He presses a loaded pistol in her hands. She slips it in the holster tucked into her waistband at the small of her back. Twenty yards in front of her are several metal bells on stands. The idea is to hit the bells with a ‘double tap’. If you hit a bell with a single bullet it won’t quite knock it over. You have to chase the first bullet with a second one to completely knock over the bell. It teaches you the discipline of double tapping when firing. You learn to fire accurate controlled bursts instead of just firing wildly and emptying your gun. She waits for the signal to fire. Then on command she draws her Glock 19 and slips her index finger into the trigger housing as she presents the weapon.
She finds her target, but her arms are still weak and shake causing her to lose her line of site. Swearing under her breath she forces her muscles to respond and renews her grip. With her right arm she pushes with all her strength while pulling with her left arm. It’s this push pull action that steadies the weapon and enables her to lock onto her target. This time her arms stop shaking and she fires off eight shots, two at a time, but on the ninth shot nothing happens. The hammer falls but no bullet comes out. She has just encountered a class one jam. Kayla relaxes and brings the gun back to her chest so she can see what is wrong then immediately kicks herself.
“Stop!” Luke yells. “Stop, put the gun down, it’s over.”
Kayla flicks on the thumb safety and sets the Glock down on the table in front of her. She knows exactly what she should have done, but she keeps her mouth shut as Luke rams home his point one more time.
“Kayla…what the fuck was that? Never bring your gun back to your chest. First you attempt to clear the jam while still focusing on your target. What should you have done?”
“Um…I should have ejected the magazine and tucked it under my little finger, racked the slide back two times to clear the chamber, then…then just seated the mag again and continued firing without ever taking my eyes off my target.”
“Very good Kayla, now why the hell didn’t you do that?”
“I’m tired…I’m trying to keep my arms from shaking so badly and I just didn’t think. I mean I did, but by the time I realized what I did wrong I had already brought the gun back in.”
“That is exactly how you’re going to feel when someone is trying to shoot you.” Luke replies. “You have to master your mind and your body or you’ll end up dead. Kayla, the guys who are coming after you have already had some of this training thanks to me so you’re going to have to train longer and harder than them if you want to survive. Believe me they won’t attack when we’re around. They’ll wait till your guard is down and you’re alone.”
“Can I do it again?”
“Of course. That jam by the way…I just stuck in a dummy round when I loaded your magazine. In training don’t ever assume you have good bullets in your magazine; got that?”
Their training continues long into the night, finishing with some shooting exercises in the dark using spotter flashlights. When Luke finally called it quits it was nearing midnight. Luke sent the guys home and curls up with Kayla in front of the fireplace and a roaring fire. It was times like this that Kayla loved. Luke was totally in his element when he was shooting and training her. And she wasn’t the only one working out here either. Luke did plenty of his own shooting as well as going rounds in the ring with his buddies. He put his money where his mouth is and led her by example. He’d get into the ring with four other guys and they would gang up on him. He didn’t always get the best of them but he never went down and he dished out what was given him. He is a warrior, no doubt about that!
“You know Luke, this has been great and all, hanging out here and training, but tomorrow I have to return to the real world and that means work. I still have a mortgage to pay and I love my job so…”
“Say no more…say no more.”
He rolls over so they are facing one another on a huge bear skin rug. There are no lights on in the place and the only illumination is the fire. Luke looks at Kayla’s bare shoulders. There something about the way the fire light dances across her skin that is just irresistible. He reaches out and slips the blanket down off her shoulders and onto the curve of her hips. To his eyes, she looks more beautiful than ever. He sees the scars and the faint bruising from her three days at the hands of his father and he has to swallow to keep back the anger. He doesn’t want anything to spoil this perfect moment. He looks down at her full breasts and her flat tummy. How can he have been so blessed to have a woman such as her? He certainly hasn’t done anything to deserve her. It’s as if he won the best woman in the world lottery or something. Now if he can just figure out a way to keep her alive…
Kayla watches Luke out of the corner of her eyes as he stares at her bare breasts. In the past she would have been uncomfortable with this kind of scrutiny of her naked body but for some reason he makes her feel totally natural. She couldn’t have been any more comfortable even with clothes on. As his eyes pass over her body her skin tingles just as if his fingers were touching her. And just like that her skin is on fire. The rest of the world just melts away. All her worries about her training, her fear of survival, all her aches and pains from two weeks of solid training just disappears into the night and is replaced by what she can only guess is love.
But it’s more than just a feeling between her ears. Her body is in love. Starting with her less than perfect skin and down to a cellular level it all just fits with Luke’s body like…like a glove but even that sounds so trite. It’s more than she has a hole that only Luke can fill. It’s much more complicated and much more fulfilling than that. It’s like she’s this incredibly sophisticated jigsaw puzzle and she is only half the pieces. Of all the people in this world though, only Luke has the right complexity of character and the right intricately designed pieces that mesh perfectly with hers on every level. She is reminded of that movie where the woman says to the man, “you complete me.” That is so corny and so cringe- worthy but at the same time it’s true. Luke completes her.
Kayla sighs as she feels him pressing, prodding, and thrusting against her thighs. She opens her legs, resting one over his hips and a soft cry of intense decadence escapes her lips as he enters her again filling and fulfilling her like she has never experienced before. Just when she thought they had perhaps reached the pinnacle of the sexual experience she finds there more to be revealed. Like so many times their lovemaking begins slow and tender, but before long the feeling just overtakes them and they’re off like a couple of tigers mauling each other to their ecstatic extinction; and then they gradually return to human form once again.
Kayla is filled with a surge of energy and she just runs with it. She grabs Luke’s hair and just yanks his head unceremoniously to the side and down forcing him to roll with it or get one hell of a strained neck. He yelps in pain as a hot bolt shoots through his neck. He rolls to the side gritting his teeth and thrusting even harder. By Kayla’s way of thinking, if anybody ever tells you they don’t like a little pain with their pleasure they’re either lying or they just haven’t tried it yet.
Kayla sits up, arches her back and begins rocking her hips like an amazon. Luke responds in kind and bucks enthusiastically and before long he’s shooting off like that Yellowstone geyser, Old Faithful. Kayla rolls off and lays spread eagle on the bare wood floor luxuriating in the cool smooth wood. She wills herself to relax and catch her breath. The whole room smells like sex. They’ll never get that out of the curtains she thinks; or that poor bearskin rug.
The following afternoon they descend from their little mountain oasis on the back of Luke’s Harley. They are headed straight for Oakland’s Highland hospital. She doesn’t have to work until seven but they decide it’s best to be unpredictable and show up early rather than on a schedule that anyone could find out about and ambush them before they get there. Neither of them is concerned about her safety once she gets there. The hospital volunteered to add in an extra armed guard whenever Kayla is on shift. Luke would also have his guys ride by as
inconspicuously as possible. If anyone is watching her work they’ll see that she is well guarded and looked out for. Luke will spend as much time as he can looking out for her as well, but his time isn’t always his own. They inherited a large portion of the Kings gun running business and setting up the schedules and the runs can be a logistical nightmare.
For the trip back to Oakland they decide to try and fly under the radar and go it alone without escort. After disappearing for weeks there is no way his father can have figured out when they would show up in Oakland again. No one knows Kayla’s schedule today except him and Seth. After she gets to work he’ll call a brother and arrange for guys to keep watch on her. They’re about an hour into the trip when Luke blows by two bikers parked off the side of the highway. They were off their bikes and tinkering with them. He was going too fast to be able to tell if they were friendlies or not and is not about to circle back to check. Luke has his sawed off Mossberg and his trusty H&K 9mm. For the trip Kayla is carrying for the first time. In a holster underneath her leather jacket is her favourite weapon a Glock 19. It’s a smaller version of the Glock 17 and more manageable for her small hands. She is locked and loaded. In other words, there’s a round in the chamber and she has two spare magazines in her coat pocket. They both doubt they’ll run into anything they cannot handle together.
About fifteen minutes later Luke’s ears pick up the sound of at least one motorcycle overtaking them. By the way the sound is increasing, whoever it is must be coming up on them pretty fast. When they get to a long straight stretch in the road Luke looks back and sure enough, there is a pair of bikes coming up on them fast. Luke shifts, pops a wheelie and moves from a cool 80 to 110 miles per hour. There is very little chance of running into the Highway Patrol on this stretch of road.
Kayla senses something is wrong when Luke suddenly speeds up. She twists around and confirms her worst fears. There is at least 2 bikes coming up on them. This had to be a coincidence. No one knows they’re out on the road right now; no one. When she looks forwards again she sees Luke has his phone out, he got his glove off and is trying to text someone. It’s slow going but he finally sends his message and tucks away his phone, but keeps his glove off. She looks back again. Damn, their close. Her best guess is a several hundred yards and closing. She hopes Luke has called in the Calvary because she is in no mood for a gun fight. The last two weeks of intense training has been fun but it was just that; training. This is for real and for her the element of fun just isn’t there and she’s pretty sure she’ll never dig fighting like Luke does. She’s just not that kind of person. She’s a healer not a…well the opposite of that despite the gun she carries.
She can clearly hear the other bikes in her ears and turns around again. They’re right on them. They don’t have any weapons out but that can change in a hurry. Suddenly an overwhelming desire to take her gun out and start shooting hits her in the chest. If they shoot first they’ll have a better chance of survival. But they may not even be troublemakers. She does not want to shoot at innocent bikers either. Suddenly one of the bikers pulls up alongside of them.
Luke twists the throttle and they jump out ahead but the other two guys are quick to follow his example. They draw even with them again and this time, before Kayla can convince herself they’re just curious, the biker on their right pulls a three foot long pipe out from the other side of his bike. He transfers the pipe to his left hand where he hefts it and smiles wickedly at Kayla.
Suddenly it becomes abundantly clear what he intends to do with it. All he has to do is jam it in the spokes of Luke’s front tire and they’ll go down hard; hard enough to kill them both at their speed. The man readies himself for the lunge and Kayla steels herself for a hard fall. The man draws his arm back and an ugly look crosses his face. Kayla opens her mouth in a silent scream. Suddenly there’s a deafening explosion in her ears and the man’s face literally disappears in a huge spray of blood, brains, and the shredded remains of a motorcycle helmet. Luke hits the breaks just as the driverless bike wobbles then goes down and a disintegrating metal heap. Luke expertly guides his bike all the way to the shoulder of the road narrowly missing motorcycle parts spread out on the roadway.
She hadn’t even seen Luke get out the Mossberg; evidently the guy hadn’t either. Then Luke twists his wrist and their bike jumps forward and just in time too. Luke’s right side view mirror suddenly shatters and disappears! At first she just stares at it wondering what the hell happened, but when the next shot pings off the bikes back fender she realizes what’s going on. She twists around and sure enough, back about twenty feet behind them is the other biker. He has his pistol out and is trying to get a good shot off. She turns around and renews her grip on Luke expecting at any time to feel the hot bite of a bullet in her back.
Having already lived through being shot in the head once, she does not want a repeat. Then it occurs to her. What the hell is she doing? She has been training for the last two weeks on how to shoot, including shooting from a moving bike and here she is with a loaded gun at her disposal and she’s just sitting there holding on to Luke. What an idiot! She reaches into her jacket and pulls out her Glock. Just like Luke said would happen, her hands are shaking so badly that she nearly drops the weapon the second it clears her coat. She hears another metallic ping somewhere on the bike.
So far their tires are fine. She twists around and points her weapon towards the biker and finds it’s infinitely more difficult to acquire a site when your target is doing the same to you. It takes her a second to override her fear and open her eyes again. Finally she gets her sights lined up and as smoothly as she can she squeezes the trigger.
“Shit!” She screams at herself. The safety is still on.
She flicks it off and aims again. This time the guy takes evasive action and her first too shots are nowhere close to him. This is a lot harder than she thought it would be. She takes aim again. She holds her breath, then lets it out slowly and squeezes the trigger twice; tap tap, just like she’d been taught. She misses again. She’s about to berate herself for missing four times in a row when she notices something.
As long as the other guy is taking evasive action he really can’t get a good bead on her and Luke. She squeezes off two more shots, and then has another realization. She is supposed to be counting her shots so she knows when to change magazines. She can’t remember if she shot 6 or 8 bullets. She decides to go with 8. Better to change magazines too soon than run the gun dry. Kayla fires off to more shaky rounds that are clearly far off target. As she takes aim again their assailant decides he’s had enough dodging and makes his move.
Even as Luke adds more speed the man behind them is riding a larger more powerful bike and they just cannot seem to outrun him. This time he pulls up on their left side, making it infinitely more difficult for Kayla to get him in her sites. When he pulls up within about twenty feet he begins to fire. The first bullet tears into the top of Luke’s helmet, jerking his head to the side. The bullet’s impact startles Luke and he just about spills the bike. As he fights to get control another bullet creases the top of their fuel tank, ricochets off another part of the bike before it whizzes away leaving the two riders stunned but unharmed.
Kayla realizes she has to do something. Luke has his shotgun out but their attacker backs off each time when Luke brings the weapon up. The level of fear seizing Kayla’s brain is overwhelming. Many people can handle terrorizing situations as long as they only last for a few seconds, but when you are in the danger zone for a prolonged period of time it gets to you. Pretty soon that fear that was gnawing on the edges of your consciousness becomes this giant beast attached to your brain and it just sits there eating you alive.
Kayla fires off two more shots, and then makes a big deal about her weapon being jammed. It has the desired effect. He guns his chopper and in a few seconds he is just ten feet behind her and off to the right this time. As he brings his gun to bear on her she suddenly raises her weapon and fires, but to Kayla’s horror she
just hears a faint metallic click.
“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, and fuck!” She swears over and over again as panic seizes her mind.
She jerks involuntarily as a bullet, like an angry hornet passes through the right arm of her motorcycle jacket. The burn immediately brings tears to her eyes as she tries to focus on what she is doing.
“Drop the magazine…slip it under your pinkie…” Kayla repeats the mantra as she begins to clear her gun of the jam. “wrack the slide back two times then reseat the mag.”
She snaps the magazine back in place and hammers it with the palm of her hand to make sure it’s seated correctly. A magazine that is not all the way in place will likely cause the next bullet to jam at the feed ramp. Kayla wracks the slide back again, chambering another round.
Suddenly their bike is fishtailing madly, causing her to grab onto Luke and hold on for dear life. Luke fights for control of the bike as their back tire literally begins to disintegrate. Luke knows immediately what happened and what he needs to do to keep them from smearing themselves along the highway like some giant bug splatter. As he eases off the throttle and moves to the side of the road two more bullets ricochet off the bike but amazingly not a single one finds their intended targets.
Kayla aims her gun one more time. They guy on the chopper backs off when their bike began wildly gyrating, but now he is coming on hard and she knows that if she doesn’t do something right now he’s gonna fill them with holes. It’s an impossible shot Kayla takes. As she depresses the trigger she sends a silent prayer in its wake. She watches as the man jerks in his seat and seems to ease up on the throttle. Her second shot strikes him again and this time he pitches off to the side and his bike goes down in a shower of sparks. Just as Kayla raises her arm in triumph their bike pitches violently to the left and Kayla finds herself airborne. Her gun flies out of her hand and before she can even think about it she hits the dirt off the shoulder of the road and begins to tumble before sliding like some baseball player trying to steal home base.
Edge of Chaos Page 16
