Chapter 9 #2
The doctor reaches out to shake my hand.
“It’s nice to meet you. Dr. Patchett told me he already gave you the rundown on his injuries, so I won’t go through all that again.
The surgery went well. We’ve re-inflated his lung and pinned his ulna.
His skull was fractured and there was considerable swelling.
However, there’s no active bleeding. As Dr. Patchett probably told you, we’ve put him in a medically induced coma to allow his brain time to recover from the trauma. ”
“I’ve had time to get my head around the fact that he’s in a coma. I just want to do everything I can to make sure he recovers as quickly as possible.”
“He’s stabilized now. Your brother has been moved into ICU. You can visit one at a time, briefly. Then what he needs is quiet and rest.”
“I can see him now?” I ask as relief floods my brain.
The doctor hesitates, then says, “Of course. One at a time, for ten minutes each.”
Bear steps forward. “You go first Natalie. I’ll go after you. Then the others can have a turn.”
I follow the doctor back to Rick’s bed. It’s in a room made of glass with a door that shuts. I realize almost immediately the rooms are glass so the nurses can see the patients at all times. Clever setup, I think to myself.
I go to his bedside, and I let out a sharp gasp, taking in everything that’s different since the last time I saw him.
He’s lying there with the top of his hospital bed slightly elevated.
He’s pale, bruised and has a long scrape up one arm, exposing raw skin with dried blood visible.
As the nurse warned me, there are wires everywhere and machines beeping every so often.
If I hadn’t been told about it, then I think I would have panicked.
As it is, even though I know they are there for his benefit I can’t help thinking it looks like they’re what’s keeping him alive.
“Can he breathe?” I ask the nurse who’s standing beside me.
“He’s on a ventilator, so the machine is breathing for him. That’s due to the medically induced coma. It allows his body to heal completely.”
My hand flies to my mouth because this is all my fault.
They used him to get to me. I know it all the way down to my bones.
Bear said someone cut his brake line and caused him to wreck.
I know he and his club brothers were thinking it might be someone who has a vendetta against the club.
But it has to be linked to my foster parents.
They already sent one of their church cronies after me. What if this is what came next?
“Time to go, honey,” the nurse says.
I reach over to touch the back of Rick’s hand. It’s the only part of his body that’s not wired up.
“You’ll be able to stay for longer tomorrow,” she adds.
When I come back out to the waiting room, Bear and his club brothers are talking about who could have cut my brother’s brake line.
Bear slips off to see Rick and I let the conversation flow around me.
They have a lot of ideas because they’ve had a lot of enemies over the years.
They speak in hushed voices that only we can hear.
When Bear comes back, I want to talk to him about it possibly being someone sent by my foster family. Unfortunately, I don’t get a chance because a man walks into the waiting room. He scans the room, and the moment his gaze lands on our group, he starts walking towards us.
“Detective Harvey,” Rigs says.
The name is familiar. He’s the club’s contact at Las Salinas PD.
Siege perks up and jerks his chin in a welcoming gesture. The officer nods. “How’s your prospect?”
Siege replies, “Rick is a tough fucker. He’s holding his own when better men would have been scraped off the pavement.”
“Ain’t that always the way with your crew, Siege. You’re some of the luckiest fuckers I’ve ever met.”
It’s weird to see a cop talk like a biker. I think it’s his way of creating rapport.
Rigs interjects, “We make our own luck.”
“Well, be as it may, I’m going to need to ask a few questions about what happened.”
Bear steps up, keeping his expression blank. “Ask away. I’ve got a pretty fucking good idea what happened.”
The detective takes out his phone and sets it to record. “Tell me what you know, Bear.”
Bear walks the detective through what he saw with my brother’s bike, specifically, his brake line was cut. This time I’m better able to pay attention to the images he shows. From the images, that’s exactly what it looks like.
He glances at me and asks, “Ma’am, were you riding with him this time? I rushed through the paperwork for your police check.”
I’m not sure if they told him about the break-in at our home. Just in case it’s not something that Bear wants their police contact to know I stick with the basic facts. “No. I wasn’t working today. I was at the clubhouse.”
I’m distracted by the video Bear made at the scene. Suddenly, I see someone I recognize. Reaching out, I snatch the phone out of Bear’s hand.
He lets me, asking, “What do you see, Nat.”
I reverse the video and zoom in on a face, the only one smiling in the whole crowd.
“I recognize this man. He’s not from my father’s church but he’s a man they hired once when someone deserted the church and tried to cause trouble.
My foster mother described him as a union buster with extra time on his hands. ”
Handing the phone back to Bear, I say what I’m thinking out loud. “I don’t think this is a club vendetta. I think this is my foster family trying to sabotage what little stability I’ve found here.”
“You’re sure it’s him?” Bear asks.
The question catches me off guard and I reach out and take the phone again. I hesitate longer this time, looking over his facial features. When I look up at Bear, his gaze is on me, not the phone.
Sighing, I hand his phone back. “I think so. The face looks a little older but just like him.”
Rigs steps closer. “I think she’s right. Mattie was successful,” he states flatly. “CPS served your former foster parents with a removal order. They took all the foster kids out of the home and found emergency placements for them.”
“Are they okay?” I ask. I have sudden, awful images of the kids being dragged from their beds in the middle of the night.
Rigs smiles gently. “The kids are settling. Mattie made sure they all went to a place together. The foster parents, not so much. By all accounts they’re pissed.”
“They probably knew it was me,” I say quietly. “If so, that’s why they sent that church member to harass me and when they couldn’t get to me, they targeted my brother.”
Bear shakes his head slightly. “They might suspect you. That doesn’t mean they know or they sent anyone here.
It’s more likely to be someone the club had a beef with circling around for round two.
Men like your former foster father or that idiot he sent to scare you are cowards. They’re all talk and intimidation.”
Siege comes closer. His expression is guarded. “Bear is right. This sabotage has all the hallmarks of someone who is familiar with motorcycles and the way bikers operate. I don’t think there is a connection between your former foster parents and what happened to Rick.”
I frown at him. “Why not?”
“Because they’re drowning right now,” Zen says from across the room. The Savage Legion’s IT guy is one of the most intelligent men in the club, so I definitely want to hear more about what he has to say on this issue.
Zen gives me a slight, knowing grin. “Those assholes just lost one hundred percent of their income in one fell swoop. The evidence Mattie provided resulted in them losing their official designation as a foster home provider. They’re only worried about one thing right now and that’s how to get their livelihood back.
They’re busy hiring lawyers to help them get their license and rebuild their credibility and image. ”
“They likely wouldn’t have the time, energy or mental bandwidth to start something with us,” Rigs adds.
“You’re right, they don’t need me right now,” I say. “In fact, if they don’t get their certificate back, they never will.” Something about that thought is so freeing. For the first time in my life there’s the possibility that they won’t be harassing me endlessly.
“That’s right,” Bear says. “This might be an opportunity to put the whole thing behind you once and for all.”
Detective Harvey finally speaks up. “If they’re stupid enough to get all their kids removed from the home, they don’t seem like the kind of people capable of playing three-dimensional chess.”
Rigs snorts a laugh. “Trust me, those two are not the smartest tools in the shed.”
Zen speaks up again. “And this is a delicate time for them. They can’t take a chance on being caught doing anything out of pocket, not after the things they were caught texting you.”
I understand what he’s saying. If my foster parents retaliate, they confirm everything CPS suspects. If they stay quiet, they preserve the possibility of somehow getting their foster care certificate back.
“Somebody hurt my brother,” I say. “Deep down inside I feel like it’s my fault somehow.”
Bear reaches for me, wrapping one arm around me, like he does when he’s feeling particularly protective. “Rick got hurt because someone thought it would be fun to fuck with our club. It doesn’t look like it had anything to do with you or your former foster parents.”
I let out a relieved breath. Maybe I’m wrong about all this.