by Ryder Dane
“If you could just take me into town where I can rent a room for a week or so while we find out if Dutch will be all right, I’d appreciate it. If I’m in town, I’ll be close enough to run over to the hospital if he needs me.”
The look of disappointment on the men’s faces told her that she had made the right decision. She didn’t want to think what they might have hoped for. She was happy that they were decent about it and would give her a ride into town. Cory smiled sadly as he was driving her to a little place that the family was friends with where they rented rooms by the month. She almost changed her mind when he said.
“I’m sorry if Dad and I made you uncomfortable back at the house. My Mother died two months ago, and there hasn’t been a woman in the place since her funeral. Maybe we hoped to, I don’t know... Women brighten a home up, you know?”
There was nothing that she could say after his confession. It was a sad thing to have happened to such nice people. When he dropped her off and helped carry her things into the small reception, she hugged him and thanked him again.
“I’ll be in touch about the bike, and keep you updated on how Dutch is doing. You and your father have been a God send to me. Your mom would be proud of you. Just take care of each other.”
Cory was pink in the face as he nodded and left the building. She shook her head and turned back to see the older woman waiting for her to fill out the paper to rent the room.
Kylie handed over her driver’s license, but since she had never paid on time for anything in her life, she left the credit history lines blank. The lady frowned when she read the scanty information, but asked her why she was in town. Kylie told her about the tornado and Dutch being in the hospital. That was all the history that she needed because the lady, who introduced herself as Betty Lou, was all sympathetic.
When she heard that name, Kylie couldn’t help but chuckle and shake her head. Betty Lou asked her what was so funny in a hurt tone.
“Oh no, no, please don’t be offended by my laughing. I am tired to death, but when you told me your name I got the feeling that I am in the right place. Dutch named his motorcycle Betty Lou. He built her from the frame up and told me that her personality matches the name, friendly and sweet."
Betty Lou smiled then. She picked up the bedroll and frowned, but led the way to the back of the house to a large room with an attached bathroom and a door that led to the back yard.
“The room comes with laundry privileges and the washer and dryer are in the side porch just off the kitchen. You can use the phone in your room for local calls, but if you call long distance, I will charge you for the calls. You can use the kitchen, or the microwave that is here in the room. There in the cupboard is a coffee maker, but that is it. No parties, no loud music, and no pets.”
They spoke for a few minutes more, and Kylie got permission to use the laundry as soon as she changed her clothes after her shower. Betty Lou nodded and offered to save her a plate of dinner if she was hungry.
The shower felt wonderful, and she wore her shorts and t-shirt to travel into the kitchen and found the laundry room easily. The plate that Betty promised was in the oven, and Betty and two other women were watching one of the talent reality shows that seemed to be popular nowadays. She joined the ladies while she ate the delicious meal and she waited for the washer to do its thing.
Once the clothes were in the dryer, she went back to her room to call the hospital to find out how Dutch was doing. She had to remember that he wouldn’t be listed as Dutch at the hospital, and asked about Edwin Morganson. She told them that she was his fiancée, and his nearest relative in the area. They still refused to tell her anything over the phone.
She was so frustrated with the hospital people that she wanted to go over there and raise hell. Her entire day had consisted of waiting for other people and worrying about that overgrown ass that was lying in a hospital where he had no friends to sit with him, no one to be there when he opened his eyes. She hated knowing that he would be alone. She knew that if he woke to strangers, he would be confused, even if he refused to admit it.
All she could do for tonight was to call his club like she’d promised. She went to the saddle bag and pulled out the cell phone and saw that there had been two calls that she hadn’t heard the ring from.
She hit the dial icon, and almost hung up the phone when the man that answered the call started yelling at her before she said a word.
“I call, you answer, do you get that? Now, tell me how Dutch is, and don’t fucking hem haw about it.”
Kylie swallowed and tried to talk, but he came back with his voice raised.
“I said tell me, stop fuckin’ around and talk to me so I know what I need to do to get our brother home, or patched up.”
She was losing her fear and fast gaining a good case of mad. “Look mister, I don’t know you, I barely know Dutch. His name is Edwin by the way. He is in the hospital and I can’t get in to see him until tomorrow morning. He was unresponsive when the ambulance picked him up. The tornado must have blown him up next to the foundation of the barn we were sheltering in. His bike is at a farmer’s place outside of town, and I can’t do a thing about it. I told you, it is too damn big for me to ride.”
“Look, I’m sorry that I can’t tell you anything useful. I am wiped out and I swear that I will get back to you as soon as I know something.” She poked the red button to disconnect from the grouchy man. She wondered if that had been War or if it was the President, Race.
She dragged her tired ass back to the laundry and folded her few clothes before going back to her room, locking the door, and falling into the most comfortable bed that she’d ever laid in. Sleep claimed her almost immediately.
*****
She ate a blueberry muffin and nursed a large cup of hot sweet coffee on her way to the hospital the next morning. She’d slept like the dead and felt one hundred percent better today than the last two days. Her dreams hadn’t been bad or terrifying. What she could remember of them consisted of the feel of Dutch’s lips on her own.
She was directed to go to the third floor where the Intensive Care unit was located. Once she explained that his family was out of state, but they’d been caught in the tornado’s path, they allowed her in to see him. The room was small, but there was a chair next to his bed, so she sat down and prepared to read to him from a biker magazine that she’d picked up at the coffee shop when she got her breakfast.
“You need a new bunch of friends, I think. That president of yours is as bad as you, issuing orders and treating people like they are his personal minions or something. He wanted answers and I didn’t have any for him. Anyway. I rented a room for a while so you won’t be alone in this place without someone around for you to depend on.”
She kept chattering at him, and the nurse came with his morning bag of liquid, nourishment leaving as quickly as she came in. The doctor didn’t show up until almost noon, and he ordered so many tests that she wanted to scream at him to slow down while she wrote down the information so she could relay it to Race.
The doctor refused to give her much more than, “we think that his nerves are being pinched from the swelling surrounding his spine. The swelling in his knee is deep bruising, the x-rays do not show any broken bones, and his bloodwork is clean. We will be taking a sample of his spinal fluid to check for any other damage if the tests today don’t show any reason for his paralysis.”
The man left her and she looked over to Dutch. “I hope you heard that. I have a feeling that you are going to be here a while. I am going to find something to eat and a paperback to read this afternoon. Maybe I’ll call that bossy SOB War and tell him what the doctor is planning to do.”
She told herself that the kiss she left on his forehead was for show before leaving the room when the transport people showed up to take him for the tests.
Chapter 7
Three days after he was admitted into the hospital, Dutch opened his eyes and moved his head to t
he side. The progress only lasted for a few minutes, but it was encouraging. The swelling was what was causing his paralysis, and as it went down, he would gain the use of his body once again. That is what the doctors were predicting, and Kylie hoped they were right.
She gave his fingers a squeeze and thought that his fingers moved a little, but wasn’t going to jinx his recovery by pushing him too fast. She had sat countless hours by his side talking, reading, even taking his cell phone into his room when the nurse wasn’t watching, and called the Breed’s clubhouse. She put the phone up on the pillow next to his ear after telling the one named War that it was his turn to talk to Dutch.
“I am out of words, I don’t have a new magazine with me, and I need to scare up something for me to eat. So you can talk to him for ten minutes while I run down to the coffee shop. Please, they tell me to keep talking. He can hear but everything is swollen, and it will take a while longer before they know if there will be any permanent damage.”
She left a kiss on the silent man’s cheek before heading for the door. Telling herself that she needed to stop doing that or it would become a habit, did no good. Each time she visited and left she would brush his hair from his forehead and kiss his face. As long as she didn’t kiss his mouth, she would be safe from caring too much about him. After all, he was helpless, and she was trying to reassure him just in case he knew what was going on around him.
Day five brought slurred speech, and movement of his fingers. Day seven brought visitors and shook up the normally sedate nurses that routinely came into the room only to change the I.V. bags, take his vitals, and change his bedding.
Kylie had taken over bathing him, so the nurses left her to it unless she needed help rolling him over. She had just cleaned her hands and was walking out of the bathroom when she saw the men file into the room. She hung back when they crowded around Dutch, and she saw that he was awake. He knew the men, and they teased him about being dumb enough to scrap it out with a tornado.
One of the men in particular looked familiar and Kylie hurried to the door to leave the room. She had to think fast. Her brother Billy, or whoever the man actually was, was standing by Dutch’s thigh and was staring at her in a puzzled way. She had her hand on the door when it opened and pushed her back into the room.
Billy must have decided to follow her, for when she was pushed back, she was mashed against his chest. His arm came around her, and she made herself go still. She was afraid of this man. He looked even older and scarier than he had the day that he’d snatched her from the cemetery. He reached his other hand out to grab arms with another man that he called Stalker. The guy was bigger than Dutch, and he was handsome, but she was too afraid to take the time to admire the men in the room. All she wanted to do was disappear until they left.
Billy kept his arm around her waist and stepped back to the bed. Stalker eyed her as they approached.
“I guess we are a pretty scary looking bunch, but if you’ve been with Dutch for very long, you can handle us. We only bite when asked politely, and since you belong to Dutch, you are safe as a baby in momma’s arms.” He nodded to her and flashed a smile, fit for a fantasy, to put her at ease. “Now how about you tell us what’s going on with our brother? The details were sketchy when Race called and told us that Dutch and his ol’ lady needed some help. Me and Dutch, we go way back and he was supposed to be back over a week ago.”
She tried to step out of the hold around her waist, and Stalker looked over her shoulder and back to her. “Bully won’t hurt you, he talks kinda funny because he came from down south in the middle of a swamp. He’s harmless, right Bully?” She was pulled around and Bully had a hand on each of her shoulders holding her in place as he studied her face.
“You need to tell me your name, and where Dutch picked you up at.”
She shook her head and tried to walk backwards out of his hold, but he just clamped his fingers down harder, and she couldn’t help it, she screamed. She began to kick at the man holding her captive and the hand coming around from behind her head stopped in mid motion when the door flew open and two nurses rushed inside. Bully dropped his hands and gave her a narrow eyed look, daring her to say something, but she walked over to the nightstand and grabbed her backpack and almost ran from the room while the nurses kept the biker occupied with questions and demands that some of them had to leave or take turns coming to see the patient.
Kylie took the service elevator down to the first floor and hurried to the opposite side of the hospital to exit one of the side doors. She waved a cab down and hunched down in the back seat as soon as she hopped inside the safety of the vehicle.
She was glad that she never left anything that she couldn’t replace at the rooming house. She had what was left of her money and most of the cash that Dutch had been carrying. She still had the heavy metals in her backpack too, so she told the cabbie to take her to Eastland. It was in the next county, but surely the bikers would not think that she would head out of town completely. At least she hoped not.
She snuck glances behind them as they traveled through the traffic. The cabbie asked her what she was worried about. “If you’re running from someone it might help if I know what they are driving, that way I can watch for them and warn you if they get close, you can hunker down in the floorboard. Before you lie and say it’s not my business, I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s not my first rodeo with women jumping into my cab and cringing down in the seat. You’re running from someone, and since I didn’t hear sirens, I’m guessing it’s a man.”
This trusting strangers stuff was becoming a habit, but his reasoning was solid, and it would be safer if he knew at least what kind of vehicles to watch for. “They won’t be in a car, if they are looking for me it will probably be motorcycles. I promise that I didn’t do anything against them. I need to go home, and I’m not sure that they are even looking for me. I just want to go home.”
The cabbie nodded his head and checked his mirrors. He kept up a running chatter about his wife and kids until they reached the bus station. He told her “go home and fix things if you can with the folks. Parents love their kids no matter what the kid has done. I know that’s not always the case, but I’ll pray for you.”
She handed him the fare and an extra twenty. “Thank you, and I plan to do just that. I will find my family and hope everything works out.”
She pulled the pack around her shoulders and walked into the bus station. Once the cab pulled away from the curb, she walked down the glass wall and stepped out on the sidewalk to hail another cab to take her to the train station. She didn’t want to be traced easily, and if they thought that she was on a bus headed to the place that Bully grabbed her from originally, they would be in for a disappointment. The man made a mistake by restraining her. She remembered where she lived before her parents moved them to Lexington, Kentucky. She was headed for Driscol, Ohio. If she had any family anywhere, it would be there.
*****
Stalker sat with Dutch for the next two hours while Bully explained what the deal with the frightened woman was. Stalker was pissed and told him so.
“What the fuck. You didn’t have to scare her to death for Christ sake’s. I know they call you Bully because you are as strong as a fucking bull, not because you scare the hell out of women. Dayum man, Dutch will have your nuts when he can move enough to cut them off of you. Now why don’t you sit your ass down and tell me what the fuck is so important that you have to cause a god damned scene in a hospital. We almost got tossed out and we were lucky that that nurse didn’t call the fuckin’ cops. If Grinch hadn’t caught her eye when she walked in, we’d be tossed out or downtown.”
Unger and Ollie had been given the signal to leave the room from Stalker when the nurse started bitching at them for crowding the room. Grinch had exercised his talent for charming pussy, and had steered the woman out of the room once she was assured that her patient was not being harmed.
Bull pulled the other plastic cha
ir over from the window and sat on the opposite side of the bed from Stalker, and started talking.
“I think the girl is that judge’s kid. I can’t remember the man’s name.” He shook his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose before looking at Dutch and Stalker in turn. “Back at least ten maybe fifteen years ago, Wolfman’s brother was sentenced to life for beating a cop half to death and shooting another one. He was guilty, there was too many witnesses to avoid the open murder charge and the assault charges. The Judge tossed the book at Herb. He ended up dead when they were transporting him to the pen. They said he tried to escape.
“Wolf didn’t take the loss of his brother well. He found out that the judge had a grown son and a younger daughter from a second marriage. The kid was with the son and his wife most of the time because the second wife died right after the kid was born.” Stalker was beginning to look bored, and a bored Stalker wasn’t something that Bull wanted to deal with.
“Wolf arranged an accident, and the kid was at the cemetery crying when I was told to grab her and take her to a place in Louisiana. Those eyes are hard to forget, did you see the color? I’ve never seen eyes like that before. Blue ones of every shade yes, but hers look like jewelry.” He sighed and contemplated the darkening sky pictured through the window. “I was just happy that Wolf didn’t give the order to eliminate the girl.” He looked at Stalker. “I don’t hurt kids, I was trying to come up with some way to slip her away to someplace safe. I was given a wad of cash, and an address. I told her that I was her brother and the only reason that she stayed quiet was that I told her the state was planning to take her to an orphanage.”
“Before you ask how I knew that she was the girl, I didn’t, all I did know is that those damn eyes have been haunting me for fuckin’ years. I dropped her off and she tried to hug me goodbye, thinking I was coming back for her. I don’t deal with kids, I damn sure don’t deal with little blonde haired girls with tears floating around their eyes.
