They all seem to come true.
The gasp sounds from my lips.
Instantly, the tears cloud my eyes and stream down my face.
Lifting my hand to my mouth, I stare at my beautiful cousin. The strongest girl I’ve ever known lays there a victim.
“Jesus Christ,” Jack mutters.
Cobra reaches for me but I shrug him off, spin around and glare at him.
“You didn’t tell me it was my cousin,” I cry, wiping my cheeks with the back of my hand.
It’s hard enough when some stranger walks off the street and you have to do this. It’s fucking brutal to do it to someone you love.
“Go get my bag,” I order him, glancing around the room at the men surrounding me.
Needing someone to blame, not having a visual of her attacker, I take my anger out on the men here and suppress my desire to rip each of them apart. To wish their whole fucking breed to hell in a handbasket.
“Get out. All of you get out,” I seethe.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Stryker demands. “I promised her I wouldn’t leave her.”
“Little late for that, right?” I hiss, knowing he walked away from her the minute things became too real for him.
Bastard.
Gina moves on the bed and Stryker attentively turns his attention toward her. I want to hate him and tell him this is all his fault. I know that she was brokenhearted a few days ago when she called me over to her house. I cut him some slack then because she told me he suffered from PTSD, but now, I don’t care what the fuck he has. He shouldn’t have left her side. If he was a man of his word, she’d still be safe.
“It’s okay,” he murmurs as a sob rips through her and echoes off the walls of the room.
“Stryker,” she whispers faintly.
“I’m here, pretty girl,” he whispers, dropping to the edge of the bed beside her.
“You’re really here,” she whispers.
“I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. Your cousin is here, she’s going to help get you cleaned up. Okay?”
“Celeste?”
I swallow, the lump painfully pushes down my throat as I quickly wipe away my tears and take a step forward.
“Right here,” I say as I stand behind Stryker.
Violence stares back at me in the form of my cousin and I fight my emotions, knowing I have to treat her as if she is my patient and not my beautiful cousin.
“How about we start with a shower?”
Gina glances between us and nods as more tears fall from her eyes. She doesn’t let go of Stryker’s hand at first and I stand idly watching as he lifts his fingers to gently touch her bruised cheek.
“I’ll be right outside and when you’re done Celeste will come and get me. I won’t leave your side, pretty girl. I won’t.”
“Okay,” she whispers hoarsely.
“Okay,” he repeats, dropping his hand from her cheek. Lifting their joined hands to his lips, I watch him gently brush his lips across her knuckles. Releasing her, he stands and turns to look at me.
I turn my gaze back to my cousin.
“I’ll be right outside. You call me when you’re done,” he demands.
I don’t respond as Cobra returns with my tote bag and sets it on the foot of the bed. Stepping around Stryker, I sit on the edge of the bed as the men file out of the room. Gina peers at me through her less swollen eye. A tear slips from her pretty green eye.
Defeated and destroyed.
Tears fall from my own eyes as my thumb brushes away her tears. Leaning over her, I gently lift her fragile body into my arms and she sobs into my shoulder.
Every day, hundreds of Americans are affected by sexual violence.
You don’t realize it because we don’t think about it every day.
Rape.
We don’t think about it until we live it.
Until it has a name.
Until it has a face.
Until you’re standing in the bathroom of a motel with your cousin.
Until you remove her skirt to discover the bastards took her underwear.
Until you watch her cry as you remove her favorite silk blouse—a blouse torn and covered in her blood.
Until you realize they fondled her breasts and never had the decency to cover her when they were done.
Until your cousin is standing before you completely nude trying to cover herself from your sorrowful eyes.
Until you’re pulling out a rape kit you stole.
Until you’re prying your cousin’s legs apart, inserting multiple swabs into her vagina and her mouth.
Until you’re injecting her with needles full of antibiotics and a tetanus shot.
Until you hand her a glass of water and the morning-after pill.
Until you ask her if the temperature of the water is okay before you help her into the shower, watching as the water hits her body and the blood slide off her and fades down the drain.
Until you give her the privacy she craves and sob as she showers away the shame.
“I’m right here, Gina,” I croak, begging myself to hold it together.
She needs me.
She needs me.
After a while I peel back the curtain and help her wash her hair. At first she cringes at my touch then slowly relaxes.
I say relax because it makes me feel better.
But the truth is she resigns.
She gives up.
Closing the water, I take her hand and help her step out of the shower. Squeezing her hand, I watch as she lifts her head and stares at herself in the mirror for the first time.
Rape.
You don’t think about it until it has a face.
-Thirty-two-
Cobra
Not ten seconds after we step out of the motel room, Jack closes the door and Stryker charges for Rocco, grabbing him by the lapels of his suit jacket. He throws him up against the brick wall of the motel.
“You son of a bitch,” he growls.
“Jesus,” Jack hisses. “Get him off him, Cobra.”
Following his command, I tear Stryker off the gangster and watch as Jack steps between them.
“One of you better start fucking talking or so help me Jesus Christ,” he snarls. “Let’s start by telling me how the fuck you knew Rocco had a sister.”
“I met her the night I came home,” he reveals, stepping away from Rocco. “I didn’t know she was his sister at first.”
“Gee, that makes this fucking mess so much better,” Jack bites back sarcastically, scowling at Rocco.
“You knew your sister was hanging around one of my brothers.”
Just as guilty as Rocco, I keep my mouth shut and watch the scene unfold.
“I did, and he offered to help me protect her when you wouldn’t fucking give me the time of day,” Rocco sneers.
“Well, a fine job of protecting you all did,” Jack seethes, pointing to the door.
“It’s over, from this point forward Gina isn’t Rocco’s sister. She’s my girl, and my girl has been attacked which makes this a club issue and no longer any of this prick’s business. However…” Stryker says, pointing a finger toward Rocco, “…you will tell him everything you fucking know about Yankovich—”
The blood in my veins grows cold at the mention of the cocksucker. Battling my own turmoil since I first laid eyes on Gina in that ally, it was easy for me to think Yankovich was capable of a heinous crime, figuring my sister likely suffered the same fate as Gina.
However, after not hearing much on the man for years and just learning he was a player again, I wasn’t prepared for him to be named as a man who did this now. I wasn’t prepared to know he struck again and so soon.
“Wait a minute,” I interrupt. “Are we sure this was Yankovich? I mean anyone could’ve done this, a complete stranger with no ties to either organization could’ve attacked Gina.”
“I’ve been trying to intercept a leasing agreement Yankovich made with Triton Containers,” Rocco admits. “If everything went through h
e no longer would have the capabilities to transport his shipment to Russia, which he’s planning on doing soon. He’s a smart man with an army of soldiers behind him. Someone in his organization must’ve got wind of my plans and before I could sabotage his trade operation, he decided to teach me a lesson and he used my sister to do so.”
“What’s the Russian looking to transport?” Jack growls.
“Women and drugs. Something you would know if you fucking listened to me,” he snarls.
Jack’s jaw ticks as he turns his attention back to Stryker.
“Find out who did your girl dirty,” he orders. “Be sure before we throw our balls to the wind and go to war.”
“The club will back me?”
“She your woman, then she’s property of the Satan’s Knights and no one fucks with what is ours,” Jack declares, turning to me. Our conversation fresh in my mind. His promise to me to keep me and mine safe rings in my ears.
The man is making a lot of promises, vowing to keep everyone we love safe. Yet here we are, standing in a parking lot while Celeste takes care of Gina. The first victim, well, that’s assuming Rocco is wrong and Yankovich wasn’t responsible for the bomb.
Thinking about it now it makes sense. It’s typical Yankovich fashion. He sets up the Corrupt Bastards, leaves a trail for us to follow back to Boston and we take care of his dirty work. It’s no different from having my parents murdered and leading me to the hit men.
“Looks like you got your wish, boy. You ready to work with me?” Jack questions Rocco.
“If it brings justice to the people who hurt my sister, then I’ll do whatever the fuck you tell me to do.”
Jack glances between the two men vowing to protect Gina as I turn and make my way to the little girl I promised to keep safe. I knock on Deuce’s door and wait for him to let me in.
“Thank God,” he says, swinging the door open. “You’re a jerk, you know that?”
Eyeing him, I push past him and enter his room.
“Who doesn’t bring toys for the kid?”
I look over at the bed and watch as Skylar tosses a deck of cards up in the air as if she’s throwing confetti.
“Dude, I’m not equipped for kids. It was either the deck of cards or a clip. Be fucking grateful I didn’t teach your kid to shoot.”
“She’s one.”
“Start her young,” he says as he shrugs his shoulders. “That way she’ll be a sure shot by puberty. Ain’t no one gonna fuck with her.”
“Ain’t no one gonna fuck with her no matter what,” I reply as I make my way toward her.
“Dada,” she cheers, holding out her arms.
“She stinks by the way. What the hell are you feeding her?”
“You didn’t change her?” I ask, lifting her off the bed. I cringe when I get a whiff of her diaper.
“You’re kidding me, right?” he admonishes, throwing the diaper bag onto the bed. “I cross the line at diapers, man.”
Nuzzling Skylar’s neck, I lay her down on the bed and grab the diaper bag. I pull out a diaper, wipes and some shit that Celeste always seems to put on her. The sad thing is, I have no fucking idea what to do and I sort of look at the diaper like it’s a foreign object.
“Dude, can you hurry up? I gotta sleep with these fumes,” he taunts.
“Fuck you, man, I’m trying here,” I growl.
“Trying? You mean you’ve never changed her diaper before?”
“Celeste is always around,” I admit through clenched teeth. Ignoring the laughter that bubbles from the asshole’s mouth, I take off Skylar’s pajamas and brace myself for the diaper. My first diaper change and it would be the mother lode of shit.
“Get over here and help me,” I tell him. The bastard is saved by the knock on the door and I pray it’s Riggs. I called him on the way over, knowing he’s the experienced brother in this department. I wasn’t sure what would go down and knew Deuce couldn’t watch Skylar for a long period of time.
Deuce pulls the door open and by some fucking miracle Riggs leans against the door jamb.
“Thank God,” Deuce exclaims. “You know what to do with one of these, right?” he questions, pointing his thumb over his shoulder. Still holding the clean diaper like a ticking bomb, I lift Skylar from the bed and turn to Riggs.
“Have no fear, Uncle Riggs is here,” Riggs announces with a smirk. Taking in the sorry sight I am he crosses his arms against his chest.
“You’re so ducked,” he cheers gleefully.
Bastard.
“But don’t worry I took pity on your sorry asses and brought a qualified professional with me.”
“Unless you brought Mary-Fucking-Poppins with you—”
“Who?” Riggs cuts Deuce off. Waving his hand dismissively. “That doesn’t matter. Oh Mama Leone,” he singsongs, stepping aside to hold the door open. A strange woman steps inside the motel and immediately begins to scrutinize the room. Apparently it doesn’t meet her standards because she curls her lip and smacks Riggs upside the back of his head.
“Ouch!”
“That’s not Mary Poppins,” Deuce comments.
“No, she most certainly isn’t,” Riggs replies, rubbing the back of his head. “Meet my mother-in-law.”
“Not your mother-in-law yet. You still haven’t made an honest woman out of my daughter,” she spits, before turning her gaze to me.
The scary as fuck woman softens when her eyes land on my daughter. She closes the distance between us and claps her hands before reaching for Skylar.
“You want to come to Maria? Yeah, you do. Let’s get you out of this stinky diaper.”
Skylar extends her little arms and Maria takes her from me. Lifting her eyes to me, she sizes me up.
“She yours?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you might want to learn how to change her diaper.”
“Don’t be offended, man, she hates everyone. She smacked me in the face with a frying pan the first night she met me.”
“You tied me up.”
“All in good fun,” Riggs teases before pointing between me and Deuce. The playfulness leaves his face as he tips his chin toward the door.
“She’ll be in good hands,” he assures when I glance back at Maria who already has the dirty diaper off. After another moment of hesitation passes, I follow Deuce and Riggs out of the motel room.
My eyes drift two doors down to where Stryker is leaning against the door with Jack beside him. Reaching into his pocket, Deuce produces a pack of cigarettes and hands me one.
“How’s he holding up?” Riggs questions.
“Not good,” I reply, flicking the lighter.
“Man, she was in real bad shape,” Deuce adds. “Fucking disgusting what those animals did to that girl.”
“Jack’s not going to let that shit fly,” Riggs says.
“Jack’s making a lot of promises these days,” I comment.
“Don’t lose your faith in the Bulldog, Cobra, he’s not the guy you bet against,” Riggs says.
I’m not losing my faith but I’m having a hard time understanding how we’re going to pull everything off. I’m having a hard time understanding how Jack is going to keep everyone safe and still get his due vengeance.
The door opens to Stryker’s room and I watch Celeste talk to him and Jack. I can’t make out what they’re saying so I flick my cigarette into the street and start for her. Stryker steps around her and enters the room, leaving Celeste with Jack.
“Thank you for what you did,” he says with a curt nod. “Appreciate it.”
“For what I did,” she repeats.
Pulling the door closed behind her, she narrows her eyes and steps closer. Realizing she’s about to spew fire at my president, I step between them and force her to look at me.
“You okay?” I ask, knowing she’s not and that question will only make her angrier.
“Am I okay?” she asks incredulously, her eyes wide.
“You got fire, girl, you give it to me,” I tel
l her, pulling her gently away from the door. She snatches her arm away from me and pushes me back with all her might.
“You want my fire, Cobra? You sure about that? Because the way I’m feeling right now, I will burn the fuck out of you and everyone associated with you. Including your boss,” she says pointing a thumb to Jack before darting her eyes toward Rocco. “And you,” she adds, stepping closer to him. “You bastard,” she hisses.
Rocco pushes his hands into his pockets and stares back at her.
“Are you proud of who you are? Of your choices?” she hollers, balling her hands into fists. “You might as well have put a bullet in your sister’s head because that girl in there is dead and it’s all your fault. Your choices raped your sister and I’ll bet my life your mother is rolling in her grave right now, Rocco.”
His face remains stoic, his eyes red as he keeps them pinned to Celeste and takes her heat.
“Celeste,” I say, reaching for her. “Come on, baby—”
She turns to me and glares at me.
“Get away from me,” she sneers. “You blindsided me tonight. You made me think I was helping some stranger.”
“Gina needed you to be a nurse and not her cousin,” I argue. “You’re upset and you’re emotional, all of which you’re entitled to be, but once you calm down you’ll realize Gina needed you to be her nurse. You gave her something you couldn’t give Alexandria.”
Lifting the backs of her hands, she wipes the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“We don’t know what happened to her,” I rasp. “She could’ve been lying in an ally too. She could’ve been raped and left for dead. No one saved her. No one rescued her.”
I pause as she lifts her head and meets my gaze.
“It’s horrible what happened to your cousin and I swear on everything that matters to me in this world, I will do my part to make sure whoever did this pays. You need to know you did a good thing tonight.”
“Stop,” she demands. “I don’t want you making promises of revenge to me. No one wins, not you and sure as hell not me. You want to talk about Alexandria? Make this about her? Okay, here’s a fact, Jagger. You spent a good portion of your life trying to make the bastard pay and when you finally give it up and start to live for yourself, you get sucked right back into that pit. You’ll never be free from it and it’s a shame because our daughter is going to feel all that. She’s going to feel it more than anyone.”
The Nomad Series-Collectors Edition Page 53