by Deja Voss
From the other side of the yard I can hear the roar of a tiger.
“Here,” I say, tossing her the bag of Skittles. “Hang on to this.”
I hoist her up on my shoulders as carefully as possible. She’s so tiny, so fragile, I don’t know how I’m going to get her up over the fence without hurting her. I pull my walkie talkie out of my pocket and hit the button twice to let him know I got her.
“Wee!” she shouts as I make my way across the yard, trying to keep as low as possible. “Are you Mani’s dance teacher?”
“I’ve been called a lot of things in my day, kid, but that’s a new one for me,” I say. “You just hang on tight. We’ll be out of here in no time.”
I walk quickly as possible around the perimeter of the giant wrought iron fence spanning the property, but I can barely fit my leg through the gap, let alone the two of us. “You think you can squeeze out there?” I ask.
“Are you sure you’re gonna take me to see Mani? I’m not supposed to go places with strangers.”
“I’m not a stranger, kid, I swear,” I say. “Just go through the damn fence, please.” Every minute we spend on this property is another chance for shit to go sideways. I don’t want to scare her anymore than I already do just by who I am and how I look, but I have no other option. “The cat is coming.”
I set her down on the ground and she squeezes through the fence and screams so loud, she could probably wake the dead. I quickly climb up the side of it and heave myself over, landing next to her. I scoop her up in my arms and take off for the van, my nerves going haywire. I just kidnapped a child. A sick child. If I get pulled over on the ride home, I’m fucked.
“I have to ride in the back seat,” she says, as I open the front door. “I know I’m thirteen, but I’m not tall enough to ride in the front.”
I know as soon as she says that, I’m doing the right thing. This girl doesn’t look like she could be any older than Rowdy’s kid. She’s so tiny and sickly, and I can’t believe it’s all related to her condition. If she stayed at that house any longer, she’d probably suffer a fate just as bad as Mani’s.
“Get the fuck outta here boy,” my dad’s voice booms from the walkie talkie. “You been spotted!”
“You alright?” I ask, securing her seatbelt and slamming the door. I hop in the front seat and turn the keys in the engine. My dad’s bike speeds past as I put the van in drive and take off behind him.
“I’ll see you at the house.”
“Who’s that?” Ella asks from the backseat. “He sounds mean. Is he Ella’s dance teacher too?”
“Eat your skittles,” I say. “Let’s go see Mani.”
Chapter Seventeen
Lean:
Rowdy and Brass are standing on the front porch when we get back to the house. Ella follows behind me reluctantly, and I know if she’s scared of me, these two are probably not going to make her feel any better.
“Where’s Mani?” I ask.
“Destiny was here,” Rowdy says, rolling his eyes.
“Dammit,” I growl. “Why did anybody let her in?”
“Hey little girl,” Brass says, bending down and reaching out his hand to Ella. He still towers over her crouched down like that. “Doctor Hardin is coming by soon,” he says to me. “He knows what he’s doing. Said he could get us all set up. He’s got access to her records and everything.”
“Where’s my sister?” she asks. “You told me you were bringing me to see my sister!” There’s a terror in her eyes that I saw in Mani’s the other day. That terror that made me a changed man. “Where am I?”
She starts crying and screaming, and soon it turns into coughing. I feel completely helpless. I don’t know what to do. This isn’t a position I ever thought I’d find myself in.
The front door swings open and Mani comes out and scoops her up in her arms. “Ella! Oh my God, Ella.” There are tears pouring down her face and she squeezes her tighter and tighter. “Are you okay? Can you breathe?”
When the two of them are together, it’s like nothing else exists in the world. Both of them are crying, but you can feel the joy coming from them. Makes me feel like for once in my life I did something good. For once in my life, I wasn’t thinking about the bottom line or what was in it for the club. Seeing the two of them together is the most humbling experience I’ve ever had, and I think the guys are feeling it, too because we all just stand there watching.
“Why are you here? I thought you were at dance school. I thought you ran away from me! Why would Cat lie to me, Mani?” Ella asks.
Mani wipes the tears from Ella’s face and sets her back to the ground. “There’s a lot of things Cat lied to you about, Ella. And I lied to you, too. I was just trying to keep you safe, but now that I think about it, it was really unfair for me to lie to you. I just didn’t want you to have to know what was actually going on when I wasn’t around. It wasn’t good for your health.”
“Yinz better get inside,” my dad shouts from the door. “No sense in being locked down if you’re gonna hang out on the front porch.”
“We’re in danger, aren’t we?” Ella asks.
“Not as much as we were before,” Mani says. “Thank you,” she mouths, and my heart shatters into a million pieces. We’re not anywhere near out of the woods yet, but to see my woman so happy gives me this pride inside like I could take over the world. Stefano and Catarina are never going to take her away from me. I’ll die before I let that happen.
“I got a special room all set up for you, Ella. Got a state of the art air filter and everything. I don’t know much about decorating but I’m sure your sister and the girls will help you out.” Seeing our enforcer go so soft for a kid would normally be concerning, but we’re all feeling it. Mani and Ella are going to change our lives forever. Gonna change the club forever.
“You did that for us?” Mani asks. “I’ll never be able to repay you. I don’t even know what to say.”
“You don’t gotta say anything, babe.” I put my arm around her shoulder, and as we walk through the common room, everybody gets up from their stools and chairs and starts clapping. Her body tenses, like being the center of attention is physically hurting her. I press my nose to her head, kissing her, trying to help her feel the love of the room. This is her family now. This is her home now. She doesn’t have to be ashamed of who she is anymore. She doesn’t have to worry about anything ever again.
“I need to talk to you, boss,” Hunter says. “We gotta get this shit in motion as soon as possible.”
“You alright?” I ask Mani. I have so many things I want to tell her, and now that I’m back, I don’t want to leave her side ever again.
She smiles at me and nods.
“Let’s go get Ella all set up,” Brass says to her. “Doctor Hardin’s gonna be here soon.”
“I’ll see you soon,” I say, pressing my lips to hers. “You need anything, you just ask.”
I watch them walk down the hallway, her sister by her side, and breathe out a long sigh, knowing we aren’t even close to finishing what we started. Shit hasn’t even started really hitting the fan, and when it does, it’s going to be ugly. I’ll do whatever I can in my power to hide it from her, though. I’ll do whatever I can to make sure she doesn’t feel the fallout.
“You ready?” Rowdy asks, holding open the door to the war room for me. “I think you’re gonna be really impressed with what we came up with. These fuckers are going down.”
I take a deep breath and join my men around the table. The room feels electric, and my dad takes his seat at the head of the table, slamming back his bourbon and grinning from ear to ear. He slides a giant stack of papers over to me.
“While you were liberating the girl, I was liberating something else.”
I raise my eyebrows at the list of documents, trying to pour through them all. There’s a bunch of women’s names, there’s ages, there’s prices. There are dates. It makes me sick to my stomach.
Hunter flips open his computer and sta
rts flicking through a slideshow he set up of photos of local big wigs, cops, athletes, and politicians all rubbing elbows with Catarina and Stefano.
“Looks like we’re gonna have some fun, boys,” my dad says. “Time to line em up and knock em down. Won’t take much to get somebody to sing.”
“No turning back now,” I say. “I’m not gonna stop until every one of these fuckers gets exactly what they deserve. Yinz in? Mayhem night?”
“Mayhem night!” Lazarus cheers, pounding his fists off the table.
I don’t know what’s more exciting, the prospect of taking these fuckers down, or the fact that once I do, I’ll have Mani all to myself. Thirty eight years of wandering this planet, half the time so fucked up I didn’t know my name, and now I finally feel like for once I’m actually alive.
“Mayhem night,” I say with a wide smile, running my finger over the blade of my knife. Blood runs down my hand and I start to laugh, knowing soon my fists will be covered in the blood of my enemies. Every last one of them. Until Mani can walk the streets safely without looking over her shoulder, I won’t stop. That girl’s gonna own this city, she’s going to be my queen. The thought makes me hard.
Her and I together, forever, sealed by blood and bound by loyalty. My old lady, Mani. I’ll burn the whole city to the fucking ground to get her the life she deserves.
Chapter Eighteen
Mani:
I honestly had no idea how versed Brass was in navigating a child with cystic fibrosis. The stuff he knows blows my mind. I guess I never really experienced Ella’s condition beyond an hour or two a day, sitting by her bedside, watching her grow sicker and sicker until the doctors would usher me out of the room.
Day after day it seemed like life was repeating on a loop. Day after day, more bad news that I just had to sit and be sick with because I had absolutely no control over the situation beyond upholding my side of the contract. It was a never ending cycle of thinking she’s on the verge of death and not knowing how to stop it, just blindingly believing that Cat and Stefano were upholding their end of the bargain and seeing to it she got the care she needed.
It’s obvious Brass is taken aback by her condition with how delicate he is with her. He doesn’t talk down to her like she’s a little child and he listens to her when she talks - really listens. If you were to see this guy out on the street, you’d immediately start walking the other direction. He’s the size of a mountain, and has parts of his face pierced that I didn’t even know were possible to shove a needle through. His tattoos are all guns and knives and spiders, and he has a scar that runs from one of his ears to the other, but for some reason, he and Ella seem to be hitting it off just fine.
Just as promised, Doctor Hardin shows up almost immediately after Brass shows us around the bedroom he and the other guys cleaned and set up for her.
I can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when he gets out his stethoscope and starts examining her. I know back at the mansion, Ella was constantly hooked up to one machine or another. It seemed like she couldn’t even laugh without having to do her nebulizer, and now that I think about it, I can’t remember the last time I saw her out of her bed.
As happy as I am to have her here, I’m a nervous wreck worrying that I don’t have the ability to give her all the care she needs. I can’t even begin to list the medications she takes.
“How old are you, Ella?” he asks, looking over her chart.
“I just turned thirteen,” she says.
“That’s what your chart says. I just wanted to make sure it’s correct. Are you in school?”
“Cat was homeschooling me for a little while, but she told me my doctor said I shouldn’t do it anymore. I am only supposed to be out of my bed for an hour of sunlight every day.”
He writes some notes down on his chart and clears his throat.
“How do you feel right now, Ella? Are you having trouble breathing? Does your chest feel tight?”
“I feel pretty good. My stomach hurts a little but probably because Lean gave me a whole bag of candy and I had to ride in the back seat of the van. Do you have to give me a shot now so I go to sleep?”
He raises his eyebrows. “Heavens no. I might have to draw some blood, and I’d like to get you in my office for a full screening sometime in the next week, but you don’t need any shots. I want to talk to your sister for a little bit so we can figure out a good treatment plan for you, Ella, but the only thing you have to worry about is maybe eating something other than candy if you can stomach it.”
“Like pizza?”
“Sure,” Doctor Hardin says.
“I’m on it,” Brass says, giving her a wink. “What do you like on your pizza?”
“I don’t know. Never had it,” she says with a shrug. We all look at her with confusion. “I hear it’s heavenly.”
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Brass says. Doctor Hardin and I follow him out into the hallway and close the door behind her.
“I’m worried, doctor,” I say. “I don’t have access to all the devices and medicines and stuff Catarina and Stefano have. I have no idea how to give her a shot. I don’t even know where to start.”
“I’m worried, too, Mani.” His voice is low, and he flips through the chart over and over, making little notes here and there before looking up at me. “I am going to do a more comprehensive panel on her, but nothing in these charts leads me to believe she actually has cystic fibrosis.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. I’ve seen the doctors in her room myself. I’ve seen her get violently ill, coughing so hard she can barely function. I’ve seen her decline over the last six years since her diagnosis. “She’s obviously very sick.”
“She’s obviously very malnourished and neglected. I don’t want to alarm you, Mani, but a girl her age should be twice her weight.”
“It’s a symptom of the disease,” I insist. “Her bowels don’t work properly.”
“Mani, have you ever heard of Munchausen’s by proxy?”
“I…” I remember the term from before I was forced to drop out of high school when I was taking AP Psychology.
“She’s going to need a lot of help, Mani. Nutrition, therapy, reintegration into society. She’s physically and emotionally stunted. I can’t be certain about what kind of abuse she was subjected to in that house or what was being administered to her to cause the symptoms of CF, but I’ve documented everything I saw today in detail. Whoever was tasked with caring for her before was hurting her. Getting her out of there was probably the best thing you could do for her recovery.”
“Recovery?” I ask. I spent the last six years of my life believing she was going to die any day, believing there wasn’t a cure for her ailment, believing Cat and Stefano were doing everything right by her. “She wasn’t supposed to live to be fifteen.”
“She wouldn’t have lived to be fifteen if you didn’t get her out of there. I’ll be the first to testify in court if it comes down to it.”
I try to come up with the words to thank him, but my world has just been flipped upside down. Nothing about this makes sense, and I for one feel personally to blame. Blindly believing Catarina and Stefano not only put me in the line of fire, but also severely injured my sister. My reason for living was being tortured, maybe not as blatantly as me, and I did absolutely nothing to stop it.
“So everything was fake? The doctors? The charts?”
“I don’t doubt she is very sick, but it is not a result of a disease. It’s a result of pure evil.” The hair on my arm stands up. “Are you ready to advocate for her in every way possible?”
“Absolutely,” I say.
“What about for yourself?” he asks. I can see the way he’s staring at my bruises. I can feel his eyes scanning my body, knowing full well I don’t look like I’m in much better condition than she is.
“One step at a time,” I say.
He gives me an understanding smile and hands me his business card. “I’d like to see you both in my office on Monday. I c
an run more comprehensive tests and we can figure out how to get Ella back on track. Until then, I highly advise you two get some healthy food, sunshine, and socialization in. We’re going to make sure the both of you have access to the best medical and mental health resources in the city.”
“Can I ask you why?”
He smiles at me before slipping his pen in his pocket and tucking his files into his briefcase. “Because you’re on the same team as the good guys, now, Mani. Nobody messes with the Royal Bastards.”
“Thank you, doctor,” I say.
As he leaves, Brass returns with a pan of pizza in one hand, and some plates in the other. “You look like you’re about to cry, darling. What’s wrong? She sicker than you thought?”
“Even worse,” I say, feeling the tears wetting my face. “It’s all my fault she’s sick at all.”
Chapter Nineteen
Lean:
We tuck Ella in for the night, and I give her a cellphone to call us if she needs anything. She seems to be doing alright, hitting it off with everybody, eating everything she can get her hands on, and following her sister around like a duckling. It’s funny how the two of them communicate without even saying anything at all. Two peas in a pod.
I’ve been dying to get Mani alone, but I know it’s selfish. I know she’s mine and we have the rest of our lives to be together, but I feel like after today I need to be inside her now. Knowing what’s coming up tomorrow, I need to feel her all around me, ground me, level me, take care of me, because I’m a selfish fucking bastard.
When I finally have her alone in my room, all I can think about is getting her out of those clothes and making it official. Touching her and kissing her is great, but I want in that pussy. I want to claim her and make her my old lady officially. I want to show her how good I can make her feel.