Chapter Nine

"You sure your woman is legit?"

Brim glanced at Kix, startled to hear the proprietary description regarding Leia. He'd reluctantly agreed to come here in order to establish a fake relationship, but he had to admit, he liked having her around. Which scared the hell out of him, because after Cindy he had vowed never again.

"She is," he said.

"I don't believe in supernatural shit, but I'll take your word."

"You'll believe when she saves everyone's lives."

Kix grunted non-committedly. Instead, he pulled out his cell phone and made a call. "Open the gate. We have intel that we're gonna be under attack." He hung up and slipped the phone back in pocket. He glanced at Brim. "Saves me from buying a new one."

"What's the plan?" Brim asked.

"We kill the fuckers."

"Yeah, that's without saying. Do you want any left alive to interrogate or to send a message?"

"I'd rather send the message that you can't come onto my turf, threaten my men and my family, and expect to live."

"Understood," Brim said.

As men scrambled to move bikes into the main garage, he and Kix marched to the armory. He pulled out a key and unlocked the sliding doors. Inside the large, insulated garage lay hundreds of weapons. Guns, ammunition, grenades, rocket launchers … anything and probably everything was in there. Several men entered behind them to hand out the firepower and Brim stepped up to do the same. He grabbed a 9mm and several loaded magazines before laying his hands on an AR15 rifle. He also took a few hand grenades. Kix barked out orders, mainly where to go and what to do when the assholes showed up.

"I want snipers in the tree line! We have our club's name for a reason."

As they scrambled into place, Kix's phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and glanced at the message.

"They're here!"

Fueled by the call, Brim hurried outside to find cover. He saw the parked cars and remembered Leia's warning. He bypassed that cover to head toward a tractor parked near the main garage. Bringing his rife up, he took aim through the scope, and held position. The danger of what lay before him made his stomach clench. He took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Worrying about the others would only get himself killed.

A moment later, the roar of approaching pick-up trucks reverberated down the driveway. He saw the flags first, Nazi symbols flapping in the breeze, and the sight pissed him off. There were clubs that supported Neo-Nazi thugs, but he couldn't stand the fuckers and made sure his own club vetted out such poison. He didn't care what color a man's skin was, only if they were loyal. Almost immediately, the intruders standing in the back of the trucks began taking aim. The house was hit, windows were blown out. A spattering of bullets fanned out, cutting through the picnic area where the kids had been running around not long before. The trucks slowed, and Brim saw the men looking around, confused.

Then the White Death MC opened fired. He aimed his rifle and targeted the trucks. Tires were shot out, making escape impossible, so the ones who weren't killed immediately abandoned their vehicles and took cover. For a moment, chaos reigned. Brim retuned fire until the rifle ran out of bullets, then he switched to his 9mm. He remained crouched near the tractor trying to make every shot count.

The invaders abandoned their trucks to take cover. Some ran into the tall cornstalks, so he gave chase. He didn't want to leave any of the fuckers alive. Kix wanted to send a message and he agreed wholeheartedly. As he ran through the tall stalks, he had to rely on his hearing to pinpoint where to shoot. A bullet grazed his temple and he ducked, returning fire. He heard a groan and a thud and knew he had killed one man. A dozen or so left.

Ignoring the burning pain ricocheting through his head, he pressed on. Following the sound of the men he hunted. The gunfight at the grandstand slowly died, leaving only the stragglers trying to make it out of the cornfield. He pursued, killing all he came across, until he couldn't hear any more rustling through the stalks. Brim slowly made his way out of the corn. He touched the graze on his temple and realized blood poured from the wound, soaking his shirt. Now that the adrenaline was fading, pain set in. Wanting to sit down, he walked through Kix's men to the outdoor patio furniture. Most of it had been shot up and overturned, but he picked up a chair to sit down in it. A moment later, Leia cried out his name.

"Brim!"

He looked up and saw Leia running toward him. He braced himself and a moment later she threw herself into his arms.

"I was so worried," she mumbled into his chest. She hugged him tightly until he winced. She pulled away, her eyes widening. "Oh, my God, you're bleeding."

"It's just a scratch."

"But there's blood everywhere!"

"Leia," he said calmly. "I'm fine."

He pushed her head down onto his chest, holding her tightly as people swarmed around them. For a moment, it was like they were suspended in time. Their heartbeats beating together in unison.

"The shadows are gone," she whispered. "That's how I knew we won. They disappeared."

"I know you were scared," he said. "I don't want you to worry about trading one life for another."

"I wasn't worried."

"Good, because you did a good thing here, Leia. You saved our friends. You saved the kids. You saved Piper."

"I saved you. Again."

"Aren't you a clever girl for reminding me."

"I've never had friends before."

"Well, now you have a boatload of them. Were you worried about me?" he asked softly.

"Absolutely not."

He grinned and kissed her lightly on the mouth. "Come on. Let's help in the cleanup."

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent cleaning up the carnage. Brim made sure that Leia was far removed from seeing the blood, guts, and dead bodies by shooing her inside the grandstand to help Piper and Martha clean up the house. The club brothers knew how to make dead people disappear. In a matter of hours, it was almost like nothing had happened at all. Even the trucks they had come barreling in had been dismantled. Then he accompanied Kix and the others to finish off the Neo-Nazis, riding back to their turf to hammer in the message you don't fuck with The White Death MC.

They got back late that night, and instead of heading toward his mother's, he found Leia asleep in her room. He took a quick shower, took a pain pill, and slid into bed. Leia roused when he pulled her into his arms.

"You're naked," she whispered.

"I'm exhausted," he murmured, kissing the top of her head. "Go to sleep."

She snuggled into his arms, and he followed her into dreamland shortly after.