by Brook Wilder
“She didn’t do shit,” he said finally. “Do you seriously think your sister did the nasty with those guys?”
“Don’t you talk about her like that,” she said, waving her finger in front of him.
“Hey, I didn’t say anything, I’m only trying to protect your sister’s image here,” he said.
“I know she didn’t do anything.”
“No you didn’t, or else we wouldn’t be having this conversation in the first place.”
“Alright, well, what do you want me to do? Pretend I’m a hooker so they would follow me out of the building?” she asked, rather sarcastically.
“Precisely,” he said.
“No fucking way.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not a hooker and I’m not going to pretend to be one!”
“I don’t see the problem.”
“You know what, never mind,” she said, suddenly fed up. “I’ll do whatever it is that you want me to… just as long as I don’t have to sleep with anyone,” she continued.
“Who said you had to sleep with anyone?” he asked, obviously amused by her reaction. “Listen… you don’t have to do this. I’m going to see to it that we come up with another plan. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he said after a long pause. Amy was obviously nervous, and he didn’t really know what he could do to make her feel better. After all, they needed her full, undivided attention, and that wasn’t going to happen if she was uncomfortable doing what she had to do.
“What’s the alternative, then?” she asked, her eyes darting back and forth frantically.
“I can work something out, Amy, don’t worry about it,” he said, fumbling with some things on his desk. “Anyways, we’ve got it all set up; I’m going to put this thing in a bomb-proof box, and tomorrow night, we set out to blow this bitch up.”
Amy nodded. The truth was, she was growing worried. The clock was ticking; there was no room for error, no time for second guessing. She threw her bag over her shoulder and prepared to leave; she knew she wasn’t getting any sleep tonight.
CHAPTER 18
Amy woke up with a strange sense of confidence. She called Junie first thing in the morning to see how she was doing--she was just as confident--and when she hung up, she finally felt like she could breathe again. Aiden had told her to meet them at a construction site at the far edge of town, and on her way there, she couldn’t stop thinking about what was to come. The sun had set, and Amy was growing nervous again. She grabbed the steering wheel with sweaty hands, trying not to lose track of time. She floored the gas pedal and sped down the highway; she didn’t have a minute to spare.
Junie, Aiden and Jon-Boy were already there, waiting for her. The tension was building; just the thought of being in the eye of the storm made her stomach churn. And could anyone really blame her? This was the decisive moment; there was no turning back now.
“Don’t let your thoughts get the best of you,” she whispered to herself. Her mind kept going back to all the hypothetical scenarios she had built in her head about this day going wrong. In a way, it felt like she was going in for a real operation, a high-risk operation. One that her life depended on but whose survival chances were so little that she was practically setting herself up for disaster. She took in a deep breath and watched as the road stretched out indefinitely with all its twists and turns and hidden mysteries. She checked her watch. Still early. She knew for a fact that Junie was there, waiting for her. Would Jon-Boy deliver what he had promised? Or would he set her up for absolute failure by pushing her to distract the Mercenaries instead? No, he wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t compromise their plan like that, let alone risk his own life as well as everyone else’s.
But a part of Amy didn’t trust him. She didn’t know him, after all. And how could she possibly plan an entire explosion, a deadly operation, with someone she couldn’t trust? The very thought of this made her stomach churn. It made her want to turn back and leave. But she wasn’t going to; turning back meant putting her sister’s life at risk. And what did she do to her? Actually, a lot of things. She left her there with a man she barely knew--the very man she didn’t trust--to run to Aiden. Amy hated to admit it, but she was still angry. Angry at her best friend, angry at her sister.
“Just shake it out,” she said to herself, her grasp on the steering wheel tightening. She couldn’t let her thoughts get the best of her, or their entire plan’s a bust.
Amy pulled over far from the construction site. It was pitch-dark; Amy couldn’t even see her own feet. She marched across the land; Aiden told her to head south. There was no cellphone reception, and in the distance she could see Junie’s head bobbing against the gray sky. She squinted, making sure it was her, and when the two of them locked eyes, Amy ran to her. “Am I late?” she whispered, her eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness.
“No,” Aiden said, scanning the area around them with his eyes. In the distance stood a giant concrete building, which was thought to be one of the Mercenaries’s headquarters. The lights flickered on; that was how Aiden made sure they were in there. Jon-Boy was crouched down next to him, the bomb-proof box in his hands. Suddenly she felt a tug at her sleeve.
“What?” she jumped. She turned around, only to find Jon-Boy staring back at her.
“Hey, now’s not the time to be jumpy,” he hissed. “Listen… I’m going to do something right now. I’m going to set these off,” he said, pointing to another black box placed next to the bomb. Amy inspected it carefully.
“What is that?” she asked, her head cocked to the side. Jon-Boy opened the box carefully.
“They’re fireworks,” he said, a sinister smile settling over his face. “I’m going to set those off… and send them out on a goose-chase.” There was silence. It seemed to Amy that Junie already knew about this plan, and she didn’t really know how she felt about it. How could they guarantee everyone in that building would be evacuated? They couldn’t. There was no way they could.
“Alright, and the rest of us? Will we go in there?” she asked.
“Precisely,” Jon-Boy said. Amy and Junie exchanged brief glances before they rose to their feet and marched towards the headquarters. Amy held Junie’s hand; they both knew this was it. Jon-Boy stayed behind, promising to give them the signal to sneak into the place. All four of them hid behind the fence surrounding the headquarters and they crouched down; one second, two seconds. Suddenly, sparks went flying up in the air, followed by an ear-piercing bang, followed by a crackle. Junie clenched her eyes at the sound. There was silence. Jon-Boy set off another firework, and then another one, and another one. Junie felt the need to cover her ears. Suddenly, they could hear movement inside the headquarters. They lay low, trying to blend into the darkness. Amy winced when she heard footsteps scurrying around; she knew the Mercenaries were coming down the stairs.
“What the fuck was that?” one of them yelled.
“This way!”
Junie shrunk away behind the fence. Her eyes were darting back and forth frantically, following the men, who shot out of the building like fireworks themselves. They bolted out, one after the other, following the source of the noise. Jon-Boy continued to shoot out fireworks.
CHAPTER 19
“It definitely feels good not having to wake up to horrible news every day, doesn’t it?” Junie asked, slumping down on the couch next to Aiden. He leaned in and kissed her, looking into her eyes for a moment before he pulled away. “What’s wrong?” Junie asked, her head cocked to the side.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about what happened to T, Junie,” Aiden said, his eyes fixated on the floor tiles. His hands were clasped in his lap; Junie could tell he was hurting. “It was my fault, I didn’t go back for him.”
“If you had you wouldn’t be here right now,” Junie said, brushing her fingers through his hair. Aiden let out a sigh. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
“And what would Matty do without me, right?” he asked, forci
ng a smile.
“What would I do without you?” she said, planting a kiss on his cheek. ”But seriously, though, Matt considers you to be family now… I don’t think he can imagine a life without you.”
“I don’t think I can imagine a life without the two of you, either,” he said, the silver of his eyes flaring up. “I just wish I had a job that wouldn’t make you feel so insecure all the time,” he said again, more serious, this time.
“Aiden, I accept you for who you are, remember? I wouldn’t have had it any other way,” Junie whispered against his lips.
“So you wouldn’t rather be dating, say, a firefighter?” he teased.
“Not at all,” she said, pressing her lips softly to his. “You wanna go upstairs?”
“I would love to,” he said. “It’s pretty hot in here… you wanna take a shower?”
“Shower, it is.”
***
Junie threw her head back as her moans echoed through the bathroom. The cool water felt like heaven against her skin. Aiden held her tight, her back against the cold ceramic wall, his strong hands holding her up, her legs wrapped around him. She had no idea how he was able to keep his balance, but she wasn’t complaining.
Aiden was thrusting against her, moving hard and fast, the two of them in so much heat it was almost animalistic. He grunted as he moved, his hips slapping against her, water splashing as he moved. He bent down, kissing her breasts as they bounced against his face, and she clutched onto his hair as if it were a lifeline.
A few more thrusts and she was screaming in orgasm, her legs shuddering against him. Aiden kept going, and she could sense he was close. She wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him close, her lips grazing his as he breathed heavily against her. She felt the muscles of his back flex and his hands squeeze, and with a groan loud enough to make her moans seem like silent whimpers, Aiden exploded inside her.
CHAPTER 20
“That was…”
“Amazing.”
Aiden and Junie collapsed on the bed, both in bathrobes, hair dripping wet. Aiden smiled to himself, but then he remembered he had something to tell her. “So, I have to head out right now… I’ve got a meeting with some members at the club.”
“What members?” she asked.
“The higher-ranking members… we’ve got to sit down to discuss what our next step will be,” he said. Junie’s eyes dropped to the floor. She didn’t know what it was about another meeting that made her all queasy on the inside.
“Alright,” she said, forcing a smile. “Just take care of yourself, okay?”
“Okay.”
Junie eyed him as he threw his feet off the side of the bed and started dressing himself. She opened her mouth to protest, to tell him to stay, but then she remembered she couldn’t do that. If she and Aiden were going to be together, she knew she had to trust him to make the right decisions.
***
Aiden pulled over only a couple of blocks away from the bar. He bounced off his bike and just stood there, not taking his eyes off the horizon. In the distance he could hear sirens; a fire truck whizzed past him. Something must be wrong. He couldn’t find a parking space anywhere near the bar because the roads were closed, almost impassable, and he hurried along the sidewalk, trying to figure out what’s wrong. “Holy fuck,” he said as he approached the curb. Something was on fire. The thick grey smoke billowed into the air, devouring everything in its path. The flames rose up into the sky like a hungry serpent, blazing, out of control.
It wasn’t long before Aiden realized it was the bar that was on fire.
“Oh, God,” he muttered under his breath, his eyes fixated on the choking clouds of smoke. He walked closer to the building, and what he saw horrified him. Parked across from it was a beat up bike--he didn’t know who it belonged to--and when Aiden crossed over to the other side to get a closer look, he realized that something was spray painted on the red and black motorcycle. “Mercenaries Never Give Up”.
Aiden stumbled back a few steps, unable to believe what he was seeing. This was far from over, he thought. This has only just begun.
***
Aiden took in a deep breath and let it out through his teeth. “Found anything?” he whispered into his phone as he sped down the highway.
“Nothing,” a voice came through the other end. “There’s no trace of them, it’s fucked up.”
“I don’t know how something like this could’ve possibly happened,” Aiden said, shaking his head.
“I’m telling you, it’s like they vanished into thin air; every one of them,” the voice said. “We sent out rebels on a search mission… we’re not going to stop until we catch them.”
“We need to be careful, though,” Aiden said, cradling the phone to his ear as he reached for his pack of cigarettes. “It’s no coincidence they just disappeared… they must be planning something.”
“Like an ambush?”
Aiden paused for a second. “Yeah, like an ambush.” Suddenly it dawned on him that Junie couldn’t know anything about this. As much as he didn’t want to hide anything from her, he couldn’t involve her in anything like this ever again. He held onto the steering wheel; suddenly it felt like he didn’t know where he was going anymore. He hung up without saying goodbye, tossing his phone aside and stomping on the gas pedal. “Junie can’t find out about any of this,” he whispered to himself. “She already has enough on her plate as is… she doesn’t need to worry about me, she needs to worry about herself.”
Meanwhile, Junie waited nervously at the local hospital. Her hands were clasped in her lap; she felt like she couldn’t breathe. The waiting room was so quiet; since when did they have a shortage of patients? She thought that maybe it was all in her head, that if she were to close her eyes and open them again, she would find people swarming around, nurses hurrying back and forth, patients being rolled out on stretchers. But she found nothing. For once, she was on the outside; watching everything go down from a visitor’s point of view. Taking the exam felt weird. In the midst of all the madness, Junie had decided to keep it on the hush hush. No one knew, no one except Aiden and Amy, that is.
“Are you Junie?” a woman asked, smiling at her. Junie thought she must’ve appeared out of nowhere.
“Yes, yes, I am,” she said, rising to her feet.
“Alright, well, I have the results of your nursing exam,” she said, pursing her lips. She handed her an ecru file full of papers, and before Junie could open it, the woman had already disappeared. Junie’s eyes stopped at her exam results. Fail. She narrowed her eyes and looked again. “No, no,” she muttered. “No!” She looked around, but no one paid her any attention. The nurses were going about, minding their own business. And the one who handed her the folder, well, she was gone. Junie felt her eyes swell up with tears, and when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, she ignored it. Over and over again. Suddenly she felt defeated, like she wasn’t half the woman she thought she was. What has she been fighting for?
She took her phone out, only to find Aiden’s name flashing across her screen. She ignored him, stuffing her phone back into her pocket. She didn’t feel like talking to him right now, she didn’t feel like talking to anyone.
CHAPTER 21
Aiden woke up angrier than ever. He had been trying to reach Junie since the day before, but she wasn’t picking up. He tried everything, but he didn’t drive over to her house. The truth was, he couldn’t find it in him to go over there. She clearly didn’t want to talk to him for reasons he didn’t understand, then why should he? He floored the gas pedal and lit another cigarette. He couldn’t waste any more time; if all the rebels combined couldn’t find the Mercenaries, then he was going to travel to the ends of the world to stop them.
***
“Hey,” Amy said, inching the door open. Junie looked left and right before she stepped inside.
“Hey,” she said, taking her coat off and slumping down on the couch. She held her head in her hands and rocked back and forth fra
ntically; Amy didn’t know what to say to her.
“Listen, Junie, I know you’re devastated about this whole thing, but--”
“But what?” Junie asked, staring back at her with bloodshot eyes. “I’ve been doing nothing for the past six months but study for this exam… and now this happens. It just goes to show, I’m not good at my job. I’m not good at anything.”
“Don’t say that,” Amy snapped. “You can always take the exam at another date, it’s not the end of the world.”
“And Aiden. He didn’t pass by me once to ask me how I did,” Junie said, rolling her eyes.
“I’m guessing that’s because you haven’t been answering his thousand or so texts for the past twenty-four hours?” Amy asked, folding both arms across her chest and shifting her weight to one leg. “Come on, Junie, you know better than to shut him out like that.”
