Page 50 of Trick's Elite

Trick’s heart was damn near pounding out of his chest as he drove the van down the road, headed for the cabin. His mate was in the back, and Ranger was putting pressure on her wound.

Halfway through the drive, he heard Ranger pull out his phone and make a call.

“Hey. I need assistance. GSW. Left torso. Under rib. Not sure what was hit. There’s an exit wound.” There was a pause. “Doing that.” Another pause. “You’re the closest doc I know. I need you.”

Trick didn’t know who he was talking to, but if he was asking for help, it meant that Ranger was feeling overwhelmed. That didn’t help the panic that was coursing through him.

His bear let out a roar, and Trick didn’t blame the animal. They couldn’t lose her! Why in the hell did she jump in front of him? He felt like shit that he was the reason she was hurt. He would have taken a hundred gunshot wounds if only he could save her from the one.

“I’ll send the address. Thanks.”

“Who is that?” Trick asked as he pulled onto the driveway to the cabin.

Sounding distracted, Ranger replied, “An army buddy of mine. He’s a surgeon from Kalamazoo.”

Trick glanced over his shoulder at Ranger before he looked at the road again. “That’s forty minutes away!”

“He’ll get here! He wasn’t home. He said less than twenty. We’ll save her, Brother. Trust me.”

“Withmylife? Always. With hers?” He left the question hanging in the air. After her history with the academy, he couldn’t say he fully trusted them not to let her go, and it killed him that he felt that way about people he considered his family.

“When I watched her jump in front of that bullet meant formy brother, everything she did was wiped away,” Ranger said. “She’s my sister, damn it.”

The vehemence in Ranger’s voice surprised Trick but hearing his club brother call her his sister settled some of the anxiety in his system.

“I’ll save her, Trick. I promise.”

“Okay.” He nodded and pulled the van to a stop in front of the cabin. “Okay. I trust you.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Axle

Pacinghisoffice,Axleran his fingers through his hair while he was waiting for an update from his brothers. He was furious with Trick for doing something so fucking stupid as to go in without backup, but he suspected it had something to do with not trusting them around Stiletto. Axle didn’t blame the man for that much.

The rage he felt toward the academy, and her by extension, was something that would take a long time to deal with. The hardest part would be separating her from the academy in his mind. The clubs needed to start thinking of her as Trick’s mate and not as a hunter. With Rex still alive after what the academy did to him, Axle was sure that it would be easier for the Howlers than it would be for the Claws, who lost Shortcake.

It was going to be a long road to trust, but for Trick, that would go both ways. He would worry about whether he could trust her around his family, but he would also worry about whether he could trust his family around his mate. He didn’t envy the position.

“You need to eat,” his mate, Gorgeous, said from the chair behind his desk.

He had been waiting for dinner to be delivered when he received the original call and had been too distracted since to eat anything.

“I will when I know they are okay.”

“And how will you handle it if they’re not and you’re passed out from hunger?”

He sent her a glare that didn’t affect her one bit. She just rolled her eyes, picked up her cell phone, and started tapping away on it.

Less than three minutes later, the office door opened, and Ginger stepped through with a plate of food, a bottle of water, and a bottle of beer. She set them down on his desk and turned to stare at him. He knew how this game would go, so he gave up, rounded his desk, and took the seat his mate had just vacated. After pulling the plate in front of him, he picked up a piece of pizza and took a large bite before shooting both women a,‘There. I ate,’expression.

In the middle of his second bite, his phone rang, and Skull’s name flashed on the screen. After wiping his hands on a napkin, he answered the call and put it on speaker.

“You’re on speaker. Ginger and Gorgeous are here.”

“Everyone is okay, except Trick and Stiletto. Trick has a shoulder wound that I’m not even sure he’s aware of yet. Stiletto…”

“Spit. It. Out.” Axle had reached the end of his patience.

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