by Erin Osborne
“Yes, it does. We’ll meet in thirty minutes. There’s an old turn off on the outskirts of town. You know where I’m talking about?”
“I do.”
“Thirty minutes. The same goes for you Sam. If you try to pull anythin’, I will shoot first and ask questions later.”
Grim hangs up and I let my head fall back. I’m not sure exactly what’s going through everyone’s head right now. Sam is a dangerous man and they really don’t know who they’re dealing with. He’ll have the place surrounded.
“Don’t worry Keegan,” Cage tells me. “We’ve already got our guys there. Grim knew this would happen. We’ve dealt with his type before.”
“No, you really haven’t. He’s dispatching his guys as we speak. They’ll let him know you already have people there.”
“Not when they can’t speak,” Joker responds. “We have two of the best snipers there already on opposite sides. Slim and his crew are spaced out all over the place. They wouldn’t even tell us where they were goin’ to be.”
“If you really think that you know what you’re doing, I’ll go along with whatever is going to get them back. If you have to let me go with them to save Rage, please let them take me,” I plead with everyone in the room. “You need to get him back to our girl. I’ll be fine. He’s not going to hurt me too bad.”
“No happenin’ firefly,” Pops explodes. “Trust in us. We’ll be bringin’ you all home.”
We’re finally at the meeting spot and the nerves are running rampant through my body. There’s so many things that can go wrong right now. Rage and Riley don’t need to be hurt any more than they already have at the sadistic hands of Sam and my father. I know it wasn’t them personally that did these things to them, but they had a hand in it. They gave the orders to rape and brutally beat my best friend, to brutally attack a man that was bound and couldn’t fight back.
“I hope you guys are right,” I say, letting the nerves come out.
“I know your worried firefly,” Grim begins. “We’ve already got eyes on you, his men have already been taken care of, and Killer already has Sam and your dad in his scope. We got this.”
“Just know that I’m okay if you have to let me go,” I tell him honestly.
Before anything else can be said, a car pulls up. The windows are tinted and there’s no way to see who’s inside. Please, let my man and sister from another mister be in there, I silently beg. Three doors open, and I can see two bodies hit the ground. Apparently, one of the men is sitting in the back and just pushed Rage and Riley out the doors and to the ground. I can hear their grunts and groans from where I stand, and I lean to the side to throw up. How much more can these two people take before their bodies give up completely?
Grim puts his hand on my back and tries to offer comfort and reassurance. It’s not working but I appreciate the gesture nonetheless. I see Sam step out as soon as Grim touches me and I know he’s going to have something smart to say about it. This is probably also going to result in something else happening to the two people I care about most in the world. Fuck!
“I see you let anyone and everyone touch you these days,” Sam begins. “I’m beginning to wonder if I even want you to come with me. Maybe this trade won’t happen after all.”
I scream out uncontrollably. There’s no way these two can withstand any more. They need to be taken to a hospital and get better. Kasey needs her dad and I know that Riley will be there for her and Rage in my absence. Hopefully I’ll be able to send the twins to their dad. No matter what anyone says, I need to do whatever has to be done to get these two men away from my family.
“Stop!” I shout out. “Please leave them alone!”
“Like I said, you’ll let anyone touch you these days. Now, I want you to start walking towards me and I’ll make sure no one touches the two on the ground. If anything is attempted, there’s already a gun trained on her,” Sam calls out.
Grim nods his head at me to start slowly moving forward. I move as slow as I dare before Sam starts screaming at me to move my fat ass. There’s no way I can move any faster though when I see Rage trying his hardest to push himself off the ground and make his way to me. His eyes are burning holes through me, he’s silently pleading with me to turn around and make my way back to Grim. I can’t do that though. There’s a plan in place and I need to do this in order for the plan to happen.
Without letting on, I see Slim and another man sneaking up behind the car that Sam drove here. For bigger men, they truly are silent on their feet. I get a few more steps in and my dad hit’s the ground. I already know that they were going to try something and whoever just pulled the trigger must have seen him making a move none of us on the ground could witness.
Sam spins around and takes his eyes off me as Grim sprints forward to get me back in his possession and away from Sam. The two men coming around the car grab Sam before he knows what hit him. They take him to the ground and secure his legs and arms behind him. A van comes flying up the dead-end road, stirring up all sorts of dirt and debris in it’s haste to stop and get the man I’ve been running from for years loaded up.
As soon as Grim lets me go, I’m at Rage’s side. He’s barely moving, and I know that he’s in so much pain right now. There’s blood flowing from several open wounds and I can’t find a single part of his skin that doesn’t have bruising on it. They’ve cut his clothes off him so all he’s wearing right now are a pair of boxers. I’m surprised they left him in those.
Looking over, I see Gage leaning over Riley. He’s trying to cover as much of her exposed skin as he possibly can. From the look in his eyes, he doesn’t want anyone else to see her. Where they at least left Rage in his boxers, Riley is wearing nothing. One of the guys hands Gage a shirt from somewhere and he gently lays it over her battered body.
“Can someone please get them some help?” I cry out, getting as close to Rage as I possibly can. “We need to get them to the hospital!”
Grim leans down next to me and I see the phone already to his ear. He’s giving someone our location and I can only hope that it’s the paramedics. I’ll take the blame for my dad being dead, I’ll spend the rest of my life in prison if I have to. At this point, the only thing I can think of is making sure that they get the help they need immediately.
“They’ll be here soon Keegan,” Grim tells me.
I’m whispering to Rage how much I love him, and we need him to come home. I want nothing more than to pull him in my arms, but I can’t do that. There’s too many injuries and I don’t want to make anything worse. Without knowing the extent, I leave him where he’s lying and comfort him the best I can. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much he hears as he passes out. Screaming once again, I pray that he’s just blacked out and not leaving us.
My sole focus is on Rage and I don’t hear anything around me. When a paramedic touches my shoulder, I scream. “Ma’am, we need you to move so we can get started on him.”
I quickly move out of the way so that I’m not wasting time. Another group of paramedics are surrounding Riley and Gage isn’t moving very far away from her. It’s all I can do to get as far away from Rage as I am. Grim tells the paramedics that I’m riding with him and his tone leaves no room for argument. So, within a matter of minutes, we’re loading up in the ambulances and making our way to the hospital.
Chapter Nine
Rage
I’VE BEEN SURROUNDED BY darkness for so long. In the distance I can hear noises and what sounds like someone talking to me, but I can’t make myself leave the darkness. The few times that I’ve come close, my body hurts so bad, I quickly retreat.
I’m not sure if my mind is playing tricks on me or not, but I swear I keep seeing my mom. Rationally, I know that she’s no longer with us, but my mind doesn’t seem to know that. Every time I see her, she gets closer and closer, I can hear her speaking clearer than the last time. Maybe this means that I’m getting ready to leave this world behind.
“Son, you can’t leave. You have
to make yourself wake up and deal with the pain,” she tells me.
“I can’t.”
“You can, and you will. Kasey needs you. They all need you. Keegan and the babies on the way need you to be there for them. I’ll always be by your side, but they need you now. Go to them!”
With a painful jolt, I begin to wake up and open my eyes. The most beautiful sight greets me as I slightly turn my head to the side. Keegan is laying her head next to me and I can see the tears shimmering on her pale skin, the dark circles under her eyes, and the pain lingering in her frown. One of her dainty hands are holding mine so I try to move my fingers on that hand.
“Rage?” she asks, quickly lifting her head and looking at me.
My throat is so dry and scratchy that I don’t even try to talk yet. I look at the water sitting on the stand at the end of my bed and she follows my eyes. Before she can stand to get it for me, I see Grim step forward and pour me water. He walks around the side of the bed and holds the straw so that I don’t really have to move in order to take a small sip of water. I’ve seen enough to know that no matter how much I want to, I can’t gulp down the water. I have to take small sips. After a minute I feel like I can talk a little even though my throat is still killing me.
“Firefly, I love you,” I tell her.
“I love you too baby. I was so scared. Kasey is here, she’s waiting to see you.”
“Get our daughter,” I tell her so that I can talk to Grim for a second before doctors and everyone else invades my room. “You get them?”
“Waitin’ on you brother. He’s on ice until you come home and are good enough to dish out the pain. Let that rage build up so you can unleash it where it belongs.”
I give a slight nod to let him know I understand what he’s telling me. Within seconds, my girls enter the room followed by the doctor. He does his exam as Kasey sit’s in Keegan’s lap. She’s talking a mile a minute about how much she loves me and missed me. Things that we need to do when I come home. The movement she’s felt on Keegan’s stomach from the babies. I love this little girl to death and I’m so happy that she’s here right now. I need my girls around me.
I’ve been in the hospital for another week and a half since waking up. Today is the day that I finally get to go home and I’m more than ready to get the fuck out of here. Keegan has been here the entire time. The girls brought her clothes and stuff so that she could shower here. Skylar has been bringing food to us too. At first, the doctor didn’t like the idea, but Skylar was very persistent. So, I’ve been eating her cooking and had my girls here with me every day. The nights are when Keegan and I talk and laugh, we plan for the future, and everything else.
“You ready to go sunshine?” Joker asks, coming in my room.
“Fuck yeah,” I tell him, sitting up on the bed so that Keegan can finish putting my shirt on me.
She said she wanted to do this for me, and what man is going to tell their old lady they can’t do something as simple as help them get dressed? I’ll take my firefly’s hands on me in any way possible. I’m so lost in my own little world that I don’t notice her getting ready to put my boots on until I see Joker making his way over to us. He’s not going to let her get down and put my boots on me, he’ll do it himself.
“I can do this, ya know?” she asks, letting her sass shine through.
“I know you can firefly. But, I can do it too. Let me do this for my brother. Please?” he asks, trying to appeal to her softer side.
“I guess. I’ll go make sure everything is packed up.”
Once my girl is out of the room, I let Joker know that I’m ready to get my hands dirty. He tells me to wait on the doctor and see what he has to say before we make any plans for retribution to begin when we get to the clubhouse. I get where he’s coming from, but I’ve sat in this bed for a week with my mind coming up with multiple ways to torture this motherfucker. Not only for what he wanted to do to my girl, but for what happened to Riley and myself when he took us. Not to mention what my little peanut went through while I was missing and since I’ve been in the hospital. Kasey cries every night she has to leave us behind. That ends today though, now I need to get my hands dirty and take out the rage that has been building up since I met my firefly.
“I think I got everything baby,” Keegan tells me, coming back to the hospital bed I’m sitting on.
“Okay. Looks like we’re just waitin’ on the doc to show up.”
“I can go get him,” Joker says, heading for the door.
I’m sure he’s as ready to leave this place as I am. And he hasn’t been the one stuck in this bed. He has been here every day though; all my brothers have. Joker has stayed the longest though every single day. I don’t know why, but I’ll never be able to repay him for the support he’s shown Keegan and me.
Keegan
Rage has been home for a few days and he’s getting restless. The doctor wants him to take it easy and that’s not in his vocabulary. About the only good thing is that we’re in our home and not in the room at the clubhouse. So, when he gets moody and irritable, I just leave the bedroom and start working on another room in the house.
The guys have been coming over to see him and try to keep him in a good mood, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Most of the time, they end up arguing with him about whatever he has in his mind to do. At this point, I’ve given up on trying to guess what he’s trying to do. But, the doctor wants him to rest for at least a few days before he gets up and starts moving around. Today is day number three and he’s ready to go.
“Hey firefly,” Wood says, coming in. “How are things today with him?”
“Do you really need to ask? I’m cleaning the floor on my hands and knees, so I have an excuse to be away from him.”
“Well, maybe I’ll get him away from the house for a while today. That sound good?”
“Yes!” I practically scream. “Let me tell him to shower and get dressed.”
With how big I’ve gotten, there’s no way I can run down the hall to the bedroom. But, I do waddle as fast as my ass will go. I’m definitely moving much slower these days and I’m not liking it at all. I feel like a beached whale and I can’t wait for the next three months to go by, so we can meet our little ones.
“Rage, get up and in the shower. I’ll get your clothes while you’re washing up,” I tell him, entering the bedroom to see him mindlessly flipping through the stations on the tv.
“What are you talkin’ about?” he asks, not bothering to look at me.
“Wood is taking you out. Get ready to go. Now!”
Rage takes a few minutes to look at me and the realization that he’s been an ass with how moody he’s been sets in. I can tell the exact moment he understands why I want him out of the house so bad. He gets out of bed and instead of making his way over to the bathroom, he walks over to me.
“I’m sorry baby. I know I’ve been an ass the last few days. I’m used to bein’ up and movin’ around whenever I want to. This shit is killin’ me. But, I know I need reign it in.”
“I love you, Rage. But if you ever get laid up again, you’re staying in the clubhouse. You’re a jackass when you can’t do anything.”
Rage chuckles as he walks into the bathroom. I get his clothes for him so we can get him out of the house sooner rather than later. Kasey comes in and I tell her that daddy is leaving for a little bit, so we’re going to bake and start making dinner. She gets excited and runs in to wash her hands.
Once Rage is out of the shower, I walk with him to the door and give him a kiss. Kasey gives Rage a hug and kiss before he turns and walk out the door. Wood gives us a grin and wink over his shoulder as he leads my man towards the clubhouse. Finally, some peace without the tension of a moody asshole in the house.
As soon as we got the brownies and cookies out of the oven, I asked Kasey if she wanted to go see Riley for a little bit. I haven’t been able to get to the clubhouse to see her, but the other girls have told me she hasn’t really moved from her
bed. They check on her and make sure that her bandages and stuff are clean and changed on a regular basis. I’m going to have to be the one to talk to her and get her up and moving. It’s going to take me to get her to go see someone so that she can start healing and we can get back to where we were before all this shit happened.
Bailey and Skylar take Kasey as soon as we walk through the door. Kasey will get her chance to see Riley, but I need some time alone with her first. I need to give her some tough love so that she at least gets up out of the bed. Melody also hands me a card that has the name for a counselor on it. She tells me quietly that several of them have used her and she’s amazing. If that’s the case, I know the first thing we’re doing.
“Riley, I’m coming in whether you like it or not,” I say, opening the door.
The blinds are shut tight and it’s so dark in her room. This is not going to do at all. So, I open all the curtains and see her cover her face with a pillow. Not happening on my watch. Riley has done similar things to me when I needed it and I have no problem reminding her of those times.
“Let’s go!” I tell her. “It’s time to get out of this bed and start healing. I’m going to help you and be by your side the way you’ve been by side more times than I can count.”
“Keegan, you don’t need to do this to make yourself feel better,” she mutters under the pillow.
“I’m not doing this to make myself feel better. I’m doing this to make you feel better,” I tell her, wrenching the pillow from her hands and tossing it on the floor. “Now, get your ass in the shower and we’re going to my house, so you can eat and hang out with Kasey and I.”
“I don’t want to.”
“I don’t give a fuck! Don’t make my fat, pregnant ass try to pick your skinny ass up.”