Chapter 23
Walking out of the bathroom in Raegan’s room after showering and changing clothes, I’m met with a pair of sparkling blue eyes staring back at me. I’ve waited days to see them and now that I have I don’t want to ever go without them on me again.
“Wildcat…” I whisper the name like a prayer.
“Kane?” she questions at first but then cries out as I reach her in two steps with my arms securely around her tiny body.
I can feel her tears soaking my shirt and try my best to comfort her as I rub her back. She flinches, and I ease up on my grip to stop from crushing her and to be more mindful of her wounded shoulder, but I can’t seem to let go.
“I love you!” I hear a muffled voice against my neck. She pulls back just enough so that I can see her teary eyes. “I should’ve told you a long time ago, but I do. I love you, Kane.”
My lips place kisses wherever I can find her skin, and repeat, “I love you too, Raegan.”
After several minutes her body calms down and she’s caught her breath. I sweep the hair away from her face that gathered there since the nurse removed her head bandages, so that I can get a better look at her.
“It…it…was so scary. I thought…” She’s trembling again, and I know from the beeping monitors that she needs to calm down or else something could happen.
“Take some deep breaths and calm down.”
We both inhale deeply, but because of her stomach she lets out a miserable grunt. She starts to survey her body and gasps each time she finds evidence from the accident.
“Kane! Oh god, Sutton was with me…and Trick too!”
“Sutton is fine. She’ll be here in a couple hours to visit. She only has some bumps and bruises.” I try to leave out Trick because I know she’ll find a way to blame herself.
We’re having Trick’s funeral tomorrow afternoon. He didn’t have any family and so we had him cremated and will bury him in our cemetery with our other fallen brothers.
She’s quiet for a while, and I just stare at her letting everything sink in as her memory comes flashing back. I hold her hand as she gets lost in her thoughts, she need to process everything first and then we can talk.
“Trick didn’t make it, did he?” It’s the first words she speaks after being silent.
I shake my head and know that as hard as I try, she’s going to blame herself. She places her hand over her chest and silently lets tears fall. I hate seeing her like this.
“Babe…”
“It’s all my fault…me…I did this and now Trick is dead.” She covers her face with the hand that’s not in a sling and bows her head.
I know the weight of having someone’s blood on your hands, and it’s a real mind fuck.
“Raegan, Trick was there to protect you and Sutton and he did his job. We all signed up for death when we accepted this cut. We live by the cut and we die by the cut. No Road Back.”
“But if I hadn’t gone to that stupid race, none of this would’ve happened.”
“They would’ve found another time to come after you, babe. The Vipers were looking for any route to come at you. It just happened to be that night. Please, don’t blame yourself. I know Trick wouldn’t want that.”
She gives me a teary grimace but nods. I know it’s going to take a while for her to accept this before she’s able to move on.
There’s a knock on the door and a nurse in black scrubs comes in.
“Oh, you’re awake! Sleeping Beauty has finally awoken.” Raegan gives her a quizzical gaze. “I thought we were going to have to start charging this one over here rent, since he never left your side.”
“What are you talking about?” my woman asks.
“Oh honey, you’ve been out for almost four days.”
“Four days?”
“Mmhmm. Let me buzz your doctor and tell him the good news.” She waltzes out just as quickly as she came.
“Kane, I have to tell you something. I’ve been working on this thing, and I wanted to wait until your club business was done before I said anything, but I think you might have a bitch in the club trying to gather some stuff on you.”
“What are you saying?” I level my eyes at her. What in the world is she about to tell me?
“I’m saying…”
The door opens again and without even looking over to see who it is I yell, “Get the fuck out!”
“The patient comes first, Stone.” Ian fucking Hastings strolls in and interrupts us.
He starts shining a light in her eyes and checking her vitals.
I swear he’s taking his sweet-ass time just to piss me off.
They share some small talk, and he updates her on the procedure that happened and why she’s going to feel achy and uncomfortable for a few weeks.
I’ve just sent a text to Havoc to get Brass and to meet us up here ASAP.
When Ian starts to pull the gown down to check Raegan’s wounds, I lose it.
The rational part of me knows that he is doing his job and making sure that everything is healing fine.
But the irrational side of me, grabs his wrist stopping him as he is about to expose her breast.
“I don’t think so, doc,” I growl.
“I have to check the stitching.” He looks at me like I’m crazy.
“Just the stitching,” I snarl. I swear it’s a wonder I haven’t ground my back teeth to dust since I started dating this slip of a woman.
Raegan gives a giggle, and it soothes me just enough to calm down to let him finish his exam. He finally leaves, and I sit back on the bed and adjust her covers.
“Now, tell me.”
“Well—”
The door hits the wall with a bang interrupting us once again.
“Jesus Christ!” I swing around ready to shoot the intruder.
Sutton, Roger, Claire, Rocky, Havoc, Riot, and Brass all come in as a group, and it has me running my fingers through my hair.
They all rush to Raegan, and I know that I’m going to have to wait to get my answers.
I catch a glance at her and see her giving me apologetic eyes as she’s given repeated hugs with the group.
Over an hour later, I’ve herded Sutton, Rocky, Roger, and Claire out of the room to go get my woman some real lunch so that we can get to business.
Havoc and Brass both pull up chairs as I sit on the bed facing my woman with Riot standing at the foot of the bed.
I need to feel her warmth after missing her these past few days.
“Okay. Now tell us what is going on.”
“After what happened with Dennis and Carly, I was furious. I made a vow that night after talking with my dad that I’d serve up justice to them.
I started following him and checking his records.
” She shrugs her good shoulder. “You know hacking and all. And I found that he’s been depositing large amounts of cash around the same time every month.
It was around the time of the next deposit, so I started following him. ”
Why didn’t Trick say anything about this? She been going around town like a gumshoe, and he didn’t think to mention anything?
“I took my camera with me and shot some pictures of him and who he was meeting up with. Some were city council or local business owners or Sutton’s father, but two days later he met some woman at an abandoned house on the other side of town.
She looked familiar. I think she’s one of the girls that hang around the club.
He also met up with some guys out on the side of the highway.
From a distance I thought it was business, but we were well out of the city limits.
My camera caught most of it, but I couldn’t tell who the men were. Just that they drove black SUVs.”
“Who?” I bark. “Who is she?”
“I’m not sure, but I asked Sutton to go and get my camera that’s in the closet.
I snuck into the abandon house one night and snapped a few shots of what the house was like on the inside.
There were papers and drawings scattered about.
He is planning something, I just know it.
Anyway, I was going to tell you the next day after the race, but… ”
“Why didn’t you come to me when you thought a rat was affiliated with us?” I ask.
“I hardly ever saw you during that time. Sometimes you’d get home after I’d already gone to bed and then leave before I woke.
Even when I tried to call you, I’d get sent to voicemail.
I wasn’t even sure that she was part of your club.
I only thought she was, and I didn’t want to accuse someone if I didn’t know for sure. ”
I hate she didn’t tell me right away, but I know that she’s right. We were gearing up to take down the Vipers, and I didn’t have time to eat much less answers calls.
Sutton finally shows up with Raegan’s camera and laptop, and we get a full view of who is with Mayor Dennis Burns.
“That fucking bitch.”
* * *
“You want us to act like normal around them as if nothing has happened, and they aren’t fucking rats?” Reaper fumes after I have an officers’ meeting. It’s been a week since getting Raegan home and settled.
“I’m not sticking my dick in that bitch, no way,” Chains says in refusal and some of the other men follow suit.
I knew the reactions were going to be bad when Havoc and I told them about our little rat in the clubhouse.
“It’s just until we catch them at their next meet up, which could be any time now,” I tell them. If Raegan is correct, it could happen as early as today or tomorrow. We’ve got Hawk stalking their phones with the Pegasus Spyware Raegan implemented, and we placed a tracking device on their cars.
“Why not let her visit our guest house? I’m sure she’d sing like a canary within the first few minutes of her stay,” Ledger asks.
Havoc and I thought of that, but we need them to meet up and be at the same place without one tipping off the other.
“Got movement,” Hawk interrupts us from his seat where he’s got two laptops open and is working from. “The mayor just sent a text to her. Meet up is in an hour.”
“Guess it’s our lucky day, brothers,” I say to the room. “Here’s what going to happen…”