Gabriel: The Wild Ones (Jokers MC Book 2)

by Jessie Cooke

  The old nurse finally left after giving him a fifteen-minute lecture about how to keep his leg from getting infected and how to safely take his pain medicine. As soon as she was gone, Patrice came in with the wheelchair. She’d told him she took two weeks vacation time so that she could make sure he was well on the mend before leaving him alone. He wasn’t sure if that meant she was going to stay with him 24/7...but he damned sure hoped so. His whole body hurt, all except the part that stood up and took notice every time his beautiful nurse walked in the door.

  “You ready?”

  “So fucking ready,” he said, sliding into the chair without putting weight on his leg. It was still sore and swollen, and where they’d put over one hundred stitches into it, it itched like a motherfucker. Patrice helped him put his feet up on the footrests and then said:

  “Here we go. And by the way, this is the last time I’d like to push you out of here in a wheelchair, okay?”

  Gabe laughed. “I’ll do my best.” It was honestly all he could promise her. Even in spite of his lifestyle, he was accident-prone. He’d spent a good many hours in the ER over the years and his Maw Maw used to say he was going to look like a Raggedy Andy doll someday for all the stitching scars he had on his body.

  “I’m not sure, but I think you’ve used at least two of your nine lives since I met you, and no telling how many you already used up before that,” she said. Then just before stopping the chair outside of Chance’s room, the tone of her voice changed to more serious as she leaned down close to his ear and said, “I just found you, don’t make me lose you too soon.” He turned his face slightly and her lips brushed against his.

  “I’ll be more careful,” he said. “I promise.” With a smile and a nod, she pushed him into the room. Gabe tried not to wince when he saw his friend’s face, but it was hard not to. Chance’s “pretty boy” features were still so swollen that he was almost unrecognizable. One of his eyes looked like it was only halfway open and his bottom lip looked twice the size of his top one. Sharon was sitting on the opposite side of the bed, and when she saw them come in, she stood up. It was hard to believe sometimes that she was a stripper. Outside of the club she was one of the quietest, most polite people Gabe had ever met. He didn’t know much about her past, but Chance did tell him she wasn’t from the south. She’d grown up on the East Coast somewhere and Gabe had a feeling she’d come from much better stock than a lot of the other women who worked the club. It was also fairly obvious that at some point, even before the Mad Men got a hold of her, something in her life had happened to traumatize her, something she hadn’t ever even shared with Chance.

  “Hey, pretty boy, still laid up? When the fuck you planning on getting out of here and back to work?” Sharon gave Gabe a little smile and then bent down and lightly kissed Chance on the cheek, in one of the few spots that wasn’t bruised or swollen. Quietly she said:

  “I’m going to go down and get some coffee. I’ll be back in a bit.” Chance’s attempt at a smile in return was almost painful to watch and that was when Gabe realized he was missing two of his teeth in front as well. His friend’s blue eyes watched his girl leave before he said...in what sounded like a painful lisp:

  “I tried to leave yesterday. Sharon called Blackheart and tattled on me. I was told in no uncertain terms that if I didn’t want my ass to look like my face, I had to stay here until the doc said it was okay for me to leave.”

  Gabe chuckled. He could hear the boss’s voice saying that in his head. “I’m glad you’re gonna be okay,” he said, then clearing his throat he started, “I’m sorry...” Chance’s eyes went to Patrice and she said:

  “You know what? I’m going to grab some coffee too. I’ll be back in a bit.” Gabe squeezed her hand and waited until she was gone before going on.

  “I’m so fucking sorry it took me so long to get there...”

  “It’s not your fault. Blackheart didn’t hold back about me going out there alone in the first place. He was right, I was asking for this shit. Besides, before I even put the phone back in my pocket after talking to you, I was out. No way anyone could have made it in time. Bastard snuck up on me.”

  “Blackheart tell you anything about what’s been happening while we’re in here? Only word I got was from Brain and all he would say was that he binged Gregor in the head with a cue ball.”

  Chance’s body shook with a laugh, but his face contorted in pain. “Fuck, man, don’t make me laugh,” he said. “Shit. Wish I woulda been there. Blackheart hasn’t said anything to me, but Sharon says they went out there and that Blackheart told her she never had to worry about Gregor hurting her, or anyone, again.”

  “I’m pissed that I missed it,” Gabe said, “but glad it’s done. How’s Sharon doing?” Gabe didn’t know she was pregnant until Chance said:

  “She wants to keep it.”

  “Keep it? Keep what...?” That was his “Aha” moment. He didn’t know if the look on Chance’s face was from the physical pain he was in, or the thought of his girlfriend having a baby that belonged to one of the men who raped her.

  “She’s pregnant,” Chance said, confirming it. “I thought you knew.”

  “No...shit, those fuckers...”

  “It was him—Gregor. She told me that morning and that’s why I just followed the fucker on my own. I couldn’t see anything but red, and if he hadn’t been with that woman, I would have just killed him and never called you. Fuck, I wish I would have.”

  “Jesus, man, I’m sorry. She wants to keep the baby?”

  Chance looked like he was in agony as he nodded. “She says she doesn’t believe in abortion, and it’s not the baby’s fault. Man, I see her point, I do...but I’m not sure, bro, I’m not sure I can look at that baby every day, knowing how it was brought into this world.”

  Gabe didn’t know what to say, so for several minutes, he just sat with his friend, in silence. He could see both sides. He was raised Catholic and he’d been taught since he was old enough to understand that it was wrong, and against everything the Bible taught. His Maw Maw started leaving condoms around his room when he was barely sixteen and not saying a word about it. His Paw Paw, though, he’d been the one to sit him down and tell him to make damned sure he didn’t make any babies he wasn’t willing to take care of. Gabe wasn’t a player, but he’d had quite a bit of sex since becoming a Joker. The girls that hung around the club were mostly careful about birth control, but just in case he’d never had sex without a condom. He knew this was an entirely different scenario, though. This baby wasn’t just a “mistake” that Sharon would have to live with. This baby was birthed in chaos and trauma, hate and violence and Gabe wasn’t sure how Sharon would ever be able to look at him and not remember...he wasn’t sure, if he were Chance, that he could do it either.

  He changed the subject after a few minutes and by the time the girls came back, they were talking and laughing about something stupid Brain had said or done. When it was time to go, Gabe stood up and leaned over to give his brother a hug. In his ear he whispered, “We’ll all get through this. We’re a family, and we’ve all got your back no matter what you decide, okay?” Chance used his one good hand to pat Gabe on the side of the face. His other must have gone up to protect him when he was getting beaten; it was in a cast and his fingers were bright red and blue in places. Gabe swallowed the burning anger once more, gave Sharon a hug, and told her to call if she needed anything, and then thought about how lucky he was as Patrice rolled him outside to her car.

  Some people lose family members and it makes them realize how precious life is. Gabe had lost his parents and instead of cherishing his own life, he got up every day almost pushing it to the furthest limit he could. But suddenly, looking at the beautiful woman he might have a future with, and thinking about Sharon getting up every morning and facing another day after all she’d been through, gave him a renewed appreciation for life. One that he planned on hanging on to...because now he had a lot more to live for than he ever had before.

>   13

  “Do you need anything from your place?” Patrice asked Gabe as she drove. He didn’t answer her for several seconds. They hadn’t talked about where she was taking him. So far, he’d only been to her place once and that was to pick her up for Booger’s wake; he’d barely stepped inside. She lived in an apartment in a renovated mansion in the Garden District. It was where a lot of young, wealthy professionals lived in New Orleans, and Gabe had felt out of place just driving his bike up into her driveway.

  “Um...you taking me to your place?”

  “No, I was going to just dump you off at your trailer and hope you can fend for yourself,” she said with a smile. “Your place isn’t big enough for you to use the wheelchair or the crutches, you’ll break something...and knowing you the way I do now, it will probably be something you need. I can take care of you better at my place, if that’s okay. I still have another week or so of vacation time left.”

  He chuckled. “Well, yeah...I mean, if you don’t mind me invading your space.”

  “I wouldn’t offer if I minded. Did you want to stop by your trailer?” Gabe was dressed in the only clothes he had, a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt that one of the guys had dropped by the hospital. He wanted his jeans, and he needed his kutte. He knew that Le Singe had taken it the day he went to the hospital; he only hoped that after what it had gone through in the swamps, it was salvageable.

  “Yeah, I’d like to pick up a few things...and check in with Blackheart.” Gabe’s trailer was only half a mile from the club. A lot of the Jokers lived there in a makeshift trailer park they’d thrown together themselves on Blackheart’s property. The parish had tried to shut them down at one point, but somehow Blackheart was able to pull the strings necessary to get the zoning permits. It was back before he’d committed to staying loyal to Sally, and rumor had it that the plain, middle-aged woman who came out to meet with him and write up fines had instead left with a big smile on her face and a knot in the back of her hair, and no one had bothered them since.

  Patrice drove past the clubhouse and up to Gabe’s trailer. When he unlocked it and she helped him inside, the first thing noticeable was the smell of some kind of pine cleaner. “Wow, did you clean right before you got hospitalized?”

  He smiled. He wasn’t much of a “cleaner.” His Maw Maw had been and still was somewhat of a clean freak, and she’d followed him around in his teen years cleaning up after him. He usually either ate at the club or on paper plates and the most he did at the trailer was wipe the dust off the television when it got too thick to see the screen. The place was immaculate, though, and he was sure it was thanks to Blackheart or Le Singe, sending one of the girls over to do it. Unsure of how Patrice would feel about that he said, “Wasn’t me. The boss must have paid someone to clean it for me. I guess they thought I’d be coming back here and since the biggest issue with my leg is worrying about infection, they probably thought the place should be clean. Usually it’s like one of those...you know, those dishes they grow stuff in in a lab.”

  Patrice laughed. “A petri dish?”

  “Yeah, if you say so.” He smiled again, kissed her cheek, and said, “There’s stuff to drink in the fridge if you want. I’m just gonna pack a bag and I’ll be right out.” He left her in the little living area and holding onto things, he hopped back to the bedroom, pulling the accordion door closed behind him. The first thing he did when he got there was pull out a duffel bag he used on overnight runs and check to make sure he had condoms in there. He wasn’t sure if she was ready to have sex yet or not, but he was, and he wanted to be prepared just in case. After that he went over to his dresser and smiled when he saw what was lying on top of it. It was his kutte, and it had been cleaned and looked good as new. He got a whiff of a new leather smell when he picked it up and couldn’t help but wonder if maybe it was new. Either way, he was thrilled to see it. He put it on and then threw enough clothes for a few days in the bag before throwing it over his shoulder and pulling open the accordion door. He was surprised to see Patrice wasn’t alone on the couch. Miss Sally had joined her.

  “Miss Sally, good to see you,” Gabe said. He really liked Sally. Since his own mother died and Blackheart took him in, she’d been like a surrogate mother to him. She sort of was to all of the guys, even the older ones. The thing everyone loved about Sally was that you always knew exactly where you stood with her. She didn’t have a fake bone in her body. Smiling at him now, she stood up and before he had hopped back over to where they were, she met him and wrapped him up in a motherly hug.

  “Good to see you too,” she said, holding him back then so she could look at him. The bruises he’d had on his face were healing and had turned a light-yellow color. If not for his thickly bandaged leg, he didn’t think he looked too bad. Sally frowned though and said, “You gotta stop chasing trouble, Gabe. One of these days it’ll turn around and get you...and you won’t be able to come back from it.”

  He could see Patrice’s face over Sally’s shoulder. She wasn’t saying anything but she cocked an eyebrow in a silent I told you so. “I’m gonna try, Miss Sally.”

  She shook her head slightly and smiled at him again. “I came to see if you’ll need any help until you’re back on both of your feet, but it seems like Patrice has that covered.”

  “Yep,” he said, with a wink in Patrice’s direction. “I guess I was so jealous that the boss had his own private nurse, I wanted one of my own.”

  Sally laughed and looked at Patrice and said, “I have to warn you, the pay is not all that great.”

  “I figured,” Patrice said, with a wink back at him.

  “I was gonna stop and check in with the boss on our way out. Is he up at the club?”

  “No, he left out of town a few hours ago. Le Singe is there.”

  “Where did he go?”

  Sally looked at Patrice and then to Gabe. He understood that whatever it was, it wasn’t something she felt comfortable talking about in front of Patrice. He felt bad about that, but it was the way the club worked. No outsiders, and minus Sally, the women didn’t usually even know what was going on. Finally she said, “You’ll have to ask Le Singe about that. I’m going to head back to work, I just came by on my lunch break.” She looked at Patrice and said, “It was nice to meet you. Let me know if this one gives you any trouble or y’all need anything, okay?”

  Patrice stood up and held her hand out. Instead of taking it, Sally pulled her in for a hug. Patrice looked stiff at first, but after a few seconds she seemed to relax and hug her back. “It was nice to meet you too, Sally, and thank you, I will.”

  Patrice walked Sally to the door and once she was gone, she turned to Gabe and said, “My face took her a little aback, I think.” Gabe didn’t like thinking about how much she looked like his president, especially because he was so incredibly attracted to her, but it was undeniable. It would be nothing short of a miracle if they ever did a DNA test and she turned out not to be related to Blackheart. “She recovered quickly, though,” Patrice added.

  “Yeah, I guess after a lifetime of knowing the boss, nothing much surprises her anymore,” Gabe said. Patrice raised both eyebrows then, but instead of saying anything, she took his bag and loaded it into the car. He hated letting her do everything for him, but he was already finding out that letting her have her way was easier than arguing with her. Once she had the bag tucked away she came back and helped him down the two steps and then once they were in the car he said, “You mind stopping at the club anyway? I’ll check in with the VP and see if I can find out what’s up with the boss.”

  “Sure.” Patrice turned onto the narrow dirt road that led to the club and parked next to about half a dozen Harleys. She got out of the car but before going around to Gabe’s side she opened the trunk.

  “Huh-uh, no wheelchair,” he said. She rolled her eyes at him but pulled out the crutches instead. Gabe had hobbled down the hallway at the hospital on them, but they weren’t comfortable. He still needed her to hold onto him
as he hobbled his way into the club. Working with one leg was harder than he thought. As soon as they walked in, all activity stopped and suddenly everyone was in their face, asking questions about the gator he had “wrestled” and if they knew how Chance was doing. Gabe answered their questions, embellishing the alligator wrestling just a little bit, making the gator a few feet bigger than it was. He let them know Chance was awake and talking, which was a relief to everyone, and then he asked about Le Singe.

  “He’s in the office,” Brain told him. Brain had been staring openly at Patrice since they walked in and Gabe realized the prospect had never actually seen her. He’d been on a run during the time Patrice had come to the club for the wake, and he hadn’t been at the birthday party at Lowlife’s home. Lowlife didn’t like the younger guys around his sixteen-year-old daughter, so he always seemed to find some excuse not to invite them to his home.

  “Stop staring,” Gabe told him, softly putting an elbow into the kid’s ribs.

  “Sorry...she just...”

  “I look like your boss,” Patrice said. “It’s okay, I get that everyone’s a little shocked by that.”

  “Sorry...but yeah. I mean if you had facial hair...”

  “Enough,” Gabe said. He didn’t want to picture Patrice with facial hair. That and her smoking hot, all female body was all that separated her from her blue-eyed lookalike, and Gabe wanted to keep it that way even in his head. “We’re gonna go see Le Singe,” he said, prodding Patrice along.