by K. J. Dahlen
My stomach tightened. “How can you be so sure? How can be sure he hasn’t done something awful to her already?”
Taking several draws, Dino repeated, “We’ll bring her back, Chloe.” Smoke dribbled from his mouth as he spoke.
I snatched the cigarette from between his lips and stubbed it out on the side of Jax’s water glass.
Dino gave me a brief glare but he said not a word.
I’d tried to stay calm but my mind had started to whirl again. At least, I knew Antonio was out of the picture. If Bruno killed Antonio, he could kill Jumper too.
“Pass me one of those, brother,” Jax groaned from behind me.
Dino laughed, “Trust you to wake up for a fucking cigarette!”
Relief flooded my body. My body spun one hundred and eighty degrees to look at Jax. “Not in your condition,” I told him, and immediately heard Dino stop rummaging through his pocket behind me.
A slight pinkish color had returned to Jax’s cheeks. “How about you help me sit up then?” he asked, a smile playing on his lips.
I returned his smile. Just hearing him speak and seeing that smile made my heart lurch with hope. Dino and I took Jax by each shoulder and lifted into an upright position.
Jax leaned his upper back against the wall behind him.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” I asked.
Jax shook his head. “No, the bandages are pretty thick. And the painkillers are strong enough to knock me out for most of the day.”
“Shit. I need to get back to club,” Dino interrupted. “Take it easy, Jax.”
Jax gave his friend a nod.
Dino hurried out the door, letting it slam to a crash upon exit.
Jax ran his fingers though his shaggy blonde hair and rested his head against the wall. “Anything interesting happen since I’ve been out?” he asked with the glint of suspicion in his eyes.
“No. Nothing,” I replied, lying through my teeth. “Do you feel stronger than before?” I asked, nodding hopefully.
“Much. I won’t be staying here much longer,” he said, suddenly drawing in air through his teeth as he shifted his body painfully. “That shit-for-brains doctor will make me worse with all those damn meds he keeps pouring down my throat and shooting into my veins,” Jax winced as he pulled the several pins with tubes attached from his arms. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the next four weeks in this place while my club suffers. This goddamn shooting will have already caused huge PR problems for the club. I bet there are reporters and cops all over Coronado because of this.”
I wanted to scream. Only Jax would be worried about negative press for his MC while he was practically on death’s door from a gunshot wound. However, I suppressed any argument because there was no arguing with Jax when it came to a topic as close to his heart as his club.
“I need to get back out there Chloe. And you’re going to help me,” he said.
“And how the hell do you suppose you’re going to achieve that? I can’t watch you take chances on your life like this when you’re not even fit enough to walk.”
“I’ve been taking chances on my life ever since I was seventeen, Chloe. I’m a biker. It’s in my blood.”
He didn’t understand. He truly never would. “You were just a baby at seventeen. Now you’re a man Jax. An adult. And still, you want to do this to yourself? You’ve lost your mind,” I muttered, returning to my chair. I crossed my arms over my chest, slouching back in my chair and keeping one eye on him.
Jax’s eyes darted around his bed for something. They landed on his phone on a table adjacent to where he sat. He immediately grabbed hold of it and began sorting through the hundreds of messages I’d heard buzzing through over the last few days.
I waited silently, desperately hoping he’d see a message any moment from the Devils, telling him they’d found Jumper and my mother was alive, safe and well.
Within thirty or so seconds, he stopped scrolling and his eyes ignited with a murderous fury.
I sat forward in my seat, waiting for him to explain. He didn’t. Two words escaped my lips with urgency, and rather unconsciously, “What’s wrong?”
Jax didn’t respond immediately.
I felt my heart start to drum erratically with great apprehension.
Jax seemed lost in deep thought, his eyes motionless, his teeth chewing on his bottom lip violently. The room was completely silent for a while. A silence which screamed loud that there were people in danger or some other crisis.
My stomach tightened further as I heard a helicopter fly over the building. Fear and anxiety at this level had a weird way of heightening your senses to supernormal levels, until you start to see everything as a threat. It was easy to see how Jax’s world could push a person to the edge.
After a couple of minutes, Jax raised his cell to his ear, “Marco?” There was the shortest of pauses before he demanded, “I want a full run down of his condition.” Jax listened into the phone, nodding his head before he said abruptly, “I wouldn’t have kept him alive.” Jax paused to listen. “I don’t give a fuck. I needed to know this.” He seemed to grip the phone like he would crack it in half. “You let me know every move he makes, every word he says and don’t let him fucking out of our sight.” Jax swore under his breath again and again, “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Slamming his cell down on the table beside him. He balled his hands into tight fists and roared a deafening shout of frustration.
I loved seeing him almost back to normal, though this call meant bad news, very bad. Fear raced along my spine. “W-was that about J-Jumper?” I asked boldly, forgetting that I hadn’t told Jax he’d kidnapped my mother yet.
Jax let out a deep exhalation. “No, I don’t know where he’s taken your mother.”
My body tightened even more with anxiety. How did Jax already know about that? Whatever Jax was upset about, I felt sure it was about the same thing I’d sensed that Dino was hiding before Jax woke. I’d been around Dino for a month now and had spent enough time with him to know him better and he was hiding something. I just didn’t ask him about it though, as Jax shouldn’t be upset over anything. But here he was looking more than just upset.
THUD. THUD.
Two knocks came at the door.
I let out a sharp gasp and the blood in my body felt as though it had ceased to circulate to my heart. When my heart had started to beat a semi-regular pace again, I stood up and moved slowly toward the door. I looked over my shoulder at Jax.
He hadn’t moved. Jax only stared coldly at the wall that faced him.
He was troubled over that call and he would hide it from me too. Dammit. Can’t anything change all this chaos?
“Thought I’d forgotten you, my brother. Didn’t ya?”
“Dino, what the hell?” I exclaimed seeing him at the door only moments after he’d exited.
Dino ignored me as he pushed past me, wheeling Jax’s fully restored bike into the room.
Jax’s face came alive, and his eyes widened in stunned shock. Utter disbelief. “Holy shit, you’ve fixed her up real nice,” he said. He shuffled his body toward the middle of the bed, and hung his leg over the side to get a closer look.
Dino looked happy. “I know it won’t solve all our problems, Pres. But, what’s a biker without his ride? The brothers had been working on it day and night for when you were recovered.” Dino dropped the stand on the Harley, let go, and approached Jax.
Jax smiled. His eyes boring into Dino’s. “Thank you, brother. Thanks a whole heap. Tell the crew the same. It’s fucking beautiful.” Jax and Dino locked hands with a firm, solemn look of mutual admiration and respect for each other. With the unity of two men who’d fought together and bled together. Obviously, Dino had made up that line about having club business while getting this surprise.
I pursed my lips in mild frustration as Dino threw another cigarette between his lips, and faced the bike, lighting up.
Dino and I stared Jax’s bike, gleaming and restored to perfection.
Meanwhile
Jax had tried to ease his body off the bed. The first we knew about it, he fell with the sound of a smack on the floor.
“Jax! What are you trying to do to yourself?” I cried.
Dino wrapped one of Jax’s arms over his shoulder and lifted him to his feet.
“I just want to see my bike. That’s all,” Jax replied, his breath swept away by exertion, and a smile on his face.
Dino’s smile matched Jax’s. “Come on, it’ll do him good,” he argued, as he’d already begun to pace toward the Harley, with nearly Jax’s full weight on him, limping at his side. With great effort, Dino and I raised Jax’s body enough for him to straddle is bike.
Dino placed the key into Jax’s hand without my knowing. Jax slid the key into the ignition and felt the engine rumble beneath him.
With the roar that only a Harley could give, I jolted. “Not in here!” I exclaimed.
Nobody listened. Dino and I watched as Jax took a large breath and closed his eyes. That bike was a fundamental part of him like his own heartbeat.
I understood. I knew what had been behind this bringing a damn Harley into a hospital room. Tears filled my eyes as I swung my gaze over to Dino.
His eyes sparkled too with unshed teas as his gaze met mine. He then gave me a smirk. Like saying, ‘See? I know what my brother needed.’
I rolled my eyes with a trembling smile as I swiped my tears away.
Chapter Twelve
Dino
My eyes gave the parking lot at the clubhouse swift, sweeping glance as I pulled into my allotted slot. Though it wasn’t yet 8:30 am, I wasn’t the first to arrive. The custom, shining black Harley with a slash of silver from the tail to the nose, signaled the presence of Bruno. It was a relief to see that he was holding it together, given all that had happened. He’d made a practice of getting to the clubhouse before anyone else for as long as I’d known him.
Entering the clubhouse, I could see Bruno through the open blind of his office. His head didn’t rise from his paper as I approached. I stood in the office doorway, while Bruno sat reading in his executive chair. I felt a deep sadness for Bruno; he hadn’t been the same since he’d learned Jax was his son and that Jumper was as well. I had to wonder what it’d done to the man to realize that the first kid he’d patched in had been his own. His own blood then shot the son he loved. I shook off my feelings.
Clearing my throat, I took a step forward, letting him know I was there.
Bruno looked up from his paper, and regarded me with a curt nod. “I’ve got the beginnings of an idea, First; you’ll want to take a look at this…” He added, tossing his phone across the table toward the chair opposite him.
Only then, did I approach the table and sit down. It sounded odd, but this was the first time Bruno had ever allowed me into his office. As VP, and covering President while Jax was out of action, it was something which Bruno and I would both have to become accustomed to. Unlike Jax, Bruno and I had never gotten to know each other all too well.
I dropped my eyes down to Bruno’s cell phone. A video paused at 0:01 seconds was on the screen.
“Eyes on the inside captured this. Lorenzo confirmed. The Viper bribed another inmate to fake beating her up yesterday afternoon. Only, she didn’t quite fake it.”
“So she plans to escape from where security is at its weakest, from the hospital infirmary,” I suggested.
A smile pulled on Bruno’s lips. “Precisely.”
I touched my finger to the center of the phone’s display to play the video. It showed a view from the wall, a still, soundless camera shot like you would get from the prison’s security cameras. I knew it wouldn’t be wise to ask Bruno any questions as to how exactly he got hold of this tape.
I saw Viper head toward her bed when a Chinese woman in her mid-fifties, three times her size approached her from behind. In half a second or less, the woman had spun Viper to face her and had planted a punch into Viper’s stomach. As Viper doubled over, a second punch flew at her at the same height and struck her in the throat. The tiny woman’s body collapsed to the ground but the other inmate didn’t stop. She kicked and kicked at Viper’s ribs and then it became more difficult to see when at least thirty women crowded Viper and her attacker. Guards finally spirited toward the scene and had to barge their way the center of the circle. When the circle dispersed, all that was left was Viper’s semi-conscious body on the floor. The video ended there.
I knew Tori would make sure the woman paid for that. She had an obsession with seeking a bloody revenge on anybody who crossed her. “You think she survived that?”
Bruno, who’d just tossed six aspirin to the back of his throat and swallowed them dry, scoffed, half choking on them. Once he’d fully swallowed them down he told me, “Oh, the cockroach is alive. She’s in the hospital infirmary now. Talked her way into extra meals and all kinds of special treatment apparently,” he said. “Yes, the bitch is alive and kicking,” he repeated.
“This means she’ll be busting her way out of there soon,” I remarked. “I’ve put the prison under constant surveillance. All day, all night—”
“The escape happens tomorrow night,” Bruno interrupted, “Quarter past midnight in fact, just as the guards make their switch. I’ve received Intel from Lorenzo that she’s bribed the inmate that acts as the food porter to switch places from her in her hospital bed. If her plot is to bust her way out through the infirmary, she’ll have no more than seventy seconds to slip out of the infirmary, past the security cameras and out of the building, before the next shift starts.”
What Viper didn’t know was that the majority of the prison’s loyalty was to Lorenzo and she’d ratted to him.
“She’ll never make it,” I said. Thoughts to how Jumper would pull off the escape ran through my mind. Options for escape were limited.
Tori didn’t have the strength to fight off guards in the hospital. Cash would be critical to arrange any escape. Something which Jumper had since selling our shipment of whiskey. Guards, and other inmates, could be bribed.
Still, there would be the difficulty of getting out of the high security perimeter of the building. The grounds were teeming with armed guards. Then, the feds would immediately detect that Tori wasn’t in her cell.
Bruno smirked. “Oh, she’ll make it.”
“I know you wanted this to play out. But what are you going to do about Tori if she does get out? You going to kill her too?”
Bruno laughed, and sat back in his seat, “You want to have a good laugh?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow at me.
I shrugged, “Ok.”
“That woman she bribed to beat her up… you recognize her from anywhere?”
I shook my head and shrugged again. “I don’t think so. Why?”
“Her names Chun Li,” he paused, continuing when I didn’t react to the name, “she’s the former head of the largest prostitution ring in China. Chun dominated the market. Twenty years she ran that operation and the cops finally busted her, rocking the entire Chinese underworld.” Bruno laughed. “Tori has unwittingly mistaken one of the most dangerous women in the world for a street level criminal.”
“But Tori paid her, they’re straight. Right?”
“Not according to Lorenzo, apparently the officer hauled Tori out of the room yelling and vowing her revenge on the woman. Told her what her real name is too, ‘I’m Tori De Grasso!’ The woman’s lost it, I’m telling you. And she’s just got on the wrong side of one of China’s most powerful godmothers. Not to mention this woman has contacts in the Chinese Triad.”
“Tori better hope she can bust her way out.”
“It’ll buy her some time to live. Some. But not much. The Triad is secret and more powerful than the Mexican mafia ever thought to be. They can be a cruel bunch of real pricks and once they catch your scent, they don’t let go.” He paused and added, “They just got Tori’s scent and they will hunt her down, no matter where she goes and she doesn’t even know it yet.”
After a moment of silence,
Bruno got out a map and opened it on his desk. “What I need to do,” Bruno explained. “Is to figure out how to box the Bloods in when they leave the prison, how to block it when they pass so that no one can leave,” he said and indicated the map on the table.
“And once we’ve trapped them, then what?” I asked, stupidly.
“We’ll take em out. We’ll take em all out,” Bruno said, glaring across the table at me.
I could see the clenched muscles working in his Jaw with ruthless determination, somehow keeping himself under control. I turned to the map.
Bruno quickly outlined several possible scenarios for how the escape could occur, “Ok, so there are several things to consider. As you know, Lorenzo has a phone on the inside, so I’ve got contact. But we have no way of keeping tabs on Jumper and the Bloods until they show for Viper.”
Then Bruno laid out his plan.
I nodded my head, as I grasped the basic idea Bruno was proposing. The only advantage we would have over the Bloods would be the element of surprise. Timing was everything; everyone who needed to be shot, would have to be when the trap was sprung. If I had ever thought of a job, fraught with possibilities for catastrophic escalation, this was it. “You think Jumper will pull the bust out off?”
“It’ll take money. Something he has since he sold my whiskey.”
This was going to be tough, I thought as I replied, “We’ll be ready, no problem.”
Chapter Thirteen
Chloe
I woke with a turn of my head away from the beam of light through the medical room window. It had been left open a crack and the blind was up. Catching a whiff of cigarette smoke, I looked across to see my father outside. I quickly averted my gaze.