39
GHOST
"I called back to have the crew clear out of the clubhouse and start doing what they can to evacuate the neighbors," Savage reports to Hellfire as we approach.
Behind him, floating well out of shooting range is Kane's luxury yacht. It's sleek, gray, and gotta be over a hundred feet long, easy. The kinda boat that you don't just take the family out on the weekend in without a full crew. There's a helipad near the back with a familiar chopper on it, the same one that Kane took off with when this whole shitshow started. Unfortunately, we can't ride our fucking bikes out there and show him what's up, so now it just sits there, taunting us, so damn close but still way the fuck out of our reach.
"Good." Hellfire turns to me. "You got something that'll get us outta this mess?"
I nod. "Thanks to Jessica and her mom. Shit show as usual, but we got it."
"I need to get closer." Rebecca jogs our way, trailed by Jessica.
When they get close, I pull Jessica against me, needing to feel that she's fucking okay. I'm not gonna pretend it's any kinda redemption for anything I've ever done, but I've never been so goddamn worried about anyone in my whole life.
"You're hurt," she says quietly, running a finger gently over my skin where my jacket ripped, next to the grazing wound left by one of the guards' bullets.
"It looks worse than it is. Just bloody." Honestly, it hurts like a sonofabitch, but it’s not going to kill me so we’ve got more important shit to worry about. If she wants to play nurse later, I'll be happy to let her. "I'm fine."
"Rebecca, you can't do that!" Cooper exclaims heatedly, and I realize I just missed something important. "Out of the question! I didn’t go through all of this just to have you sacrifice yourself."
"What's going on? What’s he talking about?"
Rebecca's face is grim, but she's not backing down on whatever it is. "The range of the remote is only about thirty feet. The launcher is near the back of the yacht. Do any of your boys know how to hotwire one of the little boats here? I'm good at code, but not so great at grand theft naval. I suspect you might be more experienced here than I am."
"What she’s not telling you is that she intends on getting there and doing it herself even if there’s no guarantee that she’ll make it away in time,” Cooper snaps. “Don't you fucking dare!"
"Don't you swear at me, Terrence."
If I ever had any doubts about where Jessica got her backbone from, that voice kills them dead. I'd laugh if this wasn't fucking serious shit. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
Cooper looks as angry as I've ever seen him, even more than when he was heading in to make an ass of himself with Kane at the beach estate. "The range of that damn remote is shorter than the blast radius of that missile. If she takes a boat up there to blow up the missile, she's not coming back, and I'm not allowing her to do it."
Jessica stiffens in my arm, and I squeeze her closer, part to comfort her and part to keep her from doing something stupid like charging out there and stealing one of the boats on her own. "Mom?" she asks, her disbelief thick in that single word. Fuck, losing her mom this soon after finding her would fucking kill her.
"It's the only way," Rebecca says, clutching the remote. "And it's not a guarantee. Someone has to do it, and I’m the obvious choice. I'm the one who designed and programmed the launcher system on that missile, along with a lot of other horrible tools that I don't even want to think about. If anything goes wrong, I’m the one with the best chance of fixing it."
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," snaps Cooper. "It’s got one button. Are you really going to do this to your daughter?"
Rebecca hesitates. “I… I feel so useless. I wasn’t expecting to make it out and now I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
Shit, I know that feeling. “What do you mean?”
She looks down at her nails, fidgeting. “I’ve spent ten years being very careful. Taking tiny, microscopic risks because I wanted to be able to help one day if Jessica had a chance at getting free. When this started, I was terrified because she was out of Victor’s hands, but someone else’s prisoner. Still, I thought that if I could keep her away from Victor for good, it was worth getting caught. I knew the first time I sent a message that they would track me down eventually. I covered my tracks well, but my resources were limited. We don't know how long we have." She points at the helicopter on the yacht's helipad. "He could be pushing the button to launch right now."
As if on cue, one of the motorboats tied up to the dock rumbles to life. "Got it," Poe yells.
“I’ll do it," I say and hold my hand out. "It's our club that's under threat. Show me how to use the remote."
"What? No!" Jessica clings to my arm like she's gonna fucking tear it off. "What are you doing?"
"Not letting your mother go out there and fucking blow herself up just to save our goddamn club. What does it look like?" I shake my arm free, but she jumps right back on it.
"But… you can't! None of you. Riot, Tex, you're all… No! You’re mine! You don’t get to go!" She clings harder, like I won't be able to get out there with her attached to my arm.
"Something's happening on the yacht," Crank yells, pointing. A high pitched whirring sound carries over the water as a dome on the deck pulls back, revealing a launch tube. We're running outta time.
The stupid bitch runs. Motherfucker. I know she's Jessica's mom, but fuck.
I charge after her, but Cooper's there first, crashing into her and knocking her right out into the fucking water. Rebecca screams, followed by a splash. Jesus fucking Christ, does everyone here have a death wish?
"Mom!" Jessica runs to the edge of the dock to look for Rebecca. Tex gets there ahead of her, throwing his jacket aside and jumping in, not caring that it's fucking January.
"I got her!" he yells a moment later. He's got her up over the surface while she's coughing up harbor water. Lovely, I'm fucking sure.
The outboard engine on the little boat Poe started revs like one of our motorcycles and peels away from the dock like it's late for a date.
"Who's in that?" Hellfire snaps.
The boat's racing away fast enough that it's already hard to make out details, but there was only man here not wearing biker leather. "Fucking Cooper."
Riot calls to Tex, "Ladder over there."
"On it." Tex drags Rebecca with him.
"What?" Jessica runs to the end of the dock so fast I dart after her to make sure she doesn't follow her mother into the ocean. "But…"
"He took the remote when he pushed me," says a dripping wet Rebecca. Savage is coming with a blanket for her that he got out of the saddlebag on his bike.
"Does he know how it works?" Tex asks as he comes up after her, dripping wet.
She sighs. "It's not complicated. Fuck!"
We all look at her, including Jessica.
She almost looks embarrassed. "Terrence was always unpredictable and impulsive. Apparently there’s no fool like an old fool. I should've seen it coming." She pulls the blanket close around her when Savage drapes it over her shoulders. "Thank you."
Jessica wraps her arms around her mother, squeezing her close and not caring that she's soaked. We're gonna have to get both of them somewhere warm in a minute. Question's just if we're gonna have somewhere to bring them.
“Stupid men and their main character complexes," Rebecca whispers.
On the yacht, the launch tube rotates and extends, getting into position. Nothing more we can do now. Either Cooper gets there in time, or the clubhouse and everything around it is about to become one big fucking crater. I hope those who stayed behind got the fuck out in time.
Someone on board has spotted the boat. Cooper zigs and zags while pot shots are taken from the deck. His shape jerks suddenly and collapses over the steering wheel, setting the boat on a straight course for the yacht.
"No," whispers Jessica.
Not looking good. I brace myself for the roar of a rocket and having to watch it streak by, knowing where it's heading. Fuck, the club was just starting to feel together again too. What the fuck are we gonna do now?
Dark gray smoke billows out of the tube. "It's gonna launch," Riot says, his voice flat and unreadable.
There's a thunk as Cooper's boat hits the yacht, not hard enough to break, but the engine’s pushing it against the hull, slowly turning the back of the boat against the side. He struggles up into a sitting position and weakly waves.
Oh fuck.
The explosion starts inside the tube, fire and smoke shooting out like a fucking firecracker. A moment later, it's too much for the tube to hold, and the whole thing shatters in a massive ball of fire that engulfs the entire back of the ship, launching big chunks into the sky. Barely a second later, the sound wave hits us, a thunder crash so powerful it nearly knocks us off our feet. Jessica takes a step back, and I catch her against my front, wrapping my arms around her.
Oily, black smoke billows out, chased by deep red flames like Hell itself opened its maw to swallow Kane whole. The power of the explosion sets a tall wave racing away from the ship in all directions, including ours.
"Back," I yell, pulling Jessica with me. Riot grabs Rebecca, and we all race to get the hell away from the dock and up on higher ground. We just barely get high enough before the wave spills over it, clearing anything loose right off the dock and throwing the boats against it.
I turn in time to see the yacht crack in two, the bow and stern coming up in opposite directions. The whole fucking thing is going down. A couple of crew jump over the side and start swimming, but unless they're fast, the drag from the ship's gonna pull them in anyway. Jesus.
"Alright, let's get some boats together and look for survivors," Hellfire orders. "If we're lucky, Cooper got himself away, and the ship's cook doesn't deserve to drown just because his boss was a fucking asshole. Poe, get some more of those boats going. See what you can do, but boys, no risks. Enough people have died today. And be quick about it. Cops are gonna be here real soon asking questions I don’t want to answer."