“Baby, she’s fine,” I tell him. “Skylar is home, and she’s safe. She’s perfect.”
Tears well in his eyes and threaten to spill over as the nurse asks me to step aside. They check his vitals and shine a light in his eyes to see if his pupils dilate. That’s when the tears fall. It’s a moment of realization, a moment of relief.
She’s alive and so is he.
“We’re going to have to ask you to step outside so we can remove the ventilator.”
I nod in understanding, bringing Cobra’s hand to my lips.
“I’ll be right outside. I’m going to call Jack and have him bring Skylar here so you can see her, okay?”
“No need to call,” Jack’s voice bellows from behind us. I quickly turn and see him standing by himself in the doorway. He seems to read the question in my eyes and answers it for me.
“The little lady is in the hallway with Reina and Deuce. I didn’t know if you’d want her to see him like this or not.” He points to Cobra. “I didn’t know he was awake.”
“He just woke up. They’re going to take him off the ventilator and then we’ll bring her in.”
Jack nods as he looks at Cobra. There’s so much to say between the two of them but because of Cobra’s condition they don’t say anything. I kiss Cobra’s hand once more and follow Jack out of the room as the doctor enters. He leads me down the corridor to where his wife is playing with Skylar. Alexandria sits across from them staring at them as she scratches her arms and twitches in the chair. It’s a hardship to look at her like that, but one I’ll gladly take.
“Mama!” Skylar calls, running toward me. I swoop her into my arms and spin her around, enticing a bunch of giggles.
The best sound ever.
Beautiful.
Right there amongst the chaos.
“Mama’s right here, baby, and guess what? Daddy’s awake. I know he misses you a whole lot and it would make him feel so much better if he saw you.”
“Daddy sick.”
“Baby, Daddy has a boo-boo, but he’s going to be okay. We just have to be really careful, okay?”
“Mmkay.”
“Celeste?”
I glance over my shoulder at the doctor.
“He’s good to go.”
The smile spreads across my face as I reposition Skylar on my hip and turn to Alexandria. Holding out my hand to her, I watch as she lifts her head and meets my expectant gaze.
“Let’s go,” I whisper as she places her hand in mine. Hesitantly, she rises to her feet and I feel everyone's eyes on us as we walk toward Cobra’s room. Once we are standing in front of it I drop Ally’s hand and grip the door knob.
“You should probably go in there before me,” she says quietly. “I mean, I don't know if this is a good idea.”
“I won't push you, but I know he would really want to see you,” I say softly. “He hasn't been the same since…”
“I was taken,” she finishes for me.
It's heartbreaking to hear her say the words, to see the girl I remember crack through the exterior of this strange girl.
“I'll go first,” I say, deciding she probably needs a moment to gather her bearings. She nods as I turn the knob and step inside, leaving the door slightly open behind me.
“Daddy,” Skylar says as we walk deeper into the room. Cobra lifts his head off the pillow a fraction before turning it to look at Skylar.
“There’s my girl,” he rasps, dropping his head back as he releases a sigh of relief. I move to his side and lean over the railing.
“Careful,” I warn Skylar as she bends her head to kiss him. He reaches up, pushing away her messy curls and stares at her face before slicing his eyes back to me.
“Is she okay? No one hurt her, did they?” he questions, clenching his jaw as he does.
“She was a little scared, but she's okay. The pediatrician came to the house to check her out. She's perfect,” I assure him as Skylar wraps her arms around his neck. He closes his eyes and cringes through the pain as he hugs her to his side.
“I didn't think I'd ever hug her again or get the chance to tell her how happy I am to be her dad. You know that Skylar, don't you? You know Daddy loves you more than anything in this whole wide world,” he rasps hoarsely.
“Wuv you,” she replies, smacking her lips together.
He groans when she moves the wrong way and I quickly lift her back into my arms.
“Are you okay? Should I get the doctor?”
“No,” he grinds out, pushing through the pain before he diverts his eyes back to mine. “I’m good, I just want to look at you two,” he says. “I’m sorry, gorgeous. I’m so sorry any of this happened to us.”
“I’m sorry too. I’m sorry for the awful things I said,” I whisper. “I feel like it’s my fault you’re lying here.”
“It’s not.”
“God, Jagger, you scared the hell out of me,” I murmur. “I thought you really left this time,” I cry, wiping my cheek with the back of my free hand. “Tell me you’ll never leave, promise me this is where you want to be, right here with us.”
He’s quite for a moment, staring back and forth between me and Skylar before he speaks.
“Been all over, baby, from coast to coast and the only place I ever want to be is wherever you and these kids are,” he murmurs, holding out his hand for me.
I place my hand in his and let him pull me closer. He releases my hand and lays his over my stomach.
“Now, promise me something,” he whispers.
“Anything.”
“Your smile.”
“Always.”
Then I do it.
I smile at him.
And he tally’s it along with the rest.
Chapter Forty-seven
In another life, I would have died…should have died.
They say before you leave this earth you see the people you lost along your journey. It’s supposed to be an act of comfort or something like that. A bullshit theory some guy came up with to make it easy for you to close your eyes and surrender to defeat. For me, I saw my sister. Not as the child I remembered but as the woman she became.
It wasn’t comforting, and I knew if that man’s theory held any substance, seeing Alexandria like that meant only one thing. Not only was I about to die but I was going to the same hell as her. A reunion. Not the kind I spent years wishing for, but a reunion nonetheless.
In this life, I live.
I live to see my little girl, safe and sound.
I live to see the woman I love, the only one I ever loved, smile at me as she promises me a lifetime full of those smiles.
Every one I’ll tally and cherish.
In this life, I get to repent against my sins. I get a second chance to be the man I was destined to be. To be the husband and father my old man never was.
It’s not that he didn’t want to be better, he couldn’t. Desperation makes a man lose sight of who he is. It weakens him and allows him to self-destruct. That’s the act of war. It’s not a fight against anyone or anything, it’s the fight we have against ourselves.
I may have lost that battle on the docks with myself, but somehow I’m the victor. That doesn’t happen for many and when it does; you need to reevaluate your life.
In this life, I leave my sister and the revenge behind and choose my family, the family I never thought I’d have.
I choose my girls.
I choose life over death.
Brotherhood over solidarity.
I have a lot of work ahead of me. Aside from making my family work, finding a balance between father and biker, I also need to make things right with my club. I need to give them my trust and pay back my debts to Jack for bringing my daughter home.
“I’m going to bring her out to Reina, and then there is something I need to tell you,” Celeste says, running her hand down our daughters back. I can tell by the look in her eyes whatever she’s going to tell me is deep and I almost wish I could stop the words from spilling from her
mouth.
“Is it Deuce?” I ask with dread in my voice. “Jesus, fuck, tell me he’s all right.”
“He’s fine—”
Her words are cut off by a knock on the door. I see the thin frame of a woman step inside and then Celeste moves out of my view and I see the red hair. Something catches in my throat as the woman shuffles her feet inside the room, twisting the sleeves of her shirt nervously like my sister used to do before she had an exam.
She lifts her head and her eyes meet mine.
In another life, this broken woman was a beautiful young girl with her whole life ahead of her.
In this life, she’s a shell of a person. Judging by the look in her eyes, she’s seen hell and suffered through it.
In this life, she’s a survivor.
In both lives…this woman is my grown sister.
Alive.
Standing in front of me.
“Alexandria,” I mutter in disbelief.
She just stands there silently and I turn to Celeste for confirmation that I’m alive and not losing my fucking mind.
“Ally,” Skylar points.
Turning back to her, I stare at her.
“Is it really you?”
She nods her head.
“Hi, Jagger,” she whispers hoarsely.
“Come here,” I command softly. A million emotions I never knew existed bombard me at once as Celeste steps to the side allowing room for Alexandria to come closer. I can’t stop staring at her. When she’s finally close to me, I see the years of torment etched across her face.
“I never thought I’d see you again,” I admit as she grips the edge of my bed.
Tears roll down her cheeks and she looks away.
“You’re going to be fine,” I tell her. “We’re going to figure it out,” I say the words even though I don’t know what we’re figuring out. I have no idea what happened to her, what she’s been through, the things she’s seen or the things that have been done to her.
I know nothing.
Except that my sister is alive.
She’s alive.
She turns around as Jack walks through the door and I sense her hostility toward him. Releasing the rail of the bed, she steps back. Next to enter my room is Deuce, their eyes lock, and she scowls at him before turning around to Celeste.
“I want to go,” Alexandria says quietly.
Concern etches across Celeste’s features as Jack steps between them and points to Deuce.
“Reina’s waiting in the hall, she’ll drive the two of you back to the house,” Jack says to Deuce.
“Wait a minute, why the hell do I have to leave with her?”
“Because until we get a handle on this shit, she’s your responsibility.”
His eyes bulge out of his head.
“My responsibility? What the fuck for?”
“Well, as our brother’s in a bed recovering from a bunch of bullet holes and his woman has been away from their kid for too long, they’re not ready to take her on yet.”
“Um, I hate to point it out to you but you were just telling me I couldn’t go back to the motel until I was healed.”
“I changed my mind,” Jack says with a shrug. “You can go wherever you like as long as you take her with you and make sure she doesn’t leave your sight. You’re also going to have to make yourself accessible to her schedule.”
“Her schedule? What the fuck?”
“Come on,” Celeste says to Alexandria. “Let’s let them figure out this stuff. I’ll walk you to Reina.”
“I don’t need an escort,” she bites back.
“Okay, well I’d still like to walk with you. I need a breather,” Celeste replies, looking over her shoulder at me. “I’ll be back.”
I nod slightly, watching a surreal moment play before me as she walks alongside my sister. In another life, I watched them stand beside each other a thousand times. I’ve seen them giggle as they whisper secrets to each other and throw their heads back in laughter.
In this life, they walk with my daughter between them. Both of them are strangers to one another, yet the little beauty staring up at both of them grabs their hands and unites them.
Fucking surreal.
“How did this happen?” I ask as they walk out the door, turning around to face Deuce and Jack.
“The girl I told you Rush was obsessed with…” Deuce trails off.
“Was my sister? You knew that all along?”
“Not until they took me and Skylar and locked us in a cabin. The motherfucker had pictures of her all over the place. Articles of her disappearance, projection drawings…he had a fucking shrine to her.”
“Rush kidnapped her?”
“We don’t know the details,” Jack interrupts. “She’s not really talking to us. She doesn’t think we rescued her. Up until she saw you on the docks she was very closed off and fighting us tooth and nail. She needs help. I’m telling you now, she’s got a long fucking road ahead of her.”
“Yeah, so why don’t we admit her somewhere?” Deuce suggests.
Slicing my eyes to him, I study him for a moment.
“What did she do to you?”
“Look, I get she’s been through a lot, man, but I’m not the guy we should stick on her,” Deuce argues.
“You’re familiar to her right now,” Jack retorts. “You’ll stick with her until I say otherwise.”
“Stryker is familiar to her. Me? I’m the asshole who turned the only life she knows upside down.”
“Look, after everything that’s gone on over the last few days I need you to step up,” Jack tells Deuce. “There’s a lot of shit I need to deal with, shit the club needs to handle. Not another word Deuce. In fact, as of right now and until this guy over here can take a piss on his own, Ally’s your number one priority.”
Deuce’s jaw ticks and I watch him glare at Jack silently before rubbing a hand roughly along his face.
“Glad you’re breathing,” he mutters before stalking out the door, leaving Jack and I alone.
I turned my back on him and the club. I tore my cut from my body and defied the oath I took when I was patched in. I went against orders, and in another life that would be enough to sign my own death certificate.
“I owe you an apology,” I say, slicing through the tension. “I owe you everything.”
“You owe me nothing,” he responds, pulling up a chair so he can sit beside my bed. “You’re my brother, which makes your family my family.”
In this life, I get a pardon.
“Family doesn’t turn their back on family,” I argue.
“Sure they do, but only the strongest families prevail,” he corrects, leaning back in the chair. “You were right, Yankovich set the two shipments to coincide. Rush was planning to take your girl and your sister to the border where Yankovich was moving his drugs. He never got the chance because his old lady ratted out his location and we took back what was ours. Then we came home and brought your daughter back to your woman and reunited her with your sister. That’s when Rick called and told us that you knocked him out and were aiming to intercept the docks.”
What a fucking mess.
“We didn’t get Yankovich but we will,” he vows. “That motherfucker will get everything he has coming to him. Before you tell me it’s over, it’s not. You may have gotten your girls back but that cocksucker tore my club apart. On top of that I’m in too deep to turn my head on what he’s doing. I’m just getting started.”
“I don’t know what to say, Jack,” I admit, releasing a breath. “You didn’t just give me back my daughter, you rescued my sister. You did what no one else could do. Twelve years, she’s been missing for twelve years.”
“Well, don’t get all misty eyed and shit. I almost shot her,” he tells me as he reaches around and cups his neck. “Girl’s as fucked as the day is long but she’ll mend. We’ll all do our part. You may have been alone for most of your life, but you ain’t no more, boy. Now, you want to give me something in return, you g
ive me your trust and understanding. It’s time for you to learn no one fucks with what’s mine. All you lost souls are fucking mine. You’re all property of Parrish.”
“That means something,” I reply.
“Yeah, in this world it means everything,” he says as he pushes off his chair. Laying a hand on my shoulder he leans over. “You just worry about getting yourself back in shape, enjoy your kid and your woman, I’ll take care of the rest, including your sister.”
“Do you know what happened to her?”
“Boy, why do you think I’m after this cocksucker? I got a daughter. She might be Blackie’s woman now, but she’ll always be my daughter first. If any man ever did what they did to your sister to Lacey, I’d nail that motherfucker to the cross. Which is exactly what I will do when we get Yankovich,” he growls, taking a step back.
“You’re a lucky bastard, Cobra. That little girl of yours…she’s special.”
I nod, agreeing with everything he’s said. I am a lucky bastard for so many reasons but Skylar is number one.
“Heart,” I call as he reaches the door.
“You got it?”
“Tenfold,” I reply, watching as the smile ticks the corners of his mouth.
“Attaboy,” he murmurs before walking out of the room.
Laying my head down on the pillow, I stare up at the ceiling and take it all in. I think about the last twelve years. The football game, sitting under the bleachers sharing a bag of M&M’s, making the prettiest girl I’ve ever known mine—having the best night of my life. Learning about Alexandria’s disappearance, watching my parents slowly slip away from me. I think about Celeste and the struggles we endured after my sister went missing, how we both fought to be normal teenagers. I think about how we lost one another.
I think about my list and the names I’ve crossed off, the sins I’ve committed and the holes I’ve filled. My life may not have traveled the course it was meant to, but somehow I found myself exactly where I was supposed to be.
I’ve come full circle.
The boy born to Cora and Keith Richardson of Brooklyn, became a man, traveled the country seeking vengeance and wound up back home. In the same city I lost everything, I found my place. Home is more than a place though, it’s more than a patch, it’s the people you surround yourself with.
Wanderer (The Nomad Series Book 2) Page 32
