“Did Spence ride back in yet?” she asked.
“No.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not.” Diaz dragged out his cell phone and punched in Spence’s number. He waited while it rang several times, then went to voice mail. “He’s not answering.”
“He might be on his bike and headed back. He won’t hear it if he’s riding.”
“Could be.” Diaz leaned back in the rocker. Something didn’t feel right. It was unusual for Spence not to check in.
An hour later Diaz was convinced something had happened. Spence should have checked in or been back by now. “Let’s go search for Spencer.”
Jessie threw the blanket off. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
They grabbed their gear and hopped on their bikes. As soon as they reached the lodge area, Crush strolled into the middle of the road.
Shit. Diaz stopped.
“Kinda late for a ride, isn’t it?” Crush asked with a tilt of his brow.
“Yeah.”
“Where are you headed?”
“Spence and Stephanie had a fight earlier tonight.”
“So we all noticed,” Crush said with a slight smile. “It happens.”
“He went out for a ride to clear his head. That was four hours ago.”
Crush frowned. “He’s not back yet?”
“No.”
“And he went out on his own?”
“Yeah.” Diaz hoped Crush wasn’t going to keep them sitting here asking questions. They needed to get on the road to look for Spence.
“Hang on. I’ll go with you.”
Double shit. That’s the last thing Diaz wanted. “It’s okay. We’ll handle it.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you can, but I’ve been to this area a hundred times. I know every trail. You don’t. Let me help you.”
No way could Diaz refuse an offer of assistance. They had no choice. “Okay. Thanks.”
Diaz looked at Jessie, who shook her head while they waited for Crush to get his gear.
If Crush was involved with whatever Rex and the others were doing out there, and if it had something to do with the arms deal with the survivalists, then Diaz and Jess might be walking into a trap.
Diaz didn’t like having Jessie along for this ride.
“You can go back to the cabin,” he said to her.
She frowned. “And you can kiss my ass. I’m going with you.”
He thought she’d say that. He hated that his gun was in his saddlebag and not tucked into the back of his pants, but at least he had one with him. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to use it tonight.
Crush came out and climbed onto his bike. “We’ll start on the closest trails, figuring maybe he took a short ride. Then we’ll work out from there.”
“Lead the way,” Diaz said.
They started up the bikes and headed out. Pitch-black and narrow roads weren’t the best conditions for biking. At least there was a decent-sized moon overhead to light the way.
The first trail took about a half hour to maneuver, mostly downhill and dead-ending at the river bank. No sign of Spence on that one, so Crush turned them around and headed up the way they came, went a short way down the road and took the next trail, with the same results. As they rode, Diaz kept his eyes open for any other bikers or signs of a survivalist camp. The last thing he intended to do was to ride into a trap. He’d grab Jessie and they’d hightail it out of there in a hurry if it looked like Crush was setting them up.
Crush made an abrupt right turn down what didn’t even look like a road. In fact, if he hadn’t been leading them Diaz wouldn’t have seen it at all. It wasn’t marked and was difficult to maneuver because of trees and other vegetation in the way, all hazards for bikers. They took it slow. Damn good thing, too, because about ten minutes into the ride, Jessie hollered, honked, and grabbed their attention. Diaz and Crush stopped and turned around. Jess had turned her bike sideways so her headlights shined on a downed bike.
Spence’s bike. They raced over to it, climbed off the bikes, and grabbed flashlights, shining them onto the surrounding areas.
“There!” Jessie said, already running toward a prone Spence.
He was half covered in fallen leaves. The three of them converged on him. Diaz held his breath while Jess checked him out.
“He’s alive,” she said, her fingers on his pulse. “Spence, can you hear me?”
He moaned.
“Shine the light down his body while I check him,” Jessie said.
Diaz and Crush held their flashlights over Spence and Jessie inspected him, shoving the leaves out of the way.
“His leg is bleeding,” she said.
“I’ve got a first aid kit,” Crush said, already heading toward his bike.
Jessie turned her worried gaze to Diaz.
What the hell happened out here?
Crush brought back the kit and Jessie went to work on Spence, who was already starting to stir.
“Lie still. We’re here.”
“My goddamn leg is throbbing.”
“Don’t move it. I’m checking it out now.” She grabbed the scissors and started to cut away the spot on his pants where he was bleeding.
Diaz bent over him. “Do you know what happened?”
“Yeah. I was f**king shot.”
“What?” Crush’s eyes widened. “Who shot you?”
“Hell if I know.”
“Why didn’t you call for help?” Diaz asked.
“I guess I was too busy being shot and tossed off my bike and getting knocked unconscious. Fuck, I don’t even know where my cell is.” He patted his pants pocket. “Where’s my bike?”
“It’s on its side about fifteen yards over. You must have gone flying.”
Spence winced. “Great.”
Jessie had a thick pad of gauze pressed to his wound. “Okay, the bleeding has stopped. I’m going to wrap this but we’ve got to get him out of here and have someone see to his wound.”
“One of the Skulls is an MD,” Crush said.
“No shit?” Spence asked, lifting his head.
“No shit,” Crush said.
Then they needed to get Spence into the hands of that doc immediately. “Can you ride?” Diaz asked.
“Hell yeah. Just get me up.”
Crush and Diaz lifted him, put his arms over their shoulders, and Spence limped over to Diaz’s bike.
“You’ll have to ride on the back of my bike,” Diaz said.
“Like a f**king girl. No offense, Jessie.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not kicking your butt only because you’re injured and because I’m so grateful you’re not dead. Otherwise . . .”
Spence laughed. That was a good sign. He and Crush managed to get Spence onto the bike with a minimal amount of wincing on Spence’s part.
“I’ll get my guys to come back for your bike,” Crush said.
Spence gave a curt nod, exchanged looks with Diaz, and they started up, Crush leading the way. They took it deliberately slow on Spence’s behalf, not wanting to jar his wound into bleeding any more than it already was.
By the time they got back into camp, there was a handful of people already waiting at the lodge. Crush must have gotten on his cell while he was riding to alert folks that they were on the way. Good. That meant plenty of hands to help pull Spence off the bike and carry him inside the lodge.
They took him into one of the bedrooms and laid him on a twin bed. Some guy named Mark who appeared to be in his late forties came in with a black bag in his hand. Diaz supposed he was the doc since he dug in and started cutting away the rest of Spence’s pants while asking him a million questions.
“Cut the Q and A, Mark, and just stick to the medical, okay?” Crush said.
So Crush didn’t want an interrogation of Spence any more than Diaz did. Good. The last thing they needed was someone calling the cops or asking a lot of questions Spence wasn’t prepared to answer. This was a critical time and they couldn’t handle having their cover blown.
Mark asked everyone to leave except for Crush, Diaz, Jessie, and a woman named Laura who was also a nurse. Nothing like bikers who made a living doing other things. Laura positioned herself on the other side of Spence, assisting Mark with cleaning the wound and numbing it so they could probe for the bullet.
“Bullet’s lodged in the meaty part of his thigh, just on the surface,” Mark said.
Diaz watched Mark drag the slug out with forceps and drop it into a bowl. They’d have to keep the bullet just in case they’d need it later for evidence.
“I’ll take that for a souvenir, doc,” Spence said.
“Sure. I’ll bag it for you.”
Good job, Spence.
“You’re lucky it didn’t go in any deeper and sever some arteries.”
“Yeah, I feel real lucky,” Spence said, rolling his eyes.
“So that’s it? It’s out now?” Jessie asked, peering around Diaz.
“Yeah. That was it. I’m going to stitch him up. He lost some blood and he’ll be weak. I’ll shoot him up with an antibiotic to ward off infection. Otherwise, he should heal up just fine.”
“Thanks, Mark.” Diaz blew out a relieved breath. It could have been a lot worse. He was glad Spence wasn’t severely injured, and doubly glad they wouldn’t have to blow their cover by taking Spence to a hospital. The guy was tough—he’d mend fast.
Once Mark finished up, he and Laura left the room with strict orders that Spence not move at all. Stephanie hovered near the doorway, but Diaz said she could come in later, after they talked to him. Then he closed the door. Unfortunately, Crush insisted on staying, and since this was his gang and they were allegedly part of it, there was no way Diaz could object.
“Okay, what the hell happened out there?” Crush said, his face twisted in an angry frown.
Spence looked to Diaz, then shrugged. “I was out riding by myself after Steph and I had that blowup. I heard bikes, so I thought it was Rex and the others who’d ridden out before me. I figured I’d catch up and ride with them. I was getting close, heading down that trail, when a shot rang out. I flew off the damn bike and that’s the last thing I remember until you all showed up.”
“Did you see anyone else around?”
“There wasn’t anyone else on that trail, Crush,” Spence said. “No one I could see, anyway.”
Spence’s statement hung in the air, his meaning clear. Had someone in Rex’s group shot him?
“Crush, how did you know to take that road?” Diaz asked. “That path could easily have been missed. You had to know it was there.”
“I’ve been to this area lots of times, taken that road before. We all have. I saw bike tracks so figured maybe Spence had gone that way.”
Plausible enough, Diaz supposed.
“Rex could have taken that road with his friends, too,” Diaz said, his meaning clear. He wanted to throw down the gauntlet and see what Crush did with it.
Crush dragged his hand through his hair. “That can’t be. It had to be hunters or something.”
“It’s not hunting season,” Diaz said.
“Fuck.” Crush paced the small bedroom. “I need to go find Rex.”
He left the room without another word to them.
Jessie sat on the cushioned chair in the room. “That was interesting. Crush seemed surprised. Upset. Like he had no idea what was going on.”
Diaz shook his head. “I’m not buying it. He’s covering up by pretending to be unaware of all this.”
“Maybe he was surprised I was shot,” Spence said, shifting up on the pillow.
“That might be. He sure as hell wouldn’t want attention drawn to that area if there’s an arms deal about to go down. But I’ll bet he knows something.”
“Why would he have taken us down that road at all if Rex and the others were dealing with the survivalists there?” Jessie countered.
“Good point. He’d have led us away from there,” Diaz said. “None of this makes any sense. Who’s the bad guy here?”
“I don’t know, Diaz,” Spence said. “I didn’t see signs of anyone, but I thought I heard Rex and the others and couldn’t get close enough to find out. They could have been out riding and nothing more. They might not have anything to do with the arms deal. Then again, maybe they do, and Crush isn’t involved.”
“And it could be just Crush involved in this. Or Crush and someone else,” Diaz suggested.
“Or it could actually be Rex and that group, and Crush knows nothing about it,” Jessie argued.
“I don’t think so.”
Jessie turned to him. “Why not, Diaz? Why are you so convinced Crush is the guilty one?”
“Because he’s been our focus since day one. He’s who we targeted and he’s who we’ve been assigned to watch over. He leads this group.”
“Which doesn’t mean that someone else within his gang couldn’t be selling those arms.”
“She has a point, Diaz. It’s worth considering,” Spence said.
Could he be wrong? Had he been targeting Crush, singling him out instead of looking at someone else? “I’ll check it out, start keeping an eye on Rex. If he goes riding with his buddies again, it’s my turn.”
“And I’ll go with you,” Jessie said.
That was the last thing he needed. He couldn’t handle the case and worry about someone taking a shot at Jessie. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”