Hunter (Brothers of Chaos MC)

Hunter felt relieved when he’d managed to persuade Thunder to step away. He didn’t want his Pres to go up for life. He now stopped to look around. His senses told him someone was watching them. He needed to see how many of Odin’s men were here. He slowly moved to the outside of the gathered men. Then he snapped his head around at the sound of a rock being kicked by a footstep.

He drew his weapon and ducked into the shadows of the trees that lined the roadway. Making his way in the shadows, he snuck around behind whoever was trying to sneak up on them. He saw a crouched figure watching the group from behind a huge tree.

He stepped up carefully and pressed his weapon against the back of her head. “Don’t even breathe. I would really hate to splatter your brains all over this tree.”

“I would really hate that — as well,” the woman whispered brokenly. She slowly raised her left hand but didn’t turn around. Her right hand stayed pressed against her side.

Hunter frowned and looked down at her hand. It was smeared with blood. He saw the napkins and the blood. “What the fuck happened to you?” he growled.

“Well, when your buddy threw that cocktail and the bikes blew up I got caught in the fallout.” She winced.

“You were inside the compound?” Hunter demanded.

“Oh, hell no.” She shook her head. “I was in a tree outside the gates watching them.”

Hunter’s frown deepened. “Why?”

“I was looking for someone I hoped I wouldn’t find there.” She leaned forward and rested her head against the tree. She was weakening fast. Her left arm fell to her side and she started to slide downward.

Hunter acted quickly and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her towards him. She cried out and fainted in his arms. Hunter swore but picked her up and hauled her back to the group.

Thunder turned and glared when he saw Hunter walk up, carrying a small woman. “What the fucking hell?” he bellowed.

Hunter nodded back to the tree. “I found her watching from behind the big tree over there. I have no fucking clue who she is, but she’s hurt. Claimed she caught a piece of shrapnel when the bikes blew.”

“She’s one of them.” Thunder snarled.

Hunter shook his head. “Don’t think so. She claims she was on the outside, looking for someone she hoped wasn’t there.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense.” Rambler shook his head.

Thunder stepped over to her and stared down at the woman in Hunter’s arms. Then caught his breath. She looked so much like his Shelby. He reached out a hand but didn’t quite touch her. Then he frowned and wondered why she looked so much like his woman.

Looking back at Burr, he ordered, “Take this fucker far enough into the woods away from the compound and tie him to a fucking tree. Gag him, so he can’t let anyone know where he is by screaming like the little bitch he is and leave him to rot. He told us all we need to know. I don’t want his MC to find him anytime soon. He deserves that much and more.”

Two of the men grabbed a hold of Burr and dragged him away.

Thunder motioned toward the girl. “Someone go find her vehicle and bring her along with us. We need to get the hell out of here. I’ll be damned if Odin and his fucking group are going to catch us anywhere close by. If they want to follow us home at least we’ll have home ground advantage.” He looked around at the group. “Let’s ride.”

Hunter hitched the girl up in his arms and one of his brothers went with him as he backtracked to find her truck. He shook his head. It was an older truck but it would be big enough to haul his bike back. He hated that he couldn’t ride, but this was better than leaving his bike behind.

They hadn’t worn their cuts into the compound this morning, so Odin would have to wonder for at least a little while who had paid him a visit but he knew the other man would eventually get clued into who they were. But that would give them time to get back home and get ready for the upcoming war.

He put her in the passenger seat and took a moment to look at her wound. The bleeding had stopped but from the looks of things, she’d lost a lot of blood. He buckled her in then he and his brother went to retrieve his bike. Loading it into the back of the truck, he got behind the wheel and drove over to where the others were waiting.

Thunder shook his head and lifted his hand to circle it in the air. That was their sign for let’s ride.

Nine bikes and a truck took off in a cloud of dust.

Sabrina began to stir. She cried out in pain as the truck hit a pothole and jolted her awake. “Fuck!” She groaned as her hand went to her side. She took note of the gauze instead of the bloody napkins but she had no clue where she was or where she was going. Looking out through the windshield, she avoided looking at the man behind the wheel of her truck.

“Are you doing okay?” he asked.

“I guess so.” She motioned toward the road. “Where are we going?”

“We’re going back to New Mexico where we live.”

“Why? I don’t live there.”

“Our president has some questions and we figure you could give us some answers. And we had to get away from San Antonio before we talked.”

“And if I got nothing to say?” she wanted to know. “Then what?”

“Oh. I wouldn’t recommend that sweetheart. So what were you doing up a tree, watching that compound?”

She turned to stare at him for a moment. “I told you I was looking for someone I hoped wasn’t there.”

“And what exactly does that mean?” He wanted to know.

She didn’t say anything for a moment but instead looked at the man carefully. She knew he was tall as he fairly towered over her small stature but now that she could take a moment, she could really look at him.

His dark brown hair spilled down the back of his head in tight curls he kept bound in a short ponytail. His face had a few day’s scruff on it but his shoulders were broad and his arms were well muscled. She could see ink peeking out from under his t-shirt and cut which proudly proclaimed he was a member of the Brothers of Chaos MC.

“What’s your name sweetheart?” he finally asked.

She stared at him. “You first.”

He shook his head. “Ok, I’ll play. It’s Hunter.”

She nodded and said, “Sabrina Keefer.”

Hunter shot his gaze over to look at her stunned. “Keefer? Are you sure?”

Sabrina frowned. “I think I know my own last name by now. Why?”

“Are you related to Shelby Keefer?”

She nodded. “She’s my sister. I was hoping that I wouldn’t find her at the compound but I didn’t know where else to look for her. The last thing I knew was she was staying in San Antonio but that was a while back. Then someone told me she got mixed up with that local MC, so I thought I would start with them and go from there.”

Hunter gazed out the windshield of the truck and ran his hand over his face. “Holy shit,” he swore under his breath. “Thunder isn’t going to like this one bit.”

“Who the hell is Thunder and why would he care?” Sabrina wanted to know.

“Thunder took her away from San Antone, some twenty one years ago.”

Gasping, Sabrina turned toward him. “Then she’s with you guys?” she asked excitedly.

Hunter shook his head. “No, she’s not with us anymore. She was kidnapped from our town twelve years ago. We haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

Sabrina slumped in her seat and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Gone? Twelves years ago?”

Hunter nodded then looked at the road in front of him.

Quietly, Sabrina assessed everything she just learned. Finally, after a long while she wiped her tears away from her cheeks and asked, “Do you know where she went?”

“Not yet, but we’re working on it.”

She turned to glare at him. “What the hell does that even mean, ‘you’re working on it’?”

Hunter sighed and tried to explain, “When Thunder brought Shelby home, she chose to be his woman. By her own admission, he never used or abused her in any way. They had a little girl about a year later and just before her ninth birthday, both Shelby and her daughter were kidnapped and we had a brother shot dead in the street of our town. At the time, it looked like Shelby shot the brother to escape but that wasn’t at all what happened. We just found out that Burr came and kidnapped them both. He left their daughter with a rope around her neck and knocked out in the desert but Shelby escaped. We didn’t know any of this until a few days ago when Phoenix came back.”

“This Phoenix, is she’s Shelby’s child?” Sabrina asked softly.

Hunter nodded. “Yeah, Shelby’s and Thunder’s child.”

“Then I have a niece?” she dared to whisper. “I thought I was alone except for Shelby.”

“Honey, you got to prove who you are to Thunder first,” he warned her. “Then you have to tell him why you were at the compound this morning and how you got hurt.”

“Who is this Thunder person?”

“He’s our president and if you are who you say you are…” he looked over at her. “He’s your brother in law.”

“Does he know if my sister is still alive?” she asked after digesting the new information.

“We aren’t sure yet, but we’re trying to track her down.”

“How long before we get where we are going?” she asked.

Hunter looked at his watch, they had only been on the road three hours so far. “We got another good six hours to go.”

“Well, hell,” she swore softly. Then with a resolute sigh, she settled in for the long ride.

Four hours later, she jolted awake. Sabrina looked around but didn’t say anything. It had been a long and quiet trip. It was late afternoon by this time and she was hurting. She reached back behind the seat to grab her bag.

Hunter grabbed her wrist then took the bag in his hand and got out of the truck.

A little startled by his silence and his somewhat gentlemanly act, Sabrina opened the door and slid out of the truck as well. She had to grab the door so she didn’t end up on her ass but she managed to stay on her feet. Her legs felt like jelly and she panted for air, so she leaned against the truck for a moment.

Hunter came around the vehicle, took one look at her, and sighed. He wrapped his arm around her and helped her inside the clubhouse.