November’s Ride with Viper (Mustang Mountain Riders #11)

8. Viper

CHAPTER 8

VIPER

The Mustang Mountain Riders ushered everyone out of the building as quickly as possible. Ruby tried to get everybody to move down to the cafe, but most folks gathered across the street. A couple hundred yards wouldn’t be enough of a perimeter if things didn’t go our way. I’d entrusted Marlowe to a few of the women from the club. She’d tried to come with me, but I wouldn’t be able to handle it if anything happened to her.

“Where the fuck is Shane?” Atlas asked. “I thought I saw him here a while ago.”

“That’s your Army buddy, right?” Scar asked.

Atlas nodded. “He was a demolitions expert. If anyone can figure out how to dismantle that thing, it’s him.”

“He ran over to the Merc to grab a few things.” Scar leaned over to examine the black box. We’d cut the lock holding it closed, but none of us knew what to do with the nest of wires inside.

“I sure as hell hope he knows what he’s doing.” Mack shook his head, his jaw clenched tight. “Scar, you and Thunder were on watch here last night. Did you see anyone moving around outside?”

“Not a fucking soul.” Scar grunted. Knowing him, he’d blame himself if anything bad happened, though the box could have been set up anytime over the past few days.

“Here he comes. Make some room so Shane can get in here. Viper, you and Crank canvas the area around the building. You find anything that shouldn’t be here, I want to know about it ASAP.” Atlas met his friend halfway up the sidewalk. “What are we looking at here, man?”

I didn’t want to leave, but I wasn’t doing any good where I was. The Savage Bones had to be responsible. There was no one else who’d benefit from blowing up a building in the middle of town. It had to be a retaliation for what went down last month when we took out their leader. Technically, Sheriff Cade was the one who pulled the trigger and ended Malice’s life, but they’d blamed us.

“What’s going on over here?” Sean rushed over as I walked around to the front of the building. He’d taken over as the acting sheriff since Sheriff Cade had been removed from office.

I nodded toward the back of the building. “Looks like someone rigged a bomb. Atlas’s buddy Shane is in town to check on some property he inherited and used to deal with demolitions in the Army. He’s taking a look at the device and will hopefully figure out a way to dismantle it before it blows.”

“How much time do we have?” Sean asked. I had to give the guy credit for keeping his cool. He hadn’t even been in the role of sheriff for a month yet.

“The timer on the side is down to about eight minutes. I don’t know anything about explosives, but I heard Shane say it was an amateur job.”

“Thanks, Viper.” Sean clamped his hand on my shoulder. “That doesn’t give us enough time to get anyone else out here. I sure hope this guy knows what he’s doing.”

“You and me both,” I muttered under my breath. The alternative wasn’t an option, especially not when Marlowe and I had just reconnected. Sean left me to comb through the bushes on the side of the building and rushed toward the back, where Shane worked on the bomb.

A few of my Mustang Mountain Riders brothers joined in the effort of searching for a sign of who might be responsible. Personally, I didn’t need any hard proof. Most of us knew without a doubt it was the Savage Bones. They still had a few of their guys out there, specifically Eight Ball and Venom, their secretary. Both of them had proven to be reckless and devoid of anything resembling a human emotion.

My gut clenched as I checked my watch. We were down to about three minutes. I’d keep looking for another sixty seconds or so. If Shane hadn’t killed that bomb by then, the only thing all of us could do was run.

I made it around to the front and spotted Scar. “Find anything?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Fuckers didn’t leave a trace this time.”

The tension in the air thickened. I looked across the street and saw some of my MC brothers still trying to relocate the growing crowd. Jackson yelled through a bullhorn for people to keep moving back. Some of them listened, but the majority didn’t budge. Then I saw something that made my heart squeeze so tight it felt like it would burst.

Marlowe raced toward the side door of the building. What the fuck was she thinking? I took off in that direction to intercept her.

“Get away from here!” Waving my arms like a madman, I plowed across the dead grass. “It’s going to blow.”

She reached the door and yanked it open. Hades bounded out of the building and ran circles around us.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” I crashed into her, tossed her over my shoulder, and took off for the other side of the street.

Her head bounced against my back, and she kicked her legs. “Put me down, Viper!”

Once we’d reached relative safety, I set her down. Her pulse jumped, and a rush of pink spread across her cheeks.

“What the fuck was that, Lo?” Even with her hair falling over her face, her cheeks flushed, and her hands curled into fists, she looked gorgeous.

“Hades was trapped inside. I saw him through the window and had to let him out. He was the one who found the bomb. I couldn’t leave him in there to die.” She sucked in a ragged breath and buried her fingers in the thick fur of the wolf’s neck.

“We’ve got sixty seconds left on the timer.” Scar shook his head. “This doesn’t look good.”

“Back away from the street, please.” Jackson continued to urge people to move back.

Atlas appeared from behind the building. His jaw clenched, and he gave a slight shake of his head. Shit. I immediately joined in, trying to push the crowd back behind the buildings across the street. No telling how many pounds of explosives had been packed into that box.

Marlowe helped. She stood right by my side as we moved farther and farther away from the Community Center. With nothing else to do but wait, I pulled her into my arms.

“We’ve done all we can do now, Lo Lo. Just know that I love you. It’s always been you.” I stared into her eyes, committing her face to memory.

“I love you, too.” She broke eye contact first, glancing at something behind me.

I turned to see Shane rounding the building. The gathered crowd erupted in a loud cheer. Based on the grin spreading across Shane’s mouth, he’d been successful.

Thank fuck.

No one I knew would die today. At least no one I liked. As for the Savage Bones, no one would be able to save them from the wrath they’d just incurred. My MC brothers must have been thinking the same thing. We gravitated toward each other as the county task force arrived.

Sean nodded at Atlas. “They’re going to do a sweep of the building to make sure it’s safe before they let anyone go back inside.”

“Good,” Atlas said. “We’ll have everyone move over to the cafe. Now that the immediate threat has passed, hopefully folks will be willing to cooperate.”

“I’ll get my best guys on this. Hopefully, we’ll get to the bottom of who’s responsible and make them pay for their actions soon.” Sean shook Atlas’s hand, then headed toward the Community Center to check on the new arrivals.

As soon as he was out of hearing range, Scar voiced what all of us were thinking. “We’re not going to sit around with our thumbs up our asses while we wait for Deputy Do-Right to figure out what we already know, are we?”

A collective murmur swept through the group. One that Atlas silenced as soon as he raised his hand. “Sean means well. We didn’t start this fight, but we’re going to be the ones to end it. Get your shit together, kiss your women goodbye, and let’s meet at the clubhouse at dusk.”

“In the meantime, I want all of you scoping out different sections of town. Those motherfuckers have to be hiding somewhere nearby. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll send out assignments.” Thunder pulled his phone out of his pocket and immediately got to work.

“You’re not going anywhere without me.” Marlowe grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze.

“Nice try, Lo. There’s no way in hell I’m putting you in danger. You just about gave me a heart attack when you ran into that fucking building.” My pulse still hadn’t calmed down.

She held my gaze, the fierce look in her eyes challenging me. “Nice try, Viper. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you leave me behind.”

“Is that so?” Under different circumstances, I might actually enjoy her sass. But when her safety was on the line, I wasn’t about to give in.

“Yes, that’s so. We just found each other again. I don’t want to consider the possibility of losing you to some low-life thugs. If you go down trying to save this town, I want to be right there next to you.”

“The only going down I plan on happening is me going down on my woman later tonight after all of this is over.” I meant it, too. Knowing she would be waiting for me would be enough incentive to be careful.

“I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree for now.” Marlowe crossed her arms over her chest. Her body language reeked of confidence. Too bad she was going to be disappointed when I left her behind.