“Fuck,” the man holding the gun yells before firing a round in Laura’s leg. “You puta, you fucked this shit up!”
Laura screams as the burn no doubt sears through her flesh, and falls to the floor.
“For everything you do wrong, she will continue to pay.”
I rush to my friend. I know the pain she’s feeling. I know the desperation for the crazy to stop. Scooping her head in my lap, I beg her to stay with me as she cries and her eyes roll back in her head.
“Please, Laura, don’t give into it. This is shock,” I try to be honest and comforting.
There is noise above us, shouting, then shots are fired. Not knowing what’s coming, I wrap my body around Laura’s, shielding her from more harm. Medina tries to grab me and pull me from the ground, but I drop all my weight over my friend.
A rush of people enter the space, and I duck down, closing my eyes. I don’t want to know it’s coming. If I’m going to die today, I’m doing it protecting my friend.
“Drop the gun and you might live.” Axel’s voice is steady, and I feel hope. Tears fall from my face while Medina has his gun trained on me.
Chico moves, and a man who looks like Axel’s twin but older fires a round right to his head. Blood splatters the wall behind him and over Laura and me.
“Not fuckin’ around with you. Drop the motherfuckin’ gun,” Axel again orders.
His eyes meet mine.
I blink back the fear.
Giving him a nod, I only hope he knows what I’m wanting him to do.
His arm extended, his finger on the trigger is ready.
Taking a deep breath, I grab Laura firmly and pull her with me as I shift away from the wall, rolling us out of Medina’s line with his weapon. A shot goes off. A second shot fires, hitting the wall, just before Medina’s body lands in a slump not two feet from us. Blood pools around his head.
Axel rushes to me and another man to Laura.
His lips hit mine, and I feel he breathes life back into me.
I’m okay. Laura will be okay. She has to be.
Axel is here, and everything is right for the first time since I sent him away.
11
Axel
Seen a lot of shit in life. Never have I felt anything as deep as the fear I feel today.
I don’t hesitate. When push comes to shove there is not a single piece of me that will hold back in protecting Yesnia.
This extraction went off without a hitch because of Lincoln “Link” Jacoby, and I’ll never forget it. We had a rock solid plan, thanks to Link. We knew going in we only had four men to end. He had the building layout, the players involved, and every single option played out beforehand for us.
Tripp gave the order to shoot first and question later once we confirmed this was a small operation.
There will be no blowback and Yesnia will be safe. Truthfully, even if blowback comes, Tripp doesn’t care. Yesnia is mine, therefore, we will all go to war for her.
My dad ended the man known as Chico Lopez the minute he made a move toward the girls. I’m sure Tripp will look into the associations of all the men to make sure there are no loose strings. But the basic information we have right this minute they are all bottom of the barrel fuckers in the hustle of the Cartel life with no real affiliation or families. Paco Martinez was the first to go down along with his cousin Diego at the front door. We moved right in with a mindset to get to the basement and find my woman.
As for Medina, I took the shot and I didn’t miss. And I don’t feel a single fucking regret for it.
Yesnia is covered in dirt. The room reeks of stale urine and feces. When we entered the space, I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw their makeshift bathroom. I hate that she’s been in this shithole for days. My mind runs wild with crazy ideas of what they may or may not have endured. I have to shut it all down. She’s here, and I’m going to keep her safe.
As soon as I reach Yesnia, I drop my head to hers and press my lips to her forehead before giving her a real kiss. I have to feel her. I need to know she’s real and she’s okay.
The same electricity zaps through me that I always have with her. Pulling away, I lift her up and get some space between her and the dead man bleeding on the ground beside her.
Looking to her friend, I assess our situation for getting them out of here and back across the border. Laura is bleeding from her leg and unable to bare weight so Hawk scoops her up without hesitation.
“I’m filthy and getting blood all over you,” she tells him.
“Honey, I’ve had grown men puke on me, piss on me. To know I’m holding a beautiful woman in my arms for any reason makes it all okay,” Hawk says comforting her.
“I’m hallucinating,” she mutters before promptly passing out.
My dad, Shooter, and a few others will stay behind on cleanup, while Hawk, Tripp, myself, and Tank get the girls over the border to El Paso and to a clinic where we have a doctor who will check them out. I don’t like Laura passing out, but she has a strong and steady pulse to get her to El Paso.
It feels like hours of agony before we finally have the girls in the clinic and we are clear of Mexico. I sit in a room with Yesnia in a paper gown on an examination table.
“Did they?” I ask. “I know it’s not easy to talk about, but baby, I gotta know so I don’t get surprised and rip the doctor in half.”
She shakes her head. “Not me,” she whispers.
“Laura?”
“They didn’t rape her, but the one guy, Chico, he touched her.” I see the pain in her eyes. The memory haunting her. I know what my mom went through. I know the years it tormented her. Laura is going to need support from Yesnia for a long time to come.
In this moment, I want to rewind time and make him suffer more. I want him to feel pain like never before. I want to humiliate him the way I’m sure Laura was. I want to instill in him the lessons he obviously missed out on.
Men do not hurt women.
Men do not push boundaries.
No is no.
A man does not dominate a situation by taking a female captive and then put his hands all over her body.
There are lines you don’t cross and that motherfucker crossed them. Fury takes hold once again.
Dead and gone this man deserves more than the Hell he’s facing in the afterlife.
“Axel,” Yesnia says calmly. “Thank you,” she whispers and the tears fall. “I didn’t know if we would make it out.”
I move to her and cup her face in my hands. “I’d move Heaven and Earth for you.”
“I love you,” she whispers. “Memories of you, dreaming of you, that’s all I did while I was there. I messed up sending you away. It was wrong. I don’t want to be without you, Axel.”
I press my lips to hers once again. She opens, and I slide my tongue inside. It’s soft, tender, but still full of the passion we share. A knock at the door causes me to pull away. I don’t know what to say to her. We have so much to discuss. The doctor steps inside and right now the priority is to make sure she really is okay.
“I’ll give you some privacy,” I tell them and exit the room.
Hawk paces the hallway like a caged animal. I’ve known Hawk forever and he’s never been this strung out. Whatever is going on with him, this has hit him hard.
“Brother,” I greet and his eyes meet mine. They are furious.
“He touched her.” Hawk is in a rage.
I nod because I do know what Yesnia told me. As a man, I don’t see how any man can be turned on by hurting a female. As the son of a woman who was assaulted, there is a venom in my veins for any man who crosses a line with a female.
“I wanna kill him myself. I want to bring his sorry, scumbag ass back to life just so I can be the one to end him,” Hawk states my exact sentiments.
Tripp comes over carrying a couple of shopping bags, interrupting us. “Got the girls some shit. Figure they might wanna have clean clothes. Nurse says they got a shower station for chemical shit, but
they can at least clean up some there if they want. Well, Yesnia. I’m pretty sure Laura’s gonna need surgery.”
I nod.
“How’s Laura’s gunshot?” Tripp asks, “any update? I only got a glance but she had a mark on her neck with dry blood. Was that looked at?”
Hawk’s face twists as his emotions are clearly at war inside him. “Gonna have to do surgery, got her stable for now, but the bullet’s gotta come out. Doc says he’s gonna check on Yesnia and then they should have Laura sedated and ready for the bullet removal,” Hawk answers, and I take in the information. “Checked her over, gave her some IV fluids. She’s got a UTI, whatever the fuck that is and so they’re pumping some antibiotics in the IV. Said it’ll help with the bullet wound and the scratches as well as the bite mark on her neck.”
I listen to the words but everything becomes muffled as the emotions hit me and the adrenaline wears off. Yesnia is okay, I have to remind myself. This is all going to be okay. They are alive. I know Laura will have a long way to go to heal herself inside, but she can. My mom did. Hope is not lost.
“Double, you gonna update Almanza, or should I?” Tripp looks to me.
I smirk, “Oh no, let me.”
Tripp gives me a nod and then settles in a chair in the hallway to wait on the doctor to finish with both females. Hawk returns to pacing.
I go down the hall a bit and take out my phone. Hitting the contact, I don’t hesitate when he answers.
“She’s with me. She’s safe. You make no moves until I touch base again.”
“Where are you? I’ll be there.”
“No,” I clip. “The time you got to be in charge is done. I’m telling you she’s safe, you take my word for it because in the end, I’ve never let her hang in the wind like you have. You have enemies, Almanza. I expect you’ll want to handle those enemies, but you won’t do it without my consent.”
“Fuck you!”
I laugh. “Do not start a war with me and my family. Almanza, I promise it’s one you will most certainly lose. You want your daughter safe; you stand down until I give the all clear to make a move. I don’t give a fuck how you handle your business. But you won’t make a move that puts her at risk in any way, without my approval, so I can prepare to keep her out of harm’s way. Period. This is not a negotiation.”
“Where are you keeping my daughter?” he roars, and I promptly disconnect the call.
Respect is gone. This man has turned my life upside down and put Yesnia in unforgivable danger more than once.
It’s my way or the highway from now on. I won’t walk away again. Foolishly, I let her send me away. Stupidly, I trusted her father to keep her safe when inside my gut screamed at me to go get what is mine ... her. I won’t make the same mistake twice. We lost months together and I almost lost her forever if we hadn’t made it in time.
The doctor exits Yesnia’s room. I go down the hall to him.
“Is she okay?”
“Physically, she’s weak and dehydrated, but nothing she won’t bounce back from. Psychologically, I don’t know anyone who can simply endure such things and not have some scars.”
I nod. “You are not wrong.”
“I’m heading into surgery with the other patient now, if you’ll excuse me. Yesnia is free to go once she finishes the last bag of fluids.”
I don’t hesitate. I shake the man’s hand and move to the room snagging the bags from Tripp on my way. Another step in the right direction, the direction of bringing Yesnia home. Walking in, I find Yesnia bawling with tears streaming down her face.
“Baby, don’t cry,” I whisper going to her and holding her close.
“Laura needs surgery,” she whimpers.
“Yeah, baby, she does. But this is not on you.”
“Yes, Axel, it is. She’s my friend. If she hadn’t been at my house that night, she would be fine and none the wiser.”
Scooping Yesnia off the examination table, I move her with me to a chair in the room, the IV rolls with us as I settle in with her on my lap.
“Baby, real people, the ones that matter, they aren’t friends, they’re family. Laura’s family. Baby, she wouldn’t have wanted you to endure that shit alone. It sucks, fuck yeah, but it ain’t on you.”
“How can you know?”
“A little Hellions history for ya. My mom worked at a bar for years. The Hellions frequented the bar, but didn’t own it back then. Another club came to town on business with the Hellions. My mom ended up in a stock room assaulted by one of these men who was hell bent on making her bleed.”
She hangs on my every word with wild wide eyes.
“My mom wasn’t an ol’ lady then. She was a side piece for my dad. Shit hit the fan. We live by a code, and that code meant no retaliation on the club’s part because she wasn’t a Hellion. Shooter stepped up, claimed my mom, and baby, they hadn’t even been on a date. Not a kiss, not a damn thing other than a conversation here and there. Shooter simply knew and he did what he felt was right for family.”
She leans into me, still listening.
“Once the claim was laid, she was under the Hellions’ protection. Roundman was our president back then, and he let the wrath of the entire club fall on the man who hurt my mom. Shooter was my mom’s friend first, but they fell in love, and she’s been his ol’ lady longer than they’ve been a couple, technically. Got a fuck ton of kids and still can’t keep their hands off each other. Not once in my life has Shooter wished he hadn’t stepped up for my mom. Same shit with your girl, Laura. You’ll see. She loves you as a sister. This shit is just going to be something that makes your bond even stronger.”
She thinks on my words.
“Axel, if the club can’t do anything for someone not considered Hellions, then how are you here?”
I take a deep breath. Well, I didn’t want to have this conversation in a clinic, but the time is here so I lay it out. “Claimed you. We got a call from a stranger who knew I took you to Almanza previously. He made an assumption that you meant something to me. He was right. We got the call, and when the club came together, I laid claim on you. Then we did what we do as a family, we came to get you.”
“They don’t know me,” she whispers.
“No, but they know me. You matter to me, so you matter to them. I tried to tell you, shit in my world is dangerous, but it’s not like your father’s. Every single person who wears this cut or knows this patch will back you out of respect and duty to me and the patch I earned. Because that’s my world, baby.”
“I dreamed of you, Axel. When I was in the basement.”
I smirk. “Was I fuckin’ you?”
She smiles, and I swear my heart finally beats again. “Possibly,” she teases.
“Oh fuck, you’re makin’ me hard.”
Yesnia on my lap, I lean in and press my lips to hers. “You gonna be my ol’ lady now? You gonna give life with me a try? I can’t let you go again.”
She doesn’t answer, and I’m left hurt. I know she loves me. Is that not enough? Am I not enough?
This war begins inside of me.
The fear of losing her these past few days was bad. Second chances come few and far between. How can we have this opportunity and not give it everything we have? How can I ask her to be my woman and she not reply? This is more than hurt. This is devastation. This feeling inside me now is toxic.
How can I let her go again when I just put it all out there? I can’t simply to watch her walk away. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go.
12
Yesnia
Three Days Later
Sometimes, you have to get lost in the moment. Sometimes, you simply have to feel every raw emotion inside you to know this is life.
Life is bold. Life is beautiful. Life is meant to take chances.
Axel left and went back to Catawba. Watching him go cut me deeper than ever before. Even though this isn’t goodbye like last time.
I ache for him. With Laura going through so much, I couldn’t leave her here
, though.
Hawk stayed to be guardian over us. It’s funny, he was at the club with Axel the night we first met. Spending time with him like this, he’s not the party animal I once assumed him to be.
Then again, neither is Axel.
The night I thought Axel and Hawk were playboys just looking for a good time. I didn’t think about the men behind the leather and boots.
In fact, the two days I had in the clinic with Axel and his dad, along with all the other Hellions, I learned a lot.
First.
Bikers are not drug dealing, gun dealing, outlaws.
I mean, sure, some might be, but the Hellions didn’t give off that vibe at all. I know my dad is a criminal. Whenever I’m around his associates, I get this weird feeling, and I’m very uncomfortable. With the Hellions I didn’t have that. Sure, they have this badassness about them that simply filters into the air around them, but it wasn’t something that made me want to hide in my room like I do when anyone affiliated with my dad comes around.
I saw Axel kill Medina right in front of me. His father shot Chico. They took their lives so that Laura and I could still be breathing, but they didn’t hesitate. They aren’t falling apart over what they had done. Yet, I’m not afraid of them. Men are capable of very bad things, women too, humans are flawed.
I know my family, my father, has killed people. In his world, I felt uneasy. I wanted the guards and the alarms to sleep at night.
With Axel, he’s all I need to feel safe.
So while bikers, in general, may be scary as fuck, the Hellions feel like family to me.
Second.
Bikers know loyalty like no one else.
I grew up in what I thought to be a close family. My family even now is close, but they have nothing on the Hellions. Every single one of those men have stopped to check in on me and Laura. Axel’s mom has called, his step-mom, Tripp’s wife, Doll, and so many others I have never met. My father’s affiliates would have been respectful and checked in with him, but their wives would have remained oblivious that anything happened.
Bleed for It: Hellions Motorcycle Club (Hellions Ride On Book 3) Page 10
