Chapter 29
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
G enesis…
It was hot in the back of the van. Stifling. Only made more so by the copper tang of blood that filled my nose from the splatter I wore. It was mixed with the sour sweat of fear and the adrenaline that heightened all our senses to the nth degree.
We were moving now, at a good and solid clip without any stops – so on a freeway, or highway.
Jessie wasn’t keening or crying anymore. She was silent, alert, and I could see it in her eyes that she was going to survive to make these motherfuckers pay.
Sandy was stressed and wriggling as much as she could, trying to free herself. She’d kicked and hissed and spit so hard when they’d bound her that they’d wound up binding her feet together with duct tape around her ankles. That led to the rest of us getting the same treatment.
She wasn’t wrong to fight. Statistically speaking, if they got you to a secondary location, you were less likely to make it to the ER and more likely to wind up in the morgue. But they had said something about Russians, so I wasn’t going to doom too hard.
I had no idea what was in store for us. It was terrifying either way, but if they were going to pass us off to some Russians, it was more than likely they weren’t going to kill us. At least not right away, which meant we still had some kind of opportunity to get away.
I kept hoping and praying that the police were on the way. We slowed down, and one of the men up front swore.
“Were you fuckin’ speeding?” the passenger demanded.
“Fuck no! I ain’t stupid.”
“Well then, why are they riding your ass?”
“Probably tryin’ to get me to speed, fuckin’ pigs.”
All of us girls looked at each other. At once, we all started screaming and making as much noise as possible from behind our duct tape, thrashing and kicking out at the back doors and the sides of our prison, trying to make as much ruckus as possible without kicking each other in the process.
“Shut up!” the passenger roared, and he pointed a gun in our direction. We all froze and fell silent.
“Keep driving. Don’t let ‘em push you into speedin’. Maybe they’ll pass us. Ain’t no place to pull us over on the bridge anyway.”
We girls all exchanged another look, the bridge… no stops, steady pace; and it felt like we had been on it for-fucking-ever. The bridge across Pontchartrain? There was no way of knowing.
We stayed still, my heart thundering against the inside of my ribs, and I forgot to breathe… only dragging in another breath when my chest started to burn and to ache from the lack of regular breaths.
“We’re at the end now. They’ll pass us. Just stay steady.”
Several more minutes went by, or maybe it was just seconds? Time had honestly lost all meaning due to the dire situation.
“Ah, shit, they’re lighting us up, Viper. I don’t like this…” the bald-headed passenger hissed.
“Shut the fuck up and turn off up here. Take the next exit. Goddamn, you’re a dumbshit, Savage. What did you fuckin’ do ?”
“I didn’t do anything, you fucking asshole!”
“Gun it, out run ‘em!”
“Are you fuckin’ kidding me? In a fuckin’ Econoline when they’re in an ungoverned Charger ?”
“You wanna go to prison?” Viper demanded loudly.
“It’s better ‘n fuckin’ dying!” Savage argued back.
Viper pointed his weapon at the driver and said, “I said, punch it. ”
I exchanged frantic looks with the other girls as the siren wailed behind us and the van surged forward underneath us.
Shit. We weren’t secure. We weren’t strapped in. If we wrecked, we were fucked.
“I’m pulling over!” the driver hollered.
“Don’t you do it! Don’t you fucking—” the driver jerked the wheel toward the passenger side, and the road gave way to gravel, and then we were bouncing.
The gun went off and shattered the driver’s side window.
All of a sudden, the driver was out of his seat, one hand bashing the passenger’s wrist against the dashboard, the other fist crashing into the passenger’s face over and over again.
The gun went off again out the windshield this time, and we all started screaming and kicking out at the van’s doors and walls.
When the back doors of the van suddenly opened, Alina and Jessie-Lou went sprawling onto the ground outside it.
Sandy went next, jumping out and lying flat as two cops pointed their guns into the back of the van at me, and I threw myself down flat over Corliss next to Velina.
There was confusion, shouting, screaming, and masculine voices arguing.
Then a shot from behind us, and all hell broke loose with the cops in front of us firing over our heads and into the front of the van.
My ears started ringing, and I was deafened.
Everything going into this rotten muffled deranged cacophony of sound that didn’t make any sense as my brain tried to process the visual horror I’d just endured of watching the two men in the front seat turn into hamburger right before my eyes.
Out of nowhere, hands grabbed me by the arms and started pulling.
In my panic and confusion, I started resisting and trying to hang back when, finally, incrementally, the sound started to return and a male voice shouted in my ear, “You’re alright!
You’re safe! We got you now. Stop it! You’re fine, you’re fine! You’re all good.”
I froze, tightening up, and stopped all motion, concentrating on my breathing, on dragging air in and out through my nose as I was dragged out of the van and set on the ground. The tape was ripped from my mouth and lips, and it stung as some of the layers of skin went with it.
“Don’t tear!” I shouted. “Jesus Christ, it’s not like ripping off a Band-Aid! Go slow!” I chastised and looked up at the bewildered officer and the pile of police cars pulling up behind them.
“Doctor Bordelon?” one of them asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s me. Now untie me, so I can check everyone out.”
Pictures were being snapped, and video was being taken as more officers poured forward and tried helping the other women of the Voodoo Bastards MC.
I went to Jessie-Lou first, who snapped at me, “I’m fine!
” Then to Velina, who waved me off, too.
Alina was looking after Corliss, and then I got to Sandy, who looked up at me with rage and tear-filled eyes and said, “This is all my fault!” before crumbling into my arms. I hugged her tight and soothed as best I could.
“No, no, no! You had no way of knowing. It’s okay, it’s okay…”
I was just barely into trying to calm her down when the roar of motorcycles accompanied the sirens of approaching ambulances.