“No problem. Come on in.” Shea led the two into the service bay and over to where Chlöe’s bike rested on a bike stand. “Here it is. We’ll be sending it off to paint soon.”
“Oh my, it looks great.” Chlöe pointed to something on the bike. “What’s that there?”
Shea bent down to examine what Chlöe was pointing at. “What? The oil pan—”
Too late Shea sensed Schwartz slip in behind her and slam her head into the bike’s gas tank. Before Shea could recover, Schwartz pulled her up in a half nelson.
Chlöe’s delighted expression was replaced by a mask of malevolence. “Where’s my product?”
Something clicked in Shea’s brain. “Bonefish.” That would make the Amazon holding her collar Lizzie Black.
“That’s right,” said Chlöe. “Now where the hell is it?”
“Safe.”
Lizzie Black punched Shea in the kidney. Shea’s eyes bugged out as she gasped in pain. Even with the motorcycle jacket the blow hurt like hell.
“I don’t have time for games.” Bonefish nodded at Lizzie Black, who pressed a .38-caliber revolver to Shea’s head.
“Why…why’re you dealing that shit?” Shea took a deep breath, struggling to control the pain. “Ain’t you supposed…to get people off drugs?”
“I don’t need to explain my business decisions. Now where the hell is it?”
Shea caught Lizzie Black with an elbow to the chin, knocking the revolver out of her hand. Shea kicked it away and barely avoided a haymaker barreling down at her head. Shea drove her fist into Lizzie’s eye. The towering woman stumbled back.
Shea ducked behind Orphan’s banged-up motorcycle, drew her Glock, and fired three shots into Lizzie’s chest. The woman doubled over, groaning in pain, and dropped to her knees. A fourth shot and she collapsed on the floor, moaning quietly.
A bullet whizzed past Shea’s ear. Bonefish knelt behind the shop’s drill press with a small pistol in her hand. A second smacked into the bike’s engine; a third punched through the seat, leaving a spray of foam rubber as it exited.
Shea returned fire, but Bonefish was tucked in good behind the drill press. Two shots hit the base of the machine, a third the rack of tires behind it. “You kill me, you’ll never find your drugs.”
“Tell me where my product is or I’ll kill everyone who works here.”
“Not before the Athena Sisterhood tracks you down.”
“A bunch of coed bikers? Hardly a concern.” Bonefish chuckled. A bullet ripped into the bike’s rear tire, as if to emphasize her point. Air hissed out of the deflating tire.
“That’s what the Confederate Thunder thought till we burned down their bar.” Shea noticed Bonefish’s foot sticking out from behind the drill press. Shea took aim. Movement to her left caught her attention.
Shea ducked to avoid a four-foot-tall fire extinguisher hurtling toward her, but the nozzle caught her in the face. Lizzie was on her in an instant, driving her to the ground. The Glock skidded out of reach.
“Where is it?” growled the tall woman.
Shea struggled to escape but Lizzie sat on her chest, wrists pinned to the floor. Four bullet holes in the woman’s shirt revealed an armored vest underneath.
“If I tell you,” said Shea, “you leave us alone. Iron Goddess. Athena Sisterhood. All of us.”
“You’re not in a position to dictate terms, Shea Stevens.” Bonefish stood over her, pointing Lizzie’s revolver at Shea’s head. “Where. Is. My. Product?”
Shea hocked a loogie and spit it in Bonefish’s face. Shea then rotated her hip and used her knees to flip Lizzie onto Bonefish. While the two women untangled themselves from each other, Shea picked up a steel tailpipe from a rack and slammed it into Lizzie’s broad back. Shea swung again aiming for Lizzie’s head, but Lizzie whirled around and caught it in her hand.
Shea grappled for control of the tailpipe but Lizzie ripped it away from her and swung.
Pain exploded in Shea’s head. She reeled backward. Her mind went hazy. A second blow knocked Shea off her feet.
“Where is it, Shea?”
Lizzie yanked Shea up by the collar. The room felt like it was spinning, making Shea sick to her stomach. Sounds had a weird echo and she was seeing double. “Fuck…you.” She choked on the blood dripping from her nose back into her throat. Another punch to the gut knocked the wind out of her.
“Top case,” Shea wheezed. “Back of my bike.”
“See now? That wasn’t so hard.” Bonefish grinned. She handed the revolver back to Lizzie, her own pistol in her other hand. “Let’s go see if you’re telling the truth.”
They marched Shea into the back parking lot. Snow flurries danced in the yellow glow of the security light. The cold helped Shea to focus as she unlocked the top case on her bike and opened it to reveal the bag of drugs.
“Thanks, Shea. Pleasure doing business with you.” Bonefish nodded again to Lizzie, who raised the revolver and pulled the trigger.
Shea felt like she’d been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. A second shot hit her under her left arm at the edge of the vest. She gasped, struggling to control the searing pain. She fell to her knees, clinging to her bike for support. Her ears were ringing, her vision blurred.
“Told you not to fuck with me,” said Bonefish somewhere in the darkness.
The revolver’s warm muzzle pressed against Shea’s forehead. “Fuck…you.”
The gun’s hammer clicked. Shea gasped. No gunshot. “Empty.”
Shea’s smile was rewarded with an explosion of pain as Lizzie smacked her in the head with the .38. She found herself on her back, clinging to consciousness.
Have to stop the bleeding. She pressed on the wound under her arm, unable to stop shaking from a mixture of shock, cold, and adrenaline. The harder she pressed, the woozier she got. Until she blacked out.
Chapter 47
“Havoc? Havoc! Can you hear me?” A worried voice called out from the darkness. “Please wake up!”
“Holy cats! She’s bleeding,” said a deeper voice.
Someone started shaking her. Her body felt numb and yet still hurt somehow. The chill of the winter night felt like a block of ice sitting on her chest, filling her mind with fog and mist.
“Havoc, it’s Labrys. Oh Goddess, please be okay!”
“Havoc, can you open your eyes for me?” The voice sounded like Savage.
Shea opened an eye. Savage crouched over her, silhouetted against the lemony glow of the parking lot lights. Labrys and Indigo stood nearby.
“W-w-where…?” Shea’s voice sounded like gears grinding. She sat up. A sharp pain in her chest made it hard to breathe. “S-so…c-c-cold.”
“Let’s get you inside, girl,” said Savage.
“No, wait!” insisted Labrys. “Don’t we risk doing more damage if we move her?”
“Are you crazy?” asked Indigo. “It’s fucking snowing. We leave her out here, she’s gonna freeze to death.”
“Normally, I would agree with Labrys. But her lips are blue. Pulse is weak. Right now hypothermia’s the most pressing issue.”
“In-in-inside,” croaked Shea.
“We gotcha, girl,” replied Savage as she heaved Shea’s arm over her shoulder. “Indigo, get on her other side and gently lift her up.”
Savage and Indigo raised Shea to her feet. Shea cried out in agony as pain pounded through her body. A rush of vertigo left her nauseated.
“Be careful with her,” said Labrys.
“You need us to carry you?” asked Indigo.
“No,” Shea gasped as she forced herself to swallow the pain and the urge to vomit. “Inside.”
Labrys opened the door. Savage and Indigo helped Shea limp into the brightly lit garage. The intense light made her head hurt worse. The air felt warm on her face, which helped to settle her stomach.
“There.” Shea pointed to a chair near the shop’s water jet cutting machine.
They lowered her onto the chair. She slumped a little but manag
ed to remain upright.
“You got a coffeemaker in here?” asked Savage.
“Yeah. Showroom. Waiting area.” Shea gestured toward the door that led to the office and the showroom. “Down the hall. Turn left.”
“Labrys, you mind making us all some coffee?”
“Say, who’s giving orders around here? I’m the president. You’re just the sergeant at arms.”
“I’m also an EMT and this is a medical emergency. So get your bony ass down that hall, Madame President, and make us some fucking coffee. Unless you want Havoc here to freeze to death.”
“You’re gonna regret saying that, Savage,” called Labrys. Her boot heels clicked a staccato beat across the concrete floor.
Shea couldn’t help but smile.
“Let’s see where all this blood is coming from, shall we?” Savage pulled off Shea’s jacket and the prospect cut, sending sharp jabs of pain from her left underarm. Shea winced but refused to cry out.
“Her shirt’s covered in blood,” said Indigo. “What the hell happened to you, girl?”
Shea tried to focus, but her mind was clouded with pain and cold. Memories of the fight machine-gunned through her brain. “Shot.” She closed her eyes and winced as someone pulled off her shirt.
Indigo gasped. “Someone shot you?”
“Thank goodness you were wearing your vest,” said Savage. “So where are you bleeding from?”
Shea’s body was jostled as Savage undid the Velcro straps with a ripping-crackle sound and lifted off the vest. Shea opened her eyes. Savage and Indigo were gaping at her, leaving Shea feeling exposed, wearing only her bra. Shea instinctively covered her chest with her uninjured arm and started shivering again.
“Holy cats, girl!” said Indigo. “Them welts are the size of grapefruits. And all that blood. Are them bullets still in her?”
Savage knelt down and examined first the vest, then Shea’s chest. “Impact broke the skin on the one in the middle of her chest, but the slug’s still in the Kevlar. But this one under her arm.”
“Ow, fuck!” The jolt of pain at Savage’s touch made her vision go gray for a moment.
“Sorry. Looks like the slug struck the edge of the vest, penetrated the skin and muscle tissue and out again. Just a through and through. Most of the bleeding’s stopped, in part due to the cold. I’d say biggest risk now is infection.”
“And c-c-cold.” Shea’s teeth were chattering now.
“Hang in there. We’ll get you warm real soon. You got a first-aid kit around here?”
Shea nodded toward a red box mounted on the opposite wall.
“Excellent.” Savage retrieved it, cleaned out Shea’s wounds with a bottle of water, and dressed them with antibiotic cream and bandages. “This is just temporary. You should see a doctor.”
“Maybe we should call 911,” suggested Indigo.
“No!” Labrys reappeared with a cup of coffee. “Don’t need the cops involved.”
“Then at least take her to the hospital,” continued Indigo. “Look at her, she’s a mess.”
Shea’s hands wrapped around the mug as she sipped the coffee. It was bitter, but hot. “No hospital,” said Shea. “They’ll report it.”
Savage exchanged a glance with Indigo. “Well, you’re the boss. Just keep an eye on it.”
“Sweatshirt.” Shea again pointed to the hallway door. “Showroom.”
“Oh right. I’ll get one for you.” Indigo hustled away.
“So what the hell happened tonight?” asked Labrys. “Who shot you?”
“Client. Chlöe Stansbury.” The fog in her mind started to clear. “She’s Bonefish.”
Labrys’ eyes went wide. “Bonefish was here? Who the hell is this bitch? Where do we find her?”
“Runs a rehab. Ironwood.”
“Optimus?” asked Savage.
Shea started to nod, but it hurt to do so. “Yeah.”
Indigo reappeared with a white sweatshirt bearing a large black Iron Goddess logo on the front. “This oughta help.”
“Thanks.”
“Why would someone who runs a rehab facility be dealing drugs?” asked Savage as Indigo helped Shea into the sweatshirt.
“Money. Always money.” Shea remembered Bonefish holding the stash of drugs. “They got it.”
“Got it? Got wha—” Labrys’ jaw went slack. “Oh Goddess! They got the drugs back? Shea, how’d you let this happen?”
Shea flipped her the bird, but didn’t speak.
“What does this mean?” asked Savage. “Are they still coming after us?”
“Don’t know. Possibly.” Shea glanced around the garage. “Could come back here. I should call Terrance.”
Shea handed the cup to Indigo, pulled out her phone, and called Terrance. It rang four times before he answered it.
“Damn it, Shea! It’s one o’clock in the fucking morning. Ain’t it enough I’m taking care of your family?”
“T, something happened.”
Terrance sighed loudly. “All right, what’s going on, girlfriend? We haven’t been robbed again have we?”
“No. But our client…” She rubbed her chest, reliving the fight.
“Chlöe Stansbury?” There was concern in his voice. “You didn’t piss her off, did you? We need the revenue from this job.”
“She tried to kill me.”
“She what? Why the hell would she do that?”
“She’s the drug dealer. Bought the hex from the Thunder. Recut it with rat poison. Selling it at clubs.” The security camera up by the ceiling caught Shea’s eye. “All on the security feed.”
“Are you okay?”
“I will be. Thanks to the Sisterhood. They found me. Patched me up. Lousy coffee.”
“Well, thank goodness for them. And the shop? They didn’t burn it down did they?”
“Shop’s fine. We should close for now. Bitch is fucking crazy. Don’t want no one else hurt.”
Terrance sighed. “As much as I hate for us to lose the revenue, I agree. You called the police, right?”
“No.”
“Well, why the hell not?”
“It’s complicated. Gotta take care of this my way.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Shea. You can’t help Annie if you get your ass sent back to prison. Or killed.”
“I’ll be careful. How’s Annie?”
“She misses you. Doesn’t understand why she can’t come home or why Jessica left.”
“I didn’t cheat on Jess. But haven’t been a great girlfriend lately. I’ll make it up to her.”
“I’ll call her in the morning. You gonna be all right?”
“I’m a hard one to kill. Maybe just too stupid to die.”
“Watch your back, sister girl. Annie can’t afford to lose no one else.”
“Always. Talk at ya later.” Shea hung up.
Indigo yawned. “So what now?”
“Sleep,” said Shea.
“Can you ride?” asked Savage.
Shea tensed her jaw, knowing it would be a painful ride home. “I can manage. I live just a couple miles south.”
“I’ll go with her,” said Labrys.
“No.” Last thing Shea wanted was Labrys hovering over her, especially if Jessica called.
“Actually, Shea,” said Savage, “I think that’d be a good idea. You shouldn’t be alone. Not after what’s happened. I’ll be at Indigo’s. Orphan and Fuego are over at Brillo’s. Safety in numbers.”
Shea looked wearily from Savage and Indigo to a very hopeful-looking Labrys. “Fine.”
Chapter 48
Icy wind blew through the bullet holes in Shea’s jacket as she wound through the twisties on the south side of Sycamore Mountain. She was grateful her home was just a few miles from the shop. As battered as her body was, she wasn’t sure she could take much riding.
When they reached the house, Shea pulled into the garage and Labrys followed.
“You can’t sleep here.” Shea emptied the pockets of her jacket, now pepp
ered with bullet holes, and tossed it into a black plastic garbage bin.
Labrys pulled off her helmet. “Why not? I thought we agreed. Safety in numbers?”
“If Jessica saw you here, she’d rip you a new one.”
“I think I could take her.” A smirk curled the corners of Labrys’ mouth.
“That’s not the least bit funny.”
“I’m kidding. Geez! Besides, I thought you two were broken up.”
“She’s just pissed. You said yourself she’ll come around.”
“Either way, we need to stick together for safety’s sake.”
“You wanna be safe? Go home. Bonefish and Lizzie Black probably know where I live.” Shea crossed her arms and winced in pain. “Gah!”
“See? You need me here to protect you.”
“And how exactly you gonna do that?”
Labrys pulled her Glock from her saddlebag. “With this.”
Shea glowered at her. “Fine. You can stay. But you’re sleeping on the couch. And no funny business. Got it?”
Labrys gave her a three-fingered salute. “Scout’s honor.”
“Great. Now put that thing away before you shoot yourself with it. Or worse, me.” Shea closed the garage door and led them inside.
The place felt so empty without Jessica and Annie. I’m a horrible girlfriend. No wonder she left. I never make time for her. I’m not the least bit romantic. I fucking suck. I’d dump me, too.
Shea pulled a bedsheet, a comforter, and a pillow from the hall linen closet and handed them to Labrys. “Here. If Ninja bothers you in the night, just hiss at her. She’ll get the message.”
“Thanks. How’s the pain?”
“It’s pain. It hurts.”
Labrys pulled a small white plastic cylinder from her pocket. “Try one of these. It’ll help.” She unscrewed the cap and deposited a round blue pill in Shea’s palm.
“What the hell’s this?”
“Percocet. It’ll help you sleep.”
Shea stared at it. Her head was pounding. Her chest ached. And her underarm still burned. She wasn’t going to get any sleep without some help. Still…“No thanks.” She held it out for Labrys to take back.
“Why the hell not? You’ve been shot, for Goddess’ sake.”
Athena Sisterhood Page 27