Duke

by Teagan Brooks

  “So, how long are you going to be an invalid?”

  I scoffed. “Several weeks. My arm isn’t that bad. My ankle is another story. I have to go see an orthopedic surgeon in a few days. Patch is supposed to be getting that set up for me. I’ll more than likely have to have surgery on it and then it will be weeks of healing. I‘m hoping it won’t be too bad once I have use of my arm again.”

  “You mentioned a crazy ex-boyfriend earlier. Do you think he’s responsible for the wreck?”

  “I don’t know. I would have said yes, but I know it was a woman driving the car and her plates were from Arizona. None of that points to him, but I have no idea who else could have been behind it,” I explained.

  “Do you know anyone from Arizona other than Duke and Harper?”

  “What?” I shrieked. “They’re from Arizona? How do you know that?”

  “He works at the stables. It was on his new hire paperwork. He used to work at a ranch somewhere out in Arizona before he and Harper moved to Devil Springs. You didn’t know?”

  I shook my head, mouth hanging open. “No, I did not know that…” I trailed off. Surely, that was just a coincidence, right?

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Duke

  Carbon, Dash, Ember, James, and I sat in the waiting room while Reese had surgery to repair her ankle two days after we brought her back to Croftridge. I don’t know who was more nervous, me or Carbon. Both of us were doing a piss poor job of hiding it.

  Ember was quietly playing with James while I alternated between pacing the waiting room and sitting in the chair bouncing my knee. If anything happened to her, shit, if anything else happened to her, I wouldn’t be able to handle it. This had to go smoothly. I needed her. My boy needed her.

  “Family of Reese Walker,” Reese’s surgeon called from the door. Carbon and I stood quickly and made our way to him.

  “How is she?” I asked at the same time Carbon demanded, “She okay?”

  The surgeon smiled. “She’s doing just fine. The surgery went better than expected. She had less damage than we originally thought. Still, it is going to be a long recovery for her. We were able to stabilize the joint with a plate and seven screws. I cannot stress this enough, for her to make an almost full recovery, she has to follow the postoperative instructions to the letter. That means no walking on her operative foot for six weeks. None whatsoever. I’m happy to arrange a wheelchair for her, but she previously stated she didn’t want one.”

  “Arrange it. I’ll make sure she uses it and stays off her foot,” Carbon stated as if it were law.

  “Great. Thank you for your help, Mr. Walker. The nurses are getting her settled now and you should be able to go back and see her soon. Oh, and I make sure you bring her son with you when you go back. She was quite adamant about making sure she saw him immediately after she woke up.” He smiled and turned to go back into the recovery area.

  Getting Reese home from the hospital was a horrid experience I never want to repeat again. She was okay as long as she wasn’t being moved, but every bump or sway of the car caused her to cry out in pain. When she cried, James cried, and maybe Ember, too. About halfway home, Reese uttered one word, “Sick.”

  “Pull over, Carbon, now!” I demanded. He did just that and with little finesse. Reese screamed in pain followed by a choking sound. I quickly pushed her door open and held her steady while she leaned over and threw up nothing but bile. Then, she started sobbing. She cried the rest of the way home. I held her to my chest and tried to soothe her, but nothing I did seemed to help.

  When we got her upstairs, I asked Ember to watch James for the rest of the day so I could focus on caring for Reese. Once she had James settled, I climbed into bed with Reese and held her while she slept. I was still angry with her, but I was also glad she was there for me to be angry with.

  The first day went pretty much as expected. She woke, took pain medicine, and went back to sleep. The second and third days were much the same with the addition of a little food and drink. By the fourth day, she was ready to get out of bed, but refused to use the wheelchair.

  “Reese, you can’t put any weight on that foot. You have to use the wheelchair if you want to get out of bed,” I insisted.

  “The fuck I do,” she growled.

  “The fuck you do,” Carbon stated.

  “I can hop on my other foot just like I did before the surgery,” she returned.

  “Not happening. You could fall and undo all the work they just did and even injure yourself further. How do you think life would be with two broken arms? You want somebody wiping your ass for you?” Carbon gave it right back to her.

  She attempted to cross her arms, but with one in a sling, it didn’t have the effect she was going for. “Fine,” she huffed, “I’ll use the chair.”

  “Ember is on her way up. Carbon and I have to get to Church. I’ll be back this afternoon and then we have Church again tonight,” I told her.

  She rolled her eyes. “You’ve met my brother, right? I’m well aware of when you guys have Church.” She turned her head away from me and muttered, “Just go.”

  I should have asked her what was wrong, made her talk to me, but I didn’t. I did as she asked and left.

  ***

  We had Church on the same day every week. Since I was the SAA, I had to be there for the meeting with just the officers at lunchtime and then go back for the meeting with all the brothers later that night.

  Phoenix was never one to waste time. As soon as he banged his gavel, we started going over any business issues, revenue, etc… That didn’t take long at all. All of our businesses had been running smoothly the past few months and we were turning a decent profit, particularly from Ember’s new projects. Phoenix addressed Carbon, “I’ll do the storytelling for tonight’s meeting. Do you want to fill in the officers or you want me to do it?”

  “You,” Carbon spoke through clenched teeth, “I can’t say it all again.”

  I noticed his knuckles were turning white from the tight grip he had on the arms of his chair. Apparently, Phoenix did, too. “You need to step out until I’m done?”

  “Yep.” That was all he said before he stood and abruptly left the room.

  Phoenix turned to the officers and told them everything going on with Reese, most of which they already knew. Then, he told them the story behind the story of the murder of Carbon’s and Reese’s family.

  “If the Manglers killed Tank and his family, why didn’t the club get involved? Why didn’t we even know about it?” Badger asked.

  “Carbon said there was no evidence that the Manglers did it. He just always believed they were responsible. He could have brought it to me, but he was more focused on taking care of Reese. By the time they got back from their trip, I had moved the club to Croftridge. He had Reese set up with their grandmother and she was doing okay, so he pushed his suspicions to the back of his mind and focused on moving forward. Honestly, I think he completely blocked it out, but it all resurfaced when he found out Reese had been dating Omen,” Phoenix explained.

  “That’s why he flipped out like he did on the way back from Devil Springs,” I added.

  “What’s the plan?” Badger asked.

  Phoenix rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger. “We’ve got a couple of things to deal with. First and foremost is Reese’s safety and health, as well as that of her son.” I cleared my throat. “Which is also Duke’s son, but I believe all of you already knew that.” He shot me a sideways glance. “Then, we’ve got the issue of someone intentionally pushing Reese’s car off the side of a mountain and the threatening messages she’s been receiving. Last but not least, regardless of who’s behind those things, Omen still beat the hell out of her two years ago. I don’t give a fuck if it was two days, two years, or 10 years ago, he will answer for that, feel me?”

  Everyone at the table readily agreed. Not a one of us were okay with a man hitting a woman, not like that anyway. Sparring in the ring or slapping an ass in the bedro
om was a different story.

  “For now, Reese is safe at the farm. That place has top-notch security and there’s at least one brother on the premises at all times. Still, I’m going to send Coal to stay out there and keep an eye on things. He’s familiar with the place since he grew up there. Containing Reese shouldn’t be a problem while her mobility is severely limited. I’m going to get in touch with the police officers in Devil Springs and see if they have any new information for us regarding Reese’s wreck. Also, I’m going to ask Copper if his boys can keep an ear to the ground and an eye out for anything to do with the Manglers. Byte, see what you can dig up on the Manglers, particularly Boar and Omen. Oh, and see what you can get on yellow Nissan Xterras with Arizona plates driven by a woman. There can’t be that many. Anything else?”

  I shifted in my chair. I should say something. I needed to tell them. It could be affecting my son’s safety. Fuck! “I’ve got something.”

  All eyes shot to me. I looked around and thanked my lucky stars that Carbon hadn’t returned to the room.

  “Spit it out,” Phoenix ordered.

  “Uh, I’m not sure if you guys were aware, but before Harper and I moved to Devil Springs, we lived in Arizona, and I know a crazy bitch with dark, curly hair who lives there. It could be a coincidence, but I think it’s worth checking out,” I uttered. My mouth was so dry I could hardly swallow.

  “Go on,” Phoenix urged.

  I cleared my throat and wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead. Shit, there was no going back now. “Her name is Shannon Jackson. She’s my wife.”

  The door burst open. “You motherfucker!” was bellowed behind me before my ass was handed to me by none other than Carbon.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Reese

  I hated that fucking wheelchair. Hated. It. After Carbon unceremoniously placed me in it and left, I made the decision to stay in my room for the next few weeks. The staples had been removed from my head, as well as the stitches in my leg, so I had no need to leave my room until my next appointment. I felt like an idiot rolling around in the motorized contraption. It sounded very much like a golf cart every time I pressed the little joystick to make it move. People could hear me coming for miles.

  Ember walked into my room and interrupted my internal tirade. “Guess what?” she squealed, way too chipper for me to handle.

  “Fair warning, you should tone it down a bit if you’re going to be spending the day with me,” I sniped.

  “Oh good, you’re pissy. I have just the thing to turn your frown upside down.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Did you just say pissy?”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, I did. If you can pull the stick out of your ass, I might say something else, too.”

  “Like ass?” I giggled.

  “No, like fuck!” she shouted.

  I threw my head back and laughed so hard I almost peed in my chair. My stupid fucking chair.

  “Good, you’re laughing. Let’s go.” After issuing her command, she picked up James and walked out of the room.

  “Where are we going?” I shouted after her. “In case you didn’t know, this fancy piece of equipment can’t go down stairs.”

  She yelled from down the hall, “If you hurry it up, you can get on the elevator with us.”

  Elevator? Hell yeah. I had been going stir crazy in that room. Despite my previous vow to stay in my room, I really needed a change of scenery. I was not one to sit around cooped up and enjoy it. I jammed my little joystick forward as far as it would go hoping to catch up with them.

  I made it to the elevator to find Ember grinning at me like a loon. “Oh, hello, Reese. Would you like to join us? I was going to take young James here to the stables to see the horses and then give him a tour of the organics farm.”

  “Why, yes, I would. Please make way for a very bad driver to enter your domain.” I wasn’t kidding. I was not doing a bang-up job driving the chair, or maybe I was doing a bang-up job. I hit the wall four times before I made it to the elevator.

  “Whoa! Stop, stop!!” Ember screamed, causing James to giggle. The little turd. “Doesn’t that thing have brakes?” I had Ember pinned against the back wall of the elevator, holding James high in the air out of harm’s way.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s not like anyone gave me driving lessons. My big bastard of a brother plopped me in it and left. Hell, I don’t even know how to make it go in reverse.”

  Ember laughed. “This is going to be hilarious. I need to get my phone. You wouldn’t mind if I recorded this, right? I bet I can get you into one of those Epic Fail videos.”

  I shot her my most menacing glare. “Don’t you dare or so help me when I get out of this chair…” I trailed off and let the threat hang in the air.

  “You know I wouldn’t do that to you. I was just trying to make you laugh. I know this really, really sucks for you.” She paused for a moment. “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll try to make the next few weeks better for you if you’ll try to not make them so bad, yeah?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ll try, but I’m not promising anything.”

  She showed us around the stables and the organics farm. She had accomplished a lot in the last year. I was beyond impressed. It really was good to see Ember doing so well after everything she had been through. Anyone who met her would be able to see how happy she was. I was truly happy for her, too, but it also made me wonder if I would ever have that kind of happiness in my life.

  “Oh, there’s something else I want to show you. You’re going to love it!” Ember said excitedly.

  I followed her to some building not far from the stables. Luckily, there were no stairs, so I could roll right in the front door. She walked to a room on the far side of the building, did something with a bookcase, and the freaking wall opened up. She turned back to me, “It’s a secret tunnel!”

  I sat, mouth agape, staring at the opening to the tunnel. “What? Why is it there?”

  “I don’t know. Octavius was crazy is the only reason I can come up with. We’ve found things like this all over the property. We’re actually still finding things.”

  “Where does it go?” I asked.

  “This one doesn’t go anywhere anymore. It used to lead to Octavius’s house, but my dad had that demolished not long after he inherited the property. Do you want to go in and check in out?”

  “Is it safe?” Yes, it was cool, but it also seemed dangerous and I wasn’t about to put James in harm’s way.

  “It is. Dad and Dash both forbade me from entering any of the secret passageways until they were deemed safe by an inspector. Not all of them were safe, so those have been clearly marked with caution tape. This one is fine though, I promise.”

  “Well, okay then, let’s go.”

  I rolled into the secret passageway behind Ember. It was creepy to say the least. The pathway was equipped with motion detector lights, but they weren’t very bright, making it difficult to see more than a few feet in either direction. The walls were made of some sort of metal which made everything sound funny.

  We’d been in the tunnel for 10 minutes or so when James started fussing for his afternoon bottle. Ember placed him in my lap while she got the bottle out of the diaper bag hanging on the back of my chair. She reached to get him but I stopped her. “It’s okay, I can feed him.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t mind.”

  “Thanks for offering, but this is one of the things I can do for him.”

  She patted me on the shoulder before leisurely walking along the passageway, studying the walls and the floor while James drank his bottle. I stayed put. There was no way I could maneuver my chair and feed him at the same time.

  My boy had just finished his bottle when Ember disappeared right before my eyes. I gasped. She screamed. “Ember! Ember!” I shouted. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her, or something, making noise. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.

  Fuck.

  Fuck.

 
; Fuckity fuck.

  I didn’t know if I should stay and try to look for her or go get help. When James cried out, I knew what I had to do. As much as I wanted to look for her, I had to get my baby out of there. It clearly wasn’t safe. It’s not like I could do much to help her anyway. The best thing to do was to go get help.

  I wasn’t sure if she could hear me, but I yelled it anyway, “I’m going to get help, Ember! Just hang on!”

  I threw James’s empty bottle to the ground and resituated him as best I could in my lap. Then, I slammed the joystick forward and prayed I could get back to the office without crashing. The wheelchair didn’t seem to be going as fast as it was that morning. I needed it to go faster, but it didn’t. Instead, moments later, the damn thing died, right there in the tunnel.

  That was when I completely lost it. I didn’t have my cell phone with me because I didn’t think I would need it. I couldn’t walk by myself, let alone while carrying James. Ember needed help and I was as helpless as I was useless. Great big sobs wracked my body, tears splashing onto James’s fuzzy head. James began crying the moment I did. He didn’t like it when his mommy was upset.

  “What are we going to do?” I sobbed. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t seem to calm down. I felt trapped, just like I had been in my car. Just like then, all I could do was wait for someone to find me. Only this time, I had James with me.

  I don’t know how long it took, but, eventually, I managed to calm down and James drifted off to sleep in my arms. I hadn’t heard any noises since I started to go for help and I didn’t know if that was because I was too far away to hear anything or if Ember wasn’t able to make the noises anymore. Fear consumed me as I sat in the dark tunnel. Then, that fear slowly morphed into anger.

  Every second I sat there I grew angrier and angrier. Years and years worth of pent-up anger boiled to the surface. Why were my parents and siblings taken from me? Why was my Grandma taken from me? Why did Omen have to hurt me? Why did Duke have to treat me like shit? Why was someone threatening me? Why did someone try to kill me? Why was more shit happening to me? What did I ever do to deserve any of this?