Jailbait

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  “You ever flown before?” Trouper asked my girl, as I put on a helmet that was handed to me.

  I’d done it often in my military days. The familiar buzz of anticipation of being in the air started to burn slowly through me. But this time, that familiar excitement was dulled due to why I was flying.

  “No,” she croaked. “You’re popping my first flight cherry.”

  Trouper laughed and patted her shoulder.

  He did it softly, but I still saw the flash of pain that flowed through her at the touch.

  Goddammit.

  There really wasn’t a place on her that wasn’t sore.

  Rage burned in my chest as I tried to get it under control.

  It wasn’t working, though.

  The longer I stared at her poor, beat up body, the worse it got.

  I wanted to hit something.

  Hard.

  Preferably the something that had been responsible for hurting my girl.

  “We’re wheels up in two minutes,” Trouper said as he settled into his seat and started to turn things on.

  The blades above our head started to spin, slowly at first, until the movement of them was shaking the entire rig.

  Her eyes widened at the noise.

  “It’ll be okay,” I said softly, pressing my lips to a bare spot of skin on her jaw that didn’t look too raw.

  She smiled. Or, at least, she tried to. Her lips couldn’t quite form a smile. “I know.”

  I looked down at her, having to raise my voice so that she could hear me over the racket above us.

  “Because you’re here now,” she croaked.

  Then she went to sleep.

  Just like that.

  “Gave her some pain meds,” Zach murmured. “She’ll be out for the entire flight, hopefully.”

  “Hopefully,” I said softly. “Do you have a rundown of what is wrong with her?”

  “The doctors at the small hospital there know that she has a broken leg for sure. Her hand is bruised, too, though. Here.” He pointed to the hand I’d been holding earlier. “I suspect that she’s broken a bone in her palm. A defensive wound.” He continued naming off things wrong with her, and the more he named, the worse that my stomach felt.

  The flight happened soon after that. Overall, from leaving the hospital to arriving at the new one, it took us less than thirty-eight minutes.

  When we arrived at the helicopter landing pad near the hospital in Longview, Texas, it was to find a team of nurses and a doctor waiting for us.

  Zach got out and pulled the stretcher free of the bird, Trouper a close second. I followed last, my eyes taking everything in at once.

  When I tried to follow them, though, Zach caught my arm.

  “They need to work,” he said as we got into the hospital hallway.

  I felt myself stiffen.

  “Zach…”

  “She’s bad, Trick,” he said softly. “I didn’t want to tell you when we were in the helo, but this is the worst case that I’ve ever seen. She’s… she’s going to require surgery. Likely on her brain as well as her leg. She’s also got internal bleeding. Trick, I want you to know that she’s going to have to fight. This is going to be a long, slow recovery if she makes it at all.”

  I felt my spine stiffen. “She’ll make it.”

  I scrubbed my face with my hands, and stayed that way, stiff as a board, waiting to hear news even though I knew logically they wouldn’t have it right now.

  “That redhead from earlier,” Zach said suddenly. “Did you believe him?”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “His story,” he said. “He was talking to the officer in charge, Miguel, about something before we left. I heard half the conversation. But, I have to admit, I’ve heard a lot of lying assholes in my time, and that man was one of them.”

  The feeling from earlier, the one that screamed at me that Sadler was lying, came back to the forefront of my mind.

  “What do you mean?” Trouper asked.

  “Well,” Zach said. “I listened to Miguel speak about his night. How he’d found her. Things like that. And then I got to comparing what he had said and how he looked to the redhead. Sadler. Both men supposedly happened upon her at the same time. Right? Then why was Sadler splattered with so much of Swayze’s blood and Miguel only had his hands and knees stained with it?”

  He had a point.

  “You think Sadler’s dirty?” Trouper asked.

  My eyes once again drifted to the door where my girl had disappeared.

  “I think a lot of things don’t add up,” Zach reiterated.

  When Lynn called, Zach put him on speaker, and we came to the same conclusion.

  “We need to go talk to that prisoner. He might be the only one who knows what in the hell is going on,” I said to the group as a whole.

  Trouper nodded his head. “I can fly us there and back pretty fast.”

  “I’ll stay here,” Zach said. “Relay any news that I hear. I know a few people. They won’t mind me being around.” He paused and looked at me. “She’s going to be in surgery, and then the recovery room for hours. No rush.”

  I nodded once, even though each time I moved farther away from the doors she’d disappeared through, it felt like my heart got heavier and heavier.

  “Okay,” I murmured.

  Trouper smacked me on my shoulder. “Let’s go.”

  Only, when we got there, nothing happened as we’d planned.

  The moment we got to the police station, I knew that something was wrong. Something bad had happened—again—and we wouldn’t be getting our answers.

  I walked up to Lynn, purpose in my stride.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Lynn’s eyes were on fire when they met mine. “Guess who is conveniently dead.”

  He didn’t have to say the prisoner’s name for me to understand.

  We wouldn’t be getting any answers out of that prisoner.

  Not today.

  Not ever.

  Son of a bitch.

  CHAPTER 22

  Guys, she just wants rough sex, forehead kisses, deep conversations, and Chick-Fil-A.

  -Trick’s secret to a happy woman

  SWAYZE

  Everything, and I do mean everything, hurt.

  My hair. My fingernails. My toes. My tongue.

  If it had nerve endings, it hurt.

  And God, it was really, really hard to open my eyes.

  I’d been trying for what felt like forever.

  I groaned, turning my head sideways, and obviously catching the attention of someone because the soft cacophony of words that’d been in my ears since I’d started to wake suddenly quieted.

  There was no more speaking until I heard the sweetest, raspiest, sexiest voice on the planet say right into my ear, “You awake, baby?”

  I tried to smile, but it hurt too bad to do so.

  That’s when I realized that my tongue was feeling something super, duper weird.

  “I’m missing a front tooth,” I said, voice cracking and breaking on every second word.

  There was a long pause from the man beside me and then, “Yeah. You’re missing two of them, actually. One front tooth, and one back molar. I’ve already been in contact with an oral surgeon. The next time that you go under surgery, he’s going to repair your teeth.”

  I would’ve smiled had I been capable.

  “All right,” I heard a feminine voice say that I didn’t know. “I realize that y’all want to catch up, but we need to check a few things in private. Everyone out.”

  Trick refused to go, but when he started to get really heated, I said, “I can’t see you. And my throat hurts like a motherfucker. But will you please, please, please go get me a cup of coffee?”

  “She’s NPO,” the feminine asshole, also known as the nurse that was kicking people out and being very stern about it, said.

  “What’s that mean?” I mumbled.

  Because I didn’t care what it meant.<
br />
  “Nothing by mouth,” Zach’s familiar voice said. “And we’ll talk to her doctors. You go get the coffee. Even if she can’t have any of it, you could use some.”

  Could he? I couldn’t see him to know.

  “I’ll be back with your coffee, baby,” he rasped, pressing his mouth to my neck. It didn’t hurt there. “I won’t be long.”

  I smiled.

  Or tried to.

  Honestly, at this point, I wasn’t quite sure whether my body was doing what I asked it to be doing.

  The boys left then, and I wanted to weep when I knew they were out of the room.

  Turning to the nurse, I said, “I’m in so much pain.”

  She made a soothing sound in the back of her throat.

  “Knew I needed to get him out of here to get anything out of you,” she chattered. “You were so stiff. I had a feeling you were in pain but wasn’t sure if you’d actually tell me with him right here.”

  She was good.

  I’d give her that.

  “Oh, and there’s another man here to see you.” She bustled around the room, and I felt something on my leg move. Then jolt. I gasped as pain rolled through me. “Sorry, dear. But we have to move you every thirty minutes or so. Don’t want you getting a bed sore. And your leg is in traction. You’ll be this way for at least a week. It’s not going to be fun, but you’re a trooper.”

  Not going to be fun was right. Just moving upward and backward in the bed was agonizing.

  “That medication I gave you should be hitting you right about now,” the nurse said. “I’m going to clean your eyes. Maybe it’ll help you get them open.”

  I licked my lips as I tried to focus on anything but the pain.

  “Who was the man that you said was here to see me?” I whispered quietly.

  She cleaned my eyes with a warm wet rag, and I sighed in bliss as, for the first time since I’d woken up, my eyes were able to open slightly.

  The first thing I saw when they were opened partially was the redheaded man across the room.

  The same redheaded man that’d beaten the absolute piss out of me earlier.

  I would’ve blanched had it been possible. As it was, my face likely already resembled a mass of bruises.

  “Do you remember him, honey?” The nurse smiled wide at me. “He’s the man that saved your life.”

  The door to the room opened, and my visitors returned.

  At the front of the line, the sexy man that’d been the topic of my every thought since I’d seen him in the bar all those years ago.

  My heart didn’t start racing upon seeing him, though.

  My heart was racing for an altogether different reason.

  “I don’t remember anything,” I lied, turning my gaze away from the man that’d lost the smile the moment that I’d said those words.

  The nurse frowned. “What’s the last thing you can remember?”

  Shit.

  Shit, shit, shit.

  I was not good at lying on the fly.

  Even worse, with all the men in the room with me, one of them was bound to notice my blundering. Especially the one that knew me the best just a few short feet away with a coffee in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.

  The man in front of me, the redhead, looked at me with narrowed eyes, and I felt my heart start to leap against my rib cage.

  Trick walked toward me. And that was when he finally saw the redhead that’d been partially covered by the curtain that the older woman was standing in front of shielding him from view.

  “What do you remember?” Trick asked, setting the coffee on the bedside table next to me and then leaning his hip against my hospital bed.

  I swallowed hard.

  “I remember waking up in here,” I said, trying to use my sluggish brain. “I think that I could use another nap, though. Do you mind leaving me alone?”

  Then, thinking that it just might work, I closed my eyes slowly as if I hadn’t actually wanted to do it purposefully, and pretended to be asleep.

  “Is that common?” the chilling voice asked.

  The one that would be a permanent inhabitant of my nightmares.

  “Her falling asleep?” the nurse asked.

  “No, the memory loss,” the bad guy asked.

  I waited for her to answer while the nurse tugged something that was likely connected to my arm in some way.

  “Oh, it’s very common with concussion patients for them to have memory loss.” The friendly nurse patted my man’s shoulder. I wanted to throat punch her.

  “Is it permanent?” the redheaded asshole who’d put me in here asked.

  “A patient with this severe of a concussion? Sometimes it’s a patient’s coping mechanism to forget. Other times it’s permanent. Only time will tell,” she said. “Now, only two visitors at a time. One of you will have to leave.”

  “One of us doesn’t belong,” came Trick’s chilling voice. “What are you doing here, Sadler?”

  There was a long silence.

  Then, the redhead known as Sadler said, “I just wanted to see her. Make sure that she’s all right.”

  I could practically feel his gaze burning a hole in me.

  I opened my eyes just to see whether he was on his way out or not, and nearly flinched when I found his gaze directed upon mine.

  Thank God that I couldn’t open my eyes all the way. If I could, I was sure that he would see the panic in my eyes.

  “I’ll walk you out,” Trick said. “I have to go down to my bike and get a change of clothes anyway.”

  Sadler continued to stare at me, as if he wanted to say something more, but chose not to.

  He turned and left, and Trick took one last longing look my way before he, too, left the room.

  My man escorted the asshole beater out of my room, and I was left with Zach only.

  “You know,” Zach said softly. “Lying to your man about what you can and can’t remember isn’t very nice.”

  If my head hadn’t hurt so bad, I would’ve panicked and turned my head toward Zach.

  As it was, I could only roll it softly.

  “That was the man that beat the holy hell out of me,” I found myself whispering.

  Zach tensed. “You do remember that?”

  I nodded, even though it pained me. “I know everything. That man’s voice was the one we heard on that phone.”

  “You’re sure?” he sounded worried.

  “I’m sure,” I croaked.

  He stood up and walked toward the door.

  “Why didn’t you want us to know right then and there?” he asked, his shoulders bunched in annoyance.

  “Because I didn’t want him to shoot us,” I whispered. “He was willing to beat the shit out of me in front of a police station with cops coming out every couple of minutes. Why would I think him being in a hospital would be any different?”

  He nodded, as if he completely understood. But something had changed in him. He was pissed about something. Something more than just my situation.

  And now he wouldn’t look at me.

  “I’ll go talk to Trick.”

  Then he left me alone, and this time, I really did fall asleep.

  CHAPTER 23

  He has more than five red flags, but I’m a Six Flags season ticket holder.

  -Swayze to Trick

  TRICK

  She couldn’t remember me.

  How the fuck…

  “You don’t have to be glued to my ass all the way down,” Sadler murmured over his shoulder.

  I shrugged.

  “Just following you down the stairs, man. Not sure what more you want from me,” I said. “You’re going slow.”

  “You could’ve taken the elevator,” he suggested.

  I snorted. “I don’t like being penned in anymore. Been there done that.”

  “Been in prison,” he agreed. “I remember.”

  It wasn’t exactly a secret around here that the Souls Chapel Revenants were felons.

&nbs
p; At least, some of us were, anyway.

  Lynn wasn’t… though his was more of an ‘I haven’t been caught yet’ not an ‘I didn’t do anything wrong to go to prison.’

  Lynn was likely the worst of us all.

  He was just way better at hiding it. The rest of the guys? Maybe. I don’t have everyone’s complete story.

  We made it down to the emergency room exit, and soon he peeled off to go left, and I went slightly right, being sure to keep my eye on the make and model of the vehicle he was driving.

  I was in the shadows, way across the parking lot, by the time I thought it safe enough to double back through the throng of cars.

  When I found him at the back of the lot, it was to see him looking in the direction of where I’d walked, his phone to his ear.

  “She doesn’t remember anything,” he was saying into the phone. “I’ll be sure to keep an eye on her, though. I don’t want to chance her remembering and squealing. If I have to take care of her permanently, I will.” He paused. “I’ll talk to you later, Ig.”

  I had him on the ground, face first, with my knee in his back and his arms pushed up high on his back before he could even pocket his phone.

  “You know,” I murmured quietly. “I had my suspicions about you when I saw you earlier. I always get these feelings.”

  A scrape of boots had me twisting my head to the side. I wasn’t surprised to find the men that’d quickly become my brothers surrounding us. Even Lynn, with his shirt sleeves tucked up around his elbows, was there.

  “Why don’t you let us take your friend to the land?” Lynn suggested, his eyes impassive. But it was the tightness of his body that made me sit up and take notice. “Get him nice and warmed up for you while you visit with your girl a little more? I think two or three days will make it a bit easier for him to understand the importance of talking.”

  I sighed, getting my knee out of the man’s back and allowing my fellow club members to take over.

  “What kind of fuckin’ motorcycle club are y’all?” Sadler snarled as Sin hauled him to his feet. “Y’all look like a bunch of random punks.”

  “We are a bunch of random punks,” Sin replied helpfully. “Did you know that you were the man that brought me from my first home, Jackson Penitentiary, to my new home, Bear Bottom Penitentiary?” Sin asked, smoothing his hand over Sadler’s cheek. “You had a lot to talk about. You thought that none of us would see you again, didn’t you? That why you were so talkative?”