by Lake, Rae B.
“No!” Ryder roars as he runs. Every few steps, he trips and needs to use his hands to help him back up. His legs are almost back to normal but not completely.
“Fuck no, please. Please.” Devin says from beside me.
The women are there, some not moving, others wailing in pain. The blood is everywhere. Those beautiful dresses were ripped to shreds.
“Keeley! Fuck, Keeley!”
I’m not prepared for the full onslaught of what I see. I don’t think any of us are.
“Oh, god, No. Not again. Please, oh god.” Alex falls to his knees and crawls to Mikayla. The sobs shake his body as I watch the man who worked so hard to build himself back up crumbles in front of us. Cherry moves from where she is laying on top of her. Mikki is gone.
All of us are down grabbing for our women, Ripper and Devin are standing back, but they’re just as torn up.
In my silence, I hear my brothers sobbing with their women. Whispering their sorrow and promises. My eyes take in all the destruction. Though blood coats most parts of their bodies, most of it comes from between their legs. Someone has destroyed our women. Jazmine is stabbed, and Maven is beaten up badly. It doesn’t look like they will make it.
I pull Siren to my chest and hold her. She cries and clings to me. I hold her tighter, wanting to tell her that everything is alright. It’s a lie. I know it is. Whatever the fuck happened tonight is the start of something none of us are prepared for.
I sit in the hard chair of the cold waiting room. I look around at my brothers, not a word coming from any of them. Devin and Alex are missing. Alex couldn’t handle it. Losing Mikki pushed him over the edge. I don’t blame him. Devin is trying to get him to calm down, even if just for the sake of Lorelai.
Any time a medical professional walks into the room, we all die just a little. A doctor enters the room seeing all of us waiting on word of our women.
“Barry.” The doctor calls for Clean, and he stands up. Maven was bad when we brought her in. I stand up next to him. That’s my sister, and seeing her in that much pain will forever haunt me.
“Yeah? She’s ok, right? Doc, right?” Clean’s tears roll unchecked down his face.
“She’s lost a lot of blood, but we did manage to stabilize her.” The doctor stops. I put my hand on Clean’s shoulder and squeeze. There’s more; I see it on his face. I don’t know if I’m trying to give Clean some support or take some for myself.
“Unfortunately,” the doctor continues, “The trauma she suffered was extensive, and the fetus didn’t survive. I’m sorry, we lost the baby.”
“What? No. No. She’s ok. They’re ok.” Clean grabs the doctor by the collar, both Ripper and I have to fight to get him off. “No! What the fuck!” Clean collapses against the wall, beating his fist against the drywall over and over as he screams for the child whose eyes he will never see open.
My heart breaks for the little one I was so excited to meet. Maven is a mother before anything else. I don’t know how she’ll survive this.
The doctor continues now, looking at me. “We had to deliver the baby. There’s the option for burial, or we can handle it here.”
“You will handle shit! Give me my kid!” Clean turns from the wall and stalks back toward the doctor.
I stand in between them so the doctor has a chance to leave.
“Give me my fucking family!” Clean roars, and though I’m using all my strength, I know it’s not much. My body is weak with my own emotion. My eyes blur with my tears. Wire comes up from behind us and wraps an arm around Clean’s neck, pulling him into a hug. Ryder is next, then Ripper.
“What the fuck? What the fuck is this Wire? Oh god. Please. Wire, man. Oh.” Clean collapses, and we all go down with him, holding onto the man who fights so hard to keep us whole.
All of us sit there huddled together, drawing on each other's strength.
“Barry! Barry!” Maven’s scream pierces the air, and Clean jumps up. “Mack! Barry!” I turn and bolt out of the waiting area, dread and fear wrapping around my throat. Maybe they got in? Were they hurting her again?
“Maven!” Clean calls her name, the panic in his voice matching what I’m feeling.
We burst into the room, and a nurse is in the way. I have to grab onto Barry to keep him from running over her.
“Wait, please.” The small, scared woman says, “She’s ok. She’s just waking up. The shock. The baby.” She whispers before she moves out of the way.
Clean’s eyes drop down, and he takes a few steps toward his woman. I hope I never understand the pain he feels right now, seeing her panic that way.
“Maven, my love, I’m here.” Clean walks over to her and holds her in his arms as she repeatedly asks where her baby is.
“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” He repeats over and over.
I stay in the corner until she puts her arms out for me. I rush to her and hold her right along with Clean. Letting her pull all the strength she needs from me, and even though I know, it won’t be enough.
A few minutes later, the doctor knocks on the door. We all look at him while he looks at the distraught women in the bed and then to Clean. “I know this is a difficult time, but we have cleaned up the baby if you’d like to see him? You don’t have to. Whatever you choose.” He stands back and respectfully waits.
“We don’t have to, Babe. If it’s too hard, it’s ok.” Clean rubs Maven’s head. I pick up the hand I’m holding, the one that doesn’t have an IV in it, and kiss it.
She looks to Clean and then to me as she struggles to sit up in bed. I do my best to help her so she doesn’t hurt more than she already is.
“One time. Just let me see him one time.” She turns back to Clean, who nods to the doctor. A few seconds later, one of the nurses enters carrying the smallest package, he is no bigger than my hand, and she places the silent child on Maven’s chest. He looks like he’s sleeping.
“My baby, oh poor baby.”
Maven breaks down again, clutching the child to her, and Clean breaks right down with her. When she lets go of my hand, I kiss both of them on the head and leave them to grieve. I’ll always love my nephew though I only got to meet him this one time. The grief I feel is nothing compared to what those two are going through.
“How are they doing?” Ripper asks me as I make my way back into the waiting room.
“How do you trink?” I look away and go to sit in my seat. No one is good right now. Our very core has been destroyed.
* * *
Jazmine and Maven had to stay in the hospital due to the extent of their wounds, and of course, Clean and Ink stayed with them. The rest of the women came back to the clubhouse to heal.
Out of all the time I’ve been with Siren, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this closed off before. It’s not that she doesn’t try and talk to me, but I just can’t respond. Every time I look at her, I see the fucked up dress and how I was the one to push her to do some shit she’d have never done.
For the past few days, since they got home, I stay out of Siren’s way and watch over her while she sleeps. I may never let her out of my sight again.
There is a soft knock at the door, and Pope sticks his head in. “Hey, can you come downstairs for a second?”
I nod and follow him out the door.
The rest of the crew is downstairs, looking just as fucked up as I feel.
I stand at the bar and wait for Wire to address us. I’ve never seen the man look so tired.
“Shit is fucked all around. I know it. I’m hurting with all of you. We can’t just let this shit stand, we need some intel, but I don’t want to push the girls. We need to figure out a way to find out what the fuck happened.”
“Cherry hasn’t said a word to me. She won’t look at me. I don’t think I can get anything from her.”
“Same for Keeley.” Wire admits and wipes a hand down his face.
I don’t want to. The last thing I want is to remind her of that night, but she might be able to help us find out who we ne
ed to gut like pigs. “I can tall to Siren. I don’t know how much she’ll be able to tell me.” I offer with a shrug of my shoulders.
“Yeah, whatever she can tell us is better than what we have now.” Wire looks at me expectantly. “I know it’s sensitive, brother, but I need this now.”
I nod and slowly make my way back up the stairs. How the fuck was I going to ask her to do shit like this?
When I open the door to my room, she’s already up and sitting on the bed. Her eyes jump up to mine when my foot crosses the threshold. She scans my face for a second, and then her expression drops. Disappointment.
I bend down so I’m on her level. “Siren, I…” I bite my tongue, trying to figure out a way to word this without sounding like a complete prick along with fucking up my words.
“What is it? Just talk. You won’t hurt me.” She says, already knowing why I’m holding back. She always fucking knows.
“We don’t have any information. We need to flight back. I’m sorry. You’re the only one that is toiling right now. You don’t have…”
She puts her hand up to stop me. “I’m coming.” She rubs her hands over her arms for a minute before she turns back to me. “You have a sweater or something. I’m cold.”
I look around the room for something, but when I can’t locate one in one sweep, I just shrug out of the one I have on and give it to her. She stuffs her arms in and wraps the large sweater around her, and pulls the fabric up to her nose, taking a long sniff before she exhales and looks back to me.
A small part of me is happy that my scent makes her feel better, but I can’t focus on that right now. I step in front of her and open the door, standing aside so she can come out. I take the stairs before she does. If she slips, she’ll fall into me and not down the stairs.
The men all stand when she reaches the bottom; not one of them says a word.
She sits and waits a second before she looks at Wire.
“What do you need to know?”
“I know you haven’t been here for very long, but did you recognize any of the pieces of shit that did this to you?”
‘No, I haven’t seen any of them around here.”
“Ok, is there anything you can tell us about who they were? Another club? Different country. Anything?”
“Well, the one that was in charge, or at least he seemed to be, is named Wren. I don’t know if that’s a street name or his real name, but that’s what they called him. He sounded American. Polite and well-spoken. He was a tall man, big. Not fat but thick. Dark skinned, dark curly hair, shaved down on the side. He was very composed.”
Wire looks at Ryder. As the oldest member of the club, he usually knows about people who might not show up on our radar. Someone from the past.
“Not a clue, brother. Are they part of a club?” Ryder asks her.
“I don’t think so. I didn’t see them wearing any vests. They all had tattoos on their knuckles. I didn’t get a good look at them, though.” She brings the fabric up to her face again and takes a sniff.
My hand darts out, but I think twice and drop it back down. Everything in me wants to reach over and wrap an arm around her waist, but I know the last thing she wants is for me to have my hands on her. I cross my arms and clamp down hard on my biceps.
“They thought you’d all be on the boat; at least that’s what they said.”
“Motherfucking bastards.” Ripper turns around and puts his hands on his head.
He’s upset, in fact, he is more upset than I expect him to be. We are all hurting, but something is going on with Ripper that he’s keeping to himself. I look at Siren, and at the same moment, she turns to look at me. The message in her eyes clear.
“Do you see that?”
I nod and push back my confusion for a second. Whatever is going on with Ripper, we’d have to figure it out later.
“Did they say what they wanted?”
“He said you guys made a deal to supply his people with drugs, and now you were going back on your deal. Said that we had a week to get the supply going back or he would come back to do more damage.” Her voice went low on the last statement.
“What the fuck?” Ryder asks. “We don’t supply no one with shit.”
“That’s what Cherry said. She said something about Rooster being who they needed to be talking to. He said that they were given your information.”
“Those fucks played us,” Alex speaks from behind us. He hasn’t left his room since we came back. Now that he’s out, I can see he’s not in his right state of mind, and the bottle of Jack hanging from his fingers verifies that. “Those bastard Spawns put us out for the wolves like sheep.” He laughs and turns back to go into his room.
Wire looks down, the crown weighing heavily on his head. “I’ll call a meeting. We need all our allies for this. We’ll get to the bottom of it.” He looks back up to Siren. “Thank you. I’m sorry we failed you. I’m sorry.” He turns and walks back to his room, leaving everyone standing there.
Siren quickly turns and makes her way up the stairs. I follow behind just to make sure that she gets up there, ok.
She sits back on the bed and wraps her arms around her legs the same way she was before I came in before.
I stand there in the uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before I turn to leave.
“Why won’t you come near me? Do I disgust you now?” Her voice is curious. There’s no anger.
“What?” I turn to her quickly.
“Is it because those men forced themselves on me. Do I disgust you?”
“No, fuck no. Why would you ash something like that?” I step closer to her.
“Why would I not ask that? You don’t talk to me anymore, Mack. You sleep on the floor. I needed you downstairs. I saw you reach for me and then pull back. There has to be a reason you won’t touch me. I’ve been through some fucked up shit. I’ve been here before. This time I expected you to be with me, but you’re not. I just want to know why is all.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I wanted to fall to my knees and explain everything running through my head but just thinking about doing that has my tongue twisting in knots.
I speak the only way I know I can and hope she gets it. I grab her gently and lift her from the bed. I wrap my hands in her hair and kiss her softly. She kisses me back, but before I can kiss her again, she breaks to pieces in my arms. “Mack, don’t leave me. I can’t do this alone again.” She clings to me, and I hold her the way I should’ve been holding her this entire time.
“I’m here, Siren. Fuck. I’m sorry. I taught this was the best thing what you needed. I’m here.” She nods her head against my chest, letting me know she hears me.
I kick my shoes off and pick her up, letting her legs wrap around my waist. I lay down on the bed with her and smash her to my body. I want to feel every single part of her on me. I want to know she’s ok.
Her body is shaking, and her eyes are darting from side to side as her mind goes a million miles a minute. She should be resting.
I settle myself and think of my favorite Garth Brooks song. I softly sing the words and hope that it’s enough to put her at ease. When her arms stop shaking, and I feel her breathing even out, I know she’s sleep. I don’t let go; I can’t. I never want to again.
Wire has called a meeting just like he said he would. We haven’t had this many members in the club in months. Archer and Yang come up from New Orleans. Wyatt and Cody from the Boys of Djinn crew come in. Topper, Shepard, and Rooster come in from the Spawns. We haven’t been able to get in contact with anyone over there at Eve’s Fury. That’s not like Vexx. She’s usually the first one ready to jump into the shit when it hits the fan.
“Brothers,” Wire starts as soon as everyone is secure in the building, “I don’t know how much you’ve heard. I know Wyatt and his boys have been doing some clean up over there at the bureau.”
I look at them and have to fight to keep my face straight. They’re the fucking police, and there should be no reason they ar
e here. The shit we are about to do is bound to be fucking illegal, and a stint in the clink is the last thing we need right now.
“What’s up, Wire?”Archer asks.
“Eight days ago, the yacht we set up for the annual charity function we throw was attacked. They killed everyone on board, and they,” he sucked in a breath, closed his eyes before he said, “They raped our women as a message to us.”
“What the fuck?” Shepard, the usually quiet one of the bunch, is the first to speak out. Apparently, he wasn’t expecting that shit.
“No! Did you find them? Are they fucking dead?” Archer steps forward. These women are just as much his family as ours. This was his home.
“Holy shit.” Yang runs a hand in his hair.
“According to Siren-”
“Who the hell is Siren?” Wyatt asks.
“My woman,” I reply clearly and wait for him to say even the slightest shit out of line.
He gives me a nod and waits for Wire to continue.
“According to Siren, the man in charge feels that we went against a fucking deal. A deal that was brokered in my fucking club’s name, and one that I know nothing about. He said his name is Wren.”
“Mother fuck!” Shepard curses again, and I fix my gaze on him. I know Shepard, I’ve ridden beside him, I’ve killed beside him, he knows something.
“I want to know who set this shit up, who got my family torn apart.”
Yang is the one to step up. “Wait a minute, are you saying that it’s one of us here? You trying to tell me you called us all here so you can flush out a fucking rat?” He looks incredulous.
“It has to be. There’s no other chest.” I snap my mouth closed.
“Choice.” Wire says for me, “Mack’s telling the truth. There’s no other fucking explanation for this shit, but someone in this room sold us the fuck out, and I want to know who the fuck it is. I want to know now.”
“Brother, I’d lay my life on the line a million times before I cross you. You know that!” Archer takes a step closer to Wire, but Wire puts a hand up to stop him.