Edge of Chaos (6 page)

Taking her was the
easy part. After Jake learned of his old lady's betrayal, he was eager to set
things right by helping the Kings capture her. Jake set the perfect trap. He
knew when her lover had time off, so he deliberately went on a weapons delivery
out of state to make her seize that perfect opportunity to hook up with the
Harbinger.

Another brother
drove Luke to Jake’s house and sure enough the Harbinger’s bike was parked out
front. People are at their deepest sleep between the times of 2:30 and 5:00 am
so Luke chose to do the deed at 3:00am. He took his favorite silenced Sig Sauer
9mm and one of his favorite Emerson fixed blade knives with him. The Harbinger
would find death by a bullet; one in each knee, one in the crotch, then one
between the eyes. Amy wouldn’t be so lucky.

The Harbinger’s
screams woke Amy from a dead sleep. At first, she didn’t know what was going on
and figured her boyfriend was having some kind of very vivid nightmare; that
was until Luke shot his other knee out and blew his dick off.

Amy begged! That
right there was testament enough to her lack of character in Luke’s mind. She
wasn’t brave, defiant, or at least quiet. She cried and begged for her life
like a child. She was, of course, perfectly willing to throw the Harbinger
under the bus. When Luke could not take any more of her pathetic begging, he
fired one more bullet ending the Harbinger’s sorry life.

It turned out Amy
was a fast talker and a quick liar. It was a literal blood bath before Luke was
satisfied that he knew every bit of information she had passed to the other
club. At 4:45 sharp, Luke took several pictures with a burner phone and lit the
four Molotov Cocktails he had brought with him. He stood in the front room,
tossed the flaming bottles of gas in four strategic locations and walked out
feeling really great about a job well done. He hopped into the brother’s car
and thirty minutes later, his father and other King’s brass were looking at the
photos and toasting the newest member to the Suicide Kings. That was four years
ago.

“You and your
father must be close,” Kayla observes one afternoon. She and Luke are kicking
back at a small diner after an exhilarating ride along highway one near Stinson
Beach.

“Close?” Luke
replies. “What gave you that impression?”

“Well…he’s the
president and you’re the vice president of your club, so…”

“We’re anything
but close, Kayla, and the club would be a whole lot better off if he were to
step down and let me run things.”

“Oh, wow…,” Kayla
breathed. “Sorry…”

“Let me tell you a
little story here. I think it’ll help you understand why I am not particularly
close to him.”

“I like stories.”

“Well, this one’s
not your typical warm and fuzzy childhood tale, so don’t say I didn’t warn
you.”

Kayla nods her
head, takes a bite of her sandwich and waits for Luke to begin. After a moment,
he starts talking and Kayla notices a strange thing. It’s like an invisible
shield just passed across his face. His eyes lose their trademark brilliance
and his face becomes an unyielding, unreadable mask.

It can’t be
that bad
, she thinks to
herself, just before Luke begins speaking.

“It was two days
before my eighth birthday party and I was talking about it to my classmates
during lunch recess. My dad had sent out an invitation to every single one of the
twenty-three children in my second grade class, so it had seemed odd that
nobody knew anything about it. After retelling the time and day of my party to
them, I began to suspect that they hadn’t received their invitations yet. But
the more I talked about my party, the more my classmates distanced themselves
from me and by the time I got home from school, I was in tears.

I expected to get
calls from kids confirming they would be at the party, but no one called all
day on Saturday. I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning. I was so excited
I had barely slept a wink. I couldn’t wait to see the pile of presents on the
dining room table. I wanted lots of things but mostly the Lego Millennium
Falcon set. I thought I would have so much fun putting it together with my
father.

When I went
downstairs for breakfast, I was a little surprised to find no presents and no
decorations at all. I guessed my father would put them up before the party at
two. I was in the middle of pouring my cereal when my dad came downstairs.

“Hey little man,
your father has to run into town to take care of an errand. You can make
yourself a sandwich for lunch, right?” he had said.

I nodded. I
thought he was going to get my presents. It was a sunny and warm day, so when the
time of the party drew nearer, I went out and sat on the curb to wait for my
guests to arrive. I was a little nervous when no one seemed to show up, but I
just thought they were running late. I hoped my dad would arrive with the cake
before my friends came.

When it was after
2:30, I finally left my spot on the curb and went back inside. I couldn’t deny
it any longer. My party had come and gone and nobody, not even my dad, had
shown up. I intended to go to my room and crawl under my covers, but as I
passed by my dad’s office, I decided to take a peek. The door was usually
closed and locked; but for some reason, it was open a crack that day. I pushed
it open and walked in.

The first thing I
noticed was all the pictures of people and their motorcycles. There were oodles
of them. Some were kinda funny, but many were downright scary-looking. Then I
noticed a pile of envelopes on my father’s desk. I picked the first one up and
my heart dropped down to the bottoms of my feet. It was an invitation to Mark,
one of the kids in my class. I looked at the next one. It said ‘To Holly’. I counted
them; twenty-three invitations, one for each of my classmates. My father had
forgotten to send them. I was sure he had forgotten it was my birthday, as
well.

It was almost five
when I heard my dad’s chopper coming up the street and by the sound of it, he
wasn’t alone. I ran to the living room window and looked out. Three motorcycles
were pulling up to the house. I watched anxiously as my father got off his
bike. He wasn’t holding any cake or decorations, let alone presents. He had
forgotten my birthday altogether. I ran to my room, slammed the door and
collapsed on my bed.  

After a few
minutes, there was a knocking on my door, so I jumped up, excited, thinking
that maybe I was wrong and I would still have a party. I opened the door,
breathless with anticipation. My father did not look happy.

'Why the hell
haven’t you finished your chores? You didn’t take out the trash and there’s
crap all over the place downstairs. I have guests and there are dirty dishes in
the sink, breakfast dishes on the table, and I doubt you vacuumed the living
room. What the hell is wrong with you?' he'd said.

'You forgot!' I'd said.

'What?' my dad had
asked, getting angry.

'My birthday is
today and you forgot. You also forgot to send my invitations!' I had told him.

'You were in my
office? What the fuck were you doing there?' he had demanded. 'You know my
office is off limits, dammit. And as to those stupid invitations, until you
start doing better around here, there’s not gonna be any party; so you can just
forget this birthday. How could you even think you’d get anything the way you
have been acting?'

'I told everybody
in my class I was having a party today and now they’re just going to laugh at
me on Monday,' I had said, bursting into tears.

'Not my problem,
Luke. How could you be so stupid to tell everybody about some dumb party?
That’s on you, not me, so quit your blubbering and come down and do your chores,'
he had yelled.

'I hate you!
You’re a beast and a bully!' I had shouted back.

I never saw it
coming then. I just felt an explosion of pain on the side of my head and I was
completely off balance. I threw out my arms in an unsuccessful attempt to break
my fall, but I crashed into the corner of my desk and my gold fish bowl smashed
on the floor beside me.

'Dammit, Luke!
Look-' he had just said.

'Speedy!' I had
cried out in horror. 'My fishy, my fishy…'

I screamed and
cried hysterically as I tried to pick up the poor creature, but I just couldn’t
with one hand. My other one hung at my side at an awkward angle. When I was
about to catch it, a giant black motorcycle boot put an end to it. I looked on
in horror as my father ground the little creature into the carpet.

'I hate you, I
hate you! You’re not my father, you’re a horrible beast!' I had managed to say
before my father put his other foot on my shoulder and shoved me hard down to
the wet carpet. He had then turned and left without another word, slamming the
door in his wake.”

Kayla wipes her
face with her napkin. She doesn’t like crying in public, but she is just heartbroken
for young Luke. She can’t imagine what it’s like to have a father like that.
Her own parents were a loving, caring and supportive couple and would not have
dreamed of doing any of the things Luke’s father did to him.

“I don’t know what
to say, Luke,” she finally says.

“And that’s not
all. I did all my chores while cradling a broken arm.”

“What the hell?”

“Yeah, when I fell
against my desk, I broke my left arm. It was horrible and the worst part of it
was I had to lie to the doctor in the ER. I knew if I told the truth, they
would take me to an orphanage or something since my mother disappeared when I
was five.”

“Oh, my God! I am
so sorry, Luke! I jus—”

“Stop, Kayla. I
didn’t tell you so you would pity me. I just thought you should know why my
father and I aren’t close; nor will we ever be. Believe me, that was not my
worst birthday and he’s done a lot worse than just break my arm.”

Kayla looks around
her. The sun is still out; there’s not a cloud in the sky and it’s 78 degrees
according to the diner’s outside thermometer, but chills are running down her
spine. She can’t push the horror of what Luke had just told her out of her
heart and mind. The two of them are so diametrically different that it’s
amazing they can even stand being in each other’s company.

“Look,” Luke says
after a while. “I need to get back. We’re having an officers’ meeting at the
club house in a few hours. We need to get going, so I won’t be late.”

Kayla pushes her
plate away, full and satisfied. “Let’s get to it then.”

“So what’s the
plan?” Luke asks, as he takes his seat at his father’s right hand at the great
oak table.

“We’re going to
hit the Harbingers tonight!” his father announces. “We’ve identified one of
their meth labs out near the old quarry. This ain’t your normal meth lab. This
one’s permanent.”

Most Harbinger
meth labs are run out of trailers and are highly mobile. For that reason,
anytime the police take down a meth lab, it’s usually not one belonging to the
Harbingers. Larry, one of the Clubs newer brothers, is a CI (confidential
informant) for Oakland Police and he’s an expert at working both sides of the
fence. The police accidentally discovered this lab a few days ago when one of
their SWAT teams was doing some night time field exercises and they had picked
the quarry for an outdoor training session. Once the lab was discovered, they
tipped off Larry so he could gather Intel on the lab. They wanted to know how
many Harbingers were in there at any given time and what they were armed with.
With the help of the brothers, he’s gathered the requested information; but the
club is going to hit the place first to get even with the Harbingers who tried
to ambush Luke and Carter on the last gun run, as they suspect.

“We’re gonna send
’em one helluva ‘you’re not fucking welcome here’ message,” Luke’s father joked.
“But this is gonna be a dangerous one. It’s heavily armed, so we’re gonna hit
it after they have made their monthly delivery. Since we’re not interested in
their product, they’ll never expect anyone to hit them when there are no drugs
there. It’s the perfect setup. After they ship out their product, the majority
of the crew leaves for a few days to recuperate and only a skeleton crew is
left behind. But don’t let the fact I just said skeleton crew fool ya. They’ll
still have a half a dozen heavily-armed guards, hopped up on meth with itchy
trigger fingers.”

“So how we gonna
hit it?” Carter asks.

“We’ll do it at
3:00am when the guards will be the least vigilant.”

“What about the
cops?” Luke asks.

“This is so new
that they haven’t started watching it yet. They rely too much on Larry here, so
we’re safe from them at least. The only way in is an old air vent on top of the
building. I think Carter will be the best one for scaling the walls with a
backpack full of Molotov Cocktails. He’ll light a half dozen of those suckers
and drop them down the chute. That should be enough to ignite some of the
chemicals in there and the guards will come running out. Of course, they’ll
know they’re being attacked and will come out guns blazing, so we’d better be well-positioned
to handle heavy fire.”

The meeting goes
on for several more hours as the plan is examined from every angle and every
scenario is run through to make sure they have prepared for any eventuality. If
this goes bad, they stand to lose some key club personnel. The time is two in
the afternoon. In twelve hours, ten guys will saddle up and be at the target by
2:45am.

By 3:15 Carter
will be on the roof dropping his load, but not until the Kings in the trucks
have set up about thirty feet from the only door in or out of the lab. After
Carter makes his drop, he’ll wait on the roof with a rifle to snipe the
Harbingers who will come running out
.
Luke
will be in charge of making sure Carter gets off the roof and safely away from
the building. For this raid, they’ll take two trucks and two bikes. Luke and
Carter will be on their bikes and each truck will have a driver and two
brothers lying down in the back. That should do it.

2:45am…

Luke and Carter
pull up on their bikes two hundred yards down the road from the quarry. They
don’t want the throaty rumble of their bikes to spook the Harbingers. They make
their approach silently and on foot. While Luke handles security, Carter throws
the rope with a grappling hook up towards the two-story roof. The hook is
padded to reduce the noise of it landing on the roof. There will still be some
noise, though, and that’s the reason Luke is standing by with his Mossberg 410
pump action shotgun.

His own H&K is
stuffed in the back of his pants. Carter makes his first toss and it lands on
the roof, but it fails to catch and lands on the hard ground next to them. They
both wait, tensely praying no one heard them. Carter tries again. This time he
doesn’t throw quite high enough and it bounces off the wall. Carter lets loose
his third attempt when the shit hits the fan.

The door at the
far corner of the building bursts open and out stream Harbingers, armed and
ready to kick ass! Both men hit the dirt, but it’s no use. They’re seen right
away. Several Harbingers open fire immediately and Carter is winged on the
first burst before they can disappear around the corner of the building.

“Fuck, fuck,
fuck!” Carter swears under his breath.

“Where you hit?”
Luke hisses.

“Shoulder. I think
it just went on through. Hurts like hell, but I’ll be fine.”

“Let’s make our
way towards the tree line. Our brothers should be there in about three minutes
and we can escape back to our bikes while they lay down cover fire.”

Both men take off,
running low to the ground and bent over, but they only get about fifty feet
before a group of Harbingers step out of the tree line and open fire. Luke and
his best friend in the world hit the dirt, returning fire with their H&K’s.
Unfortunately, their guns are for closer combat and the Harbingers are using more
suitable rifles.

“We gotta run for
it!” Luke shouts. “We’ll go back to the quarry and climb down. We’ll never get
by those guys and into the trees. Let’s run on my mark.”

Both men wait, and
when it seems the Harbingers are changing magazines, Luke gives the signal and
both men jump up and sprint for the lip of the quarry. Somehow they manage to
get to the edge. They have no choice but to jump and hope that it’s not very
deep on their side. Luke doesn’t even slow down as he leaps over the side. He
can hear bullets whistling past his ears as he falls through the inky darkness.

What the hell
happened to our plan?
he
wonders.
  Where are the other brothers that should have been here with the
trucks to bail us out?

Luke’s feet strike
a steep incline and his body pitches forward. He throws up his hands and tucks
his head in an effort to roll, but the momentum is so great that he falls into
a barrel roll, limbs flying in every direction. Carter tries the same, with equal
success. Both men finally come to a stop in a heap at the bottom of the
quarry. 

“You okay,
Carter?” Luke asks.

“You mean other
than my shoulder…yeah. You think they’re crazy enough to follow us down here?”

“Depends on if
they’re familiar with the place or not,” Luke replies. “I wonder if we’re even
at the bottom…”

“Shit, lights!”

Both men look back
up behind them and sure enough, there are four lights shining down over the
edge of the quarry.

“Crap, we gotta
find something to hide behind,” says Luke, looking around frantically, trying
to make out their surroundings.

“Over there,”
Carter hisses. “They just lit up a huge rock thing. If we can get behind it,
they’ll never see us.”

Both Luke and
Carter scramble on all fours in the general direction of the giant rock-like
structure. Twice, beams of light come from above and nearly expose them, but
they finally make it.

“Shit!” Carter
swears under his breath.

“What?”

“I just realized I
lost my H&K in the fall.”

“Now that
is
a tragedy.”

Suddenly, gunshots
ring out in the night. Both men flatten themselves on the hard ground.

“Don’t shoot
back,” Luke cautions. “They may just be trying to draw us out. For all they
know, we weren’t crazy enough to come down here in the first place.”

Luke glances at
his watch. It’s a quarter after three. Something has gone horribly wrong. The
Harbingers had more guys in the lab than they were supposed to and then another
group appears out of the woods armed to the teeth…Something strange is going on
and the question is will they even live long enough to find out what happened?

“What do we do,
boss?” Carter asks. “Do we wait it out and hope they leave? What if they're
waiting to pick us off when the sun comes up?”

“I think we have
to get out of here under the cover of darkness. It’s the only scenario that
finishes up with us alive.”

“I’ll buy that. So
which way do we go?”