Beneath the Fire (A Guardians Novella) by Victoria Paige Page B

and squeezed out well-aimed shots, taking two bikers down. When a third one was almost upon him, he stood up and swung his assault rifle and collared the man off his bike. Nathan didn’t hesitate to shoot him.  
    The girls started screaming. Lucy!
    A red haze clouded his eyes when he saw Scar pulling Lucy out of the car through the window. Six bikers had made it through their defensive line. Looking for Maia, Nathan saw her on the ground struggling to get up. Shit!
    “Nathan!” Lucy’s scream pierced his ears and he felt her terror all the way to his gut. Eva and Scar were playing tug-o-war with Lucy. Her friend was holding on to Lucy’s legs for dear life, Eva's body was half out the window. The other bikers were dragging the other women out of the SUV and van. Leo was wrestling with another goon. Nathan charged and knock one assailant off his motorcycle before flying into Scar who finally had a hold of his girl. All three of them crashed on the ground, Lucy quickly scrambled away as Nathan pounded his fists into the biker’s face. Unleashed fury was propelling his blows as Scar grunted in pain, unable to deflect the strikes to his face.
    “Noooo! Watch out!” Lucy cried.
    Nathan felt a stabbing pain on his back as the blade of a knife plunged into his flesh. He got hauled off Scar by another biker. With murder in his eyes, Scar growled, got close and pulled his fist back to strike him. Nathan pushed back on whoever was holding him, felt the knife plunge deeper— holy hell — but got off a drop kick that sent Scar flying. Nathan landed on the biker who had held him. He quickly turned and straddled the man, swung a punch at his face, reached behind his back to yank the knife out and plunged it into the man’s throat angling it up to sever a carotid artery.
    Suddenly, Nathan sensed a change in the atmosphere—the bikers had stopped their jeering and their motorcycles had idled. He stood up and felt Lucy’s body hit him. He grunted and took a step back.
    “Nathan...god Nathan...” she cried and cried, embracing him tightly.
    Nathan frowned when he saw the bikers holding their hands behind their heads, the bright lights of another vehicle shining on them. He briefly registered Maia dragging a dazed Scar up by the scruff of his leather cuts.
    Nathan walked forward swiftly, his arms still around Lucy, and that was when he saw them. Two men in the shadows, standing beside a black SUV, pointing some serious-looking assault rifles at the remaining bikers.
    “I need to secure them, Lucy,” Nathan said, reluctantly untangling himself from her to retrieve his duffle bag which contained the plastic restraints.
    Nathan tossed some of the restraints to Leo so he could help him tie the bastards up. One of the newcomers approached, and after the glare of the headlights receded behind him, that was when Nathan recognized their savior.
    Maia’s fiancé decided to piss her off after all.   Jack McCord just rescued them all.

    ***
    Nathan watched with amusement as Maia argued with McCord about the whole rescue operation. She was mad at him for coming after her, he was furious at her for taking off without telling anyone—but for all intents and purposes, he did save their ass. Jack was an ex-Navy SEAL and Nathan had worked with him when they rescued Maia from the clutches of a Russian drug lord—McCord definitely knew his shit.  
    The other guy was Special Agent Clancy, the agent-in-charge of Senator Bauer’s daughter’s kidnapping case. Soon there were other unmarked vehicles combing the scene and taking the biker gang away. The DK1 Motorcycle Club was an outlaw gang suspected of transporting drugs for the Braga Cartel and Francisco Cortez may have called upon the MC to go after them.
    “You’re lucky that the knife didn’t puncture your lung,” Eva said, after stitching the wound close and securing a gauze pad on the sutures. Nathan had to admire the girls for their foresight in anticipating possible injuries from