ONE MORE RIDE

by Sophia Gray

  "This is so fucked up," I said softly, leaning back and letting my head thump against the concrete wall of the warehouse. "I can't believe you, Val. I can't believe you would fucking do this to your own goddamn club. What about Alexa? What about Tara?"

  Val whistled. I was horrified as Tara and Jessica stalked out of the corners of the warehouse. They were clad all in black and holding assault rifles cradled in their arms. Tara winked at me.

  "Hi, Stephy," she said with a grin. "I couldn't wait for you to figure out the plan! Isn't this great?"

  I glared at her and scowled. “Fuck you, you bitch,” I said under my breath.

  Jessica walked closer, all smiles like Tara and Val. She still looked innocent and cute, but for once, that wounded air about her was gone and I realized it had been an act from the very beginning. For all her talk about being shy and quiet and young, that was all a fucking ruse to get my guard down. I felt rage seething in my body when I realized how badly Jessica had played me—even worse than Val, considering I’d trusted her so blindly.

  “You didn’t want to get revenge for me,” Jessica said softly. She smiled at me and I shuddered. “That was when I decided that I’d made the right decision to support Val instead of you. You were a shitty leader, Stephanie. You only thought of yourself.”

  “That’s not true!” I exploded loudly. “I hate you, you fucking cunt!”

  Jessica gave me a cutesy smile and spun around in a circle. She walked over to Val and put her arm around her waist, kissing her deeply. Val broke the kiss and turned to face me.

  “Any last words, Stephanie?” She spat my name and I shuddered.

  “Yeah,” I said sharply. “You can go straight to hell.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Isaac

  I drove the van as fast I could to the outskirts of town, keeping my foot slammed on the gas pedal. TJ, Nick, and Kyle were with me—we were all armed heavily, but I was worried about what was awaiting us. Val had told me that she’d taken Stephanie to an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of LA. I believed her. I’d heard the greed in her voice, knew that she was hungry for the weapons.

  “This is gonna be fast, and it’s gonna be bloody,” I warned the guys in a loud voice. The sound of the motor filled the entire van and we had to yell to be heard. “Val, this bitch, she’s gone crazy and we have to take her down. Under no circumstances do I want you to hurt Stephanie. Remember, Val kidnapped her and if she says anything suspect, chalk it up to her being forced to talk.”

  TJ glared at me. “This is fucked up, man,” he said. “First the cops, now this. Can’t we just forget this bitch and go home?”

  “No,” I said sharply as the van skidded around a sharp curve. “No, we can’t just forget about her. This woman, Val, who kidnapped her, is one of the biggest bitches in the world. She’s hell-bent on bringing us down, TJ. This has to be part of the plan. I just don’t see how, not yet.”

  TJ nodded. “I get that, boss,” he said. TJ leaned back in the seat and began loading his assault rifle with ammo. “We’ll take her down, don’t worry,” he said, giving me a lazy grin that I knew meant business. “We’ll take her the fuck down.”

  “We’d better,” I said darkly. The hot, arid day was turning into a damp evening. I could tell the sun was going down and the sky was beginning to glow in the corners, showing the faint outline of the moon and stars. I shivered from anticipation. I used to love this feeling—gearing up for a fight, going out there and kicking ass. But now it filled me with dread and I couldn’t figure out why.

  I couldn’t think about Stephanie without feeling sick. I didn’t want to see her again, but I couldn’t let her be killed by a psychopath either. After all, it wasn’t her fault one of her girls had turned out to be such a snake. It showed a lack of judgment, sure, but I knew Stephanie wouldn’t have chosen someone like Val if she’d known her true colors from the beginning.

  This whole thing was such a mess. I was mostly just looking forward to getting it sorted out and seeing where everyone stood.

  “Hey, stop,” TJ said loudly. He reached over and smacked the steering wheel. “Do you see that?” He pointed down at the road where I saw a belt of nails lined up on the brown dirt. “Stop!”

  I slammed on the brakes just as the van went sliding over the trap. The front tires both blew out and for a wild and terrible moment, we went skidding across the desert. I felt my body slam against the steering wheel and the force of the fall knocked the air out of my lungs. When I opened my eyes, the air was filled with dust and all of the men were coughing.

  “You guys alright?” I glanced behind me. “You’re okay? All of you? We need to get a move on. This is the only way we’re gonna save her is if we go in with our guns blazing.”

  “Right,” TJ said. He wiped his hand across his face, leaving a streak of brown. We were all covered in dust and dirt but I was finally starting to feel the thump of adrenaline in my chest. This is it, I told myself grimly. This is when the winner and the loser come out to play. The only problem is, I don't know who's who yet.

  “Man, look,” Nick said. He grabbed my sleeve as we jumped out of the van. “There’s a bitch over there!” He pointed up and I saw a girl walking on top of the warehouse, strutting in heels and carrying an assault rifle. She was wearing leather pants and a black shirt and I thought I vaguely recognized her from one of the trips to the Succubi’ hideout.

  “Kyle,” I said loudly, grabbing his sleeve. “That’s not your girlfriend, is it?”

  Kyle shook his head. “No,” he said. “Don’t worry. It ain’t her.”

  I took aim and waited until the sight of my rifle was right on the girl’s head before firing. She went down carefully, like someone had touched her on the head and made her go to sleep.

  TJ clapped me on the back. “Nicely done,” he said darkly. “Come on. We better get inside as quickly as we can.”

  The men and I darted to the side of the building and flattened ourselves against the wall. The glow of LA was in the distance but there were no lights—not even old lights on top of the warehouse. Val picked a good place for a showdown; if we could barely see what was going on, I knew that it would be tougher than usual.

  “Isaac!” Nick hissed loudly. “Look!” He pointed inside through a broken panel in the concrete. I saw Stephanie, dazed and bound, against a wall with her legs in front of her. Her arms were twisted behind her back and her face bore an expression of pain and misery that I couldn’t even begin to contemplate. She had her eyes closed and after a few seconds, I realized that she looked delirious. I wanted to go to her: to hold her hand, to comfort her, to do anything to help her realize that help was on the way. But I knew that Val and the girls were probably watching her like a hawk, just waiting for me to show up so they could shoot me in the back.

  “I see her,” I said darkly. “We have to find another way in. We’re totally exposed if we go in through here.” Looking around, I didn’t see Val anywhere. The guys followed me along the wall and I crept slowly, looking for any sign of a good place to enter the warehouse. So far, there was still nothing to be found.

  “Isaac,” Kyle hissed. He pointed to a dilapidated staircase that was wrapped around the back of the building. “I bet I can go up here and snipe,” he added in an excited tone. “You want me to take ’em out?”

  I nodded. “Everyone except Stephanie, if it comes to that,” I whispered back. Kyle ran off before I could tell him to be safe, but deep down I knew that he’d watch his back. He was eager to prove himself to me, just as eager as he’d been before the Russians had kidnapped him. This time I’ll go easier on you, I thought with a pang of regret. If Kyle had never been taken by the Russians, maybe this whole goddamn mess wouldn’t have happened.

  Kyle’s footsteps barely made a sound as he scaled the stairs. I heard a slight creaking overhead but figured he wasn’t making any more noise than the dead girl had been before I’d shot at her. Good man, I thought in my head. A rush of gratitude filled me for
the guys. They may not have trusted my judgment all the time, but they almost never questioned me. That was what loyalty was about. I felt shitty for having treated Kyle so badly before this had started. Maybe if I’d been a better president, I never would have had to deal with so much resentment in the first place.

  I finally saw her. Val. She was strutting around with an assault rifle slung over her shoulder and a pistol in her hand. I watched as she walked up to Stephanie and began slapping her roughly in the face.

  “It’s now or never,” I hissed to TJ and Nick. “Come on!” We sprang into action, darting into the middle of the room and pointing our guns at Val.

  “What’s all this?” Val sounded amused. “You know I have girls around here with guns, don’t you, boys?”

  “Except for the one on the roof,” I snapped. “I took care of her as we drove up. Not a very good sniper. She could have seen the van from a mile away but she was too busy trying to look like a badass.”

  Val’s smile didn’t falter. “Silly bitch,” she said almost affectionately. “Tara wasn’t ever cut out to be a member of the Succubi. At least, not the Succubi that I’m going to run,” she added with a sinister wink. “Isaac, everything’s going to be different now.” I kept my gun trained on her head as she inched closer to me. “And I’d advise you to put that gun down. Jessica!”

  Before I could react, a petite brunette girl sprung out of the shadows. She had a fierce look on her face and she was wielding a pistol, pointed right at my head. She snarled at me, “Put the gun down, asshole!”

  “No,” I replied. “That wasn’t the deal. The deal was that we hand over the arms, and then you let Stephanie go. Remember, Val?”

  Val jutted her hips to one side and put a dark finger against her chin. "Hmm," she said, pretending to think. "The thing is, I'm not sure that I do remember,” she said in a playful tone. My stomach felt sick as Val stepped closer. “I think I just need to whack Stephanie and then we’ll call it a deal,” she added nastily. “I mean, provided that you understand the repercussions, of course.” She pointed outside. “The cops will be coming soon, and they aren’t gonna like that you shot this poor girl,” she added, pointing to Stephanie. “I’d say that’s prison time for all of you. Especially you, Isaac. Jungle’s Thorns can’t exist without a leader.”

  “Oh yes, it can,” I said, stepping closer. Val snarled at me and I resisted the urge to backhand her across the room. “Fucking bitch,” I snarled right back. “You think you can betray your leader and ruin my club? It doesn’t work like that.”

  "It does," Jessica said in a diminutive voice. She stepped up and put the barrel of her gun against my temple. I could feel it pressing into my temple, the cold steel almost a respite from the incredible heat of the day. "I'll shoot you if you move a muscle," she added.

  I almost laughed. Here I was, being held at gunpoint by someone who probably weighed less than half of what I did. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, snorting and laying my gun down on the ground. I looked up and caught a flash of Kyle darting around on the roof. Luckily, Val and her bitches hadn’t noticed him yet.

  “I’m not being ridiculous,” Jessica said softly. “You move a muscle and I’ll blow your brains out. You got that, asshole?”

  “Fine,” I snapped. “The guns are in the van, Val. If your bitch-stooges hadn’t set up a nail wire, we could have brought them closer to the warehouse for you.”

  Val blinked. “I didn’t think winning you over would be this easy,” she said in a soft voice, almost like a caress. “I thought we’d really have to fight you, asshole,” she added. “But this is better. I prefer this, definitely.” She walked over and pressed her own gun against Stephanie’s temple. Stephanie’s face was filled with pain and anguish and more than anything, I wished that I could comfort her. This is temporary, I thought. Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you, Candace. Val grinned and whipped Stephanie’s head with the pistol until it was drooping on her neck. Even through a heavy coat of blood, Stephanie was still beautiful. “She dies if you try to move,” Val said with a deadly calm. She smiled. “And I’ll take pleasure in killing this bitch, don’t you worry.”

  “A thank you might be nice,” I muttered as I dropped to my knees, keeping my eyes on Stephanie’s body. Just as I was about to lay my second pistol on the ground in front of me, a shot rang out and Val dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Her long black limbs spread out on the white concrete and her face was a twisted mask of pain.

  “Fuck!” Val screamed. “That asshole shot me in the fucking leg!”

  Kyle came thundering down the stairs, looking triumphant. I nodded at him and together, we grabbed Jessica and tackled her to the concrete floor. I could feel the delicate bones grinding in her wrist and for a second I worried about hurting her permanently. Then she twisted and growled in my arms and I realized I was basically dealing with a human-sized cat. As Kyle and I wrestled her down, Jessica gazed up at me with pure hatred in her pretty eyes.

  “You won’t get away with this,” Jessica snarled.

  I laughed confidently. “Oh yes, I will,” I said with a grin. “I’m gonna get away with everything. Kyle, Nick! Bring some ropes!”

  Nick came trotting over with a bundle of smooth rope in his hands. “I’ll help, boss,” he said, leaning down. He began to truss Jessica up like a pig, trying her arms behind her back and her ankles to her knees. “She won’t be able to move when I’m done with her.”

  “Did you bitches really think you could take down Jungle’s Thorns by calling the cops?” I couldn’t resist the urge to laugh. “You two were really a bunch of stupid bitches!”

  Jessica growled and fought in my arms. I saw that tears were leaking from her light, pretty eyes. “We would have ruled LA,” she hissed. “And you had to go and fucking ruin our plans!”

  “And I’m glad we did,” I said simply. “Bitch.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  With Val bleeding on the ground and Stephanie wounded, I knew I had to move fast if I wanted to get out of there before the cops showed up…again.

  “Come on,” I barked over my shoulder. “Get that dead bitch from the roof and bring her down here.” Kyle trotted upstairs and I heard him lugging Tara’s body down. She had a shocked expression on her face, like she couldn’t believe that she’d somehow died while patrolling. I had to look away—I didn’t like violence, but sometimes it was necessary. And if I was being honest, it gave me a thrill. Guns gave me a thrill, they made me feel powerful, even in a way that leading Jungle’s Thorns didn’t. Guns were an evil invention, but I knew that I couldn’t survive without one or two around all the time.

  “What do we do now?” Nick looked up at me.

  I shrugged. “We make one hell of a crime scene for the cops to find, and then we call them, I guess,” I said over my shoulder as I jogged over to Stephanie. She was still sitting in the same painfully tight position; I guessed that she didn’t have enough blood flowing through her body to try to move. When I reached behind her back and cut the plastic zip ties binding her wrists, Stephanie moaned softly and collapsed against me.

  “Isaac,” Stephanie moaned. “Isaac, I’m in so much pain.”

  “You’ll be okay,” I told her tersely as I cut the binds around her ankles. I grabbed one of her hands in my own, ignoring the spark of lust that flashed between us. With Stephanie’s blue eyes locked on my face, I began rubbing the skin and massaging it, trying to get the blood flowing through her hands again. After a few moments, Stephanie began to murmur and whimper in pain. I hated hurting her, but I knew that it was working. Without this, she maybe could have lost a hand.

  “What happened?” Stephanie looked at me. “How did you know to find me?”

  “Val called me,” I said. “She said she had you here and she wanted me to give up all the arms I got from Sergey earlier today.”

  Stephanie’s lids closed slowly over her blue eyes. It took me a moment to realize that she’d passed out—just from shock, I
figured. It wasn’t terribly surprising, considering everything that she’d been through over the past couple of weeks. I could imagine that finding out Val’s true motivations had been a real blow to Stephanie’s spirit. After all, she and Val had built the Succubi from the ground up. Now it was looking like Stephanie was the only one out of all of them who wouldn’t be going to prison when this whole thing was settled.

  “Boss,” TJ said in a heavy voice. “What do we do with her?” He pointed down to Jessica, who lay silently on the ground. Aside from her sobs, she wasn’t even moving. Her face was bright red and streaked with hot tears of anger and embarrassment. “She’s gonna make a lot of noise once I take the gun away,” TJ said in a threatening voice. “We have to do something—and quick!”

  “I have a plan,” I said darkly. “Come on, guys. Go to the van and get some of the guns. Not all of them, say maybe about a third or a quarter. And bring that towel we keep in the back.”

  TJ and Nick nodded and jogged through one of the concrete cracks in the warehouse. I kept massaging Stephanie’s hands until the color looked almost normal. Her skin still felt cool and clammy to the touch but I could tell that she was going to make it out of this and be totally fine.