Gen Pop

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  “It’s fine.” Ford reached for his son and pulled him expertly into his arms. “Get whatever is making you look haunted taken care of.”

  Two hours and twenty-three minutes later, we arrived in the neighborhood to find it in complete and utter chaos.

  There were people everywhere.

  First, there was a line to get down the street, but a police officer was blocking thru-traffic from entering because of whatever was going on behind him, including an ambulance that was just sitting there waiting.

  I parked the bike and caught Crockett’s hand, jerking my head to the side and saying, “Let’s walk.”

  She fell into step beside me, and we followed a few people as they walked in on foot to find the entire area barricaded a few houses in.

  I led her around that barrier, too.

  “Sir,” the officer holding the blockade said. “You can’t…”

  “It’s fine,” another officer said. “He’s with Lynn.”

  The cut on my back seemed to stall him as he finally drew his eyes down the length of my torso, then he nodded.

  Together, Crockett and I made our way farther down the road, and that’s when Laric spotted us.

  Laric immediately came over to us, his eyes haunted. The dog at his side looked beaten, but that had nothing to do with the situation—whatever that might be—in the neighborhood. The dog looked like that before we’d left.

  Laric had gotten two new rescues in, both fresh from the desert. The one at his side was skittish as a newborn colt.

  It was Laric’s look of utter horror that had me spinning my wheels.

  I didn’t like the feeling already.

  Once we were both standing beside him, helmets in hand so we could hear clearly, Laric began.

  He turned his face, and that was when I saw the nasty cut on the side of his forehead.

  It looked bad.

  Really bad.

  Bad enough that I knew it’d take at least eight stitches.

  First things first, I needed to get to the club.

  “Let’s go to the clubhouse, get you into the office, and get you cleaned up,” I proposed.

  Laric waved his hand. “That cute little home health nurse over there already helped clean it up. It can hold for a couple of hours while we deal with this.” Laric paused. “But, just sayin’, Trick and Trouper have a couple of bumps and bruises that you’re going to need to look at, too. We had a few things happen last night.”

  I pressed a finger to my pounding temple.

  “Okay, well tell me what needs to be talked about first,” I suggested. “Start with the police cars, why are they here?”

  I felt Crockett move in close to my side, and instinctively I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her in close.

  She pressed her head against my shoulder and waited right along with me.

  “Well, I’ll start with what happened first. Though, we didn’t know this was what happened initially. I only learned this the moment that I called.” He let his eyes trail toward Crockett with a look of worry. “Your sister decided to sneak out and go meet up with someone she met online.”

  I didn’t have a good feeling about this, especially when it started with one of the few innocent people on this street, even if she had an attitude that could contend with a rabid badger.

  “Oh, shit,” Crockett whispered, tensing beside me. “What happened?”

  “The ‘boy’ she was intending to meet wasn’t actually a boy. Your stepmother found that out by going through a couple of her messages on her Snapchat or something. Not sure how. So she called the cops.” Laric looked sick to his stomach then. “No news on your sister, by the way.”

  “What’s that look for?” Crockett looked worried. Sounded it, too.

  “Well, when the cops showed, the couple across the street had started to fight. Had been fighting all night. That little girl was outside on the porch. I’d been watching her for forever. Way before anything went down. Upon seeing the police lights outside, the dad thought that shit had been called on him. By his wife.”

  That’s when I stiffened.

  “Guy came out, yanked his daughter inside, and there were two gunshots. Cops rush over there. Man won’t let them in. Keeps blasting through the door anytime one comes near. My fuckin’ dog starts going apeshit, so I miss a bit while I try to get him calm enough to leave him alone for a while to go check-in. When I got there, there was that weirdo guy that got the green light from your stepmother to pursue you?” Laric looked at Crockett for that last part.

  Crockett nodded woodenly.

  “He was there, and I see this stupid bracelet that had been on Rockett’s wrist when she’d left earlier that night. She had it on in surveillance photos. It was sparkly and bright pink, so it caught my eye. It’s on that man’s wrist. He’s standing there, looking at the house right along with half the neighborhood, when I get there. So I mention it to one of the cops that was there originally, and the cop goes to talk to the guy, who loses his absolute shit and goes fuckin’ nutso on the crowd. He starts hitting anyone that comes close to him. Your stepmother included. She fell, hit her head on the curb, and I heard something crack.”

  Crockett inhales swiftly.

  “Having seen this from wherever she’s hidden, Rockett comes running out of that guy’s house two down from y’all. Pulls an officer’s gun. Then shoots his ass right there in the middle of the street. Then refuses to drop it herself when she’s told to.” He paused for a breath. “Your father tries to get her to put the gun down, and ends up taking a bullet to the side of his thigh for his trouble.”

  “Oh fuck.” Crockett covers her face with her hands. “What else?”

  “Long story short, they get the gun from her after she empties the weapon trying to shoot people that come close. Once they get the gun away from her, they take her and put her in a police car in handcuffs. That’s the last that I saw of her. In fact,” he looked around the still swarming with cops neighborhood. “She might be here still. I don’t know.”

  “What happened next?” I asked. “Is Zakelina okay?”

  That’s when Laric’s face completely closed down. “She was shot by her father, along with the mother. Mother is dead. They brought her out in a body bag. Dad’s dead, too. He killed himself when he realized he wasn’t getting out of this in a good way. Zakelina is hanging on for dear life, but I don’t know for how long. Dad shot her in the jaw, and she lost a whole lot of blood.”

  My shoulders slumped.

  “But she is alive,” Crockett whispered. “There’s hope.”

  Laric nodded once. “There’s hope.”

  “God,” she breathed. “What the hell happened tonight?”

  “Full moon.” Laric shrugged. “Anyway, your stepmother broke her neck. She’s paralyzed at least. Luckily, they were able to get her onto a gurney and pushed out of the scene by a couple of cops. Paramedics weren’t allowed on scene yet because it wasn’t secure. She was transported to the hospital along with Zakelina in the same bus.”

  “The guy. The one that pushed my stepmother?” Crockett paused. “How about him?”

  “He’s dead. Your dad drove himself to the hospital,” Laric finished on a disgruntled sigh. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry, man. All that shit just happened so fast. Everything at once. I couldn’t stop any of it.”

  I shook my head. “You can’t control everything, man. This was all just a big fuckin’ clusterfuck that I have a feeling you couldn’t have stopped even if you’d had the resources.”

  “I was stretched kind of thin,” he admitted. “So were the cops. Right around the time that all this shit happened, a bar out by the lake, one that a few of our guys were at doing some recon, went totally gonzo, too. Trick and Trouper were there and didn’t escape unscathed. I think all three of us need stitches.”

  Crockett frowned. “What happened to your face? Why is it bleeding?”

  Laric had some gauze pressed to his face, and a fuckin’ ripped t-shirt holding it
in place.

  “The other dog. Larry. He didn’t do well with the gunfire. He was really, really fuckin’ spooked. And when I tried to get him calmed down, he started shaking to get away, and one of his teeth caught me on the temple,” he explained. “Also, I’m not too sure what your bathroom looks like in your house, Zach. That’s where I stashed him since it was as far away from here that he could get, with a shit ton of closed doors between him and the outside.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t care, man. It is what it is at this point.”

  Laric grimaced. “This poor dog might not make it.”

  With those foreboding words, they were once again a shock to my already abused system.

  But still, I took his words and held them close.

  Tonight, we’d worry about that other stuff.

  Right now, I had a few brothers to patch up, then a little girl to go see at the hospital.

  • • •

  CROCKETT

  I didn’t know what to expect when I got to the hospital where Zach used to work, but I never expected everyone to gush over seeing him.

  Apparently, he was a popular doctor that everyone missed, even the director of nursing.

  She was the one that came up to us with a smile.

  “Zach.” The beautiful blonde walked up and hugged him tight. “Are you okay?”

  Zach returned the hug, then held out his hand to me. “Cheyenne, this is Crockett. Crockett, this is a lady that I kind of sort of grew up around. She’s married to a guy that owns a motorcycle shop in town.” He winced. “And she’s also the person that I was trying to refer Zakelina’s mother to.”

  Zach had told me this weekend how he knew of an organization that made women, children, and even some men safe again by giving them ways out of their old lives.

  He’d been trying to get Zakelina’s mother to take the card for a while now, but she’d refused.

  And look where that led her.

  Dead, along with her abusive husband, and her daughter barely clinging to life in a hospital with nobody at her side.

  That wasn’t fair of me to think, of course. I didn’t know what was going down in their lives. I didn’t know jack shit about anything, actually.

  But what I did know was that a little girl named Zakelina, who my Zach had taken a liking to, was barely holding on, and that fucking hurt.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Cheyenne held out her hand, and I shook it. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  My brows rose, and I looked to Zach.

  “Not me. You know I’ve been avoiding this particular city for a while,” he said.

  Cheyenne started to giggle. “Actually, it was from quite a few people. A lot of the ladies here had a huge crush on Doctor McDark-and-Dangerous. When they heard that he was out of prison, he became a hot topic again. Anything you do or say in this city, or any surrounding cities, is fair game. You’ve been the talk of the ER for a while now.”

  I bit my lip. “Ummm, I hope that I live up to their expectations.”

  Zach squeezed my hand, not liking hearing that come from my lips.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “We’re here to check on the little girl that came in with the gunshot wound. Any news on her?” I asked Cheyenne.

  Cheyenne looked haunted for a few long seconds.

  “She’s in surgery. She was shot through the jaw. Her jaw was shattered. She lost a lot of blood, and so far, she’s still in very critical condition.”

  Zach’s eyes closed, and I wanted nothing more than to wrap him up in my arms and squeeze him tight.

  I would have had my father not chosen that second to hear us talking and whip the curtain aside and glare at me.

  “This is all your fault!”

  I blinked, stunned. Not just at seeing him, but at hearing his words directed at me, as if I had any control over any of the situation.

  “Um, what?” I asked.

  “Your fault!” he repeated. “This is your fault.”

  “How do you figure?” Zach asked. “We were gone for the weekend. We had no control over what happened.”

  “This started way before this weekend!” my father roared. “It was her fault her mother died. Her fault I had to get remarried. Her fault that I had a whacked-out kid. And now my second wife is practically dead, too!”

  My mouth all but fell open in surprise. “It’s my fault that you knocked someone up? I’m sorry, correct me if I’m wrong, but I have no control over your penis! His penis?” I pointed at Zach. “I don’t even technically have control of that, and we’re dating. You’re my father. I have zero control over yours. Plus, that’s just fucking gross.”

  “He’s on pain meds,” Cheyenne whispered to Zach loud enough that I could hear. “I don’t think he means some of the stuff that he’s saying.”

  “Oh, he means it,” my father confirmed. “He can also hear everything. He knows what he’s saying.”

  “Well, if you know what you’re saying, then why the hell have you been treating your own daughter like shit?”

  That was not Zach.

  That was Danny.

  Danny and his wife, who were most certainly no longer on their honeymoon.

  I hadn’t called them. I’d called my big sister, yes. Danny, no.

  I didn’t want to disturb their honeymoon. Not with this. Not when none of us would really lose sleep over Melody.

  And for the time being, Rockett was safe in jail where nobody could hurt her. She was also, sadly, not getting out anytime soon.

  Danny being home wouldn’t change that.

  But apparently big sister had called Danny anyway.

  “You know.”

  Danny’s jaw tensed and I realized that he did, in fact, know whatever our father was referring to.

  I frowned.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, having a feeling I wasn’t going to like where this was going.

  “Let’s have your brother tell you,” my father snapped.

  I woodenly looked at my brother to see Belinda and Nora flanking him, Belinda hanging onto his hand looking scared, and Nora looking down at her feet, her face ghostly white.

  “It’s time for one of you to tell me what in the hell is going on,” I said stiffly. “I’ve lived this lie long enough.”

  Danny’s eye twitched.

  “Your father had an affair,” Murphy said from behind them, startling me. “And got some other woman pregnant. Melody’s sister. That’s how Melody and him met. Your mother, when she found out about the baby—you—she made it a condition to her staying. Your father could come back home, but only if he found out a way to get to keep you. He did, Melody helped him, and together they found a way for you to come home when you were born. Your mother raised you as her own, but she was never the same after that. She hated your father. And your father hated you because you’re the reason that—his words not any of ours—his wife hated him. When she passed away, he had no other reason to be nice to you any longer.”

  I looked between my three family members, my stomach sinking to my knees.

  “And none of you thought to tell me?” I asked, voice broken.

  Danny’s face fell, but it was Nora who said, “We didn’t think that it should matter. You’re our sister. Half or not. You’re our sister.”

  Her words sounded genuine, but all these years they hadn’t had to suffer through the shit that I had.

  “We didn’t realize that it was that bad,” Danny promised. “We just…”

  “Didn’t notice when your sister was treated like a piece of trash while the rest of you were treated like gold,” I finished for him. “You didn’t think it was odd how you got every single thing you ever wanted? How you were given every chance to succeed? While I, on the other hand, had to do everything in my power just to climb up the rungs of a ladder that would lead me out of hell?”

  Zach’s hand found my hip, and I’d had enough.

  I looked at Cheyenne. “That little girl that we were talking about? Can you
let us go see her? Or at least point us to the waiting room?”

  Cheyenne’s eyes were soft as she nodded. “I can.”

  “Thank you,” I murmured, turning into Zach’s chest.

  Zach hadn’t said anything, and he didn’t need to.

  I knew that he was there.

  I knew that he would always be there, even when my own family wasn’t.

  I turned into him a little bit farther, and he wrapped me up so tight that his large arms wrapped around my head, blocking out not only the people that made me feel unwelcome, but all of the light as well.

  I loved this man.

  I seriously, one hundred percent, loved the man.

  There was no denying that now.

  There was more murmuring and talking, and then I heard Cheyenne’s voice say, “She’s still in surgery. I can show you to the waiting room where a doctor can update you, though, if you’ll follow me?”

  Then we were moving, and I was walking with my head half shoved into Zach’s chest.

  Two hours later, we were hit with the bad news.

  It did not look good for Zakelina.

  Not only did it not look good for her, but she also had no family around to help her fight.

  She was all alone in this world.

  “We have to stay,” I said. “Ask the nurse or doctor if we can stay.”

  Zach did just that, but was told that unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen for tonight. She was just in too critical a condition.

  “Shit,” I grumbled. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  Zach and I walked outside a couple of hours later.

  “We should go check on everyone,” I suggested. “Make sure that there aren’t any concussions. Then talk to them all about what we’re going to do about Zakelina.”

  His head turned toward me. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean,” I said. “That she’s going to come home with us. We just need to make sure that it happens.”

  “I can help.”

  I yelped and turned to find Rue and Cleo standing beside Zach’s bike.

  “Not that I’m not glad to see you,” I said to Zach’s parents. “But, um, what are you doing here?”

  Cleo opened his back door, pulled out a pet carrier, and all but tossed it at me. “You left this behind… and it already howls. Ask me how I know.”