Diesel wanted to chase them.
Cole stopped him.
“No.”
“They tried to kill us!”
“And every man still standing is one we don't have to bury.”
Cole turned toward his brothers.
“Count your brothers.”
Names began moving through the group.
“Snake.”
“Up.”
“Torres.”
“Up.”
“Cutter.”
“Up.”
“Diesel.”
“Up.”
One by one, every man answered.
Twenty-two.
All alive.
Cole closed his eyes for a moment.
Then he remembered Emily.
He ran down the ridge.
She was sitting exactly where he had left her, trembling violently.
“I heard everything,” she whispered.
“You did well.”
“I didn't know whether you were alive.”
“We're all alive.”
Cole knelt before her.
“Every one of us.”
Emily covered her face.
And finally, after two years of surviving alone, she cried.
Cole wrapped one arm around her shoulders.
“You can let it out.”
She sobbed harder.
“I've got you.”
Around them stood twenty-one hardened bikers.
Not one of them looked away.
A Name From the Past
When Emily finally stopped crying, she told Cole something else.
“The men weren't acting alone.”
Cole looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“They were hired.”
The club became silent.
“One of them mentioned a name.”
“What name?”
Emily thought carefully.
“Merrick.”
Cole froze.
Diesel noticed.
“You know him.”
“Yes.”
Cole's voice became cold.
“Danny Merrick.”
Eleven years earlier, Merrick had operated a weapons network using the club's routes without their knowledge.
When authorities investigated, Merrick attempted to blame everything on the Iron Angels.
Cole had provided evidence that exposed him.
Merrick went to prison.
Before being taken away, he promised revenge.
Cole had believed time would eventually erase the threat.
He had been wrong.
“He waited eleven years,” Snake whispered.
Cole stared toward the empty road.
“And now he's come back for all of us.”
Emily looked at him.
“He'll try again.”
Cole nodded.
“I know.”
She looked at the twenty-two men.
“He wanted every one of you dead.”
Then she added quietly:
“And he won't stop.”
Cole studied her.
“How do you see things like this?”
Emily looked at her hands.
“When you have nothing and nobody is coming to help, you become very good at seeing danger before it arrives.”
Cole's expression softened.
“You're not alone anymore.”
He extended his hand.
“You have twenty-two people watching with you.”
Emily hesitated.
Then she took his hand.
Cole pulled her to her feet.
“From now on, you don't sleep beneath that bridge.”
Emily stared at him.
“You can't promise that.”
“Yes, I can.”
“You barely know me.”
Cole looked directly into her eyes.
“I know enough.”
The Man Who Wanted Proof
The club searched the area and discovered one of the attackers was still alive.
Cole crouched several feet away.
“Who hired you?”
The injured man hesitated.
“Merrick.”
“How does he know what happened?”
The man swallowed.
“We were supposed to send him a photograph.”
“A photograph?”
“Proof that the job was finished.”
Cole's eyes narrowed.
“What happens when he doesn't receive it?”
The man hesitated again.
“He has another plan.”
“What plan?”
“I don't know.”
Then he added:
“Someone on the inside.”
The words spread uneasily through the club.
For a moment, suspicion entered every man's mind.
Emily immediately shook her head.
“He's lying.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Not about Merrick.”
She pointed toward the injured man.
“About the insider.”
The man stared at her.
“You don't know anything about an insider,” Emily said.
“You're frightened. You ran out of real information, so you invented something important enough to keep them from abandoning you.”
The man's face collapsed.
Emily had been right.
Cole stared at her.
“How did you know?”
She gave a sad smile.
“Because I've done it.”
She explained that when someone stronger controlled everything, sometimes bluffing was the only weapon a powerless person had.
Diesel stepped forward.
“Kid.”
Emily looked at him.
“I owe you an apology.”
“For what?”
“For calling you bait.”
Emily smiled faintly.
“You were right to be suspicious.”