Archer: A Wings of Diablo MC Novel

by Rae B. Lake

  “Oh, I see.” A small smirk graced Prez’s lips as he saw the person that I was looking at. I wasn’t sure what that smile meant but I was happy that he wasn’t as pissed as he was a minute ago. “Is this the woman from the party? Do you think she is going to snitch?”

  “No, apparently the Cobra’s got to her before we did, I doubt she will ever tell anyone what really happened.”

  “Hmm, so what are you doing here Archer, things seem to be all handled.” He stepped back a bit, we were beginning to get stares from the folks that worked in the hospital that were walking the floor. Prez was a bit older than the rest of us, he was almost in his forties but he was still an intimidating man. Well over six feet and muscles that seemed to want to break free of anything that he was wearing. He wasn’t as big as some of the juice heads that I had seen walking around but he was bigger than your average gym rat. I had watched him punch straight through a wall and not blink twice. Some of the guys at the club would joke and say that he was secretly a superhero or some shit. The man didn’t age and he always seemed to know shit before anyone could say it. Like he was reading our minds, it was fucking creepy.

  “I know, I just wanted to see for myself that she was good. I mean it is my fault that she is stuck in this place. I just needed to see her.” I looked away from him, hoping to hell that he would just leave it at that.

  “Well let me talk to this young woman, I would like to offer my apologies as well.” He made a motion to walk passed me and towards Daria. On instinct, I stepped in front of him again and put my hand out to stop him from walking. Prez glared at my hand on his chest. Thank god no one else from the crew was here, I would get my ass kicked for putting my hands on the Prez. We were the muscle in the crew but he was the law. Prez could do anything he wanted to do and none of us were to question or throw a fuss. The penalty for going against our president was a beat down. I dropped my hand from him almost as quickly as it shot up to stop him. He cocked his head to the side and cut his eyes at me, eyes squinting in suspicion.

  “I’ll let her know, she isn’t very fond of anyone in an MC club at the moment. You can understand right?”

  “You are in an MC Club boy, does that mean she isn’t too fond of you either. I don’t think that’s the case especially since you seem fond of her.”

  “I know Prez, it’s, well it’s complicated.” I search for the right thing to say but right now I couldn’t find it, I just had to make sure that he didn’t go in there or that she didn’t us together.

  “No, it ain’t complicated, not in the least. You think you can hide out here and you won’t be who you are? Did you forget that we are your family? Did you think you would be able to just pretend that we don’t exist for a pretty face and a honey hole to fall into? Where the fuck is your pride? Anyone in the crew would give up their lives for you and you’re sitting here acting like we ain’t shit to you.”

  “It’s not like that, I love the crew, I love my station, I love my brothers-”

  “Yeah, then where’s your kutte?” Prez looked down at my shirt. I had taken to wearing long sleeve thermals when I went to see Daria, that way she wouldn’t see my tattoos. I even combed my hair different when I came to see her, it was neater.

  “It’s in the truck.” I lowered my head, I knew this was like a middle finger to Prez and the rest of my crew. It was a disgrace. I looked back up at him and could see the disappointment.

  “Archer, you are a Diablo. It is in your blood, but I understand what a woman can do to your mind. Especially if it’s that one woman. She gives you hope of something more than what you have, something more of what you are. But if you have to be ashamed of what you are just to be near her, is she really what you need?”

  “She is my redemption, I need this. I need her.”

  Prez nodded his head once and stuffed his hands into his pockets, “Look, Clean has discovered that Thad knows definitely it was us. He has given the Cobra’s orders to keep tabs on us but not to make any moves. If you’re with us, I need you to be all the way with us. If not I’m going to need your kutte. I don’t have room in my family for folks that don’t want to be there.”

  If my dead heart could break it would have, my Prez didn’t think I wanted to be there for my brothers. If he only knew how it was killing me to hide this from Daria. “I’m with you, I just need some more time to let her know. I won’t be MIA anymore.”

  “You damn right you won’t be. We got to church tonight, I expect to see you there.” He didn’t even wait for my response. Prez just laid down the law and I had to respect it.

  Chapter 14

  “What the hell was that, what did he want? How do you know him?”

  Daria was a complete mess by the time I walked into the room. Her fists were bunched up into the sheets of the bed and she was sweating. Her eyes were darting back and forth around the room like she thought someone was going to jump out of the corner and get her. I had seen this before and knew what it was, I had gone through it myself. It looked like that nurse was right, Daria was clearly suffering from some form of PTSD. I knew trying to touch her right now would do more harm than good so I sat down in the chair in front of her so that she would know where I was at all times. I didn’t make any sudden movements as I began to talk her down.

  “He was just looking for someone, not you. You’re safe here.” I kept my voice as calm and monotone as possible. If I got excited; she would get excited. That’s not what I wanted at the moment, or what she needed.

  “I’m safe? How the heck can you say that? Did you not see that guy, he has to be a killer or something. Maybe he was the one who shot me, maybe he’s back to finish the job. Maybe-”

  “Just because someone wears leather and has tattoos doesn’t mean they are killers and just because someone wears a suit and tie doesn’t mean they aren’t killers. Stereotypes are bad for everyone.” I tried to keep the venom out of my voice but people who thought this way really bothered me. It was the twenty-first century and people were still caught up on the outside package of a person instead of what was on the inside.

  “I know but he-” I cut her off again.

  “Did he actively come in here and threaten you?”

  “No.”

  “Do you think the hospital staff would just allow someone to come here and harm you?”

  “No.”

  With every negative answer, Daria was becoming less and less agitated. She was calming down.

  “Do you think I would let something happen to you?”

  She looked dead at me, her blue green eyes opening wider than normal, her lips parted slightly as she sucked in a small amount of air and released it.

  “No. I can trust you. For the first time in a long time, I think I may have found someone that I can trust.” She gave me a small smile and her whole body relaxed. She placed a hand on her forehead rubbing away the last bit of tension. “I’m sorry, that was horrible.”

  “Stop apologizing. This is a normal part of PTSD, there will probably be many more things that will trigger you. You just have to be strong enough to conquer your fear. Sometimes it's easier than others.”

  “It’s normal? How is that normal. Tell me, have you ever woken up in a cold sweat thinking that someone was going to kill you or been so paranoid that someone was coming for you that you had to look over your shoulder every ten seconds?” She put her fists on her hips, determined to make the point that she was in some way abnormal. She had just been shot and almost killed by an unknown assailant, at least unknown to her. It was normal that she would panic.

  “Well, I guess, seeing as I was in the military and people were indeed actively trying to kill me, I can say without a doubt that yes, I know what that feels like.”

  She gave a small laugh and just shook her head, “Well jeez, I must sound like a completely insensitive bastard.”

  “Nah, just going through your own thing. I get it.”

  “Yeah, if anyone does, I really believe that you do.” She used her hand and
pushed her hair behind her shoulder, I don’t know how she did it but her hair always looked like she had just come out of the beauty salon and I always wanted to just run my fingers through it. “I guess, you have to go. I wouldn’t blame you, today was weird to say the least.”

  “Nah, I’m good. I don’t have anywhere to be right now. We can watch some more Hell’s Kitchen if you want.”

  She half jumped while she was sitting in bed and clapped her hands. She reached for the remote and turned the TV back on. “A man after my own heart, gosh I love this show!” She grabbed the Doritos and went right back to listening to Gordon Ramsay screaming at the poor people on the show. It wasn’t my ideal night in but it would give me enough quiet time to really put some thought into what I was going to do about this ongoing lie I had started. There was no way that this was going to end well, I was just enjoying my time in the calm before the storm.

  Chapter 15

  Three weeks after Daria ended up in the hospital from my gunshot she was finally on her way home. I was happy that she was well enough that she could now get on with her life but I was also a bit concerned with how I was going to deal with the separation. As much as I hated to admit it, I was dependent on her for my day to go well. When I wasn’t with Daria I was worried about her being ok, I was wanting to go over and talk to her. She was the only one to put a smile on my face nowadays, but I didn’t know if I was willing to give up my family for it.

  I walked into her hospital room to find that she wasn’t in her bed, her TV was off and it looked like the bed had been made. Not as neatly as I could have made it but, I was immediately on high alert. Did she leave already? Had I missed her before she left? I could feel the panic begin to set in, there was no way that I would be able to come up with a good enough excuse as to why I needed to know where she lived. Not from my crew, not from the doctors, not even from any random folks that could get the information for me. I would look like a stalker but on the other hand, there was no way I could just let her go like that. I wasn’t done with her, I needed my fix.

  “Hey, you made it.” Daria walked into the room behind me and caressed my arm on the way to the chair.

  Thank fucking God.

  “Oh yeah, I had to see my favorite patient off. I was worried that I’d missed you.”

  “Well, you almost did, in fact you should have.” She walked over to the window and wrapped her arms around her midsection. I could see in the reflection of the glass that her eyebrows were furrowed and she was biting down on her lip. Little Daria was angry. I’d never seen her act this way before, did she know about everything?

  “What do you mean?” I asked tentatively.

  “The doctor let me out of here more than three hours ago.” She turned back to me and pointed at her bag in the corner of the room. “I called Nika to come and pick me up, she said she was on her way three hours ago. She still isn’t here and every time I call her back she tells me to stop harping on her, that she is going to be here any minute. If I didn’t need a ride I wouldn’t have even bothered her. I hate having to depend on people.” She pulled her hair up into a makeshift ponytail and let out a breath, “I just want to get out of here already.”

  “Is she actually on her way or do you think she’s off doing her own thing?” I asked seeing my opening.

  “I hope she is on her way but it sounded like she was off doing her own thing.”

  “Well, I can give you a lift if you would like. Only if you’re comfortable with it though.” That way I could see where she lived and make sure that it was in a safe neighborhood, it would also give me the ability to check on her. There was no way that I was going to let her stay in some shitty place. Yeah, I liked that idea a lot.

  “Really, you could do that? It wouldn’t be any trouble?”

  “No ma chérie, no trouble at all.” I let my Cajun accent flow, hoping this would be enough to charm her into saying yes without really thinking about it. If she gave any real thought to my offer, I’m sure that she would have thought it a bit odd that someone who works at the hospital offered to take her home.

  Her milky skin heated up and the color of bruised roses filled her cheeks. I loved to watch her blush. “I would really appreciate that. I can’t wait to get out of here. When do you think we would be able to leave?”

  “Now if you like, I have my truck downstairs. Just let me get your bag and we are out of here.”

  “Awesome! Let’s go!” She grabbed the folder that I could only assume had all of her discharge papers in it and began to walk out the door. I had to hurry to get her bag and was in time to see the orderly setting her up in the wheelchair for her to leave. I watched as he smiled down at her and showed her where the brakes were in case she needed to use them. He knelt down in front of her and gingerly lifted her foot so that it was in the footrest, taking special care to fix the hem of her pant leg where it had slightly bunched up on her calf. Daria smiled at him and let him continue with whatever he was saying. I however, could no longer hear what he was saying, I was seeing red.

  Is this bastard, hitting on her right in front of me? Let’s see how much smiling he will be doing when I smash his teeth down his throat.

  I had to stop myself from that line of thinking, I couldn’t get jealous. I had no right. Daria wasn’t mine.

  “Are we about through here?” I asked louder than I needed to, it caught the attention of the orderly though. One look at my face and he got professional quickly. No more sickly smiling or touching where he didn’t need to.

  “Thank you! Have a great day!” I pushed Daria out the door before she could even get the rest of her words out. She may not be mine but she wasn’t going to be flirting with anyone else in my presence. My ego just couldn’t handle it.

  I got her to my truck and she hopped in without any help, a smile plastered on her face from the moment the sun hit her skin. I made sure to hide my kutte out of view. I threw her bag in the back seat and we were on our way.

  “I can’t wait to be home and sleep in my own bed. Those beds are so hard in there. And pizza, I need pizza. Or maybe just a good Hell’s Kitchen session. Oh the possibilities.” She spoke out loud, not really waiting for me to say anything back to her just letting the words pour out of her mouth.

  “Sounds like you’re going to have quite a day for yourself,” I said teasing her a bit.

  “Yeah, it will suck though, you won’t be around. I will miss that about the hospital.”

  “Actually I did want to talk to you about that if you had the time. I was hoping that I could get your information so that I could check on you from time to time. I know being home can be tough for some folks. I just want to make sure that you have everything that you need.”

  “Yeah, that would be nice. Where is your phone? I’ll put my number in, call me whenever or come over, you know where I live now. It would be fun to have someone else to hang out with besides the girls.”

  I looked at her in surprise as we pulled up to her house, she didn’t ask if that was normal. She didn’t want to know if I had done this with any other patients, she was just willing to give me whatever I wanted. Maybe it was just because I drove her home but part of me was starting to believe that I had as much of an effect on her as she had on me.

  “Oh, I mean, you don’t have to hang out if you don’t want to. I know you have other things to do. That was silly of me to say.”

  “No, that sounds like a great day to me. I would love to hang out with you sometime. I will give you a call, maybe tomorrow, to see how you’re settling in, how does that sound?”

  “Great!” She hopped out of the truck and quickly went to open the back door to get her bag.

  “Leave it!” I yelled, a bit louder than I should have. She startled in response. Her bag was hiding my kutte. All I needed now was for her to see it. “You shouldn’t be lifting such heavy things after your surgery. I’ll get it.” I rushed over to her side and retrieved her bag. I followed behind her as she made her way to her home. Daria act
ually lived in one of the few high-rise buildings in town. It was about twelve stories of duplex apartments. I heard good things about the building but had yet to have a need to go inside it. As soon as I stepped into the elevator I knew that the folks that lived here were well off. Everything was pristine and functional, it smelled like disinfectant. I loved that smell.

  I walked into her duplex and was immediately put off; it was a mess. There were clothes all over the furniture. Boxes and bags just thrown in corners. Of course, it appeared that all of the furniture was top notch but with everything covering them it was hard to appreciate the quality of the pieces. I swallowed my discomfort and followed Daria to some stairs that led up.

  “This is Nika and Mallory’s level, they live in the bigger space. I have all upstairs to myself. It's not very big but it will do.” At the top of the stairs, the upper level opened up into a small one bedroom apartment layout. The kitchenette area and the living room were all one open area, she had a modest kitchen table up against one of the side walls. A burgundy and bone colored area rug adorned the small space that should be the living room, she had room for a love seat and two small sitting chairs. They screamed thrift shop but were functional and clean. I sucked in a fresh breath of air. The place was almost as spotless as I liked it. I was immediately at ease, I didn’t want to admit it to myself but if she was a slob it really would have brought down my opinion of her. Now here she was back to being perfect in my eyes, minus the lack of self-confidence that is.