Chapter 5 Ringo
As if anything would ever be that fucking simple. We are here to see Dr Madden, but instead we find carnage. Fresh fucking decimation.
“Gun out, Angel,” I snap as my club brothers move in tight around my wife, protecting her like she’s the queen herself.
A queen that carries a gun, and is hot as fuck, I might add.
The pandemic security guards we were expecting to be manning the entrance lay dead in pools of their own blood just inside the door, and a woman behind the information counter is sprawled in a lifeless heap on the floor.
Bloody boot prints leave a trail up the passage, so we silently follow them, each one of us alert as we move as a pack.
At the end of the first hall, we reach the bank of lifts, one with the doors held open by a dead man dressed in scrubs, his body half in and half out of the carriage.
“Stairs,” Smitty barks quietly, so we move to the stairwell, and silently make our way up to the maternity floor.
I take in everything as we move, checking for threats, but also, keeping an eagle eye on my wife, checking that she’s doing okay.
It’s hard to tell with her helmet covering her face, but her hold on the gun is steady, so I have to assume she’s just as locked in on the situation as me.
Reaching the maternity floor, we move with stealth to the ward doors, Vender and JD peering in through the windows before pushing the doors open, only to find more blood.
Fuck.
Two nurses at the nurses’ station are still in their seats, their eyes lifeless, red bloody holes in their foreheads, and their brain matter painting the wall behind them.
“Who the fuck are we dealing with?” Smitty whispers, and fuck, I have the same thought.
This looks like a professional fucking hit. Still bloody but not chaotic the way Satan’s Rebels would leave it.
The sound of a baby crying has Abbey pushing through my men, and she hurries up the passage towards the shrieking.
“Shit. Angel!” I whisper-snap, charging after her and nearly running into her back when she skids to a stop outside a closet door.
Tugging off her helmet, Abbey’s eyes dart to me, and she taps her ear.
I force my fucking ears to work past the pounding of my pulse, and that’s when I hear it. Not just the crying baby, but whimpering women.
Turning to my club brothers, I send a few silent signals, directing Vender and Murf down the hall to the fire exit where a smear of blood coats the handle, and order Stocky and Trunk to watch our backs.
“Let me go first, Angel,” I whisper close to her ear, and I half expect her to disagree, but she nods, taking a step back.
Fuck. I’ll have to reward her for that obedience later.
Pulling my helmet off, I place it to the side on the floor before raising my gun and gripping the handle. Slowly, as I ease the handle down, gasps erupt behind the door like they can see someone trying to get it.
I fucking brace myself.
Quickly shoving the door open, I’m met with wide, terrified eyes of seven women, the screeching baby in the arms of one woman at the back, frantically trying to soothe it as it cries.
“Ringo?”
My eyes widen at the sound of my name coming from inside the room, and I flick the light on so I can see the faces better.
There, at the front of the women, holding a bedpan out like it’s a shield, is Andrea Mitchell. Ayden’s mum.
“Oh my God. Andrea!” Abbey pushes past me, hurrying in to throw her arms around a dumbfounded Andrea.
“What are you doing here?” Andrea asks, tears filling her eyes.
“What happened?” I ask as the women inside start to relax, although all are still sobbing.
Shit, at least three of them are holding newborn babies.
“We were just finishing up in the nursery with the mums and bubs when we heard yelling. We hurried in here,” Andrea starts, needing to take in a steadying breath as Abbey steps back from her, and she gestures to another door behind them, and I realise this closet has two entrances.
“I went to go and see… then I heard a scream. I peeked out the door and saw two cops… they shot Tania and Bernice and dragged Dr Madden out the fire exit.”
“You didn’t hear them shooting downstairs?” JD asks, and Andrea shakes her head. “No… but they had those silencer things on their guns. Like you see in the movies.”
I meet JD’s eyes, and I know he’s thinking the same thing as me.
This definitely wasn’t an MC. Probably corrupt cops, although I don’t think they’d be dumb enough to wear their uniforms on a hit like this. So maybe not real cops.
“You said they took Dr Madden? How long ago?” Abbey asks, and Andrea nods.
“Yes. She fought them, though. Tried to get away, but they were too strong for her.” Andrea shrugs. “It all happened maybe five minutes ago.”
Abbey’s caramel eyes flick up to mine, swimming with concern.
“Why would anyone but me come looking for Dr Madden?” she asks. “Daniel said no one knows.”
“He did. I guess he was lying.”
Abbey’s jaw ticks as she clenches her teeth.
“Why are you here to see Dr Madden?” Andrea asks, gaining my wife’s attention again, and when Abbey smiles, it’s strained.
“Just a follow up from when…” Abbey trails off, and Andrea nods, sympathy in her eyes over Abbey losing her child even though I’m pretty sure she doesn’t believe what Abbey just said.
“We should follow the trail,” JD mutters behind me, and I grunt in agreement.
“Have you called the police yet?” I ask Andrea, and she shakes her head.
“Our phones are in our lockers, and the closest landline is out there…” Andrea frowns in confusion. “But those men were the police.”
“No, they weren’t,” I grunt, wishing I had more time to explain. “All of you remain in here. We’ll contact Officer Zimora. He’ll bring the right men to deal with this.”
Andrea nods. She knows Officer Zimora. He helped Lexi when she was being hunted by her dad and brother.
With another quick hug between Abbey and Andrea, we leave the small space and reconvene out in the hallway where Abbey and I refit our helmets.
“Let’s follow the yellow brick road.” Smitty smirks, and I don’t miss the way my wife rolls her eyes at him through the open visor. “What? It has a better ring to it than ‘blood smeared stairwell’.”
JD, Murf and Trunk chuckle as we head for the fire exit.
Carefully checking to see if the coast is clear, we enter the fire escape stairwell and follow the drops of blood down until we hit the basement level.
The morgue.
Abbey’s feet falter as she goes to step into the morgue foyer, and my mind goes back to the day I pushed her through here in the wheelchair, and the way her frail body coiled tight at the sight of Dr Madden standing outside the door, waiting.
I try to remember what the doctor’s expression looked like. If there was any sign I missed that could have hinted at her being a part of stealing Abbey’s baby, but I come up blank.
I guess I wasn’t focusing on the fucking doctor. I was focused on my broken wife.
But fuck, there are so many questions now… Like how the fuck this could have even happened? That day when Abbey and her baby were rushed in, they were separated. I stayed with my Angel. I held her hand and fucking wept, thinking she was going to fucking die.
Why the fuck didn’t I watch what was happening with the baby? Why didn’t I send my men to follow the nurses and doctors that took the baby away to ‘work’ on her? How was Bobbi taken out of the hospital without any other staff noticing?
And the funeral service we used to prepare the body and lay Bobbi to rest in the sealed casket? What the fuck happened there?
There’s so much more at play here that we don’t even fucking understand, but I’ll get to the bottom of it, if it’s the last fucking thing I do.
My hand falls to the small of Abbey’s back as I try to pull back on my building anger, and her helmeted head turns up until her eyes meet mine.
“We can wait here if you like?” I tell her, and she shakes her head.
“No. I need to do this.”
I wanna argue that she doesn’t, but I hold my tongue, pushing back my protective nature, knowing she needs to be the one to decide.
Smitty, JD and Vender quickly move in front, their guns raised at the door as we approach.
“Gun, Angel,” I remind her, and she stiffens like she didn’t realise she had it pointed to the floor at her feet.
“Shit,” she mutters, lifting her arm and aiming ahead.
Standing outside the room Abbey thought she’d said goodbye to her daughter in, JD peers over his shoulder checking that we are all ready, and then on his nod, Vender kicks the door open. It bangs back against the wall as he leaps in, followed by JD and Smitty.
We only make it in a few steps when Vender and JD lower their guns, their perplexed expressions darting to us.
“No one’s here,” Vender mutters, his eyes darting to the trail of blood, which stops in front of the wall of metal doors.
The mortuary fridge.
I glance at Abbey again to find her shoulders drooping, her eyes hyper-fixated on the fridge. Hyper-fixated on a certain door.
The door that was opened to reveal a baby. The baby she was told was hers.
“Angel?”
Her tear-filled eyes dart up to mine. “That poor little baby. Who did she belong to?”
“I don’t know, but she wasn’t your Bobbi,” I remind her, and Abbey shakes her head.
“Apparently not.”
Pulling my wife to my side, I give her a squeeze, hating that she has to deal with such a betrayal.
It’s then that I see it. Blood oozing from one of the closed silver doors.
“How fresh is that?” I ask, gesturing my gun to the doors, and JD hurries over to examine the blood.
Bending, he takes a look before shooting wide eyes our way.
“It’s fresh.”
Everyone’s guns are raised and ready again in an instant.
“Let’s open it up.” Smitty strides over, not the least bit fazed with being in the morgue, gripping the silver handle and tugging the door open.
It swings wide, and he reaches in, pulling on the drawer, which makes a scraping sound as it slides out, and there, on the steel table, is Dr Madden. Her throat cut, her eyes wide yet completely black.
“Well, fuck,” JD mutters. “I guess we’re not getting any answers from the doc then.”
Abbey’s shoulders drop as she stares at the woman who had answers for her.
Fuck. I was hoping this would be easy so she didn’t have to deal with any more disappointment.
“Hey.” I wrap my arm around her waist from behind, and tug her backwards out of the room before spinning her to face me. “This is nothing but a bump in the road. I’ll get Andrea to find the records of the nurse who was working that day with Dr Madden.”
Abbey’s cheeks flare hot with frustration, but still she nods, not ready to give up.
JD calls Zimora, telling him about our find and the scene here at the hospital, and I send Murf and Trunk back up to the maternity floor to ask for Andrea’s help with the records for the other nurse.
“Either someone knew we were coming and wanted to make sure we didn’t get the information we wanted…” Smitty grunts as he comes to stand with me and my wife. “Or, and I hate to say this out loud, Abbey, but other people know your daughter is alive.”
She nods quickly, her sweet eyes hard with anger.
“Either scenario isn’t good,” she snaps as the tension starts to coil tight in her body again.
“Let’s find the security room.” Smitty claps his hands together overdramatically. “It’s time to watch some reality TV.”
That makes Abbey laugh, and she shakes her head.
“Has anyone told you that you’re crazy?”
Smitty shrugs. “You’re the first for today. It’s a common daily occurrence.”
I grin, because he’s fucking right.
I have to say though, I’m a little fucking surprised he showed up today. I told him I was going hunting, but didn’t fucking invite him to come along since this isn’t actually club business, something he’s been very fucking vocal to me about.
He’s given me so much fucking grief over everything I’ve done for Abbey, even fucking insisting I marry her so it would be more acceptable for the club to be helping.
And while that part is something I didn’t mind, it hasn’t really stopped Smitty’s fucking digs about club resources being used for personal situations.
But there’s one thing a guy like Nate Smith can’t ignore, and that’s when a child is in danger.
I guess it doesn’t matter why he’s here. It just matters that he is, and I’m fucking thankful for it, even if he is a fucking loose cannon.
We go in search of the security room, finding it on the first floor, but whoever came here took care of this room probably soon after entering the building. Blood sprays the walls, a dead guy slumped in the chair in front of a wall of shot up monitors, and all hard drives have been removed.
“Fuck,” JD hisses, shaking his head. “You think this was Allen’s men?”
I shake my head. “Not cops, but maybe someone he’s paying. Either that or Banes has ties to black market hitmen.”
“So, not only am I not safe, but now my baby isn’t either… again.”
Abbey’s snarky tone has Smitty taking a step back, and not for the first time I clock that he’s fucking terrified of my wife when she’s angry.
Probably because she doesn’t obey him like a puppet.
I grin at that, because the old her would have.
“We need to give her something to take her anger out on.” Smitty leans close but speaks loud enough for Abbey to hear.
“I could take it out on you, Nate.”
“You could, yes. But that wouldn’t be a fair fight… For you. I am a man.”
Abbey scoffs. “You are a—”
“Anyone feel like going on a rampage?” Murf chuckles as he strides towards us holding some papers.
“Yes!” Smitty barks, quickly putting space between him and Abbey. “Where? And who?”
Murf grins at our Prez. “First stop, Redfield to visit Nurse Thatcher.”
“Nurse Thatcher?” I ask, and Abbey’s eyes go wide.
“Is she the nurse who helped Elizabeth Stone steal my baby?”
“Looks like it. Or at least, she’s the nurse who worked with Dr Madden that day. She also took leave after that shift and hasn’t been back.”
Abbey’s wide eyes dart to me.
“It’s her. It has to be.”
“It’s the best lead we’ve got.” I smile at my wife before addressing my club brothers. “Let’s find Nurse Thatcher and give her a true Southern Sadist’s introduction.”