Dash

by Teagan Brooks

  “All right boys, check your weapons and be ready. We’re going to file out on my count. Batta and Tiny will breach the door, Judge goes in first, followed by Batta and Tiny, then Dash, with Badger and me bringing up the rear. Byte you hop in the driver’s seat and be ready to roll as soon as we’re out with Phoenix. Coal, you stay put. Byte, shoot him if he tries to run. All right, on my count. One. Two. Three.”

  We filed out and followed Copper’s instructions with perfect execution. The three in front of me reached the bottom of the stairs and began sweeping the room. My feet hit the floor and my eyes immediately went to the figure in the corner of the room. I pointed my gun at the figure and quickly hit my tactical light.

  “Phoenix!” I yelled, already running toward him. He wasn’t moving. “Phoenix!” I yelled again, louder and more panicked this time. Nothing. Not a twitch or a flinch. Just...nothing.

  Oh, fuck no. I slid on my knees the rest of the way to him. “Phoenix man. Can you hear me?” I gently shook him and still got no response. My trembling hand went to his neck, but I couldn’t tell if he had a pulse or if what I was feeling was my own hand shaking.

  Judge came up beside me. “Let me brother,” he said in a tone gentler than I have ever heard from the big man. He brushed my hand aside and placed his huge fingers against Phoenix’s neck. He turned his eyes back to me, “He’s got a pulse. It’s weak but it’s there.” There were a few quick cheers but they quickly died down. We didn’t want to be discovered, well, not yet anyway. Judge looked to Copper, “We need to get him to the hospital, now. He won’t make it much longer if we don’t.”

  Copper didn’t hesitate, “Go.” I got to my feet, unsure of what to do. I wanted to stay, to fight with my brothers, but one of the Croftridge members needed to go with Phoenix. Copper made the decision for me. “Dash, help Judge get him to the car. Both of you go to the hospital with him. Take Byte and Coal with you. We’ll finish up here and meet you at the hospital.”

  In the blink of an eye, we were flying down the road toward the hospital, with a barely breathing Phoenix in tow.

  CHAPTER 28

  Ember

  “Ember, sit down. I swear, you’re wearing a path in the floor with all of the pacing you are doing,” Jamie said, for probably the tenth time since we had been locked in the panic room.

  I knew it wasn’t going to be quick, but I didn’t think it would take this long for Dash to get back. With each minute that passed, my fear grew. What if he hadn’t come back because he can’t? Because he’s in the hospital, or he’s lying somewhere hurt, or he’s dead? No! I couldn’t think like that. I wouldn’t.

  He’s fine. They were all fine. It was taking so long because they were being careful. Making sure they’d covered everything, so they could get in and get out without running into any problems. Yes, that was why it was taking so long.

  My attempts to soothe myself were not working in the slightest. I needed a distraction, or at least an outlet for all of this pent up emotion circulating through my body. I turned to Jamie, “Get up.”

  He looked shocked. “What? Why?”

  “I need a distraction and I need to get rid of this nervous energy. We’re going to fight. Get up.”

  “Have you lost your damn mind Ember? I’m not fighting you. Dash would kick my ass.”

  “Not if I kick it first. Come on, hotshot, get up,” I taunted. I was baiting him and he knew it. I didn’t care, I just needed him to take it.

  “Is there a camera in here? A recording device of some kind? Something I can use to prove that I was clearly against this?” he asked, glancing around the room.

  “Here. Jot down your ass-covering statement on this piece of paper and then get your ass over here,” I demanded.

  Jamie’s eyes widened and then a smile slowly spread across his face. “Did little miss Ember just say ass?” He covered his mouth with his hands, like he was trying to hold his laughter in.

  I rolled my eyes, “Oh fuck off, pretty boy.”

  He bent at the waist, pointed at me, and shook with silent laughter as he struggled to breathe. Finally, he managed to get out each word between laughs, “You. Said. Fuck.” More guffawing.

  This went on for several minutes. I was starting to really lose my patience. “Are you done?”

  He straightened and wiped his eyes, blowing out a long breath. “I think so.” He laughed some more. “Damn, I have never heard anybody say fuck as dainty and lady like as you did. Promise me something?” he chuckled.

  “What?” I stupidly asked.

  “Promise me you’ll say it again, just like that! Please!” He fell over on the couch in a fit of laughter again. Oh, I was so going to whoop his ass and not feel bad about it at all.

  ***

  “I think the bleeding has finally stopped. I’m going to grab some fresh ice for you.” I quickly grabbed some ice from our tiny freezer, placed it in a plastic bag, and wrapped it in a towel for Jamie’s nose.

  “Do you at least feel better now? I mean, am I in all this pain for no reason?” he griped.

  “This definitely has provided me with a distraction,” I hedged.

  “Not what I asked,” he said flatly.

  “I’m still worried, like seriously worried, but I don’t feel like my insides are trying to crawl through my skin anymore.”

  “I’ll take that as a yes then.”

  “I’m really sorry Jamie. I didn’t mean to break your nose. I’ve grappled and sparred with Dash tons of times and nothing like this has ever happened,” I explained, truly upset that I hurt him. To really hurt him was never my intention.

  He scoffed, “I have a hard time believing that Dash would go bare-knuckle with you.”

  Well, didn’t that make me feel like an idiot. “Oh, I guess you’re right. I didn’t think about that.”

  Ring! Ring! Ring!

  I leaped from the couch to grab the phone, “Dash?”

  A deep voice filled my ear, “Sorry, sweetie, it’s Bronze. Copper sent word for me to get you and Jamie to the hospital.”

  “Why?” I shrieked. “Who’s hurt?”

  “Besides that boy down there with a broken nose, I don’t know. He didn’t have time for details. Just said to get you there. Oh, and he told me to say, ‘Release the Flame.’”

  “How did you know about that?” I asked.

  “I just told you, Copper said to say that, said it was the passphrase.”

  “Not that. About Jamie’s nose?” I huffed.

  “I’ve been sitting outside this damn door the whole time watching you two on the monitors. There are four cameras in there. You didn’t know?”

  “No, I did not. Wait! You’ve been outside the door the whole time? If you’ve been here, why were we locked in this shoebox?!” I yelled into the phone. I was furious. We’d been in there for hours, wondering if and when anyone would come back for us.

  “I was just following orders. Seriously though, open the door, we need to get going,” Bronze ordered.

  I slammed the phone down and turned to Jamie. “We’re being taken to the hospital. You should get that looked at while we are there.”

  ***

  Bronze led Jamie and I to a waiting room somewhere deep in the hospital. When my eyes fell on Dash, I took off running. I launched myself into his arms and thankfully, he caught me. “It’s not you!” I said into his neck.

  He pulled back from me, “You don’t know?”

  “No one told me anything, just that we needed to come here,” I said, irritated.

  He pulled my hand and led me to a chair to sit. “I can’t say much, given where we are and all, but we found Phoenix.”

  My eyes started to fill with tears, “Is he okay?”

  “We don’t know anything yet. He was in a bad way when we found him. We brought him here right away and we haven’t heard anything yet.”

  “What was wrong with him?”

  “All I can tell you is that he was unconscious and he was barely breathing when we got there.�
� He held me close to his chest and I let the tears fall before I pulled myself together and waited to hear from a doctor. I was determined to be strong for my dad.

  I looked up and glanced around the room to see who was in here with us. I noticed Byte and a few of the members from the Devil Springs chapter spread out around the room. My eyes landed on a guy that looked oddly familiar, but I couldn’t place him. I leaned into Dash and asked, “Who’s that?”

  “You don’t recognize him?”

  “He looks familiar, but I can’t place him.”

  Dash whispered in my ear, “He’s from the farm.” I immediately stiffened. Why was he here? “It’s okay. He’s the one who helped us find Phoenix. I’ll explain more later.” He helped them? And he was from the farm? Nothing was making any sense.

  I leaned forward, “Hi, my name’s Ember. Thank you for helping them find my dad.” I held my hand out to him.

  He reluctantly took my hand and gently shook it. “I’m glad I was able to help. I’m Coal by the way. My parents work at the dairy farm. Or they did…”

  Dash cleared his throat, effectively interrupting him, “We can talk about all that later, when we have more privacy.”

  Coal looked sheepish, “Yeah, sorry man. This is all new to me.”

  “It’s all good.”

  It was two more hours before a doctor finally came to speak to us. “Family of Phoenix Black?”

  I leaped to my feet. “Yes! That’s me! I’m his daughter. Please, how is he?”

  “He’s stable at the moment.” He looked around the room and eyed the bikers warily. He lowered his voice, “I am quite concerned as to how he acquired his injuries.”

  Dash stepped up beside me. “So are we. We found him like that and got him here as soon as we could. If you haven’t already notified the authorities, I will. We were just waiting to hear how he was doing first.”

  The doctor’s whole attitude changed after Dash spoke. “Yes, we have informed the police. It’s hospital policy to report things of this nature. Mr. Black was unresponsive due to a significant amount of drugs in his system. We were able to counteract some of them with medications, but we still need to monitor him closely until all of the lab work has come back and we’re sure everything has been flushed out of his system. It appears he was beaten, rather severely, with a blunt object of some kind. He has significant bruising over the majority of his body. He has blood in his urine due to a contusion on one of his kidneys. Currently, there is no active internal bleeding that we could find, but again, we will continue to monitor him closely. He has five fractured ribs, his left tibia is broken, and his right shoulder was dislocated. We have stabilized his ribs, set his tibia and casted his lower left leg, and reduced his shoulder. He is not awake, but he is breathing on his own. He’s going to be moved to the ICU shortly.”

  “Can I see him? Please?” I begged.

  “As soon as he gets to the ICU, you can see him. Any other questions?”

  Tears fell freely down my face. “I don’t think so. Thank you for saving my dad.”

  He looked at me with gentle eyes, “He’s not out of the woods yet, but he’s doing a lot better than he was when he got here. He’s in the best place he could be to beat this. I’ll go let the nurses know they can move him to his room now. You can go on up to the waiting room and they’ll come get you when you can visit.”

  Dash held out his hand, “Thank you, doctor.” They shook hands and the doctor disappeared down the hallway.

  I grabbed my things and our little group made our way a few floors up to the ICU waiting room. I was shocked to find Copper and Badger sitting there.

  Copper stood when he saw me. “Hey there, little cousin. How’s your pop?”

  “They say he’s stable right now. I haven’t seen him yet, but they should be bringing him up soon,” I sniffled. “He’s hurt pretty bad. Um, bruises, broken ribs, broken leg, dislocated shoulder, and something about blood in his kidneys. Oh, and he had been pumped full of drugs.” Saying it out loud like that made me feel dizzy. The room started to spin and I felt myself sway to one side.

  Dash wrapped his arm around my waist to steady me. “Sit down, baby. You feeling okay?”

  I slowly nodded. “Yeah, I just got a little light-headed for a moment. I’m good.”

  He looked at me skeptically. “When was the last time you ate anything?”

  “I’m not sure.” I couldn’t remember when or what I ate last.

  “If you don’t remember, it’s time to eat. It’s been quite a day and I think everything is starting to catch up with you.”

  A few minutes later, Badger returned with a sandwich, chips, a banana, and a bottle of apple juice. “I don’t know where you found this, but bless you, Badger. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until food was placed in front of me.”

  He winked, “I have my ways.”

  I swallowed the last bite of the best bag lunch I had ever tasted just as a nurse came out and told me I could go visit Phoenix.

  I stood and Dash did as well. “I’m sorry, sir. Only one visitor at a time.”

  “She got dizzy and almost fainted just minutes ago. Unless you can promise to stay by her side the whole time she’s back there, I’m going with her,” he said in a tone that brokered no argument from the nurse.

  “Right this way.” She led us to a room full of medical machinery the likes of which I had never seen before. There, in the middle of tubes and wires, lay my father, barely recognizable to my own eyes.

  I placed my hand on his, afraid to touch him anywhere else, and just cried. “Oh, Daddy, please be okay. You have to be okay. I love you so much. I just found you. I can’t lose you now. I won’t lose you. You fight to get back to me. Please.” I was ugly crying. Tears, snot, and maybe even saliva dripped all over me, him, the bed, Dash. I didn’t care one bit as I sobbed and wailed at my father’s bedside.

  Dash scooted a chair up behind me and instructed me to sit. That’s where I stayed until the nurse told me visiting hours were over for the night. I didn’t want to leave him, but I didn’t have a choice. I placed a gentle kiss on his cheek and whispered, “I love you, Dad. I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”

  I walked into the waiting room and was immediately tackled by Reese.

  “Ember!” she screamed at the same time I yelled, “Reese!”

  “What in the hell is going on?” she demanded.

  I sighed, “It’s a long story and honestly, I don’t even know all of it.”

  “Give me the short version, a couple highlights, anything.”

  “I can’t right here. Let’s wait until we get back to the clubhouse or at least in the car.”

  “Fine. Car it is. I’m riding with you,” she stated matter-of-factly and walked out the door. It seemed I would be dealing with sassy Reese.

  I filled Reese in on everything that had happened that I knew of.

  “Let me see if I have this right. Pete attacked Jamie and Dash and then you killed him. Copper and his crew came to the cabin to take down Octavius and his men who showed up to take you back. Back at the clubhouse, Dash found everyone except Phoenix in the panic room. While you and Jamie were in the panic room, Coal helped the guys find Phoenix. They brought Phoenix to the hospital, let you out, and here we are.”

  “That sounds about right.”

  She was silent for a beat, eyebrows furrowed. “Hold up. Things are missing. Like, what happened to Octavius? Who is Coal and how did he know where to find Phoenix? Where was Phoenix? And most importantly, why did Octavius take Phoenix anyway?” She held up a finger for each question she ticked off.

  “Coal’s parents work at the dairy farm. They live on the property, so he grew up there. Other than that, I don’t have the answers to anything you asked me.” She remained silent, clearly thinking over everything we discussed. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore at that moment, so I changed the subject.

  “How’s Duke?” I should have asked about him way before now. I felt awful about
that. I’d been so wrapped up in my own drama that I’d forgotten about my best friend, my only friend.

  She shrugged, “The same. Awake, but barely speaking. When he does talk, it’s usually so he can say something mean to me.”

  “And you? How are you?” I asked.

  She looked away from me, “I’m fine. I don’t let what he says get to me.”

  She could say that until she was blue in the face, but that wouldn’t make it true. She wasn’t fine and what he was saying did hurt her. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I had a strong suspicion something else was going on with her as well. Hopefully, most of my dust would settle soon so I could pay more attention to her.

  “Why do you keep going up there if he is being so unpleasant?”

  “I stopped going after the first time he was so ugly to me. I didn’t want to be there today, but Duke needed some of his things and no one else had time to bring it to him. I was just going to drop it off and leave, but Carbon texted me and told me to stay in his room until he said otherwise. Let me tell you how high that ranked on the suckage meter.”

  “I bet it was up there with my day,” I giggled and then yawned. And yawned again. I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I vaguely recalled was the feeling of being carried and the scent of Dash surrounding me.

  CHAPTER 29

  Dash

  Ember fell asleep on the way back to the clubhouse. I was surprised she didn’t crash sooner, but my girl hung in there like a champ. I carried her to my room and tucked her into bed. Reese asked if she could stay in there with her and I let her because I had no idea when I would make it back to my room. “Just make sure you keep the door locked. I’ll use my key if I need to get in, but no one else needs to come in here, unless your brother comes by to check on you.”

  “Got it. Thanks, Dash. Night.”

  Once the girls were tucked in for the night, I made my way down to church, called by Copper and Badger. I stopped by the kitchen to grab a bite to eat and some coffee. I was fucking exhausted, but this had to be done and it was likely going to take a while.