"Suppressing fire! " Frank yelled, bursting out of the workshop with his weapon drawn. The Hells Angels poured fire into the darkness. The mercenaries, realizing the job was botched, scrambled for their SUVs. Engines roared as they peeled away, leaving the dead deputy chief behind.
Silence returned to the desert. Sarah stood up, dusting off her jeans. She walked over to where Gary was cowering in the dirt, sobbing. Frank and Mike walked up behind her. Gary looked up at Sarah, forcing a smile.
"Baby, you did it. You saved us. We can go now. We can start over. " Sarah looked down at him.
She felt absolutely nothing. "There is no we, "Gary," she said cold. "But I'm your husband. " Sarah looked at Frank. "Get him out of here.
If he comes back to California, tell him the Angels will finish what the cartel started. " Frank nodded at Mike. Big Mike grabbed Gary by the collar and dragged him toward the gate like a sack of garbage. Gary's pleas faded into the distance. "The drive?
" Frank asked, looking at the tall grass? Sarah reached into her back pocket and pulled out the real flash drive. "I threw a lighter. I learned a few sleight-of-hand tricks behind the bar. " Frank stared at her for a moment, then a slow grin spread across his face.
He clapped a heavy hand on her shoulder. "You got a lot of hustle, Sarah," Frank said. "Maybe too much for a bartender. " "Good thing I'm not just a bartender anymore," Sarah replied, looking at the sunrise bleeding over the horizon. Two months later, the Iron Piston reopened.
It was bigger, the walls were reinforced with steel, and the neon sign was brand new. Sarah stood behind the bar. She wasn't wearing her old thrift store jacket. She was wearing a leather vest. On the front, a patch read, "Property of No One.
" She wasn't a member. Women couldn't be patched members, but she was something else. She was the queen of the hive. When she told a prospect to jump, they asked how high.
When she told a drunk to leave, they ran. She had lost her house, her car, and her husband. But as she looked around the bar at Frank, Big Mike, and the family she had found in the most unlikely of places, Sarah poured a shot of Jack Daniels and smiled. She had found a life worth fighting for, and God help anyone who tried to take it from her.