Ridge Creek Reunited (Ridge Creek Duology) (17 page)

And then I stiffen too.

Standing in front of the shop is a small crowd of people and some of them do not look happy. Realizing that I recognize all the faces in the small crowd, I whisper a quiet, “Oh dear,” to myself as we approach.

Jake’s chest rumbles against my front as he growls angrily at the crowd ahead. Slowing the bike down to near walking speed, he rolls towards the shop his head slightly turned to the left watching the crowd as we approach. The bike rumbles and crackles beneath us and I watch as every face in the crowd redirects their focus to watch us as we roll towards them.

I recognize Luke, Zane, Towball and Emma standing near the shop door. Luke, Zane and Towball look amused. Emma looks
pissed.
Her face softens for a brief second when she sees me on the back of Jake’s bike but then hardens instantly as she swings her attention back to her original focus point in the crowd.

Victoria.

Victoria also looks pissed. Not at Emma, but at
me
now that she too has spotted me sitting on the back of her husband’s bike. I instantly realize this is not good. Once again her red hair looks like it’s about to catch fire as her eyes lock on mine and I am blasted with a look of pure hatred.

Marveling that I haven
’t yet burst into flames, I continue to scan the faces in the group. Standing just off to Victoria’s left are four more familiar faces that I had not expected to see again so soon. Stephen Bradford, Ritchie, Gina and Anton. They appear to be in a small huddle of their own and I can see that Stephen is eyeing Victoria cautiously, but with interest. Anton, Gina and Ritchie are not however looking at Victoria with interest. Their attention is focused to her right. On an old potbellied man with crazy long white hair and a long white beard.

Pops.

Pops who is holding a fire extinguisher in one hand, its hose and nozzle in the other. He has the nozzle pointed straight at Victoria and he looks like he means business. Victoria however, does not seem to care that he looks like he means business with his fire extinguisher. This is because she is now fully focused on me.

Uh oh.

It’s at this point that I realize Jake is idling right
past
the entire crowd and past the shop without stopping. Turning my head as we roll on by I watch as Emma swings her attention back to me briefly as she waves us on. She appears to be agreeing with Jake’s decision to keep moving.

I however,
do not.

Leaning forward slightly, I press my lips to the side of his head. Then, in a voice I hope is loud enough that he can hear me over the rumble of his bike I call, “Jake, stop the bike.”

It’s loud enough. I know this because Jake stiffens even more and growls angrily, “No fuckin’ way.” He then gives the engine a rev and the bike speeds up again.

Turning to look at the distance now building between the crowd and Jake’s bike, I call again. “Jake,
please
stop the bike.”

Jake responds to my request by hitting the accelerator and making the bike roar louder as we
take off down the street and away from the shop. Turning his head so that I can hear him more clearly, he announces, “Let Pops deal with her. He looks like he’s got it covered.”

Turning my head back to press it against the side of his head again, I find myself yelling over the noise of the bike roaring beneath us. “But Jake, Stephen Bradford was there. He might have important news.”

“He can call you,” Jake yells back, his body stiff and unforgiving as we continue to roar along.

“I need boots and a jacket,” I yell again in what appears to be a vain effort to get him to stop or even slow the bike down. “I also need my laptop.”

This appears to do the trick. I feel the bike stutter and then slow as Jake’s body softens just a little in front of me and he sighs. “Fuck,” he grumbles as he gears the bike down and rolls to a stop in the middle of the street. I turn my head back to look at the crowd that is now about two hundred meters away.

All faces are watching us with interest.

Shaking his head, Jake turns the handlebars on the bike and we start to do a slow u-turn back towards the shop. “Do not talk to her. Do not acknowledge her. In fact don’t even look at her. Just walk straight into the shop and head to your room to get your stuff,” Jake orders roughly. “I’ll get rid of her.”

“Okay,” I agree instantly as the bike lurches forward and we rumble back towards the shop again. The sound of the pipes on Jake’s bike echo along the street as we go. The noise almost eerie as I watch the faces in the group ahead staring at us.

Re-approaching the shop, I see Pops move closer to Victoria and he starts waving the nozzle of the fire extinguisher about twenty centimeters from her face. I can see his lips moving but I can’t hear his voice due to the noise of the bike beneath us. Victoria, appearing un-phased by whatever it is that Pops is saying to her as he waves the nozzle in her face, bats the nozzle away.

I notice she does this with her left hand because her right one is still at her side, bandaged and taped up from her window shenanigans
on Saturday night.

Pops appearing even more agitated at her disregard of his nozzle pointing threat, takes a step back. It
’s at this point that Jake finally brings his bike to a stop out the front of the shop, gives it one last rev and shuts the engine down. The last echoes of pipes have barely faded from the street around us as I vault from the bike.

Realizing it is probably best that I do as Jake has asked and avoid any eye contact with Victoria, I lock my eyes firmly on Emma’s and point my body towards the front door to the shop. Vaguely aware of Jakes movement behind me, I sense rather than see his huge presence as he lifts from his bike to stand directly behind me. Placing a hand into the small of my back, he gives a small push to propel me towards the front door of the shop.

I take just one step before I hear the roar of Victoria’s voice from somewhere to my right. “What the fuck is she doing
on the back of your bike?
”

“Don’t make a scene here
Victoria, or so fuckin’ help me I’ll…” Jake barely finishes his sentence when he’s drowned out by the loud and distinct sound of a fire extinguisher going off. White powdery dust suddenly fills the air as both Jake and I rock to stop. The fire extinguisher shuts off and absolute silence follows.

Holy shit, Pops let it rip.

Swinging my eyes in the direction I’ve been trying so hard to avoid, I see Victoria. She’s no longer focused on me. Her full attention is now focused on Pops who’s standing in front of her, still waving the nozzle of the fire extinguisher as if he plans to use it again. With a grunt, he leans forward towards her face and announces, “Get ye gone Devil woman. I warned you to move the fuck on. Now
move the fuck on.
”

Victoria, a look of shock and horror on her face, stares blankly back at Pops. She
’s haloed by a cloud of white dust and her chest and crutch are covered thickly in white powder.

My mind briefly registers that the long sleeved cashmere sweater she
’s wearing is now probably destroyed. It then registers that her shiny black pants are probably destroyed too. I’m about to consider the status of the shiny black high heels she’s wearing when I hear some kind of snort from near the front of the shop and then the sound of two hands slapping together.

Turning back to find the source of the sound, I see Zane and Luke, huge grins on their faces
as they high-five each other. Towball is smirking at Emma who is holding one hand to her mouth to cover her look of surprise.

With the dust now settling like snow around us, I look across to see Stephen, Ritchie, Gina and Anton all standing quietly, confused looks on their faces. Gina is looking the most concerned and I can see her battling with herself about whether she should move closer and provide aid to Victoria or whether she should stay put.

This decision is soon made for her when I hear Stephen bark two short orders. “Ritchie, recover the fire extinguisher. Gina help the young lady.”

Within an instant, Ritchie and Gina start moving towards Pops and Victoria, their lack of hesitation remarkable. Clearly they follow orders and they follow them
immediately.

Stephen then swings to Anton and barks a third order. “See Arianna makes it safely inside.” Anton nods and with just as much speed, lurches forward and straight towards me.

It’s at this point that I hear a loud growl from behind me and then a roar. This roar comes from Jake whose arm suddenly appears around my waist to pull me back towards him. Slamming hard up against his front, I grunt as the air is knocked from my lungs.

The next thing I hear is the sound of the fire extinguisher going off – again. This time it’s not a short and sharp blast. This time Pops
means business.
An enormous cloud of white dust once again fills the air and I watch in fascination as Victoria is once again assaulted by the direct blast of the extinguisher.

Which must have some pressure behind it because this time I notice it nearly knocks her over backwards.

I also notice that Pops is aiming straight towards her left hand which is now brandishing a shiny, very sharp looking vegetable knife.

In my direction.

I gasp in shock as I hear Pops yell, “Drop the knife bitch.” He has to yell loudly to be audible over the aerosol sound of the extinguisher expelling its contents. Then all hell breaks loose.

Ritchie appears suddenly among the dusty white cloud and grabs the fire extinguisher off Pops. Pops wrestles with him for a brief moment before the extinguisher
is ripped firmly from his hands. Losing his control over the trigger, the fire extinguisher falls silent and so does Pops as he is pushed backwards with one mighty heave by Ritchie. Stumbling, Towball catches him from behind before gently righting the old man and giving him a pat on the back.

At the same time as this is all happening, Gina now appears within the cloud and with one quick karate chop to Victoria’s wrist, knocks the knife flying. It hits the ground with a crack and slides off towards the gutter. Victoria shocked at the sudden attack squeals as the pain of the blow to her wrist registers and swings to face her attacker. Gina, taller than any woman I have met before, towers over Victoria for a brief second
before she springs to action. With lightning movements and using just one hand, she grabs Victoria’s wrist and yanks it towards herself. This motion causes Victoria to spin in front of her so she ends with her arm bent awkwardly up behind her and her back is pressed against Gina’s front. Gina’s second hand then flies out and around, coming to rest firmly against Victoria’s chest essentially immobilizing her against her Gina’s midriff.

It’s at this point that everyone falls still. Dead still as we stare shocked at Gina. Gina who is dressed in a very short red skirt, white blouse and killer heels. Gina whose dark brown hair is still sitting perfectly in place, neatly tied behind her head with a bone colored clip. Gina who just immobilized a crazy lady with a knife in about two seconds flat and looks like she did it without even missing a heartbeat.

As the dust starts to settle around us for the second time, I feel Jake loosen his arms from around me. At the same time, Victoria lets out another squeal and wiggles in Gina’s arms. Gina gives her a short, sharp squeeze and she falls silent again.

Pushing away from Jake’s chest, I wander over to the gutter and pick up the offending vegetable knife. Staring at it briefly for a moment, my mind screams at me that once again someone is on a mission to hurt me. This time however, it’s not with a gun. It’s a fucking vegetable knife.

What. The. Fuck?

It never ends.

Ignoring the crazy messaging going on my head, I realize that my pulse rate is not even spiking. I haven’t felt one single speck of fear before, during or after the action scene that just played out before me. This has to be a first. Seemingly desensitization does work and I am becoming immune to danger. With no guns involved, it seems this situation was not even worthy of a blip on my fear radar.

Maybe
my fear radar is broken?

Dragging my eyes from the knife now resting in my hand, I spin and set my eyes on Gina. “That was so fucking
awesome!
” I yell with excitement as I hand the knife to Jake and acknowledge her handy work.

“That was way past awesome,” Emma’s voice chimes in from her position near the door to the shop. “We gotta learn some of that shit. Holy fuck, you’re like a female version of Jean Claude Van Damme. Except taller.
Way
taller. And better looking, way better looking.”

Gina’s eyes slowly move
away from me as she turns her head to take in Emma. Emma is grinning like a madwoman. Her gray eyes bright and crazy with excitement. Gina nods almost imperceptibly towards Emma before bringing her eyes back to me. I’m busy grinning at her again when Anton steps in close and places a hand on my elbow. “We need to get you inside.”

“Agreed,” I hear Jake rumble from behind me.

“Not yet,” I mumble as my eyes move to Victoria who is now looking nothing short of bedraggled. Coated in dry, white powder from head to toe I start to wonder if her health is at risk from all the chemicals coating her body.