Guns & Burning Rubber: The Iron Brotherhood series by Samantha Westlake Page A

like deadly hornets.
    And that wasn’t all.  Behind them, back at the house, a longer, more sustained chattering suddenly rang out.  This noise was deeper than the cracks of the pistols from the other Hellraisers out in the woods, and Kara knew that someone must have made their way downstairs and grabbed one of the assault rifles.
    “Drive, go, go, go!” she urged, not bothering to whisper any longer as she leaned forward to direct the words into Cross’s ear.
    The man needed no urging.  They leapt forward, rushing down the dirt road and out, away from the Hellraisers’ house, as more bullets sliced into the trees from behind them.
    The next few minutes were an exercise in paralyzed agony.  Kara couldn’t see a thing in the darkness, couldn’t make out anything besides the shadowy shape of Cross’s shoulders just in front of her.  The motorcycle’s headlight was on, but it only illuminated the area directly in front of them.  When a tree came looming up out of the darkness, Cross was barely able to turn aside at the last second, and Kara felt the bark go scraping past, only fractions of an inch from her knee.
    Branches, hanging down from the trees that overshadowed both sides of the path, came swiping in at their faces.  Kara didn’t have her helmet, but she couldn’t hold up her hands to shield her face from the attacks for fear of falling off the back of the motorcycle as they hit the bumps in the dirt road.  Instead, she had to just keep her head down as much as possible, giving up sight in exchange for protecting her eyes and face.
    Behind them, she occasionally caught flashes of light from Gimli.  The short man was managing to barely keep up with them, but Kara didn’t know how long he’d be able to last.  From the occasional roars of protest as he struggled to change gears, he was having issues maintaining his coordination.
    And then, just as she was certain that this was her Hell, that this would continue forever, it was suddenly over.
    The transition was abrupt.  One second, they were in the woods, bouncing across the bumpy dirt road, the bikes seeming to hop from pothole to pothole.
    The next second, they were suddenly shooting across smooth tarmac, out on a two-lane country road.
    Cross nearly shot all the way across the room and off the other side before he recovered, grabbing the brakes to slow them down and leaning over to turn along with the perpendicular road.  The back wheel of the motorcycle threw up pebbles and dirt as it slid along the far edge of the wheel, but they managed to make the turn without falling over.
    After a moment to suck in a quick breath, Kara turned, keeping one hand wrapped firmly around Cross’s waist so that she wouldn’t slide off.  For a minute, there was nothing but blackness behind them, and she felt her heart jump into her throat.
    A second later, however, another light came bursting out from the side road, turning to follow after them.  The light made it impossible to see any details - was this Gimli, or a pursuer?
    Her assault rifle was still bumping against her back and the rear of the motorcycle, and she now grabbed for it.  She pulled it up; the weapon was awkward to brandish with one hand, but she managed to get it leveled as the other motorcycle behind them pulled up alongside.  Her finger found the safety switch, disengaging it and getting ready to send a burst into the rider alongside them.
    But as he pulled up, Gimli’s familiar voice came booming up.  “Well, that worked better than expected, all things considered!” he shouted out.  There was still a faint note of pain in his voice, but he didn’t seem to be having any trouble with his bike.
    “Let’s pull off!” Cross shouted back, as Kara thankfully flipped the safety back on and dropped the barrel of the assault rifle.  “Kill the lights and hide!”
    Gimli nodded, and dropped back behind Cross as he pulled in the clutch of the chopper and slowed down.  Off to their right,