by April Lust
I backed off so I could look inside the car as it pulled ahead of me. Skull was behind the wheel. I laughed to myself and finally drew my weapon. I had my target, but the front passenger had his target, too, and I was forced to back off again as he opened fire on us. He struck my brother on the left, sending him and his motorcycle crashing into the median.
I signaled to Mick and the others that Clara was down in the back, and a few shots rang out, shattering the back window. The car swerved again.
I sighed. This wasn’t getting the job done. I shot at the driver’s-side window, blowing it out. Skull jerked the wheel again, and I was sure the car was about to lose control for good when it righted itself again and kept going straight.
This asshole’s determined, I thought to myself.
Finally, sick of playing games, I took aim at the front tire. I held my gun in place for a moment, keeping it trained on the tire. I knew what I risked by shooting out the front tire. Skull was certain to lose control of the car, and I was going to put Clara in a lot of danger by taking that shot, but the longer we kept up this little cat and mouse shit, the more danger we put her in anyway. If things kept going the way they were, it wouldn’t be long before she took a stray bullet anyway.
“I’m sorry,” I said aloud, and I pulled the trigger.
The tire exploded, and the car jerked violently to one side. Suddenly, it was flipping, rolling on its side towards the shoulder of the interstate.
We slowed down, and I checked behind us to make sure no one was coming. A pair of headlights passed on the other side of the median, but they didn’t slow down to observe what was happening on our side of the highway.
I slid my gun back under my belt as we pulled up to the wreckage. It didn’t look like anyone could walk away from it. Steam came from underneath it. Well, the underside was facing us, as the sedan finally came to a rest on its side on the shoulder of the interstate, between the blacktop and the tree line.
I held out a hand to keep everyone back at first as we pulled over onto the side of the road. I killed my engine and listened as the others behind me did the same. I climbed off my tired old bike with my hand on my gun. Suddenly, putting it aside seemed a little premature. I wasn’t sure if anyone was going to spring out of the car and start shooting, or if we’d effectively eliminated the threat.
Gun shots rang out from the car. We couldn’t see the shooter, but they were taking aim at us as Mick and I approached.
We ducked and stepped back. Bullets hit the pavement around us and zinged past our heads. Whoever was shooting wasn’t a good aim. Knowing Skull and his men, that was a pretty good indication the shooter was injured, meaning my shot in the tire had definitely given us the upper hand.
I tilted my head back to the bikes, and Mick nodded. We rushed back over to the bikes, where the rest of the guys were waiting with their headlights off. Skull and his last remaining goon weren’t likely to see us in the dark while we regrouped. We weren’t even sure if both of them survived the wreckage of the car.
“Did you get a look at who was shooting?” I asked Mick.
“Nope. I couldn’t even see where they were shooting from,” he told me.
“You don’t think it’s possible someone else could have shown up, do you?”
“What, like backup?” He shook his head. “We would have heard them or would have seen them if they had.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But he didn’t seem to hear or see us.”
“Yeah, but look around. It’s just us and whoever is left in the car,” he said.
“Good point.”
Our brothers stood with their guns ready, awaiting orders. Everyone knew how important this mission was, so no one really seemed to be in a hurry to rush over and just start shooting. They wanted to make sure they were doing the right thing and not putting Clara in any more danger than she was already in.
It felt good to know that when things were really looking bleak, I still had so many men at my back. We were a family. These days, we were a rather large family, and it was probably time to open up a second chapter within the same city or start shipping guys out to other chapters.
We were practically an army, which was appropriate, I thought, since it felt like we were at war with Skull and his goons. We were about to end that war, though, right there on the side of the interstate.
Chapter 23
Clara
Gunshots rang out again as the car lay on its side. I flinched, unsure of where the shooters were or who was even shooting. I tried to pull myself together into a ball underneath the body that had fallen on me. I was beginning to grow claustrophobic underneath him, but I realized he provided cover.
If Skull was one of the men shooting, I figured he would have ignored me if he thought I were dead or if he didn’t see me hiding underneath the man in black from the back seat. I put my bound hands against his against his back and held him above me, creating a pocket of air where I could breathe.
I wanted to call out for help, but I didn’t want to draw attention to myself while Skull and the other guy might have still been in the car. I sat and controlled my breathing, keeping it slow and quiet, trying to calm my body.
Adrenaline rushed through me, but it was really unnecessary. I was not about to hop up and try to run anywhere. I wasn’t about to try to fight my way out of the car. I was fine right where I was for the time being. If working for Skull had taught me anything, I knew it was just better to sit and wait things out. Sometimes situations really did handle themselves.
I listened as Skull cursed and called for his men. “This fucking glass,” he shouted. “Did you see anybody?” he asked the other guy in the car.
“No, sir, not until they were shooting at us,” the goon answered.
“How the fuck did they sneak up on us?” Skull yelled.
“I don’t know. It looked like they didn’t have their lights on,” the guy said.
“Hey, are you okay back there?” The body shifted above me as Skull checked to see if he was all right. He wasn’t. I could have told Skull that, but I was trying to hide.
“I think it’s just us, boss,” the other guy said again.
“Where’s Clara? Did she get thrown out of the car?”
Their conversation sounded so normal and casual against the silence of the night outside. The gunshots had ceased. Everything had come to a complete stop. It was as if the Angels who had ambushed us had left us here on the side of the road, convinced we were dead. I wasn’t okay with that. I wanted to be rescued. I wanted to be reunited with Mason so I could apologize for everything and start trying to make things right between us.
“No, sir, I think she’s still inside,” the other guy said. I could feel the front passenger seat moving against my back. A light came on, probably the flashlight app on one of their phones.
I closed my eyes and held my breath as the bright white light filled the car. I figured if I held very still underneath the dead man lying above me, they wouldn’t see me.
“I see you,” Skull said, laughing dryly. “Clara,” he called me.
I kept my eyes closed and sat as still as I could. If he did see me, maybe I could convince him I was dead. He wasn’t buying it.
“Clara, look at me,” he said. His tone told me he wasn’t going to give me the opportunity to be dead. Even if he had been calling out to my corpse, I probably would have answered his commanding tone.
I looked up from underneath the body.
It looked like Skull’s goon was holding the phone so Skull could see me. Skull reached down and slid the other guy off of me so he could see me plainly. I didn’t stand a chance now. I had nowhere to go, and Skull knew I was mostly okay.
“I’m coming back for you,” he croaked. “Don’t go anywhere, Clara. We still have business to finish. Remember, this is your fault. If you hadn’t slept with Mason and betrayed me, none of this would have happened. All the blood that has been shed today is on you.”
I tried not to laugh, becaus
e the only response I could think of was to say that some of it really was on me. At least my sense of humor was still intact. If nothing else, that was enough to let me know I was okay.
“I figured you’d have something smart to say for yourself,” Skull continued. “I’m even more disappointed in you now, Clara.”
I heard his seatbelt unbuckle as he started to climb out of the car.
“Come on,” he called back to his passenger.
“What about the girl?” he asked as he unbuckled and climbed up behind Skull.
“We’ll come back to get her. She’s not going anywhere,” he called from outside.
With both men gone, the light was gone, too. Soon, my eyes adjusted to the moonlight spilling into the car from the open windows facing the sky. I could see enough to see the seats riddled with glass that sparkled in the moonlight. The scene was eerily calm and beautiful. Without the weight of the dead man bearing down on me, I was able to finally catch my breath.
I still couldn’t do much about moving around. With my wrists tied, it was surprisingly hard to grab ahold of anything and use my upper body strength to pull myself up. My ankles being bound made it difficult to stand. I was in trouble if I couldn’t get out of the car before Skull came back, but if they weren’t alone outside, I figured I had a little more time to figure out how to make my body work for me in my current condition.
Then it hit me. I could use the glass. There were shards of glass all over the car. If I could just get one and run it across the rope and tape around my wrists, I could cut myself free, as long as I didn’t cut myself too terribly in the process.
Alas, that was easier said than done. I couldn’t seem to find a piece large enough for me to hold it right. I kept dropping them at my feet. Luckily, I still had shoes on. I could hear the glass crunching beneath me with every step.
“Come on,” I said to the empty car. “There’s got to be something I can use.” I looked around frantically, trying to find something I could use to scrape my ropes and tape so I could free myself, but all the glass was small, and in my panic, my eyes were losing sight of the details. It was as if the car was growing darker, as if the light was fading from the moon.
I groaned and slumped against the back of the passenger seat. At least if someone were out there, I had a chance of getting rescued since I’d been unable to do it myself.
Suddenly, the silent night was split open by more gunfire. I ducked, even though my chances of getting shot seemed significantly lower now. I moved so I was against the backseat instead of in front of the back window. I looked out the window, but the frame around it had been crushed, and I could barely fit my hand out, much less the rest of me.
Something hit the roof of the car, and I could hear someone yelling.
Gunshots started ringing out pretty steadily. Honestly, it felt like a hopeful sound. The sound of guns meant Mason and his Angels were still out there, and they were coming for me. I couldn’t imagine Mason leaving without me, or without at least checking to make sure if I was all right.
“Mason!” I called out, sure I couldn’t be heard over the gunshots, but I wasn’t about to stop. I called for him a few more times.
I slumped back down against the backseat and waited as the gunfire seemed to get closer and completely encircle the car. While I listened and waited, my mind wandered.
What had Skull and his other goon been up to while it had been so silent outside? Surely, they had been doing something. Had they simply been working out a plan of action? Had Skull called for backup?
I didn’t know much about the cabin hideout. I didn’t know if he had people in the area he could call for backup or if all of his goons were back in the city. I didn’t know if it was really just a cabin or a compound that he just referred to as a cabin. I really hoped it was the former. I wasn’t sure how close we were, but we felt a lot closer to the cabin than we did to the city. If he had people coming down from the cabin, Mason and I were in big trouble.
“Mason,” I shouted again, straining my voice against the night.
“Shut her up,” I heard Skull yell at his goon.
“Want me to shoot her, boss?” he asked.
“I don’t care what you do, just shut her up,” Skull answered. “You know what? Fuck it. Shoot her if you have to. We’re going to do that when we get up to the cabin anyway. Might as well handle it now.”
My heart stopped. If Mason or one of his Angels didn’t show up, and fast, I was a goner. This was it.
“No, no, no,” I repeated as I looked around the car for either a way out, a weapon, or a way to cut myself free.
Both Skull and the other guy sounded like the bikers were keeping them busy, though, so I had that working for me.
The corpse! The body of Skull’s other goon was still in the back seat with me. He’d been carrying a gun when they put me in the car. I started digging through his pockets.
“Sorry, man,” I told him. “It’s nothing personal, but you’ve got something I need right now.”
My hands wrapped around a pistol in his jacket pocket and I pulled it out.
“Hey, little lady,” a voice said above me, and it was the living goon, poking his head in the window.
I tried to point the gun at him and pulled the trigger. He ducked to the side. I missed, but I was close enough to stall him. However, my hands were so damn awkward, the recoil kicked the gun out of my hand and it fell into the darkness beneath me.
“Shit.” I knelt down and tried to find it. I reached around on what was now the floor, but I couldn’t find it. I just ended up scratching my hands up with the shards of glass that had fallen at my feet.
“Need some help?” the voice returned.
“Smartass. If you’re going to shoot me, just go ahead and fucking do it. Spare me the bullshit,” I told him. I stopped searching for the gun and stood up. I tilted my head up to face him. I wasn’t even going to try to avoid it or fight it anymore. I was ready to accept my fate, but something told me this guy was too chicken shit to pull the trigger at such close range.
He scrambled to get into position above me so he could get his gun inside the car and aim it at me. As he worked to steady himself, he waved the pistol in his hand back and forth in front of me.
As soon as he looked away, I grabbed his wrist and bent his arm the wrong way against the door, jumping as I did so I would jerk his arm down as I landed. The gun went off, shooting the dead man in front of me, but then he released it.
“You bitch!” He grabbed his wounded arm and rolled off the car.
I was now stuck in the car with at least two guns and a dead man with two people outside who wanted me dead, and countless people shooting at them who seemed to have no idea I was inside, alive.
Chapter 24
Mason
We could see our targets now. We spotted them by the muzzle flare as they shot back at us. From what I could tell, there were two of them—Skull and one of his goons. They’d ducked behind the car, using it as cover while they shot at us at intervals.
“All right, guys,” I shouted at my men over the gunfire, “surround the car. We’ve got to take them down. Leave Skull for me if you can. Someone find Clara. She may still be in the car.”
I didn’t check to see if anyone nodded, flipped me off, or otherwise acknowledged what I was saying to them. I started walking to the car with my gun in front of me. I saw Skull duck around the front of it, and I didn’t care what else happened, I was going to shoot his ass. Before everything was said and done, I was going to eliminate him. The other guys were more than able to handle the other shooter and get Clara to safety.
We’d started shooting again when we saw a phone screen light up. The night had been silent and almost pitch black for some time after Skull’s car had come to rest on the side of the highway, but we heard voices from inside the car.
Then, there had been a light from within the car, as one of them had probably turned on a flashlight or a light app on their phones. We stood bac
k even then and waited. We wanted to see how many people, if any, came out of the car.
Only two emerged, which meant we’d definitely taken out the other goon. It also meant Clara was likely still inside the car. I’d still told the guys to hold their fire and stand down while we watched what the two men were up to.
One of them tapped his phone screen, and I could see Skull’s face illuminated perfectly from underneath. I could see his dark eyes staring down the phone, and I watched his mouth move as he was saying something to the man standing next to him.
I cocked my gun and waited. I couldn’t tell what they were doing. It looked like Skull was about to call for backup or for someone to come pick him up, but I wasn’t about to allow that. I took a shot, but he quickly moved out of the way.
