“What?” Penny asked as she grabbed one of the bags Cain brought her.
“Nothing.” Iris said hoping Cain’s sister hadn’t heard her comment.
The redheaded bitch marched out, and glared at Iris as she passed.
“Great I’ve made an enemy!” Iris murmured to herself.
Penny saw the mean look as she stood beside Iris.
“Lazy, nasty slut!” Penny stated loud enough for both Iris and Sam to hear. Penny hefted the bag and ushered Iris along with a mumbled, “Good riddance to bad rubbish.”
“Well just maybe I got an old friend back and made a new one.” Iris mused happily as she snuggled Shaz and followed Penny back inside.
Iris didn’t know just what to think of Cain. The voice inside had encouraged her that this was a new beginning, and today was looking much better and brighter than the last few weeks she’d suffered, but considering everything that had happened to her that wasn’t hard. Just because she’d extended an olive branch of trust didn’t mean it was reciprocated or that she was altogether in the clear. Iris was still being held here, and couldn’t return to her old life. Only time would tell.
6 On the Run
Iris
Iris awoke after taking a long nap following lunch. She wandered through the club house finding it rather barren. Penny had to work at the bakery but would be back that night, but where was Cain? Surely he hadn’t left her unattended. Iris doubted he trusted her that much as she entered the empty rec room.
Iris looked at the door leading outside, debating if this was her opportunity to leave. It seemed way too easy, besides there was an alarm pad beside it that would no doubt alert someone when it was opened. That and the fact that Shaz was somewhere in the clubhouse exploring made her turn instead to the kitchen that was separated from the room by the giant wooden bar.
���Where would I go anyway.��� Iris frowned.
Cain was right, Hank was out there, and her apartment had been trashed. She had no place to go.
Iris grabbed a soda out of the fridge and debated watching something on the bigscreen TV or scrubbing the sofa that appeared to have one too many DNA samples on it. Besides the disturbing upholstery there were several nice sturdy pieces of craftsman style furniture in the room. As Iris admired the older pieces she heard clanging coming from down the hall and wandered that way.
Iris opened the door to see a guy knelt over a bike. She had no idea what he was doing but it was noisy. Her black cat was seated on his rolling tool bench as if she were his useless assistant. The man reached up to grab a tool and Shaz put her paw down on his hand. Iris laughed and the man turned.
“It’s hard to find good help these days.” He said with an easy smile, a smudge of grease on one cheek.
Iris recognized him from the night before. He was the guy she���d seen fucking the chick on the tool bench over by the wall last night. Maybe she should go back inside.
“The name’s Swain, but most of the guys call me Wrench.” He said as he held up a wrench then started tightening something on the shiny bike.
“Nice to meet you.” Iris said. “You want me to take the annoying fluff ball?”
“Nah she’s no bother. Don’t mind the company.” Swain said.
Iris looked around at the large garage. There was a pick-up truck and a motorcycle that looked half completed along with the one Swain was working on.
“Cain and the guys had a bit of business to deal with this afternoon.” He reported.
“Lucky you, you got to babysit me.” Iris replied.
“I had a few things I needed to do around here.” Swain gestured to the bikes. That was a nice way of saying yes.
Swain did seem like a nice enough guy despite her first introduction last night. His features weren’t harsh and he didn’t look at her in a way that gave her the creeps. The man wasn’t as huge as Cain or even Trip but he was still a big guy. Iris wondered if he was similar, some kind of wild man.
The confirmation came to her instantly that yes he was.
“Well I won’t bother you.” Iris turned to leave.
She was still having a hard time with the strange vibe these more than human men threw off. Plus Iris really didn’t want to burden them. The wisest thing to do would be to keep a low profile while she was here and make the best of a bad situation.
“You’re not bothering me but you should probably be resting.” He replied.
Iris knew she looked like hell with the bruise on her face and the way she hobbled around, but she could only nap for so long before she needed to get up and move.
Iris nodded and turned to leave, but as she did her eyes were drawn to a nasty bruise on Swain���s bicep. She wasn’t the only one sporting a few dings.
Iris paused as a mental image assailed her brain. Something had exploded, a mechanical accident of some type. Although Swain was healing, it was an injury that might have killed a normal man.
The vision shifted and Iris could hear the whooshing sound of a heartbeat. As she closed her eyes to latch onto it, she saw the image of red blood cells swarming through blood vessels, like a video from health class. There was something shiny sticking into the side of one of Swain’s blood vessels, a metal shard. Each beat of the man’s heart pushed at it, shoving it deeper into the vein.
Suddenly the vessel tore. Iris watched with her mind’s eye as Swain bled internally. She saw the image of Swain sprawled on the concrete floor near the bike he was currently working on. He would die and no one would know why unless they did an autopsy.
“Are you okay?” Swain asked.
Iris opened her eyes and steadied herself on the nearby wall. She had to find a way to convince him to go to the hospital now, but how. She couldn’t just tell him what she knew. He wouldn’t believe her, people never did.
“No I’m pretty sure we need to go to the hospital.” Iris stumbled a little for effect.
Swain quickly rushed over to help her. Iris didn’t like lying, but she didn’t know what else to do.
“Let me call Cain.” Swain said with concern.
“No!” Iris said suddenly. If they did that it might be too late. “Please just take me. We can call Cain from the ER.”
Swain
Swain unlocked the truck passenger side and helped Iris crawl in then hopped in and started to pull out of the garage.
He didn’t like this, something wasn’t quite right with the female. Of course she was injured bad enough being checked out by a hospital wasn’t a bad idea, but he didn’t scent anything immediately wrong with her. In fact she smelled of deception.
Cain had wanted him to stick around the clubhouse while they cleaned up at the warehouse. The fiasco with the dirty cop meant they needed to cover their tracks so a shred of evidence wasn’t left behind.
It was a good thing he stayed behind. Despite the little female’s innocent nature there was something odd about her behavior he didn’t trust. Swain stopped the truck just as one of the prospects was opening the gate surrounding the property.
“You’re not injured are you?” Swain demanded with hard eyes.
Iris looked worriedly from him to the open gate.
“Yes I am.” She winced as she felt her ribs.
But still he scented the lie. Swain moved to pull the keys from the ignition but the little woman moved faster than he expected, pulling the gun he kept holstered at his side.
“Just drive to the hospital please.” She pleaded with him.
Swain gritted his teeth as the female held the gun on him with shaking hands. He could take it from her quick as lightning but would likely earn a bullet in the side in the process. He didn’t acknowledge his brothers at the gate as he pulled out onto the road and headed towards Mercy Hospital.
“This is a bad idea woman.” He glanced over at Iris. She was sweating but still held his gun aimed at him. “Cain doesn’t like to be betrayed. He was attempting to give you a second chance.”
Iris just grimaced at him and nodded, b
ut she didn’t relent.
They drove for several miles and Swain’s head swam with plans of how to disarm the little woman. It was enough to give him a throbbing headache. He looked at the road and blinked, his vision blurring.
Iris
“I’m fucked” Iris silently berated herself as she sat nervously in the truck holding the gun on Swain.
Hopefully they made it in time to the hospital. Would Cain understand? He might but only if they made it.
It didn’t matter, she had to do something. She couldn’t let Swain die knowing she could’ve prevented it or at least tried.
The truck swerved shaking Iris from her internal musing. Iris dropped the gun and reached for the wheel. Swain was leaning against the driver’s side door, struggling to maintain control of the truck.
“Shit!” Iris exclaimed as the truck veered off the road and hit the ditch.
Even though she was wearing her seatbelt the force of the impact against the embankment threw her forward and she hit her head on the dash. Iris shook her head to dispel the stars bursting in her vision. At least the truck had stopped.
Iris looked over at Swain he was lying slumped towards her.
“What did you do to me?” He slurred.
���Nothing, just try to stay awake.��� Iris frowned as Swain���s eyes fluttered closed.
Iris hopped out of the truck and raced around to the driver’s side. She undid Swain’s belt and pushed as hard as she could, wincing at the sharp pain in the side of her chest. The wreck wasn’t bad, hadn’t even dented the front end of the truck, but it had aggravated her already injured ribs.
“Come on move over.” She demanded as she shoved Swain again.
He wasn’t responding. She had to hurry. Iris got him shifted just enough for her to squeeze in and restart the truck.
Iris wiped at the sweat pouring from her forehead as she drove down the road, except as she pulled her hand away she saw that it was blood. She cut her forehead when she hit the dash. No wonder it stung like a mother fucker.
It didn’t matter she had to drive and drive fast. Clearly whatever she’d sensed was about to happen to Swain had already started.
Iris breathed a giant sigh of relief as she finally pulled the unwieldy truck up to the ER emergency entrance.
“I need help.” Iris yelled out the window to one of the orderlies.
The man came over to the truck and looked in at Swain slumped to the side. A gurney was brought and several nurses were there in no time. Iris quickly turned off the engine and followed them inside.
“What happened?” One of the nurses asked as she followed them back. She didn’t recognize this nurse.
“He passed out while we were driving. I think a piece a shrapnel from his arm has torn a blood vessel.” Iris pointed to his shoulder area.
The nurse looked at her skeptically. That was the best she could offer by way of help. Iris couldn’t flat out tell the nurse what she knew or how she knew it.
“We’ll get him in a room and a doctor will be in shortly.” The ER nurse assured her.
Iris chewed her lip. Swain would bleed out before that happened.
“No! Do a cat scan of his shoulder, now. Right here and get him prepped for surgery. He’ll die if you don’t act fast.”
“Look mam.” The nurse started to object.
“What is going on here?” Iris looked up to see it was Dr. Weston.
They talked occasionally while she volunteered at the hospital. He was an older doctor and never looked down on her for her strange visits to his ward, welcoming the calming influence she had as she sat with the patients.
“Doctor, this woman is insisting her friend has a piece of shrapnel bisecting an internal blood vessel and should go into surgery.” The slightly rotund dark haired nurse reported.
Dr. Weston gave Iris a curious assessing look. More than once the doctor had commented on her uncanny ability to know which patients wouldn’t make it through the night. She gave him a pleading look. He took some quick vitals then looked at her again his head tilted to one side. With a shake of his head the Doctor turned from Iris back to the nurse.
“Get him prepped for surgery. We’ll do a CT in the OR before we open up that shoulder.” Dr. Weston instructed the staff.
The nurse looked confused but complied. Iris breathed a sigh of relief as they wheeled Swain back towards the OR.
“Adrian your head is bleeding, I think you need a couple sutures yourself.”
“He passed out on the way over here and we hit a ditch.” Iris said as the doctor led her to a smaller room.
“Why was your friend driving in his condition?” Dr. Weston asked as he put on a pair of gloves and looked at the cut on her forehead. Iris didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t quite have an explanation.” She replied as he cleaned up her forehead and started to apply a few butterfly bandages.
“No you never really do, do you. Then again in all my years of doing this I’ve seen a lot of odd things.” He smiled at her, then frowned as he looked at her bruised cheek. “You know Adrian, we get reports of missing people. We keep an eye out for them in the ER and the morgue.”
Iris nodded as she studied the doctor. He was a nice man, but was only an acquaintance. Could she trust him with her troubles? Probably, but Dr. Weston didn’t need to be dragged into the middle of all this.
“If your friend has hurt you…” He started to say.
“No no nothing like that.” Iris quickly interjected not wanting him to get the wrong impression. Swain looked like a rough biker, and was, so of course the doc would assume he’d beaten her up. “If anything he helped me.” Iris reassured.
“Well okay.” Dr. Weston looked skeptical but seemed to accept what she told him. “How about you rest here. I’ll give you an update on your friend soon.”
Iris nodded then leaned back and closed her eyes. She hoped she had made it here in time to save Swain. She would worry about how pissed the Reapers might be later.
Cain
“Cain we got a problem!” One of his brothers reported the instant he answered his ringing phone. They were just getting the last of the stuff cleaned up at the warehouse before calling it an evening. “Swain just pulled out of here with the girl. She had a gun on him.”
“Fuck!” Cain swore.
“I tried to follow them but by the time I got my bike out on the road I’d lost them.” His brother apologized. “All I can tell you is they headed North.”
“Alright hold down the fort.” Cain said as he hung up. “Trip” Cain bellowed.
“What?” Trip’s head popped up from his task.
“The little birds flown the coop holding Swain hostage. I need you to work your tech magic and figure out what’s up.” Trip looked as shocked as he was but nodded.
They both quickly left the warehouse. Eric could handle clean-up, they had bigger problems. He and Trip roared down the road, Trip splitting off to go to the clubhouse to access his computer. If they were lucky Trip would be able to find Swain via his cell phone.
Cain continued North racking his brain. Where would Iris go? He’d thought she’d been cool this afternoon. Granted she couldn’t be happy being held at the clubhouse, but he thought he made it clear why she needed to stay.
“Dammit” Cain growled as he gripped his handlebars tighter.
Of course she wasn’t cool with any of this. She’d watched him kill a man. He’d forced her to strip last night, even if it was to check her injuries. No woman who’d been abused like she had would allow herself to remain caged.
It was going to really suck having to drag her back with him again. Cain didn’t want to force her, but he would. He had to do what was right by his brothers. If he couldn’t gain some level of trust with Iris he didn’t know what he’d do.
Cain’s phone rang as his thoughts went round and round. Man Trip was fast.
“You are quick brother.” Cain replied as he pulled over.
“Not really
. You had me running a search on her.” Cain recalled that Trip had easily found out that Iris’ real name was Adrian and she’d been on the missing person’s list. “Well someone called in to the cops that she just turned up at Mercy Hospital.” Trip reported.
They always followed the dispatch calls in case any of their businesses or the clubhouse was reported for something.
“Well shit. Alright I’m on my way there.”
“You want back up?” Trip asked.
“That might be good.”
Cain had no idea what the hell was going on. Was Iris hurt? Why did she hold a gun on Swain? How the hell had she gotten it? He wanted to throttle the foolish woman.
Another concern entered his mind. If someone had reported that she showed up at the hospital in response to the missing persons report then that meant Hank would know about it too.
“Fuck!” Cain cursed as he stepped on the gas roaring down the road at a breakneck speed.
This female was trouble with the capital T. She was going to get herself killed.
Iris
“Hey, I want to apologize.” Iris looked up at the ER nurse as she pushed open the curtain and entered the small treatment room. “You were right about your friend. Any longer and he would have bled to death.” The nurse shook her head. “It was so strange. They found a piece of metal piercing a major vessel in his shoulder just as you said. He would���ve been in a bad way if you hadn’t gotten here as soon as you did.”
“It’s okay. I understand you can’t trust every frantic person that comes in here.” Iris knew how panicky people could get. The ER was a crazy place and she didn’t envy the nurses.
“I spoke to one of the other nurses, Beth. She says you volunteer here. You must have seen a lot to get so good. You ever think of becoming a nurse?”
“No.” Iris smiled at her. “I’m good under pressure but I don’t think I could handle all that blood.”
“Well just relax. Your friend should be out of surgery soon. I’ll take you to his room when they get him settled.”
“Thank you.” Iris smiled and gripped the woman’s hand after taking the drink she offered.
Iris sipped on the sprite as she watched the nurses, doctors and techs coming and going. The work they did truly amazed her. She was beyond glad Swain would be okay.
Biting Back: A Motorcycle Club, Shifter, Romance (Shifting Steel Book 1) Page 8
