Chasing Claire (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club)

by Marinaro, Paula

“Try me.”

  “It was your mother,” Jules said.

  “My mother?” Reno lifted his head off the pillow and looked at the three men.

  “What do you mean, my mother?”

  “Dolly called Gianni,” Prosper confirmed.

  “My mother called this in to the mob?” Reno croaked out. His pain had begun to spark and he felt that burn.

  “Yeah, she did. She called him on the way in. Dolly called Gianni and told him that she needed his help. And he came with that help,” Prosper said as casually as the situation would allow.

  Reno let those words settle for a minute. He was having trouble digesting them.

  His mother had called Gianni for help.

  And he came with that help.

  Even if it meant dragging his guy away from some family celebration.

  Gianni had dropped everything and came when Dolly had called him.

  Jesus.

  Because getting ambushed and almost shot to death wasn’t enough, let’s add this to the damn mix.

  “That debt? Mine to repay. Not hers.” Reno looked Gianni in the eye.

  Gianni looked like he was about to say something, then simply nodded.

  Reno let his head fall back on the pillows. His woman, and his mom, both safe.

  “Three men and a woman?” Prosper asked Reno.

  “It was that whore Sievas,” Reno answered. The pain had settled and begun to blaze.

  “You sure?” Gianni asked.

  “Tall, bony, long straggly hair, pockmarks all over her face. Ugly as sin. That her?” Reno growled out.

  “Yeah. That’s her,” Prosper said grimly. “You shoot her?”

  “Yeah. I shot her. Right after Ma rammed a broken bottle in her neck.”

  There was a moment of stunned silence, then the three men looked toward the doorway that led to the room where Dolly sat and waited.

  “Dolly?” Prosper and Gianni both said at the same time.

  “Yeah, she had no choice. Bitch came at her through the window. She almost strangled her to death.” Reno sank back deeper into the pillows and a slick sheen of sweat covered his forehead. He let out a soft moan. Jules moved everyone aside, gave another quick check to the IV in Reno’s arm, and then he took his pulse.

  “Enough for now. Everyone get the fuck out.” Jules crossed his big arms and stood in front of his patient.

  Reno called out a begrudging thanks, before he closed his eyes against the pain.

  CHAPTER 43

  Raine had finally come out to give us an update. Reno was conscious and talking. Dolly rushed to the door, but apparently Jules had radioed the clubhouse for Prosper and Gianni. In order to get the answers to some pretty important questions, they would be first to see Reno. Dolly paced like a mother lion outside the clinic door waiting for them to make their way across the compound. She and Prosper exchanged a few heated sentences about priorities, but I stayed out of that particular showdown. I was just glad that Reno was alive, talking, and ready to receive visitors.

  I could wait.

  Pinky persuaded Dolly to go for a cool-down walk while Prosper and Gianni were in with Reno. I was invited to go with them, but I didn’t need to cool down. I needed to talk to my sister.

  Raine gave Dolly a long hug and whispered soothing words in her ear. Dolly nodded tearfully and let herself be led out the door with Pinky. Raine stood with her hands supporting the small of her back as she swept the hair out of her eyes. Then she bent a little backward in an attempt to alleviate the strain of the recent hours. Her tired eyes went to me and she smiled.

  My hands shook and Raine took them into her warm, steady ones.

  “How is he really?” I asked. The snake of fear uncoiled deep within me and made it hard to breathe.

  My sister smiled gently. “What do you want first, honey? The good news or the bad news?”

  I shook my head, unable to speak.

  “The good news,” Raine said, “is that we got the bullet out.” Then she grinned with weariness as she quickly added, “And the bad news is that you are going to have to put up with that crazy Irish brawler for the rest of your life.”

  “Yeah?” I squeaked out as a flood of relief surged through me.

  “Yeah, honey. He’s going to be just fine. Jules and the doctor fixed him up just fine. I’m not going to lie to you, Claire. He was in pretty bad shape when Dolly brought him in. He was really, really lucky. He lost a boatload of blood by the time he got here, but we were able to stabilize him before we went after that bullet. Did anyone tell you anything? Prosper? Dolly?” my sister asked me.

  I shook my head.

  “Prosper told me a little, Dolly added a little more, but I don’t know much,” I said.

  “Okay. Honey, let’s sit for a minute. Reno was hit twice. Both on his left side. One of the bullets grazed him, but it took a big chunk out of him. The doctor and Jules were able to clean that up and stitch it without too much difficulty.”

  Then she paused.

  “The second wound was a little more complicated. He got hit in the shoulder, same side. It was a nice clean shot, which means it hit a lot of soft tissue and no bone. That’s good—no bone fragments to worry about. Bone fragments can be dangerous. They can travel or settle in places that can cause problems. Reno being so damn muscular didn’t hurt either. But he had already lost a lot of blood when he came in.” Then she sighed and said again, “He was damn lucky, honey.”

  My blue eyes fixed on hers.

  “Thank you, Raine. Thank you. I love you.” I placed my head against hers. The complete feeling of relief made me weak.

  “I love you too, little sister. I didn’t do much, but I’m glad that my nursing degree finally paid off for more than treating Willow’s gas or Diego’s exhaust burns.”

  We stayed like that for a minute. Raine kissed the top of my head before she moved away and asked, “Does Glory still have Willow?”

  “Yeah. She has her in Prosper’s rooms at the clubhouse. I think he said something about a bath, but I don’t remember . . .”

  “It’s okay, honey. I’ll find her.”

  After what seemed like forever, Prosper and Gianni finally emerged. Without waiting one second longer, Dolly streamed past them toward the door that would lead her to her son.

  Prosper raised an eyebrow. “Me and that woman are going to have a long talk.”

  “Good luck with that,” I heard Gianni mutter under his breath.

  “Yeah, I hear ya.” Prosper nodded in agreement. Then he turned and looked at me.

  “You okay, honey?”

  “I’m okay.” I nodded.

  “You going to go on in and see your man?”

  I shook my head. “I want to give Dolly some time with him first. She needs to see for herself that Reno will be all right. Then she can go home and get some rest,” I said.

  I would have my time with Reno. Once in that room, I did not intend to leave him again until he was well.

  When Dolly walked out the door a few minutes later, her eyes brimmed with happy tears.

  She came over and hugged me close. “He’s asking for you, honey.”

  “Thank you for coming today.” I surprised Gianni by giving him a small hug.

  Prosper scowled and grunted beside me.

  “And don’t yell at Dolly, Prosper. If it were me in there, or Raine, you would have done the same. You would have stacked every deck you had to make it come out okay. And you know it,” I said.

  Dolly looked suddenly uneasy, but there was a light in her eyes that even Prosper’s scowl could not erase.

  I left the three of them to work it out and went in to see my man.

  CHAPTER 44

  I pushed the door open, but stopped just on the other side of it. I knew that the brothers had added on to the clinic, but I had not realized that the building extended this far back. There was a single corridor with one door on the left and one door at the end.

  I opened the door to the left first.


  Holy shit.

  If I had known a room so fully equipped existed here on the compound, I could have spared myself some of the fear that I had just gone through. Because, as far as I could tell, this room could rival any hospital surgical unit.

  Everywhere were monitors and stainless-steel everything. A heavy smell of antiseptic wash permeated the air. Off in a corner sat boxes and boxes of gloves, a covered tray of surgical instruments, a small autoclave, and a deep sink. A good-sized closet area held several large tanks of compressed gas. Two halogen lights waited off to the side next to a glass-fronted refrigerator.

  I saw a few balled up pieces of bloody gauze through a hazardous waste container and wondered who had been on cleanup detail. The place was scrubbed and ready for the next illegal medical emergency.

  Wow.

  I left the room and headed down the hallway toward the last door.

  I stood in front of it and willed my heart to stop pounding.

  I took a deep breath.

  Then I walked in. Reno sat propped up in a hospital bed, naked from the waist up. A yellow iodine-type solution coated the ridges in his hard stomach. Large padded bandages covered his torso and his shoulder. He had an IV stuck into his arm. He looked too big for the bed, too powerful to be lying on the stark white sheets. His eyes seemed too bright in his pale face, and there was a hard line to his mouth.

  But he was alive. And he looked beautiful.

  “Claire.” His eyes met mine.

  My whole body melted with relief at the sound of his voice. I stood frozen with gratitude and offered up a silent thank you. I was too afraid to move. I was paralyzed with fear that this was an illusion, a dream that I would wake up from to find a very different outcome.

  “Babe,” Reno called softly to me again, “come here.”

  I walked unsteadily toward the bed. I wanted to reach out and touch him, but my hands were like lead weights at my sides.

  I knew, I just knew, that if I reached for him, he would be gone. I knew that he would disappear and be forever trapped in some dark magician’s magic spell. Or he would be snuffed out like a candle flame that was caught in a too-strong wind.

  And I knew that if Reno disappeared, I would die. Right there on the spot.

  “Closer.” Reno’s gaze touched me everywhere. I moved until my knees almost touched the side of his bed.

  “Closer,” he said again.

  “Reno . . .” I looked at the IV in his arm and the big pieces of gauze that covered most of his chest.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I said softly.

  “You won’t.” His eyes held mine.

  Still I hesitated.

  “Claire, come here,” he whispered to me.

  I leaned in and over him then. My hair fell loose and brushed against his bare skin. My tear-stained cheek pressed against the rough stubble of his jaw. I felt the heat from Reno’s body rise through the thin fabric of my blouse as my breast softened into his hard chest. The musky familiar scent of him was edged with the metallic smell of blood and the unmistakable odor of antiseptic.

  I inhaled deeply.

  He smelled wonderful.

  As if on its own, my hand reached out to him and laid itself over the small patch of skin that was not covered by the protective bandages. I could feel the rise and fall of his warm chest. I pressed with the slightest measure of force against the place that covered his heart.

  I wanted to feel it beat. I needed to feel it beat.

  “I can’t feel it.” I looked at him helplessly.

  “Can’t feel what, Claire?” Reno had closed his eyes again and had leaned against the pillows. His big hand covered my own.

  “I can’t feel your heart, Reno. I can’t feel it beating.” My voice cracked with the sound of desperation. A part of me had gone a little crazy.

  “It’s all right, Claire. I’m okay, baby.” Reno’s amber eyes flew open and were on me now. His hand squeezed mine.

  “We’re going to be okay. I’m not going to let anything take this away from us, honey.”

  I heaved against him now. Safe in the power of his love, but not even close to recovering from the shock of almost losing him.

  “It’s been hours since they came for me. They came to school, Reno. And Crow didn’t tell me . . . I didn’t know why . . . I didn’t know . . . they came to get me . . . you weren’t there and I didn’t know why. Prosper told me that you’d been shot . . . And there was blood . . . Dolly was covered in blood . . . The doctor came and then . . . nothing . . . for hours and hours . . . no one came out to tell us . . . to tell me . . .” My whole body shook with released adrenaline.

  “Shh,” Reno smoothed my hair and murmured to me. “It’s okay, baby. Everything is okay. I’m going to be fine. Just fine.”

  I nodded “I know that. I do. I know that,” I heaved.

  It was true. I knew that it was true. Reno was going to be fine. Just fine. He was going to be sore and uncomfortable and laid up for a while. Reno was all right, but I was falling apart.

  “I don’t want to ever lose you,” I managed to choke out.

  “You won’t,” Reno sighed into my hair.

  Then he grabbed my hand and gently pressed my fingers to his neck.

  He pushed them against his pulse point.

  “There, baby. Feel that? I’m here. Trust that. Keep your fingers there all damn night if you need to. I’m not going anywhere.”

  I looked at our entwined fingers. His big, callused hand held my smaller one prisoner. I knew it was a matter of only milliseconds, but it seemed like forever. Then I felt that strong steady rhythm of his pulse. Like tiny drums. The beats pounded against my fingers like a thousand tiny drums of celebration. They pumped and circulated the life-giving blood to and from his heart.

  His heart.

  “Baby, don’t cry anymore. It’s going to be okay.” Reno pushed the hair out of my face, wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, and he pulled me closer.

  He knew.

  He was the one who was hurt. He was the one who was lying in a sick bed. His body was the one that had survived the deep wounds left from a spray of bullets.

  Reno was the one that was wounded.

  But he knew that I was the one who had almost died.

  He saw the unmistakable signs of the deep terror that had burned a hole deep within me. He could see the razor-edged fear and the panic. He recognized the shock that coursed through my veins, and the desperation that made me want to curl up inside of him.

  He knew.

  So he reached to me, pulled me close, and he kissed me. At first gently and tenderly, and then with all the strength he had left.

  I felt his body rise against me and his hand wrap itself in my hair. His tongue moved ever so slowly against my mouth leaving in its wake tiny trails of light and love. He traced my lips with his finger, slowly letting me taste him. When he felt me sigh against him, with small, slow movements, he parted my lips. Taking his time, he explored every moist, secret place of my mouth. His tongue found mine and plundered it like it was a long lost treasure. I groaned when I felt him withdraw slightly from me, but then he was back again. Reno pressed warm soft kisses on the corners of my mouth, up to my temple and in my hair. Then he moved downward and rained soft kisses down my neck, all the while soothing me with words. His big hand cupped the back of my head, then he pulled slightly back on my hair until our eyes met.

  “You are never going to lose me, baby, and I am never going to lose you. I’m sorry, Claire. I’m sorry that shit touched you today. I never wanted any of this life I chose to blow back on you. I’m sorry that I let you down, honey.”

  Oh, my God.

  “Stop it, Reno. Everything good that ever happened to me was because of you. The bad came but it didn’t take you away. It did its worst and it still didn’t kill you. You were stronger than it was. You didn’t let me down,” I said hoarsely.

  And suddenly I realized that was true. Were there still things we had to work out?
Still things we had to talk through? Sure there were. None of this erased the fact that there were still parts of Reno and me that didn’t make sense. But I also knew that without him, nothing at all made sense. Without him, none of the rest of it mattered.

  Reno sighed softly against my hair, then he leaned deeper into the pillows, taking me with him. Drawing me close to his right side, he finally succumbed to the events of the day. I lay nestled close to him for a long time, then I fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

  CHAPTER 45

  This convalescence shit sucked.

  Absolutely, totally sucked. Reno hated being laid up like this. Fucking hated it.

  He had too much damn time to think. He could not stand the thought of lying in a goddamn bed when he should be out handling business with his brothers.

  It wasn’t his first time mending from a bullet. But he had never been shot up this bad before.

  And it didn’t help that he replayed the shooting over and over again in his mind.

  When had he become such an unobservant idiot? Brothers who lived their lives unaware did not live long.

  This was all his goddamn fault.

  On a quiet Monday morning, in the shadow of the Celtic cross that marked his father’s grave.

  The bad had come.

  If he had not been busy giddy-upping all morning long, acting like a teenage boy who had just gotten his first blow job, Reno would have been ready.

  He should have sniffed the danger in the air the minute that he had stepped out of the car.

  But he had been too busy thinking about being dick-deep inside of his woman.

  That was the thought that plagued him. Self-recrimination rolled over him in boiling waves of rage.

  And that was just one thing, on a shit pile of other things, that gnawed at Reno’s gut.

  First on the list was that psycho killer Luisa Sievas.

  The thought of her filled him with a primal and deadly fury.

  He wanted that pock-faced insane bitch dead.

  Again.

  The cut glass to her throat and the bullet in her evil, black, fucking soul was not enough.

  He wanted to kill her again, slowly.

  While he lay in bed gagging on pain pills and feeling the sting of needles stuck in his arm, he thought of all the things that he would have liked to do to that she-bitch. The dark thoughts were always a little different but all along the same lines. In those first hazy days of recovery, it was that anger that kept him sane.