Jack didn’t dodge fast enough, and Wester caught him in the face. Jack jerked, hard, and then fell to the ground, blood gushing from his nose and split lip. Mindy heard herself scream, and wasn’t sure how much of the noise was because of Jack’s bleeding face, and how much was from the rising tide of bright red pain from her own belly. Something was wrong, something was seriously wrong, but she couldn’t tell someone or ask for help any more than she could have sprouted wings and burst into flight.
Wester laughed, standing over Jack’s groaning body like every bad movie villain ever. He lifted his huge, steel-toed boot, ready to drop it onto Jack’s head—and then he twitched hard, once, twice, and a third time. Maroon flowers bloomed on his gray shirt, underneath his leather vest. His hands clutched at the flowers, his mouth twisting in an O of pain as he toppled, down to his knees and then backward. Mindy could see him heaving in one breath after another as the blood drained from him, turning the sandy dirt beneath him into a toxic kind of mud.
Lauren lowered the gun in her hands, still smoking, and took a few steps forward. The Wardens who had come with Wester stepped back, their eyes wide as they looked at their leader. Apparently, she had bigger stones than any one of them, Mindy thought, because every single one of them gave up instead of even trying to meet her eyes.
“Now hear this,” Lauren said, and Mindy heard the firm voice she remembered from the hospital, from the overheard conversations with Jack. Something had changed inside that woman, and in a way that made Mindy find a little bit of hope. “The Wardens and the Chain Gang are at peace. Councils will meet to divide up the territory within Providence and come to an understanding about boundaries and other details. But there will be no more fighting.” She cocked the gun again, and then aimed down, putting a bullet into Wester’s head without a pause. Just the way Grim had been killed, Mindy thought to herself. Only he’d still been on his knees. “We’re done with this, with spilling each other’s blood. It ends here. Are there any questions?”
There was silence all around. Jack was working hard to pick himself up, and the tide of blood from his nose seemed to be slowing.
Lauren spun in a slow circle. “If you don’t think you can handle cleaning up this club and running things the right way, you can be out of Providence by dawn. Or you can kneel down in the dust here, and we’ll settle this like men. I don’t much care which option any of you choose, but this is done. My father was wrong about a lot of things, and from here on in, we’re doing things differently.”
No one ran. No one knelt to get a bullet to the brain. And Lauren looked entirely different. She looked strong, confident, powerful. She looked at Mindy and Joanna and flashed them a little grin. Jack looked at them and smiled, lighter than Mindy had ever seen him.
And then she felt that same, terrifying gush down her thighs. She looked down and thought, My God that is an awful lot of red, and then things went very dark.
Chapter Thirty-Four
If her entire middle hadn’t hurt so goddamn much, Mindy would have curled into the tightest ball she could manage and sobbed her heart out. But the IV pain meds she’d been given during the emergency C-section were wearing off, and her entire abdomen burned every time she tried to adjust herself in bed or move at all. They’d given her some pain medication to take, but it hadn’t kicked in yet, and she felt like she was going to die. Everything was terrible.
Her baby was small and fragile, and even though he was doing “well, for a preemie,” that qualifier made her sick. She was absolutely sure she’d done something wrong; if she’d been better, done things better, gone to more appointments, she was sure she would have made it through all this.
She didn’t remember the ambulance ride or much of the admission. She knew vaguely that Lauren had called ahead, explained what was happening, and there had been an operating theater open as soon as they arrived. Mindy remembered the mask going over her face, and then there had been nothing until she woke up. She hadn’t been allowed to hold her baby yet. Jack wasn’t there. She was alone and terrified, and she wanted to go to the NICU to see him, but no one was there to take her, and she couldn’t turn over in bed, much less hike her butt over to wherever the hell the NICU was. So, there was nothing to do but try to keep as still as possible while she cried.
She didn’t know how long it was before the door to her room opened. She looked up hopefully, but while she was happy to see a familiar face, Jack’s was not the face she’d anticipated seeing. Lauren stood in the doorway, a quiet look of sorrow on her face.
Mindy braced herself emotionally and then asked the most terrifying question she could imagine. “Are you here to tell me my son died?”
Lauren’s eyes flew open. “What? God no. Fuck, no, absolutely not. Honey, I’m so sorry.” She hurried across the room and took Mindy’s hand in hers. “As far as I know, the baby’s fine. They didn’t want to tell me anything, but I lied and said I was your sister, so keep that up if anyone asks, okay? Everyone’s real surprised that I have a sister they’d never heard of, but they’re going to let it go as long as you don’t argue.”
“Where’s Jack,” Mindy asked, pushing past the other questions. They didn’t matter right now; she needed to know the most important thing.
“He’s on his way,” Lauren said. “Showing up at the hospital covered in blood and with a clearly broken nose is not a good way to present yourself for your wife’s birth. I ordered him to get cleaned up and said I’d be here with you. After what he did for me back there—it’s the least I can do.”
“You killed your father,” Mindy said. She was blurry from the pain meds and blurry from the pain and blurry from the sorrow. Someone had told her about how much she’d bled in the ambulance on the way here, and how she’d continued to bleed while they performed the C-section. They had to give her blood during the surgery, and there was talk of more later, she’d heard. She wouldn’t have dared to ask Lauren that question any other time, but especially not now, not after she’d shot a man like she had. Granted that she did it to save Jack’s life because Wester would have killed him in the next few seconds, but still.
Lauren went very quiet. “Can I trust you, Mindy?”
Mindy nodded, keeping just as quiet as Lauren was.
“He was a bad man. A very, very bad man. I thought it was the drugs and the guns, but it was more than that. He was hurting kids. Selling women. And that… that wasn’t something I could stomach. I went to him and told him it had to stop. He said that I was a—a stupid cunt, that I’d never understand anything. He said if I didn’t keep my mouth shut, he’d kill me, or sell me, or just—” Lauren shook her head. “Yeah. Yeah, I did it.”
“Then why…?”
“Why spend all that time letting everyone think it was Jack? Play the game of the weak little woman who can’t manage anything on her own?” Lauren shrugged, her eyes just a little bit colder than they’d been before. “Because my father wasn’t always a bad man, and when he was a good one, he built something beautiful. And I wanted a chance to rebuild it. But to do that, I had to flush out the ones who had supported him wholeheartedly. I couldn’t go through the gang and ask each one of them; they would’ve lied and told me whatever they thought I wanted to hear. I had to know.”
“Did you have to put Jack’s life in danger to do it?” There was a bitterness flaring in Mindy’s voice, and she did her best to choke it back; she wasn’t sure it worked as well as she’d hoped.
“Honestly? Yes. I’m sorry for that, but it was what had to be done. If you think he wouldn’t have done the exact same thing, you’re kidding yourself. The club always comes first. Joanna knows that. If you want to be happy as his wife, you’ll know that too.”
The coldness had spread from Lauren’s eyes to her face. Mindy wanted to argue with her and insist that Jack was different; Jack wouldn’t have put them at risk—but was that really, entirely true? Maybe it was, and maybe it wasn’t. With the clubs at peace, hopefully, she would never need to see that theory tested
. The point was that he hadn’t failed her yet, and it was important to her to believe that he wouldn’t in the future. If that faith was misplaced? Well, she’d have to worry about it then. But she’d had enough of guessing when people were going to betray her. Living like she was going to be abandoned at any moment hadn’t gotten her anywhere good. So, she had to go somewhere. Do something.
Lauren was quiet for a moment, then said, in a much more subdued voice, “I found out about your friend Cook.”
Mindy braced for the news that she was sure was going to be terrible.
“They did leave him for dead out in the desert, but he was found by some hikers who radioed for help. They got him to one of the big hospitals in the city, and he was in really rough shape for a long time, but one of my people finally got through to someone who could help us, and it’s looking like he’s going to be okay.
Something deep inside of Mindy had been twisted for so long, and she felt it let go in a sudden, guts-deep release.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“The first thing he told my guy, once he knew why he was there, was that he was sorry that he hurt you. There’s a whole backstory about why it happened, and I’ll spare you the details, but he… was regretful. I don’t know if that makes a difference to you or not.”
Mindy rolled it over in her mind for a little bit and then shrugged. “I don’t care why he did it. Maybe someday I’ll feel differently, but right now, I just… No. To hell with him.”
Lauren nodded. “I’m certainly not going to argue for forgiveness in this kind of situation.” She reached out, hesitated, and then took Mindy’s hand between hers. “Now, on to important matters. I know how once the baby’s out, people kind of forget that Mom’s a person, too. Has anyone been by to take you to see your baby?”
Mindy’s eyes filled with tears. She shook her head hard, her throat too tight to speak. She had a bleary memory of holding him for just a moment in the OR, but her arms had been weak and not really hers. So someone had to help her, and then he needed to go into a bassinet and get rushed off to the NICU, and she had to get stitched up and brought to a room of her own, and her arms just felt empty and wrong. She barely remembered them telling her that the baby was a boy.
“Well, We’re going to fix that now,” Lauren said. She disappeared out of the room, an intensity in her step that told Mindy she was very angry.
Chapter Thirty-One
It took about ten minutes, and then Lauren returned with a wheelchair, chasing a nurse who was holding a paper cup of pain medication. Once Mindy had swallowed her pills like a good girl, Lauren helped her slide into the chair. She’d gotten her catheter out—thank God—and was all de-IV’d, so it was a simple matter of making sure her robe covered up anything the hospital gown didn’t, and Lauren was wheeling her through the hospital like a pro.
The NICU was at the other end of the wing from the maternity ward. Mindy found herself experiencing a strange mix of apprehension, regret, and excitement as Lauren wheeled her along. Jack was supposed to be here with her, to meet his son. He should have been in the OR with her, instead of her being alone. Of course, from the way the nurses described the surgery proceeding, he probably wouldn’t have been allowed in. But still. It would have been something. He should be here now. They hadn’t even decided on a name for the boy. What in the name of everything was going to happen next?
At the door to the NICU, everyone was smiling and happy, but there was an odd quality to it. Of course, these nurses worked with very tiny, very sick, little people, and it must be a difficult job. They said that Lauren couldn’t come into the room, and after a quick argument, a friendly looking nurse with deep, dark brown skin and hair done back in twists stepped in.
“I’ll take her,” the woman said. “I’ll look after her like she was my own sister. Alright?”
Lauren nodded, and Mindy thought there might be tears in her eyes. Before the nurse could wheel her away, Mindy reached out and took Lauren’s hand. “Wait, before—tell me. What was Grim’s name? I mean, before he was Grim?”
Lauren’s head tilted to the side just a little before a grin broke out on her face.
“Michael,” she said.
“Okay,” Mindy said.
The nurse wheeled her through the doors, then helped her put on the special yellow gowns and booties that would keep not just her baby, but all the other babies in the room safe from infections. She was struck by all the little babies in the room. In the OR, in that brief moment when she’d held her son, he’d looked so small, but now, compared to some of the other preemies in their isolettes, he looked so big. Not that she’d ever spent much time around babies, or had a real solid idea of what size a newborn ought to be.
“Can I… can I hold him?” She glanced up at the nurse, who gave her a kind smile.
“Yes,” she replied. “He’s doing well, nice and stable since he got here. Let me help you.” The woman reached down into the isolette and carefully lifted the baby. In the nurse’s arms, he suddenly looked quite small again, just a wee little thing being held by an adult. She lowered him carefully into Mindy’s arms, and that felt right. Oh, God, she’d never known how right that could feel. She held the little boy to her heart and stared down at him, feeling herself fall in love with his sweet little mouth and dimpled chin and sleepy eyes. He had Jack’s hair, dirty blond, but she could see a bit of curl to it, like hers. He was theirs. Their little baby boy.
“We don’t have a name written down yet,” the nurse said. “Have you picked something out?”
“I’m not positive yet,” Mindy said. “I have to run it by—my husband. But I was thinking of Michael.”
The nurse smiled. “It’s a good name.”
“I think so.”
“Here, hold on tight.” The nurse wheeled her over to a glass window. On the other side of it, Lauren waited. When she saw the baby, she grinned, waving frantically, as if she expected the tiny newborn to pick up his hand and waved back. Since that was beyond his skill set, Mindy helped by wiggling his tiny fist back and forth. And then, just as her arms started to get tired, and her eyes started to droop, and she thought maybe it was a good idea to get back to her room and get back into bed, she saw Jack race up to the window.
He stopped himself from planting both of his hands against it and staring in, but she got the idea that it was certainly something in his mind. He did place one palm on the glass, watching her with wide eyes and a jaw that had dropped open. She smiled back, and even if it was gas, like people always said, the baby’s little mouth opened in a grin, which morphed into a big yawn.
Their little family had gotten a different start than was typical, but they were definitely a family. That much was sure.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Mindy sat on a park bench and watched her one-year-old son totter after the bigger kids, laughing happily as he went. He was too small for most of the playground equipment, but that didn’t stop him from happily trying to climb, swing, and jump just like the other kids around him. And laugh; that child could laugh until the world smiled.
The roar of a motorcycle pulling up to the park made Mindy smile as she sipped from her water bottle. She didn’t even need to look around anymore; with the peace between the Wardens and the Chain Gang solidified, there wasn’t another biker in town who would be pulling up to the playground for anything other than to play with their kid.
Michael saw Jack before Mindy even turned to say hello to him. That was fine with her; getting to see Jack’s face light up when Michael saw him, yelled “Daddy!” and ran as fast as his chubby legs would carry him across the playground was special every single time it happened. For all of Jack’s worries about how he’d never had a father, and would he be able to do this well, he’d adjusted just fine once the baby was actually in his arms. He took on his share of parenting duties, without complaining or making out that he was some kind of hero, changed dirty diapers without complaining about the smell (more than was fair), and sometimes
even took the baby so she could get a little more sleep.
Mindy had thought about returning to work, but for now, she was happy taking care of Michael. Maybe when he started preschool next year, it might make more sense. The diner had sat empty since Cook decided not to return to town, and she’d thought about opening a little coffee shop over there. Nothing too fancy, a little sit down place with coffee, tea, cakes, and pies. Maybe some sandwiches. It’d still work out well for the crowd that came in off the highway and might be something the locals would enjoy, too. She’d mentioned the idea to Jack, who’d grinned. Joking, he pointed out that the club was always looking for more legitimate business opportunities. Jerk.
No. This was going to be something Mindy did on her own. Something she could be proud of. Like she was proud of her son and proud of her new house.
It was a smallish house, out on the outskirts of Providence, but reasonably close to the clubhouse. There was a guest room, a room for Michael, a master suite for her and Jack, a little kitchen that gave her just enough space to move around, and an actual dining room… She loved it. She’d spent her free time, what little there was of it over the last year, making it her own. Theirs. For her new little family.
BIKER DADDY: The Chain Gang MC Page 15