Clara

 

Gunshots rang out again, but they were irregular. Sitting in the car in the dark, I had no idea what was going on outside. There would be gunshots for a moment, and then complete silence. I wondered if they were just playing with each other at this point. It seemed very odd that they didn’t just finish each other off, but they were dealing with Skull. The normal rules didn’t seem to apply when Skull was involved. He made his own rules, even when someone else was calling the shots.

 

After his goon fell off the car, I heard people moving around outside. I waited with one of the guns in my hand. I had no idea who was going to show up next. I didn’t know if it was going to be one of Storm’s Angels or even Skull himself.

 

“Dammit, Mason, if you get me out of this, I promise you, I will never betray your trust again,” I said with my eyes closed.

 

Someone appeared in the window above me. I didn’t recognize who it was but it wasn’t the goon. It looked like one of Mason’s guys. From what I could see, he dressed like the other guys in his plain t-shirt and vest covered in patches.

 

“Come on,” he urged me. “Jump up!” He held his hands down to catch me, and I did the best I could.

 

I shoved the handgun behind the belt on my jeans and jumped up to grab his hands. He grabbed the rope tied around my wrists and started to pull me up. I couldn’t really help him from that point because there wasn’t enough room for me to try to get a good footing to push up with my feet.

 

He pulled me out of the car and cut my wrists free with a knife he pulled from his pocket. Then he pulled me out the rest of the way and cut my feet free, too. He jumped down from the car and held his arms out for me to jump into them.

 

I laughed and shook my head as I jumped down next to him.

 

“Is that it?” I asked. “Is it over?”

 

“Mason and Skull are on the other side of the car. I didn’t see where the other guy went,” the Angel said, shaking his head.

 

In the moonlight, I could see there were other Angels standing around with guns drawn, watching out for Skull or his goon to come back and start shooting again. That was when we saw headlights, and they turned towards the car. The bikers gestured for me to get down as they all ducked and ran back up to the car.

 

I heard a couple of car doors slam as it sounded like someone was getting out. Then, in the dead silence of the night, I heard guns cock. My blood turned to ice. After all that had happened so far, it seemed Skull had called for backup after all.

 

I could feel the men around me tense up. The air filled with their anxiety as we listened to the men approaching the car. An arm shot out in front of me, holding me back against the roof of the car. I looked around. I recognized Mick, but I didn’t know who any of the other guys were, and I didn’t see Mason. Where the hell was Mason?

 

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I heard Skull as he taunted everyone.

 

Then rapid gunfire erupted.

 

The guys all jumped when they heard the fully automatic machine guns rip the night open around them.

 

“I don’t have a gun,” I heard someone say. I looked up, and it was Mason, talking to Mick. Mick pulled the assault rifle off his shoulder and handed it to him.

 

“Get down,” my rescuer told me.

 

“There are only two of them,” Mason said.

 

“So that makes four including Skull and the other guy,” Mick added.

 

“Right. We’ve got four shooters. From what I can tell, only two of them have automatic weapons. Skull and the other guy might be going back to the SUV that pulled up, so let’s get these two guys out of the way,” Mason said.

 

“Piece of cake,” said Mick.

 

“Yep, piece of cake. Give ’em hell, boys,” Mason said, and the night erupted around me.

 

I crouched down against the roof of the car, wishing I’d stayed inside it. Gunfire blasted all around me. There was the rapid fire of Skull’s backup gunmen. Then there was the pulsing gunfire of Mason and his men shooting back.

 

My rescuer fell to the ground in front of me. He’d been shot by one of Skull’s men. I quickly grabbed the rifle from his hands.

 

“No offense,” I told his dead body as I grabbed the weapon and held it against my chest. I knelt back down against the car and listened to the gunshots all around me.

 

The gunfire started to thin out. I heard a couple of cheers as one of the automatic weapons was silenced. Then I heard a couple more assault rifles go out. Storm’s Angels were down to just Mick and Mason.

 

They closed in on either side of me, pressing against the car.

 

“We’ve got the one guy out there, and it looks like Skull and his other shooter are in the car,” Mason told him.

 

“I’ll get this guy. You start heading over there,” Mick said.

 

“You sure?” Mason asked.

 

“Oh yeah, I’ve got him.” Mick turned around to face the car and started stepping to the side, walking to the back of the car until he cleared it.

 

I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see Mick get taken out by one of Skull’s men. I heard both of their guns go off—Mick’s and Mason’s. I didn’t look to see where Mason was shooting.

 

“All right,” Mick cheered.

 

“Yeah, now it’s just me and Skull,” Mason said.

 

“I’ll cover you,” Mick told him as he started to walk away.

 

The night went silent again. I hated the silence. At least with the gunfire, I knew what was going on. I could hear the action and tell where everything was. In the silence, the only thing I could hear was the hum of the SUV’s engine, the car Skull’s other two shooters had pulled up in.

 

I wanted to run out in front and grab the automatic weapons that were lying next to his two dead shooters, but I didn’t know who or what else was out there waiting on us to make a move like that. For all I knew, as soon as I ran out to grab one of those guns, someone would have opened up on me, taking me out.

 

“The tension is killing me,” I said out loud, unable to hold it in any longer.

 

“Me, too, Clara,” Mick said. “Me, too, but Mason’s got this. They were literally face to face a little while ago, and they didn’t do shit. I don’t know what the deal is with those two, unless they’re waiting for some special main even style fight. Wait, he’s trying to say something.”

 

I stood up and turned around to face Mick, to see if I could catch what Mason was trying to tell him.

 

“He’s not here,” I heard him shout over the SUV.

 

“What do you mean, he’s not there?” Mick asked, lowering his gun.

 

“Uh, Mick,” I said, feeling an arm wrap around my neck and the barrel of a gun press against my temple.

 

“Oh shit, Mason. We found him,” Mick said as he turned around to see Skull with me in his grasp.

 

“Tonight just keeps getting more and more interesting, don’t you think?” Skull asked Mick as he started to pull me away from him.

 

“Hey, man, just let her go,” Mick urged him. “This beef is between you and Mason. Leave her out of it.”

 

“Oh, she’s going to be left out of it. Where’s Mason?” he demanded. “I want him to witness this.”

 

“Witness what?” Mick asked. “What are you planning on doing, Skull?”

 

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m going to kill this traitor, and then I’m going to kill the two of you.”

 

For some unexplainable reason, I wasn’t afraid he was going to shoot me. Maybe it was because I’d been through so much already, but it felt like he was bluffing. It felt like Skull was just trying to use me as a distraction so he could buy some time to find an escape. I could almost hear it in his voice. He wasn’t about to kill anybody. He was about to try to run like the coward he was.

 

“Put your weapon down, Mick,” Skull told him, and I was surprised to see Mick comply.

 

He raised his hands and lowered the rifle he had to the ground, slowly, carefully. He stood back up without taking his eyes off of Skull with an arm around me and the gun to my head.

 

“Good, now where the hell is Mason?” he hissed.

 

“I’m right behind you,” Mason said, and I felt Skull’s body tense up against mine. I figured Mason must have had his gun drawn on Skull the way Skull had his drawn on me.

 

“You idiot, put your gun down. See, unlike you, I can pull the trigger, and when I do, your precious little girlfriend bites the dust,” Skull snapped.

 

“Fair enough, but you have to ask yourself one thing first, Skull. Am I holding one of my assault rifles to your head, or is this one of the automatic weapons your boys brought in to play with a little while ago?”

 

I felt his grip on me loosen, and his gun shifted back from my head.

 

I took the opportunity to turn away from Skull, draw my weapon, and back myself towards Mick, who was also pulling his gun back up from the ground.

 

“Okay, you got me, Mason,” Skull said, raising his gun above his head. “Maybe we can talk now and work something out that will benefit both of us.”

 

“Can you believe this guy?” I asked Mick under my breath.

 

Skull had something up his sleeve, though. Even in the nearly complete darkness around us, I could see his eyes smiling back at us. He was about to try to pull something at the last minute to get himself out of trouble. Classic Skull.

 

“Why doesn’t Mason just shoot him?” I asked, growing frustrated at the little game these two were playing.

 

“I think he wants a fight. This has built up long enough between the two of them. Mason isn’t going to want to shoot him at this point,” Mick explained.

 

“But he’s got him,” I argued.

 

“Oh yeah. I think he’s had numerous opportunities to drop him right then and there tonight, but he wants a fight. He wants the satisfaction of actually punching Skull, I think,” Mick continued. “You have to remember, Mason was brought into the MC by a bunch of old school guys. Bar fights were their thing. They used to start fights just for the hell of it. No reason. They’d get bored, have a few drinks, and start knocking the hell out of folks.”

 

“You’re kidding, right?” I asked, but from his laughter behind me, I knew he wasn’t. Maybe that was the reason for Skull’s unsettling smile. He knew Mason wasn’t about to shoot him. He knew he had an opportunity to still get the upper hand.

 

“I could shoot him from right here,” I told Mick. “I’ve got the perfect shot. Even I couldn’t miss it.”

 

“Mason would hate you forever if you did that. Don’t rob him of this,” Mick warned me.

 

That was when it happened. Mason was getting his fight after all. Skull dropped his gun and spun around. He grabbed Mason’s rifle and the two of them struggled for the firearm.

 

Mick and I relaxed. It was just the four of us now, and I got the feeling that Mick’s opinion of the fight was to let it take its course. He didn’t seem too worried about who the winner would be.

 

Maybe he was just too confident in Mason’s abilities as a brawler.