hand releases her waist and cups her cheek, coaxing her mouth to open further, accepting more of him.
The window next to the door shatters, accompanied by popping noises.
“ Fuck! Get down!” He pulls Sadie down and runs with her to the back of the house.
“ Stay here,” he orders.
Gun in hand, he starts to leave.
“ Wait! Don't go! They're still out there!” She sounds angry instead of scared.
“ I have to see who did this,” he explains, and then runs low.
Fuck, if he'd turned on the light, they would have made easier targets, and Sadie or him could be dead.
The shooting stops. One of them shouts orders and he hears them approach. Jackson fires a few shots through the shattered window. They curse and fire back. His night vision sucks, so he flicks on the porch lights.
Peeking outside, he sees one of them on the ground, but he can't see the others. He moves into his living room and checks through the window and sees another two guys are running towards their bikes.
They roar away on their bikes, leaving behind their wounded friend. Those assholes have no loyalty to their own brothers.
He steps out of the house and finds the wounded guy is wearing a Rampage MC cut. He's clutching at his chest with both hands, trying to stop the bleeding. Jackson approaches him and kicks the gun away, pointing his own at the same time.
“ Who sent you?” he demands.
“ Fuck you asshole,” he laughs, “more will come, you're just as dead as me,” he starts wheezing and coughing.
Within seconds, his eyes become lifeless.
Sighing, he strides back in, and runs right into Sadie. She lets out a tiny squeal, and bounces back from him. He catches her by the waist before she can fall onto the broken glass scattered on the floor.
“ We have to go, is your bag still salvageable?” he asks.
She's about to pick it up from the broken glass, and he stops her, “I'll check,” he doesn't want her cutting herself on the glass. Shaking it out, he hands it to her.
“ I'll get some stuff together, then we have to leave.” He then stalks towards his room to collect cash, a few guns, and some new IDs.
“ That was your club trying to kill you?” She startles him, sounding shaken, and he can't blame her.
He brought her into his life to keep her safe, not to almost get her killed.
“ Yeah, and they'll keep trying,” he says as he collects his stuff and shoves it into a duffle bag, “the Club has always been dysfunctional, I thought as president I could change that. Instead the money I brought in made them greedy.”
He takes out a floorboard and extracts the money he set away for emergencies. “Fuck that's a lot of money,” she looks on as he stuffs it into his bag.
“ Will I have to worry that you'll only stay with me for my money?” he asks mockingly.
She narrows her eyes and responds in kind, “It won't be for your great personality.”
He zips his bag, and then slings it over his shoulder. As he passes by Sadie, he slaps her on her delectable rear, “Don't play with my heart, woman.”
She lets out an adorable little growl, then she follows him out of the house and towards his garage.
“ You have a car?” she asks.
“ Just because I'm a big bad biker dude, doesn't mean I can't have a car,” he shakes his head as if disappointed, “What did I say about stereotypes?”
Sadie laughs, “You quoted me wrong, I never said big.”
“ No, well you left out the big, but you were thinking it,” he says.
“ Are you going to cry over your motorcycle? Isn't it special to you?” she asks.
“ I'm not that sentimental over inanimate objects,” he responds.
He loads their bags into the back of his SUV and then opens her door, “Congrats, you can be my copilot,” he says before shutting her door after she's settled.
Getting inside himself, he quickly fires up the truck and pulls away from the garage.
When they turn onto the highway, she asks, “What does
Marteeka Karland and Shelby Morgen