“I can see that,” he said. “I was the most popular guy on my block in prison just because I was so pretty.”
I chuckled and said, “Dear God, I hope that was the only reason. On a less gross note, your mom said the police came to see you today.”
“They did in fact. Made my day. It was the same detective that kept me in an interview room for hours after they arrested me for drug trafficking.”
“How’d it go?”
“As well as that sort of thing can, I guess. I told him I’d gone to get my sketchpad and I didn’t see who shot me. I don’t think he believes me, but I don’t think he can prove anything otherwise. My dad and the guys aren’t talking.”
“Why not?” I asked him. “Blake shot you. Why isn’t your dad more pissed off?”
“Because he doesn’t believe me when I say they set me up and because I had a gun and he thinks that means I brought it on myself.”
“That sucks,” I said.
“Yeah, well I have another plan.”
“Uh-oh,” I said, genuinely worried about what his plan might be.
He laughed and said, “Not that kind of plan. I’m going to get my parents to call a meeting. I want everyone together. I want them all to hear what I have to say. I want this out in the open once and for all.”
“Do you think they’ll admit to anything in front of the entire club?”
“I doubt it, but at least it will get everyone else to thinking about what they’ve seen or heard. It will also point the finger directly at them if anything happened to me.”
“I can’t wait for this to be over. I’ve been worried about what was going to happen to you for three years. This is killing me, Dax.”
“I know, baby. I want it to be over too. I really do.”
I visited with him until they kicked me out. We tried hard to talk about pleasant things, anything but the club and what was going to happen when Dax got out of there and confronted them all face to face. I was hoping if I stayed in denial, the bad things wouldn’t come to pass.
********
Dax called me before I was even out of bed the next morning and I groggily answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hey! Can you come break me out of this place?”
“Sure, I’m sorry. I just assumed your mom would be taking you home.”
“She said she would, but she had an appointment this morning. I didn’t want to wait ‘til noon. I want to go home…now.”
“Okay you big baby, I’ll be right there.”
“Big baby? I survived getting shot. How much tougher can you get than that?” he asked.
“You can be in love with the guy who got shot and survive that,” I said with a giggle.
“Yeah, yeah. Hurry or I’m going to start walking. Worse yet, I’ll take a city bus. You can catch anything on one of those.”
“I’m on my way,” I told him.
I jumped in the shower and quickly got dressed. After I was ready I went and let my uncle know what I was going to do. I wasn’t scheduled to work that day but I just wanted to make sure he hadn’t planned on me being there. He wasn’t, but he was concerned about me picking up Dax.
“Where are you taking him?” he asked.
“To his parent’s house.”
“Okay, so you won’t be near the club at all?”
“No, straight to his parent’s from the hospital. I’ll be fine.”
He nodded and said, “I used to worry about you, some. I knew you had sense enough not to get in the middle of their nonsense. But a gunshot…an internal war…that’s heavy shit.”
I kissed him on the cheek and said, “I know. I promise to stay away from all of that and be safe.”
“You better,” he said, “I kind of like having you in the family.”
“Yeah, well…you’re okay too,” I told him.
I made the fifteen minute trip to the hospital and when I got there, I found Dax fully dressed in clothes his mom had left for him. For a guy who had just got shot a few days ago, he looked really hot.
“Hey, look at you. You look good.”
“Thanks,” he said, pulling me into him and covering my mouth with his. We kissed deeply and it was the best kiss that we had shared in a long time. I felt his hand slip from my waist down to my ass and squeeze.
“Hey! We can’t do that here, mister.”
“Okay, but as soon as we get to my parent’s house right?”
I laughed. “Yeah right. That’s just what I want to do when your mother is sitting in the next room.”
“Then let’s just do it here real quick.”
“Stop it! You’re recovering from a gunshot and major surgery. I doubt that having sex is in your treatment plan.”
“If there’s no sex with you in it, I want no part of that treatment,” he said with a grin.
“Horn-dog,” I told him.
I didn’t hear the nurse come in but Dax saw her and said, loudly, “No, you’re the horn-dog. I just had surgery. I don’t think I’m supposed to have sex.”
“Dax!” I said. I could feel my face turning red. I looked at the nurse and said, “He’s the one who suggested it, not me.”
She was an older lady. She laughed and said, “I believe you, honey. He’s been ornery like that since he woke up from surgery.”
She had his discharge paperwork and as he signed it she read off all the follow-up and aftercare instructions. No strenuous activities were one of them. When she said it, he looked up at me and wrinkled his forehead.
When all the paperwork was signed, she gave us his copies of everything and put him in a wheelchair that he argued with her about and rolled him to the elevator and all the way out to my car. She had to be at least sixty and the whole way out, my boyfriend was shamelessly flirting with her. It was good to see him back in true form.
We stopped at the pharmacy to pick up his meds on the way to his parent’s house. I told him to stay in the car, but of course he ignored me. When I got up to the door he was right on my back. Besides his meds we left with three candy bars, a bag of beef jerky, a bag of Cheetos and another of pork rinds as well as a six-pack of soda and a pack of gum.
“What is all of this junk food for?” I asked him.
“Because I know my mother is going to have me eating healthy foods. I’m going to hide this stuff in my room where she can’t find it so I have something to subsist on.”
“Good luck with that. I’d be willing to bet she comes in there every day while you’re convalescing and cleans the room. She’ll find it.”
“You forget that I lived with her for eighteen years in that very same room. I have my secret spots that she has yet to find.”
“You’re crazy,” I said.
“That’s what my father said Brock called me.” The comment made the tone of the conversation turn serious. Neither of us cared to talk about it at that moment so we just rode silently the rest of the way to his parent’s house.
Gail, and surprisingly enough, Bull were waiting for us when we got there. Dax had stuffed the junk food as well as an entire six pack of soda in my purse. It was heavy and the strap was killing my arm. I told him we should have hid it in the Personal Belongings bag the hospital had sent home but he insisted she would take it and wash the clothes right away.
As soon as Gail said, “Hello,” she said, “Give me that bag and I’ll put those straight in the washer.” Dax gave me a smug look. I hated when he was right.
He sat down with his dad in the living room and I excused myself so that I could sit down the heavy purse. I had to smile when I saw his room. Gail had set it up with a little table at the side of his bed and she had folded the bed down halfway. He was such a mama’s boy.
I went back out and sat next to him on the couch. Gail had made cinnamon rolls and brought them out with coffee and juice. It was weird, but as long as I’d known Dax, this was the first truly normal family moment I’d ever been involved in with him and his parents. I guess it takes a shooting
to bring some families together.
CHAPTER SIX
DAX
Olivia hung out with us until early afternoon and then she had to leave to go with her uncle to pick up some supplies. I waited until she was gone to have the conversation with my parents about the meeting. I knew my mom would be on my side, but I also knew that my dad was going to object, and probably strongly. I didn’t want Olivia to have to be there for the argument. I was kind of hemming and hawing about starting the conversation but was forced into it when my dad started to stand up after saying, “I should probably go check on the supplies at the bar.”
“Hey Dad, wait. Can we talk for a minute before you go?”
“Do you want me to leave?” my mom asked.
“No, I’d like to talk to you both if you have the time.”
My dad settled back in and asked, “What’s up?”
“Okay, I know when you first hear this idea that you’re not going to care much for it, but just hear me out, alright?”
They both nodded. My mom looked worried and my dad just looked impatient. I took a deep breath and said, “Okay, I’m just really sick of all the drama and I’m sure everyone else is too. I need to get on with my life, but I feel like I’m just stuck until I prove that I was falsely accused and falsely imprisoned. I know who it was that set me up. I want to confront them all at once, but I want it to be in front of plenty of witnesses. They deserve a jury of their peers, right? So what I want,” I said, looking at my dad whose impatient face suddenly looked like he knew what I wanted and he was prepared to say no. “I want a club meeting. I want everyone there, even Brock and his nomad crew. I want to confront them in front of all of their peers and see if they have enough spines to admit what they’ve done.”
“No,” my dad said, as soon as I finished talking.
“Why not? It’s safer than him sneaking around trying to do it himself. Look at him, Bull! They put him in prison and then they shot him. All he’s asking for is a little help from you. All you have to do is call the meeting.”
“You don’t know how any of this works,” he said to my mom. “You only want to get in on it when Dax is a part of it.”
“Because I’m concerned about my son…our son,” she said. “You should try it sometime.”
“Damn it Gail! Don’t you think I am concerned and that’s why I don’t want him spouting his foolish accusations out loud? He’s going to get his damn head blown off next time. He needs to just let this go and move on with his life. Leave all of this in the past where it belongs.”
“Hey!” I startled them both. I really don’t think either of them remembered that I was still in the room. “Still here, remember? Listen, Dad. I’m not going to leave this alone, until I prove that I’m innocent and that these men set me up. I’m not going to walk away and let Blake, Terrance and Brock get away with this.”
“Will you stop that? You can’t just go around making those kinds of accusations.”
“I’m not just making accusations. Brock admitted it and so did Terrance and Blake shot me.”
I heard my mom’s sharp intake of breath. I really hadn’t meant to say it in front of her, it had just come out. My dad was glaring at me and my mother looked like she was going to be sick.
“Blake shot you?” she asked. Without waiting for an answer, she looked at my dad and asked, “And you knew this?”
My dad continued to glare at me. He was waiting for me to tell my mother that he was right there when it happened. I wasn’t going to do it though. I was going to leave it up to him.
“Yes Mom, Blake shot me. He also set me up. Dad doesn’t believe it though, do you?”
“No, I don’t believe that my best friend of twenty-five years would set up my son.”
“But you do believe he shot him?” my mother asked, looking confused.
“He saw him shoot me,” I said. My dad wasn’t going to tell her. My mother really looked like she was going to be sick.
In a high pitched voice that she reserved for when she was really freaked out, she said, “You brought him here just yesterday. You son of a bitch! You had the man who shot my son sitting at my kitchen table sipping coffee and stuffing his fat face with my pastries while my son was still recovering. What the hell is wrong with you?”
My dad gave me one more long, hard stare. Then he turned back to my mom and said, “Blake said that Dax is mistaken about setting him up, and I believe him. And by the way, the part of that story your baby here is leaving out was that when Blake walked into that garage, Dax was holding a gun on me.”
My mother looked at me with shock on her face. “Oh God, what the hell kind of messed up family is this?”
“I wasn’t going to shoot him, Mom. I was desperate for him to listen to me and I didn’t want him to stop me from what I was doing.”
“Which was?” she asked. My dad had a smug look for me.
I swallowed hard and said, “Putting heroin I stole from Brock’s crew in Terrance and Blake’s saddlebags.”
“I swear if this was an old western I’d swoon.” She stood up and came over to me. With her palm, she smacked me on the back of the head. Then she did the same to my dad. “I’m finished with this crap after this. I want both of you to hear that, loud and clear. I’m done! First,” she said, with her finger in my dad’s face. “You’re going to set up that meeting. Second,” it was my turn for the finger and the fire eyes, “You will state your case and then you will let it go or third, I pack my shit and get out of this mess once and for all.” We both watched in shock as she stormed out of the room. My mother had threatened us with a lot of things over the years, but she’d never threatened to leave.
My dad turned to me when she was gone and said, “I hope you’re happy you little shit.”
“None of this makes me happy,” I told him, honestly.
“I’ll set up the meeting and let you know when. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to reach your brother.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“I ain’t doing it for you. I’m pissed at you for not being able to keep your big ass mouth shut. There’s a reason your mama doesn’t know all about our business and you would do well to remember that.”
He walked out the front door. I heard his bike start up a few minutes later and for the moment I was left alone with my thoughts, and my plans to confront three dangerous men in a room full of men that were probably going to take their side. Maybe Brock was right and I was crazy.
CHAPTER SEVEN
OLIVIA
Dax called me later that day, after he’d gotten discharged from the hospital. He told me what happened at their family talk. I was grateful he waited to bring it up after I’d left. I didn’t even know what to say, but at least he knew the daughter of a Meth-Lab king wasn’t going to judge. We were quite the pair.
“Hey, enough about all of that nonsense,” he said. “Let’s plan a night out.”
“A night out, really?”
“Yep, let’s go to Mel’s and have dinner and do some dancing.”
“You just had major surgery,” I told him.
“Okay then, not tonight.”
“When?” I asked, expecting next week or the week after next. No, this was Dax I was talking to. For a few seconds I had forgotten.
“Tomorrow night. I’ll sleep all day and rest up for it. We’ll take your car instead of the bike and I’ll only dance to the slow songs.”
I laughed. He had known exactly the questions I was going to ask, except one. “Are you even on a regular diet yet?”
“My mom’s making lasagna tonight. I’ll see how that stays down and let you know.” He really was crazy, but after the other day, I wasn’t going to say so.
“Okay, let me know what time. I’m up for it.”
“Pick me up at eight,” he said. “Hey Liv.”
“Yeah.”
“Our lives aren’t always going to be like this. We’re going to be completely happy one day.”
“I believe it
,” I told him, and I did believe it. I just hoped it would happen soon.
I was in front of his parent’s house at eight. I started to get out of the car when I saw him coming out the front door. He had on a rust colored long sleeve shirt. The way it fit him made me want to take off the wrapper and get to the candy.
His blue jeans looked brand new and fit just as nice. He had on a pair of brown boots and when he got closer and I stepped out of the car, I swear I could see his green eyes glitter in the moonlight. I’d known Dax for quite a few years, and it still never failed to amaze me how just the sight of him could take my breath away.
“Wow,” he said when he saw me. I had used most of my paycheck to buy a new outfit for that night and after I saw the look in his eyes, I was glad I did. I was wearing a green dress that was made out of clingy material. The neckline was cut low enough to be sexy but not low enough to reach the slut level and the same with the bottom hem, only the opposite. It fell to the tops of my thighs but it covered everything that I didn’t want to share with just anyone.
I had also bought a new pair of boots. They were tan and came up to just below my knee. They were super soft leather and super expensive, but once I tried them on, I was hooked. They had a two-inch heel on them so they gave me a little bit of height but I could still walk a straight line in them. I had left my hair down and curled it just on the ends so it lay softly across my shoulders and back.
“Thank you,” I said. “Wow yourself.” He grinned and bowed slightly at the waist. Then he took my hands and pulled me in close and kissed me. It was another thing about him that always took my breath away. When we broke the kiss it took me a full minute to even remember my own name, every single time.
“You ready?” he asked. I still couldn’t really speak, so I nodded. He got in the passenger seat and I drove.
“Are you feeling okay?” I asked him.
“Good as new,” he said.
“Really, new?”
“Okay, day old, but I’m getting there. I only took two Ibuprofens all day and I can walk upright. I’m wearing the girdle thingy they gave me though so don’t judge.”
Ruined #5 (The MC Motorcycle Club Romance Series - Book #5) Page 3
