Page 25 of Wilder’s Mistake

The prospect’s jaw tightens. “No. Of course not.”

“Then open the fucking gate, boy.”

Steel rolls over gravel. Chains starts the bike and looks back at me. “Get on.” Gunfire cracks somewhere beyond the trees. I pull on the helmet and climb behind him. He takes us through the service gate. It begins closing before we reach the end of the track, cutting off the compound behind us. Chains rides hard for several minutes. The gunfire fades, but he doesn’t slow, and no Kingdom Come bikes appear behind us.

I lean closer. “Where is Wilder?”

He keeps his eyes on the road. “Dealing with the attack.”

“Shouldn’t someone else be coming with us?”

“No.”

Something in the answer tightens my stomach. Chains turns onto a narrower road and slows. A dark SUV waits at the junction ahead, engine running. Two men stand beside it in leather cuts. PERDITION curves across the white patch on the nearest man’s back, and for one stupid second, my mind refuses to understand what I’m seeing. Then everything falls into place. The burning vehicle. The gunfire dragging every brother toward the front of the compound. Chains arriving only after the common room emptied.

This was never an escape.

I throw myself off the bike before it fully stops. I land badly on one foot, but wrench free of the seat and run. Chains catches the back of my jacket. I twist and drive the helmet into his face. He swears and loses his grip long enough for me to make it three steps, but one of the Perdition men reaches me first. His arm locks around my waist and lifts me from the ground. I kick backward, catching his shin, then claw for the hand crushing me against him.

“Get off me!”

Blood runs from the corner of Chains’s mouth, and the irritation I’ve seen around the clubhouse is gone. What replaces it turns my fear cold.

“Wilder didn’t send you,” I say.

“No, he didn’t.” The second man opens the rear door of the SUV.

I trusted Chains because he wore the same patch as Wilder.

That was the trap.

CHAPTER 6

WILDER

The vehicle burning on the east road has a brick holding down the accelerator and nobody behind the wheel. Gunfire stops before we reach the tree line.

Gray circles north through the woods. Tank checks the drainage cut with Colt. I ride past the wreck far enough to see fresh tracks turn toward the county road and disappear on gravel.

Perdition wanted smoke, noise and every officer facing east.

“Compound,” I say into the radio. “Looks like it was a decoy.”

Kane answers at once. “Moving already.”

I turn the bike and make it back to the compound in under two minutes, but the common room is empty.

“Lucy?” No answer.

Her phone sits behind the bar beside her bag. Her keys are inside it, and her car is still in the yard. I check the corridor, then my room. Nothing. She didn’t leave willingly. For one second, I can’t fucking breathe.

Then I’m moving. Cash comes out of the garage as I cross the yard.

“Where’s Lucy?”

His expression changes. “I thought she was inside.”

“She’s not. Search every building. Nobody leaves through either gate.” My voice stays steady. The fear beneath it doesn’t. Men react at once. Doors open and rooms clear. Kane and Tank ride back through the main gate as Judge starts sending brothers across the compound.