UNDRESSED: Soul Catchers MC

by Zoey Parker

  “Why?” Lucian asked in a low voice, barely audible as the sirens closed in on their location.

  “Love,” Brent said. “Because of love.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Brent

  Brent paced the floor of the waiting area of the emergency room, his legs twitching with excess energy as he followed the same path in between rows of chairs full of waiting patients. “Come on, come on,” he muttered under his breath, ignoring the judgmental looks from the old nurse at the front desk. Lucian had been taken in to see a doctor about thirty minutes earlier, and they didn’t let Brent back with him because he wasn’t a family member. So here Brent was, full of anxiety as his mind wandered to every imaginable worst case scenario, full of worry for the little boy that he wasn’t even related to. Kira has no idea, Brent thought. Bile rose within his gastrointestinal tract, but he swallowed it down, refusing to admit weakness even to himself. I have to make sure that Lucian is okay before I go see Kira today. I have to make sure that they’re both okay.

  “Mr. Barkley?” someone called out from the door on the opposite side of the waiting room.

  “Yes?” Brent yelled back, a little too loudly, disturbing the otherwise oppressively silent waiting room. He darted across as the room and slid to a stop in front of a nurse holding a clipboard.

  “Lucian is in stable condition,” the nurse said, not looking up from the stack of papers in her hand.

  “What does that mean?” Brent asked.

  “He’s asleep, for now,” the nurse said. “His father is in custody for child abuse and reckless endangerment. It seems clear that he was abusing Lucian in the hopes of involving him in online videos of violent exploitation.”

  Brent’s stomach turned over as he thought of what Lucian must have been doing to his son, but he pushed the thoughts from his mind, shaking his head to get them out of his brain for the time being. “Can I see him?” he asked.

  “Not right now,” the nurse said. She offered Brent an apologetic smile. “It’s just difficult for us to let anyone see underage patients unless they’re the parents. You understand, of course.”

  Brent nodded, but his heart split apart in his chest. For some reason, it felt like the end of the world, even though he knew he would be able to see Lucian soon enough, after he picked Kira up from the hospital.

  But for some reason, as he slid down into a seat opposite the doorway, his muscles sinking into the hard cushion, he couldn’t help but feel lost. His arms ached to wrap around Lucian, to cuddle him against his chest and promise him that no one would ever hurt him again. But for now, he would just have to wait, biding his time until he could see the boy again and make sure that he was okay.

  His phone rang, snapping him out of his reverie. Brent answered it without looking at the caller id, barking into the receiver, “What?”

  “Brent…” It was Dylan, Brent realized. His pulse quickened just from the sound of his son’s hesitant voice in his ear.

  “Dylan, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?” he asked. He jumped to his feet, ready to rush home at the first sign of trouble.

  “No, no, everything’s okay. Oliver is doing a good job taking care of me,” Dylan said. “I was just wondering when you were coming home.”

  Brent let out a long sigh of relief and sagged against the nearest wall, practically knocking his head on the hard surface behind his back as all the energy seemed to seep from his body at once. “Soon,” he replied. “I’m coming soon. I promise.”

  “Okay,” Dylan said. “You don’t have to rush. I just...” His son trailed off, muttering something under his breath that Brent couldn’t make out clearly.

  “What? What is it? What’s wrong?” Brent asked, feeling more anxiety than usual. It had been a long, hard couple of days, and the battle wasn’t over yet.

  “Nothing,” Dylan said, but his voice sounded low and sad, heavy with some unspoken emotion that made Brent more afraid than any knife or gun ever had. “I just miss you, that’s all,” his son added in a small, uncertain voice. His words pierced Brent’s heart.

  Brent swallowed several times, willing the right answer to rise up through his throat without his brain having to think about it. But it didn’t work that way. He leaned his head back against the wall just inside the hospital entrance and listened to the sound of Dylan’s breathing for several seconds before he mustered up the courage to form a proper response. “I miss you, too,” he answered honestly. His heart ached like it had been physically punctured. “I’ll be home soon, okay? I promise.”

  “Mommy used to say that promises mean nothing,” Dylan said.

  “Do you believe that?” Brent asked.

  “Not anymore,” Dylan said, and Brent couldn’t be sure, given that he could only hear his son’s voice, but he thought he could detect the sound of a smile hiding within those two words.

  “I’ll be there in a few hours, okay?” Brent said. “I have to take care of some things first, but then I’ll come to you. And we’ll have dinner together. Promise.”

  “Good,” Dylan said happily. “I love you, Daddy.”

  Brent hesitated, biting on his tongue for a moment before he let his heart speak for him. “I love you, too,” he said, his eyes filling with tears.

  “Bye, Daddy,” Dylan said and then he hung up, leaving Brent alone with his emotions.

  Brent cradled his head in his hands for a minute and breathed deeply to gather himself before he straightened up again, refocusing his attention on his cell phone as he dialed Howie’s number.

  “Howie.”

  “What’s up, boss?”

  “Jethro,” Brent said. “And the rest of the young bucks. We’ve got to take them on.”

  “Okay, we’ll plan a raid,” Howie replied. “When were you thinking?”

  “Now,” Brent said. His legs launched into motion and carried him back out into the parking lot outside of the emergency room.

  “Don’t we need time to, like, prepare first?” Howie said uncertainly.

  Brent shook his head as he hopped back on his bike, revving up the engine loudly. His heart pounded rapidly, but without a single drop of fear. “We do it now,” he said into the phone. “Get everybody who’s willing and meet me at the clubhouse as soon as possible.”

  It was weird. All these years, Brent had worried that getting close to anyone meant risking your heart, putting yourself in danger of getting hurt. But as he rode down the street towards the Soul Catchers clubhouse, he felt freer than he had in his entire life. He knew he could survive this. He could fight and claw and battle till the sun went down, as long as he had something worth fighting for. He had that now, because of Dylan. And Kira. And Lucian. All of them together. They were a family. And no matter what happened today, nobody could take that away from him.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Kira

  Kira pulled at her own hair, practically tearing it out at the root, tapping her feet rapidly on the floor of her cell just to distract herself from the ticking noise of the clock in the hallway outside.

  “Can you stop that?” her cellmate, whose name was apparently Candace, said in an annoyed tone of voice.

  “Sorry,” Kira said. She stilled her feet but continued to yank at the handful of hair in her fist, using the pain to anchor herself down into this moment and keep herself at a safe distance from all the worrying thoughts that were revolving like a carousel in her mind.

  “You should have taken his help, you know,” Candace said. She stood and walked over to the toilet in the corner.

  “What are you talking about?” Kira asked, even though she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

  “Brent, Brent Barkley,” Candace said, rolling her eyes as she peed without shame. Kira felt herself blush at the sound of her urine hitting the base of the toilet bowl. “You should have gotten him to break you out of here.”

  Kira shook her head. “I don’t work that way.”

  “Oh, you’re too good for a criminal lifestyle
, is that it?” Candace said, scoffing as she flushed and got back on her feet. She went over to stand next to Kira’s bed rather than going back to sit on her own. “You know, some of us don’t have any choice. We have to live this way, whether we want to or not.”

  “I don’t mean to judge,” Kira said. She blew out her breath, pushing some of the hair out of her face. “I just…can’t handle any more chaos in my life right now, all right?”

  “And you think that the MC will bring more of that, more chaos or destruction or whatever?” Candace said, rolling her eyes again, so hard this time that Kira was a little worried she was having a seizure.

  “I mean, wouldn’t it?” Kira asked defensively. She knew she wasn’t in any position to judge, sitting in a jail cell for Christ’s sake, but she still felt like an MC wasn’t a good environment to have around her son. Lucian had to come first, above all else. Otherwise, what was the point? Who would Kira even be if she couldn’t be a good mother? How could she even live with herself?

  But Candace just sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s a pretty stupid to raise a kid trying to keep them away from chaos, but that’s just me.”

  “What do you mean?” Kira asked.

  Candace stared down at her a minute, looking imperiously judgmental, before she finally deigned to answer. “I mean, the world is chaos. Do you want to shield your kid from the whole world?”

  “Maybe,” Kira answered without even thinking. Then she sighed, her words catching up to her brain. “I don’t know,” she said. She bent over so that her head was hanging between her knees. She heard a long time ago that this was a good way to fight nausea, but it wasn’t doing any good at the moment. “I just want him to be safe. Is that so much to ask?”

  Candace made a noise like she was about to say something else, but before she could speak again, a clanging noise rang out from somewhere outside of their cell. Kira lifted her head up a little to look out of the metal bars separating the cell from the rest of the world. She saw a pair of officers struggling with a man who kept trying to throw them off despite having his hands bound behind his back.

  It took Kira a second to realize it, but after a few moments it clicked. Larry!

  “Larry!” Kira called out. She jumped to her feet and walked to the bars of her cell, pressing her face in between two of them so she could yell out to her ex-husband. “Larry, what’s going on?”

  Larry looked confused for a second before his eyes landed on Kira’s. A vicious smile spread across his face as soon as he spotted her. “Oh, wow. Oh, this is just too fucking good,” he said, bursting into laughter as the cops shoved him closer to Kira’s cell.

  “What’s happening here?” Kira asked. Her heart pounded harder in her chest as her ex-husband approached her cell.

  “Your fucking boyfriend got me arrested, is what fucking happened,” Larry spat out, his eyes full of pure, blind hatred, piercing into Kira like a thousand knives.

  It took a few moments before Kira’s brain could process Larry’s words. “Brent…?” she said uncertainly, her voice wavering a little even on that single word.

  “Yes, fucking Brent,” Larry yelled back at her. “Your precious fucking Brent stole our child from me. I’m sure you’re pleased as punch.” Even though he was still fighting with two officers pinning his arms back, Larry leaned forward and spat forcefully in Kira’s direction. Kira barely moved out of the way in time to dodge the wad of saliva.

  “What were you doing to him?” Kira asked, staring at Larry with as much venom as she could muster from every inch of her body.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Larry said with a bitter laugh. “It’s all over, for both of us, babe. I guess we’ll be together in the end, huh?”

  “Fuck you,” Kira spat. She was consumed with rage for the man standing across from her cell. “Fuck you, Larry. I’ll never be with you again. Ever. No matter what you manage to do to weasel your way out of it, know that I know the truth. You’re a piece of shit abuser. You’re never coming near me or my son ever again. Trust me.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Larry said mockingly. “I know every other cop in this fucking state. I’ve got half the judges in my pocket. You think anyone’s going to look at the two of us and choose you as the rightful parent? You think the law’s going to let you keep your son? You’re in for a nasty surprise, my love.”

  Before Kira could come up with a response, the two officers finally got the better of Larry, ignoring his protests as they shoved him down the hall into one of the cells at the other end.

  Kira stood there for a long moment, her ears straining for any sound of her ex-husband, but she couldn’t pick up on anything else. She finally sighed and moved back to her cot, where she sat down on the hard mattress and cradled her head in her hands.

  “He’s right, you know,” Candace said after a long pause, tearing her out of her thoughtless haze.

  “Oh, yeah?” Kira asked. Her voice came out stiff and bland, disconnected from the swirl of emotions dominating her heart.

  “Yeah,” Candace said. “The law doesn’t do shit. That’s why you’re here, right? You didn’t do anything. You just got landed here because of some bullshit, just like me. The MC helped me once, you know. They got me out of a jam with another club on the edge of town. I probably wouldn’t even be alive if it weren’t for them.”

  Kira’s skin prickled uncomfortably, the air between her and Candace becoming weighty with the tension generated between their two bodies. “Thank you for telling me,” she said stiffly, unsure of what else to say.

  “Don’t thank me,” Candace said. “Thank Brent. He’s a good man. He’ll treat you right if you give him a chance.”

  Before Kira could come up with a response, a guard approached the cell. He jingled a set of keys for a moment then unlocked the door and swung it open. “Foster. Come on, let’s go.”

  “Let’s go?” Kira asked, unable to force her legs to set into motion despite the guard’s orders.

  “Did I fucking stutter?” the guard asked.

  “You better go,” Candace said, gesturing for Kira to follow the guard out of the door. “You got to take your chances while you still got them.”

  Kira hesitated for a second before she finally nodded and walked to the open door of the cell. “Thank you, Candace,” she said sincerely. Her heart filled up with emotion as she stared at the woman sitting on the bunk on the opposite side of the room. “I won’t forget what you told me.”

  “Don’t forget me, okay?” Candace said as Kira walked through the door. She followed the guard out into the main room of the jailhouse. “Now that you’re Queen Bee and all!”

  Kira didn’t know what Candace meant by that at first, but she didn’t have time to question it, as the wind was knocked out of her lungs the very next second. Sitting there in the waiting room with his head bowed and his hands knotted together, as if he was praying, was Brent. Kira’s whole mouth went dry within seconds just from the sight of him in that chair, looking so worried and so handsome, all at once.

  “Here you go,” the guard said from behind her. He undid her cuffs and pushed her forward slightly in Brent’s direction. “You’re free to go.”

  “Really?” Kira asked, turning around to face the guard to make sure that he wasn’t playing some trick joke on her. “I can go? But why? What happened?”

  “Ask him,” the guard said, pointing in Brent’s direction.

  Kira had no choice then but to turn back around and face her boss/lover/whatever the fuck he was at this point in her life. “Hey,” she said softly, barely managing enough courage to maintain eye contact with Brent’s blazing gaze.

  “Hey,” he said back to her. He stood up and walked about a yard forward, stopping before he closed any more of the distance between them. The air seemed to crackle around them, full of an unfamiliar energy that made Kira’s blood pump faster, her brain working overtime to come up with something appropriate to say.

  “Was that you?” Kira finally manag
ed to ask. “Getting me out of here, I mean? Was that your doing?”

  “Yes,” Brent said, nodding firmly. “I’m sorry it took so long. I had to deal with something with my club…well, it doesn’t matter now. It’s finished. I have control again.”

  “You lost it?” Kira asked, raising her eyebrow quizzically.

  Brent smiled bashfully and nodded again. “Yeah. That happens sometimes.” He paused, blowing his breath and stepping forward again, not stopping until he was a foot away from Kira. This way, she could see his eyes much more clearly, see the unbridled emotion lurking within, ready to unleash. “Look. I have to be honest with you. The club is a mess. It’s always been a mess, ever since I took control of it years ago. But it’s a part of my life. I can’t let go of it. But I understand if you have to in order to be there for your son.”