Phoenix Rising

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  She shoved one toward my face and I let go of one of Raegan’s hands to snatch the gun. “Take the gun!” I said, holding the gun out to Raegan. “Shoot out the tires.”

  “What? Are you crazy?”

  “Just do it!”

  She took the gun and tried to fire as Claire swerved on the road to avoid hitting another car. Raegan fired and bullets pinged off the body of the car.

  “The tires!” I shouted again.

  “You try shooting at a moving car when you’re hanging out of another car,” she yelled back. She fired again, this time hitting absolutely nothing. “I’m out of bullets. Just throw a grenade!”

  “No,” I insisted. “You can do this.”

  I took her gun and handed her another one. “You better not fucking drop me!”

  “Only if you don’t shoot them. Then I’ll have to drop you off for them so we can get away.”

  “You’re such a bitch!” she yelled over the roar of the car.

  She fired again, this time hitting the windshield. The car jerked and then swerved off the road, driving off into the deep ditch.

  “Ahh!” Raegan screamed. “I did it!”

  “I knew you could,” I laughed, realizing that I was now hanging about halfway out of the car. “Climb up over me!”

  Raegan stuck the gun down her bustier and then turned, gripping onto my other hand and climbing up my body.

  “I have to say,” Carl said thoughtfully. “I think this is every man’s fantasy.”

  “Don’t get comfortable yet,” Claire yelled. “There are more coming.”

  “Maybe you just stay out there,” Carl shouted. “You know, this seems to be your thing.”

  “Maybe we’ll just throw you out the door and let them run over your body,” I said. “It’ll at least slow them down.”

  “Forget I said anything. Geez, I was trying to give a compliment.”

  I was pulled the rest of the way back in and I slammed the door shut.

  “There are three more cars behind us,” Claire yelled. “What do you want to do?”

  “Look,” Isa pointed. “There’s a train. If we can catch up to the train, we could lose them on the other side!”

  Claire stepped harder on the gas and Ivy and I loaded our weapons. When Claire turned down the road, Cara already had her window open and was firing from the front seat. She looked like a pro.

  “This is so awesome! I should have had Sinner teach me a long time ago!”

  “I thought you were all full of anxiety?” Claire asked.

  “In public. Turns out, shooting at people from a moving vehicle doesn’t bother me!”

  “Because it’s healing,” Raegan added. “There’s something about shooting another person that just really makes you feel like you’re taking back control. When I look at those guys, I see all those times I was beaten by my ex, and it feels fucking fantastic.”

  “You know, I think I might feel safer if I was with your men,” Carl murmured. “You’re all fucking crazy.”

  “Claire, drive faster or we’re going to get stuck by the train!”

  “I’m trying! Stop yelling at me!”

  The car swerved as bullets pounded against the body, blowing out one of the tires. Claire screamed as she tried to keep control of the car. “Oh God! We’re going to stop on the tracks!”

  The car stopped right on the tracks and Claire couldn’t get it to move. The train was barreling down on us, its horn blaring loudly. I opened the door and saw the rim of the tire was stuck on the metal. “Backward, Claire!”

  She shoved it in reverse, but the car just rocked. “Oh, shit! We’re going to be hit by the train!”

  “Forward,” I shouted.

  She kept rocking the car back and forth, all the while, the cars behind us had stopped and were waiting for us to be smashed by the train.

  “Go, Claire! Get us off the tracks.”

  “I’m trying!”

  “Why don’t we just run?” Carl asked.

  “Why don’t you shut the fuck up?” I snapped.

  The car rocked once more before jerking forward and propelling us off the tracks, just moments before the train would have smashed into us. Claire came to a stop, turning the car in the direction of the tracks when she lost control of the car.

  “Fuck, we’re not going anywhere and as soon as the train passes, they’re going to come for us.” I almost thought Claire was scared, but there was excitement brimming in her eyes.

  “Get out and grab all the weapons. We’re going to have to take our stand here.”

  We quickly grabbed our weapons, each of us armed to the teeth. Except for Carl. He was hiding in the backseat of the car. I shoved a gun in the waistband of my pants and held the other gun in both of my hands, keeping my eyes trained on the cars that were just on the other side of the tracks.

  “Everyone ready?” Ivy shouted. The train soared past us and then all that was left was the dinging of the bells for the tracks. The men were already running back to their cars when they saw that we were stuck. As soon as the train passed, they were gunning their engines for us.

  “Shoot at the drivers,” Claire shouted.

  I nodded and started firing, aiming for the windshield. Someone’s bullets, probably Raegan’s, were flying wild all around the place.

  “This isn’t working,” Cara yelled as they got closer. She pulled her grenade launcher and loaded it, firing off the first grenade straight through the car’s windshield. The explosion threw us all backwards. Dirt and debris flew around us, swirling into what felt like a tornado. I sat up and wiped the dirt from my eyes. When the dust settled, we saw that one car had taken the brunt of the damage, being completely burned out. But the other cars had been caught up in the blast, and from the looks of it, everyone was either dead or close to being that way.

  “Shit,” Carl said, stumbling from the car. “I can’t believe…When word gets out about this, no drug dealers are ever going to mess with you again.”

  “No,” Ivy said firmly. “The guys can never know about this. Jules will kill me if I have any more run-ins with the law. I can’t be involved in this.”

  “Right,” I nodded. “So, no-one says anything to the guys. Especially you, Claire.”

  “Why especially me?”

  “Because you can’t keep your mouth shut. You break if someone looks at you funny.”

  “This sucks,” Cara grumbled. “I finally find something that I can do without having a panic attack and I can’t even tell Sinner about it.”

  “I guess we’d better start walking home,” I said as I stared at the wreckage. Flames were still burning strong and it wouldn’t be long before someone called the fire department.

  So, the six of us headed back to Reed Security, each of us women walking just a little taller while Carl cowered from us.

  “Who’s going to explain to Burg why Emma only has a bra on?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Cara

  “How are we going to get through the gates?” I asked when we were just down the road from Reed Security.

  “We should have gone back to someone’s house first,” Ivy grumbled.

  “We would if Carl wasn’t such a whiner,” Emma spat.

  Carl tried to look indignant, but it was really pathetic. “Hey, I’m tired. Walking in these shoes isn’t very comfortable.”

  “Hey, we’re all walking in hooker boots. The least you could do is not complain about your flat shoes,” Raegan snapped. “See, this is why I don’t wear heels.”

  “Because you’re worried you’re going to have to walk ten miles in them after taking out a bunch of drug dealers and blowing up cars?” I asked.

  “Exactly! I’m telling you, none of us would have had such bad luck if we hadn’t hooked up with these men. We would have been out living our own lives in peace.”

  “I don’t know how accurate that is,” Ivy said. “I was already in hiding and had been arrested by the police. You,” she said, jerking her head at m
e, “had already been kidnapped by a serial killer. Emma battled cancer, and Raegan had the shit beaten out of her by her ex.”

  “Hey, what about me?” Claire asked.

  “You would probably be living out your fantasies in the library,” I grinned. “It’s not a bad thing. I like your imagination.”

  “If Claire’s imagination is so good, then she can come up with a story for why we look like this,” Raegan said.

  “We just keep it simple. We say that our car broke down and we had to walk home.”

  “How do you explain why we look like we’ve been in an explosion?” Ivy asked.

  “Simple. There was a herd of deer in the road and we had to swerve to miss it. We hit Carl’s car and now he’s headed back to Reed Security with us.”

  “And the reason that we’re carrying weapons and they’ve all been recently fired?” Emma asked.

  “We had to scare off the deer. Carl’s scent was attracting them.”

  “Thanks,” he muttered as we walked up to the gates.

  I punched in the code and walked through the gates. I knew that one of them had been alerted by now that we were back, so it was only a matter of time before one of them came to see us. Sure enough, Cap walked around the corner and stopped in his tracks.

  “What the hell happened?”

  “Deer,” Claire said like a deer in the headlights.

  He narrowed his eyes and motioned for us to follow him, punching something into his phone as we went.

  “Shit,” I murmured to Ivy. “He’s calling everyone in. There’s no way we’re getting out of this.”

  We stopped in Cap’s temporary office and we all took our seats. It wasn’t until Sinner walked in that I finally felt the adrenaline leaving my body. Oddly enough, I felt pretty good.

  “What the fuck happened?” Sinner asked as he came up to me and started pulling twigs and brushing dirt from my hair.

  “There’s no need to get upset. We just had a little bit of an accident. We blew a tire when we skidded off the road, trying to avoid a deer. We ended up hitting Carl’s car and we all headed back on foot together.”

  “Why didn’t you call?” Derek asked.

  “All of our phones were damaged. They fell into the ditch and there was water,” Claire lied.

  “All of your phones,” Derek said slowly.

  She visibly swallowed and nodded her head. “It was one of those freak accidents.”

  “Well, I suppose we should call a tow truck and get the car back here,” Sinner suggested. “We can have someone check it over, see the damage.”

  “Claire,” Derek eyed her. “Anything you want to tell me?”

  I saw her chest heaving as she panicked. I narrowed my eyes at her, but I could tell there was no stopping her.

  “Okay, look. I’m just gonna lay it out there for you. We showed up at the house for a party and they thought we were drug dealers. So we kicked their asses, murdered a few guys, and ran for our lives. Then they shot out our tires and we got stuck on the tracks, but I was able to get us off in time. Shooting at them didn’t work, mostly because Raegan’s a really bad shot, and then Cara launched a grenade at them and blew up their cars. So, here we are, still alive and we only killed people that we had to. Carl here is going to help us get our website set up the right way so people don’t think we’re selling smack.”

  “And Carl is?” Derek asked.

  “One of the drug dealers.”

  Derek stared her down and we all waited for the reaction, but it never came. Derek took a step back with a shake of his head. “Fine, don’t tell us what happened.”

  “I’m serious,” she said in shock.

  “It’s fine, Claire. We get it. This is your thing and you don’t want us interfering and screwing it all up for you. We’ve done enough over the past year.”

  “So, you’re not going to yell at us?” I asked Sinner.

  “Why would we? It’s pretty clear that you’ve had a rough night.”

  “I just want to know one thing,” Burg said, glaring at Emma. “Why the fuck are you walking around in a bra?”

  “Because I had to take off my bustier to tie up one of the drug dealers.”

  He shook his head and walked away. “Next time wear some fucking clothes.”

  “Wait, so you really don’t believe us?” I asked Sinner quietly.

  “Baby, I know it was true. How was it launching your first grenade at someone?” he grinned.

  “Amazing.” He dragged me behind him to our bedroom and shoved the door shut.

  “Lollipop, you look fucking amazing like this. I would have loved to see you out there, shooting guns and launching grenades in this getup. Tell me all about it.”

  “Well, one of the guys tried to attack me, so I pulled out a dildo and beat him with it and then shoved it in his mouth. Then I bound him on the ground with restraints. After that, we had to make a run for it because more of them were showing up. They were firing at us and Raegan even flew out of the car when we were sideswiped. She was literally being dragged down the road while Emma held onto her.”

  “Sounds intense,” he said as he took a knife and cut the bustier from my body. The bra I had on underneath just barely covered my chest and his eyes darkened as he took in my perky nipples.

  “It was. There was so much yelling at each other, but it was so much fun. And then Raegan was having a hard time shooting at the car behind us-”

  “Because she’s a terrible shot,” he interrupted.

  “I know, right? It took her forever to get a shot off. And when we were finally back in the car, we had to figure out how to outrun them.”

  He pulled me into the bathroom, flipping on the light and hoisting me up onto the counter. His hands ran down my body until he was pushing the skirt from my body, leaving the boots where they were. “Fuck, this is sexy as hell. What happened after that?”

  “We got stuck on the tracks when they shot out our tire,” I said, breathing heavily as his fingers skimmed inside my panties. “It was-”

  I stopped when he dropped to his knees and licked my pussy in one long stroke.

  “Holy fuck.”

  “Don’t stop, Lollipop. Keep telling me about it. Were you scared?”

  “Fucking terrified.”

  “But you loved it,” he said, flicking his tongue over my clit repeatedly.

  “God yes!” I threw my head back and bucked against his face as he pulled every last drop of my orgasm from me. When he stood, his pants were already shoved down around his ankles and he was pushing inside me.

  “What’d you do, Lollipop? Did you shoot at them?”

  “Uh, with the grenade launcher.” Faster and faster he rocked into me, pushing me higher and higher again. “I shot it right through the fucking windshield.”

  He gripped my ass and pumped into me so hard that I was screeching across the counter. “Fuck, that’s sexy, Lollipop. No panic attacks?”

  “No, no time. Too many bad guys to kill.”

  He bent over and sucked my nipple into his mouth and bit down just slightly. I slid my hand down his chest and then gripped his balls in my hand. He was fucking me erratically, so I did something that he rarely let me do, just to push him over the edge. I slid my finger into his ass and pressed down on his g spot.

  “I loved every fucking second of it,” I whispered in his ear. “I only wish that you were there to fuck me on the car afterwards.”

  He groaned as he spilled himself inside me, biting down on my neck and leaving me writhing from the shutters running through my own body.

  “Fuck, Lollipop. I’m gonna have to get you a sexy tactical outfit.”

  “Do I get a mic to talk dirty to you?”

  He threw me over his shoulder and slapped my ass. “You’re way too fucking much, Lollipop. I’ll give you anything you want as long as you never take off these boots ever again.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Isa

  I dialed my sister, Aurora, in a panic. “Are yo
u almost here?” I screeched.

  “Would you relax? I had to pee. It’s a long drive.”

  “You need to get here fast. I am seriously freaking out.”

  “Why?”

  I still hadn’t told her. I was afraid she would tell me I was being silly, but this was no laughing matter. “I’ll tell you as soon as you get here. Just hurry the hell up.”

  “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

  I paced around the room, biting my nails and staring at the offending objects laid out on the bed. Gabe would be home soon and he would be excited. How was I going to get out of this? I needed my sister to talk me down. No other woman would do right now. When the doorbell rang, I ran from the room and flung the door open. I didn’t even say hi before I was dragging her down the hall to my bedroom.

  “Nice to see you too. Yes, the drive was great. I had no problem at all calling off work at the last minute and telling my husband he just had to find a way to deal with the kids for a few days.”

  “Just tonight,” I interjected.

  “Wait,” she said, pulling me to a halt. “What do you mean ‘just tonight’? I called off of work already. I made a really long-ass drive and you want me to leave tomorrow?”

  “Look, I have a serious issue, but I can’t have you sticking around. In fact, it would be best if you stayed in a hotel tonight.”

  “What the fuck, Isa? Are you seriously asking me to stay somewhere else?”

  “Yes. I’m actually going to have to kick you out by five.”

  “That’s two hours away.”

  “I know.”

  “You’d better start talking now,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “Okay, I went to the doctor today-.”

  “Is everything okay?” she asked in concern.

  “Yes, everything’s fine. I’ve just been delaying sex and now I can’t make any excuses anymore. Gabe insisted I go to the doctor because I kept telling him things were wrong with my vagina,” I said with tears in my eyes.

  “And you don’t want sex?” she asked in confusion.

  “I can’t! Look at me! I just had a baby. My body is all jiggly and he’s gonna see that! I haven’t shaved down there in like….I can’t even remember! I never sleep and Gabe’s been busy trying to get back in shape so he can rejoin his team. Everyone else has been out taking jobs and it’s killing him to stay behind. So, he’s always at work. Half the time I don’t shave my legs or my armpits.”