Inferno

by Harley McRide

  “Whatever! Well, mine will literally take five minutes,” Georgie said. “I am from the Bronx, I moved to California to build custom bikes with my sister, Sofia. I have a huge obnoxious family and friends at home. My sister has just become an old lady to Maxi and Ice from the Ops, and that pretty much sums it up. Although, I must say, at this point, being kidnapped is probably the most exciting thing that has happened to me since my brother, Tony, and his best friend, Fin, barged into my senior prom and beat the shit out of my date because he had told one of their friends he was gonna ‘nail me’ that night. They didn’t take kindly to that.”

  Boomer shook his head and took a bite of his food and then said, “I am sure there is more to your life than that.”

  Georgie shook her head. “Not really, I am fairly boring. I like to draw and design bikes, that is what I usually do when I have free time, I just draw and maybe read a book or two. Boring. What about you?”

  Boomer raised an eyebrow at her and said, “Well, I am and Enforcer in the Furies MC, which basically means I get to beat the shit out of people if they piss us off, which is fun. I also design and paint tanks on motorcycles, been doing that since I was a teen, my dad taught me. I am from Wisconsin, and moved to Cali when I was nineteen and dumb. Met the guys and been with the Furies ever since. I told you I have explosive experience, so yeah, I tend to read and study that when I have down time, just because it is a precise thing.”

  Georgie looked closely at him and then nodded. “So, your club, you would describe them as what? I mean, are they what you call them, percenters?”

  “Baby, that is 1% and I guess most of the law enforcement people would say that since they have been following us around for years. I get why, I mean, I would be dumb to think the cops aren’t watching us all the time, but the guys in my club, they don’t do shit just to do it, we don’t go out and start shit or anything. We usually just do our thing, and hang out and if the cops nose around, then we deal. I will say about half of the stuff we are accused of, we don’t do, they just like to bust our chops,” Boomer said and then stood and cleaned up the boxes and then turned back to her and said, “okay, there is a cellphone here, we can make one more call before the morning when we will be out of communication until we get to the US, so which would you rather do, make the call tonight or make the call in the morning? We need to go back up the ladder to get signal, and it isn’t the best but it will work.”

  Georgie looked at him and said, “Better do it tonight, my brother is probably freaking out by now. If we don’t want the entirety of the Roarks, the O’Malleys, and the Macaroys to descend on us, it would be wiser.”

  Boomer nodded. “Okay, well, let’s get this over with. I will call Fling and let him know we are here and safe, and arrange for someone to be at the entrance when we come up in the US.”

  She nodded and stood and clapped her hands. “Go team!”

  Boomer shook his head and then grabbed the cell off the shelf and turned it on and once it was powered up, he nodded and took her hand. They walked back out into the tunnel area and to the ladder, he handed her the phone and said, “I am going up first, I am sure no one has found the shack, but just in case, wait here until I tell you all is good.”

  Georgie frowned and looked up the shaft and said, “Okay then, well, do we have any weapons down here? I mean, I figure we are gonna need them just in case there is a large spider or something.”

  “A gun for a spider?” Boomer asked with a scowl. “I hope you are fucking with me?”

  Georgie rolled her eyes and laughed. “Come on, really, I am a Roark, which automatically makes me a little wacky but not that wacky. Go on, I will watch.”

  He nodded and began to crawl back up to the surface.

  The group of men stood a hundred feet from the small shack they had tracked the man and woman to. Of course they didn’t realize that while the woman was being taken that night she had been tagged on the bottom of her shoe in the treads, a small little device that would ensure they would be able to find her and him if they did escape, at least the idiots had done that right. However, the signal was flashing in and out right now, which could mean she had found the small tracker. Not that it would matter, the tracks were fresh so he was pretty sure she was in the small shack along with the male they wanted.

  “Hey,” one of the men he hired looked at him nervously. “This is the one called Boomer, right? I mean, what if he has the place rigged with a bomb? That wouldn’t be good considering there isn’t too much out here, which would make it the perfect spot or him to plant explosives.”

  Alejandro glared at the weak man who was standing before him. How he wished his brother were still alive, he would have loved to see what they were going to do next. Working with these stupid men was tiresome, having to explain every little detail to them like they actually get a choice in what was happening. They didn’t, he and his brother paid their men handsomely for following orders, that was it, they didn’t ask for opinions.

  “If he does, we will go down in a blaze of glory, my sister will then avenge our deaths,” he said and the other man nodded silently and seemed to pale a little. What a weakling, he may need to kill him before this was all said and done.

  “There is no movement in the shack though, how is that possible?” the man said and Alejandro snapped back at the man.

  “They are in there; the tracking doesn’t lie. Now, get a few men together and go approach the shack, it is time to force their hand. There is only one road in and one road out, they have to get through us.”

  The man nodded, turned, and motioned to a few of the guys and they began to walk toward the shack. He stood and watched the shack, he was in there he could feel it. The man named Boomer was one of the ones with the Furies that he personally wanted dead, why? Because he had been the one to desecrate his brother’s remains. They had blown up his home and in doing so his brother’s remains had still not fully been found. The bastard would pay for that, just like the rest of the Furies. If they thought they could kill his brother and just walk away unscathed, they were wrong.

  This whole thing was started by them, not his brother, but he and his sister were going to make sure they ended it. The US government was currently attempting to apprehend him and his sister for a variety of crimes their family had a hand in. Apparently a package had been delivered to the authorities in the US that detailed the Ortiz family activities, not that it mattered to him and his sister, they would never catch them, ever.

  The Ortiz family may be small by Dominican standings, but they were fierce and known for not being forgiving. These pissants had no fucking clue who they were dealing with, but they would soon. He would go to the ends of the earth to wipe out the Furies, every single last one of those fuckers. They were dead men walking, he hoped they realized.

  Chapter Six

  Georgie watched as Boomer got to the top of the ladder and pushed the hatch up a little and looked around, he took a few minutes before looking down at her and nodding. She sucked in a breath and began her ascent, she really wanted to get one more deep breath of fresh air as well. Damn, she could feel a slight cool breeze coming down the shaft and she closed her eyes. God, she really needed this. As she neared the top, Boomer held out a hand and leaned over.

  “See if you have a signal, I don’t want you up here if you don’t have to be,” Boomer said and she nodded and wrapped one of her arms around the rungs of the ladder and held on while she moved the phone with her other hand.

  She looked and saw that indeed she had enough bars on the phone to make a call so she nodded and then punched in her sister’s number this time. She loved her parents but they were probably freaking out.

  “Hello?” she heard a man say before the phone even rang on her side.

  “Who is this?” Georgie asked and heard someone suck in a breath.

  “Fuck, Georgie?” the man said and she nodded. Duh, fuck!

  “Yep,” she finally said.

  “This is Ice,” he said an
d she wanted to sigh with relief.

  “Okay, I am just calling to let you know I am fine, Boomer is fine, we are going to be crossing the border in about three days’ time, uh we are kinda walking,” she said, “but trust me we are going to be fine. It will just take a little longer than what I expected.”

  “Georgie, listen, I’m glad you are okay, can I talk to Boomer please?” he said and she nodded but before she handed the phone over she said.

  “Tell my parents I am fine, and tell my brother not to come out here, and make sure Sofia doesn’t fly off the handle.”

  Ice sighed loudly and said, “Too late for that. I will make sure I pass along the messages.”

  “Okay,” she said and then handed the phone up and held on and waited for Boomer, she really didn’t want to go back down yet, she needed some fresh air.

  “You got Boomer,” he said into the phone when he got it and she watched him carefully as he talked to Ice, something was going on, she could tell by the sound of Ice’s voice, and because her sister hadn’t answered, she would have, shit, Georgie hadn’t had time to think about it. No way would Sofia ever give her phone away to someone when she was missing. She just wouldn’t. Boomer’s eyes came to her and he nodded and then said.

  “Yeah, man, I will make sure I tell her. Okay, let me make my call and we’ll go from there.”

  He disconnected the phone and looked at her and said, “One more call and we are gone.”

  She nodded and bit her lip, she really wanted to know what was going on, but he had to take care of business first. She saw him stand up and walk a few steps away to get privacy as he dialed. It only took a moment before someone must have answered his call as well because he started talking.

  “Fling, yeah, we are at the shack. Make sure someone picks our ass up on the other side. You know it is gonna take us three days, until then, man, make sure you tell whoever is picking us up to bring some fresh clothes and shit, we will make it to the first fucking hotel and check in to get cleaned up.”

  He was silent as whoever it was talked to him, he nodded a few times made a grunting noise and then said, “Yeah got it. Okay, make sure you tell the Ops we have this under control.”

  Boomer bent down and looked intently out a crack in the shack, the building didn’t have windows but she knew when she walked inside that several of the slats in the walls were gapped a little since the light had been streaming in. She wanted to rise up and see what he was looking at but when he swore she knew something was not right.

  “Fuck, how the hell did they find us?” Boomer snapped and then he said into the phone. “Shit, I forgot to do that, damn it to hell, was in too big of a hurry and truthfully I wouldn’t have anyway, they were total dumbasses, who would have thought they actually were that smart. Yeah, we are gone.”

  He hung up the phone and said, “Come on, baby, back down, we have some visitors. Once we get down don’t move too far, we need to check for trackers, they found us somehow.”

  She nodded and went to move down the shaft and she heard someone start yelling and it was followed by a few shots at the shack, the noise was loud in the shaft and she moved as fast as she could without falling down on her ass. Georgie looked up, Boomer was pulling the door closed quickly and then he moved fast. When he reached the bottom of the ladder he pulled it hard, once, twice and finally the third time she flinched as the ladder came off the side of the shaft and dirt rained down on them. When the dust cleared, Boomer was looking up and he frowned.

  “Fuck, come on,” he said and she looked at him warily.

  “What is going on?” she asked as she was pulled behind him.

  “Well,” he said, stopping and then running his hands down her body swiftly, she squeaked especially when he ran his fingers under her bra and then she growled.

  “Really? I am pretty sure that they didn’t put anything in my bra while I was out.”

  He nodded. “Maybe, but they are tracking us somehow.”

  He moved to her jeans and ran a hand around her waist and then went lower until he reached her shoes, which he lifted up. She sighed and braced herself on his shoulder and against the dirt wall.

  Slowly he felt on the bottom of one shoe and then lifted the other. When he groaned and then pulled something out from her sole, she frowned and looked down.

  “What is that?” she asked and he grimaced.

  “Well, yeah, this is how they found us, and like a dumbass I didn’t check before we left that shit hole. Fuck, seriously, you would think I was a novice, motherfuckers,” he said and then took the small little black piece, walked to the table, and hit it with a can he had grabbed. They could hear someone yelling still, the voices drifting down the shaft, but they sounded too far away.

  “We need to move, get some distance between us, when they finally come in the shack, they will find the hole and thus know what we are doing,” Boomer said and she nodded.

  “But…” she said and then looked back. “They will uh, follow us, won’t they?”

  Boomer paused and then nodded slowly and said, “We have weapons, and more at the next cavern. By the time they get down here, we should be a fair distance away.”

  Georgie nodded slowly and looked back and said, “Okay, this is gonna suck saying this, since you know we are down here and shit, but maybe we should make sure they can’t follow us, I mean if we don’t, then we have three days running down here in the stale air. They will catch us, we will have to shoot our way out of here and who knows if we will make it. You said earlier that you were a master of explosives, I am feeling like maybe it is time to prove that.”

  Boomer shook his head. “No way, there is one little thing wrong, I will bury us alive.”

  “Well, we are dead anyway if they catch up to us. I mean, I am assuming they want us for a reason, although I’m not sure what the hell it is. But I would feel a lot better if we at least have some time to get to the other side,” Georgie said and Boomer looked at her with an intense expression.

  He looked up, and they heard the voices clearer now and she said, “You know I’m right.”

  He nodded slowly and then took her hand and pushed her down the corridor with two flashlights in her hand and said, “Go, run, make sure you are far enough away when this goes that if it collapses on me you will still be able to go. If I don’t come behind you in an hour or so, just keep going, someone will be there at the end of the tunnel to help you.”

  Georgie bit her lip, she really didn’t want to leave him, but she also knew she would hold him up if she were still here with him when he set off whatever he was getting ready to use. In a split second she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down and kissed him.

  Boomer didn’t hesitate, his arms wrapped around her and he kissed her back, sweeping his tongue in her mouth quickly and forcefully, making her suck in a breath through her nose. Shit, he kissed as good as he looked, she thought and then pulled back and looked at him.

  “I swear, if you die after that kiss, I will come back and hunt your ass down to kill you again. I really would like to see if you can kiss as well when our lives are not in danger,” Georgie whispered and then kissed him quickly and let him go. “And no, I wasn’t thinking that out loud, I knew what I was saying.”

  “Go on, baby,” Boomer said. “I will catch you in a few.”

  She nodded and turned, holding up the flashlight she did what he said and she ran.

  Boomer watched as the light moved down the tunnel. Damn, she could kiss, he thought and then turned around and went to the box in the corner. He knew they had to have something he could use down here. But he hadn’t been down in so long, he wasn’t sure. When he flipped open the lid, he grinned. Oh hell yeah, he thought and reached in, grabbing what he needed to make sure he would do the job right. Not too much and not too little, enough to make the ceiling collapse.

  He moved back to where the shaft was and looked up, yep, they had found it, the door was sitting open and he could hear th
em yelling at someone to get some rope from the car. Yeah, not happening, assholes. He quickly ran the wire he needed and set the charges above his head at the top of the ceiling, unfortunately he didn’t have a timer, so he was gonna need to light this bitch and then run like fucking hell.

  He heard someone.

  “If you come up now and surrender, we assure you we will kill you quickly,” the voice said and Boomer rolled his eyes, were they that fucking stupid? Probably, he thought because if they thought he would ever give himself up, or risk Georgie getting into their hands, they were insane. He smiled. When she had jumped on him it had caught him off guard, her sweet lips touching his had felt right.

  He moved to the next charge and attached the wire, oh yeah, now that he had tasted her, there was no fucking way he wasn’t gonna sink his cock into her. Damn, he thought she was sexy before, but after this, she was a fucking goddess. Boomer admitted he sucked at relationships, women, he just couldn’t ever read them, and if he did, then he didn’t want them. He was picky, Sunny used to tease him that there wasn’t a woman in the world who would put up with his brand of crazy. He looked back into the darkness and smiled. Maybe there hadn’t been before, but he had obviously been looking in the wrong fucking place. Georgie seemed to fit him quite nicely.

  He attached the last of the wire and then moved against the wall, looking up as they threw down a rope and he saw a man standing at the edge, ready to be lowered down. Bring it, asshole, come on down for a fucking visit, I will roll out the red carpet, he thought and then pulled his lighter out of his pocket and flicked it. He held it to the long wick he had run and without looking back, he ran.

  He counted in his head as he ran, using his footsteps to keep his count. Fuck, he pushed himself as he reached twenty in his head, he needed to get farther. He heard someone behind him yell and then a bullet fired, fuckers couldn’t see him but they were trying to make sure he wasn’t waiting for him.