Edge of Ashes (Sons of Ash Motorcycle Club) (14 page)

“Problems? What problems?”

“Don’t even worry Kari. I’ll take four guys
with me heavily armed. We’ll be in and out in minutes. It’s the perfect plan
sweetie. They’ll never know what’s hit them until Ripper gets back to the
warehouse at 3 or 4 in the morning; long after we’re gone.”

“Wait a second.” I just got a really bad
feeling in my gut. “Who all knows about our rescue attempt on my sister?”

“Just me and the guys I choose to come with
me.” He says.

I have a feeling he’s leaving something
out. “
Just
you and your guys? No one else?”

He looks at me for a moment; guilt written
all over his face.

“What is it Adam? What are you not telling
me?”

“The guy we met today from the Demons; he
knows.”

“What?”

“Hey I had to tell him. He wanted to know
why I needed to know exactly when he was going to hit the drug delivery guys.”

“And you actually told him?” I’m beginning
to get furious. “Why’d you tell him?”

“If I hadn’t told him what we’re doing he
would have just assumed we were going to double cross him and take the drugs
from him soon as he took it from Ripper. He had to know I’d be nowhere near
them and me and my guys would be preoccupied.”

“Oh my god. You’re doing business together
and you can’t even begin to trust one another? How fucked up is that?” I rarely
swear but this just seems to be the occasion for it.

“Oh I do trust him. I wouldn’t have even
attempted this if I didn’t.”

“I don’t understand, but whatever; as long
as we get my sister back I don’t care how you do it or who you do or don’t
trust.”

“Thank you,” he says. “Don’t worry Kari,
it’s not like I have never done stuff like this. You forget I have been in the
Sons like, since I could walk. I know bikers…outlaw bikers and I know how to be
a VP. It’s all going to be fine.”

“Okay…so the minute the Cycle Demons are
attacking Ripper we’ll be rescuing my sister? And then what? It’s not like she
can go home. How do we keep her safe?”

“The only person who really is after your
sister is Ripper. The other guys could care less. After the Demons take the
drugs Ripper will be out of the picture and the Sons will be neutralized; well
those Sons that are still loyal to Ripper that is.”

“What do you mean neutralized?” I don’t
like the sound of this.

“Ripper has to go.” He replies. Then seeing
my confused expression he says. “Ripper has to die Kari. You cut off the head
of the snake and the snake dies. That’s the only way your sister or you will be
safe. The Cycle Demons will be the Alpha MC in town and my club will be legit
and no threat to the Demons. I got it all figured out hon.”

“I guess you do,” I finally concede. “I
guess you do…”

“See, I actually know what I’m doing here.
I didn’t get to be VP by accident.”

“Yeah I remember how easy it was for you to
kill…uh…neutralize those guys back at the warehouse. Aren’t you going to get
bored being normal?”

“I got big plans sweetheart…big plans.”

It’s nearing nine when we head to my house.
The idea is for him to drop me off and he will go meet with his people to
organize the raid on the warehouse that my sister is being held in. We argued
long and hard about parting ways tonight and in the end he won out. I wanted to
stay with him even when they went to rescue my sister but in the end I realized
I would just be a hindrance to any rescue operation. Now my job is to wait. By
three I should be reunited with my little sister and I’m pretty sure the next
six hours are going to be the longest of my twenty-six years.

Adam walks me to my door. When he leans in
for a kiss my plan is to turn my cheek but he smells so damn good I freeze in
place and my mouth becomes an easy target.

When we come up for air I manage to croak:
Well that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Really?” He replies. “What
is
supposed to happen then when two mouths connect?”

“You know what I mean! You’re supposed to
go to plan the rescue operation with your guys and I’m supposed to go to sleep and
wait for my sister’s return. That’s what is meant to happen here.”

He moves in for another exploration of my
mouth. There is just something about the combination of leather and man that
makes my nether regions tingle. He doesn’t even have to kiss me to get my motor
purring.

I take a step back but run into my door as
his mouth finds the nape of my neck. My skin awakens beneath his touch and is
on fire. But it’s not a burning painful fire but a heated tingly kind of fire
that literally gives me the chills from my neck, down my spine, and right to my
kitty. It’s like I’ve got simultaneous hot and cold chills running up and down
my body and the sensation is indescribable. I put my hands on his chest to push
him backwards but I just can’t seem to follow through. I turn my shoulders with
the intention of turning around to unlock my door but he’s too fast.

Suddenly his muscular body is pressing up
against me, mashing me into my front door. His mouth covers mine stifling my protests
and he grinds his hips into me forcing my legs apart and abruptly he’s dry
humping me right in the open where everyone can see; well, if anyone was out
here to see that is.

“You have to let me come in.” He breaths
into my open mouth. His breath is both hot and sweet.

This time he lets me turn around. He knows
I’m beat. He knows I’ll unlock the door and let him in. He has crushed my
resolve and now I’m this malleable object unable to resist his advances.

The door opens and the door slams shut.
Strong arms circle my body and before I can even blink he’s spinning me around
and we’re falling. He lands flat on his back on my hard wood floor and with me
on top. Nice trick that. He could have not twisted around and just fallen on me
instead of the hard floor.

I have to give it one more try. I have to
make him stop. He should be with his buddies planning my sister’s escape not
fucking me in the hallway.

“My sister!” I gasp.

He freezes with one hand on my left boob
and the other on my right. “Seriously?” He replies. “She doesn’t have to be
present every time we do the nasty does she? Cause she was quite the buzz kill
last time. I know some guys are into the whole sister thing… but not me.”

“What? You thought I was bringing her up
for some added turn on or something? You must have a really low opinion of me.”

“Well there is a 50% chance she’d be into
that…”

“What? Where do you get your information?”

“I don’t know,” he replies. “Cosmopolitan?”

“And you read that?”

“I read enough to know-. You know what,
never mind.”

“Yeah… if I were you I wouldn’t admit to
reading Cosmo.”

“So where were we anyway?”

“I think you were getting thrown out at
first.” I say to him, giving him an evil grin.

“Oh hell no! I was doing better than that.”
He replies.

“Really?”

“Rounding second and sliding into third,
I’d say. I did have my hand on your boob and my tongue in your mouth…”

“Sliding into third? Now way! You got
tagged out at second when you brought my sister into the game and if we keep
talking baseball you’re gonna wind up being a bat boy, and you know how much
action they don’t get.”

“Oh come on…help a fellow out…”

“Um…okay, I’ll help you out…fellow. You can
start by dropping the baseball references; for a biker that’s just weird. Or is
this you practicing for when you’re a regular biker and not an outlaw one?”

“Whatever works for you is fine,” Adam
says, looking down at his feet.

“You’re not going to become a big pussy now
are you, because I kinda like the outlaw biker Adam. It’s this new, I’m going
legit that I’m not sure about.”

“He’s going legit?” Says a new voice.

I look over Adam’s shoulder and standing in
my open doorway is my best friend Jenny. How the hell could I have left my door
open at a time like this?

“What are you doing Jenny?” I purposefully
let all my frustration pour into my voice and all those tingly sexual feelings
I was so enjoying…they’re gone.

“Sorry. I just came by to see how you’re
doing.” She says.

“Well?”

“Seems like you’re doing fine now! Gotta
go. Bye Kari.”

And just like that my best friend tromps out
of the hallway and across my front lawn to her car.

Adam sits up, scratching his head. “Can we
maybe go to your bedroom? You know, in case your mother shows up or something?”

“Kinda not in the mood now Adam.”

I sit back down on the floor next to him.
What was I thinking, doing the nasty when he’s supposed to be planning my
sister’s rescue? I lean on his shoulder and close my eyes. They remain closed
as I feel his hand take mine and we just sit here in the dark, each lost in our
own thoughts. I’m actually feeling pretty good until an unbidden thought pops
into my head. What’s going to happen if Adam gets himself killed tonight?
There’s so much resting on his young shoulders over the next few hours. One
more time I get the feeling that I should be with him tonight and not holed up
here.

“Adam-”

“No you can’t come with me. Maybe you
should have invited your sister in. Waiting is often harder than the doing of a
thing.
I’m
going to be fine, but I’m not so sure about you.”

“Then let me come with.” I plead for the
last time.

“No! I need you to be safe. Just knowing
you’re here and out of harm’s way gives me the strength to do what I need to
do. Kari, I have to know you’re okay if I’m going to do this. Do you understand
me?”

For an answer I turn to face him. I lift my
chin up and brush my lips against his jawline. His whiskers make my lips tingle
and my nose twitches as I stifle an untimely sneeze. He smells so damn good and
I know it’s not a smell you can bottle. This is Adam. He is leather and musk, a
heady combination of his maleness that my body finds to be irresistible. He
turns his head to face me and immediately our lips touch with such an
unbelievable tenderness it sends these little tendrils of pleasure shooting
through my body; it’s enough to curl my toes.

He lets my hand fall to my lap and takes my
face in both of his hands. His touch is hot. At first I think he’s going to
start kissing me again but instead he starts speaking.

“You know I have to go Kari. I gotta get my
head straight. I can’t go do this if I’ve got you on my mind. If I got Kari on
the brain I’m gonna miss something crucial and find myself leading my guys into
an ambush or something. I can’t go in that warehouse tonight unless I’m a
hundred percent focused on the task at hand; otherwise me or someone else is
gonna end up dead. Surely you can understand that.”

He’s right or course. I take a deep breath
and let it out slowly. I can feel the passion that was thronging in my blood
slowly subside. Someday we’re going to have ourselves a good old fashioned fuck
and nobody’s going to stop us! It just that it’s not gonna be today. I look up.
He’s watching me expecting an answer so I give him one.

“I understand. I don’t like it but I
understand; now go rescue my little sister then get your ass back here so we
can finish what we started.”

A heavy mist clings to the ground almost
completely obscuring the approach of six leather clad bikers as they make their
way from the shelter of the tree line to the blacked out warehouse.

“Fucking amateurs!” Adam swears under his
breath. His men may be almost entirely invisible now but they announce their
arrival with an unforgiving cacophony of sounds; the barrel of a gun against a
belt buckle, sudden explosions of pent up air bursting from five sets of lungs,
and the grating shuffle of five pairs of boots on the gravel parking lot. Adam
it seems is the only member of the rescue party who can actually move silently.

Ten yards from the buildings perimeter Adam
holds up a fisted hand, bringing his troops to a noisy halt. He wonders for the
tenth time why he bothered teaching his fellow raiders military hand signals.
Meant to replace the need for spoken commands, soldiers are able to communicate
a wide array of orders without ever saying a word. Pre battle stress it seems,
has completely wiped the memory of the signals from the minds of his young
commandos.

Adam listens for any sounds that might clue
him in to a possible attack from those within the warehouse but so far it
seems, they have moved unnoticed. He waits thirty more seconds before dropping
his hand and signaling his warriors to advance. They take a half dozen steps
forwards when the unthinkable happens.

Abruptly four powerful, previously
unnoticed lamps explode into the darkness illuminating the six men approaching
the building. Adam flashes a sign and six men hit the dirt. Adam fights off an
attack of the sneezes as his nose comes in contact with a fine dust coating the
gravel lot. Holding his breath he listens, waits, and looks, expecting the door
in front of them to burst open in any moment. He fights off the temptation to
roundly curse his troops and their failed attempt to be quiet. You’d think he
is leading a troop of elephants and not a crack team of raiders. He cannot
believe that no one has come bursting forth guns blazing. Someone should have
noticed the lights going on. Unless… unless the girls guards are preoccupied
with her which is not such a good sign either. They promised to not kill her or
chop off any digits, but there’s a lot they can do to her and still be within
the terms of her captivity and subsequent release.

Taking a shallow breath, Adam motions his
men forwards and they begin to belly crawl the remaining twenty feet or so to
the buildings only backdoor. Three minutes later they reach the base of the
warehouse and six men get to their feet, backs against the cold steel of the
corrugated metal façade. Adam removes the small pack from his back and fishes
out a single homemade explosive charge. It’s basically a bit of C-4 with an
outer shell to direct the entire explosive blast inwards. He’ll attach the
device to the doors deadbolt then from a few feet away remotely detonate the
charge. It should be enough to literally blow the door off its hinges and make
for a dramatic entrance; but not so big a blast that it will injure any of the
buildings occupants. It would have been nice to just lob in several grenades
before entering but that would have surely killed Kari’s sister. Adam
considered bringing a CS canister but they just didn’t have enough gas masks to
go around and too many of his own people would be rendered useless. They’ll
have to rely on their high tech weapons with infrared sites to pick off the
woman’s captors.

Adam carefully molds the C-4 around the
door’s deadbolt lock then uses both hands to press it into place. Gently he
lets go and stands back to see if it will stick; it does. Next he removes the
remote detonator and motions everyone back. He looks back behind him at his men
once more then turns his attention to the device in his hands. He takes a deep
breath and flips off the trigger safety. Adam listens for a moment, thumb on
switch. So far they remain completely undetected. He flips the switch.

The explosion is far more destructive than
he’d anticipated. The following concussion from the blast actually knocks him
off his feet and backwards where he takes down his own men behind him like a
bunch of bowling alley pins. Adam scrambles to his knees feeling around for his
fallen weapon. He grabs it and stands just as the first defendant charging from
the building head butts him painfully in the sternum. Both men fall to the
ground in a heap and scrambling for purchase on each other as their deadly
fight begins.  How, he wonders could this have gone so horribly wrong?

A fist smashing into his right cheek nearly
makes him see stars. A second blow from the other fist and he really is seeing
stars. Thankfully for him he has years of military and martial arts training
that has been beat into his reflexes. As if on its own accord his right hand
finds the knife strapped to his thigh and in one motion draws and slices. His
reward; a fountain of blood spraying across his face. His left hand grabs his
attackers hair and wrenches the man’s head down and off to the side where he
succeeds in pulling the dying man off his body. In that same motion Adam rolls
on top of the man stradding him as he prepares to deal another blow with his
knife before realizing its unneeded; the man is dead!

Another man steps backwards against Adam,
stumbles and falls hard on the gravel lot. A deafening blast and flash of fire from
the barrel of the man’s gun temporarily robs Adam of his night vision. He
throws his own body on the man’s chest making him too close for the gun to be
used effectively against him. As he lands on the man he strikes out along his
attackers arm with a long slicing blow meant to sever the man’s tendons making
it impossible for him to use his gun even if he were dumb enough to try. Then
he drives his knee up between the man’s legs with crippling power and in the
same motion takes a step with his other foot and staggers away from the man. As
his vision returns he finds he’s on the outer edge of a group of maybe a dozen
or more ghostly figures locked in deadly combat. Right in front of him is the
open door to the warehouse. He glances back at the deathly struggle behind him;
his men will have to live or die on their own terms. He has a hostage to
rescue.

He takes about a dozen steps deeper into
the building until he is completely blinded by the dark. He pulls out a small
red tinted flash light from his pocket and sweeps the darkness before him. He
sees nothing at first so he heads deeper in. His feet kick something metallic
sounding. He focuses his light down towards his feet. Lying on the floor a few
feet in front of him is a long wicked looking knife partially covered in a dark
fluid; blood… probably belonging to the hostage. He continues further in,
making wide sweeps with his tiny flashlight. He goes about another twenty feet
when he illuminates a body tied to a chair and lying sideways on the floor. He
freezes. A motionless body and a bloody knife; this cannot be good. He moves to
her side. Her face is facing away from him.

Now what was her name?

“Jen-“ No that’s the best friend.

He reaches out and places two fingers on
the side of her neck and whispers her name.

“Anna?”

No response. He can’t feel a pulse either
but that could be because he might have had his fingers in the wrong spot. His
knees feel wet. He looks down. He is kneeling in a pool of blood; her blood.

Fuck stealth! “Anna!” he shouts. “Anna, can
you hear me?”

Adam finds her wrist and feels there, but a
sudden voice makes him stop mid-motion.

“Nice try Adam, but you’re too fucking
late!”

Adam whirls around, standing in one motion.

“Ripper!”

“Now why are you so surprised to see me?”
Ripper taunts. “Did ya think I’d be fooled by your little plan with your Cycle
Demon pals? It’s damn insulting, it is.”

“How?” Adam is at a loss for words. He
can’t believe this is happening.

“Did you really think some kindergarten
pinky promise you made twenty-five years ago would be stronger than family?
Your Cycle Demon buddy really must hate you Adam. He came to me immediately
after you two struck your deal. This has been, hands down, one of the best days
of my life. Not only did we secure a distribution deal with MS-13, we cemented
an alliance with the Demons and hunted down and destroyed nearly every Son who
was loyal to you and your pathetic cause. What is it…going legit? That’s it
wasn’t it? Well you can certainly go legit Adam; you and the two or three we
haven’t found yet but we’ll smoke them out of hiding sooner or later. You don’t
have a club Adam…you’re a one man operation now; good luck with that. Oh…and in
case you’re wondering, she’s still alive, but I’m not done with her yet. Now if
you want to live to fight another day then I suggest you tuck that tail between
your legs and hightail it out of here. My guys out there, they have strict
orders to let you leave alive.”

“You’re a dead man Ripper and unlike you,
I’m not giving you the option to leave and fight another day. Your club may be
intact, but you’re dying today; right now!”

The second Adam says right now he leaps at
Ripper, slashing at the man’s eyes with his already drawn blade. His movements
are straight and sure and a lesser man would have stumbled away missing his
eyes. Ripper is too fast. On a normal day Adam is the better fighter, but
caught off guard, slightly disoriented, weary, and in shock it’s doubtful he
can take the bigger man.

When Adam slashes Ripper merely jerks his
head back an inch and the blade just whistles past harmlessly. But as he does
so he lashes out with his right foot catching Adam in the stomach and flinging
him backwards and painfully on his ass. Ripper advances on him as Adam fights to
regain his breath.

Somehow he has to end this fight and fast
before the girl dies from her blood loss. Right now Ripper is way over
confident and that may just be his undoing. Amazingly he lets Adam get to his
feet again and just stands there watching. Suddenly inspiration strikes. He
does his trademark move, one that Ripper has seen him do a thousand times.
During a fight he would toss his knife from his right hand to his left, then
strike upon catching the blade by the handle. This time Adam does something
different. He tosses the knife but catches it by the blades tip between his
thumb and forefinger. It takes but a split second for him to flick his wrist
and launch the razor sharp missile in Ripper’s direction. Ripper’s face
registers pure shock before he throws up his hands in an attempt to block the
knife as it tumbles end over end right at him. With a sickening thud the blade
buries itself to the hilt in the soft flesh and cartilage of Rippers throat.
Adam is rewarded by a spray of hot blood across his face and chest just before
Ripper pitches forward and falls face first, dead before he hits the ground.

Adam stands there for a second, stunned
that it has actually worked, then falls to his knees at the girl’s side. Then
gently, carefully he scoops her up in his arms and staggers to his feet. This
time he turns and faces opposite the door he came in and makes his way
carefully to the front door of the warehouse. Abandoning his men to their fate
is not something he takes lightly, but they all know why they’re here and
ultimately expendable. The woman must be saved at all costs and that is what he
is doing now. After leaving the warehouse he makes for the tree line where he
will go back around to where his truck is parked. He’ll take Anna to her sister
who will then take her to the hospital if necessary; and it will be necessary.