“Mae! Stop!” Lilah called out as she ran after her sister. Mae whipped around to face her, both of them dead center in the yard, the light from the garage like a spotlight on them both.

“Anyone got lube? Or a shitload of mud? These hot bitches are fixin’ to fight, and I want front row seats! I’ll come just watching them slide over each other’s tits… or trib. Fuck, let the bitches scissor!”

Styx and me as one turned to face Vike, who stood brazen as all hell with tissues stuck up his nose from where I broke it. Styx growled out a warning, pulling out his German knife from his boot, licking the blade. AK dragged Vike back by the shoulders through the circle of brothers and bitches and took him out of our sight.

“I’m gonna murder that fucker,” I spat, a wave of jealousy taking root. Vike didn’t talk about Lilah that way.

“You gotta get through me first,” Styx signed back, causing me to smirk.

“Lilah, please leave me alone,” Mae said dejectedly, pulling everyone’s attention back on them. “I have no idea what else to do for you. You have been here living outside of the faith; it is the only place for us to be. We have nothing; they never let us have anything that was of substance. I have done everything within my power to make you comfortable, as has Styx, Ky, Beauty, Letti, all of the brothers, but I am at a loss now.”

Mae reached up to her cheeks with her hand and brushed away her tears. “I thought I was saving you by taking you from the commune, the place where we were stripped of our childhood and told repeatedly that we were evil. We both watched Bella die on that cold prison cell floor and we both know it was at the command and bloody unclean hands of Brother Gabriel, yet you are determined to return to that place. But I have said it to you a million times, sister. There is nowhere and no one left to return you to.”

Mae stepped closer to a very still Lilah and, cupping her cheeks, said, “I am not your jailer. I am not going to keep you here against your will. I love you more than my life and I just want you to be happy.”

Lilah sniffed and I knew she was crying again, her hard-ass attitude gone to vapor. My gut was tight as I waited for her response. Would she wanna leave us? Because no way on this earth was she going anywhere. I wouldn’t fuckin’ allow it. The bitch was mine now whether she knew it or not; she was mine to keep.

Raising her head to face Mae, Lilah opened her mouth, and I stopped breathing. “I—”

Suddenly, from behind the gate, bright lights blared and a huge explosion sounded. The metal gate blew off its hinges, flames and debris bursting into the air.

“Get the fuck down!” some brothers shouted, and I realized it was Tank and Bull, ordering everyone to take cover.

“MAE!” Styx shouted, stutter free.

I too only had one thought: Get to Lilah.

Screams and pained crying was coming from all around the yard. People were hurt. Fuck, maybe some were even dead. Pushing up on my arms, I saw Lilah and Mae huddled together on the ground, Lilah struggling to get them to their feet, her face stricken with fear. The fallen gate had blocked our path, the heavy metal wedged against the garage door, our bitches trapped underneath.

Styx’s hand grabbed my cut and he dragged me to my feet, my ears ringing due to the volume of the blast. We both cast a glance around the yard, seeing blood and people scattered all around the place like fuckin’ confetti. Tank, Bull, Cowboy, AK, Smiler, and Viking were all getting up, holding their guns, uninjured except for cuts and bruises.

“Ky!” Lilah screamed and, when I looked to her, she was holding a limp Mae in her arms.

“No!” Styx roared and took off to where they were caged in.

“Move the gate, now!” I ordered to the brothers, and seeing Styx and me at the gate, they all ran over, gripping the metal, and we lifted as hard as we could.

“Ky, she is not moving!” Lilah cried, and I caught her rocking Mae in her arms. “Her head is bleeding!”

“I-i-is sh-sh-she br-br-breathing?” Styx managed to push out, and Lilah’s shocked eyes slammed to his.

“Lilah, baby, is she breathing?” I pushed gently as the gate began to lift off the ground.

Lilah bent down and a look of relief flashed across her face. “Yes. She is breathing.”

Styx exhaled beside me, and I looked to my brothers. “We need to get this the fuck off them. Ready, one, two, three!” We all pushed the gate up, tilting it to the right.

“She’s moving!” Lilah yelled, and we froze. Mae’s hands were moving and a pained groan slipped from her lips.

“She was knocked out, man,” I told a panting Styx. “She must have got the blowback from the blast.” The brother was about to lose his shit if he didn’t get to his bitch soon.

“Again! Let’s move this hunk of shit!” I shouted out to the brothers and on a count of three, we managed to lift the gate until it almost was off the women.

The roar of an engine and the squeak of tires suddenly sounded, causing us all to snap our attention to the front of the compound.

“Incoming!” Hush shouted. I looked up to one of the lookouts, where Hush was keeping watch over the road, an AK-47 firmly held in his hands. “Truck, men in the back!”

“Bring the fire!” Bull ordered. “Take out as many of the fuckers as you can!”

Hush lined up his rifle, raining bullets on the cunts, whoever they were.

With one last heave, we managed to tilt the gate enough for Beauty to crawl underneath to get to Lilah and Mae. Smiler followed. The brother may not say much, especially since his road brother Rider turned out to be rat, but he was ex-special forces like AK and could patch up cuts if need be.

A loud whistle cut through the sound of Hush’s fire and I knew it was Styx. “Get the brothers to their positions! I want these fuckers to the boatman.” Styx signed and I boomed out his order, the brothers falling back to the garage to retrieve rifles and Uzis to then take their places.

Within seconds, a truck came into view. Several men jumped to their feet in the bed of the Ford F-150, pulled out rifles from underneath a tarp, and began to open fire.

A storm of bullets from the Hangmen pierced their truck. Hearing what sounded a fuckin’ war cry from behind us, Flame came barreling outta the clubhouse, two M16s in his arms. The psycho fucker ran toward the truck, no protection on his bare torso, covered only by his cut, his legs covered only by his jeans.