Smokey & Bandit: Rebel Guardians MC

by Liberty Parker

  “I’m not going with you,” I state, trying to move away from him. I see Chef coming up from behind, but he’s too far away to be any help.

  “Oh yes you are,” he sneers. The ugliness in his soul is showing and it makes me sick to my stomach. He ruined Bridget’s life and tried to ruin mine. As I’m gathering myself to run, he strikes out and grabs me and starts moving me toward his vehicle. I’m biting and clawing at him when he hauls off and knocks me upside the head. Dazed, I am unable to stop him from shoving me in the car and jumping in to take off. I can see Chef running after us as he pulls out his phone and my last thought before the darkness takes me is that I hope they find me in time.

  I don’t know how long I’ve been out but we’re still driving. The wind has really picked up and trees are leaning over and snapping, and debris is flying all around. I have no clue if anyone’s even looking for me yet, but with this weather like it is, I can only presume they’re not. As I’m mentally saying my good-byes to the men I love, I see a large sign come toward the car. I duck in my seat when it becomes obvious that it’s going to hit us, but my brother is completely oblivious. When it hits on his side, it comes through the windshield and I scream when I see it slice into his neck. The look of shock on his face as blood starts pouring from what I can only guess is a fatal wound based on the location would be priceless if I wasn’t scared shitless. He’s still got his foot on the gas and now, it’s all about self-preservation. “Pull over! You’re hurt!” I state. I’m hoping beyond hope that he pulls the car over. Instead, he gives a little gasp and I watch in horror as he slumps in the driver’s seat. Fuck! Now what? Deep breaths, Hannah, you’re strong and can do this. I ease my leg over and kick his off the accelerator. I can’t quite reach the brakes but I’m hoping that the car will slow down enough that it’ll eventually stop.

  I place my hands over my head to protect it from the debris that’s flying in the car from the broken windshield. I lose my balance as the car loses control and begins to flip. I feel my body being tossed one way and then the other, I slam my head on something hard. I fight to keep myself awake, because at this point I only have myself to depend on. My men and their brothers aren’t here to protect me.

  When the car finally comes to a complete stop, upside down, it takes a minute for me to get my bearings. I know I’m fucked up, I can feel blood dripping from a number of places, but my first priority is getting the fuck out of this car. Now that the windshield is completely gone, I maneuver myself through it, taking the extra cuts because I can smell gas. When I get completely out, I realize I can’t stand because there’s something protruding from my leg. Well, I crawled when I was a baby and it got me where I needed to go, so I guess I’ll crawl as far as I can. As the darkness descends, I pray that it was far enough and that someone finds me.

  Smokey

  We finally got all the campsites cleared and got the okay to go back to safety. As the boss said, there was nothing else we could do until it passed. I get into my truck, thankful it’s a heavy duty one and that I’ve got the back loaded down with sandbags because the wind is horrific. We’ve even had some hail and sporadic downpours. I’m soaked to the skin and can’t wait to get back to the clubhouse. Starting the truck, I grab my phone and notice a bunch of missed calls and texts, all from Bandit. Opening up the string of text messages, my heart drops. Hannah’s brother managed to get her and took off. With my heart in my throat, I take off toward the clubhouse, wondering if he stayed on the main road. Because if he did, I may cross paths with him.

  Roughly ten miles from the truck stop, I see an overturned car. I pull over, uncaring that the winds have picked up even more and run over to see if it’s them. As I reach the car, it explodes and, in my anguish, because I recognized the driver as her brother, I scream out her name. Falling to my knees, I lose myself in thoughts of Hannah. “H… Help…me.” Wait, what? Looking around the area, I see a ditch and get back up and run over, never expecting to see my woman. “Hannah? Baby? Oh my God, baby, hold on, I need to get you out of here.” I can see she’s really hurt but my first concern is getting her to safety. Gently picking her up, I kiss her forehead, about the only place that isn’t streaked with blood and dirt. “I’ve got you, doll,” I whisper.

  I run back to the truck, dying a little inside at her moans of pain, but I need to get her out of here. I’m not sure how, but I manage to open the backseat and gently lay her down before I cover her up with the blanket I keep back there for emergencies. “Hold on, baby, gonna get you help.”

  Her only response is a moan. I try my cell phone and notice that there’s no service, the towers must be down. I won’t be able to call anyone for medical assistance, my best bet from where we are, is to get her to the clubhouse, because the hospital is still a forty-minute drive from where we currently are. Decision made, I climb in behind the wheel and tear off as quickly as I can. Unfortunately, the wind and storms have quickly moved in and the truck will be jarred, and I know that it will cause her pain.

  “Baby, I have to get us to the clubhouse, the hospital is too far away, and these storms are coming in quick and strong. Hang on, it is going to be a bumpy ride.”

  “I’ll be fine, just get us out of this mess, Smokey.” Taking her at her word, I press my foot down on the gas and pray for the best.

  Bandit

  This waiting and worrying is driving me insane. I need to be out there looking for mine and Smokey’s woman, but the men have blockaded the door and are standing guard at all exits, making my escape impossible. Why don’t they understand? I need to be out there looking for her. I wouldn’t stand in their way if it was one of their women out there missing and in the hands of her deranged brother. I’d be out there at their side in the search…no questions asked. Why is it so different for Hannah and getting her back home where she belongs? I’ve never been pissed at my brothers to this extent before, but I’m ready to take them all out if it means I can go out there and find her. My ears are drawn to the front by squealing tires and whoever it is isn’t slowing down any. I hope they don’t drive right into the building in their haste to get to safety. I look out the window and nearly moan in relief at seeing that it’s our truck and at least I know one of the people I’ve been worried about has made it here safe and sound. “Open the fucking door, it’s Smokey!” I yell out. Chief and Jaxson move the items they barricaded the door with and the three of us run out to help my brother. When I see him opening the back door and gently pick up an unconscious Hannah, my heart drops to my knees. “Is she…is she okay?”

  “No, but it’s too far to get to a hospital with this weather, we’re gonna have to do the best we can here,” he says, moving past me and into the clubhouse. He heads straight for the bunker and I’m hot on his heels. “Chef!” he yells out, “get the first aid kit, gonna need your expertise.”

  We haul ass down to the bunker and he gently lays her on a cot. Nan comes over and softly says, “I’ll go up and get some water going. Don’t forget, I used to be a nurse in my former life.”

  Thank fuck. Between Chef’s experiences as a medic while in the military and Nan’s nursing abilities, maybe we can get her fixed up enough to hold her until we can get her to a hospital. I can see something sticking out of her leg and know instinctively that we’re gonna have to watch her for infection.

  I’m pretty sure if I don’t stop pacing, Axe is gonna knock my ass out. They put up a privacy curtain thing somehow so that Chef and Nan could work on Hannah without the kids seeing what is going on. We’ve got them at the other end of the bunker with the prospects and I’ve never been more grateful that this thing is pretty much the size of the clubhouse, only underground. I can hear Hannah moaning in pain and my heart breaks. They don’t have any kind of pain medication, so she’s feeling everything that they’re doing to her. They’re not touching the leg injury. Chef told us that he cut the leg off her pants and they’ve cleaned around it but he’s afraid it may have fractured the bone so he’s leaving it alone. Right now,
the only thing protecting my woman from infection is fucking neosporin.

  “The brother?” Hatch asks.

  “Dead.” Only one word needed, I wish his death had been at my hands, but right now, I’m just thankful the threat of him is gone. Hopefully, a man can wish anyways. I hope that whoever these guys are that have purchased my girl and her sister through him, don’t pursue trying to get them and leave them alone. They need to be free to live their lives. But I’m thinking that with him gone, this will go away as well. Regardless, we’ll keep watch.

  “Bandit? Smokey? She wants y’all,” Nan states. The two of us rush to her side and if the situation wasn’t so horrible, I’d laugh because we automatically went to the side that we sleep on with her in the middle. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, even with the bruises and gashes that cover her face, arms and chest. The leg thing kinda creeps me out, but Chef has it elevated and iced and said they made sure they got all the debris they could see from the wound. When the weather calms again, I’m going to make sure the first thing that happens is her being driven to the emergency room. I will take no chances when it comes to her and her health.

  “We’re here, baby, you’re gonna be okay,” I say before kissing the only spot I can find that doesn’t have a bruise or bandage.

  “Hurts,” she says. The tears run unchecked down her face and I hate that there’s nothing else we can do for her. If I could, I’d take her pain on myself, but that’s only wishful thinking on my part.

  “Bandit?” Cara asks, coming behind the curtain.

  “Yeah, Cara?” I ask, my attention focused on Hannah.

  “Um, I know it’s probably not one hundred percent legal, but I’ve got my painkillers with me from my c-section. Do you think that would help a little bit?”

  “At this point I think anything is better than nothing. Thinking over-the-counter medication isn’t going to touch this.”

  “Let me go grab them,” she says, “they’re upstairs.”

  “No! I’ll go, you tell me where,” Axe states, coming behind the curtain.

  “They’re in the medicine cabinet in our bathroom. Last time I had to take one was when we stayed the night after the last BBQ,” she says, rolling her eyes at Axe for not letting her go upstairs and grab them herself. I can’t blame him though, if it were me in his shoes, I wouldn’t let Hannah go either. It doesn’t take Axe but ten minutes tops to get back with the bottle. He tosses them to me and I open it and shake one out in my hand. DJ is standing there with a bottle of water for me and I give her a nod in thanks. These old ladies are some of the best women I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting and knowing.

  Chapter Twelve

  Hannah

  I wake the next morning, still feeling pain, though not as severe as the night before. I notice the bed around me is empty which causes me to frown. Where are my men? I sit up and grimace from the pain that has made itself known with the movement. I look around and notice each man on different sides of the bed, on the floor. Pillows under their heads and they’re wrapped up tightly in sleeping bags. It’s sweet that they didn’t want to jar me any in the bed, but it pisses me off at the same time. I don’t like not having them next to me in bed. I find it comical that they’re presently on the side of the bed that they sleep on, but I don’t let the laughter escape my mouth. I’m sure they were up late last night tending to me while I slept the sleep of the dead from whatever that was that Cara gave me. “You awake, doll?” Smokey asks, raising his head to look at me.

  “Yeah, why are y’all not here with me?”

  “Baby, it’s a cot, there’s no way in hell all three of us are gonna fit,” he says, as a grin threatens to burst through.

  “Then make me a pallet on the floor. My place is between you two,” I state.

  “Oh, she’s feisty this morning,” DJ says, coming in with some water and another pill. “Hannah, you look feverish, let me go get the thermometer.” Fuck. I have no clue what the weather’s doing, but a fever is not a good thing. I’m a little tired, but that’s it, wouldn’t I be aware if I had a fever? I watch as DJ comes in the room, a thermometer in her hand and I’m waiting for those famous words… ‘aww’ to come from her mouth. She definitely looks the part of a mother right now. I nearly laugh out loud when as she brings it to my lips she instinctively opens her mouth as if she’s going to be taking her temperature as well.

  “What are you opening your mouth for? Hannah’s the one getting her temperature taken, not you,” Cara states, but unlike me, she doesn’t hold back the laughter.

  “What? What on earth are you going on about?” DJ asks Cara, and this time I can’t hold the giggles back as Cara explains to DJ what she was doing.

  “No I didn’t…did I?” she asks me, and I nod my head emphatically. Because that right there was some funny shit. I look over and see my men laughing hysterically and making fun of DJ behind her back.

  “I can see you, nimrod one and two,” DJ says, causing them to stop dead in their tracks.

  “How does she do that?” Bandit remarks.

  “Better yet, how do we learn how to?” Smokey asks.

  “Don’t you know, once you become a mom, you develop eyes in the back of your head!” DJ states.

  “Okay, she’s running a fever, so we need to start alternating Tylenol and ibuprofen,” DJ says to the group at large. Great, just great. Who knows how long it’ll be before I can get to proper medical care?

  “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you, dearie,” Nan says walking up to the group. Oh shit! I don’t know if I’ll like her kind of help. She’ll probably offer to give me a sponge bath or something. I shiver at those thoughts and my guys look at me and smile. They’re reading my thoughts again. Dammit!

  “We’ll all be watching you, doll,” Smokey whispers in my ear.

  “If I require a bath, will you make sure either you or Bandit does it…please?” I all but beg of him.

  “Baby, no one touches that body but us,” Bandit states. I want to wipe my forehead in an exaggerated sign of ‘Phew’ thank goodness I don’t have to suffer at her manhandling me again. He glares at the women who are just trying to help as if to make a point.

  “Bandit, if Hatch’s looks don’t scare me, you shouldn’t even bother trying,” DJ says. I so wanna be her when I grow up.

  “Alrighty, well, I’ve got food fixed so let’s get the kids fed,” Nan advises. “Then, maybe you guys can figure out how long we’ll be down here.”

  Forever. We’ve been down here forever. Well, that’s what it feels like in this fever-induced haze I’m hanging in. I think it’s only been two days, but when it’s all of us, plus kids, plus Jester and Duckie, it feels like forever. “Doll?” Smokey asks, coming to sit next to me. I kept up my rant about our sleeping arrangements, so my men went upstairs and got a mattress from one of the unused rooms. It’s not as big as ours, but it doesn’t matter. I want them…no I need them close to me right now.

  “When do you think the roads will be cleared out so we can go home?” I ask my men.

  “Chief called in a few favors and there’s an ambulance on its way for you. We’ve gotta get that thing out of your leg,” he replies. Fuck, I wanna forget that thing is even there, but I can’t walk and the pain that radiates from it has me in tears most of the time. Plus, despite their best efforts, it’s getting redder and redder and there are tiny streaks going up my leg. I know from the looks that Chef and Nan give each other that it’s not a good thing for me. At all. I also am aware of Smokey and Bandit’s worry, they’re actually wearing their feelings on their sleeves and for the first time, I can actually read them.

  “I wish I could just go home, but I understand that I need to get this removed and get some antibiotics most likely,” I say, letting them know I’m not going to put up a fuss about going. I don’t however like that they won’t be the ones taking me. “We’re riding with you, khaleesi,” Bandit states, coming over and scooping me up. He carries me bridal style upstairs,
murmuring nonsensical shit when I cry out every time he jostles my leg. Maybe it’s more fucked up than I know?

  Bandit

  Chief’s favor that he called in has us hurtling toward the hospital. The paramedics have hooked her up to an IV and are pumping fluids in now, even as they murmur over the condition of her leg. “We did what we could, man,” I finally say. There was no way to take her to the hospital the day that storm hit. Hell, we’re pretty lucky as a club because the truck stop, the transportation company and the townhomes are all still standing, unlike many other structures in our small town. Axe and the rest of the brothers are setting up a ‘command central’ at the truck stop for the first responders, and Capone and Jaxson have gone out to see if they can assist in any way with the clean-up and restoration work. Somehow, knowing Axe, we’re gonna end up with another business. Both Capone and Jaxson are skilled construction workers and won’t fleece anyone if they’re called on to do any repairs. Nan is in her element, helping Chef at the diner to make sure that the workers have hot food and coffee. We briefly held church before the ambulance got there and as a club, decided that anyone involved in the town’s recovery efforts would eat free. And Axe, once he found out that several others besides Capone and Jaxson had heavy equipment experience, got on the phone with a company he knew of and bought several bobcats and a damn backhoe. Good thing all the businesses are in the green. We also officially claimed Hannah as our old lady and got the approving vote from the rest of the guys. Capone put it on record that he would be responsible for Bridget if she chose to stay in the area.

  Hearing a low moan, I look at Hannah and see her eyes on me. “Bandit?” she asks, trying to reach out her hand. I grab it and hold it, stroking it and imagining how she’s going to look wearing our jewelry.

  “Yeah, baby?”

  “What…what if it’s worse than we think?” she asks, her voice whisper-soft.

  “Not borrowing trouble, doll,” Smokey tells her. “We’ll know once a doctor has looked at you and speculating won’t change a damn thing.”