by Day, Talia
“Hey Reaper,” he breathed into the receiver as I heard Jacob’s voice on the other end, “Are you missing something… Or maybe, someone?” Trece pulled the phone from his ear and held it out, smirking, as I heard Jacob's thundered violent threats.
Eyeing me lustfully, Trece placed the receiver back to his ear. “Don’t worry Jacob.” He walked towards me and traced his finger along the thin sheet that clung to my breasts. “I won’t hurt her…much.”
He hung up the phone, and then called Chico to tell him to put the boys on alert. Jacob would be coming, and Trece's thugs had to ensure that he was properly welcomed. His eyes reverted to my chest and he stepped close to me, whispering in a threatening tone. “If Jacob wants you back in one piece, the Members are going to have to trade the one thing that gives them the power in this town.”
I wondered momentarily what it was that gave Jacob’s gang the upper hand, but I hadn’t the slightest idea of what they were involved in. In fact, I realized my emotions had blinded me so much as to have dismissed many of my initial fears. I had been far too naive, and this stupidity, I concluded, was very likely going to be the death of me.
My thoughts were distracted as Trece continued, “Mami, this is your chance. I will let you show me how badly you want me to go easy on Jacob. If you convince me, maybe I will let him join the Muertos as an errand boy.” He sucked air through his parted lips and proceeded to flick his tongue at me as he pulled the sheet from my grip, exposing my naked body. I reluctantly lost my grip as he fought me, and in an instant he had lifted me and pressed me into the wall.
I fought with all of my might as Trece tried to pry my thighs apart. But to his frustration they wouldn’t budge, and his face changed into a sneer. Despite my struggles, he pulled me away from the wall and planted me forcefully down onto the top of a desk. His eyes met mine and I spit defiantly into his face. He wasn't fazed in the least--the glaze over his eyes from whatever drugs he had been taking was even more obvious than when I first saw him in the room with Cindy. He was beyond fucked up and he seemed oblivious to anything but his carnal urges. He gripped my hands and pushed my body hard onto the desk, my legs scraping painfully as they attempted to fight his efforts. I knew it was useless, his arms bulged with thick muscle, sculpted as only time in prison would allow. He was determined. I screamed out for help, though I knew it was pointless. His eyes grew darker as a smile crept over his face. I could see now that he was erect, and it seemed he was taking great pleasure in my desperate pleas for help. As he pried my thighs apart I began to shake, from both exertion and fear. There was no reasoning with this animal, and for my sake I was determined to do whatever it took to stop him. I felt a large, cuff-like brace latch around my left ankle; apparently a great deal of the furniture in the Muertos clubhouse had been designed with forceful and dominating sex in mind. Looking behind me I realized there were cuffs at the other end intended for my hands as well. I reached for anything, desperate to stop him. Frantic, I grabbed for the desk lamp. Gripping the base as I felt my other ankle shackled, my legs were now forcefully restrained from closing. With all of my might I lifted the flimsy thing and slammed him hard over the head. It came apart in pieces, sending the shade in one direction and the base hanging on by only the electrical wires that fed through the stem. He grunted out in irritation, but his quick hand flew up and caught mine by the wrist, gripping it hard until my own fingers released what was left of the lamp. I cried out in pain but he didn’t relent.
Just as Trece managed to shackle my left arm, I took my right and jabbed two of my fingers hard into his right eye socket. Blood squirted from the eye and Trece let out a pained shriek as he covered his face and fell to his knees. He was clearly panicked and breathing heavily in agony. I used my free hand to unclasp my left as he cursed and swore and focused on his damaged eye, unaware of my frenzied attempt at an escape. I was going to get away, or happily die trying, that was for goddamn sure. And if he was going to fuck me, well, he would have to fuck me unconscious and bloody because there was no way I was going to let the sick fuck do a thing to me if I could help it.
I didn't have much time before he regained his composure. I looked down and found that my ankles were shackled with a locking clasp, and nearly gave up hope before I realized that they had a simple quick-release on them, as is commonly found on cheap handcuffs. I unclasped my cuffs and slid free just as Trece was crawling back up from his knees, still cursing and threatening me with every vulgar insult his Neanderthal brain could think of. A quick scan of the junk around me was all it took to find a heavy bar of steel, and with one swift motion I clobbered Trece with all of my might across his face. A disgusting, bone-crunching sound met my ears as he fell to the floor. Blood was rushing from the wound on his head and now it was my turn to panic. I wrestled briefly in my mind between hitting him again to ensure he didn’t get up, and screaming for help as I feared I had killed him. I quickly chose the former, and with another solid blow to the head I killed my first human being.
I next searched the cavernous room for a weapon, and to my surprise was quickly rewarded when I found a large, unlocked cabinet with a multitude of handguns. I had never shot one, but I knew the basic principles, and I took a moment to ensure that this time it was loaded. I chose a gun that I thought was appropriate for my small size, and then stuffed a half-used box of ammunition down the back of my panties.
The room was large, but there was only one way out, and it was dead-bolted. I crept over to it to see if I could see or hear anyone on the other side. I couldn't, so I gave one large knock on it with my gun. Footsteps soon approached, and Chico called out, "Yeah?"
I grabbed the same steel bar that I used on Trece and waited silently.
Chico called out again, "You o.k. in there, boss?"
I remained silent, and a moment later I heard the locking bolt slide. The door opened, and the instant I saw Chico enter I gave him a solid strike to the head; he wasn't expecting a thing, and fell to the floor instantly. I dragged him inside the room, stuffed him under the desk along with Trece, and threw a sheet over them both, hoping the sheet would conceal them long enough so that I could get away. I then left the room and proceeded to quietly make my way down the dark corridor and towards the stairs.
At the top of the landing I heard voices below. I stopped, listening intently to what the unidentified voices had to say.
"As soon as Trece is done with the girl, we'll go fetch her friends and bring them with us. Jacob and his gang should be here soon enough, and we might need them as bargaining chips."
"Where are they," another voice inquired.
"In separate cells in the interrogation hall," the other voice responded.
My heart leaped into my throat--I was just in their interrogation room. Was Chase, Kate and Leah nearby? I made my way back from where I came. There were five doors lining the dark hallway; maybe they were they in there.
I crept close to the door closest to me and whispered, "Kate? Chase? Leah?" No response, so I continued making my way door-to-door, being careful not to be too loud. When I got to the last door, the room closest to where Trece and Chico lay, I finally got a response.
"Ally?" Kate's voice came a little too loudly.
"Shhh, quiet Kate. Yeah it's me, Ally. Quiet though. Maybe I can get you out."
Kate started whimpering in celebration, almost crying. "Fuck Kate, shut up. Don't say a word!" I scolded as silently as I could. "If I'm caught we're are fucking dead!"
I started looking for how to open the door. But from the bottom of the stairs a voice called out, "Hey Chico?"
'Fuck!' I thought to myself. The goons below were probably wondering where Chico was. It wouldn't be long before they would be coming up to investigate. My heart started to race. The hallway was dark, and other than a simple handle to pull open the door, there was no indication that there was a lock. I pulled frantically at the door, but to no use.
"Hey Chico! What the fuck you doing up there? You and Trece having a th
ree-way or something?" Voices from the bottom of the stairs started chuckling.
'Shit! Shit! Shit! What the fuck, how does this door open?!' I thought to myself, practically freaking out. It wouldn't be long now before the others would come searching for Chico. And sure enough, it was just a second later that we heard the cacophony of about three or four pairs of footsteps pounding up the stairs--I was sure to be caught.
But at the last moment my fingers found a deadbolt near the top of the door. Standing on my tiptoes I struggled to wiggle the bolt open, but finally it came. Pulling the heavy metal door open I slipped inside just as Trece's thugs reached the landing. Thankfully the corridor was painted dark and poorly lit, because surely they would have seen tiny fingers clasped around the edge of the door, pulling it closed.
"Kate, help me," I demanded. "The door is too heavy, help me pull it shut!"
Kate responded, "Leah, help us close the door." I had no idea Leah was in the cell, too, but thankfully she was because we ripped the ends of our fingernails off pulling the heavy door closed as tightly as we could.
The footsteps were only fifteen feet away by the time the door was closed. We held our collective breath as they passed, hoping they wouldn't notice that the door was slightly ajar. Luckily they didn't suspect a thing and continued to the final door at the end of the hallway.
"BAM! BAM!" went the heavy sound of steel-on-steel, probably a gun, against the door. "Trece? Chico? You guys in there? What's going on?" a gruff voice yelled out. There was no response. The big steel door creaked all the way open, and the sound of their footsteps diminished as they proceeded to go inside the other room.
"What the fuck? Where are you guys? Trece? Chico?"
"Shit, bro, look at the blood," another voice said. There was commotion as the others became alarmed. The din of voices and footsteps and heavy objects moving filled the air as the men looked for Trece and Chico.
It was only a couple of minutes before we heard, "Holy Fuck!" and a thunder of shouting voices echoed throughout the cavernous building. Clearly they had found them, it was just a matter of time before they came looking for me. I whispered to Kate and Leah that I had a gun and to get behind me, while I stood in front of the door with the gun pointed at it, waiting for them to enter.
Presently the men came running by our cell and clamored down the stairs. We sat dead still, waiting silently in the pitch black cell, hoping there wasn't a lone individual creeping around outside our cell. After several minutes had passed Leah whispered, "Are they gone? What are we going to do?"
After I questioned Kate and Leah about what happened to them, I explained briefly how I came to be here and what I thought ought to be done next. I learned from Leah that Chase had been able to escape the ambush, barely, and it seemed to her that the Muertos targeted the girls for no other reason than leverage against the Members. As Kate and Leah listened to my story, we continued to keep a sharp ear out for any other voices or sound of activity. We weren't sure what to do next, but we knew we had to something at some point.
About half-an-hour later, and without warning, the sound of a distant gunshot rang out. Then the pace of voices shouting and motorcycles roaring began to build, and finally the whole area erupted in the clamor of heavy gunfire. We figured it was now or never, so we slowly and quietly pushed the heavy door open. I peaked both ways before letting Kate and Leah out, and then we snuck down the hallway to the top of the stairs with me in the lead. We stopped briefly for a moment to listen for voices before we went down, but upon hearing none we descended the stairs.
The sounds of war seemed to resonate from all around. When we got to the bottom of the stairs I again peaked around the corner. What I found was a huge warehouse, or maybe an airplane hangar, I couldn't tell. But from the looks of it, it was devoid of people, which was all I cared about. We stood in a sort of break room, with a water-cooler, fridge, a messy counter top with food, and a small table. On the table were six handguns, looking as if they were in the process of getting cleaned.
I looked at couple that weren't taken apart, and finding them loaded said, "Here, you guys take these."
"What am I going to do with this," Kate groaned, starting to lose her nerve.
She was like me, and had probably never touched a gun in her life. "I'm sure you'll figure it out if the situation demands it," I said flatly. I was exhausted and stressed, too, and wasn't in the mood to be motherly. Fortunately Leah checked and handled the gun as if she knew what to do with it. That gave me hope.
On the far side of the building, probably one city block away, was a huge, sliding door, partially open. It seemed to be our only means of escape, so I said, "Okay, let's slowly and quietly make our way over there. Keep your heads up, though, and make sure people aren't coming up from behind. I don't know who might be hiding where." Both Kate and Leah nodded in agreement, and after we took one last look around us, we started to make our way through the litter of crates, boxes, shipping containers to the large door.
By this time the gunshots were positively riotous, to the point where we would have had to speak in normal voices to hear each other. We carefully and slowly made our way to the door. At one point I passed a box full of cocaine; at another, a box full of fully-automatic machine guns. I had no idea what these guys were in to, but they were probably in the business of supplying whole governments with the goods they had on hand.
Coming to threshold of the door, I could tell the melee was concentrated on the other side of the building. Feeling a little too comfortable, I walked out and around a large, junked swamp cooler without looking. As I passed it I heard the click of a gun hammer and felt its butt at the back of my head.
"Drop it, bitch," I rough voice commanded. I released my gun, terrified. "Turn around."
I slowly turned around to face yet another ugly brute. Not a moment later an incredibly loud, incredibly close shot rang out, splattering me with blood. The goon dropped to the ground instantly, before I even had time to realize what had happened.
"You okay," Leah asked as she came around the corner of the trashed swamp cooler with Kate not far behind.
"Not really," I said, wanting to cry. Then suddenly another shot blasted, towards us; we were being fired on! We instinctively crouched down.
"Run!" I said. We all took off across a dirt parking lot to where a bunch of cars were parked. Shots came flying all around us, hitting the dirt and ricocheting off various pieces of junk and scraps of metal that littered the area. We made it behind a row of two dozen cars, just in time to see several motorcycles come racing into view.
"Jacob!" I screamed, standing up momentarily and waving my arms as I discerned instantly the form of his body and custom, royal blue Harley coming into view. Jacob and some other members of his crew that I recognized were shooting back at our aggressors, trying to force them away from us.
More of Jacob's men came shortly behind, and soon the Muertos were overpowered and beaten back. Jacob and another guy I didn't recognize came rushing over to us.
"Chase!" Leah screamed when she saw Chase approaching us with Jacob. She practically jumped for joy when she saw him alive and well.
"Get on!" Jacob shouted to us. Kate and I hopped on with Jacob, and Leah with Chase. We turned around and took off wildly down a dirt road that led away from the building. Speeding recklessly away from the mayhem, after about five miles we dipped down to the edge of a river. Turning sharply at the bank, we drove down several yards and into a cover of trees, where we came upon Vicki and Mia standing anxiously next to a hot rod.
"Get 'em back to the clubhouse," Jacob hollered to the two women. Kate, Leah and myself dismounted, and Jacob and Chase both spun around and raced back to the fight.
"Shit, we thought you were dead for sure," Vicki said with a grin, while Leah and Mia cried, embracing each other.
Chapter 12
"Goddamn, you deserved to die, you stupid bitch," Vicki scolded me after she heard my story of how I sneaked my GPS-enabled phone into Jacob
's pocket.
"And she probably still will," Jacob chimed in. "She just killed number-one and -two of one of the biggest drug and sex trafficking cartels in the America's; she's got a bounty on her head now, for sure. Probably forever." We were all sitting around a table at the clubhouse, drinking.
The Members of Mercy lost only a couple of guys in their latest scuffle, but the Muertos took a massive hit to their organization. It would take some time for them to reorganize, but reorganize they would. The Muertos had tentacles reaching all over the world, and too many big clients depended on their goods and services.
The weeks passed from that fateful day. For my part, I learned I was a Member for life, as was Kate and Leah, whether we wanted to be or not. We got in too deep, and once you're in, you can never get out of a world like this. But I planned to lay low from here on out, and had no more plans to be saving anyone's day.
Besides, I learned to love Jacob. Yes, he could be sexist and domineering, but he was very sensitive, protective and loved me; he even told me so. And for better or for worse, I was his because I was carrying his baby. Although part of me feared for our baby's life, I knew deep down he would be truly loved and have a caring family; unlike me. The Members of Mercy were a dangerous crowd and up to no good, that was for certain; but they took care of their own and maintained an internal code of ethics that sustained honor, family, and devotion.
