Page 105 of I Was Born Ruined (Death by Daybreak MC 1)
“Take me with you,” Grey shouts after a while, his voice like gravel. I can barely hear him over the breeze, but as I pause at the stop sign, checking for semi-trucks before pulling out, I answer in the brief break from the wind.
“No fucking way,” I snap, taking a right and heading for the freeway. Once I get out of here, I'm going straight to the Portland International Airport. I've stolen enough cash from Cat to get a one-way ticket the fuck out of here. Leaving the country is my best option. Maybe. I hope. But there's no other choice: there's no life here with Cat. There's no life for me if I murder some goddamn kid.
“I snitched on my fucking family,” Grey chokes out, sounding much sharper, much more alert than he did in the cabin. He digs his bloodied, nail-less fingers into the front of my leather jacket. His face is still pretty, even with his nose crooked and broken, his eyes swollen and purple, his lower lip split. I wonder if we were normal kids, in a normal school, with normal families … maybe we'd have dated? Maybe he'd take me to the prom?
Hilarious.
“No chance,” I shout back, and he looks away sharply. He's right though. He did snitch. And his family, they'll kill him as fast as the club will if they catch up to us. “I'll take you to the airport,” I amend finally, “and give you money for a cab. I'm guessing you don't have an ID, so a flight is out of the question.”
“Thank you,” he whispers, his voice barely audible above the roar of the engine as we approach the main road, and I flick the headlights on.
I’m on edge, waiting for the sound of rumbling bikes, for my doom riding for me on beasts made of steel and darkness.
I purse my lips, and I refuse to think about Crown or Sin, Beast or Grainger.
Who cares about them anyway? They don't mean shit to me.
I may not ever have known how big of a lie that was if I hadn't turned the corner … and run right into a roadblock.
A roadblock made up of mafia men.I squeeze the brake as hard as I can, but the road's too wet and I'm going too fast. We turn completely sideways and skid, but the bike ends up rolling anyway. Crown’s beautiful, beautiful Chieftain Classic. I’m so sorry, I think as my head flies forward and hits the handlebars; all I can see are stars. I’m just not that good of a driver.
Thank fuck I know how to handle a fall though.
Grabbing onto Grey’s hands, I throw myself off the side of the bike and roll, my shoulder hitting the ground with a crack and a scream of pain that makes my entire body go numb. We scrape across the ground as the motorcycle flips up on its head and tumbles end over end with the scream of metal, smashing into the black Cadillac that’s idling in the center of the road. There’s a small explosion, a rush of heat and bright, orange light that chases away the shadows.
Grey’s grip loosens on my midsection and we roll apart, skidding across the pavement at such high speeds that I can feel my skin being flayed from the flesh on my legs and hands. If I weren’t wearing a helmet or a leather jacket, I might’ve died. I still might die. There’s blood everywhere; I can taste it. It runs hot and coppery down the back of my throat as I come to a stop on my back. It takes my head a while to realize that I’ve stopped moving, my eyes blinking up at a dark gray sky, watching as the clouds crack and rain comes pouring down in sheets.
Footsteps pad across the wet pavement, shiny black dress shoes that I can barely see through the blood running into my eyes. I think I split my lip. Or worse. No, no, definitely worse. I think I’m in shock.
The footsteps pause beside me, and their owner leans down, giving me my first look at Ivan Wolfe, the Underboss of the Grey Wolfe Mafia, the most powerful man in the organization save Grey’s dad, the Dom. I know this is Ivan from pictures Cat showed me. He's always wanted me to know who my enemies are. Too bad he never showed me a picture of himself.
“This wasn't quite what I was expecting,” Ivan says in a silky, smooth voice with just the hint of an Italian accent. I can barely make out his facial features because I'm so disoriented, and I can hear Grey screaming from the other side of the road. All I can see though is Ivan’s smile, far too white in the bloody blackness. “But I'll take it.”
