His Vice

Ch 6

She awoke, just after dawn, glancing down at the child in her arms with creased eyes. Still so exhausted, but this wasn't her inner clock getting her up, it was the sudden loud noise in her ears. It was like a repetitive whoosh she knew from living in the city, it was a helicopter. And in any other instance, it wouldn't worry too much. But, it was so loud, louder than she had ever heard a helicopter in the past. She glanced at the window, gasping at the sight of the large dark red machine just outside her window. When the shots rang out, she screamed, collapsing onto the bed, rolling off onto the floor, the crying infant between her arms. The repeated clicking, it was deafening, watching the window glass shatter across the floor. The bullets hit furniture, exploded vases, and shattered pictures, filling the walls with holes.

"Harmony!" she gazed up, her body covering her son on the wood floor, trying not to crush his tiny frame. It was Max, through the wall that separated their rooms.

"Stay on the floor! don't fucking move!" he yelled. He was on the floor too, grabbing the gun case from under his bed, fumbling it open, and loading the pistol. Harmony moved softly across the floor, her eyes shut tightly, trying to scoot across the glass and debris to the door.

Max pulled his phone to his ear, yelling into it, demanding an evacuation, telling Spike to make sure the others took everything incriminating with them, pack up the gun library, and moving it immediately. He knew after a stunt like this, the police were going to be all over the place. They could play it off as a hate crime, against their supposed cult cover, but they couldn't have anything related to their activities to be seen, it would jeopardize everything. He leaned up, his heart in his throat as the bullets flew, shredding his entire room, trying to aim from the floor, closing an eye, trying to line up shot into the cockpit.

He knew this was retaliation from Bloody Love, for the death of their leader, he had been waiting for something like this to happen. He leaned up, bucking back with pain, cursing. His arm was hit, a clean entrance and exit, he clenched his teeth together, knowing he couldn't succumb to the pain.

He aimed again, letting a shot go, the hole it caused through the glass of the cockpit. He watched as it lost control, getting up from the floor, seeing it go down through the broken glass of the window, hit the street below, causing cars to slam on their breaks. It caught fire, and all he could do was watch as it burned.

Harmony watched it disappear from their window, hearing when it hit the street and the shrieks of the tires of the cars that stopped on the street. She got to her feet, Maxxy still bloody screaming in her ear, trying to unlock the door.

"Max!" she yelled, struggling with the locks. He turned, running across the glass and kicking open her door, bringing her into his arms. She cried, holding the screaming child. She noticed how wet his shirt sleeve was, bringing her hand to her eyes and screaming at the sight of the red blood.

"You have to go! now!" The elevator doors opened on the bottom floor, members hurrying down the halls with black duffle bags, grabbing every weapon on the walls.

"But, what about you?! You've been shot Max!" she asked, panic in her features.

"I have to be here to clean up the mess" he responded, grabbing her cheeks "Grab everything you need, go into the emergency elevator and go down to the garage, Spike will be there waiting for you"

"No! I have to be here with you!" she claimed, fisting his shirt with her free hand.

"The cops are still searching for you, you can't be here when they arrive! hurry!" she cried but did what she was told, packing a baby bag and hurrying to the elevator, her heart pounding in her ears. When the doors opened, Spike and Cam were waiting for her, sunglasses over their eyes to hide their faces. She heard the other cars drifting from the lot and out the exit. Spike grabbed her bag and Cam her hand, leading her to the car waiting for them. She watched the other cars fleeing out onto the street, getting inside the car.

"Head down!" Spike snapped from the driver's seat and she fell to the leatherback seats, holding her son against her chest, trying to hold on when the car drifted out of the lot and out onto the street.

"Where are we going?" she asked, trying to soothe Maxxy

"There's a chapter in LA that's taking us in until this blows over" Cam responded, cocking his gun.

"What about Max?! he's there all by himself! He's been shot!" she claimed

"The cops would have shown up already, he'll be bandaged by the EMTs" Spike responded "As far as they know, he's just an innocent victim of a hate crime against his religion" She couldn't believe how well they had organized everything, it was as if in any situation they could think of, they had planned every possible thing that could go wrong, we're prepared for a mess at any moment, always on guard. "We think you might have been the target, so you'll be settled into a safe house when we get there"

"Bogey following," Cam said suddenly. She got up from the seat, looking through the back tinted window. There was a car, blood-red in color. She turned when Cam opened the window, cocking his pistol and hanging out the side of the car, shooting the weapon as Spike swerved through the other cars. She put her hands over Maxxy's ears, holding him against her body, eyes wide with fear.

"Why would I be the target?!" she asked

"Because they know that the best way to hit Max is through you!" Spike yelled, drifting across the corner. She held on tightly, trying not to be pulled with the car when it turned. Cam shot and one of the front wheels on the red car squealed, losing control as she watched, horrified as it went up onto the sidewalk, running through the window of a nearby shop.

"Bogey down" Cam got back into his seat, blowing on the end of the barrel with a smirk on his face, his eyes still hooded.

"What about the others?" she asked

"They'll stay in the building for the Hell's Heaven chapter in Los Angeles" Cam responded, pulling up his sunglasses, turning back above the consul, smiling at her. "We'll get some fucking sun alright" he looked excited.

"How can you be so calm?" she asked. He shrugged, leaning back in his seat, stretching out as they hit the highway. "I was just shot at with a helicopter! I was almost killed! my baby was almost killed!"

"I guess we're used to it is all" Cam responded, turning to face her, popping out a piece of gum from the pack between his fingers. "Gum?" he held it out to her, making her look at him incredulously.

"No! I don't want gum Cam!" she snapped

"Well, your loss" he tossed it into his mouth.

"Spike, make sure that Max is alive"

"I'm sure he is" Spike responded

"Good, because when I see him! I'm going to kill him!!"