Heathens

by Eliza Marsh

  “Watch the baby,” she muttered, stomping around the bar as the bikers in the room tried to contain their laughter.

  “Don’t hurt him too much!” Murphy shouted after her, grinning wildly as he leaned against his pool stick. “Yeah, he’s fucked,” he muttered after she was out of earshot, getting a round of nods in reply.

  “Think those two will ever figure their shit out?” Taco asked curiously, staring after the woman as she disappeared down the hall.

  Leaning down to line up his shot, Ian replied with a weary shake of his head. “Hell, if they don’t, then the rest of us are doomed.”

  Stopping in front of the beat-up wooden door that was second on the right, Jackie took a deep breath before banging her fist against it roughly. It took another round of banging before the door was finally flung open with an irritated yell.

  “What?” Dean exclaimed in annoyance before he saw who was standing in front of him. “Oh.”

  “Oh?” Jackie asked in indignation, not waiting for an invitation to enter as she shoved past him into the room. “Total silence for three days and all I get is an ‘oh?'”

  Closing the door with a sigh, Dean maintained his position near the exit as Jackie turned on him, arms crossed angrily over her chest. “I was gonna call you.”

  “When? Tomorrow? Next week? In six months?”

  “When I had figured all of this out,” he bit out forcefully, trying to keep his cool.

  “Is it that hard of a choice? Your drugs or your family, Dean. If you have to think about it even for a second, then I’ll be happy to choose for you.” The look of heartbreak on her tired face conflicted with the strong words.

  Dean sighed and closed the space between them, stopping only when they were separated by a few inches. “I love you,” he said with a quiet conviction. “And I love Ollie. There’s nothing in this world that makes me happier than you two. I know I fucked up. It was never supposed to go this far.” He reached up with one large hand to cup her face. “I never wanted you to see me out of control. I just need a little time to get clean, so that I can finally do right by you and Ollie.”

  She laid her hand on top of his as she leaned into his hand, closing her eyes against the tears threatening to spill. Filled with relief at his words, she took a deep breath and looked back up at him. “Then come home, let me help you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

  He gathered Jackie into a hug tight against his chest. “I know, Jack. This is on me, not you. I just-”

  Anything else he might have said was cut off by a loud pop and the shattering of glass.

  And that’s when the world exploded in a hailstorm of bullets.

  39

  Jackie was thrown to the ground before she could even comprehend what was happening, the sounds of gunfire and shattering glass filling her ears. As she registered Dean’s heavy weight covering her body, everything clicked into place, and her eyes widened with fear.

  “Ollie!” she shouted at Dean over the noise, trying to get herself out from underneath him. He tightened his iron grip to keep her still, not immediately understanding what she was saying. “Ollie is out there!” Her eyes filled with tears as she was consumed by the sole thought of getting to her child.

  Dean swore, his mind immediately torn between who to focus on protecting as pieces of glass and splintered wood rained down on them. “Stay here!” he shouted, pushing her towards the bed and motioning for her to use it as a barrier.

  Jackie had other ideas.

  As soon as he released his hold on her, she scrambled to open the door and was out of the room before Dean realized her intentions. Cursing loudly, he ran after her, thankful that the hallway was blocked by the two bedrooms and therefore was less of a bullet minefield. He grabbed her just as she reached the main room, where it seemed that the majority of the gunfire was focused. Taking them both to the floor, Dean tucked them at the edge of the wall where they were mostly safe to survey the scene.

  Jackie immediately focused her attention to the bar where she had last seen Ollie, searching for him through the dusty haze gathering in the room. She let out a choked sob as she found him safely tucked against Mack’s large body as they took shelter behind the bar. Locking eyes with the hysterical woman, Mack nodded at her sternly, hoping Jackie would stay where she was and not risk a mad dash across the room. Although with the way Dean’s large, tattooed arms seemed to have her in a vice grip, she probably wouldn’t be able to do it even if she wanted to.

  Child safely located, Dean tried to get a headcount of the other bikers as they all took shelter behind various pieces of furniture. The poker table was on its side, and Taco was using it as a shield. He seemed shaken and beat up as he covered a motionless body on the floor next to him. Murphy was crouched under a window, firing his own gun blindly every now and then out of the gaping hole as he tried to get a glimpse of the shooters.

  Dean cursed, wanting desperately to help Murphy fight back, but also gravely concerned for whoever had been hit. But the shaking woman tucked against his chest was his current priority, and the barrage of bullets prevented him from safely getting any further into the room.

  What felt like an eternity later, in reality, was only about a minute.

  The noise of gunfire came to an abrupt halt, allowing Murphy to get a good view of the assailants just as the two black vans fled the scene with a screech of their tires. The silence left a ringing in their ears as everyone seemed to pause momentarily before a new kind of chaos filled the room.

  “Mack!” Taco yelled desperately, his head frantically searching the room for their resident medic. “I need you over here!”

  Jackie scrambled out of Dean’s hold and met Mack halfway, carefully taking the crying baby into her arms as she too finally let her tears flow. Dean was immediately at her side, one hand on Oliver’s head as the other cradled Jackie’s face.

  “Are you okay?” he asked shakily, the adrenaline surging through his body as he tried to gain control of the situation. Jackie could only nod in response, not able to form a coherent thought as she hugged the baby to her chest.

  A string of foul language from Mack ended the brief moment of comfort, and the pair moved to see him hovering over Ian’s prone body. The biker was bleeding heavily from multiple gunshots, and Jackie turned away quickly from the scene with a sharp gasp.

  Murphy wasted little time, charging out the door into the lot with his gun drawn.

  “Fuck, Murphy!” Dean yelled, not hesitating to follow his friend despite wanting to help Ian.

  Jackie was ready to call after him, the idea of him going after the culprits and getting killed all too real given the situation. Mack interrupted her train of thought, however, turning to look at her from his kneeled position with a stern expression.

  “Get me some rags from the bar,” he demanded firmly, the military discipline showing on his usually-jovial face. “Now!”

  She ran to the bar, grabbing the mostly intact infant carrier from its upturned position on the floor and settling Oliver into it quickly. “I’ll be right back, baby,” she whispered, her voice wavering with shock as she put the carrier on top of the bar in sight of the room. She then grabbed an armful of somewhat clean rags as requested and stumbled back to the bloody scene a few feet away. Elijah followed her slowly, looking a bit worse for wear but otherwise whole.

  Grabbing the rags from her hands, Mack directed his attention to Taco, who was pale and bleeding from his own head wound. “You gonna make it?” Mack asked gently, receiving a nod and a gulp from the young biker. “Good, put pressure on his leg wound, try to stop the bleeding.”

  Taco did as he was told, closing his eyes as the blood continued to seep through his fingers despite the pressure he applied. “Stupid idiot shoved me down and flipped the table by himself for us to use as a barrier,” he stuttered out, trying to take deep breaths. “It was too late. I got him as fast as I could.”

  The door swung open with a sharp thud, gaining the startled attentio
n of the group. Murphy and Dean stomped in, Murphy on the phone talking loudly to Luke. “I’m positive it was the Saints! We need to go after them!” he shouted angrily into the device.

  Dean approached as Murphy hung back to continue his report to the charter president. “We couldn’t catch them,” Dean informed them, much to Jackie’s relief.

  Until she saw that Dean was also bleeding and in need of medical attention.

  “Oh my god, you’ve been shot!” she exclaimed, one hand covering her mouth in horror as the other carefully reached out for his arm.

  Dean looked down to see a bullet wound near his shoulder, bleeding profusely, and grunted. “It happened right at the beginning, barely felt it. I’ll be fine.”

  She stared up at him wide-eyed, in awe that the man had taken a bullet while protecting her. “Sit down before you pass out from blood loss,” she demanded, shoving him into the only chair left standing after the barrage of bullets. Jackie grabbed one of the rags off the floor, then tried desperately to tie off the wound with it to staunch the bleeding.

  “Guys, this is way above my skill level,” Mack said tensely, trying not to alarm anyone. “Elijah, call an ambulance.”

  Dean stood up quickly, much to Jackie’s annoyance, and gently covered her hand on his shoulder with his own as he looked down at her. “I need to go hide as much shit as I can before the cops show up. You need to take Ollie and get out.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” she said fiercely, leaving no room to argue.

  “Jack, they’re gonna arrest us. You can’t get caught here with all this.” The bikers were already stuck with their fate with the guns and drugs in the clubhouse. He wouldn’t be able to get rid of it all in time. He didn’t want to risk the chance of the police trying to attach Jackie to their crimes as well.

  She shook her head, shoving him towards the back rooms. “They can’t pin shit on me, so I’m not going anywhere. Go do what you need to do, and then you need to get out of here.” When the prospect hung up the phone, she directed her attention to him. “Elijah, you too. Your family needs you, get out.”

  Dean at least listened to the first part of her request and headed down the hall to flush any drugs he could find, and Murphy ran after him to hunt for illegal weapons. Elijah was less compliant, immediately trying to fight her plan.

  “Paramedics are on the way. And if you’re not going, I’m not going.”

  “She’s right,” Mack pitched in as he did what he could to keep Ian from bleeding out on the floor. “There’s no point in us all going to jail. You and Taco should go, now. Jackie can stay and help me until the professionals get here.”

  “Like hell!” Taco exclaimed indignantly, not liking the idea of running and leaving his brothers behind to take the fall.

  “Go!” Jackie yelled, shoving Taco out of the way so she could take over applying pressure to Ian’s leg wound. She gulped at the amount of blood on the floor, trying to keep down the nauseous feelings that began creeping into her stomach. Ian looked pale and sweaty as he lay unconscious and bleeding. “Jesus,” was all she could whisper as she realized just how much damage had been done.

  Elijah grabbed a stunned Taco by the collar of his kutte, pulling him towards the exit reluctantly.

  “Dean and Murphy will be right behind you,” Jackie said reassuringly as the pair looked back one last time. They opened the door, only to be greeted by the sound of distant sirens. Several pairs of eyes widened, realizing all too quickly that the gunshots had already been called in to the authorities by a concerned neighbor.

  “Go!”

  40

  “Go!” Jackie urged them, hoping they could make it clear before the police arrived. They heeded her order, bolting through the door and into the parking lot. “Dean, Murphy! Time to go!”

  She cursed under her breath when they didn’t answer her or come running towards the main door. Turning her attention to Mack, they exchanged grim expressions as the man on the floor continued to bleed. “You should go too,” she said softly. “There’s nothing else you can do for him.”

  Mack shook his head vehemently as he tied off Ian’s arm with a rag and kept the pressure on a separate shoulder wound with his knee. “I’m not leaving him,” he replied forcefully.

  Nodding, she knew it was no use to try to talk him into it. The sirens began to blare from the lot seconds later, ending anymore thought of trying to escape just as Murphy and Dean entered the room. Jackie tried to hold back tears - for the man dying beneath her hands, for the bikers about to be arrested, for her son having to be torn from his father.

  It was everything she had feared would happen in this MC world coming true.

  Dean quickly ran over to Ollie’s carrier, still sitting on top of the bar with the baby nestled inside. “It’s gonna be okay, little man,” he said softly, running a hand through the dark hair on his tiny head. “Trust me.”

  The cops wasted little time busting into the clubhouse, their guns drawn and their voices loud.

  “Get on the floor!”

  “Hands up!”

  “Don’t move!”

  Obliging the officers’ orders, Murphy and Dean both lowered themselves to the floor with their hands out. “We’re the victims here!” Murphy exclaimed in annoyance, knowing the cops would show them no sympathy. “Not like we shot up our own clubhouse.”

  Mack and Jackie tried to remain calm, waiting for the police to take in the scene and take their aggression down a level. “We need a medic,” Mack said with a polite urgency. “Our hands are the only thing keeping this guy alive right now.”

  After a quick sweep of the room, several officers moved to search the bikers on the floor. Another group headed towards the back of the clubhouse. A final officer was left to direct multiple paramedics onto the scene, gesturing to the severely injured biker. They were quick to take over, leaving Mack and Jackie to back away from their fallen friend hesitantly.

  The commotion of the room’s new occupants disturbed Oliver as he lay in his carrier. Jackie moved quickly to stand next to him, gently rocking the fussy baby and whispering soft words of comfort. She locked eyes with Dean, who had been allowed to move to a sitting position on the floor, and he gave her a reassuring nod.

  The medics were quick to get Ian on a stretcher and out the door, much to the relief of the bikers in the room. The large pool of blood still on the floor, however, left their hopes for his survival low.

  It didn’t take long for the cops to exit the back rooms, triumphantly holding up a few unregistered guns. Murphy cursed under his breath, knowing the loose floorboard in the third bedroom was too obvious. He was thankful that they at least hadn’t seemed to find the stash in the tank of the toilet yet.

  “Well,” the officer in charge said with a smirk. “That’s at least enough to take you all into custody. Cuff ‘em!”

  Murphy and Dean both rolled their eyes as they were shoved back to the floor and cuffed roughly.

  “He’s hurt, be careful!” Jackie exclaimed angrily, gesturing to the bullet wound in Dean’s shoulder. “You can’t deny him medical attention.”

  A dark-haired officer approached her, seemingly unimpressed by her outburst. “We’ll take good care of him, sweetheart. Now turn around.”

  “What?” she asked in confusion but was answered only by the officer grabbing her arm and turning her around. Her torso hit the bar as he forced her arms behind her back and began cuffing her. “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Arresting you for child endangerment,” the officer replied, snapping the cuffs shut.

  Dean struggled from his position on the floor as Jackie was pulled away from the counter. “You can’t arrest her! She didn’t do anything.” Multiple cops moved to physically restrain the man as he fought to get to a standing position.

  “She is at the scene of a drive-by shooting where several unregistered firearms were found in the presence of felons and a minor.” The officer gestured to the crying baby and smiled proudly. “So yes,
I can absolutely take her into custody and will be calling Child Protective Services to get the kid.”

  Surging to his feet, Dean momentarily broke free from his captors and lunged for the man angrily, only to be grabbed once again by the officers around him.

  “Dean, stop,” Jackie pleaded over the noise of the commotion. “It’ll only make it worse.” The biker complied with her request, and the officers began to haul the group out of the clubhouse. Several police cars greeted them in the lot, their bright lights flashing dimly against the buildings in the fading, late-afternoon sun.

  An unmarked car pulled in just as the group reached the police vehicles, and Agent Diaz was quick to exit, followed closely by his silent partner.

  “I did tell you all that this was coming,” Diaz said smugly, hands casually on his hips as the pair walked over.

  “Fuck you,” Dean growled, staring him down with his most intense glare. Agent Malloy returned the expression, not outwardly sharing his partner’s happiness.

  “I believe you’re the one getting fucked here. Oh, and we caught the other two trying to escape not far from here. So don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of company while you’re locked up.”

  Jackie hung her head at the news that Elijah and Taco were also in custody, distraught with the knowledge that Charlotte and Logan would be without him for who knows how long.

  “Your evidence is circumstantial at best,” Mack said calmly, trying not to get caught up in the heat of the moment as he continued to worry about Ian. “Even if you do get us on some bullshit charge, we won’t be in long.”

  “They haven’t even searched the garage, yet you’re already in cuffs. I think that’s a good start.” Diaz was extremely satisfied by the outcome here, his dark eyes filled with joy, as Malloy and Dean continued their staring contest.

  “As for you,” Malloy said, speaking for the first time and directly to Dean. “You’re getting at least ten years with your record. Say goodbye to being a daddy.”