LULA #2
“I was scared,” I told Dillon as her eyes grew heavier.
“I only showed fear to the assholes when I knew it would help me. If they viewed me as weak, they’d lower their guard.
I wanted to escape and be the hero. But in the end, I was still tied up in a bed when those bikers saved me.
Sometimes, even the best plans don’t work. ”
Dillon nodded, thinking about how much she also wanted to be right about everything.
Behind me, Bebe stroked my back. My mom had been willing to admit her weaknesses and endure Pax’s early failed attempts at romance. If I’d been in her place, I would have walked away from something great because things didn’t immediately fall into place.
Dillon dozed off first. Bebe was still playing with my hair when I followed my daughter into sleep.
I dreamed of moving into a new home with a leaky roof.
I kept screaming and flipping out. I couldn’t dial my phone to call a roofing company.
Everyone around me only laughed at the problem.
Just before I woke up, Exile strutted into the leaking house, wearing only a cowboy hat and a work belt.
I woke up startled and embarrassed. My horror only deepened when I found Dillon staring at me.
“You were moaning in your dream,” she whispered. “Are you in pain?”
“No, it was a scary dream.”
Dillon nodded and then looked at her phone. “Should I go to school today?”
“Probably not,” I whispered while stroking her cheek. “We need to make sure everything is safe before we go back to our usual routine.”
“I can log in to class and keep up that way.”
We left my mom to sleep a little longer. In the bathroom, Dillon checked over my bruised body. She sounded a lot like Jarred when she spoke about my contusions.
By the time we left the bathroom, Bebe was sitting up in bed. I smiled at her messy hair and hugged her.
“Visiting hours start at ten,” I told Bebe.
My mom didn’t say a word, but she feared I couldn’t handle seeing Cher and Stevie. Though she was likely right, I couldn’t avoid the pain. The only way for me to cope with what happened at the garage would be to face the aftermath.
Bebe, Dillon, and I emerged from the guest room to find Pax and Ford talking outside on the back deck. I toasted bagels for Dillon and me.
“Aren’t you hungry?” I asked my mom while she watched me slather cream cheese on the bagels.
Bebe shook her head and watched me. I knew she needed more reassurance. Wrapping my arms around her body, I whispered how much I loved her.
“Those men hurt you,” she whispered back.”
Bebe was clearly struggling with more than what happened yesterday. She still nursed guilt over painful memories from decades ago.
Hugging her tighter, I swayed back and forth until she finally snickered.
“I get it,” she said and smiled at me. “You’re a big girl now.”
“No, I’m a big baby, and my feet hurt. Now, hug me more.”
Dillon stopped eating and walked over to join our cuddling. I smiled at my daughter and mom. We looked so much alike. I had never gotten a chance to meet my grandmother or aunt. Before Bebe met Pax and changed our fates, the women in my family lived hard and died young.
I was still cuddling with my mom and daughter when my siblings arrived on their motorcycles. Bebe sighed and grabbed a bagel. Dillon and I sat at the large kitchen island while my sisters and brother entered the house.
Sabrina’s brown hair was tied back, and her dark eyes were bright with rage. She looked the most like Bebe and me. My sister was more athletically inclined than I was, and she fully believed in romance. That was why she managed to fall in love with two women who currently yawned behind her.
Strawberry blonde and frequently sarcastic Xandy was our childhood friend, while blonde, forever smiling Moe was one of the few members of the Crimson Guard that didn’t grow up with us.
While Moe and Xandy struggled to remain awake as they dropped on the couch, Sabrina forced me into an extended hug.
“You are a badass. I never worried for you at all.”
My other sister, Vanessa, took the most after Pax with her tall build, fair blue eyes, and light blonde hair. Looking half-asleep, she shoved Sabrina out of the way and hugged me.
“I did worry,” she said, kissing the top of my head. “I cried.”
“It’s true,” Rowdy said, swooping in behind me while Vanessa refused to let go. My brother was a dark-haired version of Pax, complete with the smartass smirk and icy blue eyes. “Vanessa was genuinely hysterical. Her sobs distracted me from my tears.”
Sabrina squeezed in between Vanessa and Rowdy. My siblings were all taller than me, taking after Pax. I looked up at them and felt a burden ease off me. When everything else fell apart in my life, I always knew these three people would have my back.
“I’m scared to see Stevie and Cher,” I whispered.
Vanessa immediately began to cry. Sabrina waved over Xandy and Moe.
“Deal with this,” she said and adjusted our crying sister toward her girlfriends, “while I give Lula a pep talk.”
Tomboy Xandy and girly-girl Moe sandwiched a crying Vanessa, who got a sympathetic head rub by Rowdy.
Sabrina stared into my eyes and refused to look away. “Cher got seriously fucked up.”
“I know.”
“Her brain might be ruined. Her body is all broken. She doesn’t look like herself, and she might never be Cher again. Feel that now, so you can face it at the hospital without flinching.”
Sabrina and I were similar in that we always felt as if we had something to prove. I wanted to outrun the Green women’s bad luck while she was a tough girl demanding to be viewed as one of the guys. Though Rowdy and Vanessa didn’t mind showing their hearts, Sabrina and I kept ours locked away.
As cold as I pretended to be, seeing Cher and Stevie wasn’t something I could face alone. In fact, as soon as I walked into the hospital room and saw the sisters, I began shaking.
Cher’s head was wrapped in gauze, and her face looked wrong. She seemed so small, like a child rather than a twenty-eight-year-old woman. Her mother, Anise, sat next to the bed, cradling Cher’s hand.
In the second bed, Stevie slept deeply. Her pink hair had been brushed. Besides her pale skin, she looked okay with her wounds hidden underneath her gown.
Anise watched me approach from her spot in a chair between the two beds. My first memories of Anise were of her seeming overly weird. The women of the Everything Nice Crew came from traumatic backgrounds. None of them were normal, but Anise skated along the line between weird and dangerous.
Right now, she appeared tired and sad, like any mom would be with two injured daughters. Her pale blue hair was held back by barrettes. She wore a black shirt likely belonging to her husband, Hazard, based on its fit.
“I’m sorry,” I told Anise as I joined her next to the bed.
Hugging me, she whispered, “Tell me the men who did this are dead.”
“Their bodies are nothing more than ash.”
“Good girl,” she said before looking at Cher. “My baby’s going to rock a bald head when she wakes up.”
“What did the doctors say?”
“That she hit her head too hard, and it’ll take time for her brain to get unscrambled. The fall broke bones. She needs a spine brace and casts. A gunshot tore up her shoulder,” Anise said and began to cry. “She won’t be okay for a long time, but she will be okay.”
Beckoned by Anise’s sobs, the members of the Everything Nice Crew entered the room like a tsunami. I moved aside to allow them to comfort their friend. The women had been tight for around forty years. Nothing I could say would soothe her like words from her ENC family.
I studied Cher and tried to see the green-haired goofball I knew. This fragile creature felt like a lie. My mind flashed with the memory of her falling at the parking garage. I could still hear her frightened cry, followed by the unnatural sound of her body landing against concrete.
“Lula,” Sabrina said and wrapped her arms around me from behind. “Let’s get home and let Anise care for her girls. We’ll come back when Stevie and Cher are awake.”
Turning to hug my sister, I felt buried under too much guilt. I couldn’t breathe. My heart ached. I wanted to hide away from the world, but I also needed to make everything right.
Sabrina didn’t allow me to choose my path. She told everyone how I needed to get home. The women offered hugs and warm words, yet I felt the Rawlins crew rallying around their own people.
In the hospital hallway, Rowdy and Vanessa talked to Nine and Ben. The brothers were Rawlins kids like Cher and Stevie. Clint had assigned them to act as security for an eight-hour shift.
I opened my mouth to thank them, only to begin crying instead. Rowdy hugged me to his body and told the brothers goodbye. We walked toward the elevators.
On the way downstairs, Rowdy didn’t need to speak a word. I knew how he wished he had been the one to kill the men. Our people should have claimed vengeance for yesterday’s attack.
Instead, retribution came in the form of the Black Rainbow Motorcycle Club and a biker I couldn’t get out of my mind.