So far from what I had been able to tell, Rush and Nox were pretty quiet. Not nearly as quiet as our boy Blue, who damned near never spoke, but Rush and Nox usually fell in line behind Archer and from everyone else’s perspective who were close to the dudes back in AZ, Archer had almost always fallen in line with Grinder who’d been the glue holding the four brothers together for the longest time… and now he was gone.
Archer, Nox and Rush all nodded in Dragon’s direction and the party welcoming them into the fold got started. Reaver and Trig went off to talk to them but my mind, my mind was on one thing and one thing only. Being near my Red.
Disney appeared in the archway leading back towards the club rooms in the main building and the girls started trickling back into the common room around him. There would be no discussion of the Suicide Kings and what to do about them tonight. We’d just laid our brother to rest. Tonight would be devoted to memory and to welcoming our three newest members, and for the Phoenix chapter to say goodbye to three of their guys.
I found Red in the media room curled up on one end of the couch, her nose in her e-reader thing as she read to herself. I asked Evy silently with my eyes if I could take her place on the couch and she smiled and rose gracefully to her feet, off in search of Dray. I dropped onto the couch cushion vacated by my girl’s best girl and she looked up and smiled, her face lighting up.
She rose, indicating I should get comfortable against the arm of the couch, which I did and she got back down, nestled between my thighs, resting against me before resuming her reading. Times like these, life was good. Perfect and serene, this time was no exception even if it was laced with guilt and sadness. I held my woman and turned to the screen. Several other brothers filtered in and some action comedy flick was put on and we all just sort of chilled. I decided we needed more nights like this.
I lazed with Mandy in my arms as people drifted in and out of the media room before finally settling on heading for their home towns or to a room for the night. About midnight I looked down to see she was fast asleep against me, her e-reader thing resting on her chest. I smiled and gently shook her. She startled awake and yawned, stretching.
“C’mon Babe, let’s go to bed,” I murmured and she turned the most beatific smile on me and nodded. I think that’s the moment that it really became clear to me. Mandy was mine. Not because I wanted her to be, not because she was my Ol’ Lady, but because she wanted to be.
Trig had once told me that Ashton had said as much to him once. The first lake run they’d ever been on together, and I’d nodded and thought it was really cool and thought I’d understood but until this very moment, right here, with her smiling at me like that I realized that it was one of those things that you couldn’t really know. Couldn’t really fathom the depth of understanding it took until it happened to you.
I followed her in to my room and shut the door, pulling her into my arms. She startled and caught the expression on my face and everything about her softened.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing, Sugar. Nothing at all.” I kissed her gently and held her close for long moments until she pushed back to look me in the eye.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” She looked concerned and I felt a smile of my own tease the corners of my mouth.
“Never better, Baby…” and I meant it.
Chapter 24
Mandy…
Life resumed some semblance of normalcy in the days and weeks following Grinder’s funeral. Still, the seed had been planted by The Suicide Kings and the plant that grew from it was an ugly, spikey thing full of fear and loathing dripping a poisonous rage. It swept through the club, spawning more secret meetings with the guys behind closed doors, and took Zander from my side and Dray from Evy’s more, and for much longer than either of us were comfortable with. We were afraid. As much, if not more, for our men as we were for our own safety.
She and I were at the club along with Chandra and Ashton in the media room quietly watching television. Most of the men were out, just Reaver, Trigger and a couple more here. Dragon and Dray had gone to settle a dispute in another chapter. Archer, Rush and Nox were finalizing their permanent move from Arizona and Ghost was out working, Shelly preferring to ride with him and cement and explore their relationship further. As dysfunctional as their relationship sometimes appeared on the outside, those two were devoted to one another. Despite their near constant disagreeing on this or that, there was something about Ghost that was visibly healing Shelly. It was good to see.
I missed Zander. He was on his way from his house and his evening round of training, preferring his home gym to the piecemeal equipment here at the club. It was quiet, and almost tranquil. Evy, Ashton, Chandra and I, we were all watching a romance story on the big television screen that involved time travel and a beautiful story crossing time between 18th century Scotland and 1940’s post WWII. Chandra, with her glasses on was crocheting in one of the recliners and I was sitting with my Kindle in my hands, forgotten, as I was absorbed in this particular tale on the screen.
It was tranquil, as peaceful as it’d been for a while at the club, but still with that edge of worry, of concern… all of us living with that fractured ache in our chest, in the back of our mind of what if. It had been so very quiet, the animosity between The Sacred Hearts and The Suicide Kings, since the discovery of Grinder’s body. It felt as if the pressure were building, mounting, with no notion as to when it was going to explode.
I didn’t realize anything was wrong at first; there was an exchange of musket fire on the TV and the surround sound in the media room was really good. It was loud, very loud, but then Chandra was bounding out of her recliner and there was shouting that was most definitely not a part of what was happening on the screen.
Everett pulled me to the floor and Ashton snugged herself in a crouch beside the behemoth entertainment center. I blinked rather stupidly at Evy who was rooting through her purse, but it was the distinctive sound of a shotgun being cocked that dragged my attention away from my best friend’s peculiar behavior.
Chandra, a grim expression on her face, was going around the recliner and couch towards the big, thick double doors. She paused in the doorway and leveled the shotgun and pulled the trigger. A riot of noise and gun smoke exploded from the end of the gun and a shout emanated from the other side of the door. Everett stood up abruptly, a handgun, very black against the palm of her hand.
I forgot to breathe so fixated was I on the determined and fierce look on Everett’s face, and so I had no breath to scream with when Chandra’s body jerked malevolently and she began to fall backwards. Ashton cried out and shoved her small hands tight over her mouth and I made a grab for Everett, but it was too late, she was out around the couch and up against the wall by the door before kneeling, turning and arms straight, she fired three shots into the hall before ducking back against the wall.
“Stay here!” I whispered harshly at Ashton and she nodded, her golden eyes wide with fright as I stayed low and crawled across the black carpet to where Chandra lay. I put my hands over the blossom of blood on her camisole beneath her form fitting plaid pattered shirt and pressed down. Blood welled warm and immediate beneath my hands and I checked her face, but she was gone… her light blue eyes staring sightless at the ceiling. The spark of her essence, her life, her energy, just dark… gone… a shadow loomed over me and I looked up into the eyes of a man wearing Suicide Kings colors.
“She’s dead,” I proclaimed hollowly and the man grinned wider, leveling his gun in my face.
“So are you, bitch!”
I blinked at the man beyond the gaping barrel of the gun leveled in my face and tasted regret. I had no control over what happened next, no say on if I would live or die and so I blurted the first thing that came to my mind…
“I know, and it’s all right I suppose. I forgive you.” I closed my eyes and thought of Zander, of Everett and Dray… Everett, where was Everett?
Boom!
Boom! Bo
om! Boom! Click, click, click, click, click…
I looked up and the man blinked at me, eyes much too wide and looked down. Blood began to soak into the front of his shirt and he dropped to his knees. Everett stood behind him hands outstretched, gun shaking between them as she fired over and over again… Click, click, click…
She looked at me agape and finally screamed at me, “What the fuck was that!? You forgive him!? Seriously Mandy!?”
I looked down to where my hands pressed against Chandra’s still chest, wet and slick with her blood and felt the tears run down my face hot and salty damp, tightening my skin in their wake. I looked up at Everett, my sister, my best friend since the second grade.
“I don’t know what made me say that,” I said hollowly.
“You’re a good person, that’s what made you say it,” she grated and reached down and hauled me to my feet by my wrist. I stood and we hugged each other, shaking in the midst of the wreckage of splintered doorframe and wall plaster littering the carpet. Ashton came around the couch and bit down on a low and broken moan and I pulled her in tight with me and Evy. It was silent… too silent. Eerily quiet after so much violence and ruckus.
“Ethan…” Ashton moaned and her expression was plagued by fear. A fear all three of us shared. Everett picked up the man’s forgotten gun and discarded her own.
“Stay behind me,” she urged and we carefully edged our way out into the hallway. I held Ashton to me as we followed my best friend out into the open area, skirting around another man’s body in Suicide Kings colors and past doors towards the common room.
We reached the corner, the turn through the archway bracketed by the bar on our right and the fishbowl-chapel on our left, the shattered glass from the windows and door to the small room crunching under our shoes, the curtains worrisome with no notion as to if anyone hid behind them. But any thoughts towards the fluttering black cloth were immediately dashed when we heard him.
He coughed, his breath sawing in and out of his chest in these rapid fire pants, his head and neck were propped against the top of an overturned table and his legs splayed out in front of him. Ashton stiffened in my arms and Everett’s gun lowered.
There was a cell phone, the screen cracked but lit beside his hip as he choked out to whoever was on the other end, “Promise me, man… You have to promise me you’ll take her, you’ll get her out of here and protect her.”
Trigger leaned over Reaver’s prone form and pressed a wad of cloth, which appeared to be his tee shirt to the younger man’s side. Reaver wore a white tee with stark black body armor over his chest, but that hadn’t stopped the bullet from entering his side.
“You’re gonna be fine man! Listen we’re on our way up, don’t you worry ‘bout a thing!” The voice over the phone was optimistic but strained.
“You gotta promise me, Trigger has Sunshine, you gotta look after my Doll. She trusts you, she likes you and you…” he coughed, and Zander who I belatedly realized was by the door, turned around. He was speaking low and steady into his cellphone which was pressed to his ear and his warm chocolate brown eyes rose from Reaver’s prone form and met mine. Ashton’s knees buckled and she emitted a low wail. I held her up; it wasn’t hard, the tiny woman was so slight. I murmured to her that it was going to be okay. I mean it had to be? Didn’t it?
A siren sounded in the distance growing nearer while Reaver continued to urge the voice on the other end of the line to take care of his wife.
Trigger cursed and shouted at the phone, “Will you just fucking promise him!?” The silence at his outburst hung thin and brittle before the voice on the end of the line sighed out.
“I promise man, but I still maintain you’re going to be fine.”
I tore my eyes from the phone, from my broken and bleeding friend on the floor and searched Zander for any injury, but there was none. Ashton was sobbing, big noisy, wracking broken sobs and it was taking both Evy and I to hold her up. Hayden was out of state again, back in Chicago putting the finishing touches on the hotel she’d been contracted to do the interior design work on. She didn’t know, she wasn’t here…
The door slammed open and we three women jumped, a short startled scream escaped my lips and Zander made six long strides across the wreckage and reached us. He folded us all in his arms as best he could as the EMT’s rushed to Reaver’s side with a stretcher. They worked on him, and Trigger reluctantly relinquished his best friend to the professional’s care.
“Is anyone else hurt?” a medic demanded and Trigger looked at us.
“The girls, check the girls, take them with you they might be in shock,” he uttered and stumbled a step back. We couldn’t hold on to Ashton if we wanted to then, she flung herself out of our grip and at the love of her life and the big man caught her up in his arms.
“Are they all gone?” I asked, my voice high and breathy, shaky now that the adrenaline was wearing thin.
“Yeah,” Zander nodded and held me tight and I held on to him right back. The door blew back on its hinges and Dray and Dragon burst into the room, police right on their heels. Everett disengaged from Zander and me and Dray caught her and squeezed her tight as she finally gave over and burst into tears.
That was Evy. As strong as you needed her to be until she just didn’t have to be anymore. Now that Dray was here, she most definitely didn’t have to be. He held her tightly, a string of Spanish escaping his lips, half cursing half soothing. Dragon surveyed the scene dispassionately.
He made a query in Spanish and Zander answered him. Their eyes darting over the medics and police in the room. They were taking Reaver away and people were jostling out of the doorway to let them pass. When no comprehension shone in the Sheriff Deputies or medics eyes at the Spanish exchange, Dragon and Zander continued their conversation cautiously until one of the deputies intervened.
“Hey! Enough of that!” he said gruffly, “There’s a whole lotta blood on the floor and more than a few dead bodies so you fuckers speak English until we get a handle on what the fuck is going on!”
I found my voice, “Excuse me, but we were attacked, and I would appreciate not being spoken to in that tone of voice.” I said and trembling, drew myself up to my full height. Zander stepped aside, his arms remaining tight around my waist and I was grateful for that. Extremely grateful because I was terribly afraid that if he let me go, I would crumble into all that broken glass and I wouldn’t know how to get up again.
The deputy grumbled out an apology and a female medic came and took me away from Zander, more fire department and medical people took Everett and Ashton too and led us outside. I kept staring over my shoulder at Zander who looked as resigned and as closed down as I had ever seen him, his brown eyes darker, not in color, but with his rage. It scared me, seeing him standing in the wreckage of his club, all that raw hatred and deep emotion playing out over his face and I saw it plain as day, really, for the first time… Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people.
I shuddered and closed my eyes, turning towards the frigid outdoors, the waiting aid car and the scratchy blanket the paramedics were wrapping around my shoulders. A numbness started to fill me from the center of my being out, a comforting lack of feeling, lack of emotion, a lack of despair and I welcomed it because what had happened in there was just too awful to ever want to think about again.
“What?” I asked and looked into the woman’s eyes.
“Oh Honey, I’ve been asking if you’re hurt, can you tell me if any of this is yours?” the female medic asked again. I looked at my hands where they clutched the blanket around my shoulders, detached, nothing…
“Oh, no… it’s not mine. It’s not my blood.” It was Chandra’s… poor Chandra… I sobbed and my world fractured a little bit. I broke down and sobbed and keened and longed for it to be just an hour ago or days from now. Just anything so I didn’t have to feel what I was feeling inside. This awfulness, this loss, this violation.
I was treated for shock, whatever that really entailed, I don’t know. Everything from what happened I just seemed to gloss over, or blow through, everything hazy and disjointed and not really real. I can’t remember so well, or rather I didn’t want to remember, and I was okay with not remembering.
Minutes crept by, the small hour hand, it made its slow, lazy crawl around the face of the clock. Detectives asked questions and when I woke up from the nightmare it was to find I had slept but it wasn’t really a dream. Not at all. I lay curled in the fetal position, my head in Zander’s lap, covered by a jacket and a Sacred Hearts cut. The club filled the small waiting room to overflowing. Evy sitting beside Dray, her head on his shoulder, Ashton curled up in Trigger’s lap, a ball of sightlessly staring nerves, clinging to her man who held her like she was a treasure that he’d nearly lost and maybe in some ways he had… nearly lost her.
I looked up at Zander whose fingers were tangled in my curls. He had a peculiar look in his eyes, on his face and after trading a look with Evy, I suspected they had spoken. I blinked slowly and sat up, stretching.
Fractured & Formidable: The Sacred Hearts MC Book V Page 22