“Celia,” Molly begged, tightening her hold on me. “Just—we don’t know. It could’ve been some idiot setting off fireworks.”
It wasn’t.
I’d been around bikers long enough to know the sound of a gunshot when I heard one.
“It could be Pres caught the mole,” Alex added confidently. “We’ll just wait here and let him take care of it, okay?”
“You’ve got a lot to learn, kid,” I said flatly before pushing the door open. The hair on my arms instantly stood up, not at the sudden drop in temperature, but at the sight of Bear. He paced the parking lot; one hand tangled up in his dark brown hair while the other held a cell phone in a death grip against his ear.
“Jesus, fuck,” he groaned when he saw me. “Crossbones, get her the fuck away from this!”
I kicked my heels off and jogged toward him, scanning in between vehicles for Jamie. “Where is he?”
“Don’t take him to Eli—fuck! Listen to me!” He roared into the phone. “Jarvis, fuckin’ listen! We’re beyond that right now. Get him to the goddamn hospital—”
“C’mon, Celia,” Crossbones held his meaty hand out for me, but I shook my head.
“No. Tell me where he is. Tell me what happened.” My voice was quiet. Calm. As if a part of me already knew the answer.
I looked down at a large dark oil stain near Bear’s boots. It shimmered under the lights above the parking lot as if it was still fresh. A car leaking oil like that wouldn’t have gone very far, but the trail ended abruptly just feet from where he stood.
Crossbones’ fingers had just closed around my bicep when it dawned on me that I wasn’t looking at oil.
I was looking at blood.
Jamie’s blood.
“Fuck, they’re losing him! Torch, you and Angel get the girls.” He looked up. “Molly, thank Christ! Grab Wolverine and get her to the hospital. Crossbones, you follow. I want protection in place for every member of his family! Are we clear?”
White-hot heat flooded my veins, along with a sort of manic energy that left me feeling jittery.
It wasn’t possible.
He’d been wearing a vest.
Bear yelled something else into the phone, but all I could hear was the ringing in my ears like the screeching feedback from a microphone, drowning out everything else around me. I blinked, and Molly was by my side, leading me to her car.
“The girls?” I asked, the swirling emotions wrapping around my vocal cords, choking me.
“They’re safe with Torch and Angel. Zane’s with them too, okay?”
She clenched her jaw, wiping away the stray tears on her cheeks as she navigated away from the crowd of bikers in the parking lot, punching the accelerator once we reached the streets. I noticed as she expertly weaved in and out of the holiday traffic that she was keeping a close eye on the rearview mirror.
“Are we being followed?” I forced out through clenched teeth.
Molly checked again before shaking her head. “Crossbones is right behind us—he’s gonna be okay, Celia.”
I nodded while hearing Bear’s devastating proclamation on repeat in my head. The car slowed, and I looked up at the bright red emergency sign, looming over my head like an omen.
Maybe it had always been there; a warning that Jamie and I were forever doomed to tragedy. We’d been staring down the barrel of a gun for years yet had convinced ourselves that it was unloaded. The sirens had been nothing more than background noise, easily ignored as we’d fought our way back to each other and rebuilt a life together from ashes.
I heard them now, though.
The sliding doors opened silently, blasting our bodies with air before filling our nostrils with the stench of antiseptic. Every chair was filled with people in various states of distress. A disheveled man in a tracksuit pushed an empty shopping cart in a slow circle around the room, mumbling about the cartel being after him. While one woman vomited down the front of her sequined dress and onto the linoleum in front of her, the man next to her, clearly still under the effects of his party drug of choice, batted the air around his head with an impaired grin, oblivious to the state of his shoes.
I hugged my shoulders, letting my chin rest against my chest as Molly guided me toward the front desk. My mouth moved, but I couldn’t recall a single thing I said before they led us to a private family room.
Instead of sinking down onto the loveseat beside me, Molly slipped into her more familiar role as caregiver and sprang into action, requesting warm blankets and a pair of socks. I frowned until I glanced down and realized my feet were still bare, my shoes lying abandoned in a parking lot fifteen miles away. My toes were almost blue from the cold, but I felt nothing.
Crossbones waited until the nurse left before taking up his post near the door, one hand resting on the handle of his gun.
“They’re sure he’s here?” I finally asked.
Molly nodded. “He’s in surgery now. It could be a while, though. I’m gonna find you some coffee, okay? Crossbones, you need anything?”
He shook his head, never once taking his eyes off of the small rectangular window in the middle of the door as she stepped out.
Someone paged a doctor over the intercom, but otherwise, the room stayed quiet. Molly returned a few minutes later with a cup of coffee and two nurses carrying supplies.
“Alright, let’s just get this on you.” She handed me the coffee and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders before directing me to lift my feet. I obeyed and let her slip plum-colored socks onto my feet as if I were a child. They were covered in white rubber flowers, and I didn’t know whether they were meant to be a fashion statement or only there to keep me from falling.
If it was the latter, it was too late.
I’d been falling since I heard the gunshot.
Once Molly was convinced that I was bundled from head to toe, she sat down beside me and urged me to drink my coffee. I took a small sip and instantly recoiled at the overly sweet taste. At her stern expression, I took another drink, wondering if she’d added every sugar packet in the hospital to the cup.
Crossbones opened the door when he saw Wolverine leading Kate and Dakota down the hall. Zane and Angel brought up the rear like a team of bodyguards.
“Mama?” Dakota asked, the train on her wedding gown swishing softly as she approached me. “Have they said anything?”
“Here, Kota-Bear. Sit,” Molly interjected, jumping out of her seat. “Do you want some coffee? I think we all need coffee.”
I made eye contact with Dakota, and discreetly shook my head.
“No, thank you,” she quickly said. “Kate, do you want coffee?”
Kate’s head jerked up, and she gave Molly a strained smile. “No, I’m good. Thank you.”
Wolverine pulled me into a rough hug. “He’s gonna be fine, doll. Ain’t a goddamn thing that can take him down.”
I nodded and mashed my lips together, knowing if I said anything I’d likely fall apart. Kate’s legs bounced up and down, and she stood up, only to drop back into the chair with a heavy sigh.
“Did you call Nate?” Zane leaned over to ask her, keeping Dakota tucked under his arm. She stared right through me with her bloodshot eyes, seemingly lost in her own thoughts.
I had to stay strong for both of them.
“Yeah. He didn’t answer. I’m sure he’s in—” Kate’s voice broke off in a sob, and she held a shaking hand up over her face, gasping for air.
I got up and moved into the empty seat next to hers, pulling her under the blanket with me. “I’ve got you, Katydid. Deep breaths, baby. In and out.”
Somehow, I kept my voice calm while reciting words I hadn’t used since she was a child grieving the loss of her father.
The irony wasn’t lost on me now.
“Mikey,” I said suddenly, looking to Angel. “Someone needs to call him. He should be here.”
In case Jamie doesn’t pull through.
Wolverine shook his head. “Sons showed up at his house, Celia.
Place looks like a goddamned bomb went off inside.”
The breath hitched in my chest, and I brought my hand up, running my knuckles roughly over my sternum before wheezing, “Is he? Oh my god, and Lauren?”
“They’re both alive… thank Christ, but it don’t sit right with me. Why tonight? Why’d they choose to go after the badge we got in our pocket same time as Grey?”
The meaning behind his question hung heavy in the air.
How had the Sons known what Jamie had fought to keep hidden?
The same way they’d known where to find him. Someone he trusted had betrayed him.
But who?
“Maybe they planned on cleaning house… anyone associated with the club was fair game? I don’t know.” Zane ran a hand over his face, clearly fighting a yawn. He’d probably imagined his wedding night going very differently. I almost felt bad for him, until I remembered that one of his cop buddies had been working with the Sons too. My husband might as well have had a flashing neon sign above his head.
Minutes blended into hours with no updates. Wolverine paced while Molly pushed her sugar-laden coffee on every single person in the room. Kate would doze against my shoulder, only to jerk awake seconds later, frantically checking her phone for messages that weren’t there.
Finally, just as the first rays of sunlight streamed in through the cracks in the blinds, someone entered, and the world as I’d known it for twenty-seven years ceased to exist. The ringing in my ears intensified to the point that I wanted to clap my hands against the side of my head, drowning out the words of the chaplain.
I’d been in a perpetual freefall for what seemed like forever but saw the ground rapidly rising up to meet me with five simple words.
“Your husband didn’t make it.”
Chapter One
Celia: Present Day
The rain that had been coming down in sheets for most of the morning turned to icy sleet, pelting my skin with fury. Still, I remained on the small stone bench, utterly immune to the cold. The pale pink blossoms were long gone from the Redbud tree that Jamie had planted for our baby; leaving behind flat brown seed pods and frozen branches.
I looked up at it, feeling empty.
Hollow.
Just like that tree, I’d been left bare, stripped of my protector.
My dream of the two of us on a beach had been just that. A dream.
I squeezed my eyes shut, still seeing his blood against the asphalt… hearing the sounds I’d made when the doctor finally appeared in the waiting room.
“You need anything?”
I pulled myself from my thoughts and looked over my shoulder. “Louisa? When did you get here?”
“Oh, Celia.” Her lips trembled, and she pressed her fingers to them before joining me on the bench. “I’ve been here since… since the day he… passed. You know, it’s a lot warmer inside the house—”
“No,” I stated firmly. Lucy had already gone into nursing mode, pushing me to eat and sleep as if that alone could piece me back together.
There was a traitor, masquerading as a biker, inside my house. I refused to break bread with a man who’d given up Jamie’s location; a man who’d sentenced him to die at his own daughter’s wedding.
“It was a lovely service,” Lou tried again.
Was it?
I’d been forced to say goodbye to my blond biker in the same cemetery I’d fallen in love with him in. As I’d looked around at the other mourners, I was seventeen again, sitting underneath a large oak tree, discussing mythology.
The tree was long gone, lost to an errant bolt of lightning. It didn’t matter. If I squinted my eyes and stared long enough, I could still see us… two naïve souls, blissfully unaware of the problems life was busy stacking up against them.
If I would’ve known that dance was going to be our last one, I would’ve paid more attention. I would’ve moved my feet a little slower and traced the lines that time had left along Jamie’s face with my fingertips.
By now, they’d probably lowered him into the frost-covered ground. I shuddered at the thought of him being surrounded by dark and wondered if I could’ve given the funeral director something warmer for him to wear. It had only seemed fitting to send him off in the leather vest he loved so much, but maybe it wasn’t enough.
I knew it wasn’t rational.
Jamie was gone; oblivious to the fact that he now resided in a steel box. He didn’t care if it was pitch-black; a fear of the dark was something that only plagued me. I couldn’t sleep, convinced that the Sons would come for me the minute my eyes closed.
That was how they worked, wasn’t it?
Going after Mikey and Lauren in their own home… coming for Jamie at Dakota’s wedding. They struck close to home when it was least expected. It was how they’d been so successful.
And someone within the club had given up both Jamie and his son.
There was always the possibility that it wasn’t a man. For as much as I knew, it could’ve been the woman sitting beside me. Slim had always had a bad heart, but maybe Lou blamed the club for his early death. It could’ve been the woman who’d driven me home from the cemetery. A woman who had gone out of her way to make my life a living hell.
Betsy.
“Celia?”
I clenched my jaw with a jerky nod and pushed my thoughts aside before admitting, “Yeah, it was nice, but he would’ve hated all the flowers.”
She laughed. “I said the same thing at John’s funeral. Our men weren’t really the type to welcome being showered in roses, were they?”
Ignoring the pain in the back of my throat, I agreed. “They could be soft… but never in public.”
The breath hitched in my chest, but the tears wouldn’t come. It was just one more thing my husband had taken with him when he left.
“I didn’t ask, but did you spend any time with him? After he passed, I mean. They let me sit with John for about an hour. I just ran my fingers through that gorgeous long hair of his and kissed his face,” Lou paused and wiped the tears from her cheeks, thawing some of the ice around my heart.
“I knew he was gone; I’d known it when he went down in our bedroom, but just touching him again gave me a sense of peace. It let me know he was okay. He wasn’t hurting.”
There was no way she could’ve been the traitor. She’d loved Jamie almost as much as I had.
My nostrils flared, and I rubbed at my wrists before coldly replying, “No. The doctors wouldn’t let me back in the room. They said there was a lot of blood—I don’t know if it was a health code violation or what the exact reason was. By the time I met with the funeral director, I’d decided I didn’t want to see him like that. I didn’t want to remember him that way.”
She didn’t need to know that even the funeral director had denied me access to my husband’s body.
Jamie was bigger than life, and no matter how many people told me he was gone, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that something as small as a bullet had taken my husband from me. He was the god of death… he should’ve been unstoppable.
Mrs. Quinn, we’ve done the best we can for him, but it’ll be a closed casket funeral. Trust me, it’s better this way.
Louisa turned away from me, shoulders curled over her chest. I didn’t understand why people went out of their way to hide their grief from me as if I was somehow unaware of my loss.
It wasn’t as if I was still expecting him to come down the driveway on his bike, covered in sleet and laughing about a mix-up at the hospital.
That would’ve been crazy.
“Are the girls coming back here?”
I nodded, studying the bare branches on the tree again, wondering if they’d always looked like this in the winter and I’d just missed it. “They are. They were still at the cemetery when Angel and I left.”
She rubbed her hands over the soaked sleeves of her coat to warm herself. “We really need to get you inside, Celia. You’ll catch your death out here.”
“Good.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “You don’t mean that. Your girls need you, just like David needed me. Sure, it’d be easier to admit defeat, but when have the two of us ever done things the easy way?”
Maybe David had figured out that his father was involved in more than just construction. It seemed if I looked hard enough, almost everyone had a motive.
“They came for him, Lou. It’s only a matter of time before they show up for me. Hawk warned me—said death was coming. I didn’t listen then, but I’m listening now.”
She glanced back toward the house, ensuring we were alone, before leaning in. “Why would they want you, Celia?”
I shrugged. “I wish I knew. Jamie looked into it, but as far as I know, nothing ever panned out.”
“Is this about what happened to you—the night you were attacked?”
As her eyes scanned my face, searching for answers that I didn’t have, I wondered if she knew more about what happened than she was letting on. Despite all their bluster about nothing leaving the clubhouse, it was apparent that when push came to shove, the bikers were incapable of keeping secrets from their Ol’ Ladies.
I pinched the bridge of my nose before getting to my feet. Mud squished out from under my ballet flats as the soles sank into the soft earth, and I sighed. “I don’t know anymore, Lou. I don’t see how any of it connects, and unless someone can explain it to me, I’m lost!”
My voice rose over the storm, and I threw my hands up, practically begging for a bolt of lightning to put me out of my misery.
It wasn’t supposed to end… not like this.
“Celia!” Molly hurried across the yard toward us. “Let’s get you inside. Lucy’s got a plate of food with your name on it. Then, we’ll let you rest—”
“Stop!” I roared. “I’m not a goddamn child! I don’t want a plate of food or to take a nap! I want to know who killed my husband. Jesus Christ! Is that too much to ask? I swear to all the saints, the next person that tries to give me a goddamn sandwich or casserole is going to the Reaper!”
Her eyes widened as she put some distance between us. “Fair enough. Are you planning on staying out here until you turn into a snowman, or what?”
Savior: Silent Phoenix MC Series: Book Five Page 2
