Eventually. If that was something we wanted.
I whistled to myself as I walked inside. I kicked the door closed, balancing the snacks and the meats and the vegetables I’d picked up. Cage and I made it a habit to keep a healthy stock of essentials in the lodge at all times. Because this wasn’t just our home. It was the Dead Souls’ meeting spot as well. I set all the groceries down in the kitchen and pulled my phone out, checking to see if Cage had called.
And sure enough, I had two missed calls from him.
“Whatcha got for me, handsome?” I asked.
I pressed my hand into the kitchen counter as Cage rattled off in my ear.
“I found a place I can put in an application to now that has everything we want. Two bedrooms. Two bathrooms. A pool and a gym on the premises. It’s a little outside of our budget by about fifty bucks. But I figure with it being first floor, being gated, and being within walking distance of our favorite places to eat, we could easily make that up in gas money with that SUV of yours.
“Wonderful! What’s the catch?” I asked.
“You have to be here if you want to be on the lease. Now, I can fill it out in my name, and they can run my credit check, which will be fine. But I can do it right now if you can deal with not being on the lease in name for a year,” he said.
“Hmm. Are you going to kick me out the first month if we do it this way?”
“Are you going to keep cooking that god-awful chili of yours?”
“Hey! I thought you liked my chili,” I said.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I know you think you do it well. But it’s absolutely awful. I love you, though. And I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to break your precious little heart.”
“You really think I’m that fragile, don’t you?” I asked.
“I mean, you should practically come with your own compact case.”
I turned around as I laughed sarcastically at him, but secretly loving how things had gotten back to normal with us. Our banter was back. Our sex was better than ever. Planning a future with him sounded spectacular. And I was ready to get out of this lodge. I was ready for us to have a place of our own, where we could decorate however, we wanted and not be locked out of areas within our own dwelling.
“Sure, we can do it that way. Go ahead,” I said.
My eyes fell onto the living room as I smiled. But, when I took in the figure slumped over on the couch, my cell phone slipped from my hands.
“Great, sweetheart. I’ll call you once it’s all settled on this end. If I stay and wait for the credit check, I might even be able to get the deposit in today. Sutton? Hey, sweetheart. You there?”
I slowly walked away from the kitchen and into the darkened living room. The shadowed figure came into view, slumped and not moving. Or barely moving. I wasn’t sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me or not. I reached over and turned on the tableside lamp, illuminating what I was afraid my eyes were seeing.
And when the light filled the room, I screamed.
“Holy fuck!”
I fell backward into the recliner as the body came into view. The massive, hairy man was slouched. Hunched over and dripping with blood. There was a note attached to his arm with a fucking knife. There was a damn knife coming out of his bicep, and it was coated in blood.
“Sutton!” Cage roared from my cell phone.
I scrambled upright and reached out for the note as my trembling hand ripped it away from the body.
I’m coming for you all, princess. You should tell your boy toy he needs better aim.
And as my eyes slowly panned back over to the body on the couch, I bent at the waist and vomited up my lunch.
Bear
1
Bear
I heard Sutton open the door, whistling to herself. I tried to call out to her. I tried to move. But nothing fucking happened. The hair on my arms were caked to my skin with blood. My bicep hurt. It fucking felt like something seared it open. My gut hurt. I knew why that happened. I wasn’t a newbie when it came to gunshot wounds. Especially after protecting my sister from that abusive fuck she married.
I have to get back to my mother.
It had been a couple of months since the shootout, but I knew exactly what happened. Exactly who fucking snatched me up. They weren’t wearing black suits this time. But they stunk of the same reeking smell of that rat bastard. I had no idea how the hell he was still alive. For all we knew, someone had usurped his throne or some shit. Come in and taken it over, then set out after us. But that didn’t seem likely. Someone who had taken over a throne like that would want a fresh start. They wouldn’t want to mess with the bullshit of the past. Unless they thought the past would somehow come back to haunt them.
Too much thinking. Conserve your energy.
I heard Sutton talking on the phone to Cage. Every single part of me wanted to cry out to her. Turn around! Look into the darkness! I’m sitting right here on the fucking couch, bleeding out from my goddamn stomach! I had too much to get back to. I had too much I had to take care of before I could die. I had a father I still needed to track down and beat to hell for leaving us. I had a mother who was withering away of cancer who needed me at her side. I had a sister that was now selectively mute because of all the bullshit her abusive ex-husband put her through.
I couldn't die like this. On the couch in the crew’s fucking lodge.
Sutton came closer. Steadily approaching as my body shivered from the blood loss. I felt the warmth of the light as she turned it on, trying to get a better look.
And the shrill cry of her voice when she screamed filled the room.
She yanked something away from my arm and it burned like hell, like Satan had just sunken his teeth into my arm. I coughed, letting out just the smallest sound. And a gasp fell from Sutton’s lips.
“Cage. I have to call 9-1-1. He’s still alive. Call Piper! Now!”
After that, everything fell black. I really thought I was dead. Or in some kind of a coma. The only thing that reassured me I wasn’t was the jostling of my body. I felt myself being lifted. I felt myself being lain down. I slipped back into the darkness before lights flashed in my eyes. Needles were in the tops of my hands. Tubes ran in and out of the orifices of my body. The tearing of fabric echoed deep in the caverns of my ears before I slipped back under into the darkness again.
And it was there the incident replayed in my head.
“Hello, Bear.”
I turned around, taking in the man in tight dark jeans and the button-front shirt.
“Hi,” I said flatly.
“Got a minute?” the man asked.
“No. I really don’t,” I said.
“I think you do.”
I slowly turned my head, taking in the men boxing me in. One by one, until I was surrounded. I was in a fucking grocery store, picking some things up to cook for my sister tonight for dinner. Every Sunday night, we ate together. I cooked, she cleaned, and we sat there. Silent as fucking rocks while we stuffed our faces. Then, I’d stay over, and Monday morning we’d both go see Mom. We’d go see just how much she had withered away over the course of the weekend.
She hated it when we spent our weekends with her instead of “living our lives.”
Like our mother wasn’t dying of metastasized fucking brain cancer.
“I got half a minute for you. Talk,” I said.
“Why don’t we do something else instead?” the man asked.
“Clear!”
My body jumped and I gasped for air. My eyes flew open, staring up at the wooden ceiling as people brought their hands down onto me. I tugged myself away helplessly. Weakness settled in the pit of my bones. I tried to get off that damn table because it was Sunday and I still had to get to my sister’s.
At least, I thought it was still Sunday.
“Bear, you have to calm down. I’ll put you out if you don’t,” Piper said softly.
But I kept tugging at the people restraining me.
“I have to
get to my sister. She’s waiting for me. Let me go. What the fuck is wrong with you guys!?”
“I’m sorry, Bear. You have to relax so we can work,” Piper said.
And after my arm was stuck with something sharp, I felt myself fall back to whatever it was I was laying on.
They led me out of the grocery store with a gun pointed at my side. Once we were far enough away from the store entrance was when one of them punched me hard in the gut. I bent over slightly clutching my stomach. A fist quickly connected with the side of my face that sent me tumbling to the ground. Then they took turns kicking and punching me as hard as they could. I felt my body being dragged through the parking lot but I barely could move as I was in so much pain. They stood me up and pressed the gun into my side again. And they didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger the second we got to the alleyway. One bullet to my side. Two to my stomach. One to my chest. And after that, the only thing I tasted in my mouth was blood.
“Let’s send them a good message, like the boss said.”
And after that, I didn’t remember anything until a sharp fucking pain seared into my arm.
“Next time, don’t even think about calling 9-1-1. We can’t take these guys to the hospital like usual. Just call me,” Piper said.
“I’m sorry. Did—is he going to die because of my mistake?” Sutton asked.
Gonna take a lot more than that to kill me, sweet cheeks.
“I need help. He’s lost too much blood and I need more supplies from the hospital. I think a friend of mine is still on staff right now. Pick up the phone and ask for—”
Piper’s voice was the last thing I heard before I slipped back under again.
Only this time, I was with my mother. I was at her bedside, holding her hand as she looked over at me with those big brown eyes of hers. She looked worn. Nothing but skin and bone with her body a lifeless gray sort of color. I looked over at the heart monitor and watched it flatline. I looked back at her eyes and saw her staring at me with a smile.
She reached over and cupped my cheek before drawing in a deep breath. One devoid of the coughing that had become her fucking trademark.
“She’s coming,” Mom said.
“Who’s coming?” I asked.
A needle in my arm ripped me from the dream, but my eyes didn’t fly open. I was too tired. Too drained to do anything about it. I laid there on whatever bed they’d tossed me onto in the lodge as the faint smell of wood wafted underneath my nose. The waves crashed outside. Thunder rolled off in the distance. Someone cried in the background as Piper hustled everyone out the door.
Then, a blast from my past hit my ears.
“Did you get all the bullets out of his abdomen?” Margot asked.
“Yep. About to start stitching up his chest now. He’s still bleeding from the one in his side though. We might have to open it back up and cauterize something,” Piper said.
“I brought something that might help, but if he’s conscious at all, it’s gonna throw him into a lot of pain.”
“I’ll make sure to put him out, Marge. Just get his arm stitched up and put another unit of blood in him. We don’t have a lot of time. I’ve already shocked him back once.”
“Wait, you have?” Margot asked.
I couldn't believe it. Margot. It’d been years since I’d heard her voice. I wanted to stay this time. Stick around and hear it some more. But, before I knew it, darkness took over again.
And I saw my sister this time.
She was beaten. Bloodied. Bruised. In the hospital for the first time after she married that absolute creep. I was ready to kill him, and the only thing that stopped me was my sister. Well, that and some of the most sage advice Diesel had ever given me to this day.
“We only help those that come to us because they want the help. If you want to help your sister, be at her side until she admits to needing your help. Because if you help her now, she’ll alienate you. And then, you won’t be able to help her at all.”
I saw the second time she was in the hospital. That time, with a broken arm. And, the third. It wasn’t until the fifth hospital journey when the police finally got involved that I was able to do something. But even still, it wasn’t because she had asked. I got to him before the police did. Great timing, too. They rolled up in their vehicles with enough time to see him unload three rounds into my legs before making a break for the damn woods.
The trial dragged on for longer than it should have. I didn’t press charges because I wanted my sister to have her day in court. I wanted her to be able to sink that bastard herself. But I should’ve listened to Diesel. I should’ve taken him to court for the bullet wounds and left my sister out of it. Because that trial was what robbed her of her voice.
The very thing I tried to give her.
“That’s all the blood we have left. We have to cauterize this, otherwise he has to go to the hospital,” Margot said.
“Rip open the stitches and hold him down. I don’t have anything that isn’t going to make this hurt,” Piper said.
And after the stitches rip away from my sides, I drew in a deep breath. I girded myself against the pain as something jabbed itself into my side.
Then, the world fell black.
Again.
2
Margot
Just as I went on break from the hospital and grabbed my coffee, my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I was done with my shift. I just needed enough caffeine in me to get home after coming in to assist in the triage coming from a massive car pile-up on the highway. While most people didn’t need coffee at three in the afternoon, I did. I preferred the night shifts at the hospitals I worked at because I’d always been a night owl. I was more alert during those times. I was more focused in the wee hours of the morning. And while Redding didn’t get much action like car pile-ups and shootouts, when we did, all hands had to be on deck.
So, after four hours of rudimentary stitches and trying to figure out whether or not people would live or die, I was ready for a nice hot cup of coffee. Especially when everything had pulled me out of bed at eleven in the morning with only three hours of sleep under my belt.
I was ready for another long nap.
I let my phone go to voicemail, but it promptly vibrated in my pocket again. I sat my cup of coffee down on top of a table, claiming a corner booth for myself. I slid my phone out and saw it was Piper. I almost shot her to voicemail again, ready to enjoy my coffee so I could get my ass home. But something in the pit of my gut told me to answer it.
So, I did.
“Piper, hey. Did you see on the news about the—”
“I need your help,” she said breathlessly.
Grunting and groaning sounded in the back before a door slammed open.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“I need your help and you can’t ask questions. Just please tell me you’ll help me,” she said.
“I can’t help you unless I kind of know what’s going on.”
“I’ve got a man in my care with four—possibly five—gunshot wounds and a knife in his arm. He needs blood, I need cauterizing equipment, and we need all the gauze, IV bags, and pain medication you can hustle out of there.”
I blinked. “You want me to steal all that shit from a hospital. Just like that. During my first year of my residency.”
“You know you have the capability with your expertise and your midwife practices to sign out those items, if needed. Plus, you have incredible pull with the hospital president. I think it’s because he has the hots for you. Anyway, I’ll personally do the paperwork for you on my next shift at the beginning of the week. Please, Margot. He’s dying. And he’s my husband’s best friend,” she said.
Ah. Someone with the crew. That’s why they couldn't come to the hospital.
“I’ll come help you under one condition,” I said as I stood up.
“Name it,” Piper said.
“You explain what the hell’s going on to me afterward.”
“Deal.”
“Send me the address of where you are. It’ll take me thirty or so minutes to procure everything,” I said.
“Can you make it twenty?”
“If I want to get caught, sure,” I said.
“I’ll try to keep him alive, but I make no promises,” she said.
I didn't know much about Rock. About this man Piper had gotten involved with. Or had a family with. But what I did know was that he belonged to a crew that did both a lot of good for the community and indulged in shady practices whenever necessary. Not really my kind of man, but to each their own. I enjoyed mine clean-cut. Preferably rich. Very unlike the young man I had dated in high school. I changed my want of men, then and there. After a massive blow-out fight my senior year, I went to Stanford to get my medical degree and never once looked back. I turned my head toward sweater-vest-wearing-men with loafers and shorts that came above the knee. Innocent men. Men who had a passion to take care of an intelligent woman like me someday.
Because deep down, I was tired.
I had no qualms in admitting I didn’t want to work someday. Not because I hated my job, but because I’d been working every since I was fourteen years old. Hell, I almost dropped out of high school in order to go full-time at the grocery store up the street from where I lived because my father drank too much of our money away and Mom couldn't bring in enough.
I was glad I didn’t drop out, though. Because I met him.
Yes, being a doctor was my dream. Had been ever since I hit high school. But my senior year, I had a different dream posed to me. One that had a big, tall, brute, strong man in it. One that had my stomach round with children. One that had my heart filled with love. One that had my body satiated with the tongue of the brute that opened up only for me. I dreamt of having children. Of having a large family to love and raising them with the man of my dreams I’d met back in high school. That was my newly-adopted dream. The one that helped me to ease myself into peaceful sleep at night despite my parents’ incessant fighting downstairs until two and three in the morning.
Dead Souls MC: Prospects Series Books 1-5 Page 16