Hadley (The Club Girl Diaries Book 3) (24 page)

The bang that resonated inside the small barn drew the attention of all the men. Some came running from outside, waving their large guns around like a war was about to begin.

I gasped, realizing that I was still breathing.

Simon, on the other hand, had dropped to the floor and was writhing in pain, holding the bullet wound in his shoulder.

“Run!” I heard a voice scream, it was deep and familiar.

I didn’t wait to look around, thinking that the boys had already figured out what was going on and had come for me.

“Grab the girl!” Isiah yelled, striking my body into action.

I ran, ignoring the awkward way I moved due to my hands still being held behind my back. The door was only a few feet away, and I had no idea who was in this barn shooting, only that someone was on my side and was trying to help me escape.

A man stepped out in front of me but before he could lift his gun, I drove my shoulder into his chest, throwing him off his feet. I stumbled a little, smashing into the wall before I righted myself and slipped out the doorway, running full speed toward the forest. It was my escape. My breathing was heavy, and my throat ached as my legs pumped furiously across the grass field.

“Freeze or I shoot him!” Isiah called from behind me.

The threat didn’t make sense at first.

“Run Hadley!”

The voice, much clearer now, made me stumble to a halt just feet from the edge of safety.

“No,” I whispered, turning slowly. “Slider, no.” I gasped as I spotted him on his knees at the doorway, Isiah’s gun pressed to the back of his head.

“I’ll kill him,” Isiah warned loudly just as Simon stumbled into view.

Blood dripped from the bullet wound, and his face was screwed up in fury. He raised his good arm, using the butt of his gun to smash across Slider’s face, sending him sprawling across the ground.

“No!” I cried, scrambling across the wet grass. I tripped and fell. Looking up, I saw Simon rear his foot back, slamming it into Slider’s stomach, not once but twice, as I screamed at him to stop. I finally found my footing, tears streaked down my face as I hurried back toward the barn. The pain in my wrists was a dull ache compared to the hell my heart was feeling.

Two men pulled a crumpled Slider back inside the barn, tossing him like a rag doll onto the dirty floor. I dropped to my knees beside him, my tears dripping on his chest.

“What were you thinking, you idiot,” I whispered, wishing I could reach out and touch him or comfort him.

He coughed out a painful laugh. “Saw the Feds at the clubhouse and hid outside. When I saw him leave with you, I followed.”

His face was pale, and it seemed as though he was struggling to breathe.

“You could have been killed.”

“Gonna die anyway,” he muttered, his eyes staring into mine like he could already see the angels coming.

“Don’t say that,” I scolded.

He shook his head. “Doctor confirmed it. He said a few months, maybe a year at best.” His eyes glazed. “That’s not the life I want to live, Hadley. Confined to a bed as my family watches me wither away to nothing.” He gathered his body, moving his hands underneath him and pushing himself to his feet. I tried to help but it was no use, he was determined to hold his own. His legs shook with the effort it took just to stand, and I wondered how he’d followed us this far without coming off his bike again.

“Brothers by Blood,” Isiah mused, his glare turning toward Simon, who was slumped against the side of the barn. “Care to inform me why he is here?”

Realization hit me.

Not only did they not know that he was undercover with the FBI, but they had no idea of my link with the Brothers.

“Hadley is an Old Lady,” Slider told him casually.

Isiah studied me. “Funny, I thought you were his wife.”

“Sometimes I wonder if I was drunk for our whole relationship,” I sneered sarcastically.

“One of my brothers is quite fond of her,” Slider commented with a forced smile. He looked down at his bare wrist. “I’d be expecting them any time now.”

As if he had summoned them himself, gunshots rang out loudly from outside.

Slider grinned widely, his chest heaving with the effort it was taking for him to just breathe. “Have you got big balls? ‘Cause you’re gonna need them.”

I could tell Isiah was agitated by this little piece of information.

“Starting a war before our business together has even begun, Simon?” he accused, taking a step toward Simon.

“They’re not a problem,” Simon ground out, obviously in a lot of pain.

“It seems like they’ve become a problem,” Isiah snapped.

The doors to the barn all slammed opened simultaneously. Simon’s goons spun toward the invaders, holding their guns as if they were prepared at any second to start shooting. Men in club cuts appeared in the doorways, and I suddenly felt as though I had inhaled a breath of fresh air.

Simon pushed off the wall, stumbling forward as Isiah seemed to step in the opposite direction. I couldn’t help but smile as Judge walked confidently through the double doors, Leo flanking his right side and Skins on his left.

Leo’s eyes watched me, grazing over my body as though he was ticking off a list in his head. When he finally reached my eyes, he gave me a sharp nod, as if confirming I was fine but I could tell he was still tense. Slider and I were standing in the middle of a possible war zone, we were far from safe just yet.

I looked around the barn, members of both the Brothers and Satan’s Sanctuary stood in the different entrances, shoulders back, fully armed.

Simon’s men backed away, their eyes flicking toward him as if looking for some kind of guidance. They had numbers to almost match the brothers, and if the shooting began, it would quickly turn into a blood bath.

“It’s over,” Judge stated loudly, his voice calm and full of authority.

Simon clenched his teeth tightly together, his eyes flicking to each of his men before returning to Judge. “You can’t do this,” he spat.

“You forced my hand,” Judge growled back, pointing at Simon accusingly.

“Satan’s Sanctuary will have a target on their backs. Every criminal enterprise you’ve ever dealt with will be hunting you down.”

Judge laughed unexpectedly, and my heart stuttered.

“Funny, because as of this moment, Satan’s Sanctuary is no more. The members will disappear as though they never existed.”

I gasped. Oh shit. It was over.

They were shutting down the club.

With the shit that Simon had buried himself into, it was no longer safe for them. Their cover was blown.

Judge moved closer, one of Simon’s lackeys stepped back, moving out of his way.

I saw the realization hit my ex-husband. It was awkward and tense as Simon bared his teeth in a smile. The smile of a man who was finally beginning to understand that he’d screwed up.

“You got to them,” he stated as he watched his men slowly back away.

Each for their own. He was no longer calling the shots, and they were ready to flee.

I felt Slider move closer to me, one of his hands curling around my arm. I leaned into his body, seeking his comfort and reassurance that we were going to get out of this alive.

Simon was outnumbered. He’d made too many mistakes, and now he was about to pay the price. Unfortunately, while the odds were now in our favor, Simon was still a federal agent. They were trained for high-pressure situations and taught to never back down. He would fight, I knew it.

“We realized that you didn’t want anything more to do with the FBI,” Leo stated, moving up to stand next to Judge, glaring at the man who had made the last few weeks a living hell.

“FBI?” Isiah roared, his body moving toward Simon as though he was going to strike out. His man held him back, inching him slowly away from the chaos that was about to ensue.

Leo ignored the man, he didn’t care for him right now. “Trying to get the Bureau to take you off your assignment was pointless because the small amount of information that you
were
feeding them was good.”

“So we hit you where we knew it would hurt,” Judge said, a small grin forming above his beard. “Fortunately for us, Angelo is a well-respected man, and because of that, your men were forced to listen to what he had to say.”

Simon didn’t speak. I could tell that his mind was racing, he was trying to process his options. If he went to jail, there would be no protection for him there. It wouldn’t take long for word to get around that he was a federal agent and more than likely responsible for the time that some of those criminals were serving.

He would be killed, and God knows what else would be done to him in the name of revenge.

“It’s time to go,” Judge said, but I could see the careful way he moved, trying not to startle the cornered animal.

“Seems like it is,” Simon stated calmly, his eyes moving across the room until he reached me. They stopped, and while I was expecting to see some kind of remorse for his actions, there was none.

Suddenly I felt Slider’s body come across mine, and I was swept into his arms.

Gunfire filled the barn, the sound echoing in the large space and the distinctive sound of bullets zipping through the air caused me to scream. Slider ran with my body in his arms and his head down toward an open door, my body shaking with each pound of his foot against the dirt floor.

Blizzard and Camo leaped out of the way, both to avoid the spray of bullets and our bodies as we barreled past them, out into the fresh air. My body was released, dropping me into the long grass. Unable to brace myself with my hands, my shoulder hit first, a sharp pain shooting through me. I cried out in pain, unable to move for a few seconds as I fought the urge to vomit.

When I finally opened my eyes, I saw Slider on his knees a few feet from me, his hands hanging limp at his sides and his eyes staring at me with a look I couldn’t recognize. I saw his eyes flash, and a smile twitched painfully at the corner of his mouth before he fell forward, not even attempting to catch himself as his face drove into the dirt.

“Slider!” I cried out, struggling through the pain and wiggling toward him. “Slider!”

Blood pooled on his back, running down the sides of his body, staining the white patches across his back a sickening red.

“No, no, no,” I whispered between sobs as I wiggled my body closer to him. “Don’t die, you’re not going to die.”

I tore at the cuffs around my wrists, desperate to free them. All I could think about was how I needed to put pressure on the gunshot wounds to keep his blood from flowing out. But it was useless. The more I wrenched, the more I could feel them ripping at my skin, my own blood seeping down onto my hands.

I threw my body over his, using my torso and my arms to press against the bullet holes, desperate to stop the bleeding, hoping that it would help. I expected to feel him sucking in air, forcing his body to breathe, but there was nothing. He didn’t move. He didn’t speak.

I could hear footsteps pounding around me, people yelling, calling out to their brothers. I tucked myself against Slider’s body, crying into his shoulder as people yelled and screamed around me. More shots were let off, and the thump of bodies resonated on the ground below me, but it had all just become a blur. There was nothing I could do anymore.

“Leo!” I faintly heard Optimus yell. “Fuck!”

I didn’t move, I stayed right there, frozen in place. I just wanted the pain and the noise to stop. I wanted Slider to breathe again, I wanted to go home and pretend that this had never happened. It wasn’t meant to be this way. His life wasn’t supposed to end with him laying in the dirt.

“Hadley, God no.” His voice was like a shockwave through my body, and I suddenly allowed myself to breathe, releasing a loud sob.

“She’s alive!” Leo yelled before I felt his arms come around me from behind, lifting my body. I yelled and fought against him. “Hadley it’s me. Baby, it’s okay!” He tried to soothe me as I struggled in his arms.

“He’s dead!” I cried, my body finally losing its fight as I said the words that I didn’t want to believe we’re true. I slumped, relying on Leo to keep me from falling to the ground. “He’s dead, Leo.”