Free Twisted Rose: Motorcycle Dark Romance 3 (The Darkness Trilogy) by Abby Weeks Page A

believe she was facing them again. She’d only just escaped and now she was back. She wished desperately that she didn’t have to look at them, that she didn’t have to let them see her, but there was no other option.
    Very slowly she brought the gun to the edge of the door and pointed it at Serge. She couldn’t really aim from where she was but she did her best and pulled the trigger. The recoil from the gun in her hand startled her. She could feel the force of the bullet as it fled the gun and flew directly at Serge Gauthier’s chest.
    When the bullet struck him, Rose felt a strange mix of exhilaration and dread. Serge hadn’t been expecting the shot and the look that flashed across his face when he got hit was more of surprise than pain. But the pain followed. The bullet had struck him firmly in the left shoulder and the force of it made him miss his step. He began to fall down the remaining steps.
    Rose fired a second time but she missed.
    Patrice didn’t know where the bullets were coming from and in his confusion he fired a load from the shotgun in the direction of the bar that Josh was hiding behind.
    Rose didn’t know what to do next but she saw Josh rise up and in an instant he was on top of the bar. He leapt from the bar, over Serge, onto the steps. Patrice hadn’t had a chance to reload and Josh grabbed the gun from him. He used the butt of it to strike Patrice across the face, and then dug it into Patrice’s gut. Patrice doubled over before Josh brought the gun down on the back of his head.
    Rose could see that Serge was about to get up and fight so she stepped out from her hiding place and fired at him again. She missed but it was enough to halt Serge.
    “That’s it,” she said in as firm a voice as she could muster. “Don’t move a muscle, Serge.”
    Serge looked over his shoulder at her but he didn’t attempt anything. Rose had just shot him in the shoulder and he knew she wouldn’t hesitate to shoot him again where he stood.
    “Drop the gun,” she said.
    Serge dropped it. She looked up at the stairs and saw Josh standing over Patrice. The immediate danger was over.
    She allowed herself a chance to catch her breath. She looked at Josh. The look of surprise and admiration in his eyes was unmistakable. He hadn’t expected her to do anything like this, she could tell. She’d impressed him.
    “Nice work,” he said to her.
    Rose shrugged and let a smile slip across her face.
    “No problem,” she said.

XVIII
    R OSE WATCHED AS JOSH ACTED. They’d cleared out the clubhouse but they had no time to lose. Any moment, an army of DRMC members could burst in through the door and gun them down. Time was of the essence. Josh gathered up the guns from the floor and checked which of them were loaded.
    “You two,” he said to Serge and Patrice, pointing his gun at them, “get over by the pool table. Justice has finally caught up with you.”
    “This aint justice,” Serge said and spat on the ground, but he did what Josh told him and stood in front of one of the pool tables.
    Patrice joined him. They both looked worse for wear. Patrice had taken a beating from the butt of the shotgun and Serge had Rose’s bullet in his shoulder. Josh didn’t look much better, he had gunshot shrapnel in his leg and back, but at least he was alive.
    Rose went to him. She knew it wasn’t the time for it but she put her arms around him and hugged him as tightly as she could.
    “Rose,” he said, his voice smooth and soft. It sounded loving.
    “Josh,” she said as she let him go.
    “What are you doing here?” he said to her.
    “I couldn’t let you do this by yourself. What if something happened to you?”
    “You shouldn’t be here,” Josh said, but she knew he was glad she was.
    If it hadn’t been for her he’d still be crouched behind the pool table waiting for Serge and Patrice to come get him.
    Josh was looking at Serge.
    “I guess you know why we’re here,” he said.
    Serge looked Rose over. She