Page 37 of Navy
The door couldn’t be much farther; this was definitely easier when I was a child, and I was a hundred times fitter. Just when I thought the tunnel was never going to end, I saw the small door ahead. The lever at the side was as rusted as I remembered, and I hoped that we would be able to still use it.
Pressing my ear up against the door, I tried to listen to see if there was anyone talking but it was silent.
‘Fuck, I hope I hadn’t messed up and brought us all this way for nothing.’
With nothing left to lose, I pulled down on the rusty lever and the bricks gave way enough for me to see into the room. The relief that filled me when Tristan’s surprised gaze met mine wasn’t something that I could describe.
He was sitting propped up against the corner of the room, Derek leaning up against him, both of them covered in blood. Hurrying, I pushed the first aid bag through and let it gently drop the half metre or so into the room, I followed it in a slightly more ungainly manner, crawling out until I had room to stand.
Cairo followed me not long after. “Fuck,” he muttered, rolling onto his back, “if I wasn’t claustrophobic before I am now.”
“What the hell, how did you even know where we were?” Tristan asks with soul felt relief in his voice.
Cairo turns over quickly assessing Derek and the amount of blood on him. Standing up, he grabs hold of the first aid bag and hurries to Tristan’s side. Looking over his shoulder at me, “Are you going to be okay to keep watch, G?”
Taking my handgun from my holster, I check it and nod, standing with my back to them, ready for whoever comes in the door next while I listen to the conversation behind me.
“What happened?” Cairo wants to know.
“We’d gone to my house because I needed to get some more clothes. We were just getting ready to leave when Julian and three other guys appeared out of nowhere. Only Julian had a gun and he was waving it around. Honestly, he wasn’t making much sense, I think he was high on something. The next thing I know, he's pointing at me and lets off a shot. Derek, the idiot, grabbed me and pushed me out of the way and got hit instead.”
I can hear the tears in Tristan’s voice as he tells his story. “They were just lucky that it was the middle of the afternoon and most of the people on that street would have been in classes. Anyway, the three guys with him start to panic, there’s shouting, Derek is bleeding, and I’m trying to stop it when one of them must have hit me on the head. When I come to, we’re in here. I tried to stop as much of the bleeding as I could but I’m not sure if it’s enough. The bullet is still in there. I figured that this was it and that we were going to die here when you guys fell through the wall. How did you even know about it?”
“It’s a long story,” I answer over my shoulder. “I’ll tell you once we get out of here.”
“That’s as much as I can for now,” Cairo warns. “We need to get him to Rea as soon as possible. Hopefully, the others won’t be much longer.
Standing back up, he walks past me and puts his ear to the door to see if he can hear anything. But I know from experience that the door is solid metal and thick, not much can be heard from the other side.
Cairo steps back as the handle grates loudly as it turns. “Don’t shoot, it’s me,” Blaze calls through the gap before opening the door wider. “The calvary is here,” he grins at us. Bond standing next to him but no Navy.
My eyes search behind them, before my gaze swings back to theirs, my brows raised in query.
“He’s fine,” Bond assures me. “He’s clearing the rest of the house. He asked that we get you guys back to the car. We’ve driven one to the back of the house, but we’ll have to walk back for the other one.”
“Okay, you guys take Derek and Tristan and get them medical help. Cairo and I’ll go back to the other car and wait for Navy.”
Once Bond and Blaze see the shape Derek is in, they waste no time in lifting him up and get him out the door. Tristan follows along slowly, then me, with Cairo bringing up the rear.
It’s still slow going, even though they assured me the house has been cleared, they’re still cautious getting us out of there. It seems to take forever but eventually we are at the car and loading Derek and Tristan in.
“I’ll see you as soon as I can,” I assure my brother, kissing his cheek and shutting the door, tapping the side of the car as it drives away. In the distance, I can hear the deep thrum of bike exhausts. Looks like the rest of the MC is here. Turning back to Cairo, he’s reading something on his phone. He replies, before taking my arm and pulling me away from the house. The bikes have gone silent.
“Come on, Navy’s on his way and asked that I get you back to the car.”
Knowing better than to argue because if it’s one thing I’d learned in the short time I’d been with these guys was that they didn’t mess around when it came to safety. And if Navy wanted me away, then there was a reason for it. Hurrying back to the car, I got in the passenger seat as Cairo put it in reverse and drove us away towards the road. We came to a stop when we got to the long line of bikes parked along the road. Rea was one minute standing next to the car carrying Derek and the next she was in it and they were gone. I felt better knowing that they had her with them.
Reaper came to my door, opening it, his gaze concerned, he asked, “Are you okay, Gia?”
“I’m fine,” I assured him, just as a loud explosion sounded and the house we’d just been in blew up. Navy comes crashing through the woods towards us a wide grin on his face, and he’s shouting, “Go! Go! We need to get out of here before the cops arrive!”
“Fuck’s sake,” Reaper muttered. He quickly shut my door with a bang as the rest run, laughing, for their bikes, started them and disappearing down the road. Navy grabbed the back door and swings in, slapping Cairo’s shoulder, sounding way too gleeful shouting, “Hit it, brother!”
Cairo shakes his head and does as Navy says. Looking over my shoulder, I can’t help but smile at the almost boyish look of happiness on his face. Cairo guns it until we reach the main road. Once we are on it, he slows down to the speed limit. We’re about fifteen minutes away when the first fire engine passes us. Then the next.
A part of me wants to ask what happened, but the other part of me thinks that maybe it’s better if I don’t know.
CHAPTER 20