Sufferance (The Chicago Defiance MC Series Book 4)

by KE Osborn

  I have no idea which way this will go.

  “Bex is on her way,” Chains calls out as he ends his call from his foster sister, Dr. Rebecca Kline. She’s the club doctor. She’s taken Foxy under her wing to teach her at the hospital. Foxy’s just come out of pre-med moving over to med school, but once she’s finished, I know she will make an outstanding doctor.

  But for now, as I sit here with Neala on my lap, blood pissing from her head, I realize I could have lost her today, or she could have been subject to something really fucking unspeakable. My stomach churns as I lean down planting a kiss on her forehead as Torque rushes into the room. He stills as he sees me with her. I tense as I pull up from kissing Neala, but I don’t have time to worry about my patch right now. The woman I care about is in danger. I need her to be okay. Torque glances over to Renegade, his lip turns up in a sneer as Torque moves over toward us and he sits on the floor beside me.

  “You did good, kid.” He pats my back.

  I sniff holding her a little tighter. “Torque, I’ve wasted so much time. I know you don’t want me with your sister—”

  “Fuckin’ hell! I’ve been contradictory telling Neala one thing and you another.”

  “Wait! What?”

  “That time I caught you in Neala’s bed, I might have told her it was okay for you guys to see each other just to placate her. But then I told you something completely different. I think that’s how shit’s gotten so screwed with you guys. On purpose, I gave you mixed messages. I fuckin’ didn’t want my kid sister with a biker… I see now keeping you two apart is wrong. That shit’s gotta end now!”

  I cock my head, confused. “What?”

  He stifles a laugh. “I know your patch means everything to you, brother, so much you put your feelings for Neala to the side.”

  “The thing is, Torque, after this… I don’t want to do it anymore. Yeah, my patch means fucking everything to me, but Neala does, too. Right now, I want her more. If that means you’re going to refuse my patch or you have to kick me out of the club, so be it. Seeing her like this only reinforces how much I need her in my life.”

  “That’s all I need to hear, brother. Now all you have to do is tell her when she wakes up.”

  Warmth floods through me as I look at him. He seems sincere as his eyes look from her to me. “You’re gonna let me be with her?”

  He chuckles. “If it’s what she wants. I only want her happy, and for some fuckin’ unknown reason, you make her happy. Make her your priority. That’s what we do for our women.”

  Maybe I can have it all with Neala. Get the girl and the club. Fingers crossed I can get to that stage, but we have to cross each hurdle one at a time. First one for me is making sure Neala’s okay because right now she’s still passed out and bleeding from her head through my fingers which I have over the wound.

  “I can do that.”

  “Good! Right now, we need to get her out of this fuckin’ room. What the hell was she doing in here in the first place?” Torque asks.

  I was wondering the same thing.

  “He dragged me in here,” Lala’s soft voice murmurs from below.

  We both look down to see her eyes still shut as she breathes slowly in and out like she’s almost asleep.

  “You’re awake?” I ask.

  Her eyes sluggishly open. “Mm-hmm, have been for a little while. Just didn’t want to interrupt your bromance.”

  Torque and I both chuckle. “So you heard—”

  “Everything.”

  Torque rolls his eyes like he expected as much from his baby sister. “Typical. Can you sit up?” he asks, but she whimpers. Not a pain-filled whimper, but an I-don’t-want-to whimper.

  “I kind of like where I am, but don’t think you’ve gotten away with deceiving us, Torque. We are gonna discuss this at length later.”

  “Yeah, okay… later. Guess I deserve it,” Torque replies.

  I run my fingers up and down her arms tenderly. “We need to get you checked out. We need to know you’re okay.”

  She groans as she tries to move, her face grimacing as she does. I support her back as she slides up, her hand moving to her forehead. “Man, my head hurts.”

  “You should see the other guy,” I tease.

  “I only managed to knee him in the balls, doubt Renegade’s hurt that bad,” she defends as she swivels, then looks over at his mangled face. He’s still very much out cold on the floor. She gasps, her hand rushing to her mouth as she looks from him to me. Her eyes instantly water. “Y-You did that?” I wince. “For me?”

  Nodding at her, she suddenly rushes forward taking me in a tight embrace. I wrap my arms around her tightly loving the feeling of holding her again, knowing she now knows how I feel about her.

  She pulls back looking into my eyes as I cup her face. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you say Torque gave us the okay?”

  She looks down with a sigh. “You were so adamant about your patch, that honestly, I thought I didn’t mean enough to you. Why didn’t you tell me Torque came to you telling you to stay away?”

  I smooth my fingers over her skin. “Honestly, I thought there was nothing I could do, and it was the right choice to make. Clearly, I was wrong. Neala, you mean everything.”

  Tears well in her eyes as her bottom lip trembles. I lean in gently kissing her. It’s not frenzied, it’s not passionate. It’s a soft delicate kiss letting her know how much I care for her. A tingle shoots down my spine as she kisses me back when a clearing throat reminds me that her brother—my president—is sitting right next to us.

  I pull back. “Sorry, pres.”

  He waves his hand through the air. “Guess I have to get used to this shit.”

  Neala’s eyes light up as she turns to face me. “Wait, what about Chloe?”

  I rub the back of my neck. “I think we need to talk about that, in private.”

  Torque stands clasping my shoulder. “Remember, if you hurt her… it’s certain death.”

  I let out a nervous laugh, but he looks at me sternly making me stop laughing as Neala rolls her eyes. “Shut up, Ry. Go have church, figure out what you’re gonna do with Renegade. You should know he’s tried it on with me a couple of times before this.”

  He grits his teeth, seething, his face turning a little red. “Why wasn’t I told about that before now, Neala?” His voice deep is full of anger.

  Lala sinks in on herself. “Didn’t want to cause any shit. Renegade is… well, he’s respected here—”

  “That doesn’t give him the right to—” Torque stops, his nostrils flaring, his shoulders rolling obviously trying to control the rage washing over him. He turns to look at our brothers. “Ace, Chains, drag the fucker into the chapel. Let’s discuss what we’re gonna do.”

  Chains and Ace grab the still out-cold Renegade, and they all walk out as I stand, then bend down picking up Neala. She doesn’t fight against it, clinging to my neck as I walk her to my room.

  We have some things we need to discuss.

  But we need to do it in private.

  Not with any brothers, mine or hers present.

  “Neala,” a soft voice echoes down the hall. I tense as I turn to see Kline walking toward us.

  Talking will have to wait.

  I need Lala to be looked at. I want to know she’s all right, so I glance at Kline as she walks down the hall with Chains in tow. I have no idea why Chains is following, I thought he was with Ace taking care of Renegade but, whatever.

  They walk up to us as I continue to make way to my room, she can check her over in there.

  “So Neala, I heard what happened. How are you feeling?” Kline asks as we walk.

  Neala shrugs. “Headache of the century, a little queasy…”

  I place Lala on my bed as Kline positions her doctor’s bag on my desk pulling out a blood pressure cuff, all the while Chains stands by the door like a guard watching on.

  “It’s to be expected with a blow to the head. Do you know what you hit?” Kl
ine asks.

  Neala tenses as I slide onto the bed beside her, wrapping my arm around her. She cuddles into me as Kline takes her blood pressure. “Renegade threw me into his bedside table. My head hit the corner of it, then he punched me in the stomach.”

  Gritting my teeth, I tense all over as I hold onto Lala a little tighter, but not too tight. I don’t want to hurt her already sore body. “How did this all come about?”

  She shudders against me as Kline looks Lala over. “I was heading down to get some breakfast. He stepped out of his room clearly still drunk from last night. He was saying weird shit to me, so I tried to walk past him, but he grabbed me…” Her bottom lip trembles, so I stroke up and down her arm letting her know I’m here for her. “He wrapped his hand around my mouth so I couldn’t scream as he dragged me into his room.”

  Taking a deep centering breath, I glance at Chains to see he’s frantically typing on his cell. Now I know why he’s here. He’s getting the story and relaying it to Torque via message. But I don’t let on, I don’t want Neala to feel uncomfortable as she continues, “After that he pushed me into the cupboard. I was zoning in and out, but I woke up to see him unbuckling his belt—”

  “Motherfucker!” I yell making Neala jump alongside me. “Sorry angel, I wasn’t yelling at you.”

  She sniffles. “No, I know. It was horrible, Trem.” She turns embracing me as I wish more than anything I’d finished the fucker off. I hold her tight as Chains types frantically into his cell, a hard glint in his eyes as Kline glances at him, a look of concern in hers. I can’t tell if it’s for Neala or for Chains at this point. It’s throwing me.

  “Chains, can you help me for a second?” Kline asks, but Chains doesn’t budge still staring at his cell.

  Neala peels back from me as we all look at Chains. Kline exhales walking over to Chains gently placing her hand on his. “Ty,” she whispers. His head snaps up, his eyes glassy as he stares at her. He looks like he was in a whole other place as she gazes right into his eyes. “Can you help me?” she re-asks as he clears his throat placing his cell in his pocket.

  Kline grabs his hand leading him over to her doctor’s bag. I glance to Neala who shrugs. I’ve seen Chains freeze before but never like that. “I need you to get the meds together while I check Lala for concussion. Can you do that?” Kline asks.

  Chains grunts. “I’m not stupid, woman.”

  Kline stifles a laugh. “Glad to have you back.” She walks over to Neala and me. She brings a small handheld light over to Neala as she sits up out of my grip. “Lala, I need you to follow this light with your eyes for me, okay?”

  She follows the light. “Good. Okay, now, if you can, I’d like you to stand and walk in a straight line.”

  Neala looks at me, so I smile supportively. She stands up with a slight wobble. I reach out grabbing her as she rights herself then she moves forward, but her stature is wobbly at best the entire time. I glance over at Kline who looks like things are ticking over in her mind as she goes.

  “Neala, what did you eat for dinner last night?” she asks. Lala stands still looking up to the ceiling like she’s thinking hard.

  She slumps while looking at Kline. “I… I don’t know.”

  Kline gestures for the bed. “Have a seat, Neala. I think you have a mild concussion. I want to take you into the hospital to run a CT scan to double check, also just to make sure everything is okay in there. You should be fine with some rest, but I want to be thorough.”

  Neala sits down beside me. I wrap my arm around her shoulders while she leans in, and I kiss her head gently. “It’ll be fine, angel. No one’s going to hurt you ever again. I promise.”

  She sniffles looking up at me. “I know they won’t because now I have you to protect me.”

  I smile. “Always.” Leaning in, I gently kiss her lips, and she softly kisses me back. I know, no matter what, I will do everything in my power to protect her from anything coming our way. No matter what hurdles, no matter what obstacles are thrown at us, I will withstand them because being with Neala is all I care about.

  Right now she’s my priority above all else.

  Including my patch.

  If voicing my opinion on what happens to Renegade is going to jeopardize my patch, if it jeopardizes my position here at the club, so be it.

  Neala’s safety comes first in my eyes.

  Brothers be damned.

  NEALA

  Why are hospital beds so uncomfortable? I don’t know why having insider privileges made me think I would have a comfy bed, but Bex could have hooked a girl up. As I lay in the hard bed, Tremor talks to Bex quietly at the other end of my room. He’s taken on looking after me as if I were his Old Lady. Which I’m not, but he’s certainly walking around acting like he owns me right now.

  The thing is, I like it. This is all I’ve wanted for so long. Tremor stepping up, taking ownership of me, wanting to be with me. This is my dream, so why does it feel like there’s still this massive elephant in the room? There’s so much we haven’t talked about. I feel like there’s so much that needs to be said. So much to clear up. I don’t even know where to begin with him.

  He turns to face me as he thanks Bex. She leaves the room while he walks over taking a seat beside the bed. The legs of the chair squeak on the linoleum as he shifts it forward to be closer to me. Reaching up, he grabs my hand in his, causing a tingle to shoot through my hand. A spark ignites prickling all the way up my arm and down the side of my body. He just has that effect on me.

  “How’s your head?” he asks.

  I shrug. “Painkillers are helping. Guess we have to wait for the scans now?”

  He tightens his hand on mine, his thumb gently stroking the upper side of my skin. “Yeah, Kline said it shouldn’t be too long, maybe an hour or so.”

  “I think we need to talk, don’t you?” I ask.

  His hard expression softens. “Are you up for that right now?”

  Letting out a small laugh, I shrug. “Tremor, we’ve been fighting this for so long, I need to know why we’ve been doing this.”

  He weakly chuckles. “Okay, you first…” He hesitates looking into my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me Torque talked to you that night? It would have saved us so much trouble?”

  I wince. “Would it, though? If I told you Torque gave his blessing, would you have chosen me? Or would your patch still have meant more to you than me?”

  “You have to understand, Neala, when it came down to it, I thought Torque didn’t want me to be with you. That was a huge issue for me. Your brother gave me the impression that if I chose you, he would never allow me to patch in. If I didn’t have your brother’s permission, I could live with it, but the president… that’s a different issue.” He licks his bottom lip then continues, “You think I chose my patch over you.” His face scrunches like he’s in physical pain. “I know it looked that way, but what you don’t understand, Lala, is that if I chose you and I was kicked out of the club because of it, I would never be able to be around you at the club. I would never be able to be near the club at all. And that would hurt you… it would hurt me. You see where I’m going with this? If I chose you, and Torque wasn’t happy with it, it’s not just me who would’ve had to leave the club, it’s you, too. And if you couldn’t do that, it would eventually break us.” He sighs slumping his body as my chest tightens at his words. “Then I’d be out of the brotherhood and without you… whereas at least the way I had it, I still got to see you. Sure, I might not have been with you, but I still got to see you. See your beautiful smile, smell your fruity perfume as you passed me by...” He pauses running his hand through his hair. “It wasn’t nearly enough, but it got me by.”

  Sniffing, my bottom lip trembles as I tighten my hand in his. “You did choose me.”

  “Yeah, angel. I’ll always choose you. So you understand how if you told me Torque gave us his blessing, all of that thought process could have been avoided?”

  My stomach sinks as tears well in my eyes. �
�And maybe if you had told me that Torque had come to you and told you to steer clear, we would have figured out that he was just playing us. Instead, I thought… I thought when you walked out that night, your patch meant more to you than I did because of what Torque said to you. I was angry and hurt, so I didn’t think to talk to you about it, then it festered, it got worse and worse until it got to this.”

  “I walked out because I didn’t want to punch Torque. He was pissing me off. If I didn’t leave, I was going to end up being kicked out of the club then I’d never see you again. This has been such a fuck up.”

  “I’m so sorry, Trem. This is all my fault.”

  “We’re both to blame. We let this go on for too long. You’re never leaving my fucking side again.”

  A sinking feeling rolls through my stomach. Gnawing on my bottom lip, I look into his eyes. He seems to notice the shift in my mood. “What about Chloe?”

  He takes a long, deep breath clenching his eyes tightly like he’s trying to think of the right thing to say. He opens them looking directly at me as he leans forward on the side of the bed to get closer to me. I find it odd.

  “Neala. I care about you so much. I only ever wanted what’s best for you.”

  “Mm-hmm,” I murmur wondering why he’s buttering me up.

  He exhales. “I wanted you to move on. I wanted you to find someone who would make you happy, so you could forget about me because I was never going to be the right man for you in your brother’s eyes.”

  “But you are the right man for me, Trem.”

  “I know that now, but I thought Torque would always be against us, so I realized you had to find someone he would approve of. If it looked like I moved on, then maybe you would, too.”

  I sit up a little taller, confused by this choice of words. “Are you saying Chloe isn’t real?”

  He chuckles. “No, she’s real. But she is definitely not my girlfriend.”

  Cocking my brow, I tilt my head. “Well then?”

  His face falls as he pulls out his cell, swiping it a few times he turns it to show me a picture of a young woman who’s pretty, very pale, with one of those scarfs wrapped around her head. I tense up as I glance at him.