Free Redemption (MC Biker Romance) by Blakeley Wilde

basement steps.

 
    “Ash! She has a gun!” I yelled out to
warn him before he came bursting out from the bottom of the steps.

 
    MJ’s hands quivered just a little, and I
knew deep down she wasn’t a horrible person. She didn’t want to hurt anyone.
She was just loyal to her club. Just doing what she was told to do.

 
    Ash ducked out from around the bottom of
the steps and revealed himself under the faint glimmer of the fading light bulb
above. As the light cast shadows on his face, he looked scary, intimidating,
and determined. There was no stopping him now.

 
    “Drop the gun,” he said, his eyes locked
tight into MJ’s indomitable glare.

 
    “MJ, please!” I yelled with high-pitched
desperation in my voice. “Don’t do this!”

 
    Ash took slow steps towards MJ, who had
popped her gun out towards him by then. “You don’t have to do this. It doesn’t
have to be this way.”

 
    MJ’s lips quivered. “Yes it does. This is
how it has to be.”

 
    “You can get out now,” Ash said. “We
won’t tell a soul you were here.”

 
    “Right, like I’m supposed to believe
that,” she said with an eye roll. Her gun was still pointed straight at Ash’s
chest.

 
    “This is your chance to redeem yourself,”
he said. For someone with a gun pointed straight at him, Ash was eerily cool
and collected. But he was doing it for us.

 
    Tense silence filled the space around us
all as we waited for MJ’s next move. The slightest tremble of her finger
could’ve meant a fatal demise for all of us, but instead she pursed her lips,
dropped the gun, and bolted up the stairs. We listened for the backdoor to slam
shut before we wallowed in any sort of relief.

 
    “Marina,” Ash said as he rushed over to
me. He pulled a knife from his pocket and cut the zip tie, freeing my hands. He
scooped Tuck up into his big, strong arms and kissed his chubby cheeks. “Tuck,
my sweet boy.”

 
    “We have to get out of here,” I said, my
eyes urging Ash to move quickly.

 
    The three of us ran up the wooden steps
and flew out the back door. It all felt like slow motion and we couldn’t move
fast enough. I climbed in the backseat of the Ford and buckled Tuck and I
together as Ash peeled out and got us the hell out of there.

 
    I spun my head around to see that awful
house growing smaller in the distance. “How’d you find us?”

 
    “You gave me that information about the
businesses and the streets. I did a search, and then I pinged your phone,” he
said, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror. “Lead me straight to you.”

 
    “I thought it was a Trac Fone ?” I asked. “Untraceable?”

 
    “It was a Trac Fone ,” he said. “I put a tracking device into it. And thank
God I did.”

 
    “But LeRoy smashed my phone into pieces,” I said.

 
    “I pinged it the minute I knew you were
taken,” he replied. “Led me to that warehouse. Got there just in time to see
them moving you and Tuck to another location.”

 
    I covered my mouth with my hands. Had he
been a minute later, he might not have found us.

 
    “Is it all over now?” I asked. I stared
up at Ash, my hero, as I raked my fingers through my sleeping Tuck’s hair.

 
    “I think so,” he said. “I think we sent
our message loud and clear.”

 
    “What’d you do to those men?” I asked.
“Wait, maybe I don’t want to know…”

 
    Ash’s fierce eyes squared. “I’m sure you
can imagine, Marina.”

 
 
 

EPILOGUE

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    “Mom! Dad!” I yelled as I burst through
the doors of my parents’ home.

 
    “Marina!” my mother came running and
wrapped her warm arms around me tight. “Oh, my goodness. I was worried sick.”

 
    My father stepped out from behind her and
placed one strong hand on my shoulder, giving me a half smile. He rarely showed
emotion, but I knew he was glad to see us.

 
    “You did good, kid,” my father said to
Ash.