Ah. The air bag had deployed. No wonder she felt like someone had just punched her in the face.
Hands shaking, she unclipped the seatbelt and pushed open the door. Her vehicle rested sideways on the road, the passenger door up against a tree. She slid past the air bag and stepped out to check the damage. With the front tire was in pieces—shot out, she guessed—it was no wonder she’d lost control.
Smoke billowed around her, giving the scene an almost dreamlike quality. She felt light, almost weightless as she wandered down the road, not sure where she should go. Ahead, the club house burned bright, a white truck embedded in one wall, engulfed in flames. The thick, acrid smoke burned her lungs and she coughed, tried to breathe into her sleeve.
Where was everyone? Her foot hit something and she stumbled, fell. She bent down, recognized the long blond hair.
“Doreen?” She shook Doreen gently, felt for a pulse. But when she patted her down, blood seeped through Doreen’s clothes.
She fell back with a gasp.
“Evie!” Zane’s voice rang out in the stillness.
“Zane. Over here. I need help.”
Zane emerged from the smoke, ran towards her. Then he froze, his face contorting in horror.
“Help me. She’s not breathing.”
Still, he didn’t move.
“What?” She looked back over her shoulder, pushed herself to her feet. “What’s wrong? Is someone behind me?”
“You.”
Evie put her hand to her face. It came away sticky and red. She touched her nose, winced in pain.
“The air bag went off.” Her vision blurred and a wave of nausea gripped her stomach. “I must have a nosebleed.”
Zane frowned, shook his head. His mouth opened but she couldn’t make out his words. Evie took a step forward, and then she lost her footing and fell into the smoke.
*
“She gonna be okay?”
Zane nodded from the chair beside his bed as Jagger closed the door behind him. Evie had been asleep most of the day, and save for checking in on Ty and putting him to bed in a spare room in the clubhouse, Zane hadn’t left her side.
“Yeah. She’s bruised up from the air bag hitting her face, and she had a nosebleed and a minor concussion. Took her to the hospital and they said she’d be okay. Doc suggested we stay at the clubhouse since he’ll be here all night fixing up the brothers and he could check in on her. How’s everyone doing?”
Jagger settled on the edge of dresser. His face was lined and worn, and he still hadn’t changed out of his blood-soaked clothes after helping treat all the brothers who had been injured in the raid. “Lots of casualties, but everyone made it out alive.”
“Thank fuck. What happened?”
Jagger scrubbed his hands over his face. “They were hiding out in the hills around the clubhouse. Not sure if they were still hiding from the ATF, or if they knew we were coming, but our scouts missed them. They started shooting just after Evie dropped off Doreen. Looks like they hit her tire and she lost control of her vehicle. Benson thought that was the signal to go so he started the truck, drew their attention. They got him through the window, hit his arm, and he couldn’t get it out of gear. The truck crashed through the gate and they kept shooting at it, triggered an explosion. Damaged the building pretty bad. Took out three Jacks. Benson made it out in time. But T-Rex…”
“He didn’t make it?”
“Sparky and Gunner had gone around to help you with T-Rex. When they didn’t see you, they went through the hole you’d cut in the fence while the Jacks were distracted by the truck. Gun broke the lock on the door to the dungeon. They found…” Jagger choked on his words. “A body. Not breathing. No pulse. They were pretty sure it was T-Rex although his face was so beaten it was unrecognizable, and it was dark. Same color hair though, same size, and Mario said he was in there. They couldn’t find his cut, but they found this.” He held up the medallion T-Rex had always worn around his neck—gift from Tank when T-Rex been patched into the club, along with a special blade.
Zane’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Fuck.”
“They couldn’t get him out.” Jagger’s voice tightened and he looked away. “They tried … but we’d spotted more Jacks on the way. I couldn’t lose them, too. When they called me, I told them to get out of there. He was dead. There wasn’t anything we could do for him.”
Zane felt the news like a fist in his gut. T-Rex had died to save his Evie. It was a debt he could never repay.
“I don’t want this life for her, Jag.” He reached over, threaded his fingers through hers. “I want her to have the kind of life she had before. Safe. Peaceful. I can’t give her that when I’m wearing this cut, and I can’t give it to her as a civilian with a damn warrant hanging over my head.”
“You’d give up the life?” Jagger rubbed his thumb absently over the Sinner’s skull ring on his finger—the president’s mark.