by Paula Cox
I rose up and watched as he walked toward the back of the car, pointed the gun low and pulled the trigger. He racked the gun and moved a little farther back before pulling the trigger again. He stood still a moment before tipping his head back and staring at the sky, his face a mask of pain. When he turned I could see blood running down his right arm and dripping from his fingers.
I scrambled out of the car and ran to him. “Are you hit bad?”
“Don’t know. It hurts.” With a hiss he gently worked his Hellhounds vest off.
There was a nasty tear in the front of his arm, and a deep gouge in his side. I wasn’t a doctor but it didn’t look fatal. I looked around and people were staring out of their windows at us.
“We have to go!” I whispered urgently.
“I know.” He handed me the shotgun then turned toward the car. He took a couple of steps then went stiff as he bared his teeth and hissed. “You’re going to have to drive.”
“Okay.” I helped him into the car the hurried around to the divers side. I stepped around the bike piled against my car and noticed a hole in the trunk lid and rear fender of my car. The car didn’t appear to be leaking anything so I assumed it would be fine.
I dropped into the driver’s seat, adjusted the position so I could reach the pedals, and then we were off. Just as we began to move I could once again hear the wail of sirens.
“Cops!”
“Yeah. Don’t stop. Just keep going,” he panted.
I raced away, turning this way and that to try to evade any cops that may be looking for us. Fifteen minutes later we made it to the 190 and I drove at normal speeds. Except for a small hole in the trunk and fender, a scuffed up rear bumper and a torn convertible top, my car looked like any other red Mazda MX5.
“How are you doing?” I asked. He was sitting hunched over to the right, his face pale and lips tight.
“I’ll be okay,” he said, but his voice made it clear he was anything but at the moment.
“We need to get you to a doctor.”
“No! Doctors have to report gunshot wounds. Just get me to Dallas. We have a doctor we can trust. She will fix me up.”
“That’s eight hours away!”
He forced a smile when I looked at him. “It’s just a flesh wound. In the movies those are no worse than a splinter.”
“This isn’t a movie, Cain!”
“No…and I’m not Rambo either, and it hurts like hell. But I can make it to Dallas.” He forced another grin. “You will have to be gentle with me tonight if you decide to take advantage of me.”
I couldn’t help but snicker. I wasn’t going to take advantage of him, but the fact that he hoped I might made me feel better that he would be okay.
Chapter 23
Cain had managed to get Alex away from the goons on the bikes, but they had to stop in Baton Rouge. The bleeding had mostly stopped, but Cain’s arm and side were killing him so they stopped at a Walmart and while he waited in the car, Alex bought him a new shirt along with a first aid kit and a bottle of Tylenol to help him deal with the pain. The wounds may have only been superficial, but she could tell he was hurting. A few miles down the road they stopped again. Throwing his vest over his shoulder to hide the blood, they used a restaurant restroom to clean him up, butterfly bandage the gouge in his arm and side closed, and then wrap it in gauze. A new shirt made him presentable, even if he did walk and sit with a leaning, stoop-shoulder appearance. They had a simple meal before the long push to Dallas and Cain downed a half-dozen of the Tylenol.
The rest of the drive proved uneventful and as the drugs began to take the edge off his pain, he slept for a time. A couple of hours later, when he woke up she was holding his hand. As he struggled up out of sleep, he became aware of Alex’s hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze as he smiled.
“You saved me,” she said. He couldn’t see her face well, the glow of the instruments providing the only illumination, but he could see that her eyes were wide as she looked at him occasionally.
“I would do anything to protect you…you and our baby,” he said softly. “Anything. Why didn’t you answer your phone?”
“I looked when you were sleeping. It was on silent. I forgot to turn the ringer on after you called. I didn’t know you were calling. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“How did you know?”
“We caught a couple of Bulls sneaking around in our territory. They were bragging how they knew about you and how you were going to pay the price for us screwing them. They had left hours ago. I caught the first flight I could to try and beat them there. I had to save you.”
“How did they know about me?”
Cain rocked his head from side to side against the seat back. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. They have been one step ahead of us the entire time. There must be a mole in the club. I can’t believe one of the brothers would sell us out to the Bulls, but somehow they know every move we are going to make. A war is coming and a lot of innocent people could get hurt.”
“My parents?”
“I don’t know. Nobody knows. A few brothers remember when we got squeezed. I didn’t know this, but we used to bring in our guns in through Houston. About the time your parents died we had to move it to New Orleans. That’s all anyone knows. Nobody knew about the Hounds killing anyone, especially a cop. I’m not saying your grandparents are wrong, but nobody knows anything about it. I’m sorry.”
He watched her as she drove. She was so beautiful and strong. He wanted to make her his, but he was afraid that she was lost to him forever.
“You will take me back to New Orleans when this is all over and get out of my life?” she asked, not looking at him.
“If that is what you want.” He wanted to beg for a second chance, but couldn’t. He had done all the begging he would with her.
“I will stay in Dallas until you deal with the Bulls. But then I want you to take me home. Do I have your promise?”
“I will. You have my word.”
“Thank you.”
He forced a smile. “I will do anything for you.”
***
They arrived at the Hound’s clubhouse just before dawn, having driven through the night. Cain had called ahead and the Hounds’ “private” doctor was waiting when they arrived. While Alex watched, the doctor stitched Cain up and shot him full of antibiotics and something else that she said would help with the pain and let him sleep. By the time Alex got Cain home, the drugs had taken effect and knocked him on his ass. She had to help him into his apartment as he was barely able to stand on his own. Cain’s apartment was a one bedroom and he mumbled something about putting him on the couch so she could sleep in the bed, but she dumped him into the bed anyway.
She tugged his boots off before she kicked her own shoes off and crawled into the bed beside him, both of them still fully dressed. He was barely aware of her movement beside him before the drugs took him again and he drifted away into sleep.
Chapter 24
Cain Rodgers opened his eyes and focused on the familiar surroundings of his bedroom. His arm and side were aching, but not as much as they had been the night before. He twisted his head to his right and looked at the clock. Seven-sixteen, though he couldn’t tell from the light through the blinds if it was AM or PM. He rolled over, looking for Alex, but she was no longer in the bed with him. He felt a rush of panic and sat up quickly, grimacing as the stitches in his side reminded him to move slowly.
“Alex!” he called as he swung his legs to the floor and got to his feet. He felt an enormous pressure on his bladder, but he had to find her first.
“You’re up,” she said as she pushed the door open just as he reached it. “How are you feeling?”
Cain let out a great sigh of relief. “Better. When you weren’t in the bed I thought…”
“I can’t lie in the bed all day. You’ve been asleep for over sixteen hours.”
“Sixteen hours?” No wonder I have to pee so badly,
he thought.
He hurried to the bathroom, a shiver passing over him as the pressure was relieved. After what seemed like an eternity of running water, he wandered into the front of his apartment.
“You want something to eat? I’ve already eaten. The doctor stopped by and left these.” Alex rattled a small bottle with some pills in it. “They’re for pain. Do you need one? She also left an antibiotic that you are supposed to take twice a day for the next week.” Alex twisted the top off a different bottle, shook out a capsule and handed it to him before drawing him a glass of water.
He moved his arm and, though he could feel the stitches pulling, it didn’t hurt too much unless he stretched too far. “No. I think I’m okay – at the moment anyway. Jesus, what did she give me? And how did I get home?” He took the capsule and water and downed them.
Alex smiled. “A couple of the guys helped get you into my car and then I helped you up the steps and got you into bed.”
“I remember going to bed and you joining me, but that is about it.” He sat the glass down in the sink then started to rub his face with his right hand, got a jolt of pain that made him grimace, and switched to his left. “I must have been really out of it.”
“You were.”
“Thank you,” he said with a gentle smile, and he really meant it.
“For what?”
“For getting me home, to Dallas. For taking care of me. For…staying last night.”
Alex smiled and looked down in that way she did when she was feeling guilty. He thought that was one of the most endearing things she did and it made him want to take her into his arms and hold her until she was all better. “I’m sorry you were hurt because of me. All of this is my fault. All of it. If you had never gotten involved with me —” she said softly, still looking at the ground.
“Then I wouldn’t have gotten to know the mother of my child,” he said, cutting her off. “I wouldn’t change a thing. Well, except getting shot. I would change that.”
She giggled and looked up, her smile making him feel warm and silly, and totally out of sorts like no other woman had ever been able to do. “By the way, Thad called. He said he needed to talk to you as soon as you could ride. He wants you to come to the clubhouse.”
“That’s not a good sign.”
“No. He didn’t sound happy at all.”
***
“Did you call your grandparents?” Cain asked as they climbed into his truck. They were taking his Dodge because he didn’t feel like squeezing into that shoebox she called a car.
“Yes. This morning. I told them I was okay. I called my boss, too. I told him I would be gone for a couple of weeks. We made the news, so he understood.”
“I’m going to introduce you as my old lady when we get to the clubhouse,” he said as Alex drove them along. “That will cut down on the questions and problems and places you off-limits to the rest of the club, okay?”
“Doesn’t that mean I’m your wife?”
“It could. But mostly it means that you’re mine and not available to anyone else. By extension, it also means I’m no longer available, as well.”
“Does that mean you were still playing the field?”
“It means that I was available to play the field. But I wasn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because, Alex, I didn’t want to. I want you. Not some club girl.” He watched her draw her lips tight. “What?”
“I’ve made no claim on you.”
“I know. But I keep trying.”
“Why? I’ve been nothing but trouble.”
“I know. But I always get what I want. Sometimes I just have to work a little harder for it.”
“Not this time you don’t.”
He didn’t want to start a fight so he let it drop. But he always got what he wanted, and sooner or later, he would have her…or he would die trying.
***
They walked into the clubhouse. Most of the guys and their old ladies, along with a sizable percentage of the club girls, were there. As they entered all eyes turned first to Cain, then to Alex, making him smile. He was about to shake up the club.
“Everyone…this is Alex Bernhardt…my old lady.”
A twitter started around the room. “You have an old lady? Since when?” Jacks asked.
“Since about three months ago. She lives in New Orleans. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he added just to embarrass her. “Toni, Lexus, can you show her around? She’s not into the motorcycle club scene so be gentle with her. I have some business to take care of.”
A couple of the club girls swayed over to take charge of Alex.
“I’ll be back in a while.” He decided to take the risk that she wouldn’t reject him in front of the rest of the club and kissed her softly on the lips. “Toni and Lexus will take care of you. If you need anything, just ask. You’re part of the Hellhounds now.”
Chapter 25
I sat alone in a large comfortable chair, lost in thought. I had spent the last two days in the company of the Hellhounds as Cain worked with the other members, trying to sort out the Bulls problem. I still kept my distance, but they didn’t seem like the murdering type.
Yesterday, while Cain worked the phones, one of the club girls, Cherie, discovered that I left New Orleans with little more than the clothes I had on my back and had organized a shopping trip. Myself, Cherie, Toni and Eva had gone shopping under the watchful eyes of a pair of the Hellhounds.
I found it humorous that the three women ordered the men around, giving them packages to tote, and they meekly complied. Not what I expected from big, bad, bikers. When I asked about it, Toni giggled and whispered into my ear that the men knew they would be well rewarded later that night if they pleased them today.
“Alex, mind if I join you?” Cherie asked, pulling me back to the present.
I waved at a matching chair.
“I thought I would talk to you a few minutes, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. What do you want to talk about?”
“You and Cain.”
“What about us?”
“I just wanted talk to the woman that managed to snag Cain. Anyone that can do that is someone I want to get to know.”
“Oh? Why?”
“Because, Alex, I never thought he would take an old lady. He was too much the ladies’ man. Having you show up explains a lot.”
“How so?” I asked, leaning in slightly, curious now.
“He’s changed. He used to have a club girl, or someone else he picked up, every night. But over the last couple of months…I thought he had gotten tired of us and was getting it from somewhere else. I guess he was, but not like I thought. How did you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Get him to make you his old lady. I tried to get him to make me his…hell, all of us tried at one time or another, but we couldn’t do it. What’s your secret?”
I couldn’t explain why, but I felt inordinately pleased with myself. If she only knew, but I wasn’t going to tell her the real reason. “I can’t say. It was his idea,” I said with a shrug, keeping it close enough to the truth that it wasn’t an actual lie.
Cherie gave me a long appraising look. “Well, if you decide you want to let a sister know your secret, look me up first. Cain may be off the market, but there are a couple of others around that I wouldn’t mind being their old lady.”
“What can you tell me about Cain?” I asked, deciding if she was going to dish out news, I wanted to hear it all.
“Nothing much to tell that you probably don’t already know. Great in bed. Sweet when he wants to be. Charming as hell. He used to spread it around, but not since you. I know he has made this club a lot of money.” She smiled. “One of the perks of being a club girl for the Hellhounds. They take care of you.”
“You like being a club girl?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but what does a club girl do?”
Sh
e grinned at me. “Probably not what you think. I have a job. I work at Hermès, but I like to hang out here. The parties are fun and the perks are nice.”
“Perks?”
“Yeah. The guys don’t mind spending money on you and once you are known as a Hellhounds girl, just mentioning it is enough to make most guys stop hassling you.” Cherie leaned in a little closer. “And those that don’t….well, a phone call is all it takes. The Hellhounds, they take care of their own. Then there is the sex. Some of the guys know how to please a woman. You got the best.”