Riding Darkness (Back Down Devil MC #4.5)(3)

“Okay,” Brooke said.

“Tomorrow at this time we’ll be on the move again. One day closer to the truth. To preparing. To protecting each other. I promise it.”

Armen let Brooke go. He took the gun and walked away.

Brooke dropped to her knees and reached for the nightstand. That’s where Armen had cigarettes. Brooke grabbed the pack and hurried back outside.

She stood there, smoking another cigarette, her mind racing.

Something needed to change. The truth needed to come forward.

More than anything else, Brooke just wanted to know who killed her parents.





three.



Ares opened his eyes and scrambled to his feet. He threw his arms out and expected to be back in his bed. To find a woman next to him. To pull her close, whisper something in her ear to make her think he cared, and then f*ck her.

But that wasn’t the case at all. Ares took a step forward and almost went down again. He quickly balanced himself, his head throbbing. He touched his chest and stomach, looking for a bullet hole.

They hadn’t shot him.

“Stupid f*ckers,” Ares growled.

He touched the side of his head and saw blood on his fingertips. He looked around, figuring out his surroundings, and realized that the *s who attacked him simply dragged him to the side of his apartment building and left him there.

They didn’t tie him up.

They didn’t kill him.

They didn’t take him somewhere to confuse him.

Whoever the hell did this were complete idiots.

Ares growled again and walked, keeping one hand against the building. He then pushed from the building and ran to the parking lot. At the very least, he expected to find his motorcycle trashed.

He found the ride on its side, but the tires weren’t flat and the chrome wasn’t busted to shit. The leather case on the back was opened and torn apart. Someone had been looking for something.

Ares grabbed his motorcycle and lifted it back up. He looked left to right. Was it someone from the old crew trying to dig up dirt? That didn’t make sense. Ares took nothing with him when he was stripped of his patches. He left with blood on his face and a black leather cut. Nothing more.

Climbing on the ride, Ares started it. The beast roared to life without hesitation. He looked behind him at the leather pack and wondered who would be checking into his shit. He had nothing to hide. Hell, he had nothing to offer. Unless something bigger was brewing with Back Down Devil.

Ares walked the ride backward and then looked and saw something on the pavement. There were tracks. Fresh rubber markings in the parking lot. There were three tracks. Two side by side and one in front.

“Shit,” Ares whispered.

Someone from Back Down Devil must have come by and surprised the two *s who attacked him. Then they all took off. That left two on one.

Ares throttled the ride and added a fourth rubber mark in the parking lot.

He sped off and cut through the back roads until he hit the main strip in Frelen. The only thing he could do was work toward the clubhouse. The logical thing to do when in trouble was get to the clubhouse. There were men, weapons, and protection there. If an enemy was dumb enough to chase one of the guys into the compound, they would be lit up with bullets.

Flying down the road, Ares started to cut in and out of traffic. He dodged cars like it was a video game. But this was no damn game. His hands were tight on the handlebars, knowing that all it took was one wrong split second decision to crash into a car or drop the motorcycle.

Running two red lights left Ares feeling alive.

He spotted a police cruiser a block up the road. The lights were flashing and a car was turned sideways. Ares pulled up to the intersection and when the police officer saw him, he pointed and then motioned to the side of the road. The person in the car looked scared to death. There was a dent in the passenger door.

That was all Ares needed to see. He throttled his ride again and cut to the left, the back tire squealing. He flew down the next street and when he made the next right, he spotted the rides. Two motorcycles chasing one. And that one had a large Back Down Devil patch on the back.

Ares rode as hard as the motorcycle would allow it. He gained speed and then ground. The three motorcycles in front of him cut down road after road, sometimes going into traffic, sometimes taking narrow back alleys. They were risky moves to make and only someone who really knew Frelen could know the alleys and dare to take them.

As Ares got closer, he saw the guy on the one motorcycle look back.

It was Miller.

Fucking Miller… the President of Back Down Devil MC.

That’s who was being chased down. And there was no other guys in sight. The two men chasing Miller had black leather cuts with nothing on the back. They were prospects for a rival club. And they were chasing down the President of Back Down Devil.

This was insane.

This was deadly.

Ares knew it was his job to protect Miller. Even if it cost Ares his life, he needed to make sure that the President made it to the head of the table alive and well.

Ares kept at it hard, following the lead of Miller versus the movements of the * prospects in front of him. He managed to gain more ground, narrowly missing a few large dumpsters and almost hitting a few brick walls.

Miller cut down another alley and Ares knew this was his chance to do something. He throttled harder than ever. He gritted his teeth. The motorcycle bellowed and inched more and more. Slowly, Ares started to get between the two prospects. The two men looked at him and Ares remembered the one with the gun. That was the * who hit him.