As soon as we reached the back door, I put my hand into the kangaroo pocket of Mark’s huge sweatshirt and prayed.
Apparently, I did believe in God.
The next few moments happened in slow motion as he reached for the door handle with the hand holding his gun. Planting my feet, I twisted my body toward Drake.
The surprise on his face when the pistol inside the pocket of my sweatshirt went off would be etched into my memory for the rest of my life, but it only lasted a split second as I bent at the waist and tore my head away from his hand.
I ran as gunfire exploded around me and I threw myself over Leo’s prone body in the middle of the driveway, covering as much as I could.
God, it was loud. Men were running. And I watched detachedly as the door of the moving truck was slung upward and familiar men poured out the back of it, led by my cousin Will.
I couldn’t see Mark. It was so chaotic and surreal that I had a hard time focusing my eyes on any one person. Mostly, it was just feet and the bottom of a row of motorcycles.
It went on for too long, though later, someone would tell me it was less than five minutes. Maybe my memory was off. Because just as I turned my head and saw the barrel of Forrest’s rifle sticking through a hole in my little sister’s window screen, something hit me so hard in the back that I was thrown forward, my head colliding with the back of Leo’s.
Chapter 24
Mark
If someone had asked me what the scariest moment in my life was, it would’ve been a tie. The first moment was when I realized that the men who’d been torturing me had just pulled up in front of Cecilia’s house, where I knew her family was having a barbecue. The second was when Casper called to tell me she was hiding from a gunman in some house across town.
Neither of those compared to the moment when she stepped out from behind the truck and walked straight toward the man trying to kill her.
As I stared at her, laying on a pool table where the makeshift triage station had been set up, it took everything in me not to wring her neck.
“She needs to go to the hospital,” I said as Forrest checked out Cecilia’s back. “She shoulda never even come back here.”
“I don’t need a hospital,” Cecilia said with a hiss. “Forrest has the good drugs—I can barely even feel my toes.”
“You were fuckin’ shot.”
“It hit the vest,” she argued.
“Vests just stop the bullet from tearin’ through your insides,” I ground out. “You were still hit with the impact of the bullet.” I looked at Forrest. “Help me out here?”
“Sounds like you’re doin’ just fine on your own, Chief,” he said in amusement, still pressing lightly on Cecilia’s back.
“I’m fine.”
“You—” I clenched my jaw shut as Forrest gave her a tap on the shoulder before helping her off the table.
“She’s good,” he told me. “Black and blue, but it was small caliber and far enough away—”
“See? I told you,” she said tiredly. She looked at Forrest. “Whatever you gave me is really nice.”
“Your woman’s a lightweight,” Forrest said to me before turning away to help the next person. “Don’t worry—won’t affect your breast milk. Same shit they give after a C-section,” he said over his shoulder.
By the time the dust settled, every Ace and all of my team were still standing and none of Warren’s were, but it hadn’t given me any satisfaction until I’d been able to reach Cecilia.
“Is she okay?” Casper called as he raced toward us. “Is she breathin’?’”
My hands shook as I rolled her off of Leo and searched her, looking for wounds. She was covered in blood, but as I slid my hands down her body, I realized that none of it was hers.
“She’s out cold,” I said roughly, putting my fingers to her carotid artery to check her pulse.
“Let me through,” Forrest ordered, pushing past the Aces that had circled us.
“She’s breathin’,” I told Forrest as he dropped to his knees beside us. “Check him.”
Forrest’s nod was almost imperceptible as he turned to Leo. “I’m a doctor,” he told Dragon, who was staring at his son helplessly, his hands outstretched but frozen, like he wasn’t sure where it was safe to touch. “Help me turn him to his back.”
All of my attention was on Cecilia as she started to stir, eventually opening her eyes. When she saw my face close to hers, she jerked and then moaned in pain.
“It’s okay, baby,” I said, brushing her hair back from her face. “Where does it hurt?”
“My back,” she croaked, tears leaking from her eyes.
“She bleeding?” Lu asked as she ran toward us. “I think she was hit.”
“You saw it?” Casper asked as he helped me roll Cecilia quickly to her side. I winced as she groaned in pain.
“Saw the piece of shit aim for her,” she said, skidding to a stop on her knees beside me. “I couldn’t tell if I got off my shot before he did.”
“Is that what that was?” Cecilia asked breathlessly. “Huh.”
“I need to feed Olive,” Cecilia said, cutting into the memory as she shuffled past me, handing me the sweatshirt she’d been wearing. It was covered in Leo’s blood. “And then we need to get to the hospital.”
I followed her back to the bedroom, where Charlie was laying with Olive on a blanket spread out on the floor, cooing and playing with the baby’s feet.
“Hey,” Charlie greeted, leaning up on her elbow. “You’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” Cecilia said, kneeling beside the girls. “Thanks for keeping an eye on her.”
“No problem,” Charlie replied, watching her sister closely. “Mom wanted to go to the hospital with Lily, so she said to hang with Olive on the floor until you came to get her.” Charlie rolled her eyes. “I think she was worried I’d drop her or something. I changed her diaper, though, ’cause she was poopy. It was yellow, FYI.”
Cecilia smiled and ran her head over Charlie’s hair. “You did a good job, kid,” she told her. “Once Olive’s a little older, you can watch her for real. I’ll even pay you.”
“Sweet,” Charlie said, grinning. Her expression slowly fell. “Is Leo okay?”
Cecilia didn’t reply as she picked Olive up. She shifted her clothes a little and started nursing the baby before she looked back up at Charlie. “I’m not sure,” she said softly. “He was in pretty bad shape, but he was breathing.”
“What happened?” Charlie asked hoarsely.
Cecilia glanced at me helplessly.
“He wrecked his bike,” I answered for her, sitting down on the edge of the bed. It wasn’t exactly a lie—but it wasn’t the whole truth, either. We’d found Leo’s bike less than half a mile from the club’s property, and Leo had definitely gone down with it, but we were all pretty sure that he hadn’t been responsible for the crash.
“That’s crazy,” Charlie said in disbelief. “Leo rides every day, he wouldn’t just lay his bike down like an idiot.”
I held a smile back as I nodded. “We’ll have to ask him how it happened once he’s awake.”
“Hopefully, he’s okay,” Charlie said, pushing herself up to sit cross-legged. “Gray already lost his mom. I mean, he has Lily now, and I don’t think he even remembers, but still.”
“I bet he’ll be okay,” Cec said, laying her hand on Charlie’s knee. “He’d never leave Lily and Gray if he could help it.”
Charlie looked at Cecilia curiously, and I imagined little hamster wheels spinning inside her head. I knew where the conversation was headed before she spoke.
“Why doesn’t anyone like you?” she asked Cecilia, her words blunt but not unkind. “I thought it was because you liked Leo, but—” She gestured to me and shrugged. “It can’t be that.”
Cecilia huffed out an uncomfortable laugh. “You get right to the point, don’t you?”
“Sorry,” Charlie replied, chastised.
“No, it’s fine,” Cecilia said. She
pulled her hand away from Charlie’s knee and grimaced as she got more comfortable on the floor. “So, you know how our family was attacked before you were born?”
“Yeah,” Charlie said, nodding. “Mom was pregnant with me.”
“Right,” Cecilia replied. “Well, I was a teenager, and I didn’t deal with it very well.”
“You weren’t hurt though, right?”
“No,” Cecilia said.
“Yes, she was,” I said at the same time. I ignored how Cecilia glared at me. “She had a graze, right here on her shoulder.”
“It barely bled,” Cecilia said. “It was more like a burn, really.”
“It scarred,” I countered. “It’s why she has that tattoo on her arm.”
“That’s not why.” Cecilia widened her eyes at me in the universal sign to shut my mouth.
“It’s there,” I said stubbornly, looking at Charlie. “You just can’t really see it anymore unless you’re looking.”
“This is all beside the point,” Cecilia said stubbornly to Charlie. “After all that happened, I didn’t react well. I was…mean. I was mean and hateful—that’s why they don’t like me.”
“That’s stupid,” Charlie said flatly. “That all happened before I was even born.”
“And after you were born, too,” Cecilia corrected.
“Still,” Charlie said, waving her hand in dismissal. “You’ve lived in California for-freaking-ever. They need to get over it.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” I agreed, shooting Charlie a small smile. Leave it to a kid to get to the bottom of shit and tell it like it is.
“I think if you give enough reason for a person to dislike you, or distrust you, or whatever,” Cecilia said gently to Charlie, “it’s really hard to come back from that, no matter how long it’s been.”
“Bullshit,” Charlie said firmly. She shook her head. “We’re family.”
Cecilia smiled at her little sister, inhaling shakily. “Fair enough,” she said. “But remember what I said. It’s hard to come back from that—so don’t be an asshole.”
“Too late,” Charlie replied, rolling her eyes again. “I can’t help it—it’s in my genes.” She stood up and stretched. “I’m going to go find Molly—we’re all staying at her house tonight so the ’rents can be at the hospital with Leo. I bet she’d take Olive, too, if you asked.”
“Thanks, toots,” Cecilia replied. “I think I’ll keep her with me, though. She’s too little to be away from me that long.”
As soon as Charlie left the room, Cecilia groaned and laid a now sleeping Olive back on the floor so she could fix her shirt.
“Fuck, my back hurts,” she complained.
“I bet it does,” I said unsympathetically. “What the fuck were you thinkin’?”
“Can we not do this now?” she pleaded. “You can yell at me for as long as you want later. I promise I’ll just sit there and let you tear me a new one—but the day isn’t over, and we need to go to the hospital.”
“You need to lay down and rest,” I argued.
“I need to be at the hospital,” she said, getting to her feet. She took a step toward me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “I need to be there for my sister.”
“You sure?” I asked, running my hands up the back of her thighs.
“I know she might not want me there,” she said quietly. “But, if I don’t go, then I’m making the decision not to support her. You know?”
“Yeah, I get it,” I said with a sigh, wishing I didn’t. She needed Lily to know that she was there—even if it went over like a lead balloon.
We stayed like that for a minute, each of us getting our bearings. It had been a hell of a day, and she was right. It wasn’t over yet.
“You sure you don’t want to rest for a little while?” I asked, gripping her hips. “They’re gonna be up there all night.”
“I’m sure,” she said, bending a little to kiss me. It was closed mouthed, and simple, but she lingered there before pulling away. “I’m going to crash the minute I lay down. We need to go before the adrenalin wears off.”
“Baby,” I said as she stepped back, “I’ll be surprised if you don’t pass out on the way there.”
“Maybe Forrest has some uppers,” she joked, stripping out of her dirty pants and reaching for a clean pair. “I’ll grab her bag. Can you put the car seat on the bed?”
“Sure,” I said, going for the seat in the corner. “When did you bring this in?”
“My mom must’ve,” she replied, crouching by the diaper bag with a small groan of pain. “She was probably going to take Olive with her before she decided to leave her with Charlie.”
“Charlie’s kinda young, don’t you think?” I asked tentatively. It wasn’t really my place to say anything, but I wasn’t super comfortable leaving a newborn with Cecilia’s kid sister.
“I was babysitting at her age,” Cec replied. “But yeah, wouldn’t be my first choice. Mom probably thought it would be okay, since there’s always an adult here somewhere.”
“Makes sense,” I conceded as I lifted Olive from the floor.
“I’m glad she was able to go with Lily,” Cecilia said as she dropped the bag on the bed and reached for Olive. “She must’ve been freaking out.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Leo didn’t look good.”
“I know,” Cecilia said quietly.
“Cec—” I hesitated.
“I know,” she said, her voice wobbling.
“His hand, baby,” I continued gently anyway. “Not sure how many of those fingers they’ll be able to save.”
“I’m not thinking about it until we know for sure,” she choked out, buckling the baby.
“He might not be able to sit a bike—”
“Later,” she said, cutting me off. “We’ll talk about it all later, okay?”
“Alright,” I said, laying my hand on the back of her neck, threading my fingers through her hair. I gave a soft squeeze before letting her go.
I grabbed the car seat and followed Cecilia out to the main room of the club, which had pretty much cleared out by then. Forrest was cleaning up supplies and there were a few random guys milling around, but otherwise, things were quiet beyond the table that my team was seated around.
“We’re headed to the hospital,” I told them as I reached them. “Where’s Eli?”
“He stayed behind,” Siah replied, spinning his beer bottle around in his fingers. “To clean up.”
“They let him?” I said in surprise. The Aces kept things in-house as much as they could, so it was surprising as hell if they were allowing him to see where the bodies were buried—literally.
“A few of those were ours,” Ephraim said, stretching his arms above his head tiredly.
“Two were mine,” Lu said in satisfaction. She looked at Cec. “Sorry I wasn’t faster.”
“What?” Cecilia replied in confusion.
“The man that shot you in the back,” I gritted out, the words so disgusting that a new wave of fury raced down my spine.
“Shooting someone in the back is just poor sportsmanship,” Wilson said, striding up to the group.
“Shit,” I said, spinning toward him. “When’d you get here?”
“After all the fun parts,” he said dryly. “I got a flight out right after I called you earlier. We need to talk.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow?” I asked, glancing at Cecilia. “We need to head up to the hospital.”
“Yes,” he replied. “Or tonight after you get back.”
“Not sure how late it’ll be,” I said.
“I’ll wait.”
“Thank you,” Cecilia said, staring at Lu. “For what you did.”
“Hey, like Wilson said,” Lu joked kindly, “shooting someone in the back is poor sportsmanship. He deserved it.”
With a nod, Cecilia looked at me expectantly.
“We’ll see you guys later,” I said, leading Cecilia away from the group.
“Where exactly
did you hit him?” Siah asked Lu as we walked away, amusement lacing his voice.
“Shut up,” she replied.
“I know where you were,” Siah continued as we reached the front door. “At that angle, you had to be behind him—” His words cut off as we stepped outside into the cool night.
“I owe her a fruit basket or something,” Cecilia mumbled as she hurried ahead of me, impatient. “Maybe a spa day.”
“You are—” I shook my head, at a loss for words.
“Thankful,” she said quietly, turning to look at me as she opened the truck door. “I’m thankful as hell.”
“I love you,” I said, grabbing her arm before she could climb inside.
“I love you, too,” she said simply.
Chapter 25
Cecilia
I’d been so anxious to get to the hospital to see how Leo was and check on my sister that it should’ve felt like it took forever to get there—but it didn’t. It was like I blinked and suddenly we were pulling into the parking lot. My stomach was in knots and guilt made my entire body feel heavy. Drake Warren had come for me in Eugene and somehow Leo, a man that I’d already betrayed in a variety of ways when we were kids, had born the brunt of his presence.
I hated the idea of walking up to a group of Aces, all of us knowing that everything that had happened was my fault. I wanted to curl up in bed and pull the covers over my head, to leave again, this time for good. I didn’t want to face it.
Maybe I was punishing myself, because almost as much as I needed Lily to know that I cared, I also needed to take responsibility. I deserved to face everyone’s anger.
Watching as Mark unlatched Olive’s carrier and pulled it out of the car, I swallowed hard and straightened my shoulders. I refused to lose control of my emotions. If he had any idea how this was going to go, he would’ve never agreed to drive me to the hospital. I waited for him at the back of the truck and laced my fingers with his as he reached for me.
I’d forgotten how good it felt to have him at my back, sure in the knowledge that he wasn’t going anywhere.
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