Chapter 4 - WHAT THE BRIDE HID
The service elevator doors opened into the cold, damp concrete of the hospital loading dock. Rain was pouring down in thick sheets outside, the thunder shaking the foundation of the building.
Parked in the bay was a heavy, reinforced black 4x4 pickup truck, its engine idling with a deep, guttural rumble. Sitting in the driver's seat was a burly Ashen Kings biker named Bear, holding a shotgun across his lap.
"Jax! My God!" Bear yelled, leaping out of the truck as he saw us drag the bleeding leader out of the elevator.
"Load up! We're ambushed!" Jax ordered, coughing heavily as Bear helped him into the back seat of the crew cab.
I threw Leo into the middle seat, jumping in beside him and slamming the heavy armored door shut just as three Scythe motorcycles tore around the corner of the alleyway, headlights flashing through the torrential rain.
"Hold on to something!" Bear shouted, slamming his foot onto the accelerator.
The heavy 4x4 surged forward like a enraged bull, smashing through the chain-link security gate and spinning onto the wet asphalt of Route 9. The tires screamed as Bear threw the truck into a hard turn, heading straight up into the dark, winding roads of Blackwood Ridge.
Behind us, the Scythe motorcycles and two black SUVs gave chase, their high-beam headlights cutting through the blinding rain like yellow daggers.
"Give me the locket," I said to Leo, my hands steady as I looked at the child.
Leo hesitated for a second, then placed the cold silver charm into my palm.
Using the tip of a small pocket knife Bear handed me from the dashboard, I carefully pried open the plastic backing of the faded photograph. Just as Jax had said, tucked neatly behind the picture of Luke and me was a tiny, wafer-thin black micro-SD card, sealed in waterproof tape.
"He never forgot you," Leo whispered, looking up at me through the dim light of the truck cabin. "Uncle Luke talked about you every night before I went to sleep. He told me you were a teacher... that you were smart, and that you would know what to do if the bad men ever came."
Tears blurred my vision as I looked at my brother's handwriting on the back of the photograph: PROTECT HIM, BROTHER. FINISH WHAT I STARTED.
"I will, Luke," I whispered into the dark. "I promise."
"They're closing in!" Bear yelled, pulling the steering wheel hard as an SUV rammed our rear bumper, sending sparks flying across the wet highway. "We can't outrun them on these mountain curves!"
"We don't need to outrun them," I said, determination hardening my chest into steel. "Where does this road lead?"
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"To the old timber dam at the top of the ridge," Bear replied. "It's a dead end!"
"Then that's where we make our stand," I declared, looking back at Jax, who was applying a pressure bandage to his shoulder. "We stop running tonight."
