by M. L. Beeson
“Speaking of, tell me what you know about Ginger and the attack on her.”
“You’ll make it quick?” He asks referring to his death. Nodding, I turn my hand in a circular motion to continue talking.
“Benny wanted something that was yours because you killed Draven. She put up a hell of a fight, stabbed him, and then took off trying to escape. That’s when Benny shot her and then let the boys take turns with her.” Looking up to see my furious face, he tries to hold his hands up. “Look man, I was not one of them. I like my women conscious enough to remember my dick.”
“Oh, a supremacist with a conscience?” I laugh. “Where is Benny?”
“Hiding out at his girl’s house over on Ash Street.”
Holding my hand out to Rex, he places a loaded pistol into my hands. “Thanks.”
True to my word, I made his death quick by planting a .45 caliber round straight between his eyes. I stare at the mess on the floor before turning my attention to Rex. “Really man? The forty-five? Good thing I don’t have to clean this shit up, grab a prospect and get this shit cleaned up.” I say as I toss the gun onto the steel table and head for the door.
I don’t plan on staying at the clubhouse tonight, I am heading home to check up on Meg and Ginger’s mini. I can’t help but be in awe of the little lass.
CHAPTER TWENTY
BLADE
Later that evening, I walk out into the living area to find, Meg and Crimson sprawled out on the floor coloring away. Hearing me, Meg looks up wide-eyed and uncomfortable. “Is it ok that we are here? I am not too sure of the rules around here, she was just getting restless.”
Hearing her question and seeing her shifting under my gaze has me curious. Taking a seat on the oversized couch, I look down at the miniature human coloring in her unicorn coloring book.
“How long have you been taking care of Crimson?”
“I have been helping Ginger with Crimson since she was born, even helped deliver the little thing. I have been looking after her for about six months now since Ginger was tired of the Vegas scene and had an incident with a client. She wanted to raise Crimson somewhere else so she came up here. She didn’t want us coming up yet until she had a nice and secure place for Crim.”
Hmm. I couldn’t fault Ginger for having that mentality. I have never been one for big cities. Yeah, going to rallies and shit with the brothers in different cities was fun, especially Vegas, but I love the peace and quiet of Idaho. It is my sanctuary.
“That is noble of her. I can obviously tell that Ginger is the type of woman who takes care of her own, is that why she has been sending your every cent she makes?”
“Yes. She doesn’t believe I should have to worry about anything for Crim. She doesn’t like handouts, even if I am her family. She is the most stubborn person I have met,” she huffs out in a little laugh.
Agreeing with her and letting out a laugh of my own, I make a mental note of how Meg has yawned about three times in our sixty second conversation.
“Why don’t you go rest a bit, I will watch over the little one,” I offer.
“Oh, no. I couldn’t expect you to do that. I don’t want to be trouble and Crim is my responsibility.” Her response irritates the ever-living-shit out of me.
“I can handle looking over her for a bit.” I wave my hand towards the guest room.
Giving her a sharp look that showed my authority, that I wasn’t fucking asking, she finally relents. “Ok, but come and get me if you get overwhelmed” She moves towards the spare bedroom.
The near slam of the bedroom door breaks Crimson of her concentration on her scribbling the outlined unicorn picture. Looking up to me, she asks. “Where my Auntie Meg?” When she speaks, she tries to focus on getting the correct words out. I couldn’t help but smirk, she is a cute little shit.
“She is going to take a nap. I am going to be hanging out with you, is that ok?” I ask almost holding my breath waiting for an approving response from a four-year-old. What the fuck?
“Yes. Here you go!” She holds out a purple crayon for me.
Shit, what have I gotten myself into here? Taking the crayon from her small hand, I slide off the couch until my ass hits the ground. I sit with my back against the couch as Crimson moves the picture so that it is in between us before she returns to her scribbling. Watching her use up about half of a pink crayon on her picture, she finally flips the page in the coloring book and starts the same process.
Giving in, I lean down and start to outline the inside of the picture with my purple fucking crayon. When I finish the section, I start to lightly apply pressure to the art utensil and shade in the uncolored surface. After I finish my part of the picture, I look up to see Crimson attempting to do what I just did.
“Here, let’s move the book over here so we can both color at the same time,” I suggest as I move the book to the rectangular coffee table. Crimson is quick to squirm her way over to it right next to me. Showing the little girl something so simple as coloring in between the lines has my manhood on the line. I know if any of my men saw me right now, I would never hear the fucking end of it.
I am not sure how long little Crimson and I sat there and colored but the next thing I knew, Meg was waking me up. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I look down to see Crimson curled up in my lap and resting her head against my stomach.
“What’s up?” I asked Meg.
“Well its 8 a.m. and figured you two were probably uncomfortable.”
“Yeah, roger that,” I say while wrapping the little girl in my arms to take her to lay her down. Standing and walking down the hall, I open my bedroom door, and set her in the middle of the giant California king sized bed so she isn’t likely to roll off.
I walk out of the bathroom, freshly showered and in a clean pair of clothes. Reaching to grab what hair I do have I pull it back into a small bun on the back of my head with the tie from my wrist.
I can smell the coffee, Meg must be a coffee drinker. Walking into the kitchen to grab a mug and fill it, I quickly gulp down the hot liquid.
“Doesn’t that shit burn? It is hot as fuck, it just barely stopped percolating.” She raised her brow in amusement.
“Nah, I am in a hurry. I have club business to attend too. Riley will be taking up residency on the front porch to make sure everything is good here and he will take you to the hospital if you want,” I inform her.
“But I think you should wait until I get back, I think we should all go see Ginger together, she would probably like that.”
Not waiting for a response, I grab my cut off the back of the couch, put it on over my black tee, and walk heavily to the door and out to my bike.
Meeting everyone at the clubhouse, we get ready to ride out to pick up our first shipment of guns from the Russians. Marcus and Leo, our road captain are riding in the van. Farm-Boy, Rage, Riggs, and myself are riding our Harleys in formation showing our rank. Our first stop is Boise, where the Russians own a number of the distribution companies, it won’t be hard to get in and out of the warehouses and gates.
The ride from our compound to the rendezvous point is about fifty-minutes. Once we are able to get onto Interstate 84, it was smooth sailing. I open my bike up a little but not enough to draw any attention to us. Most cars move to the slower lane when they see us coming, we have that effect on people around here. We keep the peace and even contribute to the community but that doesn’t detour the fact that people are scared of us.
Being the first one to pull into the warehouse lot, I look around to take in my surroundings. Everything looks as normal as can be. Slowing down to almost an idle, I take it slow and lead my men and our van to Warehouse F where Adrik instructed the handoff would take place.
The Russians must have heard the deep rumble of our bikes. As we approach, two armed guards start to pull the chains that hoist the huge metal door up, allowing us to enter the building. Rolling in, I park and my men on bikes do the same. The prospect and Leo come up and park by my bike in a way
that almost completely hides it from view. We have had a couple incidents where a low-ranking fuck thought they could be big and bad and try to fuck with my bike during handoffs, so this has become routine.
Dismounting my Harley, I walk over to Adrik and an older man standing with him.
“Blade, meet Gedeon.” Surprised that the boss was here for the first handoff, I was quick to give him a firm handshake.
“I hear good things about you Blade. Your MC good at delivering goods.” He compliments through his thick and broken accent.
“Yeah, we take care of things pretty well. Thank you for working with us and getting us a shipment so quick. I have customers waiting.”
“Get on with it then. I take payment and my boys will load the drums.”
Not wanting to drag shit out, I reach back and grab two fat envelopes of cash from under my belt that I had tucked away behind my back covered by my tee and cut.
Handing them to Gedeon. “It’s all there. All fifty-thousand plus a little extra as a thank-you for setting up this handoff so quickly. We want you to know we appreciate it.”
Grinning a sadistic smile that reached from ear to ear almost like the Joker from the Batman comics I read as a kid, Gedeon likes the fact that he is getting extra cash. I nod and turn on my heel heading back towards the guys and the van. Opening the back doors, it takes the Russian’s about two minutes to load eight, fifty-five-gallon drums into the back of the van. It’s a tight fit, but it works.
“Blade,” Adrik calls out, “I show you what you need to do with the drums.”
Stepping aside, leaving my men there to guard the van, I walk over to a drum with Adrik. Looking down it looks like an ordinary barrel that would hold oil, and opening the lid, it indeed looks like it’s filled with oil. Adrik places the lid back on and runs his hand down to the first riveted seem, pushing one of the rivets triggering the whole top of the barrel to come off. The guns are inside, sitting nicely protected by neatly placed stuffing to prevent the weapons from getting scratches and dings in them. Hmm. That is nifty. This can be used for our benefit when running them to Mexico.
Looking up at me to make sure I understood what he just did I give him confirmation. “That is neat as hell, that will work in our favor.”
Shaking hands with the boss and underboss once more, my men and I head out.
“Leo,” I grab his attention, “make sure you connect to my helmet via Bluetooth before we leave, I need to know every move being made.” I instruct with direct authority.
“Already done boss, we are ready to rock ’n’ roll.” He smiles. These high-risk situations always gives us a thrill and makes us feel untouchable.
Mounting my bike, I lead my men and the van full of weapons out of the warehouse. We are taking back roads, and Leo is in my ear the entire time with updates on traffic, police scanners, and anything that looks out of the ordinary. Our fifty-minute drive turns into about an hour and a half due to taking our time to not raise any suspicions as we ride back down into our valley.
We head straight for the clubhouse and lock the van inside one of the secure garages. We get the weapons situated and walk into the clubhouse to discuss transportation with the Vegas crew. After about fifteen minutes of going over the plan we constructed the night before, we call it a night. With that, I head straight to my house to relieve Riley and take the girls to go see Ginger.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
GINGER
I slowly become aware of everything around me as I come out of a deep sleep. I remember the panic attack and everything before it but I can honestly say I am feeling a bit better. Finally waking up enough to open my eyes I’m met with a room filled with noisy ass monitors, a small sofa, chair, and walls a medium shade of blue. At least it isn’t white or fucking muddy.
As I lift my head up to look around, I feel the throbbing on the backside of my head. When I go to touch it, I get too tangled up in all the cords. I reach out for the call button and before I can blink, there is a tall red headed nurse in my room, pressing down the pump on the hand sanitizer. “Well, it looks like you are awake. How are you feeling? Anything I can get you?”
“My head is hurting really bad,” I croak out, “and I need some water please.”
“Ok, I will talk to the doc about something for your head. With being out for so long, let’s try some ice before we get to drinking a cup of water. I don’t want you to take too much and get sick.” She explains. Fair enough. I couldn’t disagree with her.
She walks out of the room to get what I need and I try to rest my head back onto the pillow. Closing my eyes in hopes that it will miraculously cure my throbbing headache, I hear footsteps and open my eyes to see Blade holding Crim with Meg standing next to him. Shaking my head back and forth, I try to get rid of this image. It can’t be real; Blade doesn’t know anything about me or my family.
“Babe.” I hear Blade whisper to get my attention. Oh fuck, this is real.
“You have a best friend that is worried sick, and…” He turns Crim’s sleeping form towards me and brushes her hair behind her ear, “this little one wants to see her mommy.”
“I thought you would love to see them and it would help raise your spirits.” He spoke almost as if he was suddenly uncertain about his actions.
“Oh, shut up already!” Meg rushes through the room and practically climbs into bed with me. She hugs me so long, I don’t think she will ever let me go.
“I am fine Meg. I promise, nothing I can’t bounce back from.” I try to smile but the pull of the muscles makes my head throb again.
“I am waiting for some ice and something for my headache,” I inform them.
Blade walks closer and sets Crimson in the bed on the opposite side that Meg is occupying. I grab her so quick and try to bring my face down to hers, I can’t help the tears that are streaming down my face. I have missed my little girl. I should have never left without her. Smelling her hair, I can tell she is still obsessed with the L’Oreal watermelon shampoo. God, I missed this.
Blade leans down and places a light kiss on my lips. “I missed you. You gave us all a scare babe, but I am glad you’re awake.”
Before I could respond, the nurse comes bouncing back through the door along with a younger looking male doctor.
“I am glad to see you’re up and at ‘em today, Ms. Stradley.” The doctor’s voice was obnoxiously monotone.
I can’t help but to roll my eyes. “Yeah.”
“I have some Tramadol for your headache, but it can make you drowsy, and I do have a few things to discuss with you now that you’re awake.”
The doctor looks pointedly around the room, landing a stern look at Blade. “Could I get a few moments alone with my patient?”
“No, they can stay. My best friend and boyfriend can stay along with my sleeping daughter!” I demand, not wanting them to leave my side. They can’t leave me.
“Ok, well I am going to just dive in and give it to you straight. You came in with two gunshot wounds, we were able to successfully remove the bullets through surgery. You had a small brain bleed and a severe concussion. We had to set your broken nose. Your ribs were not broken but severely bruised. From the vaginal tearing, I would say that you were raped repeatedly.” He pauses to give me time to process the news he just dropped in my metaphorical lap.
“We did do a rape kit and were able to pull DNA from four different men, the police have the information and will be reaching out once I give them an all clear.”
I’m unable to hold back any longer and the tears slide slowly down my cheeks. Sobbing loudly, I try to quiet down so that I don’t startle or scare Crim but I can’t. Raped? By four men? When? I certainly don’t remember it.
Blade looks like he is ready to murder the doctor for informing me of the events that happened. Not because he didn’t want to believe it but because I have to live with the reality of the situation for the rest of my life. As I uncontrollably sob, Meg wraps her arms around me to hold me, giving me as much comfor
t as she can as she cries her own tears. Blade grabs Crimson and cradles her to his chest while I have my emotional breakdown.
“There is one more thing,” the doctor adds, “this is not going to be easy to tell you, nor will it be easy to process, but a pregnancy test did come back positive.”
Holy shit. I can feel the anxiety taking over my pain-stricken body. Blade, who has laid Crim on the sofa is at my side holding my hand. Meg is hysterically crying, and I am in complete and utter disgust.
“Give me a bag, I am going to puke!”
The nurse is quick to hand me a small blue vomit bag out of the dispenser, and I dry heave with everything in me. I haven’t eaten anything in I don’t know how long, so there is nothing to come up. The nurse hadn’t even given me my damn ice chips yet. Bitch.
Brushing my hair down the side of my head, Blade is doing his best to comfort me. For being a bike bad ass biker, he sure is gentle sometimes. I can’t help but melt into his touch. He finally leans his tall and brooding body down enough that he is able to cradle my head into his chest.
“Babe, no matter what. Everything will be fine.” He tries to sooth me, but I can see him breaking in his own way.
The doctor holds a finger up to regain our attention. “With everything that you have endured, I would like to do a quick ultrasound to check on the fetus and to get a reading on how far along you are.”
Nodding my head in agreement, I am still sobbing into Blade’s chest. Almost as quick as they left, the nurse and doctor return with a sonogram machine.
“Now I am only going to do the belly wand. I will not do the pelvic wand due to the trauma, I do not want to irritate any injured areas.” Gee thanks.
Meg finally makes her way off my bed and onto the sofa with Crimson. I am so glad I have her and can count on her to be my rock. I watch as the nurse pulls down the layers of blankets and pulls up my gown so that only my lower abdomen is showing.
