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Will left her in the suite alone with her thoughts. He left vulnerably, risking the fact that she might not care if he, too, was in the line of fire. He was there, lest she forgot, because of her brother.
But Laura cared. She cared so much. She was just super torn.
And if the Knights’ Disciples were going to be in Dana Point with a show of force, she would find her brother so he would not be all alone. When it came down to it, no matter what, that was her mission in life: to make sure she and her brother were always together. If anything happened to him and she was not there when she could have been, she wouldn’t forgive anyone, especially herself
Laura looked out the windows of her room to see how easy it would be to leave the Inn without being noticed right away. Her phone was inoperable. There was no way to tell Lucas she was coming for him. Not right away. She would hitchhike down to him and surprise him if necessary. She raised her window and pushed out the screen. There, on the side of the sill like a flower box, was a fire-escape rope. It was too easy. She climbed down and dashed for cover. The sound of the traffic was now in her ear when before, somehow, she hadn’t even noticed it. She was too busy making love to Will Shriner.
And now she was running from him.
She stole from one form of camouflage to the other until she could jog down to a crossing point on the road. She waited for a chance with the risk of being spotted if they were looking for her. She scrambled across the Coast Highway to hitch a ride south to Ocean Beach. Despite her resolve to get into a stranger’s car and travel to her brother, Laura hesitated. And in that moment she was, indeed, spotted.
Will’s voice boomed over the noise of cars whizzing by. “God damn it, Laura Mills! I am going to beat you; I swear! Get back here now!” he called. Without thinking, he rushed towards her, almost into the oncoming traffic she feared. He stopped roadside when he realized he couldn’t just dash out to her.
She looked at him from across the Coast Highway. Even from the distance she could see how helpless he looked.
Laura stuck her thumb out and Will went ballistic. “Don’t you do it!” he shouted.
A car pulled up alongside her. It was a woman. Laura felt comfortable enough to get in. In the rearview, Will hopped up and down, ranting. She saw him run back towards the Inn.
The woman introduced herself. “Janie,” she said.
“Laura. I am trying to get to Ocean Beach. I had my purse stolen,” she lied.
“I have a wild question. There was a hottie on the side of the road back there. Any chance he had something to do with your stolen purse and your hitchhiking?”
“Maybe. I can pay you back for the ride if you leave me your contact info,” Laura replied.
“No worries,” said Janie. She reached up to the passenger side visor and took a joint from a clip. “Smoke?”
Laura recoiled. Especially since she quit drinking, the idea of any kind of drug did not appeal to her. Will teased her that sex was her only mood-altering substance these days. “No thanks.”
The woman shrugged and lit up anyway. Smoke billowed. Laura rolled her window down, but not before inadvertently taking a deep breath. There was no avoiding getting at least a little bit high.
“What are you doing?” the woman protested mildly. “This is good stuff.”
“I have asthma. Let me over.”
“I’ll put it out. Keep your pants on,” said Janie.
Even though they hadn’t made much headway towards Laura’s goal of Ocean Beach, Laura decided it was definitely time to get out of the car. “No really. I need to get out.”
“Why?” the lady asked, suddenly not at all what she seemed when Laura took a ride from her. “We are nowhere near Ocean Beach and that’s just where I am heading.”
It crossed Laura’s mind that as long as the woman stayed on course and wasn’t too much weirder than she already was, she would remain in the car, but there was something inside her that said to end the ride.
“No,” she said making up a story on the spot. “You were right about that guy back there. He was my husband and we had a fight. I want to go back. You can just drop me off right here.”
Marijuana or no marijuana, the woman whipped out a gun with the fastest moves Laura ever saw. Just like that, Laura Mills was staring down a gun. The woman who had seemed mild-mannered and slightly wacky was as sober as they came with all her faculties apparently intact.
Janie responded. Her voice was cold and bloodless. “Gee when did the head of the Knights’ Disciples get hitched? Must have missed the papers I read.”
“Shit,” Laura cursed softly.
“That’s right, honey. Shit. There is a gentlemen’s agreement tonight to meet and discuss or meet and let blood. I ain’t no gentlemen. Some of us reverted a little before the hour in hopes of doing some damage. I recognized you right away.”
“Who are you?” Laura demanded.
“I am with the Marauders. Duh,” she laughed wickedly. “Becky said you were a pain in the ass. Said you bitched the entire time she was doing your hair.”
“So Becky wasn’t forced to spy on us. She just did it,” Laura remarked. Her body was stiff with rage.
“You would be correct on that one, Goldie Locks.”
“So Lucas?” Laura asked.
“Is so fine,” Janie replied. “I can’t say I am not disappointed I didn’t pick him up instead of you, but I guess you’ll do.”
“Do what?” Laura asked.
“I guess that’s for me to know and you to find out,” replied Janie.
Laura estimated that the only way she could get the plan out of Janie was to bait her, so she did. “Hm,” she said. “Sounds like you’ll do anything.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” demanded Janie.
“What do the Marauders have you and Becky for? They use you for sex when they aren’t causing trouble and then use you as shields when they are?” Laura pushed.
Janie’s driving got jerkier and jerkier. Laura definitely infuriated her.
“No. For your information, and only because I have decided you aren’t going to live through this, I was supposed to distract Will so I could kill Lucas. I was supposed to meet up with Becky and together we were going to kill him.”
Laura tried to not show her reaction. “Lucas?” she asked as though that made no sense.
“Yes ‘Lucas,’” Janie mocked her tone. “Your brother? He turned on his gang and now we have cops crawling all over us. He is going to die. And then we have a score to settle with your fake hubby. He attacked our guy.”
“Your guy deserved it. I was there,” said Laura. She was too amped up to be afraid.
“Oh well if you were there I guess, of course, he deserved it. Sorry, Goldie Locks. He will pay.”
Laura baited Janie further. She played it as coolly as she could. “Goldie Locks. Becky must have really liked my new nickname. I guess she didn’t like hers so much. What was it they were calling her when she was protesting to Lucas that she loved him so much? What was it she was saying about Marauders and what she could do for Disciples if they spared her?” It was working. Laura saw the doubt on Janie’s face. “Oh yeah. Once a sellout, always a sellout. Hate to tell ya, because I guess Becky didn’t fill you in, but she isn’t in Dana Point. As of this morning, she and Lucas went to Mexico for their wedding and honeymoon,” said Laura.
“You’re lying,” Janie insisted, her voice eerily composed.
“You can call her. You can turn around and go back. You’ll find she isn’t there and neither is my brother,” said Laura.
“Shut up,” she ordered. “I am not turning around. We are almost halfway there. I might as well keep going.”
With a gun drawn on her by a crazy woman driving the car, Laura finally did what she was told. She got the information she needed. And now it was clear to her why the two men – for Lucas was a man – were in two different places: so the focus of the Marauders could be divided and so the survival odds of one or both of them were increased.
Laura may have just destroyed that – all because she had to do things her way. As she sat and thought how she would get out of this situation, Laura heard a hum. She knew that hum. Janie knew that hum. It was the sound of motorcycles and they were coming towards them from behind.
Will. The Knights’ Disciples. They were gaining on the two women. Janie checked the rearview and cursed.
“Better warn them off or I will start to shoot,” said Janie.
“Shoot?” asked Laura. “While you drive?”
Janie aimed the gun at her to make her point.
“Kill me and you’re dead for sure,” said Laura as calmly as she could, even though she nearly jumped out of her skin. “The only reason why you are still breathing is because I am in the car. Look,” she pointed.
Another swarm of Knights’ Disciples was approaching them from the next lane over in the oncoming direction. The bikers were surrounding them. There was no doubt Janie would plough right through them if she were challenged.
Janie recognized the man leading the club coming towards them before Laura did. “I thought you said he was in Mexico getting married. Liar.”
Lucas.
Laura sank in her seat a little. Her brother – her big brother – bravely leading the way to head off Laura’s captor. Janie reached out the driver side window with the gun.
Laura taunted her. “You can’t shoot that like that,” she said.
“I can shoot from right here if you don’t shut up,” she replied.
In a daring move, Will rode up alongside Janie. He was extremely vulnerable. She could swerve and kill him. Or she could even shoot him from this distance. Laura hated herself at this moment. This was all her fault. Will motioned her to pull over.
“Pull over,” Laura encouraged her.
“I am going to shoot him. Then Lucas will run to his aid and I will shoot him, too,” said Janie. She was absolutely insane.
“And then you’ll die,” said Laura. “But I know for a fact if you pull over, this will stop. And the Disciples will protect you. hey may not like you very much but they are a club of their word.”
“Bite me,” said Janie.
There was a loud pop and, at the same time Will slowed up, letting his pace fall back behind Janie. She had blown a tire, probably with his help. There was another loud pop. Another tire. Janie was definitely having a difficult time keeping up her speed. The smell of burning rubber and metal filled the car. Janie had to pull off of the road.
She forced Laura out of the car at gunpoint. Her plan was to run towards the beach that followed Coast Highway. Will was first off his bike and was now on foot behind them since the terrain didn’t allow for him to keep riding. There was a serious drop off from the shoulder of the road to the shore. The cliff wasn’t really visible from the roadside, but it was formidable once Laura was actually on the edge of it looking down. There were walking paths all over the place. A person could hike down but the incline was such that a pursuit on bike would be inefficient.
Will was enough of a distraction that Laura could break away from Janie, triangulating Janie in the middle. Janie was trying to get a line on one or the other, going back and forth. She could shoot one and then the other. Laura was trying to draw her focus away from Will.
But Lucas beat her to it. He had a better idea. He had been able to cut across the highway and mow Janie down. Over the cliff he went, bike and all. He had hit his target, saved Will, and saved Laura.
And it cost him his life.
As Laura ran down the meandering paths of the cliff, Will ordered, “Don’t!”
This time she listened. She let him go to Lucas first. In fact, all of the Knights’ Disciples rushed past her. She could hear the sirens now. Someone had called an ambulance. Laura was in a daze. She was too busy playing back in her mind the life of her brother, a brother she instinctively knew was dead. She could feel it. Lucas was dead.