“Let us deal with this, Schuy. I don’t want you too close to him,” I plead with her.
“It’s my fight to finish,” she says softly. “Let me choose my vice once and for all. Let me choose you, and show you how much I love you.”
“I won’t let you do this alone, Schuyler. This is me and you now. Without you, there is no me. It’s us and our brotherhood,” I tell her as I pull her back to my chest.
Before she can reply, the guys are back and walking through the door.
“We lost ‘em. They were about two blocks ahead of us, and then a school bus passed in front of us. When the bus was gone, so were they,” T says as he rips off his riding gloves.
I feel Schuyler pull away as I start to talk to T.
“How’s Alex?” he asks at the same time Chris’ phone rings.
“Hey, Doc, what’s the word?” he answers.
He lifts his head, and his face is blank. We all stand there waiting, holding our breath as we wait for the news.
“The doctors said it’s out of their hands. It’s up to his body right now, to see if it can heal enough to have surgery. They said ninety-five percent of patients who have this wound won’t make it past six hours.” He lowers his head as we all do. “The clock starts now.”
Chapter 16
I sneak out of the clubhouse and run out front to Vice’s truck that’s been sitting here all week. I know where my dad’s staying and I’m going to end this once and for all. I’m tired of this shit. He doesn’t love me. He didn’t welcome me into his MC like the Angels. He just wants to own me; my every thought, and movement.
I pull out my phone and call the number I never thought I would dial again.
“Denton,” he answers.
“Hi Daddy,” I say dripping sarcasm.
“Oh well, there is my princess! Or should I say Angel?” he chuckles.
“Call me what you want as long as it isn’t family.”
“Ohh, you still have that mouth I see. Damn, I was hoping Nate cured you of that foul tongue,” he tsks.
“Nate who?” I snark.
“What did you do?” he grits out.
“How about we talk in person, yeah? I’ll be in the alley in ten. Come alone,” I say and then hang up.
I turn my phone off so the Angels can’t trace it, if they haven’t already.
I pull up in front of the candy store in town. I reach my hand around to the back of my pants, and touch my blades to ground myself.
I throw my door open and step out. My hands and arms are still covered in blood. My lavender purple shirt is now a dark purple, blood soaking it. My hair is blowing in the wind and I tilt my head up to the sky before I head to someone’s death. Either mine or his. After this, he won’t be able to hurt me anymore. He won’t have any power over me any longer.
I think about sending Vice an ‘I love you’ text, but it's better this way. He needs to keep his family safe, his brotherhood. They need him more than he realizes.
I walk to the alley my dad takes his hostages to set them loose when he gets what he needs out of them while he’s in town. Well, the ones he doesn’t kill anyway.
As I turn the corner and enter the alley, I see my dad, flanked by one of his guards.
I laugh and shake my head.
“What’s the matter, Daddy? Scared to meet your little girl by yourself?” I taunt.
“No, Schuyler, he is here for your protection, not mine.” His eyes roam over me as I walk closer. I stop next to a dumpster and lean my hip against it, crossing my arms over my chest. “You finally look like the daughter I raised, well, minus that shit cut you’re wearing.” His nose turns up in disgust.
I take my hand and run my fingers over my Angel patch and let myself feel for a second. Let the love those members have for me, the love the Strykers did not, fill my soul.
“I look like the daughter you raised because of the blood on my hands?” I ask in an emotionless voice, holding my hands out. “I might be wearing it, Denton, but this blood is on your hands.”
“The blood of many, my angel,” he says like it should be obvious.
My lip snarls at the fact he called me his angel.
“Don’t call me your angel. I will never be yours. The Fallen Angels have more of my respect in the short time I’ve known them, than you ever had all my life. You think you guys are this big bad MC with everyone’s respect. You’re not, though. People revolt at the thought of you. Fear is what keeps them in line, because the fear of losing someone you love is a huge motivator. I’ve learned that in the last few weeks, well months really, the Angels are more respected than you ever will be. They have me, not you.”
He chuckles, his face contorting into anger. One thing my father never was good at, was masking his emotions. I learned, at a very young age, that I had to or else he would dictate everything.
“Oh, but I will have you back.” He snaps his fingers and his bodyguard starts to walk to me.
He smiles a menacing smile and reaches out and grabs a handful of my hair. I rip my head back out of his reach, pulling a chunk of my hair out of my head, and he chuckles.
“Schuyler, just let him get ahold of you. There is only one of you. There are two of us. Stop being so dramatic,” my father calls out while looking at his phone.
I reach behind me and pull out my blades. Quick as lightning, I throw them at the same time in two different directions. One goes right between the eyes on my father, and the other gets his bodyguard in the neck, both blades buried to the hilt.
Adrenaline is pumping through my veins, my head throbbing. I put my hands on my knees and bend over for a second. I gulp air as I try to calm myself down.
I right myself and walk over to my dad. His eyes are already glazed over with death and I sigh.
“How’s that for dramatic, Daddy?” I say as I bend over and pull my blade from his face.
I hear shuffling. When I stand up, but before I can turn around to investigate it, a gun goes off and searing pain radiates through my arm and chest.
I drop to my knees and look at my arm. When I see the blood running down, dripping off my fingers, I have to think of the irony. My blood mixing with the bloodshed I caused earlier. This is bittersweet, me dying the same moment my father does. At least Vice and our Angels will be safe.
Right before the world goes black, I hear the most perfect angel screaming my name with so much heartache, I can feel his pain in my chest. I will die today knowing what true love feels like. That love that surrounds your soul in a warming light. Where the world isn’t cold, and the rules are not outlined in black and white.
Where the only vice you have to choose, is love. The only truth.
Epilogue
I blink my eyes open and I groan at the pain. My knuckles are bloody still, my body feels like it’s been hit with a Mac truck, and my chest hurts so bad. I feel like someone ripped my heart out of its cavity with their bare hands.
“Wake up, motherfucker,” Chris says as he kicks my boots.
I look at his face, and I feel a little remorse when I notice his black eye.
“Your face looks like shit,” I tell him.
It’s in that green puffy stage, when it’s starting to finally heal.
I look over at the bed to my left and I jump up from my chair.
“Where the fuck is she?” I ask getting ready to start punching people again. I don’t give a fuck if I get kicked out of this hospital again or not.
“Calm down, Vice. She went to have some last minute tests done. She demanded I not wake you up, said something about you needing all of the rest you can get, because you’re ugly as shit when you’re tired, I guess.” He shrugs. “I’m used to you being ugly though.”
“Fuck off,” I grumble. I stretch my body and groan out loud. The chair I’ve been sleeping in the past week has killed my back. I don’t care though, I’d sleep in it one hundred more times if it meant she was still breathing next to me in her bed.
“How’s Alex?” I ask
to keep my mind busy so I don’t go off looking for her.
“He’s still the same. He’s still under, but Doc said they are going to start lowering his meds tomorrow and wake him up. They think he will be okay since Schuyler started CPR right away and Doc kept it up until they got a vent in him.” Chris shrugs.
We all have been sitting on egg shells since Alex and Schuyler got shot.
The door clicks open and Chris and I turn.
All the aggravation that was crawling under my skin has vanished at the sight of my angel.
“Damn, sweetheart. I’ll never get tired of looking at you,” I tell her once again.
She smiles and, with her nurse’s help, walks and sits at the end of her bed. I walk over and put my arms around her head and she rests it on my stomach.
“I’ll never get tired of being in your arms,” she breathes.
“You guys are so fucking cute,” her nurse, Bridget, says.
We all chuckle at her statement. She is one of those girls with a huge, dirty mouth, but a small frame so it just sounds funny coming out of her mouth.
“I don’t know how your man puts up with you,” Doc says to her as he walks in.
“Well, if you want to know, he loves my dirty mouth.” She winks.
We all groan out loud but her and Schuyler giggle with each other.
The Angels helped her and her ol’ man out not too long ago when they had trouble their way. Chris and her ol’ man, Aaron, grew up like brothers together. Aaron ended up making a name for himself with his business and Chris became the youngest president in Fallen Angels history. They still keep in contact, but when you hear them talk to each other, it sounds like rivals speaking. It’s funny really because you can tell they really were like brothers.
“Alright, honey. You need to take it easy. Don’t let these men make you do a single thing. Go home and rest. Make them wait on you, hand and foot,” Bridget tells her as she removes all the IV ports from her hands and arms.
“Like she even has to think about me letting her lift a finger,” I scoff.
Doc laughs and shakes his head. “Alright, Schuyler, here is your discharge papers. Basically, I want to see you again every week for the next four. The way the bullet ripped through your shoulder is going to make it hard for it to heal. You’re a lucky girl that you didn’t turn around all the way around. I will look at it back at the clubhouse, so you don’t have to come in here weekly. Don’t worry about that.”
“Can I ride with Vice?” she asks with hope in her tone.
“Yes, but I’m not kidding, Schuyler, take it easy. Let him help you mount and let him help you off. Don’t put any weight on that shoulder,” he tells her sternly.
“See! I do get to ride home with you!” She is excited, and that fire I love blazes bright as the sun in her eyes.
I chuckle and nod my head. “I heard, sweetheart.” I kiss her head as I walk to get my bag next to my chair.
“Alright, I just have a few more things to chart and then I’ll be out of here,” he tells us.
As I put our stuff into my duffel, I hear her snickering. I turn my head and she has her phone in her hand laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I ask and look at Chris who also has a puzzled look on his face.
“I think she is still on the good meds,” Chris says.
“Ha. Ha. No,” she says and flips him off. “I have a picture of Vice shirtless as my lock screen. See?” She flips her phone around.
“Ookaay…” Chris drawls out.
“When I swipe my screen to unlock,” she uses her pointer finger to show us. “My finger slides right over his happy trail. I get to rub my fingers all over this man.” She grins huge and I bust out laughing.
Schuyler is like a breath of fresh air. Our childhoods were different, but our adult lives are made out of the same sand. Only we had different stones to jump as our journey continued. When I ran into that alley last week and saw her father’s bodyguard choking on his blood, pointing the barrel of his pistol at the woman I love more than anything, time slowed down.
When she dropped to her knees and looked at the blood dripping off her fingers, my feet felt rooted to that alleyway. My heart was ripped out of my chest. I did the one thing I knew I was good at. I finished taking the life out of the piece of shit that shot her.
I punched him over and over and over, until his face didn’t even symbolize a human anymore. And even then, I kept going. Chris pulled me off him, by the shoulders, and then I swung on him. My fist connected with his eye and when he swung back and landed a punch to my chest, the red haze started to lift.
I ran to Schuyler’s side and, like she did for Alex, I pumped her chest until Doc took over. T held her wound shut and when the EMS got there, no one argued when I jumped in the back of the bus and rode with her.
I got kicked out of the hospital that night for hitting Chris and Matt. She went into shock, so they forced me out of her room. With literal force, Chris and Matt dragged me out of her room. When the door closed, I turned and swung at Chris again. My fist connected with the same eye as before. When Matt tried to hold me down from behind, my head snapped back and hit his nose.
They escorted me off hospital property, and once I got to the grass, I dropped to my knees, and did the only thing I could think to do, I prayed to God,
“Please, give this scared rebel his angel.” If He had any faith in me, He wouldn’t take her from us, not yet. He would breathe life into her again. I pleaded, in the pouring rain, on my knees, to a man I’m not sure exists. There I was, a sinner, on my knees, in the pouring rain. With nothing to lose, I bared my soul to anyone who could see. I vowed, I would be the man she needed, if He let her stay with us. With me. Because if I didn’t have anything left to care about, I would be one dangerous man.
I stand watching the woman who owns me, giggle at her lock screen, and I silently thank the man above for giving her a second chance.
“Alright, you guys ready?” Chris asks.
“Yes!” Schuyler yells as she fist bumps the air.
“Will you take my bag to the house, Doc?” I nod to my duffle.
“Yeah, no problem, VP.”
“Thanks for taking care of my ol’ lady,” I tell Doc as we shake hands.
“Best patient I ever had.” He laughs.
“You love me,” Schuyler says in a sing-song voice, as she walks out the door.
“Looks like I better run after her or else she will most likely steal my bike.” I laugh.
I walk after Schuyler and pull her hand in mine.
“I’m so excited to go home,” Schuyler sighs as we step on the elevator.
“Me too, sweetheart. If it’s ok with you, I don’t give a damn where we go.”
We walk out to the parking lot and Schuyler stops and takes a deep breath of fresh air.
“I am so glad I nagged Doc all week about getting to ride home with you. This day is just too beautiful to pass up a motorcycle ride,” she sighs a happy sound.
“Here, let me help you onto my bike. It is the doctor’s orders after all,” I tell her. I lift her by the waist and I place her onto the seat.
“I do love your hands on me,” she teases with a wink.
I lean down and sip at her lips. She opens for me with no hesitation, and welcomes my tongue with hers.
She breaks the kiss with a tug on my bottom lip. “I’ve missed you,” she says right before Chris pulls up on his bike.
“You guys ready to get out of here? There is a party calling Schuyler’s name going on at the clubhouse,” he says over the idle of his bike.
“I’m ready!” Schuyler answers, full of life, carefree, and happy.
“I still can’t believe all of your nagging about riding home worked.” Chris laughs. “Why didn’t you just ride in a cage home?”
She looks Chris in the eyes and then shifts her gaze back to me. She smiles the most breathtaking smile and turns her attention back to the Prez.
“Because, Chris, four wheels
move the body. But two wheels… that moves the soul.”
The End
OTHER TITLES
OUT NOW
WORTH THE FIGHT
WORTH IT SERIES: BOOK ONE
COMING SOON
WORTH THE WAR
WORTH IT SERIES: BOOK TWO
Please keep a look out for the next in this series
WORTH THE LIES
FALLEN ANGELS MC SERIES: BOOK TWO
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My Vice: Fallen Angels MC (Fallen Angels MC Series Book 1) Page 11
