9. Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine
“Lyra, you can’t be fucking serious,” Saria chastised me with her hands on her hips when I told her I still wanted to go to the game tonight.
“No. I’m serious. I didn’t come all the way to fucking New Orleans to have some shitheads scare me,” I doubled down.
We’d been having this argument for the past two hours off and on, and I wasn’t changing my mind. This trip was about letting go and having fun, and that was what I planned on doing and continuing to do.
“You were almost snatched off the fucking street,” Saria pointed out.
“I know Saria. I was fucking there,” I huffed, stomping over to the bar next to the sectional wall in the dining room.
“I think Ria is right, Lyra. You went through some traumatic shit today,” DeArie chimed in.
I knew they were just looking after me, but I just wanted to put all of that behind me. We had three days left in New Orleans, and I didn’t want to spend it scared to death that I would be kidnapped and trafficked.
I poured myself a whiskey. I needed something stronger than that lemon drop I had at Voodoo earlier. I downed it as soon as I picked it up.
“Look,” I started when I faced my friends. “I know you guys are concerned. Believe me, I get it. But guys, I don’t want to spend the rest of our trip scared and regretting that we didn’t give this opportunity everything. I want to go to this game tonight and drink a little. Maybe hit an afterparty. And I don’t want to do it with anyone but two of my three best friends.”
It was working. DeArie’s starch stance on going to the game wavered as she looked at Saria. I opened my arms wide, beckoning them to come in for a group hug. When Saria rolled her eyes and cracked a smile, I knew I’d succeeded in convincing them to have fun.
They made their way to me, and we engulfed one another in a tight hug.
“I love you guys, and I just don’t want to ruin this for everyone,” I whispered in the middle of our hug.
“We love you too,” Saria answered, then pulled out of our hug.
“Now, let’s get fly as fuck, and maybe we’ll catch Brandon Ingram’s eye tonight.” I clapped and waggled my eyebrows.
“Afterparty full of basketball stars, I’m down for it,” DeArie said, her smile covering her face from ear to ear.
“The car is here,” DeArie announced as she hung up the phone settled on the island separating the kitchen from the dining room.
“I’m coming!” I yelled from my room. “I just gotta put my earrings in.”
When I emerged from the room, wolf whistles rang out. I did a pirouette in the middle of the living room, giggling. I looked fucking good.
“Whew, girl! You gonna have to beat the players off tonight,” DeArie said.
“That’s the plan. Come on, let’s go!”
I was excited for this night. All thoughts of earlier today fell by the wayside, and it was just me and my friends about to have the time of our lives.
Saria, DeArie, and I climbed into the back of the blacked-out SUV that Stanton had so graciously provided us with during our stay here. We were definitely riding in style. Maybe we’d be mistaken for the rich and famous tonight.
I giggled at the thought of people trying to snap pictures of us as we walked into the Center. We hadn’t had to call the driver since the ride from the airport because everything had been within walking distance of our hotel. As much as I enjoyed taking in the smells and sounds of the French Quarter, I relished in the soft leather seats of traveling in style.
“Y’all want a drink?” DeArie asked as the driver closed the door and ran around the front of the SUV.
As soon as he was settled behind the wheel, we pulled away from the hotel and were on our way. The Center was about a thirty-minute drive from where we were. We’d be good to make it in forty-five with the traffic.
“I’ll take one,” I said, reaching for the glass she’d already poured.
I had no clue what it was, and quite frankly, I didn’t care. Tonight was for making the most of what you got!
We shared a toast and were on our second drink when the SUV was bumped from behind.
“What was the hell?” I asked, turning around to look out the back window.
I didn’t really see anything out of the ordinary through the pitch-black tint on the windows.
“What was what?” DeArie asked, tearing her eyes away from Saria to look out the window with me.
“Nothing,” I commented when it didn’t happen again.
“We are going to have so much fun tonight,” Saria sing-songed, waving her glass in front of us.
She’d always been a lightweight, but it was nice to see her let loose for a change.
“To fun,” I toasted, holding up my glass that was promptly knocked from my hand to the floor when we were rammed from behind a little harder this time.
“What the fuck?” DeArie gasped, her drink spilling down her chest.
“Hold on ladies,” the driver said as he suddenly floored it. The SUV sped forward down the highway.
“What’s happening?” Saria yelled, her eyes wide as she looked behind us.
I turned to see a car right on our tail, once again ramming us.
“Are they trying to run us off the road?” I yelled, fumbling for my phone.
“Call the police!” DeArie yelled through tears.
I dialed 9-1-1, but before I could say a word, my phone was knocked out of my hand and fell to the floor.
“Shit,” I growled, trying to get it from under the seat. As soon as my fingers wrapped around the phone, pings on metal hit the side of the car.
“Fuck! Are they shooting! They’re fucking shooting!” DeArie yelled.
“Get on the floor and stay down!” the driver screamed, weaving through the traffic that came with a Pelican’s home game.
If we stopped now, then we were going to be fucking dead.
“Hello, Ma’am?” the operator asked who was still on the line, “Are you still there?”
I snatched up my phone.
“Hello, yes! Someone is shooting at us!” I yelled. Then, we were rammed on the left side, which pushed us into the right lane. Cars laid on their horns as the driver tried to right the vehicle.
“Please, don’t let us turn over,” Saria muttered through her tears.
“Where are you, ma’am!” the operator questioned.
“I’m not exactly sure where!”
More shots were fired, and I screamed.
“Ma’am, I need you to stay with me! Where are you!”
“I don’t know! We were heading to the Center,” I finally told her when a screech reached my ears.
“Leave your phone on so I can track your location. I’m sending the police now.”
“Okay,” I said, but I didn’t think they’d get to us in time. We were going to be dead by then.
“Hold on!” the driver yelled as he made a sharp, sudden right.
I guessed we were getting off the highway. It was probably our best chance to get to the open road and get away from these guys.
More shots were fired. This time, hitting the back window. We screamed as glass rained down on our heads.
“Ma’am just hang in there,” the operator stated. “I’m tracking your location.”
“Hurry, please,” I begged because if we didn’t get help soon, there was no telling what would happen to us.
Another bump, and we careened off the road. The driver jerked the wheel, and we were righted on what felt like the shoulder and then onto the smooth blacktop again.
“Lyra!” Saria screamed, my name hysterical on her lips. “I think DeArie has been shot!”
I wiped my eyes and swallowed down my own fear to crawl next to Saria, whose hands were pressed to DeArie’s stomach.
“Fuck! DeArie, stay with us, please! We are going to make it through this,” I said, trying to convince myself more than DeArie and Saria.
The SUV swerved once again, then we were rolling, and everything went black.
***
“Fuck,” I mumbled as soon as the blacked-out SUV pulled out of the parking lot of the hotel, another one followed right behind it.
We had gotten to the hotel too late, trying to navigate through the traffic on the highway because of the Pelican’s game and, then again, the French Quarter. When we got to the hotel, the three women from the pictures Ace had sent me piled into one of the SUV, ready for a night on the town.
I took off on my bike like a bat out of hell after them. I didn’t have to look back to know that Remy and Brick were right behind me. I didn’t know who the hell was after this woman Lyra—pretty name—but if we didn’t get to her soon, she was dead.
I watched the SUV bump into the back of their SUV. To the driver’s credit, he kept the vehicle from swerving into another lane as they got bumped again, this time a little harder. I could see the cars around them braking.
I dodged in and out of the cars, trying to catch up to them, avoiding any accidents that were bound to happen because of whoever was chasing them. Remy was probably having a much harder time navigating the truck through the traffic more so than I was, but as soon as he could, there was no doubt he’d have my back.
The driver slowed only a fraction, giving the other vehicle enough time to come along the side. The echoes of bullets hitting metal sounded over blaring horns as we zipped around stopped traffic. Up ahead, the SUV the women were in took the next exit off the highway. The best fucking thing that could have happened. However, the vehicle chasing followed. Maybe for the first time in my life, I wondered where the hell the police were.
Now that we were on the open road and away from traffic, I could go as fast as we needed to, so I sped up, and the fellas followed me. The rev of the truck engine from the truck blared as they were speeding past me, right up to the bumper of the SUV chasing the women. Suddenly, the women’s SUV veered onto the shoulder, then righted onto the smooth blacktop. There was another smash into their bumper, causing the SUV to roll.
We were closer to the chasing vehicle now. Close enough for me to pull my gun and fire off a few rounds at the trailing SUV that started pulling over. If they got to those women before we did, they would be dead.
I kept firing. Remy and Brick followed suit to make sure whoever it was, stayed in the vehicle.
It worked!
Whoever was inside retaliated with shots, but none of them hit. I fired through the back window, shattering the glass. We pulled over; I cut my engine and hopped off my bike. I was a sitting duck for whoever was in the SUV shooting at me. Fortunately, they missed as Brick fired another round.
A grunt sounded out from the back of the vehicle. Brick and I walked cautiously with our guns still drawn, toward it as Remy scaled his way down the slight hill the other SUV rolled down.
We fired, hitting the driver, and he slumped over the wheel.
“How many?” I asked Brick.
“Just the two. The driver and the one I got in the back,” Brick answered as he crept up to the back of the SUV on one side and me on the other.
Brick opened the passenger door on his side. “This one’s still breathing but unconscious,” Brick called out as I continued to the driver’s side.
I snatched open the door, and the driver tumbled out of the SUV, hanging only by his seatbelt. He was big with dark hair, like he could’ve played football or been a professional wrestler. I unhooked the seatbelt, and he fell out onto the ground.
I stuffed my gun in the back of my pants, hefted up the guy under his arms, and dragged him to the back of the truck. We didn’t want to leave anyone there to be identified by dental records. It was best we just gave him to the gators. Brick had the other guy over his shoulder. He was big as fuck too.
“Throw him in the back with this one,” I told Brick.
I hefted the dead driver onto the back of the truck. I’d have to call Ace and tell him that his man was dead and we would take care of shipping him back home. Brick followed with the other guy. We’d question him at the clubhouse. Find out who the hell went to so much trouble to get to Lyra and why.
This off ramp was less traveled, leading to a sleepy neighborhood about twenty miles from where we were. I was glad we were away from the main road. Something like this was bound to garner a lot of attention. I took a strip of fabric from the dead guy’s shirt and dipped it into the gas tank of the SUV, pulled off the license plate, then lit it and threw the fabric inside the vehicle, then turned back to my bike.
“Beau!” Remy yelled. “I need you down here now!”
I’d never heard that kind of tone in my brother’s voice before. It sounded like he wasn’t sure what he should do. My brother was decisive as fuck. He never toggled back and forth on making a decision before.
I slid down the hill, followed by Brick.
“What’s up?” I asked, slightly panicked that something was wrong with Remy. “Are they okay?”
“Driver’s dead. The women seem to be okay, but I can’t tell with certainty. There’s so much blood,” Remy accessed, looking from woman to woman.
Even though I was sure he’d seen his share of death when he was in the military, it still had to be hard to see any woman hurt. Unless it was our mama. As far as we were both concerned, Madeline LeBlanc could drown in the bayou.
“Help us,” one of them said. It was small and full of fear. “My friend was shot.”
“Fuck,” Remy mumbled, then he moved over to the side of the SUV with the widest opening. The other side was smashed. No one was getting out of the SUV that way.
One of the women crawled out before I got to the other side of the vehicle. Brick grabbed her and checked her out. He led her just up the hill, helping her lower to the ground.
“You’re okay,” I heard him mumble to her. “Stay here.” Then he jogged back down the hill and stood next to us.
“Help my friend,” the one still inside said. “Hurry. Her breathing is really shallow.”
“I got her,” Remy said, pulling another of the girls out of the vehicle from under the woman’s arms. Once Remy got her out and clear, the last woman crawled out. The last one was the one who’d bumped into me outside of Haven Richardson’s office. This was Jevry’s cousin, Lyra.
“She’s unconscious, but I can patch her up with some sutures until we can get Doc to look at her,” Remy said, turning the woman over gently. “There’s an exit wound. That’s a good sign.”
I helped Lyra to her feet, then ducked back into their SUV to grab their belongings. I went around the back and pulled off the license plate for this one too. Gasoline fumes wafted into the air around us. There was a leak somewhere. It wouldn’t take much for this one to go up in smoke.
I needed to torch this one just like I did the other, despite the sirens sounding in the distance. Whether it was from the police, firemen, or ambulances, I didn’t know, and I wasn’t trying to be around to find out.
“We gotta go Remy,” I said to him, putting my arm around Lyra’s waist, and helped her up the hill. Brick was doing the same with the woman he’d helped earlier.
“Do you think you can ride?” I asked her when we got to my bike.
She nodded, then stared right at me. Her eyes roving over my face “I remember you.”
“Yeah, we’ll talk about it later,” I handed her their belongings. “Wait here.”
Brick was coming up the hill quickly with the dead driver’s body and placed him in the back of the truck as well. He’d have to let Ace know his man was dead when he called him later. I pulled a box of matches from my pocket—you never knew when you had to set shit on fire—and flicked it onto the SUV. Fire engulfed it immediately.
I hurried up the hill and threw my legs over my bike. I pulled Lyra onto the back and started the engine. I didn’t waste any time getting back on the road and on the way to our place. Remy and Brick were already about ten minutes ahead of me, taking the others to the clubhouse. As soon as I got Lyra settled, she was going to tell me who the fuck was after her and why.