Broken & Burned (25 page)

“I get you.” Sparks said and smiled.

“Baby.” I said but her eyes were far away for a second too long. “Em.” I tried again. She looked at me.

“Yeah?” she looked exhausted, deep lines of pain engraved around her mouth and eyes.

“Fuck Baby, I know you don’t like ‘em but take a pain pill for me? Sleep some?” I asked her.

“For you.” She said, nodding.

I got one out of the little orange pill bottle and handed her a glass of water from the night stand. She drank the pill down obediently and handed me back the glass. I eased her down so she was reclining, stuffing some pillows behind her to make her comfortable.

“Thank you.” She said and I smiled, smoothing back some of her hair. Sparks looked on but said nothing.

“I’ll be back soon Baby.” I murmured and kissed her lightly. Her fingertips grazed my face as she returned the kiss and when I drew back, her steely blue eyes were filled with a vulnerability and practically begged me not to go.

“Just escort me back out to your common area and I’ll let you get back to your girl.” Sparks said.

“Thanks man.” I said and got up. I took him out and nodded to my pops and let them do whatever they wanted. Right now Everett needed me and damn it. I needed her too.

Everett…

Dray left the room with the scarred biker president from the club whose member shot me and I swallowed hard. I scrubbed at my face with my hands and let out a shuddering sigh. I hadn’t meant for anyone to catch me mid-meltdown. I tried to keep things like that under wraps and to myself.

Dray slipped back into the room and shut the door behind him. He slipped off his jacket and cut with a sigh and it was like he stripped the burden of his Vice Presidency that came with it off too.  He hung it on the hook by the door and turned to look me over. He looked as tired as I felt, anxiety radiating off of him like heat from a summer sidewalk. I swallowed hard, my throat squeezing tight with guilt at being the cause of his discomfort.

“Don’t.” he said and his voice was hard… “Don’t do that Em, don’t cry.” He said and he trudged the few short steps across the carpet to sit down beside me on the bed.

“I love you and it kills me to see you cry.” He said and I sniffed back the threatening tears nodding a little too rapidly. He pulled his shirt over his head and let it drop to the floor before bending to pull off his boots.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Getting into bed with my woman.” He answered back succinctly. He dropped his pants and lifted the blankets and spent several minutes getting the pillows out from under my leg and both of us tucked in. He held me close and let me find a position that was comfortable, or as close as I was going to get to it with my leg the way it was.

“I’m not going anywhere or doing anything else Baby so just relax.” He said into my hair. I closed my eyes and held close to him.

“I missed you.” I said thickly. The pain medicine was starting to severely blur the edges of my consciousness.

“I’m here now.” He said and it was true. He was, and I drew strength from having his hard body up against mine.

I fell asleep, much more fitfully that when I’d tried to on my own, wrapped up warm and safe against Dray’s chest, his hands playing along my body, rubbing up and down my arms, my back, through my hair, just anywhere he could reach. It had been a long time since a masculine presence had comforted me. Probably since before my da’ had died. Jerry hadn’t really tried to understand the depth of the hit I’d taken losing the only parent I had ever really known.

Dray, even though he still had his da’, he understood. We connected on a sublevel, the very fibers of our being weaving together into a beautiful tapestry… Two broken halves made whole. I knew it, deep down where it counted, that we were somehow meant for each other. I think he did too. He didn’t say it, he didn’t have to… he telegraphed it just as surely with every look, every touch and with every little nuanced thing he did for me. From opening doors to carrying my bag, to holding me close and smoothing away my tears.

Draven loved me just as surely as I loved him and that, in and of its self, would go a long way in healing my hurts. Jerry and life in general may have burned me but good in recent memory but meeting and loving Dray was a soothing balm to my soul and made all the nasty bits bearable. I was vaguely aware of the bedroom door opening.

“Go away. I’m with my girl.” He said, without even opening his eyes and I smiled. The door shut and we slept some more and I felt much better for it. We woke sometime in the evening. A light rap at the door and it opened. We turned to look and Ashton poked her head inside.

“I fixed a late dinner. You should both eat.” She said gently. I smiled.

“Thank you.” I said. She nodded and ducked back out.

“I take it that means you’re hungry?” Dray asked with a vague smile in the dark. I nodded.

“How’s your pain?” he asked, expression darkening.

“Okay. I should probably take something more.” I sighed.

“Yeah well, let’s get you some food.” He extracted himself from beneath me and I nodded. He found my crutches and switched on the bedroom’s lamp on the back of the headboard. The little clock radio glowed that it was after eleven thirty. I yawned and he helped me get up.

“Hey, look who’s up.” Doc said as we went into the common room. Dragon was sitting at a table with Doc and they were eating. Ashton brought two plates to their table and set them down. I sat by Doc, Dray across from me by his dad.

“So what’s the word?” Dray asked.

“Sparks and Griz left out of here right after you brought him back out.” Dragon took a drink of his beer before going on.

“Said they’d be in touch as soon as they had their house in order.” He shrugged.

I tucked into warm mac and cheese and sighed in pure bliss. Ashton knew how to cook! I smiled at her when she and Trigger set down plates beside mine and Drays and pulled over another table. They joined us and we ate in relative silence for a time.

“Your red headed friend came by why you was asleep. She said Dray told her to get lost and looked a little butt hurt about it. I told her I’d have you call her when you got up.” Dragon said.

“Ah, so that’s who it was. I didn’t look.” Dray said. I smiled across the table at him but secretly feared Mandy’s feelings were really hurt. She was sensitive, God love her, and I had no clue how she managed to be as awesome as she was with her father the way he was around her given that sensitivity. Gravel crunched out front but no one seemed concerned. I guess they were used to people coming at all hours. All of our heads shot up when a light rap fell at the door.

“Who the fuck is that?” Trigger asked no one in particular. Chairs scraped as he, Dragon Doc and Dray stood up as one. Dragon pulled a gun out of the back of his waist band and went for the door. Doc had a gun of his own in hand and Trigger went with Dragon. Dray stood, hands to his sides, held slightly away from his body in a fighter’s ready stance. Ashton looked surprised and we traded alarmed and helpless looks. Apparently knocking was something to be alarmed about?

Trigger palmed the door handle and ticked off three fingers on three he jerked the door open and stood behind it, Dragon aiming his handgun out the open portal. He aimed the gun skyward.

“The fuck you doin’ back here unannounced?” he asked. A throat cleared and a pair of meaty hands held skyward appeared inside the door frame.

“Was hoping to talk to your VP and his girl. My club has a little present for ‘em.” The gun came back down and aimed at a great big bear of a man I didn’t know.

“What kind of present?” Dray asked.

“A peace offerin’, if you’d be so kind as to come with me. Bring who you want. I drove in my grocery getter so the girl can come too.”  Trigger patted the man down while he spoke.

“He’s clear.” The blonde Viking declared.

“Trig, step out and keep an eye on him.” Dragon addressed his Sergeant At Arms then leveled the big man with his dark stare.

“Can’t be too careful, you understand.” He said.

“That I do. Not tryin’ nothin’, my lips to God’s ear. We want to make things right between us.” The man put one palm down and held the other in its place as if he were swearing on a bible and took a step back. Trigger followed him out and the door closed.

“Lot of balls to come back here that quick.” Doc muttered.

“Who is he?” I asked softly.

“That’s Griz, he’s the Suicide King’s VP.” Dray answered.

“Do you think he meant what he said?” Ashton asked softly, fear evident in her golden eyes as she stared at the closed door her man had just gone through.

“I think so.” Dragon said thoughtfully.

“Been a minute since we’ve had to play inter-club politics.” Doc observed, then swore. I could swear I heard him mutter “I’m getting’ too old for this shit.”

“What could they possibly have for us?” I asked.

“Think along the lines of your dad’s friends for me Babe.” Dray said pointedly and I swallowed.

“Nothing good then,” I stated dryly, “But not necessarily bad for
us
.” I mulled things over and looked up at Dray.

“What will happen if we don’t go?” I asked.

“Mmm maybe it’s an insult too big for these boys to swallow. Could start a war.” Dragon observed. I mulled things over further, Dray watching me, his face schooled into an undecipherable mask. Cool, appraising.

“If it’s up to me I say we should go.” I said at last.

“Why?” Dray asked.

“If they are on the level then it’s nothing that will hurt us, and if we refuse its war and they’ll have a legitimate gripe and ability to vilify us. If they
aren’t
on the level, and its war as a result, it will be war on a wrong done to
us
.  We’ll have the moral high ground and you can always recruit soldiers to your cause when you have the moral high ground.” I looked up at all the semi-stunned faces.

“What? It’s nothing I haven’t heard before… I come from a land of martyr’s and cutthroats all in the name of freedom fighting. My fairy tales growing up were of Irish car bombs and foul English overlords.” I said, voice full of derision.

It was a double edged sword growing up around the people I had. On the one hand I didn’t have any illusions about the way things were in situations like this… on the other hand… I didn’t have any blissful ignorance either. I sighed out. This was making me tired. I ate another bite of food.

“Does that mean you’re going?” Ashton whispered.

“Yeah,” I answered suddenly annoyed, my backbone coming back from where ever it’d crawled off to. “It also means I’ve about had it with these Suicide Monkeys and after this I hope they’ll leave me the Hell alone!” Dragon’s booming laughter filled the common space of the Sacred Heart’s club house and he looked at his son.

“Boy, she’ll make you a damned fine Queen someday.” He said. Dray was smiling a slight little smile that told me nothing of what he was thinking. He looked down at me from where he stood and I could swear there was a glint of fierce pride in his deep dark eyes.

“Yeah. I think you’re right pops.” He said. And so it was I found myself back in Dray’s sweats in the back seat of Griz’s land yacht of a 70’s Caddie with my fucked up leg across Dray’s lap. Doc rode in the front passenger seat and Dragon and Trigger followed behind on their bikes as we drove into the next county over to the Suicide Kings’ modest clubhouse out in the middle of some industrial area. I felt my heart thundering against my ribs hard and harder as Griz shifted the old beastly car into park.

A Suicide King with a red and yellow Mohawk opened my door and Doc was there with my crutches. It was awkward getting out but once I was on the crutches and on my feet with Dray beside me I felt a little bit better, a little bit more in control. I took in a deep, silent, cleansing breath and let it out slowly. I was surrounded by Dragon, Dray, Doc and Trigger and it wasn’t lost on me that they acted as a living shield. Sparks, the scarred bald man from earlier, came out of a worn old heavy looking door and held his hands open wide in greeting. He shook Dragon’s hand.

“This way. Please.” He motioned and we went through the door into a wide open space with a large round bar and scattered tables and chairs. There was a loft area to one side and metal steps leading up to it. Chains and metal were everywhere and it looked like something out of the old post-apocalyptic Mad Max movies my da’ watched with me when I was a kid.

“Nice place you got here.” Dragon uttered and he sounded impressed.

A crowd of bikers in Suicide Kings colors turned toward us and we stopped in the center of the great expanse of room. My skin prickled with unease.

“So our boy Spaz made bail today.” Sparks said and turned to face us. I swallowed hard and the mass of black leather and chains undulated a little and the bikers in front of us parted, spewing the man who’d shot me to the cement floor at our feet. I jumped slightly. Dray’s hand automatically went to my lower back and rested there. I felt steadier and grateful for him, but didn’t dare take my eyes from the man sprawled at our feet.

His wrists were bound behind him with sturdy industrial zip ties and were turning purple with the length of time they’d been like that. A yellow bandana was clasped between his teeth and tied tight against the back of his head. Drool soaked it and ran down his chin. His brown eyes were wide and wild and his breath sawed in and out of his chest in great panicked gasps.

“You want him Out Bad, and truth is Sweetheart, we do too.” Sparks said and I raised my eyes to meet his. His eyes sparkled with cold mirth and calculation. “I want this to be a lesson to all of you!” he shouted over his shoulder, back at his crew. “We don’t cause trouble with other clubs! We don’t go pulling petty crimes robbing coffee stands for drug money and
we don’t go shooting innocent girls!
” Griz stepped forward and hauled Spaz back by his collar onto his back and dragged him back a few paces. A gun appeared in Spark’s hand from beneath his cut as he turned and everything happened in slow motion.

Steady Evy m’girl. No emotion. Just steady as she goes.
I heard my father say but it wasn’t like in the coffee stand, this was simply me replaying his voice in my own head for my own benefit. Dray’s hand pressed harder into my lower back and the whole world slowed down to nothing. Sparks aimed the gun slowly but surely and pulled the trigger. The world erupted in a riot of sound and light. Blood flew from the man who’d shot me… from his leg, same as mine… I stared down at him dispassionately and couldn’t say it bothered me one whit. My ears rang from the shot and sound slowly returned to me and it was of a deafening silence that slowly back filled with the muffled screaming and crying of the man on the ground in front of me.

I turned my head and met Dray’s eyes, so sad and dark and he met mine. Something passed between us in that moment. An acknowledgment of just how monstrous and barbaric our standing here bearing witness was… and an equal acknowledgment, at least to each other, that this was the natural order of things in our world. I looked down at the man writhing on the floor one more time and turned my eyes up to Sparks.

“Are we done here then?” I asked. My Irish brogue out in the fore.

“You accept our apology?” he asked smiling. The bastard.

“Aye, tha’ I do.” I said and he nodded.