January's Ride with Six

Read the first pages

From Chapter 1

Six is driving home from his brother's wedding when something comes out of the dark.

Fuck. I’d just had a dent repaired from the last dumbass deer who’d tried to tangle with my half-ton pickup. I pulled over to the side of the narrow mountain road and grabbed the flashlight I always carried with me, as well as the gun from my center console. If the animal was severely injured, the right thing to do would be to put it out of its misery.

Rounding the front of the truck, I glanced down, expecting to see the twisted body of a deer. My pulse spiked at the sight captured in the wide beam of the flashlight. Long red hair stood out in stark contrast to the snow underneath her. What the fuck was a woman doing out in the woods at this time of night?

I crouched down and rested my fingers on her neck, checking her vitals. She was breathing, thank fuck. The impact from the truck must have knocked her out cold. I needed to get her to a hospital, and fast. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket to call 911.

Service was spotty on the drive up the mountain, and it was just my luck that my truck sat in one of the dead zones. I couldn’t leave her there on the side of the road, but I didn’t want to risk moving her unless I could assess her injuries and be sure I wouldn’t make things worse.

I moved the flashlight over her still form. She had on ripped jeans and a pair of high-top sneakers. Blood covered her chest. Grabbing the stupid pocket square that came with the tux I’d rented for the wedding, I moved closer to see if I could figure out where it was coming from. My hand shook as I touched the handkerchief to her skin.

The blood wasn’t from an injury; it was from a tattoo. A recent tattoo based on the color of her skin underneath the thick, dark lines. As I gently sopped up the blood, the design became clearer. It was a snake with a pair of dice where its eyes should have been. I didn’t have a clue what it could mean until I saw the logo the serpent’s tail coiled around—a skull with the words Savage Bones marked across the bottom.

I dropped the handkerchief and stood, bracing myself for whatever might come charging out of the woods next. The silence was deafening. On a clear night like this, I should be able to hear the snap of a twig echo in the darkness from half a mile away, yet I heard nothing. Either no one was following her, or they were biding their time.

The woman moaned. I wouldn’t leave her, even if she did belong to the MC who’d been threatening the safety of Mustang Mountain. And taking her to the hospital was out of the question. If she was running from a member of the Savage Bones, they’d be scouring the hospitals in the area, hoping she’d turn up.

Find out what happens next tonight.