Connected in Code: (Ravage MC Rebellion Series Book Four) A Motorcycle Club Romance of Wrong Way & Hayden

by Ryan Michele

  Her face.

  Her beautiful face with a smile that could stop time was swollen, cut, and covered in dried blood. Her hair was matted, and she looked like she had gotten in a fight with a gorilla at a zoo and lost the battle.

  No way she did this shit willingly.

  “Things aren’t right,” I muttered, trying to sort it all out.

  “You showed it to me,” Crow said. “She’s a traitor.”

  My head shook. “That was what they wanted us to see. I’m tellin’ ya.” My body was ready to jump in front of her to save her.

  “Look at her body!” Brewer exclaimed, and I didn’t want to because it made the anger so intense that I wanted to hack up the man at her feet. “He beat the shit out of her. You think she wouldn’t stop at anything to get the pain to end? Regardless of the why, she fucked the club, brother.”

  His words left a sour taste in my mouth for the first time since getting my final patch. I felt backed against a wall. There was no winning this game I was playing.

  “Yeah, fuckin’ look at her. You think a woman would go through all this shit only to die at our hands? No. We wait.”

  I looked to Crow, and he shook his head, making my heart squeeze. He had the ultimate say. As president of our chapter, I would have to follow any order he gave, and I would have to stand down if he issued the hit. My eyes locked with his. He had to at least hear her out. I couldn’t let her die without a chance to tell us what the hell had happened. I had to believe she didn’t play me. I had to believe the woman who fell apart time and again under me wasn’t some calculating bitch who used pussy to play me. I had to trust the Hayden who shared sweet tea on my grams porch loved me the way I loved her. I had to believe the unbelievable right now, so I did the only thing I could think of—I made the vow. “If she did it, I’ll put a bullet in her myself. But dammit, give her a chance to explain.”

  Crow’s eyes went hard, then he nodded. Grasping Hayden, I picked her up. “Let’s get her to the hospital. Get rid of the hard drives and only leave the laptop he made her bring.”

  Phoenix wasn’t happy, but he nodded, and I could hear the crashing of electronics as I carried her to the van. I yelled back in the house, “Check on Luna!” I heard a grunt from someone.

  Bending down, I kissed the top of her head. “Hang on, Hayden. Just hang on for me.”

  38

  Hayden

  My mouth tasted of cotton and bad choices. The smell of antiseptic burned my nostrils, making my stomach roil. Then there was the beeping. So many different pitches, tones, and frequencies pounding in my head. Where the hell was the mute button? Or earplugs. Something besides this damn sound.

  Every single inch of my body ached, burned, or stung. I was pretty sure that not one spot anywhere felt normal.

  Trying to move my head, a groan escaped me as I tried to move my neck, then my fingers. I was able to, but not by much.

  My eyes were crusted and hard to get open. I lifted my hand, but my arms felt like lead, making the task difficult. Something was in my arm … a needle, an IV? Where was I?

  Dead. Right?

  Without opening my eyes, I inhaled again. I wanted to rub my eyeballs and knock off the offending crust, but I figured it would be too painful to do it. Opening them, I blinked and then blinked again, and the room finally came into partial focus. A hospital. Not a morgue.

  Hell, who knew. Maybe I was a zombie or some shit and was on that Netflix zombie-whatever show. Eating brains did not sound appealing, and the chick in that show worked at a morgue. Yeah, not my gig.

  My body shook with what I thought was a giggle, but I couldn’t really tell.

  Machines were around me pumping something inside my arm. There was a clip attached to my finger, and a bunch of patches on my chest. Slowly, I wiped my eyes, each movement full of pain.

  “Hey.”

  I blinked rapidly, hearing the voice and knowing exactly who it was, but I wanted to see him. Wrong Way stood above me. He was blurry—hell, everything was blurry—but he was here. Maybe I was dead after all and this was part of crossing over. Getting to see him smile one last time before I finally went to the other side.

  “Hey.” Mine came out as a croak.

  Wrong Way’s hand came to the top of my forehead as he brushed some of my hair out of my face then placed a kiss on my forehead. It stung, but I didn’t dare let out a whimper. If this was the last time I could see him, feel him, I wasn’t going to complain.

  He began to say something, but my eyes closed and blackness enveloped me.

  On the mend.

  Was that even a thing in my situation? When I first woke up and was actually coherent, I asked about Rocco and Luna. One was in the hospital, the other was perfectly fine and at Ms. M’s house living a happy doggy life. There’d been so many doctors coming in and out of my room. It was non-stop, but really all I cared about was those two. At least that was what I kept telling myself.

  Wrong Way sat in the corner of the room, keeping his distance, but close as well. Probably ready to kill me as soon as I got better. Which made absolutely no sense at all. I was blaming it on the good drugs they had me on.

  We hadn’t talked much which was for the best because, more than likely, I wouldn’t want to hear what he had to say. Hear the accusations. Feel his hatred.

  I needed to rest like the doctors told me to. Sleeping was my out, but mostly to avoid the man who both captivated me and confused me. Why go through all of this for me to heal only to kill me when I leave? It was a waste of money and resources.

  The noise I heard at my house had to have been a gunshot. I thought my time on earth was done, only to be put into a situation where the man I cared about would do the deed.

  I’d actually killed someone. In my years on the street, I never had to go to those lengths to protect myself. Stab someone, yes. Defend myself, absolutely. But murdering my father felt strange. Like this was my penance for it or something.

  That memory of my knife cutting into his flesh kept playing out in my dreams too. The way it felt, how my body ached, the way he tried to grab for me to save him. All of that continued on a reel, over and over again.

  I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it and happy felt wrong somehow, even though I was defending myself. It was something to ponder another day. I was too drained and too anxious at the same time to worry myself over something I certainly couldn’t change.

  It would be a huge black mark on my soul, taking another life. Add it to all the others because my future was up in the air at this point.

  “Kenny, what’s up?” Wrong Way said, startling me and moving to Kenny, the sheriff, who stood at the door. The cops hadn’t come yet. I guessed it was about time to pay for what I did.

  “Need to ask her some questions,” he said, coming closer to the bed. Maybe I should’ve felt nervous, but I really didn’t. I killed him. I’d take whatever came to me.

  Wrong Way met him there, trying to block me from his brother.

  “Let’s let Ravage handle it,” Wrong Way told him, but Kenny shook his head.

  “Would love to, brother, but we have lots of people who saw too much at the scenes.”

  Wrong Way looked like he was going to put up a fight with me, but I’d had enough.

  “Fine. Let’s get this over with.” It was true. I just wanted to be done with it and let the chips fall as they may.

  39

  Wrong Way

  Thump … thump … thump… My heart beat to her words as she knocked me on my ass and made my world spin as she told her story. Each word was like a knife to the chest threatening to bleed me dry.

  “What did your father want you to do?” Kenny asked her.

  Her fucking father. That was the piece to the puzzle I didn’t understand. Still didn’t. He lived out of state. I’d looked into him after meeting Hayden, wanting to know everything about her or what I could. A lot of her shit was sealed, but I was able to get pieces. Fitting them together was the hard part.


  She slit the neck of her father. The one who beat her. Then and now. Fuck me. I rubbed my hand over my face, frustration at life eating away at me. I almost wished the asshole was still alive so I could rip his throat out.

  Hayden looked to me briefly then went back to Kenny. “I’m good at computers. My father found out somehow. That I have no idea. He wanted some information from the Ravage MC and wanted me to get it for him. He told me he’d kill Rocco if I didn’t do what he said.”

  “What specifically did he want you to get?”

  She sighed deep. “His word was ‘everything’.”

  “Like…” he pushed.

  “That’s what he said.”

  “And you have no idea why?” Kenny asked, and I wanted to know the answer too.

  “Nope. He never told me.”

  Hayden’s voice echoed through the small space with each word from her lips. The pain she endured and how hearing Rocco hurt cut her to the quick. With each punch or use of that fucking word, my anger boiled.

  “So, in the end you didn’t get the information he wanted?”

  She shook her head, but her eyes slid to mine then back to Kenny. “No. I made him think I did it. Even showed him some fake shit I made up. He bought it.”

  While my first instinct was she didn’t do it, there was also a time when I thought she did. In the end, it was all a ruse. All so she could protect me, my club, her friend and maybe for her to come out on the other end alive. Even getting beat and tortured, she didn’t budge on her loyalty.

  Kenny’s eyes came to mine, and I could read him. He saw it too. How she went all out for us. It wasn’t a trait most had.

  “That sounds to me like self-defense,” he said, looking back at Hayden. Kenny didn’t push the questions like he would someone else. He let things go, and I could hug him for it.

  As he left the room, my head hung down as I closed my eyes, feeling like the biggest asshole in the world. For me to even think for a second she was guilty was a disgrace. Trust was something she cherished, and I smashed it all to hell.

  “You thought I did it.” Her voice was soft, nothing like the one I was used to hearing from her. It was partially broken, and I hated it instantly.

  “I…” I couldn’t finish it because it was true. I hadn’t ever lied to her and couldn’t start now.

  “No. You thought I did it when you found the breach and it led back to my house. You thought I broke into your club.” It was a statement of certainty, but it was also broken, like she hated saying the words but she had to.

  My head lifted and met her gaze. Pain was in hers. While I wanted to take the pain away, I couldn’t lie to her. Never could I lie to her.

  “Yeah.”

  A tear fell from her eye, and I rose from my seat and went to her. She shook her head. “No. Don’t.”

  “Hayden, I’m sorry. I…”

  She cut me off. “Just don’t. You didn’t trust me to keep you safe. You didn’t trust that I’d have your back. If your plan is to kill me, just do it and get it over with.”

  Kill her? What the… “I…”

  More tears rolled down her face, each one tearing heaping holes in my heart. “Now, I don’t trust you. Leave.”

  I reached for her hand, and she yanked it away groaning in pain, but she kept going—away from me. The doctors gave her some serious pain meds, but they didn’t take it all way.

  “This is something that can’t be undone, Wrong Way. Once my trust is broken with someone, there’s no going back. There are no redoes. I’m done. We’re done. Either kill me or leave.”

  I tried talking again, but she grabbed her nurse button, and a few seconds later a man with scrubs came into the room. “What can I do for you?”

  “He needs to leave. Now.”

  The man turned to me. “Time to go. She needs her beauty rest.” His voice was like a damn song, and I wanted to punch him. My fists clenched.

  The nurse took a step back, wiggling his index finger at me. “No hitting. Please don’t make me call security. It’s such a pain in the ass, and all the paperwork…”

  I could see a small smile play on Hayden’s lips from the man’s antics. This was why we hated hospitals. Ravage had pull, but we didn’t have control. Rather than make a scene, I conceded this round to her.

  Sucking it up, I grabbed my cut and put it on, then I leaned over to Hayden. “This isn’t done.”

  “We are done,” she said, meeting my eyes.

  “Never.”

  I leaned down, intent on touching her lips to mine, but she turned at the last moment, and I caught her cheek.

  No, Hayden.

  We weren’t done.

  We never would be.

  40

  Hayden

  “Seriously. If you don’t stop, I’m going to walk to my house.” I was at my wits’ end with this waiting on me hand and foot thing Ms. Janey kept up. Getting out of the hospital was great. The doctors saying I shouldn’t be alone for a few days was not because Ms. Janey insisted I come to her home.

  While at first the thought of being home brought a smile to my face, now I was ready to go to my home—miles away—and to be in quiet.

  Luna laid next to me as I sat on the couch in Ms. Janey’s living room. I slowly stroked her fur, her head laying on my lap. Once I got her back from Ms. M, Luna hadn’t left my side for too long. She either sensed I needed her or knew something was wrong. Dogs were very smart animals.

  “Would you stop your bitchin’?” Rocco said from the armchair. He was eating this up, but he also had a hand in a cast, a jacked-up knee, and some broken ribs.

  The words ‘I’m sorry’ weren’t enough for what had happened to him. There would never be a way for me to repay him for the pain he endured. That guilt laid heavy on my shoulders, trying to weigh me down and doing a damn fine job of it.

  Let alone, I couldn’t get him the shit he needed because Ms. Janey beat me to it every time. Finding a way to expunge the guilt was difficult. While he told me he loved me and he didn’t blame me, I blamed me. Which I thought in the long run was worse.

  “Both of you, enough,” Ms. Janey demanded in that voice she used when we were kids and fighting. Damn, I missed that. “I’ve got both my kids under my roof.” Luna barked, not one to go unnoticed. “And dog. I’ll do what I want. You both lay there and suck it up.”

  “Damn, I forgot how much of a tyrant you can be.” Rocco chuckled, and I shivered at his word choice. My father still crept into my thoughts. Since it happened, I hadn’t found a way to compartmentalize everything yet.

  Even almost three weeks out, it was still raw, and placing his death in my brain proved to be difficult, but I was working on it.

  “You remember that next time you need help wiping your ass,” Ms. Janey told him, smartly adding a wink to the end of it.

  It was my turn to burst out laughing. With Rocco’s broken hand, he needed a little extra TLC with his daily routines. Ms. Janey insisted on helping him even though he tried to protest. It failed.

  A knock came to the front door, my heart picking up speed as my stomach dropped to the floor. Ms. Janey’s gaze came to mine in question. The same one she’d done numerous times since moving into her home. I shook my head in the negative.

  Wrong Way was on the other side of the wood wanting to come in. Each time it killed me to send him away, like part of my heart was walking away piece by piece. Even though I kept reminding myself that this was for the best, sending him away, my brain and heart were at war. Each tugging hard and wanting to win supremacy, but neither fully receiving it.

  While I no longer thought the Ravage MC wanted to kill me, because they had ample time to do just that, Wrong Way and I would never work.

  He didn’t trust me. He thought I’d given my father everything he wanted on a silver platter to save my own skin. He didn’t believe in me.

  And the shit thing was, I was learning to trust him completely.

  It just so happened the coin was flipped, and this tim
e I was on the losing end. I never thought that would be possible growing up the way I did and protecting myself with everything inside of me. I didn’t get close to people for this reason. If I didn’t trust him, none of this would’ve hurt this badly.

  But the bottom line was I couldn’t be with someone who thought so little of me.

  “Come on. Put the man out of his misery,” Rocco stated in that do as I say voice. Nope, not working. That shit hadn’t worked since we were kids.

  “No,” I answered coldly. It was the only way to lock myself down. Turn cold on the inside when it came to Wrong Way. Then I wouldn’t hurt if I locked him out.

  My life with him was over. We were over. We needed to move on, and I wished he would stop showing up.

  Janey walked to the door, and hearing his baritone sent shivers down my spine. That damn voice of his was yet another thing I would miss hearing. It almost sprung tears to my eyes, but I held them back. “Can I see her?” he asked.

  I couldn’t hear Ms. Janey’s words. She must’ve been whispering to him, and that was never a good sign. She wanted the best for me, but she was misguided if she thought Wrong Way was the man who was best for me. She knew how difficult trust was and how I’d lived my life. She had to see this situation from my point of view.

  She came into the room, and I didn't say a word, not making eye contact with her.

  “Look at me,” she demanded, my head shooting around as she used the tone she rarely ever did. Normally she had a playfulness about her, but this was serious. Even the pain in my neck from the movement didn’t come close to the waves coming off of her. “Whatever decision you make is yours, but you do not leave things like this. You woman up and talk to the man. If it’s over, it’s over. If the relationship is salvageable, then you work on it. You do not sit in here behind a door hiding. That is not who you are.”

  “I…”