Authors: Bec Botefuhr
I pull out my phone and dial Ava, she answers quickly.
“Willow, are you ok?”
“Ava, I need to ask you to do
something for me.”
“What?”
“I need you to watch Cody for me tonight, something has come up and I have to go with Huck.”
“What? Willow, no. You know that I can’t let you go.”
“I have to, I’m the only hope those boys have. Ava, it’s a set up. Mick is going to blow that entire island. Not only will Jagger die, but so will Angel, Ace, Rusty and Bull.”
She’s silent. “Willow if you die…”
“I won’t, if I can’t save them. I promise I’ll get off the island. I know when it’ll blow, I heard Mick talking and…”
“Mick?”
“He was at Mary’s house. All along they’ve been working together.”
“Oh god,” she whispers.
“Ava, take care of my son, please?”
“Willow, are you sure you have to go?”
I pull the car over, Huck is talking frantically on the phone too. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I see my son’s face and wonder if I’m doing the right thing. If I die…no, I can’t think like that. Mick said twenty two hours, I’ll time it. If I don’t find Jagger, I’ll leave. I’ll force myself to leave, I won’t be a hero.
“I have to, if I don’t they all die. I can’t live with that Ava, I can’t.”
“I know,” she whispers. “I’ll have Cody here safe. Come back Willow, don’t you leave him without his momma.”
“I swear, I’ll be back.
I won’t be a hero Ava, if I can’t find them I’ll leave. For my son, I have to. Take care of him…please?”
She knows that I have more than one reason for asking that, but she answers anyway.
“Always.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
I hang
up the phone and a moment later Huck does too. “We’ve got a boat. Let’s go.”
We don’t say anything as we drive down to the
wharf. When we arrive, I see a cop car pulled up beside a slick, white boat. We get out of the car and I swallow once more before pulling on my shield of bravery and walking towards the boat with Huck. The officer waiting rushes over and shakes Huck's hand.
“It’s go
t plenty of fuel, water and food. Not that you’ll need it but you can’t be too safe. I’ve loaded it with weapons. Guns, machine guns, knives, you name it.”
“Vests?”
Huck asks.
The officer turns to his car and pulls out two bullet proof vests. I swallow. Shit. Huck grips my shoulders and spins me towards him,
and then he grips a vest and secures it over my top. Then he hands me a long sleeved navy shirt, and I slip it over the top of the vest.
“Know how to shoot a gun?”
I shake my head. “They never showed me, they were going to but…things got crazy.”
“Right, I’ll give you the simple one. It’s
loaded, you just pull the damn trigger. Try it now.”
The officer reaches into the boat and shuffles about,
and then he comes back with a small black gun. He hands it to me and with trembling hands, I take it. Huck takes my shoulders and turns me towards the trees. He quickly shows me how to position my arms and then he tells me to pull the trigger. I do and it jerks me backwards, Huck steadies me and tells me to do it again. I do it over and over until the backfire isn’t so unexpected.
“I hope you don’t have to use it, but just in case.”
I nod, still in mild shock. I put the safety on and slide the gun into my pants, and Huck hands me another, which I slide in too. He loads himself up and then turns to the officer.
“Thanks Kyle, I appreciate it.”
“I had nothing to do with this, remember?” Kyle says.
“You know I won’t
dob you in buddy.”
“Be safe, call for backup if you need it Huck.”
“Yeah, we got it. Take care.”
Kyle slaps him on the back, nods at me and then gets in his car and leaves. I stare at the slick speed
boat and Huck nods at me and indicates towards the boat with a hand. I climb in on with shaky legs and sit on one of the small swivel seats. Huck slides the boat further into the water until he’s up to his knees, then he leaps in. He gets in the front seat beside me and roars the engine to life. It grumbles a moment, and then begins purring loudly.
“Ready?”
“I have to be,” I whisper.
He pulls a leaver and the boat surges forward. Soon we’re flying so fast that water flicks over the side and hits me in the face. The screen in front of us is stopping most of it, but the boat is moving so quickly it’s just not possible not to get a little wet. We bounce over waves, just sitting in silence. I swallow back my fear, right now I can’t think
about what might happen. I have to help those boys, I have to. If they died and I knew I did nothing, I’d never be able to live with myself.
I wish to god I could have just called, but that’s not possible. Only special
satellite phones work on that island and they left too hastily to be able to get one. It was stupid on all our parts really, if we had have made sure they had a phone, we could have stopped this from going ahead. It’s too late for that now, I could only pray we made it in time. If they blow the island before plan, it’ll trigger Mick’s bombs and they’ll all die.
They said they were going to wait until Thursday to save the girls, before they blew it
. Thursday is tomorrow. I imagine it’ll take them a few hours to get the girls. God, I hope we make it. I am silently praying that we do. If we don’t, it could be the end for all of us and that includes me. I close my eyes and think of my son, I hope I’ve made the right choice because I can’t turn back now.
CHAPTER
17
JAGGER
It’s dark and this side of the island is quiet. The boys will be here soon, and I’m pretty sure everything is ready for them. I flick the torch on and quietly sneak through the trees towards the back of the island where I’ve told them to come in. When I see a faint light in the distance, I ready my gun, just in case. As it moves closer, I see a familiar figure jump off the side and wade through the water to help pull the small boat close enough.
“Ace?” I say quietly.
“It’s us. We’re here.”
I shine the torch towards them, and watch as they all jump off the boat and drag their legs through the water. When they hit the sand, I move closer. When I get close enough, they all slap me on the back and hug me quickly.
“Is it all ready?” Ace asks.
“Yeah, all set. I’ve wired a massive explosive to one of the cars in the middle of the island. I’ve got it connected to a trigger, when I press it, this island is in big trouble. It should get rid of the whole thing. We’d want to be a fair way away before I press it.”
“Good, what about the girls?”
“All good, as far as I know they’re all still going to their weekly meeting tomorrow.”
“Mick?”
I sigh. “That’s a problem, Mick isn’t here yet.”
“What?” Angel hisses.
“He didn’t come, I don’t know why.”
“I don’t like the sound of that man,” Ace mutters.
“He said he had business. He called me out earlier tonight but I told him I couldn’t make it out until tomorrow. He wants me in for another fight. He was pretty persistent,” I say.
“Well, we’re here now. We have to do this. We can take Mick down when we get back.”
I nod, hoping that’ll work. Either way, we don’t get much choice. This needs to be done and it needs to be done soon. I stare at the boys, who all look tired. I ask them the question I know they’re waiting for.
“How is she?”
Angel sighs, “Not good man, not good at all.”
“We should have fuckin’ told her.”
“No, we shouldn’t have,” Ace snaps. “It wouldn’t have helped.”
“Where do you want the boat parked boss?” Rusty asks.
“Leave it there, this part of the island only gets used twice a week to load up. They did it this morning so they won’t have any reason to come over here.”
“Hope you’re right man,” Bull mutters.
“Trust me ok?”
“So what now?”
Ace asks, plonking down onto the sand.
I sigh and stare into the darkness. “Now we wait.”
~*~*~*~
JAGGER
By morning, we’ve come up with a strong plan to get the girls onto the ship. We’ve spread out through the trees with guns and one by one we’ll take the guards out. Our guns all have silencers, it’s the best we could do. I’m standing with Bull and we’re watching the open assembly area, and waiting for the girls to come. God, if they don’t come…they’ll come. They always do.
Fifteen minutes in, I see a group of people. I shove Bull
’s arm and he squints, staring into the distance. Six guards and a group of women all walk towards the assembly area. I wave my arms to give the other men the go ahead. Angel gives me a sign that indicates he’ll take the two closest to him. I know Rusty will take the two at the back, so Bull and I will take the two closest to us. It’s a precise hit, if we injure the girls, it could be a problem.
I raise the gun when they get into the small shelter and the women all sit down. Two of the
guards have their backs to me, which makes for the perfect hit. I raise the gun and close one eye, Bull does the same beside me.
“You take left, I’ll take right.”
He nods. I press the trigger and before my eyes, the guard on the right falls flat on his face. Beside him the other drops. The girls all stare wide eyed, but they don’t scream. They’ve been beaten into never speaking or making any sort of sound unless they’re told. I watch the two guards at the back spin around and start rushing towards the trees when they too fall flat on their faces. Perfect shots boys. I rush out of the trees, not thinking.
I feel a burning sensation in my shoulder and for a moment I’m stunned. Then I realize I’ve run out of the trees too early. Angel hasn’t shot both of the
guards. Blood trickles down my shoulder and the pain sets in like fire. I grip the gaping hole and roar with pain. Bull is quick and he’s behind me in seconds, putting pressure on it.
“Fuck boss, what’d you run out for?”
“Fuck, I thought they were all down.”
It’s like fire. I feel sweat begin building on my forehead and my vision swims a little. I have to kick on, if I don’t, this will fail and we’ll all end up dead.
“Get the bullet out,” I growl.
“What?” Bull asks.
“Get it out.”
“Boss I can’t…”
Ace is beside me now, tearing into my shirt. “We have to Bull, we’ve got minutes.”
Ace pulls out a pocket knife and I look away, focusing my attention on Angel and Rusty gathering the girls quietly. Thankfully for us, those girls are doing as they’re told. Ace drives the knife into my
shoulder and Bull shoves a shirt into my mouth as I scream. The burning pain shoots down my arm and for a moment I’m sure I’ll black out. My body begins trembling from pain, and my vision sways.
“All done, we got it.” Ace says, wiping the blood from his hands.
“Wrap it,” I hoarsely order.
Bull digs through the pack on his back, and pulls out a bandage. He tips raw alcohol onto my shoulder and I roar with pain, Ace shoves the shirt back into my mouth. Bull wraps it quickly and when it’s over I realize I’m on the ground. I didn’t even feel myself fall. I don’t remember the last few seconds. I guess I blacked out. I
t’s about fuckin’ time, it hurt like a fuckin’ bastard. Bull shoves two pills into my mouth and washes them down with water. I’m thankful that the boys thought to pack a first aid kit in those bags.
“We gotta move boss, can you walk?”
I close my eyes a minute. I have to get up. I have to keep going. I shove to my feet, hissing in pain. I walk with trembling legs towards Angel and Rusty, who now have the girls in order. I stop in front of the girls and count them. Possibly one or two missing but we don’t have time for that right now.
“Right, you ladies want to get out of here alive, you do as these boys ask.” I say in a rusty sounding voice.
“We’ve got a boat, we’re going to take you all home and get you some help.”
I like my eyes scan the woman as Ace says those words. Some seem to come to life, their eyes widening and hope flashing across their faces. Others just stare at the ground,
completely broken. I don’t know if anyone will ever be able to put those girls back together again. I really don’t.
“Alright,” I say roughly, “onto the boats.”
The boys take the women and begin leading them towards the boat. That’s when one decides she doesn’t want to go. She opens her mouth and she screams, then she spins and darts off towards the trees. Rusty is after her in a split second and he reaches her quite quickly. She punches, screams, kicks and yells out loudly. Fuck.
“Bull, knock her out, she’ll fuckin’ give us away.”