Page 28 of Vortex

“I got friendly with Leo and James, who had just joined the club as prospects, and I think it tugged at a part of me that was missing. Here I am.” He finishes his grilled cheese, as he calls it, and I have to excuse myself. I need to get a move on now if I’m going to get my room emptied and moved here.

“It’s been great talking, Noah, but I have to run. Things to do, places to go. You know how it is.” I get up to take my dishes to the sink when he asks where I have to be. Giving a brief explanation, he jumps up and states he’ll go with me. We can take one of the club’s SUVs apparently to save time and money. I agree to meet him at the main door as he goes to get the okay from Pres.

Moments later and he’s back, dangling a set of keys at me. We hop into the SUV and he nods at James on the gate, who gives him a suggestive nod and a wink.

While we’re at the shared house, one of my ‘roomies’, Hollie, seems very interested in Noah. Now Hollie is the shy, quiet one at any party, rave, or shindig. She is the last person I would expect to see taking an interest in any guy, let alone a biker.

Clearing my room out doesn’t take long, and we’re on our way back. I notice that we are going back a different route, and when we do a full circle around one block on the edge of town, I know something is wrong.

“I think we’re being followed. Take my phone and call Pres. Let him know to send help,” Noah says as he passes me his phone. “Fuck. They are herding us out of town. That’s not good.”

I speak to Pres and then place a call to Vortex.

As soon as he picks up, I don’t give him time to speak. “Vortex, listen. We are on Low Creek Road on the far side of town, being forced into the quiet back roads. Get here quickly, my man.”

Cutting the call, I open the glove box and see nothing. Noah leans over and touches something inside, and a hidden compartment is revealed with a shiny pistol and spare magazines. I know it is a pistol because it has a magazine. A revolver has a cylinder like the wild west guns had. Another of Romeo’s little nuggets.

Looking behind us, I see two vehicles, and one is a van. “Romeo said that if someone follows in a van, it is more likely to be a kidnapping than a murder, but don’t put odds on it.”

“You mean, ‘bet on it’, but I get the point. Can you get into the back seat, Allegra? If any vehicle starts to get alongside, shoot the driver, tires or just light the fucker up. I’ll try to stay ahead of them.”

The SUV ahead of the van begins to close in, and I ready myself by opening both of the rear door windows. The driver feints left and then starts to get on our right side. As he gets level with the rear passenger door, he grins at me. I smile sweetly, aim the pistol, and squeeze the trigger. The effect is immediate. The vehicle screeches to the right, away from us, and disappears into a field. Unlike in the movies, there is no violent, flame-filled explosion.

The van speeds up and rams into the back of us, causing us to swerve badly. Noah keeps us on the road, and the van starts to close up again.

“Fook these sheet, Noah!” I shout and promptly empty the pistol through the rear windshield. The van follows a similar fate to the SUV and disappears into a field. Seeing the road empty, Noah slows and then turned us around. Slowly approaching the crashed van, I swap the pistol's magazine and look for any danger. Seeing no movement, we drive on, looking for the SUV. As we reach it, we see someone stumble out of it.

The roar of bike engines reaches us, and it’s a sight to behold as they roar toward us, followed by a couple of vehicles. I’m looking for my man, but don’t see him until Cannon's truck gets closer and Vortex leaps out. I slip out of the SUV and walk to meet him.

He grabs me and after squeezing the life out of me in a vicious hug, he holds me at arm's length and looks for any injuries.

“I am uninjured, my man. Perhaps you should do that first next time, before squeezing me so hard.”

“You’re okay? Not a scratch? Thank God, and there better not be a next time.” Noah walks around the back of our SUV, and Vortex shakes his hand, thanking him for keeping me safe.

“Whoa there, Kemosabe. Allegra did the whole ‘keeping us safe’ thing. I just drove the vehicle. I’m quite sure she wasted both drivers. The SUV took one shot, but the van, man! She emptied that sucker into it like she was freaking Jason Bourne.” He points to the pistol still in my hand and Vortex follows his finger. He takes the weapon from my hand as though it is a grenade and looks it over.

“The safety is on, you need not be so careful with it,” I inform him.

Vortex looks back at Noah and asks what happened. He explains about the SUV and then laughs loudly when he tells of the van.

“Oh man. After that sucker hit us the first time, she yelled, ‘Fook these sheet, Noah,’ and emptied that thing through the rear windshield and peppered that van like you wouldn’t believe. It sounded like a freaking machine gun going off back there. I bet every bullet hit that van, no misses.” I have to laugh at his impression of my accent, but it is accurate.

“You killed both drivers? Are you okay, my love? Do you need to sit down or something?” Vortex looks very worried.

“No, I don’t need to sit down. They were here for up-to-no-good business. They got what they deserved. Ha! They got what Noah told me to give them.” I look proudly at Noah, who looks shocked.

“I never told you to kill them! Did I?” He blinks at me, owl-like.

“Of course you did. You said, ‘shoot the driver, tires or just light the fooker up’. I did two out of the three. I couldn’t see the tires. Anyway, if I was going to shoot the fooking driver, it was a certainty I would kill him from that range. You never said wound him. Next time, maybe you should be more specific?”

“Yeah, I did say that, didn’t I? Next time? Next time you can drive.” He puts his hand up for a high-five and I slap it with a loud clap.

Vortex looks at us both as though we are from an alien planet. “No. No, no, no. Not next time. No more of this next time.”

“Come on, Noah. Let’s see where my bullet took the driver, and then we’ll check out the van. See how good my spacing was, eh?”

Vortex walks with us and says very little, but I can see the cogs turning in his mind. I bet he is wondering what kind of woman he has got for himself? Hopefully, he will still be having these thoughts in fifty years!