by Vivian Gray
“Well, I found the wound,” she says softly as she turns my head back. “Lucky thing is that it’s not near your spine and that it’s a clean exit – missed you by millimeters, if that. Tyler never would wear his glasses.”
“Can I stand?” I ask, not convinced I should even move, let alone get to my feet.
“You can try, but I’d rather you wait until Tyler comes. He should be coming soon with the cart. How’s your vision?”
“I can see you. That’s all that matters.”
She leans forward and lifts my heavy eyelids. How she can see anything in this darkness is beyond me. It’s got to be nearing dawn. The sky itself is turning brighter with each passing minute I spend out here.
“Hmm… I’m guessing the hit and the loss of blood is messing with your vision. It should be fine when we get you to the hospital. They’ll get you some blood, remove the bullet, and stitch up your neck. If you’re good, they’ll give you some amazing painkillers too.”
“I’m not going to the hospital, Blanche.”
“Of course you are.”
“No, I’m fucking not.” I attempt to sit up again, but the blood rushes straight to my head, and I’m leveled back down to the rocky, dusty ground.
She places a hand under my head at the sight of my wound to cradle me in my spot. “Why not? I’m a damn good nurse, but I don’t treat bullet wounds. Your head is bad enough, but two gunshot wounds is another thing. You need surgery at least for that arm. It’s not sitting right. The bullet’s probably lodged in there, and you’re at risk for infections.”
“I’m not leaving you out here. You’re vulnerable. And you heard me when I said you’ve got two days until they come looking, right? That’s not enough time for me to heal.”
“No, it’s not.” It’s not Blanche’s voice that responds. Nor is it Tyler’s.
I carefully turn my head in time to see a pair of boots I’m all too familiar with. Blanche screams out as she leans into me. Her hands search for something, a rock maybe, as she places the other protectively on my chest.
“What are you doing here, Knux?” I shout, this time forcing myself up to sit.
He waits for me to hobble to my feet before snapping his fingers. Three other men emerge – men I can barely make out in my condition, but I know them as the asshole scouts and enforcers he keeps on his payroll for personal protection.
“You know, when you left my office a few nights ago, I thought to myself, ‘Diesel’s one of the best riders I got. A damn good manager too. But he sure as shit sucks when it comes to doing what he’s told.’ So I got on a plane a few hours later and looked up this lovely town. I followed you for a day. It wasn’t hard for us to track down a biker looking for an old girlfriend. A farmer pointed us right in your direction.”
He walks towards me, a knife in hand. “You know, I wouldn’t have found you out here in the middle of this field if it hadn’t been for the gun blast. When we were searching through the house for you and heard it, I thought you might actually have grown some damn balls and got the job done. I was even a bit proud. But, here we are. She’s not dead and Tyler’s nowhere to be found.”
“Fuck you,” I mutter, standing between him and Blanche. “I’m not killing a guy who paid his debts to you.”
“You still think it’s about the debts? You’re a fucking moron, Diesel. Tyler didn’t steal that money to begin with. In fact, it was a goddamn shitty setup on my part. I made too many mistakes, including trusting you to look over him while I plotted my next step. I should have known you’d fuck it right up. And speaking of fuckups…”
He takes his knife hand and points it directly at Blanche, who still has a hand placed on the back of my head in some feeble attempt to stop the blood loss. “Look who got in the family business. I guess I should say congratulations. But I think we both know you’ll both be dead soon.”
“Leave her alone. She didn’t do a damn thing to you. She knows nothing about the club or your business.”
“But she knows about you and Tyler. And what did I say about witnesses? I don’t like to leave sloppy trails behind. No one likes a loose end.”
“She won’t say anything. I’ll ship her away to the other side of the globe. She’ll stay put if I tell her to.”
“Diesel… no,” Blanche whispers into my ear. “I’m not going anywhere without you. We’re a family.”
“That’s not an option, Diesel. And let me tell you why. That little bastard growing in her might be all cute and cuddly, but it’s a mini-Diesel. And one day, that mini-Diesel becomes a man, and I have no doubt your woman is going to tell him all about his daddy and how he stupidly died saving their lives like some movie star hero. And what do kids with that backstory do? They fucking attempt revenge. He’d fail, of course. So why not just cut the family line off altogether at the start?”
He clicks his fingers again and his boys walk towards him in strange, synchronized steps. In under a second, they’ve crept behind me, pulling Blanche away. She screams and throws herself in and out of their arms. The men manage to pin her flailing body down at my feet, tying her arms together with white rope.
“Diesel! Diesel! Help me!” she screams.
I throw myself at the men, uncaring what Knux plans on doing. My arms manage to lock around one of them, and we go flying towards the bank of corn crops next to us. He struggles to grip my neck, but I land punch after punch until I’m out on top. I press my weight on him, but he still scores kicks to my back and thighs.
With each hit he makes, my vision gets a little fuzzier and the taste in my mouth becomes more metallic. I can barely see… The whole world goes still around me… But for a moment, I see a gleam of metal inches away from the man’s head.
“Diesel!” Blanche again cries, but I’m focused on the gun I tossed aside only minutes ago.
The man lunges upwards, bucking me off of him. I stumble straight on the weapon, and by the time he turns again for me, the gun goes off, blasting through the night. The man’s eyes roll back in his head and up towards the stars. His frame goes limp before me until he falls slack on his knees. The rest of him comes crashing down seconds later. A pool of blood soaks through his T-shirt and onto the gray dirt.
“Ansel! What’s going on!” Knux calls out of our sightline.
I take the gun and stride back out to the scene. The men stare up at me in complete disbelief. I point the gun straight at Knux, but he knows the steps. His own gun is already placed at the back of Blanche’s head.
“Don’t you dare do it, Knux, or I swear to God, I’ll end you right here, right now.”
“Then I think we’re at an impasse. You kill one of my men, I kill your woman. That’s how this works. Afterward, Joe here, he’s going to finish you.” He looks towards the remaining two men and, within seconds, the pair pull out their own handguns. Each barrel stares me down right at my temple.
On the other side of them, right behind Knux’s legs, Blanche cries.
“I’m not moving.”
“You don’t have to. It makes this easier on all of us if you stand perfectly—”
Before he can say another word, the sound of tires digging into the ground and a motor powering through the fields echo all around us. Two close light beams stream in from the side. I throw myself to the side fast enough to miss being hit by the bright white four-wheeler. The small vehicle throws itself into the two men. Their bodies lift up and off the ground, their guns flying with them in the opposite direction. They scream as Tyler drives it all the way through to the end of the row.
Knux lines up his shot on Tyler, his gun pointed at the back of his head as Tyler is busy concentrating on backing up over the larger one of Knux’s assistants. Blanche shouts again, and in a blur, I watch in stunned shock as she crawls beside Knux’s leg and bites directly into his skin, just as she had done earlier to my hand. He screams out, the gun firing off above Tyler’s head.
“You fucking bitch!” He moves his leg back, and I know this is it. This is my
moment.
I aim the gun, pull the trigger, and wait for the back blast to hit. The shot echoes through my weakened body, bringing me down to the ground. My eyes stay open long enough to watch Knux drop down to the ground, his face nearly unrecognizable from the bullet in his forehead.
***
“Blanche, I don’t know what you got yourself mixed up in, but I hope this is the last of it. The cop out there…”
A machine ticks near my head, a light flashes slightly. Wires speckle my body. I’m only half-aware I’m in a hospital bed watching Blanche as she speaks with a man in a white lab coat.
“Doctor Harris, you don’t need to worry about me. I spoke with the detective already, and he could easily see that it was self-defense. The threat is gone now. We made sure of that.”
“I hope so. You were always one of my favorite nurses in the ER, and I would hate the thought of losing you for good.”
She sighs softly as she explains, “You know I’m not working here anymore? I lost my job when I had to go out to California to get my brother. And now, with the baby on the way…”
“There’s always a job here for you, Blanche. You take care of your family first, and then you give me a call. The work you did on this guy, saving his life with probably minutes to spare, is enough to earn you a promotion – at least.”
“Thank you, doctor. That means a lot to me.”
“He’s coming to, I see. I’m sure you have a lot to talk about. The cops will want a statement as well, but I’ll hold them off until you get a moment to yourselves.”
“Thanks. I really appreciate it. Could you tell my brother to come in as well? I’m sure he’ll want to know his friend is awake.” She turns her head to me, a smile lighting up her face.
She’s not dressed in her pajamas or covered in dust and blood anymore. The emerald green dress and pair of black flats look completely out of place from the last time I saw her – tied up on the ground next to several dead men. As she makes her way over to me, her fingers trace the line of my body until they rest on my jaw.
Her thumb massages my cheek as she murmurs, “Are you awake yet? It’s been a full day now.”
I can barely open my eyes, and as I speak my throat burns from something unfamiliar. I point at my neck, and she quickly notes, “It’s from the tube. They needed to place it there when they went in for surgery. They got out the bullet that was jammed in your shoulder. They wanted to know if you wanted to keep it, but I told them it wouldn’t be necessary. I guess I should’ve asked Tyler – since it was his bullet to begin with.”
“Thanks,” I say breathlessly. “Where am I?”
“Montgomery Hospital – my old stomping grounds. I used to work in the ER. It’s different being in the ICU…”
“What happened? Knux?”
“He’s gone. They’re all gone. The cops found all three bodies, and we told them how they attacked us in the house and then found us in the fields.”
“Wait… three bodies? There were four of them – Knux and his three men.”
“Tyler thought it was best to send one back with the news. He promised him his life if he swore allegiance to Tyler. They took some blood oath I didn’t really understand, but I guess it’s important to do when you’re in the Bonebags. The guy, I think his name was Anton, promised to say we’re dead. All of us. He was the only survivor. The way Tyler sees it, he’ll be a hero and get promoted, maybe even get to take over for Knux.”
“Power and money.” I sigh. “That’s all anyone wants.”
“And you? What do you want now that you’re a free man.”
“You,” I reply without any hesitation or pause. “I want you. I meant every damn word I said in that field, Blanche. I want to make this work, and I want to be there for our baby.”
Her eyes sink low as she backs slightly away, “I’m not sure if I believe that. I hear what you’re saying, but you’ve got this… ‘life’ in your blood. What’s going to make you stay put in a place like this?”
“Love is. I didn’t know it then. Hell, I didn’t know it as I rode out here. But I love you. I fucking love you, and there’s not a thing or person on this earth that could change my mind. You’re mine, and I am yours.”
Her smile stretches across her face as she leans in to kiss me. The world around me goes hazy again, but this time, I know it’s going to be okay.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Blanche
“Mateo! Mateo! What did Mommy tell you about trying to escape your Pack ‘n Play? You’re just like your daddy!”
“More like his uncle.”
I turn on my heels to see Tyler standing in the doorway, his arm draped above his head. He never fails to surprise me, especially with his new look. Twenty or thirty pounds and being clean and sober for over a year can do that to a guy. He looks nothing like the person I saw in California.
I scold him playfully: “You scared me! Jesus. I told you not to do that.” I hate to admit that my nerves since the night in the field have been absolutely shot. I was never jumpy until men with guns tied me up and made me watch as they held a gun to my head and the ones that I love. Now, I can’t stand anything remotely unplanned.
“I’m sorry – I thought you would like to see your big brother on a day like today.” He smiles, his face brightening as he swoops my son into his arms.
The tan, dark-haired boy coos wildly at being flung up off the ground. He is already a little daredevil. God help me when he becomes a teenager.
“On a day like today? Is it supposed to be an important day?”
Tyler stares at me, his eyes blinking quickly. “It’s the anniversary… of when you were attacked… The cornfield.”
“You don’t have to remind me. It’s not every day a motorcycle gang leader tracks me down and attempts to execute my entire family.”
Honestly, it’s hard not to make a big, red, mental “X” on this day. So much has changed over the past year, but so much has remained like a scar, still pink and raised. No matter what I try to do, the memories come when I least expect them to. It’s the rustling of the leaves on the trees… The sound of my phone ringing in the middle of the night… Warm nights where the rain comes out of nowhere…
But it has gotten better. I credit Mateo for that. The rest of my pregnancy with him was a joy. I got those moments only moms get – the setting up of a crib, the picking out of clothing, the gender reveal party… My parents made sure I didn’t miss out on a moment of those times, despite the court cases, the publicity in the papers, and the nearly daily visits of the detectives.
And when he was born, everything washed away. Nothing mattered in my life outside this tiny human being that I got to hold to my chest whenever I felt the world caving in on me. He was, and is, the light in my dark, the moonbeams in my midnight.
The same little boy attempts to gnaw on his uncle’s shirt collar as he squirms to get out of his grasp.
Tyler swings him back around as he grabs hold of a toy from the Pack ‘n Play to distract Mateo. “Well, I have a gift for you – call it an anniversary present.”
He walks back towards the front door and brings back a poorly wrapped gift box. The wrapping paper barely hangs on, and I struggle not to laugh at how beat-up the whole thing is.
“Don’t make fun of me! I’m a recovering drug addict, not a Christmas mall elf.”
“I’m not making fun of you, Tyler,” I reply, grinning from ear to ear, “I’m making fun of your horrible craft skills. Remind me not to call you when Mateo’s got an art project due at school.”
“Just open it, Blanche!”
I tear through the paper as Mateo tosses the mess around the living room. With the box free, I lift the cover and remove the tissue paper. Inside is something completely unexpected – a bright red dress with a pair of black heels. It’s a far cry from my sweats and yoga pant wardrobe. I can’t even remember the last time I wore a dress.
“What is this?” I ask breathlessly, “How did
you…?”
“Well, it’s a dress. I don’t know much about it, outside of that, and it was expensive, but I had my girl, Annie, help me find it. I had some help getting your sizes. Mom raided your closet, so blame her if it or the shoes doesn’t fit.”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” I say as I hold the loose material up to my chest to measure it out. “But why? Why would you get me a dress, and, better question, where the hell am I going to wear this to? It’s not like Mateo and I go out frequently on hot dates.”
“Blanche, you’re a mom, not a nun. And in a few months, you’re going back to work as a nurse, which means you’re going to spend less and less time looking pretty and more time covered in patients’ blood and guts.”
