“Come on, we’ll go find out together,” Chief walked beside me, nudging me a little to get me going until we made our way to the nurses’ station. “This is Jared Lewis. His sister, brother-in-law and nephew were brought in tonight. We’re looking for his nephew Brantley Bent.”
The nurse at the desk offered up a sad smile before checking something in her computer. Then she nodded and stood. “I’ll take you to him. It’s time to check his vitals anyway,” she stated without stopping her forward momentum. We followed along behind her to a room about halfway down the corridor. When the door opened, I stopped and took a deep breath. I could do this. I had to do this. There simply wasn’t a choice.
“Unc Moke,” a small little boy voice called out to me as soon as I managed to get out from behind the nurse.
“Hey, little man, how are you feeling?”
He poked out his bottom lip out a bit as he glanced between the nurse and BigMac. The side of his face was mottled in bruises making me want to kill the mother fucker responsible all over again. “I got hurted. The car spinned on the road and I boomed me head and hanged with my hair falling to the grass.” It took everything in me to stifle the choked scream that threatened to come out. The car was upside down. The fucking convertible was upside down with my family inside it.
“You’re a brave kiddo,” BigMac told him while ruffling his hair to draw attention from me while I got myself together.
“Did momma and daddy gets hurts too?” Brantley finally asked as he turned back to me. Both the nurse and BigMac’s sympathy-filled eyes found my own. Shit. The kid was throwing out all the hard punches without meaning to.
“They did, buddy.” I moved to go sit on the side of his bed. I closed my eyes and remembered what it had been like to explain to my siblings that our mom was gone, and not coming back. They had been older. I’m not sure that made it easier. Soph had vowed that God had taken her so she wouldn’t suffer anymore, and I knew as I got in touch with that memory that it was what she would want me to tell her son.
“Brant, your mom and dad were hurt really bad, and instead of letting that happen to them, God came and took them away to a better place,” I tried explaining. When I saw his lip wobble, I knew it wasn’t going to go well.
“God wanted me to be hurted?” He questioned.
“No, buddy. God thought you could handle it, and he knew you had more to do in this life. He couldn’t take you just yet, but one day you’ll get to go be with your mom and dad again, okay?”
“Tomowo?”
“It won’t be tomorrow, little man. It’ll be after you live a good long life. Your mommy and daddy want you to be able to grow up and have lots of fun first.”
“But dey won’t be hewe to see,” he told me quietly.
“When you go with God, it’s like magic buddy. They can still see you, even if you can’t see them. They’ll know.”
“Do I has to dwibe cars and gets a job now?”
“What? No, buddy.”
“But dats what happsens when you don’t has a mom or dad no more. You all growd up.” He sniffled through the words, hiccupping at the end.
I carefully pulled his little body to me in a hug as tears I didn’t think he knew he was shedding trailed down his chubby little cheeks. “I’m gonna take care of you, little man. You can still be a kid for a while, yeah?”
“Unc Moke, don’t weave me too, otay?”
“I won’t buddy. I promise you, I won’t.”
“Don’t wet God take you too.” His sleepy voice trailed off at the end.
“I’ll punch the fucker if he tries,” I managed through gritted teeth. He giggled.
“You punch God?”
“Nobody is taking me from you, little man!” I told him, though what I really wanted to say was completely different. Damn right I’d punch God. That fucker had been taking from me for far too long now. If he had a plan, it fucking sucked, and I probably wouldn’t be the only one standing in line waiting to sucker punch him either. It had been a long time since I believed though. Now, I’d only pretend for Brant’s sake. When he grew older, he could decide for himself. Before I got to God though, there would be some Russian mafia fucks were about to pay the price for what they’d just done to my family. I couldn’t tell Brant just yet that it wasn’t God that took his family from him, but one day when he was old enough to ask questions and realize what happened, he would know that I managed swift fucking justice for them.
I gently leaned Brant back down on the bed once he had fallen asleep in my arms. Then I pulled the chair BigMac had vacated closer to the bed and held his little hand in my own.
“I have to head out to the clubhouse to check on things there and…”
“Please, make sure Poppy knows I’m okay,” I requested.
“I will, brother. Is there anything you need before I leave?”
I shook my head. The only fucking thing I needed was for my sister and her husband not to be dead. I dropped my head down on the mattress of the bed beside where Brant’s hand rested in my own. “Nothing you can bring me,” I mumbled. I felt his hand on my shoulder as he squeezed.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. We’ll have someone standing outside. Get some rest if you can. Holler if you need anything.”
“Yeah,” I managed to get out and before I knew it I drifted off into a sleep I didn’t think would be possible.
There was no telling how long I’d managed to nod off before I felt another presence in the room. To explain the feeling was akin to holding a magnet close to iron. She drew me in and held on tight from the moment I met her, whether she intended for that to happen or not wasn’t an issue, because we both felt the undeniable pull. I struggled to open my swollen eyes. I’d been crying in my sleep and knew it because the sheets beneath my face were soaked, and my eyes felt like their lids were made of sandpaper as I tried to shift them open.
I don’t know what it was about her presence there, but I knew I couldn’t do this without her. She was the one thing I needed desperately to hold on to in this world. My mom and my sister were now both gone. My club brother was gone too. There was just Kent, the little man, and me left now. The weight of that thought sunk me. It just completely ripped me apart inside. I would never get to see my sister again. Never get to watch Bender be so fuckin in love with her that it both disgusted and elated me to see it. The disgust had only come into play in the times I accidently caught them up to no good at the clubhouse. She was still my little sister, and I never lost the urge to want to beat the shit out of him. At the same time, there was never anyone better for my sister. As the devastation of their loss settled into deep in my bones, I felt Poppy’s arms wrap around me and pull me into her middle. She held me there while I came undone in her arms. Her warmth and strength wrapped around me like a favorite blanket. Comfort. That’s what she was, comfort personified.
“Shh,” she whispered as her kips touched brushed through the hair on my head. “I’m here. Chief’s here. Whatever you need, we are here for you, Love, I promise.”
The emptiness in my heart filled upon hearing her call me Love. It filled and helped pushed away the excruciating pain of loss. I knew it was only a momentary patch, but I was thankful for it. For her. For family that was still here. Kent was still here too. I needed to talk to him.
“I need to get ahold of Kent,” I told her as I moved back in order to wipe my pathetic tears away from my face. It was only then that I realized Poppy hadn’t come in alone.
“I already did, Brother.” Chief came closer so he could speak softly since little man was still knocked out. “They were already in the air headed to Anaheim to play the Ducks. The team is sending him back the minute the land.” That sounded familiar. I was pretty sure Ghost had told me something about California when I first got to the hospital, but it all slipped through the cracks considering everything that was being thrown at me.
“That’s good then.” I felt that familiar fog from yesterday try to swamp me and take me under a
gain. I couldn’t allow that. There was too much to do. Vengeance to be had, a little boy to care for, and a brother to get through the grieving process along me. Then there was the club, grieving for the brother they had lost and a fine old lady who had been as involved in the club as women could be. I wondered if Kent would be allowed any time off at all for everything that was headed our way with the preparations, funerals, and the world of hurt that would follow us through it all. “Do they know all of it yet?”
Chief shook his head in the negative. “Ghost has people working on it now. It won’t take long.”
“I need to get in touch with Shep and let him know, just in case.” Worry coursed through me for his family. We had already connected the bombing and fires to the Russian Mafia. There was no stopping those types of people once they had their minds set on things.
“Ghost went to loop him in,” Chief told me. I saw what looked like pride tipping the edges of Chief’s lips up as he glanced over at Poppy. “She was telling me that Shep should be made aware just in case, and Ghost overheard. He assured us that Poppy was right, and he was headed over to do just that so we could be here for you and Brant.”
I slid my hand down to Poppy’s thigh and squeezed as she continued to hold me and rub little circle patterns into my back. I hadn’t been wrong when I equated her to comfort earlier. She was the best kind of woman; one made to be an old lady and make sure her man was cared for and shit was handled when he couldn’t be there to do it. Her soon-to-be ex-husband had to be off his fucking rocker not to see what he had in her. Still, I thanked the universe and beyond for his stupidity, because it led her right to me, and I wasn’t fucking stupid. I squeezed again and then spoke softly to her. “I need to talk to Chief a minute. Could you sit with Brant?”
“Of course, but um, what if he wakes?”
“Just distract him as best you can until I get back. I won’t be long.” I managed to get up and out of the chair, despite my stiff back, before I leaned in and kissed the top of her head, smelling the sweet vanilla shit she used in her hair. Once I was up on my feet, I spun her around and helped her down into the chair that had been killer on my body as I attempted to sleep in it during the night. Then I took off with Chief in tow, making sure the door shut quietly behind us.
I turned to see Hopper in a chair outside of the door. “You mind sitting a bit longer? I need to go grab some food, and I don’t want to leave the two of them…”
“You don’t even have to ask, brother. That’s why I’m here. If it ain’t me, another brother will be along to take a shift as long as your boy’s here.”
My boy. Jesus, fuck! It hit me right in the gut all over again, because with my sister and Bender gone, that’s exactly what Brantley had just become. My boy. Not just my nephew, but mine to raise from now until he reached manhood. I wasn’t scared to take it on. Hell, I’d already been down this road before after my mom got sick and then passed. My siblings became my kids to worry about in a weird way. Now, my nephew had stepped into that same role. Would the cycle ever end? I would never turn away family, but I was tired of losing pieces of it at the same time.
We didn’t manage to even make it to the cafeteria before both of our phones pinged with incoming texts.
Poppy – Brant is awake. He asked why the big truck crunched them. He’s asking for his momma, and I don’t know what to tell him.
“I guess food will have to wait.” I turned on my heel to go back the way we’d come and had taken a few steps before I realized Chief wasn’t with me. He was still reading his message.
“I’ll come up too, in case either of you needs me, and then head back down to grab food for everyone once we make sure Brant’s okay. They’ll probably both need a rescue by the time we get back.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means that little boy is going to break my sister’s heart wide open, and in response she’ll smother the poor guy in goopy girly lovin’. I’m sure they’ll both need a reprieve by the time you get there.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Figured you could handle one, while I take the other out in the hallway and let her get it all out where he can’t see.”
It was the first thing that brought a smile to my face in two days. I could picture that happening. Though, if I knew my nephew at all, he would just eat up all the pretty girl lovin. “Thanks man,” I called out as I jogged off in the direction of the room Brant was currently staying in with Chief following close at my heels.
When I got back to the room, a nurse was doing something off to the side and writing in a tablet. Poppy looked to me with desperation in her eyes. We hadn’t been able to talk, and that was my fault. I should have filled her in on what I told Brantley before I left her alone with him.
“Hey, little man, you hangin’ in there?”
“Unc Moke,” he slurred a bit. “My gots owies.”
“I know you have owies, Brant. The doctors are fixing you up as quick as they can so you can be even stronger when you leave here.”
“Me Batman?” His sleepy question made me smile again for the second time today.
“Yeah, Bud, just like Batman.” I could see he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open at that point, and I glanced over to the nurse, concerned since he’d just woken up. Why the hell would he still be sleepy. I didn’t know if he had head trauma that was worse than just the bruising or what. Shit, the explanations we had gotten from the doctor seemed to blend together almost as if Charlie Brown’s teacher had been giving his diagnosis. I knew it happened to people who were in shock, but I’d never experienced it before. When it was my mom going through stuff, she was the one to explain things to me, and she made sure I was really hearing all of it.
“I gave him a little something for the pain, but unfortunately it will make him super sleepy,” the nurse finally told me after realizing I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening. Her eyes softened as she glanced down at my nephew and patted his little head gently with her hand. “Probably for the best, considering.” She turned her attention to Poppy again before speaking. “Just hit the button and call again if you need anything. I’m not sure if they’ll be moving him upstairs to the pediatric wing or not. I do know they want to keep him here for at least 48 hours to watch and make sure there weren’t any internal injuries that didn’t present right away.”
“Thank you,” Poppy told her, and then the nurse took off out of the room like the hounds of hell were chasing after her. I caught Chief’s grin and wondered if the bastard had been giving her ‘fuck me’ eyes the whole time or what. She had been cute. Not cute enough for me to really pay much attention to, but then again, no one could compare to the woman watching us with worried eyes.
“What exactly did he say?” I asked her now that we were alone in the room again.
She seemed to hesitate at first, and I wasn’t sure why until she began telling me. Poppy probably wanted to spare me the details that my nephew had shared with her, but no matter how much they hurt we needed to know everything. “He told me his momma was screaming and then she wasn’t. Then he asked why the big truck crunched them. He was in a lot of pain. That’s really all he said other than to tell me he hurt.”
I had to take a seat to absorb that information. We already knew that they’d been run off the road purposely, but to hear that my nephew knew it too, and that my sister had… Shit. I just couldn’t think about it right now. I took a seat in the chair beside Brant’s bed and pulled Poppy down on my lap needing to feel close to her. I needed something that could ground me and hold me together, because I had a little boy counting on me not to lose my shit.
We sat there quietly, just breathing each other in for a while. I didn’t even notice when Chief left the room. Only that sometime later, it became apparent that we were alone. “Thank you for being here with him.”
“You don’t have to thank me for that. I know what it’s like to lose almost your entire family. He’s so young though.”
“He is. I’m going to need you, and I
don’t think it’s fair to ask this of you, considering.”
She stopped me there. “You don’t even have to ask, Love. I’m here for whatever you both need. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Thank you,” I whispered into her hair, feeling an immediate sense of relief. Things were still so new for us that I hated making demands on her time. Maybe I’d never have the words to convey what it meant to me, but I held her tighter and just breathed her in, hoping that somehow the feelings would convey through osmosis or some shit.
I’m not sure how long we sat we sat vigil at Brant’s side, me in the hospital chair and Poppy in my lap, but a while later Shep, Ghost, and Leanne came bounding through the door. Ghost and Leanne seemed to be trying to hold Shep back, but he shrugged them off and looked completely devastated as he took in my little black and blue nephew lying there on the bed.
“No!” Shep choked out on a sob. “Tell me this isn’t my doing.” Fucking hell. I knew this would hit him hard since he got us involved in his family’s business, but I wasn’t sure I was ready for the reality of his reaction right now. Not here, in front of my nephew’s hospital bed. I turned all my attention to him as he stood there, shoulders shaking and diving deep in that pit of despair and self-loathing. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He kept mumbling.
“This isn’t on you,” I managed to get out in between his ‘I’m sorry’ litany. “This is not on you. This is on the fuckers who thought it was okay to run my sister and her family off the road. We will get them. They will die for this. All I need you to do is make sure your mom and sister are somewhere safe until we do. Send them away if you can. If you can’t, let us know, and we’ll see if one of the other chapters can house them for a while.”
Shep’s head shook back and forth almost violently. “No, look what happened when I got your guys involved before. I can’t. I won’t let you take on anything else.”
Redemption Duet (Aces High MC - Cedar Falls Book 0) Page 32