trying to focus on holding on tight, I decided I’d get with Lacy once we stopped and we could come up with a plan. For now, I was just thankful to be flying away from Tony and the hell I’d endured for months. I could at least pretend for a while that this was my biker, and I was safe.

Chapter 12

Falcon

Even though I’d envisioned this woman flush against me on the back of my bike more times than I could count since I first saw her, I didn’t think it would be this way. I had a lot of shit banging around in my head as we rode away. How the fuck did we get here? What was Hawk going to say? What would the Pakhan say? What the fuck was her real name? And who the fuck was blondie over there on the back of Eagle’s bike?

I did know one thing, we needed to pull off and get the extra helmets out. Eagle and I just tossed ours on their heads and hopped on because we didn’t have time to waste. He didn’t realize I was bringing a stray with me, and we didn’t have time to discuss it; we had to go. I sped up to grab Hawk’s attention. I raised my arm up, then motioned to the side. Hawk nodded. Once lights came into view, he held a fist up, so we all knew to stop.

We pulled into the dilapidated gas station that probably only saw a handful of regulars and was more for old man gossip than for gas. It was well off the highway and we had been driving away from the city for over half an hour, but we still had to be quick in case anyone stuck around and made a report. These ladies were scared, but not of us. Something was fucked back there, so my guess was those directly involved wouldn’t be talking.

Pulling in around the side and tucking our bikes in the shadows of the building, I cut the engine. The woman’s arms were still tight around me. I squeezed her hands, then gave them a gentle pat. “We need to hop off real quick.”

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