Unexpected Chance

by Annalisa Nicole

  “FUCK!” I roar. “Everyone move out!” I shout. Everyone piles in vehicles and I lead the way in Jax’s H3 to the warehouse.

  Chapter 8

  Savvy

  My head is pounding, and the smell of stale, musty air fills my nose. It’s quiet except for the echoing noise of dripping water. It’s dark and I’m just so cold. God, my head hurts. I try to lift my hand to touch my throbbing temple, but my arm doesn’t move. I stretch out my neck from side to side, and then look around the room as my eyes adjust to the darkness. Immediate terror and crippling fear rip through me. I start to panic. I don’t remember how I got here, or know where I am. I pull my arms again, but they’re tied behind my back. The more I struggle, the more the hard ties dig into my wrists. A sharp pain in my left wrist slices up my arm as I struggle in the chair I’m sitting in. I start to scream from pain and fear.

  “Shh, they’ll hear you,” a familiar voice says.

  Oh, my God, someone else is in the room. Who was that?

  “Savvy, try and calm down,” the familiar voice says again.

  The voice processes in my mind. That’s sounds like Gary’s voice. “Gary?” I whisper.

  “Yeah, it’s me. I was starting to get really worried about you. I’ve been trying to get you to wake up for a while now,” he says.

  “Where are we? What happened?” I ask scared.

  “I don’t know where we are. Two men grabbed me from the alley behind the bar while I was taking out the trash. They brought me here, tied me up, and about an hour later they brought you in here unconscious. Are you alright?” he asks.

  “I don’t know. I can’t . . . I just want . . . I just don’t know,” I answer confused.

  “Take a minute, slow your breathing down, try and calm down. Does anything hurt?” he asks from behind me.

  I can’t see him; he must be tied in a chair behind me. I wish I could see him. “My head and my left wrist,” I answer. “What about you? Are you alright?” I ask.

  “Don’t worry about me. Listen, I know your wrist hurts, but they’ve got us tied with zip ties to the back of the chair. Can you reach mine?” he asks. I frantically feel behind me and finally feel his fingers. A little sense of comfort rushes through me and I squeeze his fingers. He squeezes back and says, “You’re alright. Can you reach farther up my hand?”

  I try, but I just can’t. Every time I try to move my left wrist, the pain is too much to bear. And with my right hand, I can only touch his fingers. The sound of a heavy metal door being opened, fills the room.

  “Put your head back on my shoulder and pretend to still be unconscious,” Gary quickly whispers.

  I do as he says. I put my head back and close my eyes. My heart feels like it’s pounding outside of my chest. A man walks by me, runs something hard down my face, presses it firmly into my cheek, then walks behind me.

  “We spent six months in prison because of you, this little sweet whore, and your PI friend,” he says, then I hear and feel Gary’s head being hit. The force of the blow sends both of our chairs skidding to the left. I squeeze my eyes closed and say a silent little prayer.

  “Please just let Savvy go, she has nothing to do with this. I’ll get you whatever you want. Just don’t hurt her,” Gary pleads.

  “Oh, you’re going to get us what we want, and we’re going to have fun with your little bar fly. You’re going to go with Len to the bank and withdraw a million dollars,” the man says. Another voice who must be Len, lets out a disturbing chuckle in the direction of the door.

  “But I don’t have that kind of cash,” Gary pleads.

  The man hits him again. I flinch as something warm sprays the side of my face, then runs down my neck. Gary has taken two really hard hits, and the last one must have sprayed blood my way. This dude must be delirious. You can’t just walk into a bank and withdraw a million dollars. Even I know that. Think, Savvy, think. My hands are tied, but what about my feet? I make the slightest move and try to move my feet. They’re not tied to the chair. Alright, just keep calm. I can use this to my advantage at some point. There are only two of them. These are the men who tried to swindle Gary, then burned down the bar. They ran to Texas, but Max hunted them down and put them in jail. How did they get out? Why did they come back to Washington?

  “Wake up, bitch,” the man says, slapping me in the face.

  As hard as it was, I pretend to still be out. I go with the force of the hit and hang my head in front of my chest. Tears seep out of my eyes and I pray he won’t notice them. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, to not scream or flinch from the slap. It took every ounce of control I had.

  “Leave her alone. I’ll get you the money. Just untie me, I’ll get you your cash,” Gary says.

  Chloe

  We get to the warehouse and enter through a side door. Ava’s heels click on the cement floor and echo in the warehouse as she walks.

  “Take off your shoes, for God’s sake, Ava! They’ll hear us coming from a mile away,” I turn around and whisper.

  “But these are Louis Vuitton degrade effect Gossip Pump heels,” she whines.

  “Ava!” I whisper, shout.

  “You’re lucky these are last fall’s shoes,” she continues. She takes off her shoes and leaves them behind.

  I can hear voices talking, so we quietly follow them down the hall. As we walk, the voices get louder and louder. We come to a door that’s slightly cracked open. I look through the crack and see Savvy sitting in a chair in the center of the room, her head is hanging forward, her arms are behind her back and she’s appears to be unconscious. A man holding a gun by the chair is talking to another man sitting in a chair behind Savvy. There is another man standing just inside the door with a gun. I turn around and motion for the girls to fall back. We walk back down the hall and around the corner; my heart is pounding away in my chest.

  “Alright, there are only two men with guns,” I start to say.

  “Only!” Shay whisper yells.

  “Savvy is in there tied to a chair, and I think she’s unconscious. They have someone else in there, too. I’m not sure who it is though. One of the guy’s with a gun is talking to the man in the chair. The other guy with a gun is standing just inside the door. Here’s the plan. We need to find something to hit the one guy standing by the door, we’ll call him door guy. It needs to be a good hit, we only get one shot, it has to knock him unconscious,” I say.

  “Will this do?” Ava asks, showing us a thick, round, metal pipe about two feet long.

  “Where did you get that from?” Amelia whispers, with big eyes.

  “I grabbed it when Chloe made me take took off my shoes,” she says shrugging.

  “Nice,” Shay drawls out.

  “So, who wants to whack him?” Ava asks.

  “You’re holding the pipe, you do it,” I tell her.

  “Me! Uh, sure, alright, no problem, I can do this. I only get one hit?” she stutters.

  “One hit, make it count,” I state.

  “Once door man is knocked out, the rest of us need to barge in there. I’ll have my gun raised and ready to shoot the guy by the chair. We’ll call him, chair guy,” I tell them.

  “Didn’t you say the chair guy has a gun, too? What’s going to stop him from shooting Savvy, or one of us?” Shay asks, grabbing her chest.

  “I don’t have that part exactly figured out just yet. Are we doing this or not?” I ask.

  “I’d be more comfortable if we had a complete plan. I’ve already been shot once, I’d really rather not do it again,” Ava says, putting her hands on her stomach.

  “Me too! Oh, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. I’ll show you my gunshot wound to the chest if you show me your gunshot wound to your stomach,” Amelia says to Ava as she lifts her shirt.

  “Are you two for real right now? We don’t have time for show and tell. Let’s just hope chair guy values his head and gives up peacefully,” I tell them.

  “Whatever happens, I want you girls
to know that I love you,” Amelia says. We all huddle together and have a group hug.

  “Let’s do this,” I tell them.

  Ava gets in front and raises the pipe like a baseball bat. I walk in front of Ava, put my hands on the door and count with my fingers, one . . . two . . . three, then push open the door. She closes her eyes and swings the pipe. It lands on the front left side of his skull with a loud crack. He falls to the ground, then chair guy turns his gun in our direction. We step over door guy, Amelia raises her pipe, and we all walk closer to chair guy. I stand in front of the girls and point my gun at his head.

  “Put the gun down and step away. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll do as I say. I can hit my target with ninety-five percent accuracy. The other five that I don’t, I’m usually about three feet south, if you catch my drift,” I say, lowering my gun to his nuts.

  He gets my point and I raise it back up to his head. Out of my peripheral vision, I see Savvy raise her head and her eyes come to me. Oh, thank God, she’s alive!

  The man thinks about what I said, he points his gun at Savvy, then looks back at me. His gun comes to me and I put pressure on the trigger. I straighten my arm and zero in right between his eyes. His face changes to an, I’m screwed look, my heart rate comes down a notch, and I know I have him. His hands slowly go up in the air, my God, he’s surrendering. We did it!

  “Drop it motherfucker,” Max’s voice booms in the room, scaring the shit out of me.

  Then I see several red, laser scope dots dance all over chair guy’s body. Some are at his head and some are at his heart. I breathe a sigh of relief. Max’s hand comes to my shoulder, then runs down the top of my arm lowering my weapon. Once my gun is all the way lowered he pulls me behind his body and aims his gun at the man’s head.

  The man takes his finger off the trigger. “Slowly put the gun on the ground, stand back up, turn around, take three steps forward and lace your fingers behind your head. Just give me the excuse to make shooting you legal,” Max says.

  The man does as he says. Savvy kicks the gun with her foot over toward us.

  “Savvy,” Aiden’s relieved voice whispers behind me, sending chills down my back.

  He rushes past me, and then falls to his knees at her side. He takes her face in his hands, and then his lips come to hers.

  “Aiden,” she cries. Tears are streaming down her face.

  I still remember that rush of relief when Max rescued me. It’s a damn good feeling.

  A man I’ve never seen before walks toward chair guy, he takes one wrist from the top of his head and slaps a cuff on. He takes his other wrist down and twists if forcefully behind his back, cuffing his other wrist. He slams him up against the wall, then pushes him out of the room. Another man I’ve never seen before, either, steps forward, picks the gun up off the floor that Savvy kicked, and puts it in the waistband of his jeans.

  Another man already has door guy, who’s still unconscious, lying on the ground turned over in hand cuffs.

  Max lowers his weapon, turns around and looks me in the eye. His eyes are filled with anger, relief, worry, and love. Three out of the four are good, right? So, let’s just hope he’s not too angry with me. He holsters his weapon and I smile at him. You know the kind of smile a kid would smile when they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

  “Hi,” I say. I take my weapon, put it behind my back and slip it into the holster.

  Max wraps his hand behind my head and pulls me into his shoulder, squeezing the life out of me. “God, Chloe, don’t you ever do anything fucking stupid like that ever again. That shit aged me ten fucking years. Are you alright?” he asks, pulling away. He gives me a good once over, then pulls me back into his body.

  “One hundred percent,” I tell him, muffled in his chest.

  “You’re not hurt?” he asks.

  “Max, I’m fine,” I assure him.

  “Give me your gun, now! You’ll be lucky if I ever take you shooting again,” he says, squeezing me hard again.

  “No way,” I reply quickly.

  “Did you at least put the safety back on before you shoved it down your back?” he asks.

  “Of course I put the safety on,” I tell him. “I learned from the best,” I continue with a smile and a nod.

  “I have to deal with Len and Ray right now, and I need to go check on Savvy and Gary and call this in to the police. You and I are going to have a serious conversation about what you girls did here when we get home. No more badass get-togethers, you hear me?” he says, kissing me on the lips. Then he gives me his famous stare that would make The Incredible Hulk cringe.

  Silly man. Doesn’t he know that I’m immune to that stare?

  I swallow hard. I knew Max wouldn’t like what we did, but I had to do it. I’m still in therapy, dealing with my own demons, but in a way being a part of rescuing someone else makes me feel good about myself. I know when I talk to Max and explain that, he’ll understand. I turn around so Max can’t see me, reach behind my back, take out my Glock, and double check the safety. Yep, it’s on. Or did I never take it off to begin with? Shit.

  Savvy

  There was a commotion over by the front door, then all hell broke loose. Everything happened so fast after that. First, the girls came in and knocked the one guy out. Then, Chloe and the man with the gun by my chair each had their guns pointing at each other. Then Max and a bunch of men came in. My eyes found Aiden’s, and for the first time since I was at my condo getting my things, I knew everything was going to be alright.

  When the gunman put down his weapon, I felt like I did my part by kicking it away. It made me feel empowered in a strange way.

  “Savvy,” Aiden whispered.

  “Aiden!” I yell relieved.

  He rushes over to me and falls to his knees at my side. He takes my face in his hands, then looks over every inch of my face, and then his lips softly come to mine. “Are you alright?” he asks, taking a pocket knife out of his front pocket.

  “Be careful. I think her left wrist is broken,” Gary says behind me.

  Aiden cuts both of our wrists free. He scoops me out of the chair and holds me tight to his body. I cradle my throbbing wrist against my chest, while holding Aiden as close as I can get him with my other hand.

  “Aiden, I’m alright,” I assure him. I can feel his anxiety and relief coursing through his trembling arms as he holds me. I hear sirens off in the distance coming closer and closer.

  “Is Gary alright?” I ask Aiden, trying to look at him.

  Aiden turns us around so I can see him. Max is kneeling in front of him, looking him over. “He’ll be fine. An ambulance will be here soon. We’ll get you both checked out at the hospital,” he says, then kisses me on the forehead.

  I look toward the door and see all the men holding their wives. Everyone risked their lives to rescue me. There is no question anymore about me feeling a part of this family. They’ve all made me a part of this family. I have been all along. It was me standing in my own way.

  “Are you alright?” Adrian asks Shay, holding her close.

  “No, I’m in pain,” she replies to him.

  What? I don’t think anyone touched her. How come she’s in pain?

  “My boobs are leaking and I need to breastfeed Sammy,” she continues to tell him.

  Adrian breathes a sigh of relief, takes his wife’s hand and they leave the room.

  Chloe and Jax come over to me and Aiden. Chloe takes my pulse just as paramedics get to the door. Men wheeling a stretcher rush over to Gary and he is immediately attended to. Another one comes over to me. Aiden lays me down, but never lets go of my right hand. Before they finish assessing me, Gary is rushed out of the room. They splint my wrist, put oxygen over my nose and mouth, then wheel me out of the dark, musty, cold room.

  Aiden holds my hand the entire way to the hospital. I wish I could erase the worry in his eyes. Strangely, I feel great. It’s going to take a whole lot more than two dipshits to steal my thunder. And
for the first time, I wish I could see Reno’s face, too. I’d give him a piece of my mind.

  Dr. Matthews meets us at the entrance, and I’m immediately wheeled back into a room. He orders tests and x-rays, and for the first time since Aiden picked me up out of my chair, he has to let go of my hand.

  “Can I go with her?” he asks Dr. Matthews.

  “You can walk with her up to x-ray, but you won’t be able to go into the room with her,” he tells him, putting his hand on his shoulder.

  “Thanks, man,” he says.

  Aiden and I haven’t said a word to each other since we left the warehouse. He doesn’t have to. His eyes say everything for him. He holds my hand as I’m wheeled out of the room, on the elevator, and all the way to x-ray.

  “Aiden, I’m really alright,” I tell him. I bring his hand to my lips and gently kiss his fingers.

  Aiden takes in a sharp breath. I think it’s the first breath he’s taken since we left the warehouse. He brings my hand to his lips and returns the kiss, then he lets me go.

  X-rays only take a few minutes, then my free hand is back in Aiden’s hand. I’m wheeled back down to the emergency room, and within a few minutes Dr. Matthews comes back into the room.

  “Looks like you have a distal radius fracture. It’s a clean break in your left wrist. We’ll get you casted up and out of here as soon as we can. Everything else looks great. I’ll remove the stitches on your face I put in a week ago, too, since that’s healed nicely,” he says, and leaves the room.

  “See, I’m alright,” I tell Aiden.

  “I should have gone with you. I should have taken you myself. I’m so sorry,” Aiden says.

  “Oh, sweet cheeks, this wasn’t your fault at all,” I start to tell him as Max and Chloe walk in.

  “How’s Savvy?” Max asks Aiden.

  “I’m right here. I’m not deaf you know, and I’m just fine, thanks to my kickass girls,” I say looking at Chloe.

  Max looks at Chloe and gives her a look. Not just a look, but a look. Chloe shrugs at him, then smiles at me.

  “She has a broken wrist, some bumps and bruises, but the doc says she’s fine. We’re just waiting for them to come in and cast her arm, then I’m taking her home,” Aiden tells Max. There’s that home word again.