Guns & Burning Rubber: The Iron Brotherhood series (9 page)

There was definitely some sort of commotion going on outside the basement, that was for certain.  She could hear feet pounding along as someone ran past the door, accompanied by muffled yells.  None of the voices was distinct enough to make out the words, but the men beyond this door were definitely agitated over something.

Was it worth risking an escape now, or should she wait?  It was a tough question, made worse by the fact that Kara knew that there was no truly correct answer - at least, not one that she could work out with her incomplete knowledge.

The darkness threw off her internal clock, but she felt as though it was later in the evening.  How long would these parties last?  Maybe, if she waited, it would die down and give her a better chance to get away.

On the other hand, of course, the longer Kara waited, the more likely Savage was to wake up, down where he was handcuffed at the bottom of the stairs.  Kara doubted that even the muscled, violent biker could tear free of his restraints - but he could certainly make a lot of noise, drawing attention to Kara’s position.

The sounds coming from the other side of the door didn’t sound quite right, somehow.  There was something going on.  Those shouts didn’t sound like they were happy, cries of joy or excitement.

Instead, they sounded almost panicked, angry, filled with rage and fear.

A loud popping noise came through the door, louder even than the shouts and yells.  The sound made Kara freeze, every muscle stiffening automatically as her body reacted to the sound even before her brain had fully processed it.

That was a gunshot.

That clinched Kara’s decision.  If there was shooting going on upstairs, it meant that, one way or another, the party was definitely over.  Kara didn’t know who was shooting, but it meant that she had an opportunity to move.

Time to make her escape, she decided.

Kara turned the knob of the door slightly, freeing it from the hole in the jamb, but didn’t push it all the way open just yet.  Instead, she let go of the knob, instead shifting both of her hands down to the weapon clasped in both of her hands.

She took a deep breath in through her nose, slowly let it out of her mouth, and then took in one more.

And then, raising up a foot, still with the ridiculous thigh-high boot covering it, Kara kicked open the door leading up from the basement.  Gun up and at the ready, she charged forward, ready to attack the first threat she spotted-

-and she froze, her mouth falling open and barely managing to remove her finger from the trigger in time.

Gimli’s wide-eyed face stared back at her, drained of color as he looked up along the length of the heavy gun barrel in Kara’s hands.  “Easy, easy!” he said hoarsely, his words tumbling out of his mouth in a waterfall. 

Kara let her eyes close for a fraction of a second, and then lowered the barrel of her gun down so that it wasn’t pointing in between Gimli’s eyes.  “Gimli!” she said, her voice filled with warring concern and relief.  “What the hell are you doing here?”

As she caught her breath, letting her heartbeat drop back down to a more normal range, Kara eyed the man from top to bottom.  Gimli was breathing heavily, she noted - and it didn’t seem to be due only to the fact that a woman had just tried to shove an assault rifle down his throat.  He was hunched down a little, slightly crouching on the balls of his feet, and his dark leather vest had a couple flecks of unidentified dark wetness. 

And clutched in his hand was a large, gleaming chrome semi-automatic pistol.

At the sight of that gun, Kara paused, not letting her guard down all the way, but Gimli didn’t appear about to shoot her.  In fact, he showed quite the opposite reaction - after taking a breath, a smile replaced the expression of shock on his face.

“Thank god you’re alive!” he breathed, moving forward and lifting up his arms to reach out in a hug.

Before he could encircle her, however, Kara drew back, lifting her own weapon up a little higher.  “Hold on,” she said with caution.  Currently, she wasn’t sure who she could trust - and until she knew, she wasn’t going to let her guard down for anyone.

Gimli looked puzzled at her refusal to let him hug her.  “What?” he asked, sounding confused.

“Why are you here?” Kara repeated, very casually taking a small step back, putting a little space in between her and the short, bulky man with the pistol.

“Isn’t it obvious?”  Gimli still looked puzzled, as though she should have figured it out by now.  “We’re here to rescue you!”

This answer just raised more questions for Kara.  She opened her mouth, but the different questions warred with each other, and for a second, nothing came out.  Instead, mouth still open, she just stared at Gimli.

And in that second of silence, she heard the thudding of another pair of booted feet, approaching from around the corner of the kitchen.

“Gimli!” a voice shouted, coming from the same direction as the rapidly approaching feet.  “Any luck?”

“Over here!” Gimli called out from behind Kara. 

She turned and glared back at him, not sure what he was responding to but still not thrilled that he was giving away their position.  But she couldn’t say anything - the footsteps had reached the corner and their owner was about to appear.

From around the corner, a big man, tall, clad in black leather like armor, and carrying a heavy pistol, came into view. 

For the third time in as many minutes, Kara felt her mouth flop open.

All she could do was stare back at Cross as he stopped dead at the sight of her.

#

“Cross?”  The name felt dry in Kara’s mouth, but all of her thoughts felt as though they were knotted up together, none of them able to be straightened out and separated from the others.

For a second, Cross just stared back at her, still breathing heavily.  “Kara?” he said back, his arms dropping down towards his sides.

And then, before the FBI agent could even prepare a response, the man swept forward, towards her.

This time, Kara didn’t resist the hug.  On the contrary, she threw her arms around the man fiercely, squeezing him as tight as she could manage, not caring about how her gun became an awkward rod that probably poked against Cross’s back.  She buried her face into the crook of his neck, inhaling his calming scent, shaking slightly as she squeezed him as hard as she could possibly manage.

For several seconds, the two of them just held each other tightly.  Neither Kara nor Cross spoke a word.  Kara could feel herself shaking, and she knew that Cross was also shaking slightly.  Whether those shakes, either hers or Cross’s, were due to nerves, adrenaline, passion, or any combination of the above factors, she couldn’t say. 

Finally, eventually, the man’s hold on her slackened slightly.  He moved back slightly, but he kept his arms up, his hands clutching Kara’s shoulders so tightly that she was almost afraid he was going to pierce the skin. 

“What the hell happened to you?” Cross asked her, gazing so intently into her eyes that she swore that she could see his soul, lurking just behind his pupils.  His words were calm, but his face was tightening into anger.  “What did you do?”

What could she say?  “I made a stupid decision, that’s what,” Kara burst out, the words coming straight out her mouth without any sort of filtering by her brain.  “I’m sorry!  Oh, Cross, I’m so sorry!”  At the corners of her eyes, Kara felt tears suddenly welling up.

At the sight of those tears, Cross froze for a second, the anger instantly vanishing and replaced by concern.  “Hey, it’s okay,” he murmured to her, pulling her in once again for another hug.  The man’s arm rubbed up and down her back, and Kara could feel its heat through the flimsy tank top she still wore.

“This is great and all,” Gimli spoke up behind them, clearing his throat as if apologizing for daring to interrupt, “but we’re kind of still standing in the Hellraisers’ base, here.  This really isn’t the best place for this sort of conversation, is it?”

Cross jerked, as if he had forgotten where they were.  “Gimli, you’re right,” he said immediately, releasing Kara from the hug.  “Let’s focus on getting out of here - and then we can talk.”

But for a minute longer, his hand lingered on Kara’s back, a silent but comforting gesture.

Waving for Kara and Gimli to follow, Cross started for the doorway leading out of the kitchen - but the crack of a handgun from somewhere nearby made him freeze.  “Shit,” he murmured, dropping down into a crouch.

Kara hoisted her weapon back up, checking to make sure that the safety was back off (she had flipped it on upon spotting Gimli).  “What’s the situation?” she whispered to Cross.

The man lifted one shoulder in a helpless shrug.  “Hard to say,” he whispered back.  “The party was starting to wind down when we arrived, and we sent most of the Hellraisers scattering by bursting in with motorcycles revving and firing a few shots over their heads.  But it seems like they’re starting to creep back.”

“Well, at least they can’t get to their weapons,” Kara whispered back.

Cross’s eyes dropped down to the assault rifle in her hands.  “Is that where you got that beast?” he asked.

“Yep.  Looks like I found their base of operations for the smuggling - they’ve got crates of assault weapons like this one down in the basement.  If I can get out of here, I just need to call in the cavalry, and they’ll come sweeping in.”

“Of course, it would be better if we weren’t caught in the crossfire,” Cross finished her thought.

“So what’s the plan?”

Cross tilted his head to one side for a moment, listening, but he didn’t hear any more sounds.  “The bikes are just outside the front hallway,” he said, pointing around the corner.  “We just need to reach those, and we should be able to get away.”

“That’s what, fifty feet away?”

“Pretty much,” Gimli affirmed from behind Kara.

The FBI agent took one last breath, hoisting her weapon.  “Well, the longer we wait, the more likely we are to get pinned down here.  Let’s go.”

Cross nodded, but the big biker didn’t move for a second.  “Wait,” he finally spoke up.

Kara looked up at him in surprise as he turned back around to face her.  “What?” she asked, confused about why he was delaying.

“If I’m about to risk death, there’s one last thing I need to do first,” he told her, gazing down at her.

This time, as he swept her up in his arms, Kara just barely managed to lower her gun in time so that it didn’t poke into his abdomen.

A second later, his lips found hers, and she let her body melt against him.

The kiss was powerful, but only lasted a few seconds.  Cross pulled back, and for an instant, Kara was still leaning forward, wanting more.  “To be continued,” he whispered her.  “Now, let’s get out of here.”

“Let’s,” she agreed, picking the barrel of the assault rifle back up.

In an explosive burst of energy, Cross dove around the corner, his gun up in held firmly in both hands, swinging back and forth as it searched for a target.  As if they had trained together for years, Kara was just a half-step behind the man, her assault rifle up and ready to provide covering fire over Cross’s shoulder.

“Man, no one ever kisses me like that,” Gimli grumbled, before hurrying after the other two on his shorter legs.

CHAPTER 12

Kara, Cross, and Gimli made it about halfway down the hall before the shots started.

The first couple bullets came whizzing in from their left side, shattering one of the windows as they entered but burying themselves harmlessly in the ceiling. 

At the sound of the bullets ripping through the air, accompanied by shattering glass, the three all ducked, Cross and Kara both turning.  Cross had his gun up, but Kara was faster, and she fired a short burst from her assault rifle out through the broken window.  She doubted that she’d hit anything, but the returning fire would put their attackers on their guard.

For a moment, no bullets came back, and Cross took the chance to move up further, ducking behind one of the walls of the front hallway.  “I can see the bikes!” he called out to the other two.  “They’re still there, and look untouched!”

Kara’s reply was cut off as more bullets came into the house - these ones from their right, breaking another window and stitching a line across the mantel above the fireplace.

“Yeah, but they’re on both sides of us!” she shouted back, sending another spray of bullets out to their right from her automatic weapon.  “If we go out there, we’ll be in the open, totally exposed!”

From her left, Kara heard footsteps thudding outside.  She lifted up her gun again - but this time, instead of shooting out through the window, she fired her burst through the wall itself, below the sill.

As the shells from this burst clattered onto the floor, she heard a grunt of pain from outside, from below the window.  Kara grinned savagely.  Her rounds had found their target.

But, as if reminding her that they weren’t out yet, another few shots came in from the right side.  “Well, we sure as hell can’t stay here!” Gimli shouted out, scurrying forward, looking almost like a crab as he tried to stay low.  “We gotta get out, and the longer we wait, the worse it’s gonna be!”

Without waiting for an answer, the short, burly biker kept on running, straight out through the front door.  Kara and Cross both shared a momentary look of consternation, but they both instantly knew that they’d have a better chance together.