Prologue

Indy

I came to the Maggie Valley area to start over with my daughter, Tinsley, to start over. We needed a fresh start, and that meant not being in the same state as my douchebag ex. I wanted my daughter to have the best I could give her. I also wanted to settle somewhere that moved at a much slower pace than Fort Wayne. When my grandmother was alive, my parents would take me to Kentucky to visit her. She lived almost in North Carolina. When I discovered Maggie Valley, I instantly fell in love, so I decided to relocate here.

It seemed perfect, and it was … until the Feral Kings MC took over the old amusement-turned zipline-park, Ghost Town in the Sky. In the blink of an eye, my peaceful refuge was being destroyed. There also wasn’t much I could do about it. I kept my head down and only ventured into town when I had to. I ran my business as best as I could, while trying to save money to move the hell out of dodge. It may seem like a lame plan, but it’s all I could do.

Sadly, today is one of those days that I had to venture into Bryson City. It was actually for a wonderful reason. I served as a witness for Phillip and Max’s wedding. I was so happy for them, even if I didn’t understand their choice of venues. I mean, we’re steps away from the Smoky Mountains, yet those two bozos decide to get married at the local courthouse. Still, for what it was, it was a beautiful wedding, and my two friends are extremely happy.

Now, I’m heading back home. I’m also running late. I still need to check on my animals and get some things done in my office before Tinny gets off the school bus. I took a back road, hoping not to see anyone. It’s also shadier than most areas, which is nice because it’s miserable outside today. The heat is suffocating, and it’s so humid that my blonde hair is trying to poof up—which sucks because it took me an hour to straighten out my curls. I love my hair and hate it at the same time. Some days I want to shave it off and let it start over to see if it grows back being more manageable. It doesn’t help matters that my air conditioner isn’t working. I have the windows down, but that seems to let more heat in than actually help. If I can ever get my head above water and pay off my student loans, I’d move out of this place. That’s not happening anytime soon. No one wants to move to a town that lives in fear.

As if taking their cue from my thoughts, I hear the racking of pipes and the loud roar of motorcycles. I look in the review mirror and see a couple of members from the Feral MC coming up fast behind me. I try not to panic. Most days, I’m normally in my truck. I keep a shotgun in it. Today, I have nothing. Which leaves me defenseless and vulnerable. To make matters worse, this road doesn’t get a lot of traffic at all. It’s why I chose it, thinking it would be safer.

My heart runs away with me as they get right behind me, then move alongside my car. I try to keep my gaze on the road, but they stay right beside me for so long, I can’t help but look. One of them grins, giving a cocky wave as he goes ahead of me. However, he’s staying at a slow speed. I know this is to keep me from going faster and getting away. When my gaze turns to the other guy. He uses his left hand to hold his thumb up and his index finger out—making the shape of a gun. He aims right between my eyes and makes a shooting motion, before flicking his wrist up and pointing up, blowing on his finger.

The message is clear, and it terrifies me. I slow down even more, and with a laugh that I can’t hear over the bike, he takes off, the other guy joining him. My heart is slamming against my chest as I decide to pull over. I shut my car off, lock the door and crouch down out of view. I want to give those assholes time to get out of the area. I don’t want to be anywhere near them. I’m going to have to get a handgun and keep it in my glove box. I hate to. I don’t like keeping guns around Tinny. Today could have been a disaster, though. I need to keep myself safe for my daughter. Thanks to her so-called father’s dumb life choices, I’m all she has.

I’m not sure how long I sit beside the road. There hasn’t been any other traffic except for two more bikers. They’re not part of the Feral’s, but I still hid from them. Luckily, these guys barely noticed my car. They did slow down, but I kept crouched down like a coward. To be fair, I don’t know these guys and I had no idea if I could trust them. They left without issue, but I still just kept sitting here like an idiot. It has to have been a good twenty minutes since the Feral Kings riders passed me. Surely, they would be far gone by now. The other two didn’t seem to be dangerous—or at least have any ill intent. So, I’m not really that worried about them.

I send up a silent prayer for protection and decide to start going again. To be safe, I keep my speed slow. I don’t want to risk running into them again. Getting the attention of any member of the Feral MC is very bad for your health. The whole town has seen that over the last few months.

I drive for a bit, and my heart rate is just now starting to get back to normal. I’m even contemplating speeding up. That’s when I hear the unmistakable sound of gunfire. I let out a startled shriek, my body jerking in response. Fear courses through me as I white-knuckle my steering wheel. I can tell it’s just right up the road from here I’m at. It also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure the sound probably came from the assholes who taunted me earlier. If there’s one thing about the Feral MC that most of Maggie Valley knows, it’s that they love to shoot up the town and its people.

Shit. If I’m right, they’ll likely circle back around to make sure I don’t find out what—or who—they shot at. Heck, they might decide to circle back just to torture me some more. I was lucky they left me alone the first time. They aren’t known for letting an opportunity pass them by. Last month, they raped two women in town. The crime was reported—not that the local law did shit about it. Those women left the area quickly afterward. I would leave myself—I just don’t have that option. At least, not right now. I truly am working on it. I just need to make sure my beautiful daughter can at least have a roof over her head when we move. I’ve put in some job applications, but to date, I’ve not heard anything back. It’s getting me down. I can’t lie. I thought it would be easy to find a job. Vets willing to work for others and not hang their own shingle out aren’t very common. I love owning my own business, but I’d let it go in a heartbeat to make sure me and my daughter are safe.

I quickly decide to cut off onto an old service road that leads back to a gas well. I’ve seen my friend Cooper turn off here many times. He works on gas lines. He and his wife bring their thirteen-year-old German Shepherd to me for care and they’re always doing sweet things for me and my Tinny.

They maintain service roads pretty well out this way. I figure it can’t be that bad. I’m hoping I can hide there until I can make sure that the bikers are long gone. I pull my vehicle off to the side of the dirt road, parking behind a bunch of overgrown brush in hopes that it hides my car enough. I don’t think they’ll come looking for me, but I want to be safe.

Next, I start scaling the hill, to make my way toward where I think the gunfire came from. I truly do want to see what happened, but I must do it safely. I’m terrified. I can’t afford to get caught up in anything to do with that damn gang—and that’s exactly what they are. They’re pure evil. Yet, I couldn’t live with myself if they attacked another woman and left her to die. One of the women before lost her vision because they beat her so badly. The memory of seeing how broken she was still haunts me.

I carefully make my way to the top of the rocky hill. There’s a large rock along the edge, and I hold on to it as I hunker down and look at the road below. As I take in the scene, I’m afraid to make a noise. At first glance, it looks like the two unknown bikers that passed me piled it up in a steep curve. One is face down in the road, beside a big tree, his bike on its side. The other guy is much bigger, and he’s face down, too. He’s to the side, by a guardrail. My first instinct is to go down the hill and try to help. That’s when I see those assholes from the Ferals come out of hiding. They’re each packing rifles on their back. It’s clear they shot them down. The two unknown men didn’t really have a chance.

I figure it’s some type of MC war. Although the big guy they’re currently dragging to the guardrail is someone I don’t recognize. The other guy that’s lying on the ground by the tree doesn't look familiar either. They’re killing the big guy and I’m weak as fuck, letting it play out. In my defense, I’ve seen what happens when someone stands up to them. Maybe if I had a gun or something, I’d intervene. I don’t.

I bite my lip to keep from crying out as I watch them dump the man over the guardrail, toward the lake below. After laughing and giving each other a high-five, they take off. I carefully make my way back to my car. I’m physically ill as I get back on the road. It’d be safer to keep driving and go home. I can’t do it, though. I have to see if I can help these men. I don’t know what I’ll do if the others come back, but I can’t just leave them to die. I also can’t call an ambulance right away, because if they see cops and rescue squads, they’ll know I was close by. It would put me and my daughter in the crosshairs because I was the only vehicle they passed. They’d come for me.

I park on the side of the road with my flashers on. I grab a first aid kit that I keep under my front seat and run immediately to the guy by the tree. The first thing I do is check his pulse. He’s dead. I turn him over and close his eyes. Tears begin to fall, and I immediately feel like the worst person alive. Maybe if I had called for an ambulance, it might have helped. That’s stupid. I know it wouldn’t have. The man was shot almost directly through the heart. There’s blood everywhere.

I swipe at my tears with the back of my hand and look over the hill. The guy rolled almost to the bottom, but not quite. He’s actually pretty close to where people go for lake access. I make a quick decision and jump in my car and drive around the curve, then take a right at the foot of the hill to the rough ramp people use for canoes and such. The lake is nice, but there’s no big boats allowed on it.

I jog over and try to get my bearings. I find the man and climb up to him. I’m relieved as hell to discover that he has a pulse. He’s so big, there’s no way I’m going to be able to pull him off this hill. I wince, because there’s nothing else that I can do. If I call an ambulance and the Feral Kings MC finds out this guy is still breathing, they will kill him. With that being my sole thought, I put my hands on his chest and push him down the hill, so he’ll finish rolling to the bottom.

Now, I work out at the local gym. I even do strength and conditioning. That said, this guy is as big as a grizzly bear. I put my arms under each of his armpits and tug on him to get him to my car. It takes a lot of freaking time and there’s not a part of my body that doesn’t hurt by the time I accomplish the small ten feet of distance—which feels more like a thousand at this point. Once he’s by the door to my backseat. I try to figure out how to get him inside. I pull until he’s partially sitting up, his head leaning on my backseat. I go to the other side and get on my hands and knees on my seat. It takes a lot of pulling—sadly, I’m pretty sure I banged his head on my door and other areas of my car way too much—but I finally get him inside the car. Okay, so he rolls over to the floorboard, and he looks very uncomfortable. Still, he’s in. My next problem is he's so long that I can’t close the door. I kind of—almost—shut his foot in the door before I discovered that. I somehow scrunch his legs up and get the door closed. By this time, my body and muscles are screaming at me to throw in the towel. I can’t just yet. I have to get out of here. I jump inside and start my car. I put it in drive with a thankful breath, then I stop. It's at this point, I realize I left my first aid kit somewhere. Slamming it back into park, I retrace my steps until I find the kit and then run back to my car. I get on the road and head straight for my place. I don’t trust going to the hospital. I don’t know who this guy is, but he has a better chance of survival with me as his doctor instead of going to the hospital where I know the Kings will find him and finish him off. Once my heart is beating somewhat normal—although still way too fast—I fish out my cell from my cupholder. I call Cooper. He’s the only guy that I can trust.

“Hey, Indy. Everything okay? Don’t normally hear from you this time of day.”

“No. Everything is bad, Coop. Really bad. ”

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I need you to first call 9-1-1. Tell them you saw a biker piled up in the horseshoe curve before you get to Twin Knob Access Point.”

“Can’t we just let the fucker suffer? The town could use one less of them,” he mutters.

“He’s not one of the Feral’s. In fact, I’m pretty sure some of Eyeball’s psychopaths shot and killed this guy. That’s why I can’t do it. If they research who called and it comes back it was a woman, they’ll know it was me because they passed me.”

“Fuck, Indy. I thought we discussed you keeping a low profile until I was able to get some men out here to take out the trash.”

“I’ve been trying, believe me.”

“Okay, honey. I’ll do it. Do you need anything else?”

“Well yeah, I kind of do. Could you come out to my place? I have a small …” I stop talking as I look over the shoulder at the behemoth biker in my floorboard. “Make that one very large problem that I need your help with.”

“What is it?”

“One of the guys is still alive, and he’s in the back of my car. I got him in here, but I don’t think I’m strong enough to get him in my house. I can’t take him to the hospital because …” I let my explanation trail off because I know Cooper will understand.

“Eyeball will finish him and maybe you. Okay, darlin’. I’ll be right out. Keep your car doors locked.”

“Thanks, Cooper.”

“You can thank me by fixing me some of your chili. Don’t tell Iva, but her chili is weak as water. Yours will make hair grow on your chest.”

“Um … thanks, I think.”

“Be there shortly,” he says as I hang up.

I realize I’m still crying. I can’t seem to stop—even amid all of my panic. A man died today. I just hope I can get the one that I’m bringing home to survive. It’s going to be kind of hard to turn in a dead body and explain I was trying to save him without bringing him to a hospital …

Shit!