by Brook Wilder
CHAPTER 24: Theo
It felt like nearly an hour since Vinnie had stopped by to say hi to me. I say felt like because I couldn’t actually tell. I was still face down on the floor, my wrists now bound with plastic ties, bleeding into Anna’s light-colored carpet while the goon with the shotgun sat on Anna’s chaise longue, using me as a footstool.
Maybe Vinnie did just want me for later, to use torturing me as another sick way to hurt Piper, maybe he just wanted to kill me himself. What I did know was that I’d just have to wait and see if I could find some way out, when they finally moved me. If I was going to be taken out to the desert and shot through the head, with any luck they’d make me dig my own grave first, then I could attack them with the shovel and what would be, would be.
I figured they didn’t have the same plan for Anna. Although she seemed to be as much a prisoner as I was, she wasn’t tied up. They even let her get up and make a martini. The wise guys were relaxing a little. They had a televised poker tournament on the TV and were both sipping scotch. It was like I wasn’t there.
Unexpectedly for all of us, there came a knock on the door. The mobsters immediately went to DefCon 1, grabbing their weapons. The guy with his feet on me stood up and walked over to where Anna was sitting on the couch.
“Watch him,” I heard him hiss at the other. I was able to crane my neck enough to see him approach Anna with his shotgun ready. “Answer it,” he ordered her. Anna went to the little screen on the side table by her chaise longue. She was behind me now and I couldn’t see her, but I heard her press the button. She knew who it was and asked them why they were here.
“Room service,” came a sultry, teasing reply.
“The fuck does that mean?” growled the shotgun guy.
“I can’t sample my own product if the mood takes me?” Anna replied in a teasingly defensive voice. “I have a standing Wednesday arrangement. I’m sorry I forgot about it, or I would have canceled.”
“Damn, I wouldn’t mind seeing that, Louis” muttered the guy that had been told to watch me. I saw the shotgun guy, Louis, grinning too.
“They’re two of my best girls,” said Anna, “very accommodating. I’m sure they’d be pleased to see two such strong men as you here.”
Terrific. So I was going to have to lie here while they had an orgy. Exactly what I wanted, not! However, I did start trying to work out how to turn this to my advantage. I could see my SIG and M&P laying on Anna’s glass coffee table but I still hadn’t figured out how to get hold of them or shoot with my hands tied behind my back.
“Get him up and over by the bed, Bobby” instructed Louis urgently. Bobby hauled me up and I saw Louis push Anna out in front of him, to go and open the door. She caught my eye for a microsecond and winked. Shit, she was setting them up. Someone outside was trying something and she was playing along. I guessed whores had to be pretty quick and good at thinking on their feet.
Bobby used the revolver in his hand to shove me towards the back wall. I got there and he kicked me in the back of the knee. I fell down against the wall and he left me there, heading back over to the lounge area. I struggled a little and managed to turn around, sitting with my back against the stone. I saw Anna open the door with Louis using her as a shield. In walked Ruby and Alexia, dressed up sexy as hell, smiling at the assembled party.
“Thank you for coming, girls,” said Anna. Louis’s mouth dropped to the floor. He even forgot to hold up his shotgun anymore. “I’ve changed my mind and feel like just watching today. Please, feel free to entertain these gentlemen in my stead.”
The girls didn’t miss a beat. Like total pros, they smiled at the goons and turned to each other. Anna carefully made her way over to me as Ruby and Alexia started kissing each other passionately. They moaned and groaned, slowly and provocatively licking and caressing each other’s tongues, while the mobsters stood, hypnotized by their display. Ruby easily pulled down the top of Alexia’s tiny dress, exposing her enormous tits, and bent down to tantalizingly lick and suck at them. Alexia responded by letting her head fall back and moaning, her hands moving slowly between her own legs, showing a glimpse of her bare pussy, before she started touching herself.
Bobby let out a low moan as he watched, and the girls broke apart. Alexia beckoned Bobby over with one finger, which he obeyed, his eyes firmly fixed on her full naked breasts. Ruby turned Louis’ back to the still open front door without him even realizing, before turning around and dazzling him with her spectacularly displayed buttocks. She wiggled them sexily at him and backed up, grinding her ass against his crotch and making him grin like an idiot. She locked eyes with me as she moved and gave me a knowing smile.
Alexia got Bobby to face away from the door by dropping to her knees and standing him in front of her. She opened his flies and pulled out his erection, gasping as though it was the biggest she’d ever seen, which I totally doubted.
I spotted movement back by the door, and was startled to see Frost and Piper creep quickly and quietly into the room. Ruby, looking over her shoulder as she teased Louis mercilessly, stopped bouncing her butt as Frost, moving like lightning, wrapped his sinewy arms around Louis’ head and neck, breaking it swiftly and silently.
At that same instant, Alexia let go of Bobby’s shaft and savagely dick punched him, making him double over in pain, laying him open for Piper to crack the back of his head with the butt of her pistol. Bobby fell to the floor with a thud while Louis slid soundlessly down Frost’s body, into a heap on the floor.
“Woo-who!” Piper jumped up and down. My heart sang to see her joy-filled, smiling face again. She pulled up Alexia of the floor.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” the dark haired girl laughed as she adjusted her dress to cover herself back up. She looked over at Anna, possibly expecting some kind of praise, but her face fell into shock. I spotted Anna moving, out of the corner of my eye, but could do nothing before the loud crack of a gunshot rang out in the apartment.
I spun my head towards her, to see she’d grabbed her little Walther from in or under the bed and fired at Alexia. I turned back to look at Alexia, who was screaming, to see that the bullet had flown right past her to take Bobby in the head. He was sat up, pointing his revolver at Piper, but now fell with blood dripping from an empty eye socket.
“I guess Piper didn’t hit him quite as hard as she should have,” Anna snapped. Piper gasped and went to comfort the shaken Alexia, while Frost strode over and cut me loose with his pocket knife. He pulled me up, showing concern at the state of my face, and I patted him gratefully on the shoulder, but I couldn’t wait to hold Piper. She looked my way, too, and her face fell when she saw all the blood.
“What did they do to you?” she cried. She handed Alexia to Ruby and we almost ran towards each other. She threw her arms around me and wept, while I buried my face in her hair, right against the skin of her neck, and breathed her in.
“It looks way worse than it is,” I said, trying to brave it out. “I was afraid I’d never see you again,”
“I wasn’t, I knew they couldn’t keep us apart,” she sobbed.
“Awww!” enthused Alexia at our emotional embrace, recovering from the shock of Anna’s kill, as Piper pulled her head back so she could push her lips onto mine.
“And still no gratitude for me…” mused Frost again, earning himself a kiss on each cheek from Ruby and Alexia. He grinned wickedly.
“If you idiots have quite finished?” called Anna testily from over by her bar. “Can you get the fuck out of my establishment before Vinnie comes back?”
“You sure?” I turned to her. I think she was getting a little pissed at having to show us her softer side. “What about these guys?” I asked, pointing to the dead mobsters.
“I can take care of this. Don’t worry about me, I’ll make it all your fault. Now go before it’s too late.”
***
We left the way we came in. I retrieved my guns from the coffee table and thanked Frost for changing his mind. On the way downstairs we
stopped to try and clean my face up a little. The old fucker scoffed as the girls made a fuss over me. I had to admit, being praised and stroked by these three stunning babes was almost worth me getting my ass handed to me. When I was finally presentable, Piper kissed the two girls goodbye, thanking them for their help and we continued with our escape.
I thought for a second, back on the top floor, that Piper might actually have shown some gratitude to Anna, but she just held the madam’s gaze for a long moment, then spun around and walked out of the room.
Nearing the exit, as we stepped over him, Piper dropped the access key onto the sleeping Miguel, like it was symbolic of her never ever returning to the club again and, before long, we were back on our bikes, the big motors thumping a triumphant rhythm together as we blasted away like spacecraft finally breaking free of some toxic atmosphere.
It was so good to see Frost committing to help us, finally. And surprising. We’d greeted each other properly once we were safely out of the club, hugging as he told me he came because he never felt comfortable backing down from a fight.
“So, did he tell you he joined our fight because Tina made him?” I yelled back to Piper as we rode behind Frost, staggered back and to the right of him.
“Yeah, how did you know?” I could still hear the smile in her voice. It was beautiful.
“Let’s say we’re all pretty clear about who’s really in charge of the Steel Angels.”
We rode out of The Valley in procession, taking the I5 part of the way before we split onto a deserted back road. I knew it. It was an alternate route to Handle’s Bar that took about twice as long but was hidden and seldom traveled. I figured Frost thought taking the scenic route and staying off the major roads was a good way to avoid any accidental contact with Vinnie. It may have been a little paranoid but we just didn’t know where he was, and needed time to prepare before the full force of the Mafia gathered against us. I knew what Frost was planning. If we could muster a surgical strike and take out Vinnie quickly, and without too much collateral damage, the mob might just forgive the insult, secretly thanking us for disposing of a dangerous psychopath that draws far too much attention to its operations. But that needed to be done before any representatives from other families got to the west coast.
I was a little lost in this discussion with myself when I felt Piper punching me in the back.
“Look!” she pointed off to our right. We’d hit the part of the road where it just fell away down one side leaving nothing between us and a sheer drop but a flimsy safety barrier. Stretched out beyond that was a lush, green canyon that seemed to snake off into the distance as hills grew up around it. It was quite a view. With the midday sun high in the sky, the light illuminated the leaves with an emerald hue. “Wow,” was Piper’s assessment. I reached my hand back to squeeze her thigh when, suddenly, I saw something in my mirrors.
A dark shape was rushing towards us, right towards us, unbelievably fast. The was no time to react, it was going to hit us and we were going to go flying. I managed to brace myself just as it shot to the side and pulled along beside us, braking to match its speed to ours.
I looked over to see a silver Lamborghini, one of the really fast ones, and wondered what the rich asshole driver was trying to pull. Then I heard Piper scream and saw Vinnie pointing a machine pistol at us.
How did he find us out here? Had he been tailing us all the way from the club, just waiting for a quiet stretch of road to pounce. Had we actually made it easier for him by taking this route.
I hit the brakes as he fired. The shots missed us but hit the headlight, forks, and front wheel. I felt something was wrong immediately, as the bike bucked and started to swerve towards the drop. We needed to lose some speed or we were heading right over the edge. I gripped Piper’s hand to my chest and laid the bike down.
Sparks flew. The noise switched from humming motor to the sound of tortured, twisting metal. Holding on tight to Piper, I slid away from the bike as it scraped its way towards the cliff. We were slowing, but it still looked like the bike would go over, and us too.
Still slowing, I saw the bike punch its way through the steel barrier and disappear off the side. It felt like we were just skidding along barely above walking pace but, when I tried to stand, I found it we were definitely going much faster. I heard Piper cry out as momentum dragged us ever closer. There was no stopping us. We weren’t going to fly, but we were definitely going to fall.
I looked up at Piper’s terrified face. I wanted to tell her it was going to be okay, but I couldn’t find a voice to lie to her right then. I felt my feet go over and, as my butt passed the edge, it felt like we were being swallowed up by the world as we plunged down into the ravine.
CHAPTER 25: Piper
I didn’t have time to feel scared for myself. It felt strangely like a roller-coaster ride, or maybe a helter-skelter, as we slid towards the drop-off. All I could think about was Theo and I losing each other, so quickly after we’d found each other. I wasn’t fair, we needed more time. The universe owed me that.
I heard a muffled bang and saw a great plume of black smoke rise out of the canyon. That was Theo’s bike then, exploding as it hit the ground, and, before long, we may be landing on it. I grabbed Theo’s hand as he held me tight, looking down at his sweet face as we went over. Never thought I’d go like this. I guess you never know.
The pit of my stomach opened up as we dropped but, an instant later, my feet hit solid ground. My body kept going and I nearly went head over heels before Theo grabbed me around the waist and held me to him. Trying to get my breathing back under control, I quickly took in my surroundings.
We’d gone over the edge, sure. Theo pushed me until my back was against the soft, orange dirt of the sheer face and I was standing on a thin precipice, no more than two feet wide, about six foot down from the edge of the drop off. Seriously? I thought, surely this only happens in bad movies. I guess the universe decided it did owe me, after all.
“Are you okay?” demanded Theo, urgently.
The tough denim of my jeans had kept the worst of the road rash from my legs and butt. I had some scratches on my arms and hands, and I was sure there were enough bruises to make sure I was going to be sore tomorrow, but I nodded yes. He hugged me.
“Now what?” I asked. And then we heard gunfire.
Theo tried to leap up and grab something to pull himself back to the road, but there was nothing to get hold of. I tried pushing him as he jumped, but that made no difference. We heard automatic fire, several meaty reports from a big gun and then, apart from the distant crackling from Theo’s burning bike, way below us, the valley went eerily quiet.
We looked at each other for a moment, then heard footsteps approaching. Someone was dragging a leg slowly behind them, but they were getting closer all the time. Theo pulled out his gun, so I grabbed the Glock from the back of my waistband. We couldn’t go anywhere, couldn’t move back to see who was up there, could only keep ourselves flat against the cliff face, ready to shoot anybody who stuck their head over the edge.
“Well,” I froze as I heard Vinnie’s gruff voice, “I guess that’s that. Bye-bye, beautiful,” he said. I could see Theo trying to figure out how to get a clear shot at Vinnie without leaving himself completely vulnerable, but there was just no way. We heard Vinnie limp away and, soon enough, the sound of a high revving, high-powered engine screamed past above us and disappeared into the distance, the way we’d come.
“Frost!” yelled Theo, and I screamed with him.
Please let him be okay, I said to myself. Apart from anything, if we were alone out here now we’d be stuck on this ledge until we died of thirst.
“Shut your yapping, I hear you!” came his laconic voice. His weathered face appeared upside down over the side and I’d never seen anything so beautiful in my life. “Shit!” he exclaimed when he saw us. “What are you, in a cartoon?”
“Just get us out of here, you old fuck,” smiled Theo.
Frost dangled down
an arm. Theo made me take it and, between his pushing my ass and Frost pulling, I made it up to the roadway. I gave Frost a big kiss on the lips, so happy to see he was okay. He grinned back at me and, together, we were able to haul Theo up.
“Give me a cigarette,” ordered Frost, still lying on his front, looking down into the ravine. Theo found some and lit two, after I refused one. He passed the spare to Frost. “Stroke of luck for you two love birds.”
“How you figure?” inquired Theo.
“Asshole thinks you’re dead now. You can just disappear.”
My heart leaped up in my chest. He was right. This could be our chance. We could just leave LA; Vinnie would never know.”
“What about the crew? The war?” Theo asked.
“I don’t think we’ve done enough damage,” groaned Frost. “I got him in the leg, but I think he’ll let it go.”
“So, how do three of us ride out of here on one bike?” I said, half-jokingly, before I saw the concerned look on Theo’s face. He slid his hand under Frost and gently turned the older man over.
