by Lila Rose
I blew on my hot tea before saying, “You’re my kitchen bitch.” Then I burst out laughing when all of a sudden, his body stilled halfway in the fridge with a milk container in his hand.
He blinked and slowly stood straight. “You did not just say that to me.”
When my laughter died down, I shrugged and said, “Yeah,” and then took a sip of my tea. He started for me. “No, you keep doing what you’re doing,” I ordered. He growled and kept coming. I managed three more sips before he took it from my hand and placed it on the bench behind me.
“You’ll pay for that comment, love,” he hissed. He spun me around, made me place my hands on the bench in front of me.
I moaned loudly as he ran his hand over my arse and then smacked it. “Declan,” I gasped. I gripped the bench tighter as dizziness took me. “Declan,” I said in a panicked tone.
“Malinda?” he asked in a worried voice, “You’re swaying, love. What’s wrong?’
I wanted to answer him, I did, but my mouth felt like it was full of cotton. My legs buckled under me. I would have hit the ground if Declan didn’t catch me.
“I…don’t…feel…well,” I managed to tell him.
“Fuck, love. Malinda, open your eyes for me.” I felt a light tap on my cheek.
My eyes are open, aren’t they?
No. Oh, God, I can’t open my eyes. Help!
“Malinda,” my man yelled. “Christ, no, no. Shit.”
I felt him pick up my body and walk. I knew I was laid on the couch seconds later; I felt it at my back, but I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t move, open my eyes or talk.
What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I do anything? Wetness touched my cheeks and I knew it was tears from my eyes.
“Blue! Dive!” Declan bellowed. I was surprised the house didn’t shake from it. I heard the front door bang open.
“Stoke, what the fuck?”
“She’s not waking up, brother.” I heard the pain in his voice, the panic. I wanted to reach out and reassure him, still I couldn’t. I was pissed I couldn’t. I didn’t want him to worry.
“Call the paramedics, call Killer,” I heard Blue order. Dive must have walked back out because I didn’t hear him, but I knew he would be doing as he was asked.
Blue’s footfalls came closer, but all of a sudden, Declan yelled, “Stop. Don’t, Jesus, don’t go near her.”
Oh, God, please let me open my eyes. My man was hurting. I needed to tell him I was okay.
“Stoke, we’ve got people on the way,” Dive said.
“Dive,” Blue warned. He must have been coming toward me.
“Back the fuck off,” Declan screamed. I felt my body being moved. I was on the floor now, in Declan’s warm arms.
“It’s all right, brother,” Blue said. Something shifted along the floor. Had they moved the couch out of the way?
God, I didn’t know. Declan started rocking me in his arms and more fresh tears fell from my closed eyes.
“It’s gonna be okay, love. You’re gonna be okay,” he said over and over.
I wasn’t so sure it would be.
The worst of it all, was feeling my man breaking and knowing I couldn’t do anything about it.
I was helpless.
Never would I believe my heart would bleed once again after what Tank had done to me.
But it was. It was bleeding…no it was drowning in blood for my man.
Stoke
The pain was unimaginable. The force of it wanted to take me to the ground. No pain had ever been as intense or severe before…fuck, it was agonizing.
“Sir, you have to let us take her,” the dweeb ambo guy said in a patronising tone. I wanted to hit him. They arrived only seconds earlier, but I was in no state to do anything. Instead of listening, I rocked my woman in my arms telling her everything would be okay.
“Sir, could she be pregnant?”
No, she couldn’t be, right? I didn’t know. I knew fuckin’ nothing but pain.
So I didn’t answer.
“Sir, let us take her,” he said in a forceful tone, reaching out for my woman.
A growl filled the room.
“Fuck, you need to back the fuck up, slowly. I’ll deal with it.”
“Shit,” the ambo guy said and moved away. I was glad he did because I was about to wrap my hand around his throat.
“Stoke,” that was Killer. I felt him next to me. “Brother. Your woman needs help. They need to check her over to fix her,” he pleaded. “Stoke, Christ, brother you’re doing her no good. Let her go.”
“She’s crying, Killer. Look, see her tears. How is she crying in her sleep? She’s asleep, right?”
“Yeah, brother, it looks like it. But we need to make sure.”
I knew the right thing to do was let her go, let them see what was wrong. But fuck! Fuck! I was scared. So scared, more scared than I had been in my life. What happened if I let her go and I never saw her again? They’d take her and I’d never have my soul again.
Right then, she was breathing. She was in my arms safe and breathing.
Everything else hurt.
I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t want to do anything but hold my woman while she slept.
“I can’t let her go, brother,” I uttered. “I can’t do it. Christ, if I let her go, it will be real. She shouldn’t be like this. She won’t wake up, Killer. Fuck!” My breath hitched. I felt like a pussy in front of my brothers, but I didn’t care. This was my woman, my life and my soul.
I clamped my eyes tight, cleared my throat and said, “You need to take her. You need…take her from me.”
“Blue, Dive,” Killer said into the room. Footsteps everywhere and then I felt heat at my back.
“Jesus,” someone hissed.
“All right, brother?” Killer asked and then placed his hand on my woman’s arm. My upper lips raised. I didn’t like to see it there. “Calm, Stoke. I won’t harm her. You know that. I have Ivy, yeah?”
Fuck.
Motherfuckin’ Christ.
He had Ivy. He had a woman. He wasn’t taking my life away.
Killer gently tugged on her arm. I growled, “Wait.” I put my nose into her hair, near her ear and whispered, “My sweet, Malinda, I need to let you go, but not for long, love. They’ll fix you and I’ll be there. I’ll be there for you, Malinda, always and forever.” I ground my teeth together and took a deep breath. “I love you, Malinda May. Be strong, be strong for both of us. I-I need you. Shit, love, you fight, whatever this is, fight for me, for Josh and Nary, and for our future.” Pulling away from her scent killed me. “On three,” I hissed.
“Right,” Killer said. “One, two, three.” In seconds, he had her from my arms and laying on the floor as Blue and Dive grabbed my arms and took me to my stomach on the floor, and I let out a roar or fury.
“Take her out,” Killer yelled. I watched from the floor, struggling to break from my brothers to get to her. “Take him to the car. Follow the ambulance. Now!” he barked.
I was lifted from the floor in a tight, unyielding grip, and dragged from the house.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nary
Josh was upstairs when I heard the sirens of an ambulance and straight away, I knew something was wrong. I ran from the room leaving Mrs Cliff in the kitchen as she yelled my name. I ignored her.
At the window, I shifted the curtain out of the way. My heart sunk, the ambulance stopped right out the front of my house.
Mum.
Stoke.
No, no no.
“Child, come away from the window,” Mrs Cliff said and tugged my arm.
I pulled it from her grip, shaking my head. “I have to go over there.”
“You will not. You stay here. They have it under control.”
“Please, I have to…I, my mum…no,” I cried as I watched paramedics run into the house. Harley’s pulled up out the front. Killer, Stoke’s best friend, and another biker, Dodge, I think, got off their bikes and ran into the house.
Mrs Cliff turned to the hall as we heard the back door being slammed open. I didn’t move my gaze from the house next door. I itched to get over there. I needed to see. I needed to know. She couldn’t keep me here…not when something was happening to my mum or Stoke.
“I have to go over there,” I hissed through clenched teeth.
My hand went to my chest. My heart was hurting. It was scared, like me.
I can’t lose my mum.
I can’t.
She’s everything to me.
I promise I’ll be good, God. I promise I won’t give any more trouble. I’ll get good grades. I’ll listen to Mum and Stoke all the time.
I’ll be good.
Just help them. Please, don’t take them.
“Mrs Cliff,” a deep voice said behind me. Still I didn’t turn. I didn’t care.
“I have to go over there,” I uttered, pleading.
“You’ll stay here,” that same deep voice ordered.
Spinning around, I faced Saxon. “You know what’s going on? You know. Oh, God, tell me, please, please tell me.” I ran at him and saw him brace. Just stopping before him, I grabbed his tee into my hands and shook. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know anything. I was sent here to stay in the house with you and your brother.”
“Child, you need to shush before you alert your brother,” Mrs Cliff said.
My hand went over my mouth. Tears ran freely down my face, but I caught the sob before it was heard. I closed my eyes. My head falling to Saxon’s chest. He stiffened.
I have to be strong for my brother.
Seeing this, hearing this, will kill him.
He’s too scared already from the thought of losing either of them.
I have to be strong.
After composing myself, somewhat, I took a deep breath, lifted my head and stepped away from Saxon and his wide eyes.
“You’re right, Mrs Cliff. Josh can’t know. Hopefully the video games will keep him occupied for hours, like usual,” I said with a calm voice while on the inside I screamed and cried.
Without thinking, my feet took me to the window. When I saw Stoke being dragged from the house cursing and fighting, I grabbed the curtain.
Next, oh, God, next the paramedics were wheeling my mum out on their trolley.
Please.
No…
“Nary,” Saxon said from behind me. His hands land on my shoulders.
‘Don’t,” I ordered. Please don’t or I’ll crack. “Mrs Cliff, I need to know if my brother is still safe here. I need to know what happened so I can prepare him…me.”
“Okay, child. I’ll find out,” she offered sympathetically.
Wiping at my face angrily, I stood at the window and waited and watched.
I watched until there was nothing left to watch.
I watched until the house next-door…our house, fell silent.
And then I prayed some more.
Malinda
I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. My man, my devastated man was in another vehicle. I could hear his screams still in my head. He cursed and fought his brothers to get back to me. To take me. He knew I needed help, but he was scared.
Killer
“So that guy was her husband?” the medic checking Malinda’s vitals asked.
I wasn’t in the goddamn mood for stupid questions, still I found myself saying, “Not yet, but he will be.”
“I’ve never seen a guy act like that.”
My eyes watched everything he did. Stoke wouldn’t want it any other way. I wouldn’t let anything harm her when he wasn’t there. Finally, I answered the twerp. “She’s his life. Without her, he is nothing.”
“How do you know?”
I snorted. Frustrated he was so dumb. “Because I’m the same way with my woman,” I snapped and then barked, “Enough chit-fuckin’-chat. Do you know what’s going on with her?”
“Not yet, but her vitals are fine. It’s strange.”
“What the fuck is going on?” I voiced my thoughts as I took her hand in mine. “You had better be okay, Malinda.” Fuck, I prayed she was or else I wasn’t sure if I could save anyone in Stoke’s war path.
Her hand tightened slightly in mine. My eye swung to our hands. “She just gripped my hand,” I told him.
“That’s great. It’s a good sign.” He nodded as we came to a stop. The back doors were pulled open and two nurses were there. They helped with the trolley and then wheeled it toward the doors while the medic rattled off her vitals.
“Killer!” My name was bellowed. Turning quickly, Stoke raced toward the doors with his cousin Lan running after him.
“He can’t come in this way,” the medic who drove said. “You need to control him or he won’t see her at all.”
Fuck.
Controlling a man when it came to his woman was impossible.
Still, I started for my brother and braced when we collided. Pulling him to the ground, I waited for backup. Stoke struggled, cursed and fought away from me. His eyes aimed at the door as they closed, with his woman on the other side.
“Stoke, fuck, brother, calm it or they won’t let you in,” I barked. “Listen to me,” I ordered. “Fuckin’ listen. She grabbed my hand, brother. She moved. She’s going to be okay.”
It was then he sagged into my arms and uttered, “Christ.”
Nary
“Nary child, come here,” Mrs Cliff called from the kitchen. For some reason, I didn’t want to move from the window, but I forced myself to. Feeling weary and emotional, I walked down the hall with a quiet Saxon following me. Had he been with me in the living room that whole time? I didn’t know, and if he had, I didn’t understand it.
On entering, I took a seat opposite Mrs Cliff and looked to her. She smiled and said, “I just spoke to Lan. He’s Stoke’s cousin and a copper. He said they’re at the hospital because your mum collapsed.” I gasped. She reached out and grabbed my hand. “It’s okay, child. They’re running tests. They’ll find what’s wrong and help your mum.”
“B-but what about Stoke? Why were they dragging him out?”
She grinned then. “You mum’s man, he didn’t like seeing your mum like that. He took it badly. He’s at the hospital now with her. Lan said they’d ring once they knew more.”
“Sounds like it’s gonna be okay,” Saxon said from where he stood in the doorway.
I nodded, my eyes to the table. Stoke really cared for mum, the way he was…I had never seen love like that in my life.
Straightening in my seat, I looked up to Mrs Cliff. All I had to do was wait for the next phone call that would inform us Mum was indeed fine. I had to believe. Believing was a good way to go, a good way to live.
A sense of ease settled over me. Yes, all I had to do was believe and put on a brave face for Josh until we knew more.
That was possible.
I thought it was, until a form stepped through the back door.
“No,” I gasped.
Mrs Cliff turned in the seat. “The fuck?” she uttered.
Because there stood Malcolm with a gun pointed at us.
“Thought you could get rid of me? Thought that would be the end of it? Have your new daddy threaten mine to send me away. You ruined my life, slut, and now it’s time to pay.”
“Listen here, you little shit. You leave this child alone and I won’t have to hurt you. Get the fuck out of my house,” Mrs Cliff warned as she stood.
“Shut it, Grandma, or I’ll shoot you first.”
“Well, you’re gonna have to if you want her.”
Malcolm smirked and then laughed. “Easy,” he said, aimed his gun and shot Mrs Cliff.
My scream rang throughout the house. Mrs Cliff gripped the table behind her as she stumbled backward. I was out of my chair in seconds and helped her sink into her chair. She placed a hand over her breast. Her face already pale.
“Damn, that hurts more than I remembered.” Mrs Cliff cringed.
“Don
’t talk,” I ordered and looked up to a smiling Malcolm. “Let me call an ambulance and then I’ll go with you,” I pleaded, new tears filling my eyes. I looked for Saxon, but he wasn’t there.
“You get nothing. Come here, bitch,” he yelled.
“No,” I uttered.
“Now!” he bellowed, I jumped. It was then I watched him take a breath. He added, “Come with me now or I’ll shoot her again.”
“H-how did you find me?” I asked. Stalling always worked in the movies. I could only hope it worked in this situation.
Malcolm laughed without a trace of humour. “A little friend of your momma’s came to me after my dad had sent me away. All I had to do was poison her tea get her to the hospital and he’d be there to take her, and then I got to have you to myself. We’ll have so much fun before I kill you.”
“You poisoned my mum,” I cried.
He shrugged. “Sure and in return, like I said, I got you and fifty thousand dollars.”
Without thought, I lunged for him, only I didn’t make it. A strong arm wound around my waist. I let out an ooof when my advance stopped short.
I was pushed behind a large form and realised quickly it was Saxon.
“You,” Malcolm snarled.
“Why don’t you put your gun away and fight like a real man,” Saxon barked.
“Yeah, right,” Malcolm snorted. “I don’t think so.”
“You take her…I’ll make you regret it.”
“See, I don’t think you’re going to win this time. I have the upper hand here.” he shook the gun around. “I think you need to listen to me.”
Saxon laughed. He actually laughed and then said, ‘I don’t think so.”
Malcolm aimed once again. I screamed, “No.” and grabbed Saxon, knocking him into the wall and then to the floor, the gun went off, and then there was silence.
“You having fun without us again, Beth?” a gravelly voice asked.
Looking up from the floor, I saw Trevor Boon and Dallas Gan. Only it was Dallas restraining a pissed-looking Malcolm.
“Let me go,” he roared.
“Not likely,” Dallas barked.
“You wanna get off me now, viper?” I looked down at Saxon. Sugar, I’d forgotten I tackled him and was laying on him.
“Do I want you to get me off?” Was that what he said?