After the Ride (Night Riders Motorcycle Club Book 2) by Kathryn Thomas

side.
     
    “Do what you gotta do,” Blake said. “I’m here.”
     
    Blake was unarmed. Lauren’s eyes curled towards Trent and Hugo, and she silently pleaded with them to make a stand and stop this. But the boys held back as Blake pressed his hands into the air and knelt by Nate’s side.
     
    “Do what you gotta do,” Blake said. “Just let her go.”
     
    Nate aimed his gun at Blake’s head. His eyes slammed shut, and when Lauren saw that she was about to lose him, she charged forward and forgot all fear.
     
    “Don’t you dare, you fucker!”
     
    Nate shifted his aim to Lauren, and she paused as the bullet was ready to meet her brain. Ready to die without wanting to, Blake leapt from the sand, and he pressed Lauren to the ground as the bullet whizzed over their heads.
     
    “Why?” Blake hissed as he pressed her closer to the sand. “I told you that I—”
     
    “And I don’t want to lose you. I… no!”
     
    Nate lifted her away from Blake’s side, and he ordered her to open her mouth. Lauren pressed her lips together, and a few shots whizzed about her ankles as Nate darted back and Blake waved his hands in the air.
     
    “Stop!” he screamed. “Let’s just all take a deep breath.”
     
    “Nicely put,” Nate said as he pushed his hands to Lauren’s throat and hissed into her ear.
     
    “Open.”
     
    Reluctantly, Lauren curled her lips around the cold metal, and she could almost feel the bullet cutting into her brain when another shot rang out.
     
    “Oh God!”
     
    She fell from Nate as his slipped to the ground in a bloody heap, and as Lauren looked through the strands of her fallen hair, she saw Callie charging forward with a shotgun in her arms.
     
    Maybe Callie should be the one in charge.
     
    “Let her go, Shaller!” Callie ordered.
     
    Grace was still in his hold, and when Lauren saw her lip quivering, her body shaking, Lauren charged forward and pushed Eric from Grace’s side. His gun fell away, and Lauren was on him, his fists flailing as she rained blows on his chest.
     
    “You fucker!” Lauren hissed. “You don’t touch her!”
     
    Eric wrestled her to her back and pressed her into the sand.
     
    “Maybe I could touch you.”
     
    She cringed at the feel of his fingers running up her skirt, and Lauren heard Blake’s voice crying for him to stop when a bang hit the hair. Lauren saw Eric’s eyes grow wide, and his bald head started to leak blood into her hair when Blake pushed him away and took Lauren in his arms.
     
    “Are you okay?” Blake asked as he smoothed his hands through her hair.
     
    “I’m fine,” Lauren said. “I… oh God! Grace!”
     
    She stood with the smoking gun in her hands. Her eyes were blank as she let the gun fall to the sand, and as Hugo helped Paul to his feet, he rushed to her side and took her in his arms.
     
    “Grace,” Paul stated. “It’s okay. It’s gonna be alright.”
     
    Grace’s eyes stayed vacant as Paul dragged her away from the bodies, and when he met Callie’s eyes, the shotgun still in her hands, he narrowed his gaze on hers.
     
    “What did you do?” Paul challenged.
     
    “Saving your old lady,” she said as she gestured towards Lauren as she lifted Blake off the ground. “But it looks like she knows how to hold her own.”
     
    Maybe that was true. The blood pooling around their feet seemed to prove the point. But Grace was in a state of shock as Paul folded her close and pulled the gun from her hands.
     
    “Grace?” he muttered.
     
    Her body went limp in his arms, and even as Paul’s head dripped blood, he found the strength to hoist her into his arms. Paul spoke as he carried Grace away from the scene.
     
    “Bury these bastards,” Paul said. “And get ready to leave now.”
     
    “Uh, Boss?”
     
    Trent started to challenge him again when Paul whipped his head over Grace’s shoulder and lifted his voice to the night sky. “Three of them are gone.” Paul said. His eyes shifted back to