Page 16 of August's Ride with Arrow

Hades looks at me as if to agree with him.

After we load everything into the truck, I open the back door and ask, “Hades, will you be coming or not?”

At my words, he jumps into the back and takes a spot on the seat like he does this every day.

“I can't tell if he's more domesticated than wild or more wild than domesticated. I think it changes depending on the day,” Crank says, reaching into the back seat and petting Hades. After starting the truck, I roll the window down for Hades so he can enjoy the ride.

Thunder leads the group on his bike since he has the details of the location, and they all follow with me driving the truck in the center of all the bikes.

Not far down the road, we pull into the drive of an abandoned cabin, so we can hide the truck and the bikes on the off chance one of the Savage Bones guys happens to drive by.

“Can't believe you brought Hades along,” Thunder says, walking over and scratching Hades behind his ears.

“Pretty sure he knew something was happening because he was waiting by the truck when we got there,” Crank says as he pulls out some weapons and restraints from the truck.

“Remember, we really want to get the VP back to the clubhouse alive for some questioning, but any of the lower guys are fair game,” Thunder says, looking over at Bear and then at Crank, who both have an itch to have their way with a few of the Savage Bones guys.

Starting from the truck, Hades leads us through the woods. I’m happy to have his help.

Once the cabin is in view, we all do our best to stay hidden and watch for a while to see what we’re up against. With the sun just starting to fade, lights come on in the cabin and there’s movement as well. There are only three bikes outside, so the odds are in our favor. We outnumber them.

“Maybe we can use Hades to make some noise. They’ll hear and come to investigate. Then we could take them out right here,” I suggest to Thunder, who's crouched down next to me.

“Good idea. What do you think, Hades? You want to help us out?” Thunder reaches into his pocket and pulls out an unopened granola bar, one of Hades’s favorites. He takes the wrapper off and lets Hades sniff it. Then Thunder tosses it towards the front door of the cabin.

Hades seems to understand what we want and takes off running after his treat, barking the whole way.

Just as Hades reaches his treat, one of the low-level guys walks out the front door, slamming it open.

“What the heck do you want, mutt?” the guy says.

Thunder lines up his shot and the only answer we hear is the guy crumbling to the ground on the wooden porch.

There are some muffled shouts from the cabin before another man steps out on the porch to see what's going on.

“He was there when Lightning was shot,” Thunder whispers beside me as Bear lines up his shot.

That guy crumbles to the ground, too. Then Thunder gives the signal for all of us to move in on the cabin. I go with Thunder and Bear to the front as the rest of the guys go around the back.

Just as predicted, Fright is the last one sitting in the cabin. As we walk up, his back is to the wall and there’s a gun in each of his hands. One is pointing towards the back door, and one is pointing towards the front door. He’s swiveling, attempting to watch both of us.

With the lights on in the cabin, we can clearly see him, but we're slightly hidden by the darkness. Still, the guys that went in through the back make an appearance first, with Crank leading them. Fright takes aim at Crank and pulls the trigger, missing him like maybe an inch.

Crank hits the floor and retaliates by shooting at Fright and hitting him in the leg. Injured, he drops the gun he shot at Crank, but still has one pointed our way. While he tries to line up another shot, Bear shoots him right between the eyes, and he falls to the ground.

“What happened to bringing him in alive?” Thunder asks, shaking his head as we all holster our guns.

Bear doesn't even look sorry.

“Let's get these guys taken care of and search the cabin. Then we’ll go back to the clubhouse and update Atlas,” Thunder says, and we all get to work.

CHAPTER 8

KATHERINE

Atlas joins us in the kitchen just as we're finishing up lunch. “Would you girls mind heading to the Mercantile with some of the guys to help Ruby out? After Savage Bones ran the truck off the road that had her stuff for the music festival, she has been scrambling to get ready. I thought we could offer some help.”

As promised, Lightning and Piper have not left my side. All the other women have joined us as well, including Emerson and Ashley. Their guys went with Arrow.

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