Page 106 of Riot’s Revenge

“I’m okay.”

“No, you fuckin’ ain’t.” He crouched beside the open door. “Can you move your legs?”

I tested them carefully. “Yes.”

“Neck hurt?”

“No.”

“Back?”

“I don’t think so.”

Reaper reached across me and shut off the engine before offering me his hand. “Slowly.”

My knees nearly collapsed the second my feet touched the ground. Reaper caught me around the waist and pulled me against his chest. That was all it took. I buried my face against his kutte and sobbed.

Reaper held me tighter. “I’ve got you.” His voice was rough, but one hand moved carefully over the back of my head. “You’re all right. We’ve got you.”

Motorcycles roared in the distance. One engine became two. Then five. Then too many to count. Headlights swept across the road as the Dead Knights arrived.

Keno reached us first, followed by Tiny and Spider. Tiny shrugged out of his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders before looking over the car. “Who the fuck did this?”

“I didn’t see.” My teeth chattered despite the coat.

Reaper kept one arm around me. “They run her off the road.”

Tiny’s face hardened. “Kings?”

“Who else?”

My mind was fuzzy, but the King’s names sent a shiver of fear through me as the night years ago when we lost Brandi and Shadow to them.

Finn arrived with Kate in their truck, and she was out of the door before he had properly stopped.

“Maria!” She ran down the slope and threw her arms around me. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay.”

“You’re bleeding.”

“It’s just a cut.”

Kate cupped my face carefully, tears already filling her eyes. “You didn’t text.”

A laugh escaped me, broken and watery. “I got distracted.”

“Not funny.”

“I know.”

Lucy appeared moments later, on the back of a prospect’s bike, wearing pyjama bottoms beneath Reaper’s spare Kutte. She shoved past two prospects and grabbed me. For several seconds, the three of us clung to each other on the side of the road while the brothers spread out around us.

Reaper issued orders behind me. Keno searched the road for anything the attackers might have left behind. Spider checked the tire marks. Finn crouched beside the car, studying the damage with a fury that made him look nothing like the man who had stood patiently on the porch waiting for Kate.

Then another engine roared toward us. I knew that sound. Knew it before the bike rounded the bend. Riot pulled onto the verge so fast the back tire slid across the loose gravel. He kicked the stand down and was moving before the engine stopped. His eyes found the car first. Then me.

The color drained from his face. “Maria.” He crossed the space between us in seconds.