Page 33 of Phantom Riders MC: Hawk

“Go with them!” I pushed Audra in that direction, not waiting to see if she obeyed. The club was under attack, and I needed to get out front to see what the fuck was happening.

I assessed the situation the second I pushed through the door. Customers were hiding in booths and behind furniture while some were on the floor trying to make themselves as small as possible. The only ones on foot were my brothers as they scanned the bar while making their way to the front windows, one of which had been shot the fuck out. Snake was half crouched behind the bar with a shotgun in his hands, a fierce look on his face that said he was ready to defend the club. Whimpers of fear came from some of the women.

“Kill the lights!” I hollered, knowing Snake would get on it.

More shots sounded, more windows were shattered. I felt something like a hot poker sear against my arm but ignored it, making my way toward one of the windows where Rock was crouched. “How the hell did you get here so fucking fast?” I asked him, flattening my back against a wall.

He shrugged with a grin. “Came down for a bottle.”

“See anything?” I snarled, peeking around a piece of broken window. A shot rang out, and I ducked back. A brother returned fire from the inside.

Rock shook his head. “Fuckers shot out the lights outside.” His gaze landed on something. “You’re hit, brother.”

I checked out the blood running down my arm and shrugged it off. “Minor compared to what I’m gonna do to those fuckers.” It was beginning to sound like war had broken out as both sides were shooting blindly. “Anyone see anything?” I hollered.

“Caught sight of a couple of cuts before the lights went out!” Keg yelled back, before he shot off a couple of rounds. “Blue Knights!”

Rock and I exchanged sharp looks.

“Fuck!” he sneered.

It didn’t make fucking sense, I thought. Dirk had just left. And I was pretty fucking sure he’d been alone. “They don’t have the fucking balls for this!” I snarled back. I wasn’t ready to believe the newly formed club would be that fucking stupid. I thought back to the trip here, and the fire we’d come across. Were they being set up?

Or were we?

I could hear the approaching sirens in the distance. Shit! Someone had called it in. “We need to end this before the cops get here!”

Just like that, the shooting stopped. It appeared that whoever was attacking the club didn’t want to get involved with the cops, either. A glance out the window revealed several shadows retreating into the darkness, and a few seconds later I heard the sound of bikes revving as they spun away. The lights came back on, and I turned to see Snake moving away from the switch, his rifle still in his hands. What a fucking mess, glass was everywhere, furniture was shot up, and so were a lot of bottles of booze behind the bar. The sirens were getting closer, giving the customers who’d been cowering a reason to feel safe and to begin moving around.

“Which one of you assholes called the police?” Rock barked, narrowing his gaze at the customers. Of course no one was brave enough to confess. “We handle our own shit here, so if you don’t have the balls to stand the heat and keep your fucking nose out of it then stay the fuck away.”

I knew when the fucking police arrived it was going to be chaotic. They usually stormed in with their fucking guns drawn, eager to shoot first and ask later, high on adrenaline and shouting out orders. I fucking hated when I had to deal with the law. Their initial attitudes were that we were the problem, even on our own property. It didn’t fucking matter that Phantom Riders padded the pockets of the head of police, it was all about making things look legit in the public’s eyes.

“Except for Rock and Snake, the rest of you brothers get lost, you weren’t here.” They disappeared from the room without a word. I turned my attention to the customers, most of which were regulars and knew the rules of the bar. “Anyone hurt?” Head shakes and low murmurs of no swam throughout the room. “Good. You want to stay that way, you saw nothing and you let me do the talking.”

Within seconds police cars were squealing to a stop right outside our doors, and just as I had fucking anticipated, several uniformed officers charged through the entrance with their guns drawn, wearing superiority like fucking neon badges. Thank fuck Chief Branson was with them. He’d better be. The last fifty grand we’d given him had assured us that he’d show up at the sign of any trouble.

“No one move!” An officer shouted. “Everyone’s hands where we can see them!”

“Is that really necessary?” Snake said from his spot behind the bar. “These are paying customers.”

I heard Rock’s snort. The officer’s face turned red, his eyes snapping with anger. “I was talking about you freakin club members,” he clarified.

“Freakin, really?”

“Why should we?” Rock asked. “We were the ones attacked. All we did was protect our club.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” another cop chanted. “Same old story.”

“Anyone hurt?” a third officer inquired. He received the same responses I had.

“They didn’t see anything,” Snake spoke up, his gaze running over the customers. “Once the shooting began they all ducked for cover.”

“That true?” Chief Branson asked, waiting for someone, anyone, to refute it. He turned to the youngest of his men. “Tommy, take down everyone’s name and number for questioning later, then they can go.”

“Lucky the restaurant is closed and you had a small crowd tonight.”

“Yeah, lucky,” I agreed with Fuller, the asshole who’d first entered the bar.

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