Once she was free she fell into his arms. He picked up a robe lying nearby and wrapped it around her, rubbing her arms to get the blood flowing. “We have to go. Can you walk or do I need to carry you?” Just over her left breast he could see the scar that still remained from the last night he ever saw her. She took his hand and said. “I can walk. Let’s go!”
He spoke into his mic letting Frank know they were coming out. Frank sent the extract signal out on the comm. units. Mary wasn’t even surprised by the carnage she could see as they made their way to the waiting rig. It was already in motion even before the doors closed. Pulling away they could see the second vehicle pick up the other team. The operators got out of their war gear as Gabriel and Raven sat next to one another letting the adrenaline rush fall to the way side. Gabriel looked out the window and could see the other rig merge onto the freeway with them as they drove back toward the airport.
Speed was the final key to the mission the rigs were accelerating as they merged back on I-5. The expertise of the driving and the operation itself made her wonder if these men were involved in law enforcement on some level. She looked over at Gabriel who was staring out at some imaginary pursuers. When he bolted up straight it startled her. He took his comm unit out “Draw tight we have tango’s coming up fast! Looks like twenty to thirty bikes.” When Frank and Michael heard the message everyone in the rig tensed up. They hurriedly put their gear back on even though they all knew the rig could take a direct hit from a rocket propelled grenade or armor piercing tank rounds. They could hear the cross talk of the drivers as they drew closer to the heaviest traffic spot on the interstate. This section was partially closed for a construction project that was two years overdue on its completion. Both drivers decided it was best to just take the bad guys on from the front.
Frank called one of his buddies on the Washington State Patrol explaining the situation to him. The Trooper told him he would try to get the traffic stopped on both sides of the freeway so they could work without harming the local population. Frank quickly snapped his phone closed and gave Michael a one finger salute.
She looked out the back window seeing the bikes racing at them through the blacked out windows. Looking over at Gabriel she questioned “So what is the plan here?” He smiled back at her. “Looks like you get use your little pistol again. We’ll lock up the brakes on both vehicles taking up all four lanes of the freeway and have us a little fire fight with those bikers.”
Raven looked at all them like they were smoking crack. When she saw just how they reacted to the imposing firefight she quickly changed her mind. In the eyes of each of them she saw a look of determination that they would win this battle come hell or high water.
Over the speakers she heard Michael tell everyone to lock and load. Ten seconds until go time. Behind the bikers she saw the flashing lights of squad cars doing a “round robin” on the freeway bringing the traffic behind the bikes to a stop. The gap between the bikers and the group was closing and it was closing fast!
“Now” was the next thing she heard and with the greatest of ease the driver locked up the brakes on the huge heavy vehicle. Suddenly he gassed the beast into a power slide bringing it to a stop across lanes one and two of the freeway. Out the front window she could see the other rig lined up perfectly closing off lanes three and four and most of the medium barrier. “Let’s do it!” a loud voice said within the vehicle.
The roof hatch opened as bullets began to hit the windows of the rig. Raven saw a huge ass rifle come up to the shooter as he sat behind an armored parapet. Within seconds the whole rig shook as he let loose with the first round. The bullet hit the ground some twenty feet in front of the riders. She thought he had missed until she saw the whole road belch into flames as tracer fragments lit up the night sky.
With the explosion four riders were launched from their bikes, their bodies hitting the ground in a heap. The others couldn’t stop in time. She watched as the impact of nine hundred pound of Milwaukee Steel beasts hit them, sending riders off over the bars as their bikes tore through the four men on the ground. Within seconds she could hear automatic gun fire coming from outside of the vehicles. She saw Michael standing in front of everyone. He was shooting with a purpose. As the men flew from their bikes, he was hitting them center mass. The same moment Gabriel grabbed her hand. “Stay on my ass! This is going to get hairy for a few seconds.” As he spoke he handed her an MP5 submachine gun. She started to say something when she saw a new group of bikers coming straight at them from the on-ramp some 500 yards in front of them. The men took their firing positions as she heard the parapet turn on the rig. The sound was deafening as the rifle fired. “What the hell is in that damn thing?” she thought to herself as the road exploded with two motorcycles being lifted off the ground. In the darkness she couldn’t make out all the gore. She just knew there were more riders coming. It was at least 100 riders against the six of them. Fear began to rise within her. This is not the way she wanted to go out! On a piece of freeway in a shoot-out with one of the oldest and baddest motorcycle gangs the United States had ever known. She jumped as a stray bullet ricocheted off the side rear window of the rig. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Gabriel flinch. She remembered Fred had told her “Gabriel is the softer of the two.” In her mind, as she watched Gabriel fire three round bursts from his rifle, she was wondering what the hell was soft about him. He looked over and shouted “Are you going to shoot or just sit there?” She raised the rifle to her shoulder, through the five power red dot scope she saw a biker coming fast. Letting out a breath, she squeezed the trigger sending three rounds down range in an instant. Through the scope she could see the biker lifted from his machine as the bullets hit.
Surprised, she wondered what the hell kind of weapon was she shooting?! A standard MP5 wouldn’t hit and knock down at this range. Looking down she realized there was nothing “standard” about the weapon. It was chambered for .45 caliber rounds she realized, as she saw the spent casings hit the asphalt
Michael was now walking down the interstate he locked his sight on a target and fired, dispatching the rider with ease. Looking to the side he could see the rest of the crew walking with him in a staggered line doing the same. Frank finally gave the hand signal to cease fire. All firing stopped. As they kept the wreckage and carnage in their sites the men walked ever closer to the bikers that had been in pursuit. When they got within 20 yards of the scene they lowered their weapons to half ready. Each time a stray weapon would fire, one of the group would train his weapon back to his shoulder and kill the man firing.
Michael walked through the scene until he found the last two family members on his target list. It was Jose’s uncle and cousin. He unsheathed his knife and took an ear from each of the dead men, wrapping them in a bandana. When the area was clear they walked casually back to the rigs. Frank looked intently at Michael as they walked, asking “What are you going to do with those trophies?” Smiling back at him Michael replied, “I am going to use them as part of a new jewelry collection I am making. I think these will work nicely for the earrings.”
Frank shook his head as he laughed out loud. “You are one crazy bastard you know that my friend?” Michael laughed at the comment. “I guess I just learned from the best of the best didn’t I?”
Gabriel and his team had walked back to the gang members that had come up on them from the north. She stayed behind him as best she could, however when one of his spent casing went down her top landing in her bra, she quickly moved to his side as she let out a few expletives. Within seconds they were walking through the remains of the crew. As they approached one of the bikers made his final mistake. He rose to fire on the group; his movement was so blatant that all six weapons sent a burst his direction. The idiot was dead before his body made an eerie thump on the ground.
Gabriel ordered the group back to the rig. They walked backwards to the rig keeping their eyes and weapons trained on the carnage that lay on the freeway. Gabriel reached over too take he
r hand in his. “Sorry about that shell casing, I wasn’t trying to hurt you.” She winked at him. “Not a problem.” As she squeezed his hand she could feel a warm stickiness begin to come between their hands. “You’ve been hit!!” she exclaimed! As they entered the truck he fell to the floor board. She screamed for a medic but the men were already taking Gabriel’s gear off to see the damage. The short but extremely buff monkey of the group was a medic as he did his assessment he bandaged the wounds he found, and cauterized them as needed.
He looked at everyone telling them “He will live. He only took four bullets this time, all too soft tissue areas. I’ve stopped the bleeding but he needs to get his ass on that Jet and back to Cali tricky dicky.”
Michael and Frank heard the news as the rigs roared to life again. They hauled ass around the wreckage on their way to the airport, leaving the crime scene to the troopers and the local Sheriff. Once at the airfield, no one wasted time getting Gabriel out of the rig and to the sleeping quarters at the back of the plane. The medic started an I.V. as Raven and Michael looked on quietly.
“That should do it for now; he’ll sleep for the flight back to Spokane. I’ll check him when we get there to make sure he’s good for the flight back to Cali.” Michael thanked him as they shook hands. “No problem S.C.” He replied Raven looked at Gabriel and felt her heart start to sink, her mind running to the worst outcome. “Why don’t you just ride back here with him, he could use you by his side right now.” He said as he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She smiled gratefully and made herself comfortable next to Gabriel, taking his hand.
Within minutes they are making their ascent into the pre-dawn light. She looked out the windows of Gulfstream to see another day dawn. She was glad she had made the trip with the group. Looking down the cabin she could see the woman they had rescued sitting by Michael her head resting on his shoulder as she slept.
Thirty minutes later she could feel the plane bank and descend on final approach. Craning her neck she looked out the window expecting to see Spokane Airport. All she could see was runway lights and a beacon begin to glow. She sat back wondering where they were landing?
Chapter 22
“When we got to my dad’s house that afternoon he sat us all down over a nice dinner, only to tell us he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He was still coming to grips with losing his older brother a few months earlier to cancer as well, he had just lost one his partners to the disease a couple of weeks earlier.
I sat at the table in utter disbelief. I held our daughter as Michael held our son. I tried to keep the tears back but I couldn’t. I went numb that day. Michael would try and talk to me but he had no idea what to do for me. I didn't even know, so I pushed him away. He buried himself in his work thinking that money would solve our problems. I was a mess inside Aubry. My parents divorced when I was very young. I only knew my dad as an every-other-weekend father. My mother cast him in such a bad light, I was fearful of him at times. My grandfather, on my mother’s side, stepped in as my surrogate father so to speak. He made me feel like I was princess. Not that my father didn’t. I was just blinded by the lies my mother told me about him. I loved my grandpa John more than I think I loved my dad. One day my grandfather had gone into the hospital for what the Doctors thought was a minor issue and never left. He died from a tear in his aorta.
When my dad told us he had cancer I was taken back to the loss of my grandfather. I had never learned how to deal with death. Now my own father may or may not live. Aubry, I was an absolute mess inside. My heart was broken and I began to despise Michael. I figured he was somehow to blame for what was going to happen to my dad. Looking back I can see how irrational I was, at the time though... Well, we can't always explain our feelings.
Michael was riding motorcycles again. One day I went to a barbeque after they got done riding and I saw a man that was just beautiful. He was big and buff with a masculinity about him that just turned me on. Somewhere in all that was happening he began to see an opportunity to take me. He would charm me while Michael was at work. I knew what I was doing was wrong but I would push it further and further every day. He became my single focus of lust and affection. At the time, I thought it was love. I thought he was actually my soul mate. That he would somehow rescue me from the hell I was going through.
This progressed into a full-fledged affair. Once I had sex with him I couldn’t help but want more. I felt the rush that I might get caught and the thought of destroying Michael would be so fun. My lover would fill me with information to use against him. So much, that I had nothing but hatred for him by the time my father died, Michael was out of my life and I was happily getting screwed by another man even though our divorce wasn’t even filed.
Aubry, remember I knew religion this whole time. I went to church and I lied to myself and others. I was convinced that my affair wasn’t hurting anyone, not even my children. Then I found out that I was pregnant by my lover. When I told Michael he wanted me to abort the baby. He was adamant about it. He called me some of the vilest names I had ever heard. We thought we were working things out until I went back to meet with my lover.
When he knew the child was his he played on my heart strings again. Once again we sent Michael walking out the door. I felt nothing as I saw him leave. The fucker deserved it in my mind for everything that he had done, or didn’t do as the case may have been. All the vile names and horrible things he had said to me. Even though everyone was true, I couldn’t bring myself to deal with my fathers’ death and the pregnancy without my new lover. He had me addicted to his bullshit.”
Michael and I got back together for the short time while my lover was in jail for a DUI. We started attending church. Not your typical kind though. Michael had found one that was breaking the fog of drugs and his own broken heart. I attended with him for a while then asked that we start going to one closer to home. I knew that everyone in his church knew what I had been doing to him and our family. I felt like everyone was talking and staring at me constantly.
Then we broke off again when he got out of jail. I kept going to my church. My lover wouldn’t have anything to do with it. He would make sarcastic comments in his drunken stupors about how God was an Asshole! One Sunday I went into church, and let me tell you Aubry, it was like my Father and God himself walked in and kicked me in the ass. The pastor spoke about living out of the flesh. He spoke of how it always felt so good while doing it, but sooner or later reality would set in. As I sat there I made up my mind and asked Christ into my life. I was screwing it up massively and I needed His help. The timing in all of this was on one of his weekends with the kids, so I went home to end the affair.
He kicked my ass that day worse than any man or woman ever had. He destroyed our condo in a fit of rage. I was barely able to call the cops before he ripped the wires from the wall. When he knew the cops were coming he ran off like a coward. Michael will, and has stood up when he's screwed up to face the cops. My lover just went to hide at a bar in town, leaving me battered and bruised. My brother called Michael, leaving him a message to take the kids to my moms. He gave him no other information really. Michael tried for hours to figure out what was going on.”
“I left the condo to go heal and pray. Later that afternoon he pulled up with my kids and it all hit me. Everything I had done to all of them. Michael brought the kids in, looking at me he asked, if “his baby” was okay. This was so far from the selfish bastard that I had married. I told him I (we) would be fine. I also let him know I didn’t want him back. He looked at me when I said that, his eyes pierced my heart. All he said was “Good, I wouldn’t take you back, you slut.” What he said hurt. But I was beginning to realize it was the truth.
Eventually God brought us back to together, for reasons we didn’t know at the time. While in court to have my ex prosecuted for what he did to me, we ripped up the divorce papers. We were learning to grow in the Lord in our own hearts; all the while God was mending the family’s collective heart, so we could in fact
be those “two hearts, which become one.”
“We moved to the northwest to become a family again. Aubry I have to tell you girl, nothing worth having ever comes easy, especially when it's the knowledge of your own heart or the heart of your spouse. I will spare you the rest of the story on how Michael and I got to you. Just know in your heart that Michael and I firmly believe that Christ hung out more with sluts, thieves, and liars, than he ever did with the Pharisees.”
“This whole place is created out of the love Michael and I found when we finally laid our lives down for the heart of the other people in our lives. He will forever be my lover and best friend.”
Maree came back into the room. “I got a call from Michael. They have your Mom. They're making a drop off at the other safe house in Spokane then flying back here.” Theresa looked at the clock on the wall realizing with a shock that she had spent over sixteen hours with Aubry. The time they shared together was worth every minute! She was able to tell her story without faltering. She listened to wise young women tell her story to her. All in all it was a great day for them.
Chapter 23
As the plane stopped, Raven looked out the windows, in the first light of day the scenery outside her window took her breath away. She could see the airstrip carved out of what seemed to be the first ground God ever created. In the distance she saw mountain peaks covered in snow, as her eyes traveled down she could see the greenest trees she had ever seen. As far as her eyes could see there was lush forest land. Out the other side window she saw a plantation style house that looked like it belonged more down south than here.
The Road to Lazarus (The First book in the diaries of Lazarus House) Page 13
