Twisted Steel: An MC Anthology: Second Edition

by Elizabeth Knox

  I hear the thumping again from in front of me and the acolytes behind calling for me. I have no way to get past any of them. Fuck it. I run toward the thumps and spectacularly a door in the ceiling opens up and the most beautiful people I have ever seen in my life are looking down at me.

  The boys of Djinn have found me.

  19

  Wyatt

  “Oh shit!” Brendan rushes down the stairs and pulls Dela out of the way. A rush of guards is on him before we can get down to help him. It only takes us a second though to even up the odds. I pull Dela away from the fight and focus on helping my brothers beat the shit out of anyone who dared come near us. The smallness of the hallway played to our favor, we are able to knock them down before the one behind had a chance to strike out at us. When we are finished there are a dozen unconscious and heavily bleeding cultists on the narrow floor.

  “Winnie, tie them up. I don’t want anyone getting up,” I order him, and he makes quick work of cuffing them with the industrial grade zip ties

  “I can’t believe it. You came.” Dela stares at me as tears start to pool in her eyes.

  “You thought I was lying when I told you that you were mine now? If I have to run through a million cultists to find you, I’ll do it with a smile on my face.” I grab the back of her head and kiss her hard. “Go upstairs, get to safety. We will deal with these bastards.”

  “No, I have to stay with you.”

  I growl and turn back to her, this isn’t the time to have a fight. “Dela, just do what I say.”

  “Wyatt, I know you. I know you’re not going to just sit back and let these women stay down here. They aren’t going to come out to you. They don’t trust new people. They barely trust me. I need to help you. Plus, it’s a maze down here I don’t even know where everything is.”

  “She’s right,” Spark says from where he is standing, looking down the hall, making sure that there are no other guards coming down the way. “We need to clear these rooms and get all these people out. Besides, she’ll be safer with us than out there alone.”

  I can see the logic in what he is saying but I just feel so fucking uneasy with her in harm’s way. I guess it would be better for me to keep an eye on her than for her to be up there on her own. “Fine. You stay with us but if shit goes bad, I don’t want you worrying about us or any of the other people in the cells. You turn your ass around and get the hell out.” I wait for her to argue with me. I wish she would.

  “You got it. We are on the same page.” She nods and grabs the back of my kutte as she moves into line behind me. The feel of her hands on me excites me and forces my protective instincts to the front. I’d do anything for this woman.

  “Which way?” Cody asks from behind the two of us.

  “Straight and then to the right. There are cells there but they are only the newer recruits, they haven’t been out for a while and a lot of them might be knocked out. They keep us drugged for a large portion of the month until you prove that you are fully committed to the path of Gaia.”

  “Fuck that isn’t going to work.” I turn to Winnie. He is good in a hand fight but I don’t want him down here for this. He’s still just a young kid. If we are all about to die down here than at least he can have a chance if he gets the captives out.

  “Winnie, you are going to get the women out. Do it quickly and if they run while they are outside don’t worry about it . . .”

  He cuts me off, “No way, I got your back. I can fight.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder. “I know you can, brother, but we need this done. For the patch, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” He nods his head and we make our way to the cells.

  The doors are all bolted shut but it’s a simple hinge lock.

  “Intruders! They are letting the carriers out!” Another wave of cultists come toward us and we make quick work of them, they may have more numbers than us but we are far better trained, especially, Brendan. He is in his zone. When this wave is dealt with, we make sure to tie them up and keep them away from each other the best we can. This underground bunker is massive. I don’t know how long it took to build but I can tell that it was expertly planned out. There are four cells that we needed to open, three of the women are unconscious, and one seems as if she just got there. She ran to us the second the doors were open begging to be freed.

  “I thought you said there were twelve of these carriers?” Cody turns to ask Dela.

  “I left the rest of them in the penance room. They were going to cleanse me of my sins when I broke free. They are all still there making sure Emerson is okay. I stabbed him with a screw.”

  I tugged her hair and kissed her forehead swiftly. “That’s my girl.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m badass,” she joked before she started pushing us toward the next hallway.

  Cody is at my right checking the corridors, Spark is on my left, Brendan is behind all of us. Everywhere I turn my brothers have my back. The FBI has never done this for me.

  “It’s in there. It’s much bigger and there are a lot of acolytes in there.” Dela holds onto my back, her grip tightening at the thought of me going in that room.

  “Okay, you’ve done your piece. Now go up and out, help Winnie with the women.”

  “No!”

  “Dela, I’m not going to be able to focus if I know that you are down here with us. Get your ass the fuck out of here,” I growl at her.

  “You better come back to me.” She kisses me swiftly and stares into my eyes for a second.

  “If it’s the last thing I do.” I push her away and watch her run down the same corridor that we all had just come down.

  “You ready to do this, big bro?” Cody asks. His gun is drawn, now that we were about to get into a large arena it would be easier for us to get off a few shots and not worry about it ricocheting and hitting one of us.

  “Fuck yes,” I reply. “Djinn,” I say the start of our callback.

  “For my patch, for my brothers,” they all reply.

  I push the doors open in front of us and in complete FBI form, we start screaming for everyone to get the fuck on the floor. I wasn’t expecting a full church of cultists but that is exactly what I see and at the very front of all of them is their fearless leader and the man who I have to kill. Emerson.

  20

  “They are here to destroy our faith! Don’t let them win! My soldiers, get rid of them!” Emerson screams out. He is holding his hand to his side as blood drips from between his fingers. Dela must have really done a number on him.

  A full rush of men and some women came straight for us.

  “You fucking coward!” I yell over the ruckus. I grab a woman that is trying to hit me and fling her to the ground.

  “Wyatt, too many civilians.” Brendan fights off those in front of him with the butt of his gun but I know he means that there is no way that we can start shooting. Too many women running around.

  “Fuck that shit!” Cody pulls his weapon and shoots a man as he rushes him with a bat. One bullet to the gut and he is down for the count. Cody wastes no time shooting a few other men and once the bullets start flying the women realize that this is more than just a fight for their religion, it’s a fight for their lives. Quickly they scramble away from the fight and toward the walls. There are a few older women who seem to be shielding the rest of the women. They must be the mothers that Dela told us about. They will do anything to keep those girls safe according to Dela.

  “Get them out of here!” I scream at them. We are getting through the guards but they are still in danger. Spark shoots one in the leg, when he tries to walk by him the bastard dares to swing a knife at him. Spark shoots him in the chest one more time making sure that he doesn’t try to come for him again.

  We move quickly and make good ground toward Emerson and just like a fucking phony he figures out a way to save himself. “Forgive me!” he screams and pushes the big tub of whatever was in front of him down. He pushes one of the candles off the pedestal and the entire ar
ea is quickly engulfed in flames. Hot angry flames.

  “Motherfucker!” Brendan backs away. There is no way for us to get to him without going through the flames and the way they are going up we would never make it.

  Even the smoke was already becoming oppressive.

  “You have to move! Now!” Spark moves over to where the women were standing by the wall. None of them moved they were all just huddled together.

  “You can’t strip us of our faith!” One of the older women screamed back at Spark and held the women against the wall as if that would keep them away from the growing flames.

  “Fuck your faith! Your fearless leader ran away, he left you all here to die! This entire structure is wood and it’s going to go up like a fucking tinder box. Are you prepared to die for someone who isn’t prepared to die for you? Live on and keep your faith outside,” Spark yelled in the woman’s face, putting an arm up to his face to shield his sensitive skin from the growing heat.

  “Mother, please!” one of the women in the back cries out.

  “Okay, okay, let’s go!”

  Finally they all rush by us and out of the underground grave.

  “Where is Emerson?” I scream out and try to look through the fire.”

  “Fuck him! We have to go!” Spark and Cody pull me but the job isn’t done. We can’t leave him alive. He’ll just come back for us. He’ll come back for Dela. I can’t have her living in that kind of fear.

  “No! Where is he?” I struggle against them and cough as the smoke becomes almost too much to bear.

  “Wyatt! Look up!” Spark shakes me and points up to the ceiling. The flames are rolling like waves on an ocean. It’s beautiful but such a dangerous sign. “We are about to be burned to death. There is no way out from that way, he killed himself. We don’t need to do the same to find his body. We need to go!” Spark roared in my face.

  “Yeah, that’s enough of this.” Brendan wrapped his arm around my neck and forcefully pulled me backward. The strain on my lungs to get oxygen in is too much for me to fight him. After he pulls me out of the room the doors crash down and dirt and tree roots come down with it. It did nothing to stop the roaring flames. For something that seems so fragile, I would never think fire would be so fucking loud.

  Brendan lets me go and we all haul ass toward the exit.

  “Wyatt!” I hear Winnie screaming for us.

  “I need to go get them! Maybe they’re lost! Let me go!” Dela is screaming, she is going to come back in here if we don’t make it out. That only pushes me to move faster. I can’t let her do that.

  “Stay there!” I order and hope that they can hear me over the fire.

  “There it is, the exit is right there.” Cody coughs wildly and points to the light coming from down the hallway from the ceiling.

  My lungs feel as if someone is pouring acid down my throat. The pain is so fucking intense.

  “Keep as low as fucking possible! We’re almost out!” Spark moves quickly. I don’t know how the fuck he does this shit all the time. I have a new found respect for him and his work.

  “Cody!” Winnie calls out again.

  Within a second we hear more wood cracking above us. “Move!” I bellow. I reach back to Brendan, he is falling behind. The wound to his leg started to bleed at some point while we were down here. I throw one of my arms under his and pull him. There is no way I’m going to leave him behind not when we are so close. Cody is the first one to disappear up out of the underground compound then Spark. I push Brendan up the stairs and follow behind him.

  A great rumble vibrates beneath us as we fall down to the ground and suck in deep lungfuls of fresh air.

  “We have to move, I don’t know what’s happening but it’s not safe.” Winnie grabs my arms and starts to pull me even further away from the opening. When I pick my head up, I can see various sinkholes all around the area, massive trees falling down as the earth underneath them crumbles. Dark smoke pushes its way through the dirt and even the ground itself is starting to heat up. I don’t know how long this will burn but I know this flame is nowhere near extinguished.

  “He’s right, we’re still in the hot zone. We have to move away.” Spark crawls on his hands and knees before he forces himself up to his feet. Cody helps Brendan and they start to make their way toward a safer area of the hill.

  The women that Winnie got out along with the ones that we forced out of the backroom all grabbed on to who they could and began dragging them. Not only did Winnie get the girls out but at least some of the men that we had handcuffed he pulled out. He was a better man than I. I would have left all those fuckers there to die.

  The second that we were far enough away, Dela rushes over to me.

  “Oh fuck. I was so scared.” She hugs me tightly.

  “Why, darling? Did you think you were getting rid of me that easily?” I joke with her before another round of coughs seize my body.

  “I guess not.” She rubs my back trying to soothe me.

  I turn my head at the sound of sirens blaring down below. How the fuck did anyone know that we were here.

  “I called it in before we went down. Just in case.” Brendan, Mr. It’s all a fucking conspiracy himself reached out to big brother. I’m fucking surprised.

  “We need to get our story straight, do you think the women will tell the truth or will they try and throw us under the bus?” I speak out loud, hoping someone has the answers. Right now, there is a whole underground structure going up in flames and a lot of dead bodies with our bullets lodged in them. Shit can go really fucking bad for us.

  “I will,” one of the older ladies speaks up. “I can’t believe we were all so blinded. I’ll make sure to let them know exactly what was going on down there.

  “I will too.”

  “Me too.”

  “Same.”

  Most of the women were willing to go to bat for us. I could only hope that it would be enough for us to live a free life.

  21

  The ride back home was eerie. The local PD, FBI, and fire department were all on the scene and based on what the women had rushed to tell them, they let us go home with promises to follow up. No one talked on the way home. Just rode like it was a normal day.

  When we parked our bikes in front of the clubhouse instead of everyone going their separate ways we all went inside.

  The eeriness followed us into the clubhouse.

  I looked around at all my brothers and their soot covered faces and clothes. The fear and shock still on their faces. They shouldn’t have to go through whatever they’re thinking on their own. Not when we are all here and we made it through.

  “So we almost died today and destroyed a cult. Eventful?” I speak loudly.

  The tension in the air fizzles away and everyone seems to breathe out a sigh of relief.

  “Did that shit really just fucking happen?” Cody says completely mystified.

  “Bro! It did! How the hell did they manage to get a fucking mini mansion under the ground and no one know about it?” Spark asks.

  “I’m sure someone knew about it, the problem is all the right people were on the take. Fucking bastards and the red tape,” Brendan says.

  Now that the flood gates were open for people to talk about what happened, everyone began to speak at once. Everyone except Dela who was sitting as close to me as she could without sitting on my lap.

  I pull her close to me and shake her shoulders slightly to break her out of her daydream.

  She looks at me and doesn’t smile instead she breaks down in tears.

  “Oh no, babygirl.” Spark notices instantly and starts to make his way over to where she is but I put my hand up to stop him.

  “Come on, come with me.” I help her off the seat and go over to one of the backrooms where we can be alone. I pull her into my arms and just let her cry it out.

  When she finally seems to calm down a bit, I pull her away from my chest.

  “What’s going on? What’s going through your head?” />
  “I can’t believe it’s over. I can’t believe all of this is finally behind me. Now that I’m really free. I have no idea what I’m going to do with my life.” She looks down and rubs her hands over her arms.

  I’ve been dreading this moment but I knew that it would come. Now that she no longer needed our protection she didn’t need to stay here. “Well, I know a few people out of state that could be useful in helping you get back on your feet or you can just do some traveling really get to know the world again.” I do my best to keep my voice even. I don’t want her to feel guilty for wanting to go and live her life.

  “Out of state?” Her eyes flick to mine, a flash of confusion crosses her sea green eyes before disappointment settles in its place.

  “Yeah. Unfortunately, Maine isn’t ripe with employment opportunities right now.”

  She sighs and moves away from me. “That is what you want, right?” I take my chance.

  “No, Wyatt. That isn’t what I want at all,” she replies forcefully.

  I pull her closer to me. “What do you want?”

  “I want you. I want to stay with you but I just want to be independent while I do it. Maybe there is something around here that I can pick up part-time. I won’t be a burden, I promise but I don’t want you to send me away. Not now, not when I only just found you. You were what I was looking for when I found Emerson, it would be absolutely ridiculous for me to walk away now without seeing if this is what I think it is.”

  A small smile curls up one side of my mouth as I digest what she just told me. She wants me just as much as I want her. “I guess that means you actually like me then?”

  She rolls her eyes and pushes me slightly. ‘You’re so full of yourself.” She tries to move away, but I hold her close.

  I don’t know how us finding out about a cult and trying to make sure that our town and the women around here were safe translated into me finding a woman that completely satisfied every part of who I am but I’m so fucking glad it did.