12. Left Behind

CHAPTER 12

LEFT BEHIND

TROUBLE

“Hey asshole, wait up!” I heard as soon as I lost connection with Trinity. Blue lights flashed somewhere behind us and I almost lost my shit. “Fuck! Go, I got ‘em.”

“Staying with Trinity. You get those bastards away from here and then head toward High Shoal Falls, unless you hear otherwise before you make it back.”

“You keep her safe!” I didn’t say a word because that was a given. “You hear me, Trouble? You keep her safe and bring her home. I won’t stand in your way and I’ll do my best to keep Bishop off your ass. Just don’t let her get hurt.”

“I’ll do everything in my power,” I said as I pulled away from Hollywood. At first the cop didn’t know who to follow, but then Hollywood flipped him off, revved his engine and passed me by as I slowed to take the left to High Shoals. I knew the minute I took the left and my bike caught air that shit was about to go sideways. Luckily, I managed to pull her back in line before I hit anything. “My left nut for a dirt bike right now,” I grumbled as I bumped along the road that needed to be graded down two storms ago. I had no choice but to duck and weave along the road to avoid the deep ruts and puddles formed in the last gully washer we had to come through the mountain.

Despite being cautious of shit that might throw me, spin me out, or worse, I managed to catch up enough that I saw them headed up the next switchback. I saw the SUV anyway. I hadn’t been able to catch sight of Trinity’s Jeep or the car Terry was driving. When the distinct pop of gunfire echo around the mountain, I threw caution to the wind, sped up, and finally caught up with the assholes who shot at my woman’s Jeep. She might not agree with that assessment, but she would after this was over. I’d be damned if I sat back and waited for another fucking year to go by where I couldn’t have her in my life. That was not going to happen. We were both getting out of this unscathed and then she would know, once and for all, that she was always meant to be mine.

The sound of a bullet pinging off metal forced me to act before I was in a good position to do so. I drew my gun and fought the road to keep steady as I did. Then I shot at their tires. I missed the first time, and the asshole in the passenger side tried to lean out the vehicle far enough to shoot at me, but he didn’t account for the driver not having room to get over as he rounded the next curve. I heard a scream as his arm was smashed between a tree trunk and their vehicle. The gun that was in his hand dropped to the ground. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for me to stop and retrieve it because the driver pulled his weapon and started to fire random shots toward Trinity.

If we got out of this shit, I would make damn sure that she never found herself in another situation like this again. I didn’t care if I had to buy a fortress and keep her locked away inside it. Every time a bullet aimed her way, my heart fucking stopped. Eventually, we made it up to the parking lot where the trailhead to the waterfalls was, but Terry showed no sign that she planned to stop. That was when my woman decided to test my heart’s capacity to beat normally. She rammed into the right rear bumper of Terry’s car and forced her into a spin that sent her into the thankfully empty parking lot. She bailed out and ran for the side of the mountain instead of the trailhead, which was probably smart. Still, my woman wasn’t done being stupid. She climbed her ass out of her Jeep and tore off after Terry. It looked like she was packing, so a little worry left me until I noticed the driver of the SUV getting out. He followed after them as I ducked for cover and took fire from the asshole who broke his arm. It was obvious that he wasn’t shooting with his dominant arm because the shots went far and wide of where I stood crouched near my Harley. I made my way closer at a painfully slow pace. I couldn’t be sure there wasn’t someone else lying in wait in the SUV, but at the same time I needed to get to Trinity. She was traversing a mountain side with an enemy ahead and behind her. I didn’t like those odds at all, especially when the asshole behind her had a gun he wasn’t afraid to use.

I shot the asshole whose arm dangled at his side and pushed into a dead run to the end of the road just before it turned right and wound around the mountain. I heard the rustling below and barely caught sight of the asshole with the gun before he slid a few feet. Trinity was only doing slightly better. When Terry dropped off the side of the road, she took one of the steepest parts of the mountain to get down. She was on her ass sliding down the fucking mountain like her life depended on it when Trinity took aim and shot. She missed, but it made Terry pop back up to bob and weave behind trees, which slowed her descent. I took a page out of her book and slid down everywhere it was possible. Periodically, I took aim on the gunmen who closed in on Trinity faster than I could get to her.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I growled as I took aim again and realized that if I missed, even by a little bit, I might hit her instead of the asshole. “Trin, stay low!” I yelled. She immediately dropped and I took the shot. I winged the asshole, which only pissed him off. Instead of drawing down on me, he took his pain out on Trinity and fired at her again. Terry used that opportunity to put a little more distance between herself and everyone else.

“Trinity, you’re going to end up dead just like your friends!” Terry called out. “The Martinelli’s are going to wipe all of you out!” The wanna be mobster took aim on Terry then and popped off a couple rounds. It gave me the perfect shot. Once he was down, I slid even faster down the side of the mountain and managed to gain on Trinity. She had slowed somewhat, I didn’t understand why until I rolled right into a giant puddle left behind by the last rainstorm that passed through. Just as I managed to get myself out of the muck, with a little help from Trinity, we both noticed that Terry was headed back our way. I didn’t even think. Trinity had holstered her gun to help me up, but I still had mine in my hand. I only hoped that the muddy water wouldn’t fuck it up. Luckily, it fired the second I pulled the trigger and Terry went down. Her body tumbled backward and as my eyes tracked that sight, I noticed that there were a couple men headed in our direction from a lower point in the road that wrapped and switched back around the mountain.

“We have to go, Trin. Think you can scale up the mountain as quickly as we came down?”

“No! Are you kidding? That’s almost straight up. Down is far easier.” It was then that she noticed down led to several armed men. “Shit! What the hell was that bitch in to?”

“Nothing fucking good.”

“You killed her,” she choked out as I pulled her down on top of me. I was almost fully submerged in the puddle again and trinity took a minute to swipe up some mud from the bank. She ran it all through her blonde ponytail and then wiped some more on her face. As I pulled myself from the puddle, while maintaining a low profile, one of the assholes shot at us. He hit a tree not too far away.

“It will be better if we go sideways and up at the same time.” Trinity pointed up toward where we parked, but then pushed the trajectory a ways off to the left instead. “If we try to go straight up, we’ll be nothing more than slow moving targets. By going to the side, we can at least move a little quicker. They have to come uphill to get to us too. It’s the only advantage we have right now.”

“Let’s do it. Stay low and keep your body in front of mine.”

“I don’t need you to be my human shield.”

“Still gonna do it, Trin.”

“I guess I just don’t understand why.”

“You’re out here, putting your life on the line to help your friend - my club brother’s woman - that means something.” She didn’t answer, but that might have been because she was too focused on breathing. We were both huffing and puffing as we came up the hill, but so were the assholes who followed us. In fact, we managed to get a good bit of distance between us because they were far worse for the wear. Between the elevation, the steep incline, and the fact that they weren’t used to the terrain, we had the clear advantage.

“Maybe we should switch back and head up and right again, so we’re closer to the vehicles.”

Just as she said that, I shook my head. I could hear a vehicle approaching above and the last thing we needed was to have more goons come down on us as we tried to get back to my bike and her Jeep. “I don’t think so. Get low, Trin. Pretty sure there are more above us now.” She didn’t argue, just tucked down into a crouch and dug her hand into the earth. I watched as she painted her face and hands with the red clay and then I did the same.

“Wipe it on my clothes too. I can get most of the front, but we need to blend better with the environment. I don’t think they’re used to playing war in the woods.”

I chuckled because it was something all of us kids who grew up around these parts used to do. We didn’t have much in the way of entertainment outside of our imagination and lots of forest to explore. It worked, and it came in handy at times like these. “Of all the people to be trapped on a mountain with, you’re the best, Trin.”

“Yeah?” She asked. “Remind me of that again when we’re both dying of thirst because we’re headed away from the major water sources and my mouth is already like the Sahara.”

Mouth breathing while puffing up the mountain was going to put a bigger strain on us than I thought about before. “We need to forget the parking area and head back down.”

“Did you forget about the gunmen waiting for us down there?”

“There were only two that I saw and they’ve worn themselves out already.” I glanced back and saw that one was leaned against a tree as the other had his hands planted firmly on his thighs. We can keep running sideways, but start angling down instead of up. There’s a stream down that is spring fed. If we’re lucky, we can get a drink and not get the shits.”

“Great. That’s perfect,” she tossed over her shoulder but kept moving and started to head in the direction I mentioned.