Need

by Sam Crescent

  Leanna held her hand to her chest, and she was gasping.

  Daisy tackled Suz to the ground, and Crazy went to the woman he loved.

  “It hurts,” Leanna said, panting.

  “Fuck, baby, someone call an ambulance.” He didn’t know what to do. She was bleeding, and he couldn’t stop it.

  “We can get her to the hospital,” Knuckles said.

  “What about Strawberry? What about Daisy?”

  “Let us handle that. Get in your car, and take Leanna to the hospital now.”

  “Crazy?” Leanna said.

  Lifting his woman into his arms, he ran toward his car, and shoved her into the car. Rushing to the driver’s side, he climbed in, and pushed his foot to the gas, rushing out of the parking lot.

  “Don’t you die on me, Leanna. I need you.”

  He fucking loved her, and it wasn’t just because of the past week, it was because of everything else. Crazy had been falling in love with her from the first moment he met her all those years ago when he’d first moved into the apartment building. He’d never acted on it because he’d been married, and Suz was spiteful enough to hurt Leanna.

  She’s shot her!

  You could lose her.

  Crazy screamed and pushed his foot on the accelerator.

  Leanna gasped, and he glanced in the mirror to find the blood soaking her shirt. Tears streamed down his face, and he was hurting inside.

  “Don’t die on me, Leanna. I’ve got plans, baby. Big plans. I love you, baby. I love you so damn much, and I’m going to make sure we have a family. You’re not just a mother for Strawberry. I was so blind to the truth. Do you hear me? I love you. We’re going to have a family, and you’re never going to want for anything, I swear. You won’t know what is going on with the love I’m going to give you. You’re going to have the club by your side, and you’re going to be protected.”

  He kept on talking, reaching behind him to grasp her hand. She was still with him, but her hand was slick with blood.

  Pulling into the hospital emergency entrance, he almost went crashing into the door but brought the car to a stop without touching the glass. Climbing out, he yanked the door open, and tugged Leanna into his arms.

  “Help! Someone help me!” He screamed for help, and nurses came running toward him.

  “Tell me what’s happening.”

  A bed magically appeared, and Crazy placed Leanna, who was no longer conscious, on the bed.

  “She’s been shot twice, maybe three times. I can’t remember. My ex shot her in the park. Save her please.”

  “Sir, you need to step back.”

  “I’ve got to be with her.”

  “This woman is in critical condition. You have to step back and allow us to do our jobs.”

  A woman and several security men held him back.

  “That’s my woman there.”

  The woman tapped his chest. “We know, and we’re going to do everything we can to save her. These moments count more than anything else. Sir, take a deep breath, go to the reception desk, and fill in the information we’re going to need.”

  He stared at the woman, and nodded. “Okay.”

  “Okay. I will keep you updated, do you understand?”

  “Yes, I understand.”

  “Good.”

  The nurse nodded at the guards, and Crazy took a step back. He needed to get his shit together. Leanna was shot, possibly dying, and she didn’t need him going a little crazy in the one place that could save her.

  Going to the receptionist, he got the necessary documentation, and took a seat. Holding the pen over the paperwork, he came up with a blank. He didn’t know what to write, and time passed.

  He didn’t know how much time had passed, and suddenly someone touched his shoulder. Looking up he saw Duke, Pike, Daisy, Knuckles, Pie, and all of his brothers entering the hospital.

  “What do you need?” Duke asked.

  Crazy wiped away the tears that had been running down his face. “I don’t know.” Staring straight ahead, he took a deep breath. “I found the house. It was going to be perfect, and I was going to take Leanna and Strawberry to dinner. Strawberry?”

  “Holly and Mary have her. They’re taking care of all of the kids,” Duke said. “You don’t need to worry. We’ve got your back.”

  “My back. Yes. You’ve got my back. I was going to celebrate us moving in together. Leanna agreed to move in with me, and tonight I was going to make love to her. Strawberry knows we’re together, and I’ve got a lock now, and I can take Leanna any way I want.” He tapped the pen on the notepad, and kept on talking. “It was going to be perfect, and she shot her. I couldn’t stop her. It should have been me that was shot. No one else.”

  Daisy took a seat beside him, and took the paperwork. “I’ll fill this in.”

  “Who’s keeping an eye on Suz?” Crazy asked. He was going to kill the bitch. He was going to wrap his fingers around her scrawny neck, and he was going to watch the life burn out of her. There was no way he was going to let her get away with what she’d done to him, and to his family.

  “Russ and a couple of guys stayed behind. She’s in the basement, and we’ve locked her up tight. She’s not getting out.”

  Crazy nodded. “I deal with her.”

  Running fingers through his hair, he saw the dried blood on his hands, and without holding back, a whimper escaped him.

  “You need to go and clean up,” Duke said. “Knuckles, go with him.”

  Getting to his feet, he started walking toward the bathroom, but he stopped. “If you hear anything, you come and get me.”

  “I wouldn’t do anything else.”

  Nodding, Crazy walked to the bathroom.

  ****

  “There were a couple of witnesses at the park,” Daisy said. “There’s no way he can handle Suz without going down for that shit.”

  “The sheriff will be on your ass,” Pie said.

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to Crazy.”

  “He will kill her.” Daisy recognized the crazy look in his friend’s eye. It was the reason he’d gotten the name, Crazy. He was a mean motherfucker when he started, and Leanna being shot, it was a damn good reason for the guy to go off the rails.

  “I’ll deal with Crazy and Suz. I will not let a brother go to prison for that slut. What else do we know?”

  “We don’t. Leanna was shot by Suz, and there was no time for an ambulance. Myself and Knuckles dealt with the situation.” Daisy took a breath. He’d been flirting with one of the women at the park who was there with her kid. The one time his attention had been diverted, and his brother was suffering for it. It was just one fucking time. He never let his guard down, never. This was a reason why he never did.

  Duke took a seat.

  “What do we do now?” Raoul asked.

  “We give our brother the support he needs. It’s going to be a long couple of days.”

  Daisy stared at their president, Duke, and not for the first time was thankful he didn’t have his job. Duke ran the Trojans with an iron first, but he also allowed them the space and freedom to do what they wanted without going to prison. All of the guys respected Duke for keeping the club safe, and out of trouble.

  “Has Diaz had any news?” Duke asked.

  Diaz was the club’s contact, and connection to the group of Mexicans who wanted their drugs run through the States. Raoul was the one who dealt with Diaz, and often got them information they needed like this.

  “About Suz?”

  “She was high on something,” Daisy said, recalling the way she was twitching, and her arms had been messed up.

  “I talked to Diaz on the way over. No one would go near Suz. He said she was fucking tripping, but she was kicked out of their territory a few weeks ago,” Raoul said.

  “He got any other information for us?” Duke asked.

  “Not as yet. We got another planned run in three weeks, and he wants to plan a meet to make sure everything is fine.”
r />   Duke tapped his knee. “Okay. Set up the meet in three weeks.”

  “Crazy’s not going to be in any fit state to make a run,” Pike said. “His girl don’t make it, he’s going to prison. None of us will be able to stop him from taking out Suz.”

  “Then we make sure he’s locked down. My boy isn’t going to prison for that slut.” Duke stood, pacing. “Crazy’s serious about the girl. I saw the way he was with her at the clubhouse. I’ve never known Crazy to be like that. He’s in love with her.”

  Daisy couldn’t argue.

  “Right, we’ve got to take this one step at a time. Diaz owns the drugs, so Suz must have gotten them from a low time dealer. That’s not a problem. It explains why she reached out for money. She needed to fund her habit. Seeing Leanna at the park, it was all set to scare her. We don’t have any scores to settle.”

  Daisy agreed with Duke. There was no way this was a planned attack. It was sloppy, and it was more a vendetta than anything else, orchestrated by a crazy, jealous ex.

  “We take it one step at a time,” Daisy said.

  They all agreed.

  It was all they could do.

  Chapter Ten

  “Are you okay, man?” Knuckles asked.

  “I’ve got blood from the woman I love more than anything on my hands. What do you think?” Crazy asked, entering the bathroom.

  Knuckles followed behind him, and Crazy moved toward the sink, staring at his reflection. Even to himself, he saw the crazy assed look in his eyes. There were spots of blood on his face, and his shirt was covered. Tugging his shirt off, he threw it into the trash. Grabbing the bar of soap, he started to wash his hands.

  Leanna’s blood covered his hands and arms.

  Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he watched the water turn red as it washed off his skin.

  “You must think I’m a pussy.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “I’m crying. I’m fucking weak.”

  Staring at Knuckles in the mirror, he watched him shake his head. “I don’t think you’re weak. You picked your woman up who was shot and bleeding. This isn’t just some random person, Crazy. Leanna’s your woman. She belongs to you. You’re not weak, and I don’t think less of you. I envy you.”

  “You envy me? What the fuck have I got for you to envy? I’m divorced. I’ve got a kid with a slut I don’t like. The same woman has just tried to kill, and may have been successful in killing, the woman I love. What the fuck do you have to envy? My life is fucking shit.”

  “You’ve got a woman that loves you back. Leanna may not have said it to you, but she does. I saw it at the barbeque, and at the park. She was happy with moving in with you. I don’t have that. I’ve got club whores who want my cock, and nothing else. Believe me, Crazy, you’ve got a lot for me to envy. I’m never going to have that.”

  He was speechless.

  Knuckles didn’t strike him as the kind of guy to be sentimental.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I’m not the one hurting, but if I could change with you right now, I would. I’d do anything to spare a brother pain. I love my club. I love my brothers. I’ve got more than some men. I just don’t have a woman of my own.” Knuckles shrugged. “Not many women could handle me.”

  Crazy didn’t need to ask what he was talking about. Knuckles had a reputation for being a sadistic bastard. He liked to tie women up, spank them, and use knives on them. Crazy didn’t know if he made them bleed, and he didn’t want to know. What got a brother off, had nothing to do with him.

  “We’re all a little fucked up,” Crazy said.

  “I hope Leanna makes it. I really do.”

  Walking back through the hospital, Crazy didn’t give a fuck that he did so without a shirt. Sitting down with his brothers, he stared at the door that his woman had disappeared through. His brothers were silent, and the only sounds he heard were those of the updates coming over the intercom, along with nurses calling patients through.

  Time passed.

  He didn’t know how much, and with each passing second, he was growing more and more frightened.

  Finally, the door opened, and he didn’t even know how long it had been when the nurse, followed by a doctor, walked through the door.

  Getting to his feet, he stared at their grim expressions.

  Don’t be dead.

  Don’t be dead.

  Don’t be dead.

  Don’t be dead.

  “Is she okay? Is Leanna okay?” He looked from the nurse to the doctor.

  “Are you her next of kin?”

  “I’m her fiancé, damn it. Is she okay? I brought her here. There wasn’t enough time to wait.”

  Had he done the right thing?

  “Leanna is stable at the moment,” the doctor said. “She suffered three gunshot wounds. One missed her heart, and went straight through, thankfully not damaging any major artery. We repaired the damage. Another caught her side, and again, not life threatening. The last bullet pierced her lung causing her lung to collapse. We have repaired the damage, and it seems to be holding well. We will be monitoring her for the next couple of days. At the moment she’s been given a sedative to help her rest.”

  “She’s not in a coma?” Crazy asked.

  “No. She lost consciousness from the blood loss, and pain. I don’t want to give you any false hope, but her vitals are looking good.”

  “I want to see her. Please, I have to see her.”

  The doctor looked behind him.

  “Only you can see her.”

  “Then I want to see her.” Crazy couldn’t go another minute without his woman.

  “I’ll take you through.” The nurse spoke up, giving him a smile.

  “We will monitor her closely.” The doctor nodded at him before leaving.

  Crazy followed the nurse, who pointed him to the room.

  “She will look pale, and there will be a lot of tubes around her body, but they are there to help. Don’t think she’s in a bad condition. We’ve done everything we can to save her.”

  “I got here as fast as I could,” Crazy said.

  “I know. You were right. If you had waited for the ambulance, she would have died. Her lung collapsed on the way to the hospital, so those precious moments meant we could repair her lung. Ten minutes longer, and she wouldn’t have survived the blood loss, and the lack of oxygen because of her collapsed lung would have caused severe brain damage.”

  “You’re saying I did the right thing?” he asked.

  “Some people think it’s best to wait for the ambulance, and in a lot of cases, it’s true. In others, lives are saved by people reacting rather than waiting. In this case, she was saved by you reacting. She’s in there.”

  Crazy nodded, entering the room.

  A sob escaped him as he looked at the woman he loved with all of his heart.

  A tube was coming out of the side of her mouth, and her body was hooked up to three different machines.

  “It’s not that bad, I promise.” The nurse walked over, and pointed at the screen. “This is monitoring her blood pressure, this one her pulse. We’re monitoring her lung, and also keeping her hooked up to morphine to help with the pain.”

  “Why are you helping?” he asked, looking toward the nurse.

  “I was there when you ran into the hospital. You looked so scared, and I don’t know, you reminded me a little of my late brother.”

  “Late brother?”

  “He died a couple of years ago during a robbery in a diner. It was a long time ago. I wanted to help. I know what it’s like to lose a loved one, and no one seems to care. I care. It’s why I became a nurse.”

  “What’s your name?” Crazy asked.

  “Kasey. Kasey Lintel.”

  “I’m Crazy.”

  “It’s nice to meet you.” Kasey gave him a smile, and turned back to the machines. “Her vitals are good, and the morphine will stop her from feeling any pain.”

  “Do you know when she’ll w
ake up?”

  “When the sedatives wear off she should come to. We’ll monitor her pain level, and if need be, we will sedate her for another day. It’s not our mission to cause pain, but to heal it.”

  “I’m in your debt,” he said.

  “You’re not in my debt. Not in any way.” She smiled, and moved to leave the room. “I’ll be at the desk. Shout if you need me.”

  “Thank you.”

  Kasey didn’t respond, and she left him alone.

  “Hey, baby, you look fucking awful.” He went to sit on the bed, and stopped himself. “Your pain is being controlled, so I’m not going to do anything to cause you more pain.” Taking a seat on the bed, he took a breath. “I’m so sorry.”

  He touched her hand, and he was surprised to find her warm. She looked so pale and weak, he expected her to be cold.

  “I don’t know what to say to you. I want to say so much.”

  Silence fell on the room, apart from those machines beeping and making noises.

  “I love you, Leanna. I love you so damn much, and I never got the chance to tell you.” He chuckled. “Not that you would believe me. You’d think I was doing it to get into your pants. I didn’t need to tell you I loved you to get into your pants. You’re mine in every way.”

  Taking a deep breath, he leaned up, and pressed a kiss to her lips. She didn’t respond, and he didn’t think she would.

  “We’re going to get past this. There’s no way I’m letting you get away from me now. You’re going to marry me, and we’re going to have a honeymoon that is so damn perfect. I’m going to spend every single day making love to you. In time Strawberry will need a brother or sister, or both. I’d be happy with a big family, and I bet you will, too.”

  Time passed, and Crazy kept talking to her, remembering moments he loved. He kept reaching up, and kissing her lips, holding her hand.

  Kasey cleared her throat, and he turned to the door.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you. Your friends wanted an update? I was also asked to say Strawberry. I don’t know what that means.”