“Don’t worry about anything, Samantha. I’ll… no, my brothers and I will take care of you. I just need you to worry about getting better, then we’ll go from there, okay?” Brett says roughly.
“I know. It’s hard though. I’m also not sure of you. Why does life have to be so damn complicated and hard? I don’t know what to think anymore. I know you mean well. Loving you was never the problem. It has always been the half-truths or nothing at all from you. I want… no, I need a partnership. I want to be your everything. I need to come first,” I tell him.
“You are first in my life. You will see that. I love you, Samantha. I promise to prove it to you. Now let me get you inside and into our room. You need to rest,” he tells me as he gets out of the car.
I freeze, looking up at Dog. “I don’t want to share a room with you, Brett,” she abruptly tells me.
“Look, you may not want to, but I need to be close to help take care of you. We only have so many rooms at the moment. We’re in the process of building more rooms on to the clubhouse but it’s not completed. We’re adding another two wings on to back end of the club,” I tell her.
I look up and nod, raising my arms for Dog to help me out of the chair.
It takes a few minutes for him to get me out and into my chair. Dog bends down and kisses the side of my head. “I love you, Sam. We will work all of this out. As God as my witness, you will always come first for me,” he whispers in my ear. Grabbing the handles on the wheelchair, he takes and pushes me into the clubhouse. I hope he knows I’m not staying in that room all the time. I would go stir crazy doing that.
As we enter, I notice that most of the men are standing there. I also see Jenny as she comes forward. “I can take her and get her settled,” she tells Dog.
“Thanks, Jenny, but I’ll take care of her,” he tells her. He bends down, looking me in the eyes as he asks me, “You hungry, honey?”
“A little. Can I sit up and eat at the table though, please?” I ask him.
He nods at me. He pushes me forward and I notice that Jenny heads toward the kitchen. “Hey, Jenny, I would really love one of your omelets. Please?” I look at her with a smile on my face. “Don’t forget the gravy too. Please and thank you,” I tell her with a smirk on my face.
“You got it, honey. I’ll make you whatever you want,” she tells me.
Dog pushes me up to the table as someone places a cup of coffee down in front of me. I glance up. “Thank you, Crane.” I really appreciate all that the club has done for me.
“You’re welcome, Samantha. You doing okay?” he asks.
“Doing some better. I’m still a little stiff and the bruising looks worse now than before, but I’m not hurting as much. They told me; I would start therapy in about four to six weeks. Once I get out of this chair in three to four weeks, I’ll get a walker and finally a cane to get me through therapy. The doctor didn’t want me to take any chances of falling, so he thought it would be best for me to be in a chair for a little while. How have you been?” I ask Crane.
“Doing okay. I’m glad you’re going to be okay. If and when you need anything else, just holler out at me, please,” he says.
“I’m good. Thank you again, Crane,” I tell him with a smile.
“You’re welcome. If you need something, just don’t hesitate to ask us. We will be glad to help you get back on your feet,” he tells me.
As I look around, I see Bossman walking over toward me. He sits down next to me. “Do you remember anything about the accident, Samantha?” he asks me.
“It’s all a blur. In all honesty, I don’t even remember why I was out. It’s actually been driving me a little crazy,” I tell him.
“If you remember anything, let Dog or me know. We just want to make sure it was just that. An accident, I mean,” he tells me. “We’ll have someone with you at all times until you’re better. I don’t want you to worry about anything.” I nod.
Dog leans over and asks, “You doing okay?”
“Yeah, I’m a little tired but I’m hungrier than anything else at the moment. As soon as I eat, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll lie down for a while. It’s not that I don’t want to sit up, because I do, but I just want to rest for a little while,” I tell Dog.
“Okay, honey. Let’s get something in your belly and then it’s off to rest. Okay?”
I nod as a few others come over to see how I am. I sure have missed this. I notice that Brett hasn’t left my side for anything. One of the guys said he needed to talk to him, but Dog told him he would have to wait.
Jenny brings me my omelet and gravy with biscuits and I get about half of it eaten. I couldn’t eat another bite if I tried.
“Thank you, Jenny, it was delicious,” I tell her with a small smile.
“You’re welcome. I’m glad we had worked out what happened a while back. I promise that will never happen again. I won’t leave something like that to someone else ever again. I’ll tell you myself. You mean the world to me. You’re one of my best friends,” she states with emotion in her voice.
“Thank you for pushing for us to talk. I bottle shit up and hold on to it until it festers and explodes outward,” I tell Jenny.
“Love you, lady. Always. I’m glad you’re my friend. Will you be around?” I ask her.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here to help take care of you,” she tells me.
“Thank you again,” I tell her as I look toward Dog.
“Brett, I need to go lie down. I’m starting to hurt.” I say, not realizing he’s talking to Llaw.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were talking,” I tell him.
“You’re okay, beautiful. Llaw, I’m going to get her settled. We’ll talk about this later?” Dog asks him.
“Not a problem. You know where I’ll be. I have things to take care of too,” he tells Brett.
“I’m glad you’re okay and are here with us, Samantha,” Llaw tells me.
“Thank you, Llaw,” I say with a small smile. I don’t know him as well as some of the others, but he’s always been very nice to me when we have been around each other.
Dog undoes the latch on the wheelchair and starts to go toward the back. We get to his room and he opens the door. We get inside and I notice that there are some changes to the room. The bathroom door is wider, and it looks like the table was taken out. In its place, there’s a chair with a remote.
“What did you all do?” I ask him.
“We’re taking care of one of our own. You need a chair that you can sit in and relax. The bathroom door and shower had to be fixed. The shower was taken out and rebuilt so that it will accommodate a wheelchair or a shower chair,” he tells me. Parking the chair next to the bed, he bends down and slides his hands under my arms.
“Lift your arms up and around my neck, beautiful. Let’s get you in bed so you can get some rest. Then later, if you’re up to it, I’ll help you take a shower. How does that sound?” he asks me.
I look up with tears in my eyes. “Thank you. I would love to have a shower. I feel kinda gross with all the sponge baths. Thank you for taking care of me,” I tell him.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, beautiful. You’re mine and I’ll always take care of what’s mine. I may fuck shit up from time to time, but always remember, I love you. You’ll always come first for me. You understand what I’m telling you? You will be first in my life from now on,” Dog states.
I nod my head not sure he can do what he’s saying. He lifts me up into the bed and covers me up with my favorite minky blanket. He props my foot and leg up on a pillow. “Comfortable?” he asks.
He lies down next to me and begins to talk softly. We talk off and on for a little while and I vaguely remember the knock on the door when someone comes in and speaks to Brett. I’m out like a light and don’t remember anything past that point.
Chapter Eight
Dog…
Hearing the knock, I say in a low tone of voice, “Come on in.”
“Mee
ting in thirty minutes. I’ve already put out a mass text to the ones not here,” Bossman tells me.
“I need someone to come sit with Samantha then. I’m not leaving her alone right now. She comes first, no matter what,” I tell him.
“I’ll get Jenny to come and sit with her. Hopefully, we can get the meeting over with pretty fast,” he tells me on his way out the door.
I lie here holding Samantha in my arms. In all honesty, if she hadn’t been in this accident, I doubt that we would even be talking at this point. I need to show her that she’s always going to come first in my life from now on. She always will. I was never first in my parents lives.
Memories of my childhood rears its ugly head—not so much ugly as in uncertainty of knowing where I would sleep let alone eat.
“I was raised by parents who were a little unconventional in raising kids. It was a community that everyone was free to do as they saw fit—flower children if you will. It wasn’t the best of an upbringing as a kid. I never had a place to call my own. Dad and Mom changed a lot back in the day. At first, it wasn’t so bad, but then it all started changing. I have a sister.” With the memories fresh in my mind, I think before speaking again. “I remember eating out of trash cans, trying to make sure my sister wasn’t violated by some stranger because people thought that was the way it was with us kids. I hated my parents toward the end before I left. I made sure my sister was taken care.”
I look down and see that Samantha is sleeping and wonder if she even heard what I was saying about my family. I drift back to my childhood thinking of what it was like—where I came from to where I am now. I love my life and hope to share it with Samantha.
I never knew what kind of mood my parents would be in. At the beginning of their newfound beliefs, they were always happy. Things changed after a while and they went from one extreme to the next in whatever they did. We didn’t have the conventional home. We flitted from one place to the next, often living in the great outdoors—a treehouse or in a hut with a dirt floor. My parents were considered flower children. I never had any control over what was going to happen from one day to the next. They never should have had kids, but they did. Many times, we were left on our own to basically survive. Many times, we bathed in the lakes and streams. Sometimes in the winter, we’d bathe in gas station bathrooms. I swore I would never live like that when I got old enough to leave. That I would have a home.
When I came upon a few bikers—Capone one of them—I learned what family really should be, or so I thought at the time. That’s changed too. It’s somewhat unconventional but so much better than how I was raised. I haven’t seen my parents in years. I have a sister, Faith. I used to see her occasionally, but she got married and I haven’t seen her in about four years. I have no idea of where to even look.
I hear a knock on the door. It brings me out of my reflective thoughts from the past.
“Come in,” I respond.
Jenny walks in and she has a book with her. It looks like she’s here to settle in with Samantha.
“Thank you for coming to sit with her. I didn’t want to leave her here by herself. If she wakes up, come get me. Okay?” I say.
“I’m not interrupting church. She’ll wait for you to get done,” she replies.
“I don’t give a good goddamn if I’m in church. She is coming first. I’m not making the same mistake again. Come get me.”
“Only if she insists. It’ll be okay. You know she’ll understand,” she tells me with a smile.
“What-the-hell-ever. Thank you again.” I am exacerbated with all of this shit right now—not at anyone in particular, just the circumstances.
I walk out and get to the meeting just when it’s about to start.
We all sit down as Bossman calls the meeting to order.
“Just got a report back on Samantha’s accident. She has a red vehicle, and there was black paint imprinted in the left side of the car. Not a little but a bunch. She was intentionally hit. I’ve called and told Sledge and Ghost to come early and help us try to track down who it was before anything else happens and to find out if it’s club related,” he tells us. “They’ll be here later tonight, ready to move in. We need to clean up some space for them. How many rooms do we have available?”
I’m so damn mad and jump up growling, “What the hell? Why wasn’t I told? You knew, didn’t you? That’s my ol’ lady. I should have been told right away,” I snarl.
“Sit down and cool off. I found out this information not two minutes before you walked in. I sent Jenny to get you. If you would have come straight here, you would have been told beforehand. I had my suspicions before, and that’s why I had them looking into it from the beginning. They confirmed it. We need to go in pairs when we leave these doors. The women will always have someone on them. I won’t take any chances with any of them. Sweet butts need to leave until further notice. We are on semi-lockdown.”
“So, what else do you know? Any idea of who it may be?” I growl.
“Let’s take this one step at a time, Dog. Hold on. I need to know about space for the two members coming in.
“That I couldn’t tell you, Bossman. Hawk normally takes care of that shit,” I say impatiently.
“At this point, I have feelers out about the accident, but so far, we have nothing. Once Ghost gets here, he can get into the video feeds around town. Then we can go from there,” he tells us as he looks directly at me while speaking. “Hawk do you know what rooms are available?” Bossman asks.
“I’m not sure. I would have to go look. I know some have moved to their own travel trailers here on the compound. We need to talk about the brothers that are in from the mother chapter helping to finish up the addition to the clubhouse. With them all working full-time, trying to get the other two wings up and running, we need some extra rooms for them to sleep,” Hawk says.
“I’m also going to convert the library into the tech room. Any objections? Now that I think of it, we could put in a doorway and make a bedroom in there. We’d need to put in a bathroom. He would need to use another shower until it’s completely done,” Bossman states but then pauses. “Let me think on this some more. Any objections on any of this so far?”
Everyone says no and Bossman adjourns the meeting. Everyone gets up but I stay.
“You could have called me, Bossman. This is fucked up. I’ve always known what’s going on first. What the hell was that?” I growl at him.
“I understand. I should have called you on your phone. It won’t happen again, Dog. Shit is getting real. I thought with Capone gone, things would settle down. Know of anyone that has a grudge against you?” he inquires.
“Not to my knowledge, I mean other than Capone. He isn’t in the picture anymore. Let me think on it, see if I can come up with anyone,” I respond. “Any idea of a time they’ll get in tonight?”
“They left three hours ago, so probably in the next five or six hours.”
“Let me know when they get in. I want to be there when you talk to them, please,” I tell him.
He nods, and I get up and leave the room.
I need to go check up on Samantha and make sure she’s okay. On my way through the bar and sitting area, I see some of the guys. I stop and talk to Crane and Hawk for a minute.
“Can I get one of you to keep an eye out on Samantha when I’m not around? I’ll be going in and out for a while. I just need to make sure she’s good. I know that Jenny will be around. I have this shit to take care of and I need her to know she’s wanted,” I tell them while looking around. I don’t do emotional shit with my brothers; it makes me uncomfortable.
“If you need me, too, I can stick around with her and Jenny,” Crane replies.
“I appreciate it, brother. If something comes up at work, let me know. I’ll work out something different,” I tell him.
“I can always do my work at night when you get back,” he tells me.
“I’m around too. I can talk to her. She’s pretty,” Flipper states. He’s sitti
ng on the bar stool behind us and I guess was listening in on our conversation.
“She’s mine, old man. You need to keep it in your pants,” I tell him with a grin.
“You’re just jealous because you know she would so fall for me,” he replies.
“Yeah, old man. If you say so,” I tell him with a chuckle.
He laughs so hard, he starts choking on the beer he had just taken a drink of. I walk up to tap him on his back and he holds up his hand to stop me.
I step back. “You okay, old man?”
“Fine,” he wheezes out. “I may be old, but I can still shoot a gun. I’ll help with watching out for the ladies.”
“I really appreciate that, Flipper. I’ll accept any help to make sure they’re all safe.”
Chapter Nine
Dog…
I walk back to where I was standing when I see Jenny in the hallway, peeking in the bar. I look at her and she waves at me. “Everything okay?” I ask as I walk toward her.
“She just woke up, and I set her on the toilet. You may need to help her up into her chair. She’s hungry and I’m going to get her something to eat,” she says.
“Okay, I’ll go there now.”
I watch her walk to the kitchen and I head down to the end of the hallway to our bedroom. I open the door and I hear Samantha holler out, “Jenny, I’m done.”
I open the door and see her standing at the sink on one leg, washing her hands.
“What the hell are you doing, honey. You want to fall and hurt yourself? You need to do that shit sitting down for the time being,” I growl at her.
“I’m fine, Dog. I promise. I just had to stand up for a few. My leg was bothering me. I feel like I’m getting stiff all over. I hate that feeling.”
“I understand. Just wait until I’m here with you before you do that. I don’t want you to get hurt any more than you already are. Okay?”
She continues to look at me before telling me okay. I lead her to the wheelchair and help her sit. I take her back into the room and help her into the recliner. “Jenny is making you something to eat. Let’s get you comfortable then we can talk for a while,” I tell her.
The truth will set you free (Bitter Roots MC Book 1) Page 4