He’d spoken to some barbeque joint to deliver over a thousand dollars’ worth of meat the day of the party. Then he’d made arrangements with some man to bring wood. Some woman to deliver kegs. Another man was to bring a bounce house to entertain the kids. Hell, he’d even had someone scheduled to come DJ.
I’d asked where they were planning to have it, and he’d told me at the warehouse
He’d explained that it was big enough to house a small circus once they rearranged and pulled in all the bleachers. I hadn’t been aware that the bleachers were retractable, but he’d told me they’d had them installed for that very purpose.
I hadn’t had the desire to ask Sebastian how a club that wasn’t doing anything illegal could afford something like that when most of their members were public servants in some capacity. I wanted to keep my illusions.
I knew they weren’t completely legal in everything they did. There was no way they could be. I was just glad he let me in where he could.
“Can’t sleep?” Sebastian rasped from the bed beside me.
My eyes, which had been staring at his chest blankly, snapped up to meet his. “No.”
He rolled over onto his back and held his hand in the air, waited, and laughed when I crawled into his embrace readily.
“I missed you.” He said, kissing the top of my head lightly.
“I missed you more. Like crazy bad. The past three days have been horrible.” I sighed, running my nose along the smooth skin of his chest.
“Is that why you can’t sleep?”
I hesitated before answering, and then let it all pour out of my in a rush. “I’m scared to death to be pregnant. I’ve learned a lot of bad shit about this disease I have. Childbirth is risky in the first place, then you add into the equation my disease, and I’m looking at a very high-risk pregnancy. Then, the doctor tells me I can’t even take my ADHD medicine, and I’m so nervous I can barely see straight.”
Sebastian hesitated for a few long moments before addressing my concerns.
His hand, which had been curling around my shoulder went to my hair and started sifting through it. “Have you ever been off your ADHD medicine since you were in your teens?”
“No. The meds have changed, but I’ve been on some form or another ever since I was young. Why?”
“What makes you think that you’ll have a hard time handling stuff now? And if you do, why is it that big a deal? You’re with a man that loves you. Your boss at work will understand. What will it hurt if you’re are still affected but off of it? From what I can tell, the only real things I can see that you have trouble with are boredom, lateness, and you space out from time to time. Multitasking isn’t a problem that I’ve seen. You juggle everything very well that I have noticed. Why don’t you just take it one-step at a time? Plus, it won’t be forever. It’ll be another seven and a half months. That’s doable.”
He made it sound so simple. So easy.
I wasn’t sure it would be, but I’d give it the old college try.
I wouldn’t disappoint him.
I’d fight for him. For me. And for our family.
“Wait, did you just say you loved me?” I gasped as I continued to replay what he had said in my head.
He snorted. “Like fucking crazy.”
Chapter 21
Bikers don’t go gray, they turn chrome.
-Biker Patch
Baylee
Two days after the party dawned dark and stormy.
I was outside on the dock and watched as a fish jumped in the middle of the lake producing a large splash.
Boots on the dock had my looking over my shoulder to see Silas walking towards me with his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
He was wearing a black t-shirt that made me chuckle every time I saw it.
“I love that shirt.” I said to him as he got close enough that I could see it.
He looked down and studied it, then smiled.
“I like it.” He agreed.
The shirt had an old man riding a motorcycle with the top rocker saying, ‘Sons of Arthritis’ and the bottom rocker saying, ‘Ibuprofen Chapter.’
I’d asked him to get me one for my birthday since he wouldn’t tell me where he got it.
“What’s up?” I asked him.
He sat down, letting his feet dangle over the side of the dock, and leaned back putting his weight on his hands. “Nothing. Sebastian sent me to pick you up. Told me to take you kicking and screaming if you resisted.”
I eyed the slight mist that was scheduled to turn into a hurricane within the next twenty-four hours.
It was said to be, by the National Weather Service, one of the worse the country has ever seen.
Sebastian had been scheduled off for the next week for his vacation; yet, as soon as we’d heard how bad it was supposed to get, Sebastian had volunteered to go in.
“He did not say that!” I laughed.
“No, he didn’t. But it made him sound like a pussy when he asked me to say please. I just wanted to make an effort to make him not sound so much like a little girl.”
“I’ll go under one condition.” I cautioned.
He looked at me skeptically, as if he didn’t believe I’d go without a fight. “What’s that?”
***
Sebastian
Apartment fire at Town Oaks. Neighbors say it has fully engulfed the first apartment on the West Side.
As soon as I heard those words, I knew it was going to be bad.
We’d responded to call after call in the past six hours of my shift.
Kettle and I had both been on the first hose as we’d pointed the stream into a large hole that was cut into the side of apartment 1A’s wall.
Kettle had been at my back, his shoulder pressed against the middle of my back to ensure we both kept adequate control of the hose.
Apartment 1A was the one below 1B, which was fully engulfed.
All we were supposed to be doing was hosing down the apartment to ensure the area wouldn’t have a way to catch, but I’d been blindsided.
“I think we need to pull back. Something doesn’t feel right!” I yelled at Kettle.
As Kettle stepped back, giving me a little slack in the line, another firefighter walked up.
Feeling somewhat mollified, I yelled out to Kettle to hold, and turned my head back to the fire. If they had someone else there to keep an eye on the situation around them, I’d keep hitting the house with my line. It just felt like something was off, and my senses were telling me to get the fuck out.
Kettle must not have heard me because, suddenly, I had no more support at my back. The support I had holding the hose was suddenly gone, too.
Not able to look over my shoulder because of my bunker gear, I managed to turn the water flow off with a push of the lever, and set it down.
What I saw when I was clear was enough to chill my blood.
Everything happened quickly after that.
The fire ax that the other firefighter was holding came down quickly.
One second it was above the man’s head, and the next it was buried in my chest. I looked down as if in a haze and saw the axe protruding from my chest. Then I looked back up to see the firefighter leaving. Saw the name on the back of the gear. McRae.
I didn’t feel the agony like I should have.
The only thing I could think was ‘good thing it’s not in my heart.’
Kettle, who’d been on the ground flat on his face, turned over, and removed his helmet.
I would never forget the horror in his eyes when he saw the ax protruding from my chest. Hell, I probably wouldn’t be able to un-see that in the near future, either. That is, if I lived to see the near future.
I didn’t know much of what happened next. Only that my knees gave out. My breathing became a little harder, and eventually I was on the ground watching the smoke billow up from the roof.
My ears started ringing, and the beat of my heart slowed.
Kettle crawled up beside me propp
ing himself up on my elbow and was yelling something, but I couldn’t make it out.
I could only see his lips moving.
I guessed he was yelling based on the amount of time his mouth stayed open.
The last though I had was to tell Baylee how wide Kettle could open his mouth. She’d really appreciate the humor of the situation.
Then my vision dimmed until all I could see resembled a tunnel, and then I was completely out.
Bye Bye. Welcome to la la land.
***
Baylee
“I can’t believe he’s letting you have his recliner. Do you know how much that thing costs?” Tillie sneered at me while I was perched on Silas’ recliner.
I ignored her. She’d been so freaking rude the last hour I’d been in the clubhouse that I was about to go insane.
She’d have yelled at me if Johnny wasn’t currently asleep in my lap.
And the child really could use his sleep. He’d been going 90 to nothing since the party days before. We hadn’t returned the bounce house until just this morning, and he’d been using it for his own personal enjoyment ever since.
At my continued disregard for what she had to say, Tillie stormed off in a huff.
All the women and children were in the clubhouse today. We were left with Normus, Silas and Porter.
Minnie, Porter’s wife, sat beside me knitting a baby blanket for the newest addition to the Dixie Warden family.
A loud boom of thunder shook the room, followed shortly by the power flickering three times before it went out completely.
“God damn son of a bitch.” Normus growled from his position at the bar. “That was the best part of the movie.”
We were watching Phenomenon with John Travolta, and it was at the part where the main character dies.
Oh well, I hated that part anyway.
Movies where the main characters died sucked. I’d read a book a couple of weeks ago where the main character died, and I’d cried for two hours straight. I read to escape reality, not to have reality intrude in my fairytales.
“Turn the radio on for me, Porter.” Silas yelled from the recliner beside me.
“Why can’t we turn on the generator? Wasn’t that the whole reason I came?” I teased.
Silas snorted. “No. The reason you came was so that your old man didn’t have to worry about you while he’s out risking his life to save other people too dumb to get out of this shit and stay the fuck home.”
“Well,” I said trying to contain me laughter. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“What isn’t nice is you teasing me while you’re sitting in an aging man’s chair. I bought that bastard specifically from the furniture store to help me with my aches and pains. And then you freakin’ take it.” Silas condemned.
“Hey, y’all be quiet and listen!” Normus said.
It was something in the tone of Normus’ voice that had everybody shutting up, rather than his words.
Something about the half-hysterical tone had every single person, child included, stopping and listening.
“...have been battling a blaze at the Town Oak’s Apartment Complex for well over an hour now. There have been multiple victims. Status on those victims have not been released as of yet. So far, there have been three victims of the fire and one firefighter that has been injured. Status on that injured firefighter is unknown, but as soon as we get some more information, we’ll get back to you...”
I didn’t know what it was. Maybe it was a sixth sense, but I knew that it was Sebastian’s department that went. I knew he was the one injured.
Frantically, I moved the sleeping Johnny off my legs and stood up, and then reached for my cell phone. Sebastian had told me the day of my doctor appointment that the clubhouse didn’t have good service. That was his reason on why he never got any of my calls, since he’d spent so much time here arranging the festivities for the barbeque.
Right now, as I stared at the no service signal, my heart started to pound steadily.
“My cell says no service.”
***
The voicemails finally started coming two hours after we’d arrived at the hospital.
Five hours ago, I, and every other member of the Dixie Warden family arrived at the hospital.
The first call was the Chief of Benton Police, calling to inform us of an accident. The second call was from The Fire Chief telling us that Kettle and Sebastian had both sustained traumatic injuries and for us to come to the medical center ASAP.
The third, and most disturbing, was from Kettle’s sister asking me to please call her and let me know if Kettle made it through all right. Preferably before next week when rent was do. She’d really appreciate it.
Fuck me.
I had other things to do, and calling that heartless, ungrateful bitch wasn’t one of them.
“Mrs. Mackenzie?” A haggard looking doctor with the Harley Davidson head wrap called.
I came to me feet quickly, rushing forward until I was mere inches away from the poor woman. “Yes?” I asked desperately.
“We’ve stabilized him. The wound he received from the axe to the chest-”
“The what?” Was echoed around the room.
She nodded sagely. “Yes, it was an axe wound. He came in with the axe still imbedded in his chest. We removed it in the OR. However, he sustained quite a bit of bleeding, and our reserves have been severely depleted from the recent influx of injuries due to the storm. On top of that, he’s a rare blood type of AB negative, and we don’t have that on hand right now. We’ve used as much O- as we could, and unfortunately, he still needs more. On a healthy person, he would’ve been fine two pints low, but with how much trauma he’s sustained, it’s just not looking really good right now. I’m really sorry.”
I thought furiously for all of three seconds before I volunteered. “I have O negative blood. We have over thirty people here with me right now; surely one of them has O negative or AB negative.”
“You are not, under no circumstances, donating any blood. That is just not going to happen.” Silas immediately replied.
I knew immediately that he wouldn’t take any arguing from me on this, so I looked desperately throughout the men that were stuffed into the little waiting room with me . Nearly every single one of them shrugged.
Trance came forward. “I have O negative.”
“Me too.” Normus bowled through.
Then a little boy, and seriously, he was a boy, eighteen at most, stepped forward.
He was dressed much the same as the other men of the Dixie Wardens, except for one tiny little difference. He didn’t have the bottom rocker that declared him an actual member of the MC. Sebastian had told me that the ones without the bottom rockers were prospects. They were trying to join the club, and each prospect had a sponsor.
This particular boy was Sterling. He was being sponsored by Sebastian.
Sebastian found Sterling on the streets of Benton eating out of garbage cans and evading the police.
I hadn’t really heard much more about him, but Sebastian had told me everything he knew, which wasn’t much.
But it turned out that the boy was incredibly intelligent, and a good man to have at your back.
He was also offering his own life force to sustain Sebastian, and in my book, that was enough to make him number one for life.
“All right, young men. I’ll take you back to a room and draw some blood. Mrs. Mackenzie, if you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to see your husband.” The young doctor said just before she turned strode away, expecting us to follow.
I turned and looked at Johnny, sleeping in Porter’s arms, hesitating before receiving a nod from Porter, as well as Silas. “We got him. Go take care of my boy.”
I left just as the doors to the little room burst open and emitted Sebastian’s siblings, Sam and Shiloh.
I didn’t stop and speak though. I was on a mission to get to my man, and right now, nothing short of an explosion would stop me.
The
men were shown to a room just past the locked doors of the fourth floor ICU.
“Wait here. I’ll send a nurse for you shortly.” The doctor ordered.
Trance’s eyes caught mine; he brought his fisted hand up and placed it lightly over his heart.
My eyes welled, but I choked the tears that had been threatening to spill all night, and followed the doctor to the very end of the hallway.
She stopped at the second to last door and indicated with her index finger. “This is your husband’s room. When you go in there, I want you to talk to him. Let him know you’re there. He’s very pale due to the blood loss. His chest wound isn’t covered. He had a collapsed lung that required a tube to be placed...”
The list went on and on.
I could mentally see exactly what was wrong with him before I’d seen him.
I knew enough about medicine to know that the road to recovery would not be an easy one for him. Lucky for him, though, he was in excellent shape, and he had a will to survive. Which would help immensely in the long road to come.
“We’ll have to run some tests on the blood, but as soon as that is taken care of, I’ll be back. Let the nurses up front know if you need anything.” The doctor said as I left.
Even though I could guess what I’d see as I entered the room, the broken shell of a man wasn’t one of them.
Sebastian’s normally golden-bronzed skin was gray and clammy. His eyes had deep purple bruising underneath, and his normally strong persona was missing with him asleep and looking so broken.
He had tubes everywhere.
I wasn’t a newbie to all of this, but I hadn’t had to deal with one of my own in the hospital since my mom was injured when I was younger. Back then, I didn’t understand the logistics of the situation, how hurt my mother had to be to be in the hospital in the first place.
I had no such disillusion now. I knew the wound was an extremely bad one. The axe tore through muscle and bone. The lung that was protected by the muscle and bone, was punctured as well.
I could very much visualize every single piece of the puzzle, regardless of the axe no longer being there.
Lights to My Siren Page 22