A Brother At My Back

by A. J. Downey

  “No humans involved, right?” I asked and he scowled at me.

  “How did you know about that?” he demanded.

  “That I’m one of the inhumans by the boys in blue’s standard?” I said and sighed. “I heard one of you say it two years ago. One of the dancers here was killed by her boyfriend. When the detectives came and investigated, I overheard one of them say it. I asked Alan about it later.”

  “Alan being your boss upstairs?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m really sorry you had to hear that. I hope you know not all cops think that way.”

  I gave him a sad sort of smile, “Not enough of you don’t think that way, honey. I know which ways the scales tip. I also remember one of the cops that responded when this happened told me that if I’d listened the last time Silas had hit me, and if I’d left, I wouldn’t be in that position and that I’d pretty much done it to myself. So, sorry if I don’t have a whole lot of faith in the system anymore. Once you’re branded a “professional victim,” I made air quotes with my fingers around the phrase, “You don’t have a whole lot of faith left that anyone cares enough to actually help you.”

  “I’m really sorry that any of that was said or happened to you,” he said, and he genuinely looked upset.

  I shrugged. I was used to it by now, which is why I’d gone to find help on my own. It was hard to care about the system when the system didn’t care about you.

  “We’ll get him,” he said.

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” I replied, but I said it gently.

  “We always get them eventually,” he said.

  I shook my head and sighed, “Problem is what they get away with in the meantime, though. Isn’t it?”

  “You have me there.”

  “Are you done with that?” I asked and gestured to the piece of paper that was basically my only shield, and as we all know, a piece of paper makes a really shitty shield.

  “Not yet,” he said holding out a hand indicating I should proceed him. I headed back upstairs and he followed, both of us trapped in an uneasy silence. On the same side but the opposite end of the spectrum, as it were.

  “Took you long enough,” his partner, who was slightly older than him, said dispassionately on our return.

  “Ah, good, you’re going home. I was going to insist,” Alan said.

  I went over and gave him a hug and said, “I figured. It’s one of the reasons you’re a good boss.”

  “You can’t perform your best after something like that,” he declared.

  Nik made to get up and the older cop who was being a dick barked at him, “Sit down!”

  “Myers, easy!” The younger cop, the one who’d gone downstairs with me, handed his partner the restraining order while I slipped over to Nik and tucked myself into his front. He remained standing, defiant, and I know that he made Myers nervous.

  “She’ll be right,” Nik muttered softly to me and I lost some of the tension that was riding me. It was a Kiwi thing to say. It pretty much meant that everything would be okay, meaning that he wouldn’t go full metal idiot when it came to the cop and his ridiculous amount of disrespect. To a certain extent, it was to be expected. Cop and outlaw biker in the same room together was like mixing oil and water in the same Mason jar. I think it said something that the biker was the cooler head, though.

  “Alright, so we have everyone’s statement but yours,” Myers declared, and his partner nodded to me behind his partner. Despite the fact that I knew it wouldn’t do any good, I started from the beginning.

  22

  Zeb…

  “Right pain in the ass, that one,” I murmured to Tiff as the two cops got into their patrol car to leave. She shivered and nodded slightly, staring after them.

  “The young one wasn’t so bad,” she said with a heavy sigh. “The shiny ‘defender of the world’ hasn’t quite worn off him yet.”

  “You alright?” I asked and she nodded, somber. She paused for a moment, pressed her lips together, and as soon as the patrol car turned out of the lot, shook her head.

  “I fell apart. The second I knew he was there, I just… I froze. I couldn’t do anything except hide and be afraid.”

  “You did good,” I told her. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do, eh. You called me.”

  She rolled her beautiful eyes at me and let out a plume of her breath into the icy air saying, “I was already on the phone with you.”

  “Yeah, true, but you thought on your feet, hid, kept yourself safe. That’s what we want you to do. Just be safe. You brought us, me and my bros, in to handle the rest.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s up to the cops now,” she said and her expression was as dispassionate as they got as she stared after where they’d been.

  “Yeah, nah –“ I’d been about to say the cops weren’t going to do anything but my mobile rang. I pulled it, vibrating, out of my jacket pocket and answered it with, “Yeah, Bro, what’s up?”

  “Your lady friend’s missing bestie… I think I’ve got her in my ER,” Doc said by way of greeting and I felt my heart sink.

  “How bad?” I asked, taking a few steps from Tiffany, which of course, tipped her off that something was wrong.

  “If you’re with her, I’d get her here five minutes ago. It’s bad, Zeb. I don’t know that she’s going to make the night.”

  “Shit,” I said low and with feeling. “We’re on our way.”

  “Meet me at the ER main entrance. I’ll be waiting.”

  “Right.” I hung up and Tiffany narrowed her eyes at me.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “We have to go,” I told her and got on my bike, dropping my skid lid on my head. She didn’t hesitate and got on behind me. I started it up and turned it ‘round to head out of the lot before she even had her skid lid fastened beneath her chin.

  “Nik, you’re scaring me!” she cried as I drove like a hoon through town to get to Doc’s hospital. She hung onto me for dear life, but I didn’t think she would want to miss any time with her friend that she could have. I knew they were close and it broke my heart what I raced her toward. Still, I could never forgive myself if we didn’t make it and a grim sort of resignation took hold.

  I went flat tack down the main drag that’d been salted and it was scary even for me, but I had to get her there. Doc had sounded grim and he didn’t sound that way for nothing unless it was something. Dire, yeah, that was a good word for it.

  I pulled up in the ambulance bay and off onto the sidewalk in front of a bench, making my own parking. I shut off my motorbike and heeled down the stand for it, leaning it over. She jumped off, her chest heaving and stared at me with real fear in her deep, dark eyes.

  “Why’d you bring me here?” she demanded and I felt my shoulders drop. I took a breath to tell her when the doors whooshed open and Doc strode out in his white lab coat and pressed Dockers. He turned his bald head in Tiffany’s direction.

  “I could get in a lot of trouble for this,” he said going to her. “Anyone asks you, you’re her emergency contact and that’s how we called and got a hold of you. Her mother isn’t answering her phone.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said hollowly, but she did. It was written all over her face that she knew exactly why we were here now. She just didn’t want to know and I couldn’t say I blamed her.

  “You have her info?” Doc asked me.

  “Yeah.”

  “Call Data so he can get to work and cover my ass. Come on, sweetheart, your friend is waiting and she’s in really bad shape.”

  “Delia?” she asked and I could see the devastation in her eyes. Fuck me. I phoned Data but followed them up the hallway.

  “Yeah, Zeb, I’m already in. Just give me her name, address, phone number.”

  “Right,” I murmured and stood outside the hospital room door as Doc led her through.

  Tiffany leaned over the bed, her shoulders hitching, a broken cry coming from her at the sight of her friend. Doc backed
out and stood with me as I finished giving Data what he needed.

  “Dragon there?” I asked.

  “Nope, already here,” he said from beside me and I said into the mobile, “Never mind.”

  “Later,” Data said. “I gotta go to work.”

  I lowered the phone and shoved it into my pocket. Doc sighed.

  “Beaten, raped, there’s too much damage. Even if we got her into surgery it’s a lost cause, but they’re prepping now,” he said low and soft so Tiff couldn’t hear.

  “Jesus Christ,” Dragon muttered, tapping the filter of a cigarette on the web of his hand between index and thumb. “Couldn’t find her so went after her friend,” he muttered and sniffed.

  I looked back into the room and relayed what had happened at the strip club.

  “It’s on, now,” I said. “I’m going to kill him.”

  “We are going to kill him,” Dragon corrected and I nodded, staring into the dimly lit hospital room at my girl, sobbing next to her dying friend.

  23

  Tiffany…

  I stepped into the dimly lit hospital room; a fluorescent light, barely enough to cast a halo on the head of the bed, was lit, harsh, blue-white light falling on the still figure in it. Lia’s face was so swollen and purple, it was grotesque. I couldn’t even recognize her. I wouldn’t have recognized her at all had it not been for her familiar wheat-blonde hair and the birthmark on her wrist.

  I leaned down, shoulders shaking with sobs as I choked them down and tried not to wake her. Her eyes were so swollen, I couldn’t believe she could see out of them but she did, she hadn’t been sleeping at all. She turned her head in my direction, choking out my name pitifully, “Tiffany?”

  “I’m here, Lia. I’m right here,” I said and smoothed back some of her hair. She winced and coughed weakly.

  “Silas,” she rasped. “Cooper and Silas…”

  “He came to the club, but its okay, I’m okay. He hit Zeke, but Alan hid me.”

  “You have to go, you have to run…” she made a choked, strangled noise and tears seeped from her eyes, slicking down her temples into her hair.

  “Shh, don’t try to talk, okay? You’re in the hospital, they’re going to take care of you, alright? I’m going to take care of you like you took care of me.”

  She shook her head back and forth and gasped, “Run, Tiffy. Get away. Go far away. Take my car, just go. Promise me you’ll go!” She wept, her voice broken and pleading, the more I looked at her, the more bruises I was able to pick out on her fair skin.

  I shook my head, “I’m not leaving you!” I cried, and stuffed my hand into my mouth to try and curb the broken sound that followed. She squeezed my other hand where I’d wrapped it around her fingers. She was gasping, having a hard time breathing and I looked back over my shoulder. The doctor who had brought me in here craned his neck in our direction and I turned back to Lia but she was still. So still.

  “Lia?” I asked and when she didn’t answer, I cried louder, “Lia!?”

  The monitors began screaming, there was a shout out in the hallway, and the doctor had me by the shoulders, moving me out of his way. A nurse rushed in and shoved me out and two more people barreled into the room past me. I stumbled backward, the scene in front of me blurring and large hands grasped me by the arms, pulling me back against a hard chest.

  “Lia!” I screamed and my knees gave way. I sank towards the floor, Nik trying to hold me up. They had her gown open, were charging paddles. The curtain whisked along its track cutting off my view.

  A high pitched sound, just like in the movies and her prone silhouette bounced and shuddered. I screamed, long and loud and wordless my pain and my rage but I knew. I knew they wouldn’t get her back.

  I knew my best friend was gone.

  I sat on my butt on the cold tile floor of the emergency department’s floor and howled my rage and pain to the sterile ceiling tiles.

  24

  Zeb…

  She was a right mess. Completely munted on her sorrow and I didn’t blame her one bit. She sat on the floor in the middle of the bustling hallway and screamed and I just went to the floor with her, wrapped my arms and legs around her and held her. I let her have her total meltdown and waited for her to finish, more than a little brassed off at the whole situation.

  She wept bitterly against me and I looked up at the ceiling, glancing at Dragon who stood near us to fend off anyone that might try to make us move or have something to say about my girl’s apparently packing a sad in the middle of the hospital hallway. Fuck them, anyhow.

  He put his mobile to his ear and said into it, “Yeah, Doll, get me Reaver on the line.”

  It was all I needed to hear. This would be taken care of, and my brothers and I would see it through, but right now my girl needed tending and that was something only I could do. It hit me then, that I had completely fallen in love with her. Not only that, I realized that I was it, now. The only other person she really had in this sad, lonely little life she led had just completely carked it.

  Bugger all.

  “Take my truck, take her home to get some of her shit, and take her to the club,” Dragon ordered and handed me down a set of keys. I handed up my own in trade.

  “Motorbike is by the front doors.”

  “Yeah, I saw it. Damn rat bike of yours,” he frowned but gave me a wink.

  “Ain’t got to be flash, just has to run, eh.”

  “Get you gone, motherfucker. Take care of your woman.”

  “On it, boss.” I got up and picked Tiffany up completely, one arm behind her back, the other beneath her knees. She let me, face buried in the side of my neck, arms around it, clinging to me tightly.

  I went out and found Dragon’s old truck, which was just as beat-up and sad-looking as my bike was, and unlocked the passenger door, opening her up. I tucked Tiffany in and pulled back, cupping her face with one hand.

  “I don’t know what to do from here,” she said, her face red and tear-stained. I’d never seen her cry like this before. A few stray tears here and there, but this desperate and devastated weeping scared me a bit.

  “You leave that to me, eh? She’ll come right.”

  She visibly crumbled, everything about her expression screaming that she wanted to believe me but that she just couldn’t right now. I can’t say I blamed her for the notion, either.

  “What do I do?” she cried, panic making her eyes go wide, her voice rising, and tears spilling. “What do I do?”

  “Shhh, shhh,” I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers. She quieted, freezing and her eyes drifted shut. When I knew she had a bit more of a grip, I drew back and said, “You trust me, that’s what you do.”

  She nodded and pressed her lips, biting them together. I gave her a nod and shut the door on her, quickly jogging around the bonnet and getting in on the other side. It felt wrong, still. Driving on the wrong side of the road I’d grown used to, but on the wrong side of a cage, I still had issues. I wasn’t used to shifting with my right hand, still.

  “Have to forgive me, I’m still not used to driving a cage in America,” I told her, firing up the truck.

  She huddled miserably on the seat and said, voice far away as she stared at the hospital through the windscreen, “I’ll forgive you on account of being warm.”

  “Thanks,” I said, and ground gears, working the unfamiliar pedals to get us out of there on our way out to the wops where she lived. It’d been too long since I’d driven a cage. It’d like to make me crazy.

  I drove us in silence. To be honest, I didn’t know what to say and she wasn’t talking and that was okay. Sometimes words weren’t needed. Sometimes you just needed to be there. When I wasn’t shifting gears, she held my hand tight on the seat between us.

  I didn’t like driving the truck. I kept sliding and was so used to the motorbike that I didn’t feel like I had the right amount of control on four wheels that I had on two. Funny that, eh?

  I made the turn into Tiffany’s lot and
cut the engine, turning to look at her. I sighed and told her the truth.

  “The rules of the game have changed, you get that, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah it’s kind of hard not to get it,” she said back and looked so tired, so miserable, so completely wrung out and brittle, I was afraid my strong brave girl was going to give up on me.

  “We’re gonna take as much as we can, throw it in trash bags if we have to and right into the back of the truck.”

  “Okay,” she agreed, nodding somberly. She had to know her place here was compromised for sure.

  “Okay, come on, then.”

  I went around and took her hand and we went up the stairs. I stayed out in front and couldn’t help but swear when we got to her door, “Aw, shit, no.” He’d nailed her cat, fur slick and dark with blood, to her door, guts spilling out onto the ground.

  I heard her gasp and I turned right around, pulling her into my chest, pressing her face into my shoulder as she shuddered and hushing her. “Shh, don’t look,” I said. “I’m so sorry, Wahine. Don’t look.”

  She was trying so hard not to fly apart, she was being so brave, but this? I don’t know how she did it. How she held it together.

  “Let’s just go inside!” she cried and I nodded.

  “Gimme your keys.” She fished them blindly out of her purse at her side and shoved them into my hand. I turned around and she hid against my back as I worked the locks and tried not to get anything on me. I opened the door and shoved her through, once I knew there was no one inside and followed her in, shutting the horror back out on the other side.

  “Max?” she muttered in disbelief. Her damn cat stretched on the bed, kneading the covers with her paws and meowing quizzically. “Max!” she cried and I felt my muscles loosen.

  “Thank fuck,” I muttered and set about moving around her kitchen, looking for trash bags.

  “Oh my God, thank you,” she said, and held the displeased animal tightly to her, kissing her between her ears.