by Hazel Parker
“Never mind,” I said. “I still have to make it up to Amber.”
“Well, Jane got kidnapped, and I rescued her, so there’s always—”
“Don’t you fucking dare make that joke,” I snarled. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to her, any—”
At that moment, my phone buzzed. I paused, reached into my pocket, and pulled it out.
“It’s Amber.”
“Answer it!” Trace insisted. “Don’t leave her hanging! This is your chance to at least start on the way back.”
I felt like even having the right to earn my way back was too much to ask for, but if she was calling me…
“Hello?” I said, my voice shaky as I answered.
“Splitter, my office building is on fire,” Amber said. “And the police said the arson started in my office.”
“Where are you?” I growled, beginning to fear what was next.
“I’m still by the building.”
I bit my lip. I knew what was going to happen next if we didn’t act immediately.
“They want to take you hostage,” I said. “They’re going to do it, and in return, they want us to confess to everything.”
Amber groaned on the other end of the line.
“Stay near the police. No matter what you do, you stay with them until I get there. I’m going to pick you up and take you back here. It’s the one place that I can protect you. From there, we’re going to launch an attack on the fuckers who did this.”
“How do you know—”
“We know,” I said, looking at Trace. “Stay there. We’ll be there quickly.”
I hung up the phone, already getting up.
“The fuck was that all about?”
“The DMs burned down her whole fucking office,” I said. “I’m going to go get her. We need to strike back. Fuck laying low. You know what laying low has gotten us? The DMs right up our ass. I say we fucking take it to them. They’re not going to suspect it in broad daylight.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Trace said. “They’re not going to suspect a fight, but they won’t be afraid of one.”
“Then fucking bring it on,” I said, ignoring Trace’s concern and running outside to my bike. “Follow me if you want. If you don’t, I’ll go and kill all the fucking assholes myself.”
“You’d go into their headquarters?”
“Fuck yes,” I said.
Trace knew I was completely serious too. He shook his head, said “I’ll be right behind you,” and whipped out his phone, presumably to make a bunch of calls to the club members. I revved my engine into high gear, announced it to all of Green Hills, and sped out of the auto shop, roaring in the direction of her office.
I just had to hop down the highway until I got to the exit I needed to go. Immediately, I saw Amber standing from afar—close enough that the cops could see her, but not so close as to be metaphorically holding hands with them. She ran over to me as soon as I showed up. The cops glared at me, but I ignored them.
“You OK?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Unharmed. But—”
And that’s when I heard the first gunshot.
I grabbed Amber and slung her on the bike and made a getaway as fast as I could as DMs showed up from various hiding spots, trying to land a bullet on me. The cops, meanwhile, all took positions, hiding like the fucking cowards.
“Stay low!” I shouted.
I pulled out my pistol as I drove down the streets and Amber hung on to me, her face buried into my back. She clenched so hard that I had trouble breathing, but that was a hell of a lot better than her being dead outside the office.
As I sped toward the highway exit I had come from, I saw at least three DMs giving chase. None of them seemed to give a fuck that we were in broad daylight—they all had their guns out, in pursuit of me, trying to kill Amber or me who was basically my human shield at the moment. I swerved as I drove, warning Amber as best as I could, but the chase was a fucking nightmare. These guys are fucking crazy. I should have left her with the damn cops.
Going onto the highway, I realized, was the worst case scenario. To do so would open up clear lanes, and even though I could speed, I couldn’t drive faster than a speeding bullet. I’d have to take advantage of the roads nearby with some sharp turns and hideouts.
“Hang on!” I roared.
I banked a sharp right, nearly bringing the bike roughly sixty degrees, my right foot skidding along the ground, just barely dodging some bullets. I then swerved right at the next street, swiveled the bike around, and held my gun out.
“What the hell?” Amber cried out.
“I don’t fucking know!” I shouted. “But I’m protecting you! You don’t get off this bike unless I die, you hear me!”
Amber squeezed in response.
I, in turn, squeezed the trigger on two of the DMs coming. I missed one, but I hit the other one square in the head, causing his bike to skid out and his body to crumple.
This was going to cause such a massive headache, and I knew it. Amber’s workload was about to double because of this, if not more. I just wanted to keep her alive.
And then a bullet came from nowhere, striking my left arm.
“Motherfucker!” I roared.
More DMs.
I revved the engine, quickly going further down the street.
I realized having Amber on my back might soon get her killed at the rate I was getting ambushed. But if I dropped her off anywhere in sight of the DMs, that was going to get her killed too. I had caught her up in a world she didn’t deserve to be caught in.
“Left!” she screamed.
I turned my head in disbelief. That was in the direction where the Mercs were!
“I know these roads, it’ll take you to a high point!” she screamed.
Shit! I hope you’re fucking right!
Without a word, I banked the bike hard to the left, taking the road that by all accounts would seem to have led me straight to my death.
But instead, it naturally banked right, leading up a hill that was well shrouded by some trees. As soon as I got to the top, I had a chance to take a breather.
“Jesus,” I said. “Amber, I’m sorry. I walked into a trap. They knew I would come and they meant to kill me when I grabbed you.”
“Are they insane?”
“Yes.”
“No, I mean, really, the entire police force knows who they are now,” she said. “They must not give a fuck about due process.”
“They’re all going to be on the run, but so are we,” I said with a sigh.
And that’s when I realized the only person not accounted for in this was her.
“Amber, listen to me,” I said. “You’re going to have to say that I abducted you.”
“The heck?” she said. “I’m not going to let you do something stupid like that. No, I asked you to come, and the minute that they go through my phone records and see that I called you just before all of this, that defense is going out the window.”
Damnit, she’s got that part right. If I had just shown up when I saw the news or heard the news… but no.
“So, how are we going to get out of all of this?” I said.
Amber, despite all the madness, all the chaos surrounding the situation, smiled.
“Los Angeles has long had a huge gang problem,” she said. “I know you don’t consider yourselves gangs, but in the eyes of the city, you might as well be. I think every single person who just witnessed what happened is going to see the Devil’s Mercs did this, right?”
“Yeah, pretty fucking obvious!”
“A good portion of police saw what happened. So I’m not going to testify that you kidnapped me. I’m going to testify to the truth, like I’ve said all along, Splitter. That you came and rescued me. That the DMs were going to murder me, that they burned my building down to set up a trap, and that without you, I’d be dead. Edwin is many things, but he’s not stupid. He’s going to recognize a chance to get rid of the DMs while he c
an.”
“You think it’ll be that easy?”
“Easy? I don’t know about easy, but simple?”
She nodded with a smile.
“Listen, it’s one thing to build a case on you because of some weasel DMs. But they just undermined everything because they tried to kill you and me out in public. So, let’s—”
But then I heard engines approaching.
“They found us,” I said. “Hop on.”
“Let’s get through this, shall we?” she said. “I’ll bet no one else from Duke Law has a story like this.”
“You don’t need to fucking tell me,” I said.
I looked down, saw a Merc turning the corner up the hill, and lined my pistol up with him. I fired and landed the bullet square in his chest. I don’t think it killed him, but it did cause him to crash and roll through the streets, incapacitating him.
“Let’s go!” I said. “We should have backup soon. How can we get back down?”
“Keep going!” Amber shouted.
I did as commanded, going down the hill in the opposite direction.
“Right!”
She said it so suddenly that I had to take an even sharper than normal turn, causing Amber to yell out in surprise. She held on, though, like the strong girl that she was. I kept speeding ahead, ignoring the gunfire that rained down on us.
They must really not care about the police. Or they hate us so much that they’re fine going down like this.
I got to the bottom of the hill but then had to slam on my brakes and nearly skid out when I saw two Mercs waiting for me. I just barely avoided wiping out, but one did manage to get a shot off that missed me by about half an inch. I felt the wind blow by me as I did. Two quick rounds knocked them out.
But then I looked ahead, and I saw six more coming.
“Fucking hell,” I said.
I looked right and saw an alleyway with numerous hiding spots, numerous restaurants.
“Amber, go,” I shouted. “You have about five seconds to hide somewhere. I’ll do what I can, but we aren’t escaping. Go!”
“No!”
“Amber!”
But then, suddenly, like bowling pins, all six Mercs fell down.
I let out a loud whooping holler when I saw why.
Finally, the Savage Saints had shown up, led by Trace. There was BK, Krispy, Sword, Sensei—the whole crew. They had come. Trace came over to me while the rest split up.
“You alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, but I just now noticed the bullet that had hit my arm. “OK, maybe not. But I’m not going to die, nor am I gonna be a pussy like you and pass out.”
“Haha, funny man,” Trace said. “For real, though. Amber?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re safe now,” Trace said. “I put a call into the police here and advised them we were coming to clear it out.”
He looked behind at the scene.
“It’s a fucking mess,” he said. “There’s already choppers in the sky. News is going to have a field day with this. We’re going to have to do some PR work if we want to get back on the good side.”
“Us?” I said with a laugh. “Who do you think fucking started this whole thing?”
“True,” Trace said.
Just the fact that I could laugh… I heard a few more bullets firing in the distance, but for the most part, it was now just sirens filling the air. Most of the actual fighting had wound down, with the Mercs either escaping or having been dispatched. I couldn’t begin to say how much of a relief it was to know what Amber was, first and foremost, safe. That had been why I had come, and to have taken care of that… mission accomplished.
“So what now?” Trace said. “Amber, you’re the lawyer; what do you think we should do?”
“Stay here,” she said. “It’s going to score you brownie points with law enforcement. But have everyone gather here. I’m going to talk to the police. I’m going to make sure you guys get taken care of.”
Trace did so, sending out messages. I took off my jacket, then my shirt, using it to make a tourniquet for the wound before I got the chance to see Jane in the hospital. I leaned forward on my handlebars, exhausted.
But at least Amber was safe.
“Hey,” she said, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around me. “You know what I said about you not caring earlier today? About you not showing it? Can I take that back?”
Very slowly, with the pain having crept back in from the wound, I turned, grunting and trying not to show my discomfort.
But when I saw her beautiful face and her smile, it all washed away. All the pain and grief that I felt vanished in an instant.
“I suppose so,” I said. “Cost ya a kiss.”
She sheepishly grinned and kissed me, not letting go for some time.
Things, I thought, might finally turn out alright.
Chapter 16: Amber
The next twenty-four hours, which followed what was probably the most exhilarating twenty-four minutes or so of my life, were a complete and utter whirlwind.
But they were also a massive success, thanks in no small part to what I was able to tell law enforcement and then Edwin.
Every single cop that I had spoken to had agreed that it was the Devil’s Mercenaries club that had started it. They all could not believe that they would take a club feud out into a public location like this, but that just made it that much easier to prosecute them, well the few left. When I advised them that Splitter had come to protect me, a few of them looked at me askance, but when I asked them if they questioned me, they all backed down.
I got them all to agree that the Savage Saints had been the one to calm down the battle, that Splitter especially had played a critical role in wiping out the threat. I got them all to acknowledge that the Saints had done nothing to escalate the battle and everything to end it as quickly as they could. Questions about how and why were important, but the most important fact—what their objective had been—was solved.
This was all critical when, after they let the Saints return home and I took a police ride-along to the DA’s office, I got to meet Edwin. I laid out in no uncertain terms what had just happened.
“Every website, every news release, everything that you are reading right now is all saying the Saints played the role of hero,” I said, thinking of how the cops would have been the “sources on the ground.” “If you want to prosecute one of their kind for the sake of making an example of one of them while using the eyewitness of some Mercenaries to help your case, you go right on ahead. I will be on the other side of the courtroom ready to fight. But in the court of public opinion? Everyone will hate you. They’ll see you as in the pockets of the DMs.”
I silently laughed at how I was using Savage Saint language already.
“And since you’re planning on making this a career of sorts, I don’t think you’ll want to be starting on such an egregious foot, do you?”
Edwin could only shake his head. He knew he was beaten; he just didn’t want to admit it.
“You know your client is fully guilty, Ms. Reynolds,” he said. “My changing my focus doesn’t have anything to do with that. Only to do with the fact that we have much worse vermin on the streets.”
“I’m not here to talk about my client’s status,” I said, crossing my arms. “I’m here to remind you what matters most is prosecuting those who would bring chaos to the Los Angeles area. If you want to prosecute one club that does good in its community and does nothing worse than throw a party that gets a little too out of control sometimes, be my guest. But I think you and I both know which is worse between the Mercs or the Saints.”
Edwin looked at me, let out a long sigh, and told me he’d be in contact with me later.
By morning, I had gotten a message that Splitter’s trial had been delayed. It also had a message that said that they were open to dismissing some of the charges against Splitter if he was willing to assist law enforcement in rounding up the remaining Mer
cs. I had no idea if Splitter could successfully do that—I was beginning to realize that the Mercs were a much larger organization than I ever could have anticipated—but it was as big an opening as I had ever seen. He’d still face some charges, but it was much easier to fight a couple than half a dozen or so.
I sent the good news to Splitter, who was recovering in the hospital. He just responded with the hands raised emoji, which drew an actual laugh from me.
More importantly, though, I just felt an enormous amount of relief. I had helped Splitter survive what could have been a life-ending sentence; in return, I supposed he had helped me survive what could have been a life-ending attack. I guessed then that we were even.
But as the day went by, I began to realize something with a coy smile. I didn’t want to get even.
I just wanted to be with him.
* * *
“You’re sure?”
He wrote that message to me for what was about the third time in a row after I had told him as much.
“If you ask again, I’m changing my mind,” I wrote with a winky emoji. “Come on over. Don’t be shy.”
Finally, after assuaging him of my concerns for yet another time, Splitter advised that he was coming over. I smiled with glee as I prepared everything that he would need—some whiskey, some dessert, and even a nice, juicy steak for when he got here. I timed it so that it would be about a twenty-minute ride without traffic—reasonable for the time, about eight o’clock—and began cooking the steak and laying out everything.
Just as the steak finished, though, I was left feeling a little confused. I had not seen or heard any motorcycles approaching. I had, however, gotten a text message a few minutes before from Splitter advising me he was close by. I didn’t think it was easy to get lost going to my place; my house was pretty noticeable, and no one had ever complained before about any of the maps apps taking them to the wrong location.
I did see a quiet electric car pull up. I went to the window, pulled the curtains apart, and stared in confusion when I saw Splitter getting out of the car. He waved to me, and I waved back, unlocking the door so he could come inside.