BIKER DADDY_The Chain Gang MC

by Claire St. Rose

  She was in a room. A hospital room, maybe, except it wasn’t quite right. It was strange, awkward, not right at all. The walls should have been some harmless, pastel shade of boring, and there should have been noise in the hallways. There should have been more everywhere, more everything. She shouldn’t have been so alone. Why didn’t she have a roommate? She didn’t have health insurance, neither did Jack, so how the hell had she gotten a private room? And why did this feel so little like a hospital room?

  The door swung open, and it was another thing that was off; the door handle was a regular door handle, instead of those hip bump handles all the hospitals had transitioned too— easier for people who were pushing gurneys or carting equipment or whatever. A woman walked in, wearing scrubs and holding a binder that looked like a medical chart, but there was something off about her, too. Her hair was piled up on top of her head in a way that looked too messy for a hospital worker. Maybe she was a nurse, instead of a doctor?

  The woman walked briskly to Mindy’s bedside and stuck out a hand.

  “Hi,” the woman said. “I’m Joanna. I don’t want to keep you in suspense. The baby’s okay. For now. You had a placental tear, which caused the bleeding. It seems to have resolved for the moment, but the rest of your pregnancy might be a bit more interesting than you had planned.” She pushed a smile, but it seemed forced. Her hands were shaking on the binder. Mindy felt a thread of concern in her belly. Something had happened in the ambulance. Jack had been there, and he had said something. A name. What had he said? She couldn’t remember.

  “I don’t want you to worry, though,” Joanna said. “We’re going to get you to people who can take good care of you, alright?”

  “Where am I?” Mindy’s voice was raspy, croaking from lack of use. She cleared her throat a couple times, and Joanna poured her a glass of water. “Are you my doctor? My nurse?”

  The woman turned her gaze away from Mindy; she couldn’t help but notice that the woman’s cheeks had gone absolutely ashen.

  “It’s a long story,” she said.

  “Yeah,” said a man’s voice from the doorway. Mindy’s heart raced happily even before she turned her gaze that way and saw Jack. “So maybe you should start explaining what the fuck is happening here.”

  Mindy reached out a hand to him, but he didn’t come to her right away. His gaze was tightly focused on the woman. Mindy tried to understand what was happening, but her head still felt foggy and confused. She didn’t think she’d ever seen this woman before, but it was hard to be sure. There was something in the ambulance, something her brain kept reaching for and then pushing away. What had happened? She couldn’t tell for sure.

  “Mr. Dawson,” the woman started to say, but Jack cut his hand through the air in a clear gesture telling her to shut up; much to Mindy’s amusement, the woman complied without a complaint. Her cheeks were flushed, but her knuckles were pale and tight where she gripped the chart.

  “I’ve been waiting in this burned-out shell of an excuse of a hospital, waiting for some doctor who is supposed to come along and tell me what the hell is happening. I’ve been waiting for hours. I go out for coffee, and that’s when you decide to step in and talk to my—to Mindy without me? Are you insane?”

  “Jack,” Mindy said, the tension in the room making her more nervous than felt good or right. “I’m sure it was a misunderstanding—”

  “Did she tell you who she is?” His voice was so dark and cold, but he finally moved toward her. He only did it to put himself between the two women, as far as Mindy could tell, but at least he was closer to her now. That helped her heart rate slow down to a terrified thrum as opposed to a high-pitched whine.

  “She said she’s Joanna, and that’s she’s been taking care of me.”

  Jack laughed, mirthless. “Well, one of those things is true.”

  “Please, Mr. Dawson, anything else aside, I swore an oath—”

  He cut her off again, though, this time, she didn’t silence as easily. “This is Joanna Fitz, wife of Lauren Teller. Remember, I was telling you about her? Daughter of Grim Teller, the man I’ve been wrongly accused—” His voice slammed down on the two words like he was hammering them in “—of murdering in cold blood? Now let me think, why would I ever consider the possibility that someone attached to Lauren who is caring for my woman and my child might possibly have an axe to grind with me?”

  “Because you’re not an idiot,” said another voice by the door. Mindy glanced over and saw a blonde woman, her hair scraped back into a bun, wearing a standard, dark blue paramedic jumpsuit. “Hi, Mindy. I’m glad you pulled through. You gave us a bit of a scare in the ambulance.”

  “Stay the hell away from her.” Jack snarled, and he was clearly trying to keep both women in his sights at the same time. The woman in the doorway—Lauren Teller, most likely—rolled her eyes.

  “Seriously, Jackdaw. If I wanted to kill her, I could’ve done it quickly enough when I was inserting the IV. Don’t be an idiot. This is all a stupid coincidence, but hell if I’m going to take my vendetta out on an innocent baby. It’s you that I’ve been trying to talk to for months.”

  Jack scoffed. “Talk to? You wanted to kill me. You made that perfectly clear.”

  All three voices raised, all of a sudden, and Mindy took a deep breath before shouting “Hey! All of you! Cut the shit.”

  Suddenly, all eyes were on her. Well. She should have expected that.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on,” Mindy said, her voice incredibly cautious and careful. The room was quiet, but with the kind of tension that could break into an even more violent loudness if she didn’t say everything just right. “But my goal here is to make sure my baby is safe. All of your stupid motorcycle club war bullshit is going to fucking wait, do you hear me?”

  She surveyed each of the three faces now looking at her. Joanna had a small grin on her face as if she was proud of her patient, while Lauren’s eyebrows were raised, surprised, maybe? But Jack; Jack was the most gratifying. He looked embarrassed, and just a handful of seconds away from scuffing his shoe along the floor while he apologized.

  “Now,” Mindy said, straightening the sheets that were stretched over her legs and her belly. “Joanna was telling me something about the baby. Jack, since you’re here, and you have a vested interest, she should keep going now.” Lauren made to step away, and Mindy pointed her finger right at the other woman. “If you try to leave, he’s just going to fret and twitch over it—thinking about how you’re off plotting to kill him somewhere. Do me a favor and just stay, alright? You two can continue your fight in a minute.” Everyone was quiet for a moment, and after enjoying the fact that everyone was listening to her, Mindy waved a hand at Joanna to continue.

  “The thing about placental tears,” Joanna said as if she’d never been interrupted, “is that they’re really unpredictable. You could carry to term and never have another problem. It could tear further, and both your baby and you could be at serious risk. And quite frankly—” She shot this at Lauren, interestingly enough, not at Jack. “We’re not equipped to handle this here. We’re a small, regional hospital. You need to be in the city, where if things escalate, you can have an emergency C-section.”

  “Absolutely not,” Jack said. “I’m not letting her out of my sight.”

  “Even if it kills her?” Joanna snapped back at him. “What do you think, that if she starts to bleed out, you’re going to drive her back here on your goddamn motorcycle? I hope you’re looking forward to losing your wife as well as your baby.”

  Jack’s face went ashen under his wind-tanned complexion, and Joanna looked like she was going to bite her tongue to keep any more words from coming out.

  “You shouldn’t have been brought here,” Joanna said after a few moments. This time she very carefully did not look at Lauren. “The paramedics ruled out the most obvious causes of vaginal bleeding at twenty weeks’ gestational age in the field; they should’ve taken
you straight to Grace Hospital. They never ever should’ve brought you to Providence Medical. And they should’ve known that.” Another snap in her tone, and this time it was Lauren who looked just a little bit embarrassed. “Now that you’re here, the most responsible thing I can do medically is to transfer you, now that you’re stable. You should stay on bed rest for the remainder of your pregnancy. No sex, no lifting, no anything. Rest, relaxation, and honestly, a few prayers might not hurt either.”

  “The bleeding stopped?” Mindy asked, trying hard not to burst into tears. For all the times she’d been tired of being alive, she’d never actually wished to be dead. “My belly doesn’t hurt anymore. Before, it hurt so much I couldn’t take a breath.”

  “It’s stopped for now,” Joanna said, carefully. “Frankly, I’ve never seen someone who showed so many signs of a stage two abruption spontaneously stop. I know it happens, but it’s certainly not a thing that we commonly see. I didn’t think—” She stopped, but Mindy could hear the words in the quiet. Joanna thought that she was going to lose her patient and her patient’s baby.

  “It was already slowing in the field,” Lauren said, her own voice quiet and careful. “That made polyps or something else the most likely cause. Jo, I promise I wouldn’t have brought her here if I’d known. I swear I wasn’t trying to get you involved in this.”

  “Well you did,” Joanna replied, but there was less malice in the retort than Mindy expected to hear. God knew she would have been nastier to Jack if he’d done something like that to her. Not that she was any kind of a doctor; the worst thing he probably could have done to her was brought a dozen bikers into the diner during a dinner rush or something. But that wasn’t the point. Focus, Mindy.

  Lauren glanced at Jack. “I heard about the marriage. Felicitations.” Her voice rolled through the Spanish like a native. It was musical and soft; that was lovely.

  “Shut up,” Jack replied. That was less lovely.

  Lauren sighed. She stepped into the room, closed the door behind her, then crossed to sit down in a chair. Jack glowered at her, but he didn’t try and stop her.

  “Look,” she said. “I’ve had one question to ask you for four months. I’m going to ask it now. Okay?”

  “What?”

  “If you didn’t kill my father, who did?”

  Jack made a sound, low in his throat, that Mindy thought of as his most intense frustration. “If I knew that, Lauren, I would’ve already served the son of a bitch’s head to you on a silver platter. I would’ve bought the goddamn platter, too. I keep telling everyone; I don’t goddamn well know.”

  “And why should I believe you?”

  “Because he was with me,” Mindy said, her voice cutting through the room again, making everyone look at her. She ran her hand over her belly. “Making this.” It was the corniest thing she’d ever said in her life, but she was hoping that the direct appeal to her status as a mother-in-training would make the women in the room sympathetic.

  It worked on Joanna, but Lauren rolled her eyes. “Of course she’d say that.”

  “Why?” Mindy snapped again. Jack started to say something else, but for once he went silent when she glared at him. “You don’t know me, and you don’t know anything about me, okay? I got hauled into all of this club shit against my will. I didn’t mean to be some kind of crazy pawn in this stupid war, but then your man Wester grabbed me and tried to—to I don’t even know what, but he scared the shit out of me, you understand? And—”

  “Hold on,” Lauren said. “What’s this about Wester?”

  Mindy glanced at Jack, who nodded at her to continue. “He was working with Cook, from the diner? To, I don’t know, deliver me to them. They were at some roadhouse, and Cook drove me out there. He said he was going to take me out of town, get me away from all of this mess, but he took me there instead. He got out of the car to talk to Wester about something, and Wester shot him in the stomach. I don’t know if he’s alive or not.” Sorrow she hadn’t felt for Cook in days rose in her, and she fought to control her voice and keep from crying. “Wester said he was going to—do things to me. To hurt me. Take my baby, once it was born. Jack saved me.”

  Lauren looked like she’d swallowed something that tasted absolutely awful.

  “Jack,” she started, then shook her head.

  “Your father was a good man,” Jack said, his tone quieter and calmer than it had been since Mindy had woken up. “He and I didn’t see eye to eye on much, but he was a good man. He wanted a different kind of club than I did, and was willing to go an awful lot further than I ever would to see it happen, but he wasn’t evil.” He took a deep breath. “Wester’s evil. He’s dishonoring your father’s memory. I didn’t kill Grim, Lauren, I swear it to you.”

  “We grew up together, Jack,” Lauren said. “I don’t know how you could’ve looked into Dad’s eyes and pulled a trigger. In the back of the head, maybe, maybe you could’ve done that, but right in his face? I don’t know how you could’ve done that.”

  Jack shook his head. “I couldn’t have done that, Lauren. There’s no way. Grim took me in when no one else would have me. I’ll never forget how he saved my life, no matter what came after. I want the man who killed Grim just as much as you do, I swear it. I’ve been trying every damn thing I can think of to figure out who did this, but every lead comes up dry.”

  Lauren leaned forward, creating a steeple with her fingers and resting her chin on her hands.

  “I’ve tried to keep the club under control,” she said, almost talking to herself. “Tried to keep it going in Dad’s image. But the Wardens don’t patch women, you know that, and so the idea of being led by one?” It was her turn to let out a cold laugh. “They don’t quite spit and grab my ass when I walk by, but I’ve… There have been hints that they’re not paying much attention to what I say. I’ve been trying to figure out who’s the ringleader of the opposition.” She glanced up, meeting Jack’s gaze again. “Sounds like your money would be on Wester?”

  Jack was quiet a while, considering.

  “He crossed me plenty of times when we were all one club,” Jack said. “He was the first one to go behind Grim’s back if he didn’t agree with things. There were some that thought Wester was the one actually running a lot of the dark shit that was happening, and Grim just wasn’t willing to cross one of his lieutenants publicly. I was always partial to that theory, even if I couldn’t prove it. Yeah, if I had to put money on someone undermining you, he’s the first one I’d be looking at.”

  Lauren shook her head.

  “Alright,” she said, after a bit. “Alright. You head on back to the clubhouse. I need to do some cleaning, it sounds like.”

  Joanna started to protest, but Lauren glared at her. “Tell me this isn’t appropriate medical treatment when the bleeding has stopped. Monitor and treat only if necessary, right? Prolong gestation as long as baby and mother are healthy.”

  Joanna looked like she was swallowing glass as she spoke. “Technically, but someone has to monitor vitals. If either one of them shows even the slightest hint of distress, they have to get to an ER, a real ER, immediately.”

  Lauren glanced at Jack, who was focused on a very, very small square of the floor.

  “Alright,” she said. “I’ll bring the equipment by myself, tonight. I won’t get out of the van; I don’t want to cause trouble for you with your men.”

  “And women,” Jack said, after a moment. Lauren’s head snapped around. “Chain Gang patches anyone who wants in and meets criteria. Men, women, folks who identify as neither or a little of both. Whatever. We’re a family. You love all your family, doesn’t matter what they wear, or what they have between their legs.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Lauren said. Her voice sounded a little husky.

  “Do you need my help?” Jack asked. “I’d do what I could. For Grim. For how he saved me.”

  “I’m not sure,” Lauren said. “I’ll… keep you posted, alright? I’ll let you know how things go. Maybe
we can pool our resources or something, keep from redoing each other’s work.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Jack said. He stuck out his hand, and after a moment, Lauren shook it. “You need to realize, though, that I can’t call off the Gang. Not while the Wardens are still actively coming at us.”

  “I know,” Lauren said. “But I’ll talk to some people. I’ll make sure that those I trust stay clear.” She leaned over and touched Mindy’s hand. “And I swear to you, I wouldn’t have done a thing to endanger your baby or you. Woman to woman, alright? I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Thank you,” Mindy said. Lauren squeezed her hand and left the room.

  “Well,” Joanna said, still with that awful expression on her face. “Isn’t this just dandy?”