Page 32 of Unmasked Anarchy
The gun cracks.
The echo is a whip of lightning and the man doesn’t even realize what has happened.He drops before the blood even stains his shirt.Mera falls, knees hitting the ground, and Wolfe’s men are already moving before the echo fades.The second guy leaps up, but he has no chance.I have him down before he even takes a step.
It goes quiet.For a second, nobody moves.Then all at once, the club is in motion, charging like rabid dogs.Kael’s already halfway to the gate by the time I prop the rifle and push up, and I run, body on auto, into the bright air.
Mera is coughing, streaked in blood that isn’t hers.She’s already up, being pulled behind the wall by Zane, who swears so much half the words are lost.The rest of the MC swarms the dead first guy, stomping and spitting even though he’s already out of this world.
Kael’s eyes find me over the blur and motion and noise.He walks, not runs, up to where I stand in the open, my chest rising and falling with a mix of adrenaline and relief.His face is a storm of things I can’t read, but he doesn’t say anything at first.He just stops and stares down at me with pure confusion.
“Who the fuck are you?”he says after a long time.Not angry.Just in complete shock.
I shrug, because there’s nothing to say.I don’t know who I am.
I just know I can shoot a gun.
Wolfe, Mera, and Steel walk over to me, their eyes wide with something I can’t quite understand.
Wolfe steps forward, his eyes narrowed.“You do that?”
I nod, swallowing.
He shakes his head in disbelief.“Ain’t never seen someone shoot a gun like that before.We’re goin’ to talk about how you learned that, but for right now, I am forever fuckin’ grateful.”
Mera launches herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck, squeezing as tight as her shaking hands allow.“You saved my life, you fucking crazy, gun-wielding legend.”
I laugh.
Zane lets out a whistle, walking over, pulling a cigarette out and pressing it to his lips.“She just put a hole in two men and didn’t even flinch.Fuckin’ hell, Thorn, you really know how to pick ’em.”
It gets crazy after that, the MC boys start bagging up the bodies, prepping for the cleanup crew, and the girls swarm around Mera and me, half-hysterical, half-starstruck.Their voices moving at a rapid pace, asking a million questions I can’t answer.
I need to sit, so I find myself a log by the fire, planting my butt down and exhaling.Kael finds me, sitting down and pulling a joint out of his cut, lighting it before taking a deep inhale.Then, he offers it to me.I take it without thought, my nerves are shot.I have killed for Gage, more times than I can count, but it doesn’t even feel good.
“You want to talk about it?”Kael murmurs, low.
I shake my head, needing a few more minutes of silence.
We sit quietly for a long time until Zane comes outside, a huge grin on his face, his hair messier than ever, his shirt ripped open.“Party’s turning into an orgy,” he reports, grinning wide.“You two coming in, or you want me to bring snacks out here?”
Kael grunts, a faint smirk on his face.“We’re good, man.”
“For real, Sable,” Zane says, “you ever want a job, you got it.”
I laugh.“Noted.”
He leaves and Kael turns toward me.He reaches over and tilts my face to his so I can’t look anywhere but him.
“You okay?”he asks, voice not as soft as he thinks.
I try to say yes.It comes out as a laugh.“Better than I’ve been in a long time.”
He looks at me, really looks, then runs his finger over my bottom lip.“You scare the shit out of me, but fuck, I want you in a way I’ve never wanted anyone else.”
My breath hitches.
I wait for him to pull away, but he doesn’t.Instead, he kisses me, slow and deep, the kind of kiss that curls my toes.I let him, because if there’s a better way to forget the last few years of my life, I haven’t found it yet.
I am so wrong, I know it.
