He closed his eyes. “Just hold on, Queenie. I already called the ambulance.”
“No, Sledge. I mean I can feel everything.” I gingerly lifted my leg and then the other one. “I can feel.”
Relief washed over his face. “Good, sugar. I still don’t want you moving, though.”
He was right. I felt fine, but maybe if I moved, something might happen. I didn’t fucking know. I was just terrified, and the doctor’s words kept replaying in my head.
“What about the person who hit us?” I asked.
“I haven’t checked on them yet. I was too worried about you. They fucking pulled out in front of us. The guy can fucking die for all I care.” Sledge’s words dripped with hate.
“No, you’re gonna be the one to die.”
Sledge slowly raised his head, and my eyes fell on a man standing ten feet away with a gun pointed at us.
What in the fuck was going on?
“Don’t look at me like you don’t know who I am,” he sneered.
I didn’t know who he was.
“You’re finally doing your own dirty work?” Sledge asked.
The guy shrugged. “It seems you can’t find good help these days.”
“Sledge,” I whispered. Who was this?
The man took a step closer. “Jimmy Clark.” He mimicked tipping his hat. “Donut King and also the guy who’s going to finally fucking kill you.”
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God.
“Where is Gunner?” Sledge asked. “Is he in the car with you?”
Jimmy scoffed. “As if. I don’t do the baby shit. If I would have had my way, the kid would have died when his piece of shit mom did.”
“Where is he?” Sledge demanded.
Jimmy waved the gun in the direction of the crashed car. “With fucking Bella, of course, you idiot. Like I’d bring the kid to this.” He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I have no interest in that kid. I only got him because Bella wanted him.”
He talked as if Gunner was just something he could take and throw away whenever he wanted.
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Jimmy tipped his head to the side and listened. “Huh, I must have been knocked out longer than I thought.” He laughed manically. “Guess I can attest to the fact that you should wear your seat belt. I didn’t think hitting a piece of shit motorcycle would knock my head against the window.”
He cocked the gun and pointed it at Sledge. “I really have no fucking idea who you are and how you fit into this, but you’re gonna have to die, too. Just the way this shit seems to be playing out.” He glanced at me. “I’ll be with you in just a second.”
Sledge slowly moved his arm to his side but kept his eyes on Jimmy. “Or you could just let us go. We don’t want the kid, either.”
“Bullshit,” Jimmy shouted. “We saw the fucking news. We have one of the fucking fliers! You think I’m stupid to just be like oh, they say they don’t want him. I’ll just be on my way.” Jimmy slightly lowered the gun and pretended to walk away.
Sledge moved in one swift movement. He pulled his gun from his waistband, covered me with his body, and fired three shots at Jimmy.
Two shots hit him in the chest and the other one in the neck. He fell to his knees, blood spilled from his neck, and he tried to raise the gun. Sledge fired one more time and hit him right between the eyes.
“What?” Jimmy gurgled. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he faceplanted on the shoulder of the road.
Sledge watch his lifeless body, the gun still pointed at him.
“I think he’s dead,” I whispered.
The sirens were close, and the lights flashed.
Sledge slid off me and sat back on his knees. “Are you still okay?”
I wiggled my toes and moved both of my feet. “I think so.” I hoped so.
“I’m probably going to have to leave you for a bit, sugar. At least until they get this shit all figured out.”
Realization dawned on me. Until the police actually investigated everything, this was going to look bad for a bit. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Sledge. He was going to kill both of us.”
He nodded and pressed a kiss to my lips. “You’re right, sugar. Just be strong until I come back to you, okay? You can break when you’re back in my arms.”
A whirl of commotion ensued.
The ambulance pulled up right after the police.
Sledge was right.
He dropped the gun on the ground and raised his arms over his head. The police swarmed him, cuffed him, and threw him in the back of a squad car.
Two paramedics rushed over to me while another went to check on Jimmy. I told anyone who came within six feet of me what happened. None of them really seemed to listen, though.
I was being loaded up into the ambulance when another cop car came speeding onto the scene. Relief swept through as Detective Kaye jumped out of the car and rushed over to me.
“Sledge,” I gasped, “Jimmy crashed into us, and then, he was going to kill both of us. Sledge killed him. Please, you have to get Sledge out. He was just protecting us.”
Kaye grasped my hand. “I hear you, Queenie. I hear you.”
“And you have to go get Gunner. She has him. Bella Clark has him. You have to go get him.” Words just fell out of my mouth, and I wasn’t even sure if I was making sense.
“Okay, okay. Head to the hospital. You need to get checked out.” She nodded to the paramedics, and they finished loading me into the ambulance.
I watched out the back windows as she walked over to the car Sledge was in. She spoke to the officer and then moved over to Jimmy’s body. “What is she doing?” I asked the paramedic. “She needs to let Sledge out. He didn’t do anything wrong,” I insisted.
The paramedic pressed a hand to my shoulder and pushed me to lay back. “You need to calm down for me, honey. They’re gonna figure everything out. If what you say checks out he’ll be out soon enough.”
I laid back and closed my eyes. The ambulance started moving and a wave of nausea rolled through me. “Oh, God,” I moaned.
“You gonna be sick?” the paramedic asked.
I couldn’t get the word yes out of my mouth before I projectile vomited all over myself and the back of the ambulance. My head rolled to the side and I took that nap I had been telling Sledge I needed.
*
Chapter Nineteen
Like home…
Sledge
“How is that comfortable?”
My eyes popped open and my feet dropped to the floor. “Sugar?”
A weak smile spread across Queenie’s lips. “We really need to stop meeting like this,” she laughed.
I leaned forward and grabbed her hand. “No shit, sugar. Watching you sleeping in the hospital with all sorts of wires and shit hooked up to you isn’t exactly a good time.”
She groaned and closed her eyes. “My head hurts and my mouth tastes like ass.”
I chuckled and brushed her hair from her face. “You bumped your head during the accident, and your mouth tastes like ass because you threw up all over the ambulance.”
She raised her finger. “I remember the puking. It wasn’t pleasant.”
“I think the paramedics would agree with you on that one. They were cussing you out in the ambulance bay when the cops dropped me off.”
“They didn’t arrest you?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I sat in the fucking car at the scene for about an hour, but thankfully, detective Kaye managed to figure everything out.”
“Gunner,” she gasped. “Did she get him? Where is he?”
I nodded. “They got him, sugar. He’s safe again.”
Every time I thought about Gunner being safe, relief flooded through me. I had never even held the kid. Never even looked into his eyes. But the thought of him being safe and soon back in Queenie’s arms made me want to cry like a fucking baby and never let Queenie or Gunner out of my arms.
“Oh, my God, Sledge,” she whispered. Her face crumbled
into a wealth of emotion and tears.
“He’s back, Queenie. He’s back,” I sobbed with her.
A little five-month-old baby had just filled a void in my heart I didn’t even know existed.
“Knock, knock. Is there a badass bitch and her biker in here?”
Kimber.
“I think you could have skipped the bitch part,” Fancy laughed.
Kimber and Fancy spilled into the room with balloons and gifts in each hand.
“They let anyone in here, huh?” Queenie laughed.
They set the gifts and balloons at the side of the bed and each hugged Queenie.
“Girlfriend,” Kimber scolded, “you need to knock off this hospital bullshit.”
“Right?” Queenie settled back into the pillows. “They’re gonna have to dedicate a wing to me after all of hospital bills I’m going to pay.”
“That’s what insurance is for,” Fancy laughed. “Besides, I know a chick in billing. I’ll see if she can accidently hit delete on a couple of those bills.”
“Fancy,” Kimber gasped, “you can’t say that out loud. Especially when you work here.”
Fancy rolled her eyes and grabbed a bunch of balloons. “Oh, please. As if this place can function without me.”
“Did I miss him?” Petra walked into the room without knocking. “Did they bring him already and I missed him?” she rambled.
“Woman.” Rhino walked into the room, or at least I think it was Rhino behind the huge pale blue giraffe. “Did you find the biggest fucking stuffed animal in the store and say that one. The one bigger than my boyfriend. That’s what I want?” Rhino set the giraffe on the floor, and it towered over him by at least a foot. Hell, I’m pretty sure it was taller than anyone I knew. Rhino shook his head. “Just what the hell is he supposed to do with this thing?”
Petra brushed off Rhino and flung herself on Queenie.
“Easy there, woman,” I called. “We managed to not dislodge the bullet in her back earlier, let’s not try again, yeah?”
“He’s kind of protective,” Queenie whispered.
Petra leaned closed and pressed her forehead to Queenie’s. “That’s a good thing, Queenie.”
Damn straight, it was a good thing. Someone had to keep Queenie out of the hospital and Gunner safe.
“Knock, knock.”
For Christ’s sake. It was like we were having a fucking party.
“Someone wants to see their mommy, I think.”
Everyone froze.
“Wow. I guess we really know how to make an entrance, Gunner.” Kaye held a bundle of blankets in her arms, and she had a smile on her face.
“Mommy?” Queenie whispered. Her eyes connected with mine, and my heart exploded in my chest.
“That’s you, sugar.”
Kaye laid Gunner in Queenie’s arms and stepped back. “He went through every exam possible. He has a perfect clean bill of health. He was just fed and changed. He’s probably ready for a nap. I hope it’s okay, but I stayed with him the whole exam and everything. I knew you were up here and couldn’t be with him so I was.”
Queenie didn’t take her eyes off Gunner. Her bottom lip quivered, and she leaned down to press a kiss to his temple. “Hello, my boy. You’re back home.”
“He’s even cuter,” Kimber gushed.
Kaye stepped back from the bed and Kimber, Fancy, and Petra crowed around her. Kaye nodded to the door, and I followed her out.
“He’s perfect,” she whispered.
“I have to agree with you on that one.”
She smiled, and for a second, I saw a hint of sadness in her eyes. As soon as I saw it, it was gone. “I’ll give you the quick rundown of what happened so you can tell Queenie later.”
“Tell me.”
“Jimmy Clark is, of course, as you know, dead. His wife, Bella, is sitting in the county jail along with the housekeeper and one of the sons.”
“Just one of them?” I asked.
Kaye nodded. “Yeah. The other has been out of the country for the past seventeen months. He apparently had a falling out with the father over the new business venture and took off for Italy. We’re still investigating to see if that checks out completely, but I’m thinking it will.”
I ran my fingers through my hair. “Lord, this is just a clusterfuck, isn’t it?”
“You don’t even know the half of it. Everything basically played out the way you guys pictured. Raymond went to prison. Duchess turned up pregnant. The Clarks hired a hitman to kill her and make it look like an accident so they would get custody of Gunner. Enter Queenie. We all know what happens after that.”
“So what happens next?” Gunner was back, but none of this was for sure set in stone.
“We’re gonna book the mom, brother, and housekeeper. Then they have to go in front of the judge and yada yada yada until we get to the trial and they all hopefully go to jail for a long time.” She clapped her hands and frowned. “Though it’s gonna be a long time before we get to that point.”
“Well, I don’t care how long it takes as long as they all rot in jail.”
“Same,” Kaye laughed. “I saw Quinn on the way up earlier and I gave him the same rundown. If you guys have any questions, I told him to just give me a call.”
As long as Bella didn’t walk out of jail, I wasn’t going to have any questions.
“And, all the information you guys gave us before didn’t really pan out. We’re still investigating who the Clarks hired to kill Duchess, but we hit a brick wall when it came to even finding C.”
I didn’t find that hard to believe. Quinn was right when he said no one who was in that deep with shit used their real names. “If we hear anything, I’m sure we’ll let you know.”
Kaye smirked. “I’m sure you will. I’m gonna head out. It’s been a long night, and I still have a pile of paperwork to work on before I can get some sleep.”
“Thanks for everything, Kaye.”
She gave me a nod and headed down the hallway.
“Sledge,” Kimber called, “get your butt in here and hold this baby.”
I leaned against the doorframe, my eyes on Queenie.
“I’m gonna go find the guys. Point was complaining about being hungry before so I bet they’re down in the cafeteria.” Petra grabbed her purse and hitched it over her shoulder. “You guys want anything?”
“We’ll come with,” Kimber called. “I’m hungry as a horse.” She grabbed Fancy’s hand and pulled her away from the bed. “Let the kid breath, Fan.”
They hustled out of the room in a tornado of gabbing and squeals over Gunner.
“You wanna hold him?” Queenie asked. “He fell asleep as soon as Kaye put him in my arms.”
“Won’t that wake him up?”
Queenie laughed and shook her head. “No. He’s out.”
I cleared my throat and shuffled my feet. “Uh, maybe later.”
“Sledge,” Queenie called softly, “get your butt over her and hold him. I promise it won’t hurt.”
But it would. I knew as soon as I finally set my eyes on Gunner that I wouldn’t be able to let him go. No matter whatever happened between Queenie and me, I knew I never would be able to walk away from Gunner.
“He’s home, Sledge, and he needs you. Who else is going to teach him how to blow bubbles, catch a ball, or laugh hysterically at his own farts.”
“Hey,” I chuckled, “I only know how to do two of those things.”
“Well, I can be the one to play catch with him.” Queenie smiled wide. “Get over here, Sledge. I know you’re scared. I know you’re worried about so many things, but none of that matters right now. The only thing that matters is this little boy and me who needs you. More than ever. We need you, Sledge.”
I didn’t even think. I just moved to Queenie, her words propelling me forward. She scooted over, and I climbed right into bed with her.
“He was only gone for eleven days, but he looks different from when I last saw him.” She brushed her finger across h
is cheek, and a smile spread across his lips. “You ready to hold him?”
She shifted him in her arms.
“Queenie. You need to know something.”
She held him to her chest and frowned. “What is it?”
“You give him to me and I can promise you I won’t leave. Ever. I hold him, and then he’s mine.” It was a done deal once he was in my arms.
Queenie pursed her lips. “Oh, well, then I guess you should know that Gunner and I are a package deal. If he’s yours, then that means I’m yours, too.”
I leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Can I get that in writing?”
She handed over Gunner, and I cradled him in my arms.
“How does it feel?” she whispered.
I leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “It’s feels like home.”
*
Chapter Twenty
How could you…
Queenie
“No. We are not switching rooms with Gunner.”
“Queenie. I’m not sleeping in a fucking closet anymore.”
“Well, if you’re too good to sleep in there, then so is Gunner.” I laid Gunner in his crib and headed down the hallway with the baby monitor clipped to my back pocket.
“Now that is one thing we can agree on.” He pulled out his phone and held it front of my face. “We move in next week. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and there is a yard he can play in. You know, once he learns to walk.”
“You’re insane. We’re not moving.” I grabbed the basket of clean clothes and dumped them on the couch. “There is nothing wrong with living here.”
“Uh, yeah there is,” he drawled. “It’s tiny as fuck, and you and Gunner both deserve better.”
I angry-folded his t-shirt and then tossed it at him. “No.”
“What is going on right now?”
“I’m mad, Sledge, and I’m not holding it in. Isn’t this what you wanted?” I grabbed a pair of socks and shoved one inside the other.
“I get that you’re mad, Queenie but I don’t understand just what you’re mad about? I’m trying to move you into a nicer place, and you’re digging your feet in and insisting you’re gonna stay here.”
Midnight Wreckage (Kings of Vengeance MC Book 4) Page 12