by Hazel Parker
Trace saw me as I exited the clubhouse, but I did not look at him or acknowledge him. If I had a modicum of empathy and sadness for Splitter, for Trace, I just felt rage and disgust. I’d forgive him for what he had suggested eventually, but not for a long time.
I got in my BMW, shed a few tears, and drove off, determined to remain strong. I would not act weak and wallow in sorrow, at least not at the office. When I got home tonight, I was going to have a lot of wine and a lot of comedy shows on Netflix, but for the time being, I was going to compartmentalize that as I had my divorce.
Love really sucks sometimes, doesn’t it? You put so much energy and emotion into it, and then it just falls right from underneath you.
Splitter said he cared for me. OK. But he screwed up royally.
I played my radio as loudly as I could, trying to drown out my thoughts. It worked to some degree, although I couldn’t say it did the job perfectly.
About five miles from my office, I noticed smoke billowing in the distance but didn’t think anything of it. I had missed a couple of phone calls, but right now, my focus was just on getting to the office, getting work done, and going the heck home.
When I got off the highway exit to my office, though, the smoke had come closer and closer.
Then I turned the street to my office, and I realized what had happened.
My building was on fire.
Chapter 17: Splitter
In front of the club, I often did my best to hide my more somber emotional moments, the ones in which I wanted to cry, wanted to wallow in pity, and wanted to avoid the world.
Right now, though, I didn’t give a fuck about any of that.
Amber had found out what had happened. I couldn’t keep it from her. I deserved to be dumped unceremoniously as I had because I had unceremoniously taken advantage of her trust in me. It was one thing to have lied about, say, where I had gotten a tattoo from. It was a very different one to use her lust against her.
If I could ever get her back… and that was a big fucking if, one not likely to happen, but if… I was never putting anyone ahead of her. No one. No fucking one!
Not even the Saints.
That might have been the emotions talking, but the more I thought about it, the more I considered what Amber might mean to me, the more I realized that I was probably never going to have a chance at a woman like her again. She was just the perfect combination of looks, intelligence, drive, and empathy to work for a person like me. She made me a better person by smoking less and swearing less—things which, actually, had made my mind clearer.
And I’d thrown it all away because I couldn’t ask one fucking question. “Can I see the names on the list?”
She was right. She would have judged the hell out of me, told me I was a fucking idiot—might have even actually called me a fucking idiot—and then told me what I was doing was illegal and dangerous. But it still would not have been as bad as this.
I heard a knock on the door. Trace entered without waiting for me to answer. He was the only person whose ass I wasn’t going to kick for coming in at this time for me.
“I take it she found out about what happened?”
I nodded. I didn’t even need to do that; there was nothing else that could have set Amber off to such an awful degree.
“Can we trust that she’s not going to spill the beans?”
“Of course she’s not going to spill the fucking beans, you idiot!” I roared. “She’s a better person than any of us! She’s not going to betray us! God fucking damnit!”
Trace took a deep breath. He had to have known how bad he sounded, how selfish he sounded right now. I knew he had my best interests at heart, but boy did he look really fucking bad right now.
“I’m sorry, Splitter,” he said. “I’m really sorry.”
Thank God he didn’t add any “buts” to that, or I might have beaten his ass right then and there. I was so easily triggered then, I might have beaten him just for smiling.
“This is so fucking dumb,” I said. “I should have never suggested it. I should’ve just taken the fall if it came to that. The Savage Saints would still go on.”
“Not necessarily.”
I looked up at what I considered a very peculiar statement.
“We’re facing enormous pressure. Us avoiding this would still have brought pressure eventually from the state. And as it is, our little stunt might have brought some benefits.”
“What do you mean?”
Trace cleared his throat, pulled out his phone, and showed me a message.
“I’ll get in his ear.”
“Who the fuck is that?”
“That is someone we have on Edwin’s staff,” Trace said. “We got him on board thanks to the work of BK last night. I don’t know that it’s going to work. Edwin is pretty hell-bent on getting us all behind bars. But the more we can slow down the process, the more chances we’ll have at winning this war. I’ll bet you this guy can get your trial delayed by some time.”
“Wait,” I said.
Had last night actually worked? Had it frozen, delayed, or even canceled the trial? Had it had some value?
Well, even if it did, I’m not sure it much mattered. Amber hated me not for what I did, but for lying about it. There was nothing I could change about that.
“Never mind,” I said. “I still have to make it up to Amber.”
“Well, Jane got kidnapped, and I rescued her, so there’s always—”
“Don’t you fucking dare make that joke,” I snarled. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to her, any—”
At that moment, my phone buzzed. I paused, reached into my pocket, and pulled it out.
“It’s Amber.”
“Answer it!” Trace insisted. “Don’t leave her hanging! This is your chance to at least start on the way back.”
I felt like even having the right to earn my way back was too much to ask for, but if she was calling me…
“Hello?” I said, my voice shaky as I answered.
“Splitter, my office building is on fire,” Amber said. “And the police said the arson started in my office.”
“Where are you?” I growled, beginning to fear what was next.
“I’m still by the building.”
I bit my lip. I knew what was going to happen next if we didn’t act immediately.
“They want to take you hostage,” I said. “They’re going to do it, and in return, they want us to confess to everything.”
Amber groaned on the other end of the line.
“Stay near the police. No matter what you do, you stay with them until I get there. I’m going to pick you up and take you back here. It’s the one place that I can protect you. From there, we’re going to launch an attack on the fuckers who did this.”
“How do you know—”
“We know,” I said, looking at Trace. “Stay there. We’ll be there quickly.”
I hung up the phone, already getting up.
“The fuck was that all about?”
“The DMs burned down her whole fucking office,” I said. “I’m going to go get her. We need to strike back. Fuck laying low. You know what laying low has gotten us? The DMs right up our ass. I say we fucking take it to them. They’re not going to suspect it in broad daylight.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Trace said. “They’re not going to suspect a fight, but they won’t be afraid of one.”
“Then fucking bring it on,” I said, ignoring Trace’s concern and running outside to my bike. “Follow me if you want. If you don’t, I’ll go and kill all the fucking assholes myself.”
“You’d go into their headquarters?”
“Fuck yes,” I said.
Trace knew I was completely serious too. He shook his head, said “I’ll be right behind you,” and whipped out his phone, presumably to make a bunch of calls to the club members. I revved my engine into high gear, announced it to all of Green Hills, and sped out of the auto shop, roaring in the direction of her of
fice.
I just had to hop down the highway until I got to the exit I needed to go. Immediately, I saw Amber standing from afar—close enough that the cops could see her, but not so close as to be metaphorically holding hands with them. She ran over to me as soon as I showed up. The cops glared at me, but I ignored them.
“You OK?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Unharmed. But—”
And that’s when I heard the first gunshot.
I grabbed Amber and slung her on the bike and made a getaway as fast as I could as DMs showed up from various hiding spots, trying to land a bullet on me. The cops, meanwhile, all took positions, hiding like the fucking cowards.
“Stay low!” I shouted.
I pulled out my pistol as I drove down the streets and Amber hung on to me, her face buried into my back. She clenched so hard that I had trouble breathing, but that was a hell of a lot better than her being dead outside the office.
As I sped toward the highway exit I had come from, I saw at least three DMs giving chase. None of them seemed to give a fuck that we were in broad daylight—they all had their guns out, in pursuit of me, trying to kill Amber or me who was basically my human shield at the moment. I swerved as I drove, warning Amber as best as I could, but the chase was a fucking nightmare. These guys are fucking crazy. I should have left her with the damn cops.
Going onto the highway, I realized, was the worst case scenario. To do so would open up clear lanes, and even though I could speed, I couldn’t drive faster than a speeding bullet. I’d have to take advantage of the roads nearby with some sharp turns and hideouts.
“Hang on!” I roared.
I banked a sharp right, nearly bringing the bike roughly sixty degrees, my right foot skidding along the ground, just barely dodging some bullets. I then swerved right at the next street, swiveled the bike around, and held my gun out.
“What the hell?” Amber cried out.
“I don’t fucking know!” I shouted. “But I’m protecting you! You don’t get off this bike unless I die, you hear me!”
Amber squeezed in response.
I, in turn, squeezed the trigger on two of the DMs coming. I missed one, but I hit the other one square in the head, causing his bike to skid out and his body to crumple.
This was going to cause such a massive headache, and I knew it. Amber’s workload was about to double because of this, if not more. I just wanted to keep her alive.
And then a bullet came from nowhere, striking my left arm.
“Motherfucker!” I roared.
More DMs.
I revved the engine, quickly going further down the street.
I realized having Amber on my back might soon get her killed at the rate I was getting ambushed. But if I dropped her off anywhere in sight of the DMs, that was going to get her killed too. I had caught her up in a world she didn’t deserve to be caught in.
“Left!” she screamed.
I turned my head in disbelief. That was in the direction where the Mercs were!
“I know these roads, it’ll take you to a high point!” she screamed.
Shit! I hope you’re fucking right!
Without a word, I banked the bike hard to the left, taking the road that by all accounts would seem to have led me straight to my death.
But instead, it naturally banked right, leading up a hill that was well shrouded by some trees. As soon as I got to the top, I had a chance to take a breather.
“Jesus,” I said. “Amber, I’m sorry. I walked into a trap. They knew I would come and they meant to kill me when I grabbed you.”
“Are they insane?”
“Yes.”
“No, I mean, really, the entire police force knows who they are now,” she said. “They must not give a fuck about due process.”
“They’re all going to be on the run, but so are we,” I said with a sigh.
And that’s when I realized the only person not accounted for in this was her.
“Amber, listen to me,” I said. “You’re going to have to say that I abducted you.”
“The heck?” she said. “I’m not going to let you do something stupid like that. No, I asked you to come, and the minute that they go through my phone records and see that I called you just before all of this, that defense is going out the window.”
Damnit, she’s got that part right. If I had just shown up when I saw the news or heard the news… but no.
“So, how are we going to get out of all of this?” I said.
Amber, despite all the madness, all the chaos surrounding the situation, smiled.
“Los Angeles has long had a huge gang problem,” she said. “I know you don’t consider yourselves gangs, but in the eyes of the city, you might as well be. I think every single person who just witnessed what happened is going to see the Devil’s Mercs did this, right?”
“Yeah, pretty fucking obvious!”
“A good portion of police saw what happened. So I’m not going to testify that you kidnapped me. I’m going to testify to the truth, like I’ve said all along, Splitter. That you came and rescued me. That the DMs were going to murder me, that they burned my building down to set up a trap, and that without you, I’d be dead. Edwin is many things, but he’s not stupid. He’s going to recognize a chance to get rid of the DMs while he can.”
“You think it’ll be that easy?”
“Easy? I don’t know about easy, but simple?”
She nodded with a smile.
“Listen, its one thing to build a case on you because of some weasel DMs. But they just undermined everything because they tried to kill you and me out in public. So, let’s—”
But then I heard engines approaching.
“They found us,” I said. “Hop on.”
“Let’s get through this, shall we?” she said. “I’ll bet no one else from Duke Law has a story like this.”
“You don’t need to fucking tell me,” I said.
I looked down, saw a Merc turning the corner up the hill, and lined my pistol up with him. I fired and landed the bullet square in his chest. I don’t think it killed him, but it did cause him to crash and roll through the streets, incapacitating him.
“Let’s go!” I said. “We should have backup soon. How can we get back down?”
“Keep going!” Amber shouted.
I did as commanded, going down the hill in the opposite direction.
“Right!”
She said it so suddenly that I had to take an even sharper than normal turn, causing Amber to yell out in surprise. She held on, though, like the strong girl that she was. I kept speeding ahead, ignoring the gunfire that rained down on us.
They must really not care about the police. Or they hate us so much that they’re fine going down like this.
I got to the bottom of the hill but then had to slam on my brakes and nearly skid out when I saw two Mercs waiting for me. I just barely avoided wiping out, but one did manage to get a shot off that missed me by about half an inch. I felt the wind blow by me as I did. Two quick rounds knocked them out.
But then I looked ahead, and I saw six more coming.
“Fucking hell,” I said.
I looked right and saw an alleyway with numerous hiding spots, numerous restaurants.
“Amber, go,” I shouted. “You have about five seconds to hide somewhere. I’ll do what I can, but we aren’t escaping. Go!”
“No!”
“Amber!”
But then, suddenly, like bowling pins, all six Mercs fell down.
I let out a loud whooping holler when I saw why.
Finally, the Savage Saints had shown up, led by Trace. There was BK, Krispy, Sword, Sensei—the whole crew. They had come. Trace came over to me while the rest split up.
“You alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, but I just now noticed the bullet that had hit my arm. “OK, maybe not. But I’m not going to die, nor am I gonna be a pussy like you and pass out.”
“Haha, funny man,” Trace said. “Fo
r real, though. Amber?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re safe now,” Trace said. “I put a call into the police here and advised them we were coming to clear it out.”
He looked behind at the scene.
“It’s a fucking mess,” he said. “There’s already choppers in the sky. News is going to have a field day with this. We’re going to have to do some PR work if we want to get back on the good side.”
“Us?” I said with a laugh. “Who do you think fucking started this whole thing?”
“True,” Trace said.
Just the fact that I could laugh… I heard a few more bullets firing in the distance, but for the most part, it was now just sirens filling the air. Most of the actual fighting had wound down, with the Mercs either escaping or having been dispatched. I couldn’t begin to say how much of a relief it was to know what Amber was, first and foremost, safe. That had been why I had come, and to have taken care of that… mission accomplished.
“So what now?” Trace said. “Amber, you’re the lawyer; what do you think we should do?”
“Stay here,” she said. “It’s going to score you brownie points with law enforcement. But have everyone gather here. I’m going to talk to the police. I’m going to make sure you guys get taken care of.”
Trace did so, sending out messages. I took off my jacket, then my shirt, using it to make a tourniquet for the wound before I got the chance to see Jane in the hospital. I leaned forward on my handlebars, exhausted.
But at least Amber was safe.
“Hey,” she said, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around me. “You know what I said about you not caring earlier today? About you not showing it? Can I take that back?”
Very slowly, with the pain having crept back in from the wound, I turned, grunting and trying not to show my discomfort.
But when I saw her beautiful face and her smile, it all washed away. All the pain and grief that I felt vanished in an instant.
“I suppose so,” I said. “Cost ya a kiss.”
She sheepishly grinned and kissed me, not letting go for some time.
Things, I thought, might finally turn out alright.
Chapter 16: Amber
