Chapter 36: JOSLIN

Chapter Thirty-Six

JOSLIN

I hear seven loud gunshots. I freeze. My immediate thought is that no one could survive that many gunshots in a row. Within seconds, that thought turns into a realization that Ryder is dead. I don’t hear any noises. I can’t even hear my own breathing. The gunshots were too loud and all I can do is notice how empty I feel at the thought that he’s dead. He can’t be dead.

I don’t think. Well, I do. I think I’ll die. My hand shakes as I hold the gun, step out from behind the tree and without looking, without thinking, I shoot.

The second I fire, I know I’ve done the wrong thing. The woman I shot screams. Loudly.

What the hell is going on and when did these four black women and an Indian woman get here? When the woman I shot screams, I scream too and I drop the gun. My confusion grows louder when I hear Ryder scream, “CAREFUL!”

The pistol spins in a circle on the ground and comes to a dead stop. I’m lucky there aren’t any more bullets in there. Nothing happens. The group’s collective release of tension is audibly heard . Us… I don’t know these people. But they’re not shooting at me and Ryder is alive. I look at him, still bewildered. My confusion grows when I see Ryder’s twin brother step out from behind the woman I shot at, as red as an apple.

“SHE SHOT AT MY WIFE!”

“She just grazed me,” the woman groans, but she’s still clutching her arm and I’m still standing in shock because she’s bleeding. I just shot a pregnant woman. I’m going to hell.

“HEY! Don’t fight,” Oske says as Ryder and his twin brother circle each other like angry hyenas. I try to say something, but everything happening at once just stuns me into silence. My throat constricts, and everything around me turns black. I’m not the fainting type, but as soon as it happens, I know that’s what it must be.

“No…”

But I lose control of my body and the last thing I hear is my body hitting the ground.

My head aches, but what wakes me up a few seconds later isn’t the pain in my head. It’s Ryder roaring like a grouchy buffalo.

“WAKE UP. YOU KILLED HER!”

“Nobody touched her, dumbass,” a voice that sounds like Ryder’s says. “She fainted.”

“It is your fault,” a woman says.

“Juliette, I told your ass not to do any more crazy shit, so one more word out of you and I swear–

“What? You’re going to hit a pregnant woman? Are you Ruger?”

“BE QUIET!” Ryder yells, defeating the purpose of demanding silence. “JOSLIN! JOSLIN! OPEN YOUR EYES IF YOU CAN HEAR ME!”

“No offense but, who the fuck is that?” Tamiya blurts out. Everyone around her nods with agreement and appears to be similarly confused.

“MY WIFE!” Ryder yells overdramatically. I open my eyes so he tones it down a little bit. My head aches, but listening to Ryder lose his mind is a little worse.

“I’m fine…”

“Your wife? Please be serious. Who married you?”

“Could you not pick a fight with him?” Hunter grumbles. “He’s mentally unstable.”

“He’s in love, ” the pregnant woman apparently named Juliette says. “Let him feel his feelings.”

“His lover shot you ,” Hunter says, standing over his twin brother and glaring down at me. “Don’t you have any idea what you could have done?”

“Talk to my wife in that tone one more time and I’ll put sugar in your gas tank.”

“Stop fighting,” Juliette says in exasperation. “I’m Juliette. That’s Anna. Tamiya. My husband, Hunter. Tamiya’s husband Gideon and Oske. Nobody really knows why Oske is involved with this stuff, honestly.”

“And it’s nobody’s business,” Oske says. “The point is, we just killed a fuck ton of bikers. Gideon and Ruger have Darlene over there.”

I can’t see exactly where she’s gesturing from my position on the ground. And it’s honestly all so overwhelming that I almost want to close my eyes again. Ryder’s piercing gaze against mine makes it hard. It’s like he’s forcing me to stay awake just from the way he’s looking at me.

Ryder touches my face, his warm hand grounding me and making it slightly easier to stay awake. I can’t stop my response when he touches me. Now that we’re married and have this commitment to each other, it’s slightly less terrifying how much control this man has over my internal emotions.

“Don’t die on me baby.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Hunter snarls. “She shot my wife and you’re acting like she’s half dead. She’s fine…”

It’s hard not to smile at their bickering.

“I’m okay,” I say to Ryder, who maintains a scowl on his face for his brother, but can’t bring himself to take his eyes off mine. I am fine, but Ryder has a completely overblown response to Hunter once he realizes I’m okay. He helps me sit up then rises to his full height and all but puffs out his chest like an angry teenage boy.

“What the fuck is your problem?”

“STOP ARGUING!” Juliette says. “Or I’ll shoot somebody and honestly, my aim has gotten worse so I don’t know who I’ll hit.”

“I took her gun two minutes ago,” Tamiya mutters. “But y’all sound like kids so… be quiet.”

Anna rushes over to me now that Ryder frees up some space around me.

“I’m Anna. I’m a nurse. How do you feel? Did you hit your head on the way down?”

Her brows crinkle as she looks into my eyes for… symptoms of a more serious problem, I’m guessing… I stare at her with what must be the most confused expression on my face because that’s what I still am… confused.

“Do you have a diagnosis?” Ryder bellows ignorantly. I’m embarrassed and offer Anna an apologetic look, which she waves off.

“They’re all low-key animals.”

“Yes, I have a diagnosis,” Anna says, rising to her feet and wiping dirt off her hands onto her jeans. “She has no idea what the fuck is going on.”

“She’s not the only one,” Tamiya says. “But I’m guessing at least one of you has an explanation.”

I obviously do, but the twins look especially guilty, both turning an identical shade of red. It’s weird but… it’s hard for me to imagine mistaking Ryder for Hunter, even if they’re identical. It’s not just the different tattoo placement, scars, or haircuts. It’s… everything.

It’s like Ryder is my twin and once he properly became mine, I could never mistake him for anyone else. Even someone who looked like him on the outside.

Juliette turns her fiery attitude on Hunter, who she walks over to and starts walloping in the chest with her good arm.

“What. The. Hell. Is. Happening?!”

Hunter accepts each of Juliette’s violent punches between words with a simple grunt between each hit.

“Club business,” Ryder says, giving Juliette a disapproving look.

“I know you didn’t just say that to me,” Juliette snaps at him quickly, turning her attention back to her husband. “HUNTER!”

“Ryder’s wife is a club asset under our protection. That’s all you need to know.”

“You still haven’t explained how he tricked a woman into marrying him,” Oske says.

“Agreed,” Tamiya replies, folding her arms and giving Ryder an expression of stern cross examination.

I wasn’t paying attention to anyone except Ryder, and then Juliette hitting Hunter until their exclamation. It feels like my cue to stop sitting on the damn ground. Listen, my confusion was evident from the jump and it honestly hasn’t shifted much.

“Yes,” I say once I stand up. “Sorry for not speaking up, I’m a little… shocked. My name is Joslin. And I’m Ryder’s wife.”

“Where did you find her and how did you kidnap her?” Juliette asks Ryder, who again, responds by turning an embarrassing shade of red.

“Who says he kidnapped her?” Anna says. “She’s a club asset and based on everything else we know… she witnessed what happened in the desert.”

“Joslin, don’t say anything,” Ryder growls, as if I’m standing in front of a jury and not women who are obviously wives of club members or at least club affiliated.

“Why can’t she talk?” Oske says. “Don’t let him scare you.”

That makes Ryder laugh.

“Trust me, my wife doesn’t fear a man on this earth.”

“Then why can’t she talk without your permission?”

Ryder turns even more red and apparently sees Oske’s point. But his brother steps in, and fills in the blanks.

“She saw what happened in the desert. That’s why the Nazis want her, but that’s not everything. Her ex-husband is where we got all those pictures and the information I sent over to Tamiya through Gideon,” Hunter says, summarizing everything that happened between me and Ryder better than I ever could.

“You witnessed a murder,” Anna asks me, wide-eyed. “You don’t look like someone who witnessed a murder.”

Ryder and I exchange glances. But we say nothing.

“Yes,” Hunter says. “Now that’s cleared up. The women should get out of here so we can deal with… the rest.”

He means the dead Nazis, the prisoners I presume they have, and… the rest. Bullet casings. DNA. Searching the perimeter for any cameras or potential evidence left behind. My interest in True Crime has definitely dwindled since I started living out my own podcast episode, but I know the basics about what it takes to get this area clean.

Ryder won’t take his eyes off me.

“I’m not leaving Joslin.”

“Yeah? You want her turning Nazi brains into fish food?” Hunter growls. “Juliette? Take her to mom’s house.”

He tosses the bike keys to the woman I accidentally shot. I keep examining her for signs of damage, but she seems eerily fine for a woman who nearly brushed with death. I look at Ryder, not because I need him to tell me what to do, but the idea of facing someone else’s mother alone fills me with almost as much dread as facing mine would.

Ryder’s face reassures me.

“Hunter’s right. You shouldn’t see this shit. The girls will take care of you.”

“I won’t!” Oske pipes up, earning a stare from everyone.

“What?” She says. “I’m going to tell Southpaw what happened, then it’s apparently my job to track down Scrap. I’m busy.”

I don’t know who Scrap is, but I’m guessing it’s another club nickname.

“The further you are from my wife, the better,” Hunter says, giving Juliette a stern look. “You are pregnant. You are a mother. No setting off on a spontaneous journey to try every Cracker Barrel in America.”

“So women can’t have cravings?”

“A black woman with Cracker Barrel cravings?” Tamiya mutters. “Those kids really are mixed…”

“I like Cracker Barrel!” Anna says. “They have the best lemonade.”

“What the hell is a Cracker Barrel?” Oske says. “A gun range for non-white people?”

“That’s enough,” Ryder grunts. “Get the fuck out of here before some cops show up.”

He grabs me by the hips before I even realize I’m within his reach.

“I’ll meet you at my mom’s once I’m done,” he says. “Are you good?”

For a moment, it’s like the rest of the world disappears. It’s just me, Ryder, and the blur. I nod as he looks into my eyes and again, without warning, he kisses me. It’s so good. So warm. So fucking perfect. I grab his cheeks, running my fingers through his beard as I kiss him back. It’s hard to make myself pull away.

“We’re almost there,” he whispers. “Almost at the end of our journey.”

I want to believe him, but considering the unprotected sex we just had… I doubt our journey is anywhere near over.

“I’ll meet you at your mom’s,” I tell Ryder. “Be safe.”

“Always, church girl.”

“I love you.”

“I love you more,” Ryder replies. And honestly? Sometimes, I believe him.