“Paxton probably didn’t thank you, his head’s not in the right place, but I’d like to thank you,” he says, holding out his hand for the officer to shake.
The cop shakes MadDog’s hand, and I give him a jerky nod and mumble my thanks as well. It’s hard for me to truly thank him, since it seems like he’s got a hard-on for my wife. The amount of deflation he suffered from finding out she was married was painfully obvious.
The room grows loud as Theo and the twenty brothers start to trickle in. Theo wraps his hand around my shoulder and gives me a squeeze.
I murmur to him what happened, and that we don’t know anything, and I watch as his eyes get all glassy with tears. He fights them back, probably not wishing to cry in front of all these hard-assed bikers. I could give a fuck; this situation is fucked, and it’s goddamn sad.
The hours tick by. The Old Ladies arrive and bring food for everyone. I don’t eat. I can’t. Instead, I pull out my phone and I call Fury, my old president, my friend.
“Pops called me,” he says after the first ring.
“Fucked up,” I mutter.
“How? You didn’t hurt her. That piece of shit did, and he’s lucky he’s sitting in jail right now,” Fury growls.
“Spent so many years away from her—lost inside my own head, fucking other bitches, drinking, smoking. Fucked up.”
“Could be worse. She coulda had your kid and you ignored her for years,” he says, speaking from experience.
“How do I fix it?” I ask.
“She still giving you shit over it?” he asks on a chuckle.
“No, she’s got my brand on her body. She’s all in,” I admit, looking down at my feet.
“Then you’ve fixed it for now, and you keep giving her all the good you’ve got to give. Make each day better than the one before, and never believe that you deserve her, because you sure as fuck don’t.”
“Never did,” I admit with a shake of my head.
“Keep us updated on her, yeah?” he asks.
“’Course. Me or MadDog,” I say.
“Yeah, hang in there, brother.”
I end the call, unable to say anything else. There are way too many emotions running through my body. I need to see her. I need to know that she’s going to be okay.
I can’t lose her.
If I lost her, I wouldn’t be able to go on. I’ve never been as happy as I am with Cleo at my side. I love her, honest to fuck, I fucking love her.
“Family of Cleo Hill,” a doctor calls out.
I stand and practically run over to him.
“I’m her husband,” I shout on my way. “How is she?”
“Your wife has suffered a traumatic injury. Now, she’s going to be in a medically induced coma, for lack of better words, for a couple of days. Then we’ll slowly reduce her medication. This is so that her body is calm and she has time to heal. The bullet didn’t hit anything major. She’s very lucky. Now we just wait for her body to heal,” he explains. I let out the breath I’d been holding while he talked.
“So, she’s going to be okay?” I ask.
“She looks good. She’s young and healthy. I don’t foresee her not making a full recovery.”
“When can I see her?” I practically beg.
“They’re just setting her up in her room. I’ll send a nurse out when she’s all settled in,” he smiles. “I’ll also be watching her monitors, and I’ll be popping in from time to time throughout her stay here.”
“Okay. Thanks, doc,” I say, shoving my hand out to shake his.
He takes my hand with a grin and we shake. I watch as he walks away before I turn to the waiting room full of people. I open my mouth to speak, but before I can even get a word out, the cop from earlier is in front of me.
“She’s gonna be okay. Bullets missed everything major. They’re keeping her in a coma for a while, but the doctor said he thought she’d make a full recovery,” I explain before he can even ask.
“Good. I’m really glad. I’ll tell my captain,” he mumbles before he puts his head down and walks away.
I was right. He had a hard-on for my wife. I can’t really blame the dude. My wife is stacked and gorgeous. If he knew her, he’d like her even more. She’s the sweetest fucking woman on this planet.
Facing the room full of my friends, men and women I also consider my family, I tell them what the doctor told me. I watch as Lisandro turns into Theo’s chest, and his body starts shaking with sobs.
I can’t blame him.
I feel like crying, too.
I won’t, but I feel like it. I’m so fucking happy.
* * *
CLEO
I try to open my eyes, but the pain shooting through me is too much. I moan and turn my head to the side, attempting to call out for help. I don’t know where I am or what’s happening, but I know I’m in serious pain.
I imagine I’m locked in some creepy dungeon with creepy Mr. Garcia. Then I hear the sweetest sound in the entire world.
“Relax, sweetheart. I’ll get you something for the pain,” Paxton whispers.
I whimper again, not because of the pain, but because I know that it’s only my imagination playing tricks on me. Paxton isn’t here with me. He’s at our house, probably panicking because he doesn’t know where I am. And me? I’m going to be sold to the highest bidder.
“Baby, don’t get all worked up, the nurse is comin’,” his voice rumbles through the quiet room.
A few seconds later, I hear another voice, a female, and then the pain floats away and I’m pulled under again. Hopefully, I won’t ever wake up. I don’t want to live through whatever nightmare awaits me.
TORCH
“What the fuck is going on with this Garcia guy?” I growl into the phone.
I’m standing outside of Cleo’s room. I don’t want to talk about this in front of her, just in case she can hear me. The last thing I want her waking up to is my angry voice.
The doctors told me that she could probably hear what was happening in her room; at minimum, she can feel the vibe of the people in there, and right now my vibe is fucking pissed the fuck off.
“Oliver did some digging. He had to dig fucking deep,” MadDog murmurs. “It’s ugly.”
“Don’t care. I didn’t think it was going to be pretty, since my woman is lying in a hospital bed, in a goddamn coma, man,” I growl.
“Fuck. Her boss, the attorney, he was in on it. At least on the major aspect of Garcia’s work. I don’t know if he had anything to do with Cleo specifically. Apparently, Garcia is a client of his. Voight has represented him for different things, and they’re friends. I don’t know what that means, or what Voight is into, but I do know that he brought Garcia into his office just a few days before Cleo vanished to Redding. Cleo was on a buy list, Torch.” He mumbles his last few words, as if saying them like that will make it less true.
“What the fuck do you mean, a buy list?” I ask, my eyes watching her through the window.
“Garcia was taking her to sell her; he had a buyer lined up already. I don’t know who, and Oliver hasn’t figured it out yet.”
“He’s lucky he’s locked up,” I state.
“We have guys on the inside. When he gets transferred to prison, we have guys,” he informs me.
“What about Soar?” I ask.
“Happens to be in the California State Prison, located in Sacramento, for the next couple of years,” he states.
“Sucks for him, but could be beneficial for the situation,” I say, thinking aloud.
“Exactly.”
“What’s this mean for the rest of Garcia’s friends?” I ask, speaking of The Cartel.
“Oliver’s hacked his shit, now that he knows who he is. His local friends are going to go down here in a couple days. Kirill, my Russian friend, is heading this way, and we’re going to have a chat,” he explains.
“I want in,” I grunt.
“You stay with Cleo, keep your hands nice and sparkling clean,” he says. I know that
it’s more than just words. It’s a fucking order.
“You’ll keep me updated?”
“Always, brother.”
MadDog ends the call, and I let out a breath before I walk back into Cleo’s room. My woman. She’s fucking helpless right now, but revenge will be dealt, and with a fucking smile. She’s not just my woman. She’s my wife, my Old Lady, which means she has the protection of the Notorious Devils. They’re ruthless when it comes to women and children under their protection.
A few minutes later, the door opens, and Mary-Anne walks inside.
“How is she today?” she asks, handing me a bag from In-N-Out Burger.
“Same as yesterday,” I grumble, taking the bag that I know is filled with a double-double and animal style fries.
“Why don’t you eat and then take a shower. I’ll stay with her for a while,” she suggests.
“Yeah,” I mumble as I pull the food out and start shoving my face.
“She’s going to be okay,” Mary says. She’s not talking to me. She sounds more like she’s talking to herself.
“She is.”
“Genny is gone. She left. The house is untouched, but she’s gone,” she says, telling me about the latest happenings of the Genny and Soar drama.
Genny didn’t show up to the short sentencing. Soar didn’t have a trial. He plead out and he got five years. Maybe he’ll be out in three with good behavior, but this shit was not his first strike, and the judge was not one of ours. He’s a hard ass who was making an example out of him.
“Maybe that’s what she needs to do. They didn’t seem happy,” I shrug.
I don’t really give a shit about other people’s relationships, but I can’t think about The Cartel and why Cleo isn’t awake yet, even though she’s off of the medicine that kept her in a coma like state twenty-four hours a day.
“Yeah, makes me sad. They were a pretty couple,” she says with a shrug.
“Soar said they’d been together since high school. Seems like they just went in different directions as they grew up. That shit happens sometimes.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” she mumbles.
I know she’s probably thinking about her brother Sniper and his woman Brentlee. They were high school sweethearts, too. He left her, joined the military, and she married an abusive piece of shit. They’re back together now, happy and poppin’ out babies left and right; but for a long time, they were miserable and living a lie, both of them.
“If they’re meant to be, they’ll find their way back to each other,” I say.
“I like this part of you, Torch,” she smiles. I look at her in confusion. “This happy part of you. This part of you that’s in love with a woman; and not just any woman, but the woman that you have always wanted. It’s a beautiful thing, what you two have. I love that for you. I don’t know everything you went through in the military, but I can tell it wasn’t pretty. I think you deserve all of this beauty that Cleo gives you.”
“Mary,” I grunt.
“Go take a shower,” she grins.
I shake my head but do as she suggests. A hot shower is something I don’t only want right now, I fucking need it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
CLEO
“C’mon, sweetheart, it’s time to wake up now,” Paxton’s rough voice murmurs.
My eyes flutter open in hopes that it’s not my imagination, but the real thing. I turn my head, expecting to see Mr. Garcia. Instead, I’m met with the sweetest vision I have ever seen in my entire life.
Paxton.
“Are you real?” I ask, lifting my hand to touch his cheek.
“Yeah, sweetheart. I’m real,” he whispers.
The room is dark, but there’s a beeping sound that fills it. It smells like a hospital, and I know that I must be in one.
“What happened?” I ask.
“You were shot, baby,” he chokes before he clears his throat.
I take in his features and furrow my brow. He’s got a full beard on his face, something I’ve never seen before, and his eyes are sunken in deep, as though he hasn’t slept in weeks.
“How long have I been here?” I rasp.
“A month, sweetheart. Never thought you’d fuckin’ wake up,” he says hoarsely before he lets out a cough. “Called the nurses to come and see to you.”
Before I can say another word, Paxton steps away, and my room is filled with doctors and nurses. I’m asked a million different questions, and when I admit that I’m in pain, I’m given medicine in my IV. I start to feel lightheaded, but I don’t want to fall asleep before I can see Paxton again, so I try as hard as I can to keep my eyes open.
Once the doctors leave, his tired face fills my vision again. I grab his hand with mine and give it a squeeze.
“I love you, Pax,” I whisper.
“Love you so fuckin’ much, Cleo,” he says gently as he squeezes my hand. “Rest. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
My eyes flutter closed. No matter how hard I try to keep my lids open, I fall asleep, Paxton’s hand in mine and the image of his handsome, but tired face in my mind.
TORCH
“How’s she doin’?” MadDog asks.
We’re standing in the hallway of the hospital, an hour after Cleo woke up and then fell back asleep.
I turn my head to look at her in her bed before I face MadDog.
“She’s tired and out of it, but she could talk, and she seemed coherent as far as what was happening around her. She was confused, but she knew who I was,” I admit.
“Good. You know all the Old Ladies are gonna be down here as soon as they know she’s awake,” he chuckles.
“Tomorrow?” I ask.
“Yeah, I’ll try to hold Mary off that long,” he laughs. “I’ll start makin’ calls.”
“I’m calling Lisandro right now,” I inform him. He lifts his chin to me before he walks away.
“What happened?” Lisandro screams in my ear.
He does this every single fucking time I’ve called him to give him an update, or lack thereof, until this point.
“She woke up,” I admit. “She talked, and she seems good,” I grin.
“I’m there as soon as I can be,” he announces.
“She’s sleepin’ right now, but yeah, come on down tonight. Wait ‘til Theo gets off work. He’ll be pissed if you leave without him,” I warn.
The past month, I’ve become close with Theo and Lisandro. I’ve discovered that they’re good men. They care about Cleo, but they care about me, too.
I feel like I don’t deserve to have them as family, because that’s exactly what they’ve become. I’m completely grateful for them, for their compassion toward me and their love of Cleo.
“You’re right,” he grumbles.
“See you tonight,” I chuckle.
“You want me to bring you dinner?” he asks.
“Fuck, yeah,” I grunt.
I haven’t left the hospital once since I walked in here a month ago. Mary-Anne brought me a duffle bag of clothes, and sometimes a brother or Lis will bring me food, but I’ve been mostly surving on shitty hospital food and coffee.
“See you soon,” he sings.
I’m glad that he’s happy again. He’s been a fucking mess.
We all have.
I watch television, waiting for Cleo to wake up again, hoping to get a little more time with her before Lisandro and Theo arrive, but I don’t want to wake her up. I know that she needs rest.
“Are you watching Fixer Upper?” Cleo’s hoarse voice mutters.
I walk over to her bedside, pulling a chair with me and taking her hand in mine as I do.
“I was,” I chuckle.
“Love that show,” she breathes as her eyes flutter open.
“How you feelin’, sweetheart?” I ask as my thumb makes circles on her hand.
“Tired and sore, but better than when I first woke up,” she admits. I can’t help but smile.
“Lis and Theo will be here soon,” I inform her.
“Yay,” she cheers softly.
“Fuckin’ hell, baby, you scared the shit outta me.”
“I’m sorry, Pax,” she whispers.
“Don’t be. Not your fault, not even a second. You did the right thing. So fuckin’ proud of how you handled the situation, baby,” I mutter as I cup her cheek with my hand.
She smiles at me, and it’s like a goddamn punch to the gut. She’s stunning, and I missed her gorgeous smile—I missed her even more than I realized.
“Missed you, Clee,” I admit, sounding like a pussy.
“I love you,” she replies.
“Yeah, sweetheart, love the fuck outta you, too,” I grunt.
“Where is she? Where’s my girl?” Lisandro cries. I turn my head, chuckling as I do. “Oh, my God, I swear I haven’t slept a wink in a month. Do you see the bags under my eyes?” he asks as he hurries to her side.
I stand and wink at Cleo, and she rolls her eyes before I walk away.
“Gonna make a phone call,” I mutter.
Theo and Lisandro both wave absentmindedly at me as I walk out of the room. I head over to the window and I watch my woman with her family, her best friends, as I pull out my phone and call MadDog.
“Didn’t ask you earlier, how’s the situation?” I question him before he can even greet me.
“Handled. He was brought in four days ago, and was gone as of shower time this mornin’,” he explains.
Without saying the words, his meaning is perfectly clear. Soar killed Garcia this morning in the showers. I grin at the information as my eyes roam over Cleo. She’s smiling, talking to her friends. Lisandro’s hands wave around in excitement, and I can tell that he’s finally breathing easy.
Lisandro’s been beside himself, been a wreck, emotionally and every other way he could be. His obvious love of my woman makes me realize that he is special, he is family and he is part of our circle from now until the end. Him and Theo are under the Notorious Devils protection, and under my protection.
“She looks good,” Theo says, walking out of the room to join me.
The Notorious Devils MC: Complete Collection BoxSet Page 134
