by Colbie Kay
“I’m Bam Bam, and my wife is Rowan. She was here, too.”
“Bam Bam like on the Flintstones?”
“Yeah, just like that.”
Ace and I burst out laughing, and Bam Bam glares at us, but we are gaining her trust, and that’s all that matters.
“You’re really here to save me?” Tears are falling.
“We are,” I tell her. “Get clothes on so we can get out of here.”
She rushes out of the bed. I feel disgusting looking at this naked little girl. How can anyone do shit like this? She quickly puts on a nightgown similar to the ones Haven and Chapel were wearing that first day they stood at our gate, asking for help. Hers is in better shape, though. “What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Amelia.”
“Where are you from, Amelia?”
“Utah.”
Ace growls, “They have girls from everywhere, don’t they?”
I keep the conversation going with her, “Alright, Amelia, we’re going to put you in the middle of us, and we’re going to walk until we’re at a garage with some vans. All the other girls here will be in the vans as well, but we are going to get you home. Can you be really quiet while we move?”
She frantically nods her head. “I’ll be quiet.”
I announce, “Let’s go.”
We block her in like I told her we would and begin to move. As we’re making our way back through the hallways, I no longer hear any shots being fired.
It takes us about twenty minutes to return to the garage, where all of our brothers are gathered. “Everyone make it out?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Snake responds. “You three good?”
“Yep,” Ace chimes in. “This is Amelia.” We step away from her.
Snake shuffles toward her, and she hides behind me, peeking her head around my side. He bends down. “Hi, Amelia. I’m Snake. You want to join the other girls?”
I feel her head nod under my arm.
He holds his hand out for her to take. She’s hesitant at first, but I tell her, “It’s okay. He’s one of us.”
She slowly reaches out and goes with him over to one of the vans. Hanger steps over to us. “Did you get Miguel?”
I shake my head. “No, the cunt that was fucking her said he’s at a party.”
“Fuck!” Hanger runs his hand over his short brown hair. “Do you believe him?”
Ace grunts, “No, but it doesn’t hurt to check.”
Bam Bam nods his head, agreeing with Ace. “I’ll call Rowan and see if she can tell me where the parties take place.”
“I don’t know. I got a bad feeling. Something ain’t right, and I need to get back to Haven.”
Hanger’s eyes meet mine. “Take the van with the girls, Writer, and Doc. Get them to the motel and go check on your woman. The rest of us will see about this party.”
I quickly jump into the van, and Doc takes off.
19
Haven
The guys have been gone for hours, and it’s starting to get really late. I keep watching the clock as time passes, but it’s beginning to make me concerned. Although Mom has done a good job of trying to keep us sidetracked, I can’t help except think something is wrong. It’s that nagging feeling you get in your gut that won’t go away. The three of us have talked all we can for one day, cried so many tears that we have no more to shed, and laughed so hard our stomachs ached. However, now that we’re just sitting here, waiting for the guys to come back…I don’t want to think the worst, but what if something has happened to them? Storm assured me he would be safe, but what if he couldn’t keep his word? What would I do without him?
Suddenly the front door bursts open. The three of us scramble from our seats and run toward the door. My heart begins to race, and my body trembles with fear the moment I realize who it is. “Miguel,” I whisper his name and stumble backward.
“Get out of my house!” Mom screams at him.
“Did you set us up?” Chapel accuses our mother of having Miguel come here.
“No!” Mom’s head shakes frantically. “I swear. I told you the truth; I have not seen him since we divorced.”
Miguel’s evil smile disgusts me. “Your mother is correct. She has not seen me, but I’ve had eyes on her all these years.”
Mom screeches, “What?”
“Camella...” He tsks. “Why do you think I gave you this house? I gave it up very easily.” Miguel pulls at his suit jacket and runs his fingers through his greased-up salt and pepper hair.
“You son of a bitch!” Mom charges toward him, but Chapel and I hold her back. “You had my girls all these years, told me they were dead, and you did such despicable things to them.”
His lascivious grin is larger than I’ve ever seen it. “They loved every minute of it. The way they would call me Daddy while I was deep inside of them, taking away their innocence. Mmm. The way they did such dirty things to each other proved how much they loved it.”
“You made us do all those things!” I scream at the man I’ve feared since I was a little girl.
Chapel bares her teeth as if she was a wild animal. “How did you get in here? Where are the prospects? Where are Ace and Storm? What did you do to them?”
He ignores Chapel’s interrogation. “You two made me lose a lot of fucking money.” Miguel tips his head one way then the other, popping his neck. “You’re coming with me, and I’m getting repaid.”
I spit, “We’re not going anywhere with you!”
“You’re not taking my girls anywhere!” Mom yells. The three of us step closer toward him. Surely, the three of us could take him.
He pulls out a gun from the waistband of his suit pants. “Don’t fucking move,” he bellows, and the three of us freeze. My eyes widen as the door bursts open, and Storm rushes into the room.
I breathe a sigh of relief, but that quickly dissipates when Mom charges at Miguel. “Mom, No!” I scream and try to grab her, but the sound of a gun rings in my ears.
20
Storm
There’s a car I don’t recognize in Camella’s driveway. Pulling up to the curb, I quickly shut off my bike. With long swift strides, I move closer to the front door, but the first thing I notice is that there are no prospects in sight. “Where the fuck are they?” Worry takes root deep inside of me. The bad fuckin’ feeling I’ve had intensifies, then I hear screaming coming from inside the house. I take off in a full sprint and don’t bother knocking. As I barge into the house, I see Camella run toward an older man with a gun. “Son of a bitch!” My instincts were right. He came for them.
Everything happens all too quickly. Haven yells, “Mom, no!” Miguel fires the gun he’s pointing at Camella, but Haven runs in front of her mother and pushes Camella down. Haven crumples to the ground on top of her mom.
“Haven? Haven, are you okay?” Camella screams and cries as she rolls Haven off of her. The bullet didn’t get Camella. It got Haven.
“No!” I don’t even recognize my own bellowing voice. Fear is swallowing me. My eyes grow large, and my heart is racing as my pulse pounds. I run to her side and drop down onto my knees. Blood soaks through the fabric of my denim jeans. “Call 9-1-1!” I yell over and over, crying, terrified I am losing her. The wet feeling on my face is foreign to me.
I pull my gun. “I’m going to kill you!” I roar as the tears keep coming. I turn to shoot Miguel, but he’s already gone.
“Storm,” Haven gasps my name. My attention immediately returns to the one woman I can’t live without.
“Shh,” I hush her. “You’re going to be fine.” I don’t know if I’m trying to reassure her or myself. She has to be fine. I can’t fuckin’ lose her.
My hands, now red, covered in the blood she’s shed, lay over the bullet wound in her chest. I apply as much pressure as I can, but it won’t stop seeping from her body.
The sirens blare in the distance, and soon, paramedics are rushing inside and thrusting me away from Haven. I can’t see her with them hovering over her. The
police are asking questions, but I can’t focus on what they’re saying. The stretcher lifts her unconscious, bleeding body.
I follow them out and yell for her. “Haven?” I just want to hear her speak. I want her to be her bratty self and give me that attitude of hers. I want to feel her in my arms and hear her laugh. I took her for granted, and now, I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to show her exactly how much she means to me. I can’t fuckin’ take watching them load her into the ambulance.
“Storm, are you coming?” I barely hear the words Chapel is speaking as I’m charging toward my bike.
I climb onto my Harley without responding. My mind is consumed with one thought: I’m going to kill that motherfucker.
Before I take off, my phone rings. I don’t have time for this shit, but I jerk it out of my pocket and see Ace’s name on the screen. “I can’t talk, Ace.”
“We checked every fuckin’ hotel, but there’s no party.”
I close my eyes. “He was here.”
“The fuck you mean he was there? What happened?”
“I gotta find him and kill him! He shot her.”
“Who?” I pull the phone away from my ear while Ace is yelling. “Who? Storm? Who did he shoot?” I hang up and peel away from the curb.
I ride and keep riding for I don’t know how long. I stop in an empty parking lot and jump off my bike. I begin pacing and yanking my hair. I don’t know where I’m going. I have no fuckin’ idea where Miguel is or would be. I fall to my knees as a new set of tears begin. I stare up at the sky. “I know I’ve done a lot of bad shit, and I don’t know if you really exist, but if you do, please don’t take her from me. You can’t have her when I’ve just fuckin’ got her,” I shout through my hysterical sobbing. “You can’t have her! You fuckin’ hear me? You can’t take her!”
My forehead touches the cold cement. “Please don’t take her from me.” My shoulders are shaking with the force of my sobs.
My phone rings again, but this time, I don’t recognize the number. “Hello?”
“Storm?”
“Chapel?” Her voice is quiet and raspy. It sounds like she’s cried as much as I have.
“Storm, you need to come to the hospital. They’ve taken Haven back for surgery. I need you here with mom and me. Haven needs you here! The guys are all here, but it only matters if you are.”
“What if she—”
Her voice trembles when she cuts me off, “Shut up. Do not finish that sentence, Storm. Wherever you are, you pick yourself up and get to this goddamn hospital, or I swear to God, Storm—”
It’s my turn to interrupt her, “I’m coming.” Hanging up the phone, I pick myself up off the ground and get on my Harley.
I find the waiting room everyone is occupying and slowly open the door to trek inside, but it feels like my feet weigh a ton. Chapel rushes to me and throws her arms around my waist. She’s hugging me like she depends on me to fix this situation, but there ain’t shit I can do.
“You came.”
Wrapping my arms around her, I rest my cheek against the crown of her head. “Any word?”
Ace approaches us and pulls Chapel into his side. “Not yet, Brother.”
I find an empty corner to huddle in. Now, it’s just a waiting game to see if the life we started has already come to an end.
21
Haven
I hear voices talking around me and the sound of beeping. Slowly, my eyes flutter open, and the fluorescent lights above me seem brighter than they should be. My gaze travels around the room, and I’m suddenly hit with hot stinging pain in my chest. Storm, Mom, Chapel, and Ace are in a circle talking quietly. “Hey,” I croak, flinching at the scratchy feeling in my throat.
Storm rushes to my side with tears in his eyes. “Haven, oh fuck, Haven.” He takes my hand, lifting it to his lips. “Are you hurting?”
I nod as everyone else gathers around me.
“I’ll get the doctor.” Mom hurries out of the room.
I close my eyes, and a flash of images play in my head like a bad movie: Miguel, getting shot, Storm yelling for me, being unable to answer him. “Is Miguel dead?” I question while clenching my jaw in fury.
“We’re going to find him, and I’m going to kill him,” Storm says those words with so much disdain and conviction, a promise to me.
Mom comes back into the room with the doctor.
He smiles. “Glad to see you awake, Haven. I’m Doctor Stephens.”
“Thank you.” I wince again at how much pain I’m feeling.
“Do you remember being shot?” I nod at his question. “We had to do surgery to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding. You are very lucky to be alive. If the bullet had been only a couple of millimeters over, it would have punctured your heart. Are you in pain?” I nod once again. “Okay.” He grabs a cord from one of my machines. “Whenever you need to, press this button, and it will administer morphine through your IV. It’s set for the correct dosage and time, so you don’t have to worry about receiving too much.” He pushes the button for me then lays it on the bed beside me. “Get some rest, and I’ll be back later tonight to check on you.”
My eyes slowly begin to close as I fall fast asleep.
It’s been three weeks since I was shot. I’m feeling so much better and ready to get out of this hospital. Everyone returned to Kansas except for Chapel, Ace, and Storm. Mom is refusing to go back to her house, so they’ve been staying at a motel. Not Storm, though. He’s stayed by my side the entire time. The nurses soon learned it would be better to move a bed beside mine because he was not leaving. They tried—bless their hearts. When visiting hours were over, they asked him to leave; however, they felt the wrath of Storm. It wasn’t pretty. I lost count of how many nurses ran out of this room crying.
Storm gets up from his bed. “I’m going to the vending machine. The food here is shit. You want anything?”
“I do want something.” Being shot, or maybe it’s the pain medicine or maybe the fact I’m feeling ten times better, whatever it is, I need him. Not in the need him like I did before, but in the I need him now way.
He steps to my side. “What do you want? Chips, candy, chocolate? How about all of it? I swear to Christ, I’m going to empty that shit out before we leave here.”
I grin and lightly laugh. I still hurt some, but it’s more of a dull pain now rather than the sharp burning feeling it has been. “I don’t want food.” I reach up, grabbing the front of his shirt and yanking him closer. “I want you to tell me those three little words.”
“Those drugs got you feeling good, Darlin’?” He smirks.
I pout with my bottom lip poking out. “I’m serious. I want to hear you tell me.”
He nods. “I love you.” I close my eyes at the sound of those words falling from his lips. It takes my breath away every time I hear them. “Anything else?” I nod and pucker my lips. His lips press against mine in a chaste kiss, and he begins to pull away.
“No,” I mewl and tighten my hold on his shirt.
“Those drugs definitely got you doped up,” he whispers against my mouth.
“It’s not the drugs, Storm, I need you.”
He pulls back, his gaze searching mine. “You have me, Darlin’. I ain’t going nowhere.”
I grumble, “That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“The fuck you talking about, Haven?”
“I’m talking about needing you now. Like right now.” Storm bursts out laughing, and my cheeks heat with embarrassment. “Never mind,” I groan.
His brows lift as if he’s surprised when it finally clicks. “You want me to fuck you right now? In this hospital bed?”
I throw my arms in the air. “Yes!”
He begins removing his cut and lays it on the chair beside my bed. “Why? Why right now?”
“Are you really going to make me explain?”
“Yeah, I think I am.” He smirks. I narrow my eyes because he knows why; he just wants to hear me say it. “I like t
his side of you, Darlin’. Saying exactly what you want, so tell me.”
“I miss you. I miss us. I miss feeling you inside me.” Simply thinking about all of it makes the aching between my thighs pound harder, and I’m desperate for him.
Storm groans as the bulge in his jeans grows. “Fuck, I miss it, too.” He breathes heavily. “But we can’t fuck. If you move too much, it could hurt you, and I’m not willing to take that chance.”
I shake my head and blink away the tears that are threatening to fall. “Please, Storm,” I beg.
“Don’t cry, Darlin’.” He sits on the edge of my bed. “I said I wouldn’t fuck you.” His hands move to my thighs as he glides them up toward my center. He pulls my panties down, leaving them around my ankles. His thumb rubs against my bare pussy. I buck at how good it feels to have him touch me. Storm’s hands grip my knees as he pushes my legs further apart, and he leans closer. “I never said I couldn’t make you come.” His tongue lands on my clit, and he begins moving around in perfect motions.
My hand flies to my mouth to cover it, so the whole hospital doesn’t hear me scream. His tongue laps and strokes with each meticulous movement, and I’m drawn closer and closer to the desired release I’m chasing. “You taste so fuckin’ good,” he hums against me.
“It’s so good, Storm,” I whisper, trying to catch my breath. He finds the perfect spot that sends me into a frenzy. “Right there, oh God, right there!” His tongue works faster, and he pushes two fingers inside me, stroking them in and out. “I’m going to come!” I bite down on my forearm, and my other hand twists in the sheet. “Yes!” I mumble as a hurricane of bliss shoots through my body.