Tanner (Dirty Misfits MC Book 5), page 14
Since she still hadn’t come back to the conscious world yet.
Twenty-Four
Summer
“Summer! This way!” Molly called out.
The smoke almost choked me as the sound of flames crackling off in the distance confused me. There was so much smoke, and yet I saw absolutely no flames.
Was the fire somewhere else in the warehouse?
“Come on,” Molly said as she took my hand, “we have to get out of here.”
“Follow me!” Porter called out.
“Tanner!” I exclaimed.
I reached out for him as Molly tugged me down the hallway. I didn’t want to leave without him, though. I didn’t want him to perish in the fire. And when he reached out for me, our fingers touched. Electricity jumped from my body to his as my skin sizzled with desire.
With love.
With fear.
“Go with Molly,” Tanner said, “I’ll be out there soon enough.”
The steadiness of his voice only betrayed the shaking quality of my own. I was worried as fuck, and the further Molly dragged me down the hallway the more the smoke enveloped his body. I wanted to call out to him. I wanted to rush back to him and drag him out with me so that I knew he’d be okay.
But once Molly coughed, my attention snapped over to her.
“Here, we need to get you some fresh air,” I said.
With smoke billowing into every open corner and crevice of the place, I wrapped my arm around Molly’s back. I helped her down the hallway as her right hand clasped her stomach, almost as if she were trying to lift it up. She waddled alongside me, moving as quickly as she could. But when I saw a sea of smoke rushing around the corner in front of us, I looked around for an alternate route.
“We’re gonna die in here,” Molly said breathlessly.
I gritted my teeth. “No, we’re not. Follow me. Come on.”
I darted into a room that connected two of the hallways and burst through the other side. I looked to my right and saw nothing but a wall of smoke, but when I looked to my left, I saw what looked like paradise. I saw the opening to the living room down the way about twenty feet, and there didn’t seem to be a shred of smoke in its wake.
So, we turned down that way and booked it for the front door.
Molly’s coughing had me worried and we had to stop to catch our breath a couple of times, but we finally made it to the living room. However, I was wrong on the smoke.
The smoke simply hadn’t crept around the corner yet.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed.
“You guys! Over here!”
I didn’t recognize the voice, but Molly did. “Finn? Is that you?”
“Hey! Down here!”
Then, Molly’s eyes widened. “Finn! We can’t see you!”
The smoke grew thicker by the second as my eyes darted around, trying to figure out where the hell that man was. I backed us up into the kitchen, trying to stay away from the bulk of it as footsteps fell heavily against the floor. The sound came closer before Finn rounded the corner, his eyes dancing between the two of us.
Then, he took each of us by our hands and tugged us along.
“The front door is the quickest way out. Follow me,” he urged.
We rushed along behind him and I helped Molly steady herself on her feet. The sound of crackling flames grew louder, and I looked around to see if Tanner was anywhere near us. Was he still in the building? Had he gotten out?
What the fuck was he doing?
“There!” Molly exclaimed.
Finn had to really work to get the front door open, but when he did we all dashed outside. Molly and I rushed toward the treeline before we turned around, and I was still confused at the sight I saw.
“Why aren’t there any flames?” I asked breathlessly.
Finn ripped his mask off. “Shit. The cellar.”
Molly furrowed her brow while she panted for air. “Wait, there’s a cellar?”
I put my hand on Finn’s shoulder. “There’s another level to this place?”
He acted like he didn’t hear us, though, because all he did was slip his mask back on. He rushed away from us, booking it around the side of the warehouse while we called out for him. But it was no use. Finn moved quicker than any person I’d ever seen in my life, and within seconds he was out of sight.
Before Josie sprinted up to us.
“Molly! Summer! Jesus Christ, thank fuck you guys are all right.”
She wrapped us up in wonderfully-tight hugs that made my eyes water with tears.
“Do you know where the guys are?” I asked.
Josie looked at me with her own red eyes. “No, I haven’t seen them at all. I smelled the smoke while I was cooking food and immediately got whoever I could see outside. I’ve been trying to find Archer ever since I got out here. Do you know where they are? Please tell me they’ve made it outside.”
Molly cupped her cheeks. “They have gas masks on. They’re probably locating the source of the fire. You know they’re okay. They’re always okay.”
Tears dripped down Josie’s cheeks, mimicking my own. “He has to be okay. He hates fire. Can’t stand the shit. Archer!”
“Shh, shh, shh, shh,” Molly said softly.
“Archer, please!” Josie roared.
Then, out of nowhere, I heard the echoing voice of someone returning our call.
“Josie!”
She pulled away from Molly, her eyes as wide as saucers. “That’s Archer. Did you hear him?”
“Summer!”
My heart skipped a beat. “Tanner! Holy shit!”
The second I saw their bodies walk forth from the smoke that had softly enveloped the side of the warehouse, I took off running. Tanner looked like he was limping and Archer was one more smoke cloud away from falling to his knees, but they were alive.
However, when they got out of the smoke and dropped Raven to the ground, I gasped.
“Oh, no,” I murmured.
“She’s barely breathing. We need Cole,” Archer said through his panting.
“Archer, thank fuck,” Josie said breathlessly.
The two of them enveloped one another in a hug as I cupped Tanner’s cheek, making him look at me. “You did good. You did so, so good.”
He swallowed hard. “I need Cole. She needs Cole. Have you seen him?”
I furrowed my brow. “You don't know? You were with him when you wanted me to go with Molly. That was Cole in that mask, right?”
And when he didn’t answer me, panic rushed its way through my veins.
If the guys had been so caught off-guard with all of this that they had lost track of one another, then we were all scattered in the wind. There was no plan, and no next step. All there was… was surviving.
Making it out alive.
Hoping, and praying, everyone else was as well off as us.
“They’re going to be okay,” I whispered.
Tanner shook his head before he looked down at Raven. “Hey, can you hear me? Raven?”
He tapped her cheek softly, which made her groan. But she didn’t open her eyes and she barely moved.
“Raven, it’s me. Summer. Can you hear me?” I asked.
“Do you hear that!?” Molly exclaimed.
Off in the distance, if I strained my ears enough, I heard the sound of horns honking. Sirens squealed and roared out with purpose as they slowly crept closer to us. Relief washed its way through my veins as the sound of the horns grew closer, because I’d lived in the city long enough to know what a fire truck sounded like.
And there was an army headed in our direction.
“They’ll have ambulances,” I said breathlessly.
Tanner groaned as he strained himself, picking Raven back up into his arms. “Let’s get her to the treeline. She’s still too close.”
“Please tell me you know where the rest of the guys are,” Molly said.
Tanner shook his head. “I’m sorry. There’s so much fucking chaos, but I’ll go back and—”
I slapped his arm. “You’re not going back in there. Not on my watch.”
He glared at me. “Those are my brothers.”
“And I’m the mother of your child. What if Cheyenne were standing here? Would you go back then?”
Molly whimpered behind me. “Please, Tan. You have to find Cole.”
Tanner’s eyes pleaded with me, but I shook my head. “Your daughter needs you. I need you.”
Molly gripped my hair and pulled me to her side. “And I need Cole! I need him to go get Cole because I can’t do this alone! I can’t raise this child alone! Stop being so fucking selfish and let him go get—”
“Molly!” Cole roared.
She released my hair as sobs of relief fell from her lips. “Is that—”
“Molly!” Cole bellowed.
She quickly looked over at me. “I’m so sorry.”
I shook my head and hugged her tightly. “Don’t you dare be. We’d be the exact same way if the situations were reversed. Now, go.”
I wiped away her tears before I relinquished her, and she hobbled over to Cole. I watched him scoop her up into his arms the best way he knew how, and a few seconds later the fire trucks appeared out of nowhere. They barreled down the deserted road and dumped out in front of the warehouse. And as Tanner wrapped his arms around me, everyone else slowly made their way out of the smoke and gathered at the treeline behind the fire trucks.
While we all watched as the firemen got to work.
“What are we going to do?” I asked breathlessly.
I looked up at Tanner and watched him draw in a deep breath.
“I don’t know where we’ll go, but I know what has to happen.”
I swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”
And when he looked down into my eyes, I saw an angry determination behind them.
Before he foreshadowed what was to come with his words.
“We need to end this, Summer, once and for all. That’s what needs to happen.”
Twenty-Five
Tanner
“Really, I’m fine,” I murmured.
Cole dabbed at one of the burns I had on my right forearm. “So you say.”
“Dude, the paramedics even cleared me.”
He peeked up at me. “Because you kept cursing them out whenever they hit you with an alcohol swab.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatev—holy fuck! What the hell?”
He ripped open another alcohol swab. “Sure you’re fine?”
I peered over my shoulder to try and distract myself while Cole essentially tortured me, and I saw the paramedics looking over Molly. She kept her eyes locked with mine while they poked and prodded, testing her pupillary responses and measuring her oxygen intake and output.
Hey, I picked up a few things being around Cole, all right?
“I can’t thank you enough, Tan.”
Archer’s voice caught my ear, and I turned my head to face him. “It’s really not a problem.”
“You tugged me out of there when I had no issues with killing myself trying to find Josie. You’re the one who told me she was probably already outside.”
I chuckled. “I’m also the one that stuffed your ass through that window so you could catch Raven.”
“I owe both of you a debt of gratitude,” Brooks said as he walked up.
He patted both of us on the back as he blinked back tears.
“Man, it’s okay. You would’ve done the same for us,” I said.
Archer nodded. “He’s right. Had it been one of our girls, you would’ve run in without a second thought.”
Brooks swallowed hard. “Just—thank you. Both of you.”
I patted his knee as he stood behind me. “If you really want to thank me, tell Cole to cut the shit and bandage me up.”
Cole groaned. “A fully grown man can’t handle an alcohol swab.”
“On a burn, man,” I hissed.
Brooks snorted. “Just let him do what he does best. That way, you risk not getting your arm infected, got it?”
My face fell flat. “So much for brotherhood.”
We all busted out laughing, trying to relieve the tension as we watched the black flames from our warehouse barrel into the sky. None of us caught those two asshats that had escaped, and now we had nowhere to go.
Our homes weren’t safe.
The clubhouse wasn’t safe.
And now, our warehouse was ruined beyond immediate repair.
“What do you think happens now?” I asked.
Archer shrugged. “No clue.”
Cole finally bandaged up my forearm. “Guess we’ll have to scatter to the wind for a while.”
I shook my head. “You know that won’t do shit. They’ll track all of us down so long as Chops is calling the shots.”
“Shh,” Brooks said hotly behind us, “not now. Not while other people are around.”
Summer came to sit beside me and I wrapped my arm around her. She laid her head against my shoulder, watching gallons upon gallons of water spew to the ground and toward the warehouse as the firefighters put out the steaming embers. They wrapped around the back of the warehouse, and I could only assume it was to retrace the steps the fire itself took.
And as we all gathered around Cole—men and women alike—we all stayed silent until the firefighters finally packed up and left.
Then, Brooks cleared his throat. “Church.”
I sighed. “I’m not leaving Summer. Sorry.”
Cole nodded. “Same, but for Molly.”
Brooks puffed his cheeks out with a sigh. “I meant ‘church’ for all of us.”
Archer furrowed his brow. “Have we done that before?”
I grinned. “With Summer’s eavesdropping skills, we might as well have.”
She pushed me playfully and everyone got a little giggle out of it. But we quickly settled back into “fix it” mode.
“So, anyone got any ideas on where we go from here?” Brooks asked.
Cole packed up his things and stood. “I still say we scatter to the wind a bit. Let the heat die down, literally and metaphorically.”
But Molly shook her head. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. If we scatter and they come after us, then it’s just one or two of us against all of them that track us down. That doesn’t seem safe.”
She rubbed her stomach to prove her point and my heart ached for her. My heart ached for Cheyenne, and the fact that she’d have to stay at Sloane’s a little while longer than just this weekend. It made me sick to think that Summer and myself wouldn’t be able to have our family back together under one roof until that sick bastard of a man was finally handled the way he deserved to be handled.
But then, Finn spoke up. “So, I know I don’t talk about my family much, but I might have a place we can all go.”
Archer blinked. “What’s that got to do with your family?”
Brooks chuckled. “I know.”
Finn shot him a look before he licked his lips. “My family has done well for themselves. They’ve pinched pennies when they needed to and splurged when they deserved it. Anyway, they have a house here in Santa Barbara that they’ve failed to sell time and time again because they always price the damn thing too high. You’d think flipping houses would teach them that shit, but no.”
Josie clicked her tongue. “Where’s the house?”
Finn sighed. “That’s the only issue. It’s not like it’s out in the middle of nowhere. It’s on the ocean, with its own private stretch of beach, so there’s less angles to defend. But it is in a gated community. So, if we are attacked—”
“There are civilians everywhere,” I murmured.
“That might keep them from attacking, though,” Summer said as she stood up. “I mean, they know we won’t call the police, but civilians definitely will.”
Cole nodded. “It might play in our favor.”
Raven coughed a bit to clear her throat. “And there’s no harm in going to see the place. Right?”
Finn smiled. “Right.”
Brooks shrugged his shoulders. “Since it was your idea, you lead the way, then.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Molly said.
We all paused before Summer took her hand. “I know what you’re thinking, and we can’t. Not until things cool down, anyway.”
Her eyes watered. “But it’s supposed to storm tonight. Everything will be ruined.”
Cole sat down beside her and rubbed her back. “The roof wasn’t damaged. It’ll protect what’s left of our things until we can come back and get them. But we have to get somewhere safe. We’re sitting ducks, and for all we know they’re currently trying to mount an attack while we’re down.”
I dipped down and wiped Molly’s tears off her cheeks. “I’ll come back with you. Me, and Tanner, and Cole. We’ll all come back in the morning once the smoke and everything is cleared out by the rain and we’ll pick through what’s here. Okay?”
She sighed so heavily her shoulders slumped. “Okay.”
After gathering everyone together and getting on the backs of bikes, we loaded up what we could in one of the spare cars and fell in line behind Finn. I chose to drive one of the cars with Molly in the passenger’s seat, since she was a bit too big to ride on the back of Cole’s bike with her growing stomach. And the further we got from the warehouse, the easier it became to breathe.
But once we wove our way through town and ended up in front of a hair of beautiful, sparkling wrought iron gates, my eyes widened.
“Wait, we’re going in here?” I asked.
“Jesus,” Molly said breathlessly, “these houses have to be at least a mil and a half or so.”
I gawked at the gorgeous houses as we cruised down the road. People peered out their windows to figure out what in the world was kicking up all of the noise they heard. Some of them waved at us while others grimaced as our disturbance. But, as we traveled easily down the road, I watched Finn turn into the roundabout driveway of the last house on the left.
