Page 93 of The Trust We Broke
“You’d better kill me, now, because I’m going to kill you for putting your hands on my wife.”
Lucy lays supine in the snow, a gash on her head to fight with the bump from yesterday. The sight of blood on her face does nothing to temper the anger burning through my veins.
In the distance, I hear vehicles. We haven’t heard a single one since the Rebels arrived. It’s either the police coming in without their sirens, or it’s my brothers.
Either way, I almost sag with relief.
“Well, shit,” Gulch says. “Looks like the cavalry is coming.” But he raises his gun to fire again.
There’s the single crack of gunfire, and Gulch suddenly yells as he drops his weapon.
Blood drips onto the pristine snow. I look around, because that shot sure as fuck wasn’t me. Nor was it Lucy, who is dizzily trying to get to her feet while she holds a hand to her bleeding forehead.
Pink has made it to their truck; Skater lies prostrate on the truck bed. No Name sits in the back of the truck, some dirty cloth wrapped around his hand while applying pressure to one of Skater’s wounds. He revs the engine and reverses rapidly to Gulch.
“Gulch,” Pink shouts. “Get in.”
Using their distraction, I bundle Lucy into the back of my truck.
“This isn’t over, Grudge,” Gulch says, cradling his hand. “You’re wearing a dead man’s crown. And every man who has ever worn it has bled for it until there’s nothing left.”
I drop to the ground and scramble around to find my gun. The first truck to appear on the road contains Atom and Wraith.
Then, Taco runs from the direction of the river. “They dropped me off so I could come at you from the side.”
“Fucking perfect shot,” I say.
Quickly, Gulch’s crew commence their reverse out of the clearing, scraping past Atom’s truck as Atom tries to veer out of the way.
Wraith jumps out of the truck and blows the rear tire.
But I focus on Lucy. She’s shivering, and I’m not sure if it’s adrenaline, fear, or cold. Or a mixture of all three.
I climb into the truck, cradle her face, and kiss her temple. “You’re okay, Bug. You’re safe, now.”
The gash on her head looks a little gnarly, and it’s only when I pull my phone out to call Butcher, to see if Greer can fix her up, that I notice the trail of blood from my hands. My fingerprints stain her cheeks with red.
“Your knuckles,” Lucy says with a gasp. “Oh, Zach. We need to get you seen to.”
“Let’s get you taken care of, first.”
27
LUCY
The ride to the clubhouse is painfully quiet. The tension stretches.
I feel woozy, like the world is all in soft focus, and there’s a bitter metallic tang in my mouth. Adrenaline is a funny thing. In the moment, it makes you feel like a superhero, capable of anything. When that biker smashed the window, I was convinced I was going to get dragged through it, possibly snagging an artery on broken glass. But instead, when his hand reached toward me, fight or flight kicked in, and the next thing I knew, I put the blade all the way through the back of his hand.
I felt every lump and bump of bone and gristle as I pushed it through.
Another wave of nausea strikes me.
Wraith and Atom swarmed our truck once Gulch and his friends drove away. The rest of the Outlaws arrived. Catfish is driving my father’s truck. My hands shook way too hard to be able to drive it myself.
But I keep playing over what Gulch said.
You’re going to fix it for us.
