Chapter 14
REID (RATCHET)
The faint sound of thumping music traveled down the hall. Someone was here.
I pulled my gaze away from Sonny and his lifeless body. He was such a big man in my life for as long as I could remember, but he’d died a shriveled up old man who would have bled to death if his son hadn’t put four bullets in him.
As the old philosophical question goes, can you face murder charges for killing a man who was facing imminent death anyway?
“What are you laughing at?” Patrick lowered himself back into the chair. His breath was slow and labored.
“Irony, man.” I chuckled. “It’s ironic.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
I dropped my gun and stepped in front of Mackenzie. I helped her to stand.
“You okay?” I pressed the hair out of her face. It was frizzy, and pieces had escaped her ponytail. Her eyes were wide and darted around. She fidgeted with her hands, kept reaching to her hip and back to wringing her hands together.
“Is she okay?” Patrick grazed the tail of her shirt. “Kenzie. It’s over. You can breathe now.” Something clicked, and she gasped and clutched her chest. Her breath came shallow and fast.
“Hey.” I pressed a hand to her chest and snaked the other around her waist. “You’re okay. You’re safe now.”
“Breathe, Kenzie.” Patrick tried to get up, but he had no more strength.
She turned toward him and panicked all over again.
“No, look at me.” I lifted her and sat her on the table. Her father’s dead body lay on the floor underneath. It wasn’t the best place, but I needed to get her off her feet. “Breathe with me, in and out.”
I inhaled, and she followed.
“Out.” We exhaled together. “That’s it.” I placed her hand on my chest. “Again, in and out.”
We breathed together for a few more breaths. The chaos of the situation exploded around me. Doc and his assistant arrived. They lifted Patrick and left.
“Where are they taking him?” she whispered.
“That’s Doc. We have a spot in the back of the clubhouse where he patches up the club members.” We breathed together again.
“Is he going to be okay?” She peeked beneath us as more guys came down and dragged Sonny’s body out from under the table.
“Sonny?” I wasn’t sure who she was talking about. Her eyes traveled across the room until he disappeared.
“No.” She panted.
“Calm down.”
“Patrick.” She took a long exhale and closed her eyes. She leaned her head against my chest. “Please let him be all right.”
“Didn’t realize you were so fond of him.” I chuckled.
“Not for me.” She lifted her chin. “He needs to be okay for you. Too much loss. We don’t need any more. Any of us.”
I cupped her cheek and drew her lips to mine and kissed her softly.
“Do you believe what he said about your dad and my mom?” She wrapped her arm around me and rested her hand on my chest.
“I kind of do.” I held her to me. “It sounds like something my dad would do. I don’t know if he and your mom were a thing, but he would have gone out of his way to take care of those who’d been wronged.”
“I wish we had someone to ask.”
“We do. My mother.”
She lifted her head.
“I hadn’t wanted to get her involved, but soon it will be safe, and we can openly dig for more information without putting anyone else in danger.”
“You want me to meet your mother?” She grinned up at me.
“That’s what you got out of that?” I kissed her forehead and hugged her tight.
Doc poked his head back into the room. “I got him stable, but we’re going to need to get him to the hospital.” Doc jogged toward us. “He’s got some bleeding in his belly and a bruised kidney from what I can ascertain. A broken left arm.”
I lifted Kenzie off the table and onto her feet. I took her hand, and we made our way down the hall.
“Is everyone gone from the party?” I asked Brice.
“Yeah, we cleared them out a few minutes before the cops showed up.” He held the door open.
“Give them access to everything, but no one talks until I say so, got it?”
“Sure thing, boss.” Maddox saluted.
“Anyone seen Stacks?”
“Naw, not since the party, you want me to find him?” Brice stepped toward the door.
“Just keep a lookout for him, and as soon as things die down, we need to have a conversation with him.”
Brice and Maddox nodded in unison. None of us saw that betrayal coming, but that was a different problem for a different day.
We stepped into the clinic; Doc had cleaned Patrick up and wrapped a bandage around his waist. Doc set his arm in a temporary cast.
“How do you feel?” I gripped his good arm.
“Perfectly fine.” He had the goofiest grin on his face. He looked so young, like when we were kids playing gangsters.
“We gave him something for the pain,” Doc explained. “You know his tolerance isn’t for shit.”
“Because I respect my body.” Patrick took his good hand and rubbed it down his abs but then stopped. “Dude, she really does look like me.” He pointed at Kenzie.
“Yeah, same eyes.”
“It’s more than that. She’s like a female, brown skin version of me.” He laughed. “Dude, you slept with someone who looks just like me. What does that mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything and shut up.” I put his good arm over my shoulder and walked him outside to a waiting car.
“It’s like that Seinfeld episode where George dated a she Jerry.” He pointed again. “She’s a she Patrick.”
“When you’re not bleeding to death, I’m going to kick your ass like I did when we were kids.”
“In your dreams, big man.”
We managed to get him into the back seat of the SUV.
“Kenzie.” He motioned for her. “Come hold my hand.”
She slid into the car next to him. He collapsed with his head in her lap.
“It’s like looking in the mirror.” She grabbed his good hand and smiled at me.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine.” She nodded.
I shut the door and climbed into the front passenger seat.
Doc climbed into the driver’s side.
Patrick passed out before we exited the parking lot.
He never regained consciousness before Doc, and his colleague, rolled him off to surgery.
I watched my best friend get wheeled away and didn’t have time to talk to him.
Tell him he did well. I wondered if he had a stake high enough in the game to do what needed to be done.
I forgot about his need to protect people.
It was as ingrained in him as revenge was ingrained in Kenzie and me.
He protected his family at all costs, and he may have to pay the ultimate price.
“Hey.” Kenzie grabbed my hand. “Let’s find something to eat.”
I couldn’t move.
“He’s going to be all right.” She squeezed my hand. “He’s too cocky to die on us now.”
I chuckled as tears pooled in my eyes. She turned to give me a moment as she pulled me down the hospital corridor.
My clothes hung off her. The baggy leggings were part of a shipment of workout gear and uniforms we had purchased for a baseball team that never received it.
Turns out the shipment was a cover for a drug buy.
We discussed with Sonny about more legitimate business throughout the club network, and he called us greedy.
He had ambition for his kids, but in earning and leading others so they would earn for the good of the club.
If they couldn’t earn, they had to be useful in other ways.
Neither Patrick nor I was either of those things, and he held a sense of contempt for each of us in his own way.
We found a vending machine and grabbed some sodas and junk food. We settled on a couch in the corner of the waiting room. It was 3:00 a.m., and we were the only ones in the room. The lights were dim, and a television played in the corner with the sound low.
We dug into the snack as if it were our last meal.
Kenzie shoved two mini powdered donuts in her mouth.
“Slow down.” I grabbed the coffee table and pulled it closer. I put my feet up. It felt like I hadn’t sat down and relaxed in years. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”
She shook her head but continued eating more donuts and chased them with a soft drink.
“Happy to see that after an evening of blood and death, you still have your appetite.” I sipped from a bottle of water.
She handed me a donut.
“Thank you.” I smiled. She smiled back. She really was beautiful. And she did not look like her brother. She had a distinct shine all her own.
“What?” She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
“Nothing.”
A few of the guys entered the waiting room. I acknowledged them with a head nod, but they gave us a wide berth. I appreciated them more than they could know.
“Now that your lifelong ambitions have been fulfilled . . .” I took her hand. “What now?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged.
“That cabana on the beach is looking pretty good right about now.”
She crawled over to me and laid her head on my chest. I kissed the top of her head.
“All that sun, though.” She played with the button on my shirt. “Not good for my skin.”
“And the sand probably gets into everything.” I ran my hand down her back.
“And I bet the people down there are like that fake happy that I can’t stand. I’d get into so much trouble.” She giggled.
“And I’d have to come down and bail you out of jail.” I smelled her hair.
“Well, yeah.” She turned her face up. We stared into each other’s eyes. “I guess I could hang around here. Keep you two out of trouble.”
“Something tells me I’m the one who needs to keep you and Patrick out of trouble.”
“Please, I’m an angel.” She looked up at me. “But maybe you can take me to the beach for a vacation sometime.”
“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, princess.”
She grinned and shoved the last of the donuts in her mouth. A big yawn overtook her whole body.
“Why don’t you close your eyes?”
She laid her head on my lap.
“You won’t get sick of me.” She looked up.
“Probably.”
She scoffed.
“But it doesn’t matter because I’ve already decided.” I took her hand and kissed it.
“Decided what?”
“I’m not letting you go.”
“Now?”
“Ever.” I shrugged and yawned. She grinned.
I was too wired to relax. I leaned my head back, but every time I closed my eyes for a second, my brain would yank me awake. I kept peeking down the hall. If I let my guard down, Patrick wouldn’t be okay, and that wasn’t an option.
“It’s going to be rough around here for a while.” I loved I didn’t need to protect her from my world. “It’s not like a corporate takeover. There will be challenges from the inside and out. I’ll be an overprotective asshole for a while.”
“I can take care of myself.” She frowned.
“I know, but if you’re my girl now, it’s my job to take care of you.” I kissed her forehead. “Get used to it.”
She pouted, but I could see it in her eyes. She loved it.
Finally, Doc shuffled down the hall. He nodded to the men in the room but walked over to me. I stood up. “He’s going to be fine.”
We all took a collective sigh of relief.
“Surgery went fine. We got the bleeding stopped and repaired the damage to his kidney. All the other injuries just need rest and time to heal on their own.” Doc patted my shoulder.
“Thanks, Doc.” I shook his hand. “Can we see him?”
“We’ll get him to a room in about thirty minutes, then you can see him.” He sat down in front of me. “I’m heading down to the ER. Heard some bikers got into some shit tonight. Anything you want to share with me?”
“Not tonight.” I shook my hand. “Go, do your job. We’ll talk in a few.”
He nodded and stood up.
“Oh, by the way, the Infinity Kings are no longer a gang.” I chuckled. “We’re a motorcycle club. There’s a difference.”
“Good to hear it.”
He chatted with some of the guys and gave them the good news.
I fell back down on the couch.
“I’m so glad he’s going to be okay.” Mackenzie crawled into my lap and wrapped herself around me. She hugged me tight.
“Me too.” I hugged her back.