Chapter 6

Chapter 7AdamStorm summoned a large number of men and not all of them were wearing Slayer cuts. All of them were armed though. I’d brought my trusty Glock and extra clips, but Storm threw me a Kevlar vest and held up two handguns for me to choose from. “The 9mm,” I told him.The one they called Thunder raised his voice. “Hold on a fucking minute. The guy with no legs is going to storm their clubhouse with us? That seems like a seriously shitty decision to me.”“It’s my call to make. He can move and he can shoot. We need every man we can get on this mission.”I didn’t waste any time. I spun my wheelchair around and was on him before he could protest again. He jumped back but not before I got my hands on him. Instead of punching him the fuck up, I yanked him down to eye level and shoved my Glock under his chin. “If I can take you down when you see me coming, I can surely shoot the shitheads that took my woman.”He shoved back and stumbled to his feet. “You took me by surprise.” He dusted off his pants as he spoke, “And I don’t fight crippled fuckers like you.”I raised my Glock and aimed for his crotch. “Want to say that again, dickhead? There ain’t no man coming between me and rescuing my Angel, especially not a disrespectful shit like you.”Storm stepped between us. “Both of you stand the fuck down.” He turned to Thunder. “Like I said, it’s not your decision to make. You defy me again when we’re in a crisis situation and I’ll rip that patch off your cut so fast it will make your head spin.”The older man stepped back. “Sorry, Storm. I didn’t mean nothing by it.”Then Storm turned his attention to me. “I didn’t know she was your woman. You’ve been calling her your friend.”“If you fuckers aren’t friends with your old ladies then that’s on you. Angel came to me, wanting to be mine, and I accepted her generous offer.”Storm slapped me on the shoulder. “Good for you, man. She’s sweet, loyal, and clearly has good judgement if she picked you.”My lips twitched because I almost believed Storm meant what he was saying. Looking around at the men watching our interaction, I could see the respect on their faces. The knot in my chest that had been threatening to choke me loosened. This was the first time since being in the military that I felt like I was beginning to fit in.We finished gearing up and converged on the location from all angles, careful not to shoot each other in the crossfire. I emptied two clips before we even made it through the door. Once we entered, their whores began screaming and running past us to get out the doors. While Storm and his men fought their way through wave after wave of men from the rival club, I made my way to what appeared to be a cluster of rooms surrounded by a long walkway. At some point I realized they had a half a dozen rooms bunched up together with a hallway that surrounded it in all four directions.I shot the lock off one of the doors and found a skinny man in a Twisted Metal cut sitting on the floor. “Who the hell are you,” he asked.I raised my gun and leveled it at him from the doorway. “Looking for my woman. Where is she?”“Let me out of this hell hole and I’ll tell you.”I frowned at him. “I don’t give two hoots in hell about you. Tell me what I want to know, and I wont’s shoot you, but you’re gonna have to fight your way through the Slayers to get out of this building.”He thumped his fist against the wall behind him and I heard a whimpering noise. “She’s been here close to four hours. Spent most of them crying her eyes out.”I backed up and flew down the hallway as fast as I could make my chair go. Sometimes I thought my chair was faster than others could run, especially on flat terrain. I spun around one corner and then the next before coming to a halt in front of the door that was opposite of the one containing the man desperate to get out of his cell.“Angel,” I shouted. “I’m here for you, sweetness. Get away from the door. I’m going to shoot the lock.”“Adam, is that you?”“Get back.”Before I could shoot the lock one of the men from the rival club came running down the hall and began unlocking one of the other doors. He noticed me and went for his gun. I shot him before he could take aim with the older handgun he was carrying. He twisted and fell through one of the other doors. I aimed for the door lock and pulled the trigger, then used my shoulder to bump the door open.“Angel, come out. We need to get the fuck outta here.”When she came out, I pulled off my Kevlar and handed it to her. “Put this on and stay behind me.”Instead she came flying straight at me and threw her arms around my neck. I hugged her before pressing her back.“I can’t believe you came for me.” I wiped away her tears with one hand. “Of fucking course I came for you. You’re my girl, right?”She nodded, fighting back yet more tears. I strapped the Kevlar onto her chest as she pulled herself together. “How did you sneak into their stronghold?”I grinned at her tear-stained face. “I didn’t sneak in. I crashed through the fucking front door with a virtual army at my back. We’ll talk about that later. Right now we need to get out of here, so the others can retreat.I wheeled past the man I shot. A quick glance into the room told me this was some kind safe room. There were stacks of cash on a table and grey tubs stacked up all around the room.I rolled right past it and out into the main room. It was filled with dead bodies from the Twisted Metal crew who didn’t have the advantage of wearing Kevlar during our surprise attack. We could hear gunfire off to the right behind this room. “This place is fucking huge.”Angel murmured, “I wouldn’t know. All I saw was that tiny room they kept me in.”Suddenly, Storm came running back to the front with Thunder and Grit at his back. “These fuckers are putting up quite a fight. They’re going through ammo like crazy.” He jerked his chin to Angel. “I see you found your woman. Get her the hell outta here and I’ll call the others off.”“Roger that, boss,” I responded, causing Storm to give me a slow grin.I pointed my Glock back the way we came. “They’ve got some kind of safe room back there with tubs of cash just sitting out in the open. It’s the second door to the left. I marked it for you. It’ll be the one with the dead body lying in the doorway.”Storm slapped me on the shoulder. “You’re a funny fucker when you want to be. Now get your woman the hell outta here. Get into the red pickup truck and lock yourselves in. It’s armored. Back it up as close to the building as possible and then sit tight. We’ll be out in a few minutes.”“You got it.”I wheeled out the front of the clubhouse and made a B-line for Grit’s truck. I remembered it from when we were gearing up.“Get into the driver’s seat, Angel.”She didn’t hesitate, which was fantastic. My luck seemed to be turning around. I opened the passenger door, lifted myself out of my wheelchair by grasping onto the roll bar with one hand. I snagged my wheelchair with the other and tossed it unceremoniously into the back of the truck. Then I grabbed the door frame and swung myself into the passenger seat.”Angel was staring at me wide-eyed with her mouth hanging open. I reached over and lifted her jaw, much like she’d lifted mine the first time I saw her naked. “I’m more than just a beautiful body, Angel.”She shook her head as if to dislodge images of me swinging my big muscular body around like a gorilla.“I know most people don’t see those of us in wheelchairs as athletic but I’m in good shape for being down close to a year.”Her hand went to the ignition switch, and she pushed the button. The key fob must have been somewhere in the vehicle because it started right up.“I don’t care if you use a wheelchair or not, I’ve never seen a man that could do stuff like that.” She backed the truck up and circled around to the front of the building and parked the way Storm had asked. My sweet lady turned to me and continued her train of thought. “Maybe an Olympic gold medalist, but outside that, nope. Literally no one I know pulls off a move like that.”I shrugged and glanced out the back window, wondering where Storm was. “You know how they say when you go blind your other senses become enhanced to make up for not have visual input?” She nodded. “Being a paraplegic is the same thing, only with the muscles. I use my arms and abs more to move around, navigate my chair and transfer in and out of my chair so those muscles have bulked up.”There was a short silence before she said, “Well, it looks good on you.”Before I could respond, Storm and about twenty men came running out of the clubhouse, each predictably carrying a grey tub.Angel gasped. “They’re stealing from Twisted Metal.”I watched them dropping the tubs into the back of the truck before making a run for their bikes. Storm slapped the windshield in front of me with his hand. “Get the hell outta here, you two.”Angel didn’t need to hear any more, she spun out trying to get away as fast as possible. “We’re going to the Slayers’ clubhouse. I’ll pull the address up on the car’s GPS.”She seemed shell shocked. “I can’t believe I’m driving the getaway truck from a cash heist.”“You know those men risked their lives to rescue you, right?”She nodded, “I’m not complaining. I’d drive twenty getaway trucks if it meant getting away from Duke and Chevron. They’re both insane.”I walked her through the logic. “Why do you think they might have taken all their cash?”She responded immediately, “Probably because it’s small, unmarked bills.”“The primary reason is because Twisted Metal MC won’t be needing you to launder money if they don’t have loads of money sitting around.”“Oh my gosh, you’re right. I should have thought of that first.”“Also, one of the primary tenets of war is to deprive your enemy of resources. There wasn’t a damn chance in hell Storm would leave those idiots with piles of cash to spend on weapons and manpower so they can wreak their revenge.”She glanced at me nervously. “That’s really smart. I never would have thought of that in a million years.”“And almost half of the men that showed up here today were not from Storm’s club. If he can grab money to compensate them for volunteering to risk their necks to save one of our own, he’d be a fool not to do it.”“I’m one of their own? In what way.”“I’m signing on with the Slayers, and you’re my girl.”“You’re going to join an outlaw MC?”“I ran a check on that, Angel. Storm’s club doesn’t run guns or drugs. All their jobs are with legitimate businesses that the club owns and operates. They own a garage, a bar, and a security services business. I think they need someone like me, an IT specialist.”“So you’re pretty good with computers, huh?”I nodded and told her the truth because my little love didn’t deserve lies from man she loved. “I was a military intelligence officer with a top secret security clearance. I learned how to access information quickly during times of crisis. I breached several state and local databases in an effort to find out who grabbed you, and where they took you. I’m sure my skills will be useful for their security services business.”Angel was quiet for a long time before she spoke.“I know that I shouldn’t be, but I’m grateful there are brave, capable men like you and Storm. Men willing to right the wrongs that no one else can.” She cleared her throat before speaking again. “When I was trapped in that room with Duke’s hand around my throat, I honestly thought I was going to die. I made peace with it. When he didn’t kill me, something deep in my soul splintered because I realized that he could keep me there forever and torment me any way he liked, and death would be my only escape.”“I’m going to fucking kill that prick,” I growled.“No. You’re not. I’m not having you in danger again because of this. I can’t lose you, Adam.”“Anyway, what I was trying to say was that what Storm and his MC doesn’t even come close to the evil things that Twisted Metal does on the regular.”She looked over at me with a serious look on her face. “I’ll drive the getaway truck for the Slayers and for you any damn time.”My heart nearly jumped out of my chest with both love and alarm. “I promise you that I’ll stay out of the line of fire if you will, Angel. I can’t lose you. You’re the only bright spot in my life.”She deadpanned back, “Don’t lie to me, Adam Daniels. The Dark Slayers MC is also a bright spot for you now.”I leaned back on my arms and crossed my stubby legs. “You might be right about that, sweetness. Storm and the rest of the men are doing the best they can to turn this town around and I want to be part of making our lives better. But when it comes to things that light up my life, you are always going to outshine everything else. Keeping you safe and happy is the new compass that guides my life.”“You are the sweetest man I’ve ever known,” she replied, her voice dripping with adoration.It blew my mind that a banged up fucker like myself could be adored by a beautiful woman with a heart of gold. I had to be the luckiest bastard in the entire world. My greedy mind immediately began scheming about how to keep her. Was one month too soon to propose? Probably should wait at least three so she didn’t feel pressured. Dreams of domestic bliss filled my head as we transported a truckload of stolen cash to the Slayers’ clubhouse.