Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Rebel
“You heading home?” Ash asks as I stand next to my bike stretching. The past few days, we’ve been checking into possible locations for some new businesses the brothers want to open.
I can’t help chuckling when I think of the arcade that’s on the outskirts of town. The former owner died, and his kids didn’t want it, so it’s been on the market for a bit. The price is right, and we could have a patched brother managing it while prospects do the dirty work. I like the idea of giving the local kids someplace to go and gather so they’re not running the roads and getting into trouble.
Not that it wouldn’t still happen because let’s face it, teens tend to do that without even trying. I may be a grown ass adult, but I remember some of the stunts and other prepubescent shit I pulled when I was a helluva lot younger.
“Yeah, Ash. Holly texted earlier and told me her grandparents are keeping the girls overnight.” He smirks at me, so I flip him off.
I love and adore Mina and Ruby and thank whatever higher power is out there that they were giggling that fateful day when I saw Holly for the first time. But it’s hard to find alone time with my future wife when two little girls are so active. It’s a bonus that they’re still at the age where they enjoy the company of their parents, but from time to time, both Holly and I need a breather and that’s when her grandparents step in. Plus, Holly has an open-door policy of sorts, so most mornings, one or both of them are crawling into bed in the morning to snuggle. I no longer sleep nude after the first morning when Mina bounced onto the bed and accidentally caught me in the dick. The pain of that unforgettable incident has me cringing and metaphorically cupping my manhood in remembrance, because there was no way I was gonna tell her that she might’ve shut down any future possibilities of more siblings down the road.
Because that’s what I want; Holly and I to add to our family. The thought of her rounded with my baby growing in her belly has my dick growing hard. I need to get home soon so I can show her what she means to me.
“Nice, go spend time with your ol’ lady then, Prez,” he says. “We’ll hold down the fort.”
Shaking my head at his ridiculous antics, I settle back into the saddle of my girl and flick my fingers. “Go ahead and give Data the pictures of the arcade so he can do his thing and give me the specs so we can begin negotiations and break down what we’ll have to invest before it can get up and running. We’ll put in a formal offer for the place once the realtor calls me back and I have that information in hand.”
He nods as I turn the switch and my bike roars to life. A lot of the brothers are switching to the electric starter, but I prefer the authentic rumble of my Fat Boy. Revving the throttle a few times, I wave my hand in Ash’s general direction and take off toward home.
As the asphalt passes below me, I think about how much my life has changed in such a short time frame. The fact that despite her past and what her ex put her through she still gave us a chance is nothing short of miraculous. I think a lot of that has to do with her grandparents; they’re obviously as much in love now as they were decades ago when they first met. I know from talking with my woman that she wants that for herself, as well as the girls when they’re grown.
I grin when I recall one of our conversations about Mina and Ruby.
“Rebel, they’ll be allowed to date when they’re sixteen, same as me,” she says.
“And I think they should wait until at least twenty-five,” I insist, thinking of some punk ass boy child wanting to defile one of my girls. Yeah, not happening as long as there’s breath in my lungs and ammo in my gun. Of course, I’m not telling my ol’ lady that fact.
“Twenty-five? That’s… that’s preposterous!” she exclaims, her small hand lightly smacking my shoulder.
I grin down at her where she’s curled against me in bed. “What’s wrong with waiting until then?” I tease, loving how her face flushes in anger.
“Well, for starters, at some point I’d like grandchildren,” she retorts. “I want to be young enough to enjoy playing with them, just like my grandparents were with me!”
“How about we get through their early childhood years first?” I suggest, desire now flaring as I watch her chest heaving in indignation.
Rolling so I’m halfway on top of her, I see her eyes widen when she feels my dick against her thigh.
“Yeah, we can table that discussion for a later date,” she agrees, reaching up to pull my head down before she kisses me.
Slowing down, I turn my blinker on to pull into the driveway when I hear the unmistakable sound of squealing brakes. As I fight to keep my bike upright, which ends up being a lost cause when the force of a vehicle strikes my back fender, my last thought as I fly through the air is of Holly.
I wake up, pain thrumming through my body to hear Paul on the phone. “Get here now, dammit all! I’m telling you, my grandson’s lying in the ditch at my house, his bike’s a mangled pile of metal and there’s blood everywhere.”
As my consciousness fades once again, I whisper, “Holly.”
Sirens and rapid fire talking bring me back to life again and I realize I’m in an ambulance which is going ridiculously fast based on the scenery that’s flashing by through what little I can see out of the back windows.
“You’ll be okay, Jonah,” a paramedic says as she leans over me. “My name is Hennessy, but you can call me Hen.”
“Hen, what’s wrong with me?” I manage to stammer. “Everything hurts and I can’t move my head.”
“You have what’s known as a C-collar on, it’s a neck brace to keep your head immobile until the doctors can get scans or X-rays done to ensure you don’t have any damage in that area. I can see a few broken bones, since they’re compound fractures, which simply means the bones broke through the skin. You also have a lot of road rash,” she states.
I’m impressed that as she lists off my known injuries, she keeps treating me and checking the machine that I can hear beeping behind my head. “Who hit me?”
She shrugs and says, “Your grandfather didn’t see who hit you, just found you when he pulled into the driveway. But he told the cops that he was gonna pull the camera feed or something, so hopefully, they caught whoever hit you since they fled the scene.”
Some spineless motherfucker hit me and ran like the pussy they are? That pisses me off, I was looking forward to a quiet evening at home with Holly. Our wedding is right around the corner, she’s going to be upset that her dream day was ruined because someone had the gall to try and take me out. I have no doubts that this was done on purpose seeing as I was already turning into the driveway and wasn’t in anyone’s path.
I don’t correct her as far as mine and Paul’s actual relationship because in a few short weeks, he will be my grandfather by marriage. It doesn’t bother me one bit that he’s decided to claim me as his now.
As the darkness begins to close in once again, I ask, “Does Holly know?”
“She’s going to meet you at the hospital,” she replies just as a monitor goes nuts and everything fades to black.
I wake up to an antiseptic smell and wetness on my shoulder. Somehow, I know even without looking, that Holly’s as close to me as possible. “Babe?” I call out, my voice hoarse. My throat hurts like hell, which makes me wonder what happened the last time I passed out.
“Oh, Rebel,” she says, now sobbing. “You almost died on me!”
Died? What the fuck? I can hear beeping machines in the background, but they’re not blaring an alarm tone like I vaguely remember hearing just before darkness fell. “What do you mean?”
And why the fuck does it feel as though I swallowed shards of glass?
“You went into cardiac arrest while on the way to the hospital,” she replies. “The paramedic had to intubate you and then perform CPR to kickstart your heart after it stopped beating. They have a machine or something that she used too to shock your heart back into a viable rhythm. The doctor says it’s because your body went into shock from the pain or something. I don’t really understand all of the medical jargon he used, though. You’ve had surgery on both legs and your shoulder, plus they debrided the road rash to get all the dirt and rocks that were in the ditch. I need to let your nurse know you’re awake, honey.”
She reaches over me with a trembling hand and pushes a button. When a disconnected voice answers she says, “He’s awake.”
“We’ll be right in, I’ll call his doctor,” the nurse replies.
“Thirsty,” I mutter, my voice barely above a whisper. Any louder and the shards get worse. Since everything hurts, including the hair on my head, I don’t want to add to my pain level. I know they have some chart they use to evaluate how much agony I’m in and right now, I think it needs to be redone, because I feel like I went a few rounds with a pissed-off bear or something.
“You can have a few ice chips,” she says, her voice soothing my tattered soul. She gently places a couple of them at my lips and as the icy goodness coats my mouth and slides down my aching throat, I sigh in relief.
“The girls didn’t see me like this, did they?” I ask. The last thing I wanna do is scare my sweet girls; they may not have been created by me, but they’re mine, through and through.
“No, honey, they didn’t. While Pappy waited for the cops and ambulance to arrive on scene, he called Grammy, told her what happened, and that he’d get me to the hospital once you were loaded up and on the way. The girls don’t know anything just yet,” she states.
“Thank God,” I murmur just as my hospital room door opens and two men in white coats enter, along with a nurse who’s holding several bags of fluid. Truthfully, I hope that one of those bags has something for the unrelenting pain that’s thrumming through my damaged body.