Broken Wings

by Sweet, Izzy

  Fuck.

  None of this is a good sign.

  I slow my ride to a crawl as I meet up with most of the guys sitting outside on their bikes. Each one of these motherfuckers is a brother to me, and the grim looks on their faces stops me from asking the questions I need to find answers for.

  I need to find the old man.

  Shutting my bike down next to the guys, I climb off, and for some reason my legs feel like leaden rods.

  “Where’s Hound?” I ask Whitey, the VP.

  He’s one of the blackest men I’ve ever met, but his real name is Whitey and that’s what he wants us to call him so we roll with it.

  His deep rumble comes out from behind his thick, long beard, “Coy…”

  “What happened?” I ask. “Hound okay?”

  “Head into the ER, he should be waitin’ for you right inside the doors,” Whitey says.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I snarl more to myself than anyone else.

  Jogging toward the entrance, I hear even more bikes pulling into the parking lot behind me. I want to look back to see if I can figure anything else out before I walk into whatever hell I’m about to enter, but I don’t.

  The doors don’t open fast enough for me and I have to come to a stop in front of them. When I get past them, I look all around me and I can tell something’s gone down and it ain’t good.

  My old man is standing at the reception desk, bent over, talking to a woman. His kutte showing the skull, wings, and bikes of the Royal Bastards.

  When he turns at the sound of the doors sliding shut behind me, we stare at each other for a long time. His eyes showing emotions I can barely register.

  He calls me over to the receptionist desk, his normal straight and rigid back almost bent. “Coy.”

  I’ve never seen the old man look as tired as he does right now.

  “What’s going on?” I ask when I finally cross the short distance.

  It may have only been a few feet, but it feels like miles.

  “Son…” he begins, but his voice trails off.

  He hasn’t called me that in years, it’s always Coy or prospect now.

  Repeating the same three words, I feel like I’ve been asking them all night, “What’s going on?”

  He straightens to his full height.

  Looking me in the eyes, he says, “Coy, ain’t no easy way to say this.”

  “Then fucking spit it out,” I growl at him, and he doesn’t even flinch at my insolent tone.

  “Allison and Horse were in a bad wreck,” he says, watching my face.

  His eyes hold nothing but sympathy for me, and I’ve never seen the look he’s giving me right now.

  Accident.

  Accident with any other vehicle wouldn’t carry the same gravity as this type does. Bike accidents are never a happily ever after type of story.

  Never.

  My voice comes out in a croak as it tries to get past the massive lump that’s forming in my throat. “How bad?”

  “Real bad, Coy. Horse didn’t make it.” He puts an arm around my shoulders and leads me over to a small alcove that’s out of the way of all the people coming in and out of the ER.

  “Allie?” I ask.

  “She’s in a bad way. Thank any god you can thank, she was wearing your old leathers and a brain bucket,” he says, but with the way he’s talking, even more bad news is coming my way.

  “Where is she?” I ask, wanting to pull away from his touch, wanting his words to disappear like this whole night.

  “Coy, she’s back in surgery right now. She broke both her ankles, her rotator cuff is…” he trails off.

  “Can I see her?” I ask.

  At least, I think I ask. My lungs feel like they’re never going to breathe again.

  “Coy, she’s in surgery… She… She…” He stumbles over his words for a few seconds. “She wasn’t responsive when the paramedics got to the scene.”

  “Where is she?”

  My heart and everything I’ve ever felt good in this world is tied to her existence, and right now I can feel it dying.

  Slowly, with each breath I take, I can feel it crumbling to ashy pieces.

  “Let’s go see what we can find out,” he says then lets out a huge sigh. “One thing you need to know… Coy, it happened near her parent’s house. They were there when they put her in the ambulance.”

  * * *

  Time around me seems to move differently than anything I’ve ever known. It’s like each moment I breathe, I can feel the world moving past my pain. People and faces move and say words to me. Some in anger, some in sorrow, some in rage. Most in emotions I don’t really understand.

  When I was in high school, I remember a physics teacher I had describing time as a fixed point. That it neither moves nor stays still. He was trying to explain something to us, but I can’t really remember much beyond him saying we could feel stuck in a moment of time for what seems like an eternity, or we could be flung through the hours and days as if it happens in the blink of an eye.

  The last however many days have been a blur of words I don’t understand or want to hear. Especially when they say the word coma. That’s bad. I’ve looked it up and what I found wasn’t fuckin’ good, not good at all. They spoke about numbers and shit like that, but I don’t really understand it much.

  All I understand is dying and vegetative state. Those ain’t good either. I don’t know what I’ll do if she dies, and if she goes into one of them long comas where she eventually dies anyway, what will I do?

  I’ve tried to stay at the hospital as much as I can, but they’ve got some security team there now that’s been runnin’ interference between me and her.

  She’s a minor and I’m not. She’s still under her parent’s legal guardianship. Not like I could do anything even if she wasn’t. My old man’s buddy, a lawyer, explained it to me. She isn’t able to give any kind of consent, so she’s under their care.

  Fuckers. They say this is my fault, every damn bit of it. They ain’t wrong, but fuck if I wouldn’t go back in time and put myself in her position if I could.

  I’d die and go to where I’m supposed to if I could just save her ass from all this shit.

  “Coy,” Gremlin calls to me as I walk out of the clubhouse and head to my bike.

  “What?” I ask as I mount my bike and stand it up, kicking the kickstand up.

  “You headin’ to the hospital?” he asks as he walks past me to his bike.

  Staring at him, I wonder just how fucking thick he is to even bother askin’. I’ve been going there every day since the accident.

  Nodding my head, I say, “Yeah.”

  “Alright, let’s go,” he grunts.

  “Any reason you’re comin’?” I ask.

  “Yeah, I gotta talk to you about some shit.”

  I try not to sigh. “Club business?”

  The Royal Bastards are my family and my life, but right now I need things to just fucking pause so I can fall apart for a few moments in my timeline. I need time to come to terms with knowing that the longer Allie stays the way she is, the more likely it is that our last words have already been spoken.

  Nodding his head, I can see the understanding on his face, but he says “Yeah, got shit we need to go over.”

  Time waits for no man’s tragedies.

  “Alright, we’ll do it there. Not like I can get past the waiting rooms, anyways.”

  “Nah, I also got a plan for that,” he says with a smirk.

  “Seriously?” I ask and for the briefest of moments I can feel my heart pounding in my chest.

  “Yup,” he grins and starts his bike.

  He revs the engine for a couple beats before looking back to me.

  Fuck me, this is not gonna be good. Well, I mean it will, but I know we’re about to get in some shit.

  Smiling over at him, I nod my head and then tear ass out of the clubhouse parking lot.

  Just the possibility of getting more than a brief passing look of Al
lie has my heart thumping nonstop in my chest.

  * * *

  Walking up the stairwell to the third floor, I look over at Gremlin and still can’t believe I’m gonna get to see Allie.

  See and maybe touch her again.

  “One thing I need to talk to you about though, before we get started,” he says and looks over at me seriously.

  “Yeah?” I pause on the landing, waiting for him to continue.

  “You’re not in the right spot for the shit coming down the pipe, brother. I know this shit’s got your focus, and we as a family understand that,” he says. “But shit is happening soon, and I need to know you’re gonna be with the club. You can’t live in two worlds; you won’t ever win this girl’s parent’s approval.”

  My mind blanks for a long time. I don’t have an answer to anything he’s just said to me. I know I need to keep fucking moving, keep Allie in my heart and keep the club in my head.

  “I ain’t gonna go straight for her parents when all this shit’s over with. She’s coming home to be with her old man,” I say firmly.

  “Even if she asks you to?”

  That’s a tough question, her or the club? Do I have an answer for that?

  “She wouldn’t, and if she does, I’ll chain her up in the clubhouse,” I say with a smile.

  And for the first fucking time since this shit happened, I actually feel like I’m giving a real smile.

  “Fuck, man, that’s a good answer,” he snickers before he starts taking his kutte and shirt off.

  “Dude, what the fuck are you doing?” I ask as he hands me his kutte. “You ain’t, uh, tryin’ to tell me somethin’, are you?”

  Looking at me, he grins even bigger. “Been awhile since I’ve been behind some bars, but this should do the trick.”

  With those words, he kicks off his boots and then shucks his pants down to the ground.

  “The fuck?” I ask.

  “Grab my shit, brother. You won’t have long.”

  With that, the fucker rips open the stairwell door and starts whooping and hollering like he’s some batshit insane mental patient.

  Trying to stick somewhat close to him, I watch as he stops directly in front of a cute little nurse and does a few rotations of the helicopter in front of her.

  Leaning down, he kisses her right on the forehead before skipping toward a stunned doctor.

  And I mean skipping like a little fucking girl down the hallway, shouting something about tulips up his ass.

  Shit all over the hall gets tossed in the air as he goes about his happy little rampage.

  “Fuckin’ love that dude,” I mutter to myself before heading directly for Allie’s room.

  All the security for this floor is now trying to chase Gremlin down, so now’s my chance to be close to her again.

  I don’t see any of her security outside so I open the door as quietly as I possibly can. Looking in, I crane my head around the door to see if I can spot anyone. I don’t see her parents or any nurses either, thank fuck.

  Stepping fully into the room, I can feel my fingers twitching in the anticipation of finally feeling the one person in this world that I want to touch.

  That soft, silky feeling of her cheek.

  The way her golden hair feels as it slides through my fingers.

  Even if I don’t have long, I have to have one touch.

  I need to feel her to ground me back to earth. To help me stabilize my heartbeats, to keep me sane.

  But there’s nothing here, only an empty bed with the sheets removed. Allie’s not here, and I don’t see any sort of flower arrangement or cards set up anywhere.

  What the fuck?

  Running out of the room, I rush up to the nurse’s desk.

  I can barely breathe by the time my thick tongue feels like it can move. “Where is she?”

  Eyes wide and looking at me like I’m some sort of fucking nut, the nurse says, “Sir? How can I help you?”

  “Where’s Allie Stack at?” I nearly shout.

  Her voice raises close to mine, “Excuse me?”

  “Where is the girl? Allison Stack? She was in a coma right the fuck over there!” I snarl out, my temper finally breaking through all the pain and suffering I’ve been drowning in.

  The nurse stands up from her chair. “She’s gone! She’s no longer with us!”

  She isn’t annoyed with me now. No, now she’s fucking scared. I can almost smell the fear coming off her.

  Gone.

  Such a simple word. So simple, yet I can feel my very being falling down into a pit of despair.

  She’s gone. Those words the doctors talked about, the brain scale numbers or whatever, those things must have gone bad…

  I didn’t even get to kiss her goodbye and tell her I’d see her soon.

  I’ll never again get to feel her lips brush against my own or smell her sweet scent when I hold her in my arms.

  Walking away from the nurse’s station, I head for Allie’s room and feel like each step is only forcing me to accept the hard truth I learned so very long ago.

  Nothing good can stay in this life.

  Sliding down the wall outside of where she must have drawn her last breath, I finally let out the breath I’ve been holding ever since the accident. The one where I knew the other shoe had yet to drop.

  Well, I guess it’s dropped now.

  Some man in an officer’s uniform comes to stand in front of me after a while, and while I know it’s not the answer I was looking for, I guess this fucker will do.

  I stand up when he starts saying shit I don’t understand.

  I don’t really hear the words coming out of his mouth before I rear back and slug his chin with everything I have in me.

  All the hurt, all the hate, and all the love I will never have again, go into my fucking punch.

  And I’ll be fucking damned if I don’t connect square with his chin and watch him fall to the ground like a sack of bones.

  Before I’m even aware of anything else that’s going on besides this dude on the ground, I’m tackled to the floor.

  My arms are yanked behind my back and a knee is dropped on my neck with cuffs going around my wrists.

  This will be a first for me. I ain’t ever been behind bars before.

  * * *

  The cell door slams shut behind me after a nice hard shove from the dickhead cop I laid the fuck out. I know I punched his ass pretty damn good, but the fucking bitch didn’t need to use his nightstick on me like he did.

  Fucking pussies, the lot of them. No different than us bikers, except we actually care about the community.

  “What the fuck, Coy!” Gremlin shouts at me as he stands up from the bench he’s been sitting on.

  Thank fuck, he’s finally got clothes on.

  “Figured if you were gonna be in a cell… I might as well keep ya company,” I say and shrug my shoulders.

  Striding over to me, he looks at my swollen eye then starts prodding my busted lip.

  Pushing his fingers away from me, I turn to the face the bars and look out them.

  Fuck, this is a first for me, never been on this side of the bars. Guess I had to break my cherry sometime.

  I’ve lost everything else in the world the that matters, why not my freedom too?

  “Christ alive, Coy, they fucking tore into you. I’ll fuckin’ kill ‘em,” Gremlin snarls.

  He must see what I suspect is blood on the back of my shirt. Fucking pig hit me on the back of my head before he threw me in the police car.

  Waving my hand at him, I shake my head. “Don’t, brother. Just…”

  Words aren’t my thing right now.

  She’s gone and I’m fucking behind bars.

  “Do you understand how this fucking looks, you dumb fuck?” Gremlin roars into my ear. “How this shit’s gonna look to your father?!”

  Turning to face him now, I want to say something, but what can I say?

  “Thanks for trying to get me in to see her,” I finally say before
breathing out, “We were too fucking late. But thanks, man.”

  He tried to get me in there. He honestly tried to help me see the girl I love.

  But we were too fucking late.

  “I know, man, but we got people who can track her down. We’ll figure this out. But you fuckin’ going to jail before you even get the patch… Fuck!” he shouts again at me and digs his fingers through his hair. “I was supposed to keep your ass in line.”

  Looking at his face, I ask, “What the fuck do you mean track her down?! She’s in the fucking morgue man! She’s gone! It ain’t like we got bloodhounds who can track someone’s scent to heaven or somethin’!”

  He stares back at me, wide-eyed. “What the fuck do you mean? Morgue?! Her parents had some fucking private contractors come move her to a private hospital. Paid a shit ton of money, too. I was talkin’ to the local PD about it on the way here.”

  “She’s alive?” I ask, and my voice actually fucking squeaks.

  “Yeah, what the fuck were you thinkin’?” he asks, and I can see he’s still real fucking pissed at me.

  “Shit,” I sigh with a breath of relief, but my heart is still fucking broken from her being taken. “The nurse made it sound like she died.”

  She’s alive, but where is she?

  Chapter Four

  Allie

  Present

  Somewhere in Florida

  The headlights of Robert’s black Lincoln Continental cut through the darkness looming in front us, illuminating the thick trees and foliage hugging the road. Hands clenched in my lap, my eyes find the rearview mirror and I check for the thousandth time tonight to make sure we’re not being followed.

  The one-lane road we’re on stretches and curves behind us, dark and empty. I can’t remember the last time I saw another car, but I can’t relax.

  I keep expecting one to pop out at any second.

  It feels like death himself is on our heels, and if he catches us…

  We’ll be as dead as my parents.

  “We’re almost there,” Robert says quietly beside me.

  I nod my head, but keep my eyes glued to the mirror. Now that we’re close to our destination, I’m afraid that if I look away for even one second, my worst fear will come to life.