“How yah doing Red?” he asked me softly. His hands rested on his thighs, and I grabbed for one, twining my fingers with his.
“I think I’m okay,” I murmured, but my voice was somber and tentative at best. I drew in a deep breath and looked over at Shelly who was pacing nervously, her thumbnail which was in her mouth, nearly chewed to the quick.
Ghost sat on the floor, back to the wall, legs outstretched in front of him and crossed at the ankle as he followed his woman’s pacing with his gaze and my heart broke for Shelly all over again. I hugged Zander’s arm and he swept my face with his gaze, opening his mouth to speak but the doors to the waiting room burst open and Hayden appeared. Dragon, who was by the door, caught her by the elbows and she raised her face, her expression stricken.
“Is he..?” she asked and held her breath.
Dragon sighed, “Still in surgery Doll. We just don’t know.”
And the waiting went on, another hour then two, and then three until they all just blurred together into this agonizing length of time. Cutter and several other men of the Kraken arrived, was that who had been on the line? Was that who Reaver had called? It must have been, else why would they be here?
Dragon and the President of the other motorcycle club stepped out into the hall while Ashton and Hayden clung to each other and cried, Trig doing his best to comfort them. When the two men returned it was with Doc, looking smart in his scrubs and white coat, a funny little matching blue surgeon’s cap on his head. Hayden pulled away from Trigger and Ashton and swallowed hard. Cutter went to the other small woman’s side, and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Just, tell me!” she pleaded of the older man and his face, which was pinched collapsed into sorrowful lines.
“I’m sorry…”
Hayden’s face was stricken. She hugged herself around the middle and bent at the waist, her mouth open in a scream except there was no sound, just an eerie hissing silence that came from her throat. She sucked in a great breath and the sound came this time, low and broken and defeated, she wailed her agony to the room and were it not for Cutter, doing his best to hold her up, she would have gone to her knees.
It was the most painful, heart breaking, gut wrenching thing I had ever seen in my life and it was the thing that made me want to crawl into a bed somewhere and simply never come out again. I had never, not once in my life ever questioned if there was a God but right then, right there, I questioned everything. I questioned everything there ever was and then some while Zander held me, my gaze locked with my soul sister’s. Everett and I cried to the sound of everything Hayden ever loved or held dear burning down to ashes all around her.
Chapter 25
Zander…
Sober, Somber, Stoic… those were the best words I could come up to describe my Red as she held it together in that God Damned waiting room. The firefight had already started when I’d pulled up. I’d left my car in the turn lane of the highway and streaked low and fast up the drive, taking out the motherfucker that’d gotten Reave. Trig was topside, the roof and had downed two fuckers in the driveway.
My adrenaline pounding through my veins and the rabid fear that they’d got my girl had to take a back fucking seat to me calling an ambulance for Reaver. Once that was done I’d immediately dialed my P and my VP who should be back any minute from their run… What a fucking thing.
Disney had texted from the back of our club compound to say that he, Blue and Duracell had one of them. There had been six of the little cock bites. I called him from the burner in my pocket and told them to get the fuck out to my car, which was running out front on the highway, and to get the son of a bitch out to Point Nowhere and keep him locked down. They’d made it away before emergency people started showing up.
Then there we were, hours and hours later, one of our brothers, one of our council dead, and one of our women gone with him. Were it not for Red, trembling in my arms, I would be out burning the whole fucking world down.
Hayden was a near catatonic ball in Cutter’s arms. He knelt on the floor holding her to him. Shelly had disappeared, Ghost hot on her trail as she’d run from the room and hit the stairs with a crash. He’d texted the club saying that he’d meet us there with her later. Zeb and Disney had been back cleaning up busted glass and boarding up the club’s front windows as soon as the cops had cleared out.
As soon as Doc delivered the bad news to Hayden, Dragon and Trig had led the older man into the hallway and delivered the news about his woman. He’d shouted and crumpled to the floor himself, back sliding against the wall, his chest blown open, his heart ripped out… plain as day for all to see.
It’d taken some logistics and Zeb to come with the van to get us all back to the club. Ashton, Red and Ev were all in with Hayden. Shelly was locked in Ghost’s room and refused to deal with anyone or anything. Now here we all were, Doc included, standing in the boarded up half shell of our club house with five of The Kraken, trying like hell to come up with a plan on what to do.
“I can’t do it anymore,” Doc said plaintively, “I’m sorry. I will always be a part of this club, I will always be a Sacred Hearts man but I can’t be this club’s Secretary anymore. Not with a clear head, not with a clear conscience. Not and do what I have to do.” He crumbled, folding in on himself and no one said a damned thing when he sobbed. His pain the paramount thing, we all waited somberly for the storm to pass. Not a single damned one of us about to tell him to suck it up. He and Chandra had been together over twenty years.
“Right, so we got Treasurer and Secretary up for a vote. Nominations?” Dragon intoned.
“Do we really gotta do this right now Pops?” Dray asked. Dray’s Old Man searched his son’s solemn face.
“No, no I don’t suppose we do, I don’t suppose we should until Archer, Rush and Nox get back. Just… just be thinking about it. All of you.” He dropped heavily into his seat to a round of grunted agreements.
“When they back?” I asked.
Trig answered me, “’morrow, maybe the next day.”
I nodded, “What about the girls?”
“I think maybe we can help with that. Y’all’re gonna have to get real down and dirty over this. The last thing you need is to worry about your women. You got a bit of time, what with the cops sniffing around and the like. Me and mine can stay up through the funeral, have your girls make arrangements, they could use an extended stay down in my town. We got a comfortable safe house. They’ll be looked after and you can do what needs doing with a clear conscience, at least where they’re concerned.” Cutter crossed his arms, expression unreadable but it was a hell of a thing he was offering.
We all exchanged looks, Ghost spoke first, “Think they’ll go for that?”
“We don’t give them a choice.” Dray said with about as much conviction as I’d ever heard come out of him. I nodded my agreement.
Trigger sighed, “While I agree it needs to happen, I’ve never been away from Sunshine for longer than a day or two.” He pulled a cigarette out of Dragon’s pack, sitting on the table, the real deal, and put it between his lips. Dragon handed my partner and our Sergeant-at-Arms his Zippo lighter without a word and Trig lit it with that clear and concise snap. He cupped the flame, an old habit from being used to lighting up outside and drew in a great breath laced with tobacco and nicotine.
He held it, for a real long time, the expression on his face somber, one of greeting a long lost love that he’d never really have a chance with again, lines of regret, sorrow and grief etching their way into his face, his posture, before he let a cloud of the rich smoke out towards the ceiling.
“How long are we talking?” he asked.
“To do this right? To move careful so none of us get arrested, to make sure we’ve eradicated every last one of these fuckwits..? I’d say six months. Maybe more.” Doc said and downed a shot that one of The Kraken poured for him.
Cutter nodded, and Dragon spoke, “Sounds about right.”
“Jesus fucking Christ. How ar
e we going to keep them occupied for six fucking months!?” Ghost said what we were all thinking. It was Dray who had the idea; he was a smart fucker for being so damned young.
“Soul Fuel is doing good; Everett showed me the books. Her and Mandy been planning on hiring on more help.”
“What’s Soul Fuel?” Cutter asked, puzzled. Dray laid it out for him.
“You thinking new location?” he asked, and color him impressed.
“I’ll convince them.” Several of us startled and whirled, I chuckled. Only one of our girls was that quiet.
“Baby this is club business, you shouldn’t be here,” Trigger was saying, but his voice was gentle and he was making the few short strides to where Ashton huddled miserably in one of his oversized hooded sweatshirts. Her golden eyes were already welling and she was the picture of heartbreak. So small as to be childlike.
She surprised us all when she dodged Trigger’s outstretched arms to come around him and more completely into the room.
“That’s precisely why I’m here.”
She sniffed, swallowed hard, and looked at Dragon, “You’re all I have, all of you, my family. I need you all to be okay and I know…” she swallowed again, “I know what you have to do and that it will be dangerous, but I want us all safe. So take this,” and she held out a piece of paper that looked suspiciously like a check.
“Fix the club house and pay for…” she sobbed, “Pay for Reaver’s funeral and I will convince them to come with me, come with Hayden, and open a new store in your town.”
Dragon, as solemn as I had ever seen him, plucked the piece of paper from Ashton’s fingers and pulled her into a hug. He looked at it over her shoulder and frowned.
“Baby, while I’m willing to do what you say, I’m not going to take all your money,” he said gently and held her back so he could look at her.
Ashton scoffed, “That’s not all of it… Shelly is good at what she does. That’s only a quarter.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of Trigger’s sweatshirt and the big man, standing just behind her, looked as soft as I had ever seen him which did my heart glad. Dragon nodded and dare I say, looked a touch emotional himself.
“It’s only money. Reaver… I don’t want to lose anyone else. Ethan, Andy, you, the people of this club. None of them can be replaced. So take it. Fix this place, fortify it, do whatever you have to. I just want us all to be safe. Once and for all.” She stepped back from our President and hugged her man once before untangling herself from his grasp and drifting back to wherever she’d come from.
“You got some damned fine women,” one of The Kraken remarked.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I muttered, and shortly after that plans were laid and meeting fucking adjourned.
“Trig, Rev, go make some peace with your women then get on out to Point Nowhere. The boy ‘n’ me, we‘ll meet you there.” Dragon heaved himself to his feet.
“I’m going with you,” Doc’s voice was full of steely determination.
“Not sure that’s a good idea old friend,” Dragon eyed the man speculatively.
“Yeah, probably not, but I’m a doctor,” Doc’s voice dropped low, if I had to guess, his mind toward any eavesdropping women in the back, “I’m the only one that can keep the bastard breathin’ long enough to get all our questions answered.” He swallowed hard and devastation flickered across his face like heat lightning.
“You just said it yourself; you’re a fucking doctor man! Don’t you got some kind of an oath or something?” All eyes turned to The Kraken man who’d spoke.
“If it were your woman?” Cutter asked quietly and he was very still, eyes fixed on a distant point while he waited for his man to answer. It was quiet and tense for several long moments. The man, who was young, very young and wearing just a prospect’s cut, looked queasy and then resigned.
“I don’t know Captain… I just, I really don’t know,” he said truthfully.
Cutter nodded, “That’s a good lad. You might want to get to thinking real hard on that. This is what this life is about, not always, maybe not even in your time… but sometimes this is how it is.” Cutter straightened and gave a hard sigh.
“You can trust me and mine to look out for things here. I’m goin’ on in with Li’l Bit in a minute. You do what you boys gotta do.” Cutter held out his hand to Dragon who, with a nod, clasped hands back.
“’preciate it man. More ‘n you could know.” Dragon turned to the rest of us.
“No sense standing around here, let’s do this, send the boys out at Point Nowhere back…” He bowed his head and shook it. “Let’s get going.”
I slipped back towards Reaver’s room where I’d left my Red and the girls with Hayden, but when I poked my head in it was just Sunshine with her best friend.
“Your room,” she murmured, and I nodded and let Trig brush past me and go to his girl.
Just as Ashton had said, Red was in my room. Dray was drawing Ev out into the hall and she nodded somberly to me as I slipped in and shut the door. Red was curled on her side and fully in the throes of her grief, the day having finally caught up with her. Her pale face even paler, her freckles standing out stark beneath the slick moisture of the tears that coated her face. She lay curled on her side, sniffing, hands tucked beneath her cheek, and I lowered myself to the edge of the mattress by her stomach.
“You’re going out, aren’t you?” she asked miserably.
“Yeah Sugar, I’m needed by the club.”
This touched off some fresh weeping that she tried valiantly to stifle. I smoothed some of her stray copper curls from her face and she closed her eyes, turning her face into my touch.
“Just… come back to me. Please? I need you to come back to me.” She sat up abruptly and fell into my arms, hers twining around my neck as I curved mine around her back and held her close to me.
“I’m coming back, Baby. I promise, I promise you.” I clutched her to my chest and rocked her, planting the odd kiss to her hair.
“I love you so much,” she sobbed and it tore at me, having to leave her when she was like this, but a gentle rap at the door let me know it was time. I looked up into the sympathetic eyes of my VP and nodded, my brave girl withdrawing from my embrace of her own accord.
“Just be safe,” she looked at Dray, “You watch him. You take care of each other! You promise me Dray.”
“I promise. It’ll be okay,” he said solemnly and I gave another nod in his direction, this time one of appreciation. Everett came back and took my place with Mandy.
“We’ll be here,” she told us, and with how everything was going down, spiraling out of control, wreckage raining down around our club, it was all any of us guys could ask for. That our women would stick it out, see us through, and be there for us at the end of the day. You never really appreciate what a fine and true gift it was until you were either in danger of, or had lost it. I bent and kissed my Red one last time before heading out the door.
Chapter 26
Revelator…
Trig was quiet, like sniper quiet, in the seat beside me. I didn’t particularly feel the need to fill the silence as we drove, but at the same time I could tell something was eating my partner, and that was just something I couldn’t leave alone.
“What’s eating you man?”
“What, aside from my club getting shot to hell, my best friend dying and the fact my Sunshine girl is wrecked?” He made a sound somewhere between derisive and disgusted and his hands tightened on the wheel of his Jeep, the steering apparatus giving a groan of protest.
“It’s not real yet. Reaver being gone,” I said, and it wasn’t, at least for me. I was still running on a mixed fuel of anger and fading adrenaline. Mostly rage at this point and if it was one thing that could fuel me for days at a time it was my rage. I cracked the knuckles of my left hand.
“It’s as real as it gets buddy… It’s as real as it fucking gets,” Trig observed dispassionately and I turned my attention to the dark rushing
past the outside of the windows.
“Yeah,” I agreed quietly.
By the time Trigger pulled us past the gate and up the long drive of Point Nowhere and finally up to the corrugated steel building, I was ready to work out some of this aggression. More than ready.
We climbed out of the Jeep beside my Chevelle, our doors clipping shut in unison. Dray pulled up beside the Jeep with Dragon in the passenger seat of his Trans-Am. We waited as Doc climbed out of the back and we went into the building pretty much in order. Dragon, Dray, Trig, Doc then me. Disney stood up from where he’d propped himself on the edge of a low table against one of the opposite walls. He clasped hands with Trigger and then me, and looked just about tore up from the floor up. Emotion shining in his brown eyes, silently pleading with us to tell him it wasn’t true.
“Sunshine is back at the club with Hayden in Reave’s room. Cutter, The Kraken’s President is in with Hayden but I really need you to go and look out for our girl,” he held out the keys to their Jeep and Dis nodded, taking them and held out my keys to me.
“Thanks man,” I gave him a watered down half smile.
“He’s really gone then?” he asked us quietly. Trig couldn’t look at him, his gaze pinned to the floor, and so I did the talking.
“Yeah man. Doesn’t feel like it, but we need to be strong for each other as much as for our girls.”
I hugged him. Dis was a sensitive guy and had had a bad run of it. Reaver had been his mentor as he’d been coming up in the club. Dis choked, and cracked a little on the surface and a low rumbling laugh filtered towards us from across the room. I stiffened and looked over, our guest was none other than the dumb son of a bitch I’d beaten the motherfucking brakes off of in the ring a little over a month ago, the illustrious Nord. I sniffed.
“Dis, Blue, Cell, get you gone back to the house,” Dragon ordered and his voice rang, cold steel.
“If you don’t mind, Pres. I’d like to stay. This is the best part.” Duracell’s expression was cold and he was sporting a hell of a bruise along his cheekbone.
Fractured & Formidable: The Sacred Hearts MC Book V Page 23
