Chapter Fifteen
Moose
I ’d been fighting my entire life. A punch to the face or jab to the gut was nothing. But there were two of them and only one of me.
I watched as Hannah ran to the bathroom and clicked the lock into place.
Smart girl.
Now I just had to keep these fucks occupied until back up arrived. The first hit from Jinx had my gun skittering across the floor and under a cabinet.
Crash tried to dart after Hannah while I was occupied with Jinx, but I caught him by the back of his hoodie and knocked him back.
“Think your fucking club is too good for us, you piece of shit,” Jinx growled. He had a long reach with his gangly arms and legs. I wanted to keep him as far from me as possible so I kicked out, aiming for his knees or stomach.
“You stupid fucks could never hack it as Savage Kings.” I landed a well placed kick and Jinx went down.
Before I could follow it up, Crash jumped on my back. “Think we want to be in your pussy ass club, huh?” His hot, stinking breath ran across my skin and I flipped him off me. He landed on his back on the desk.
Jinx caught me from the side with a jab to the temple and I saw stars. I steadied myself against the side of the desk, desperate to stay on my feet. A sharp pain sliced across my side and the hot trickle of blood across my skin told me he had a knife and was using it.
A hard thump caught my attention. Crash had made it to the door of the bathroom and was trying to get to Hannah. Between the blood seeping from my side and the shots to the head, I felt drunk.
Through the haze, I knew I had to get past Jinx and stop Crash. I switched up my tactic, going for an uppercut to the chin rather than kicking at his legs like I had been. “Take that, you stupid motherfucker,” I said as my hit landed.
His teeth clacked, he stumbled back, and his knife fell from his hand and skittered out of sight. I didn’t have time to find it. I lurched towards Crash, grabbing him by the collar as I had before and jerking him backwards.
The fight went on this way for what felt like hours. Just when I’d get the upper hand on Jinx, Crash would be back after Hannah and the time it took me to stop him, Jinx would be on me again.
They were both young and strong. Driven by a need to avenge their bruised egos. Jinx and I were standing facing each other, trading punches that got increasingly sloppy the more hits we took. Sweat dripped down my back, my muscles burned and my side ached.
The sound of the door banging open, followed by Crash’s voice and Daisy barking caught my attention and then I was falling.
Every muscle in my body screamed for me to stay down.
“I’ll be taking those dogs back now, princess,” I heard Crash say. It sounded like his voice came from far away.
Fury pushed me to get back to my feet, but it wasn’t pretty. Growling and screaming came from the bathroom, but the blows from Jinx didn’t stop. He was kicking at my ribs, aiming for the place where his knife had broken my skin.
With everything I had left, I started swinging. Left hand and right. Jabs, hooks, upper cuts. I landed one good hit to the side of his jaw and his eyes rolled back in his head as he went down.
Holding onto my side, I stumbled towards the bathroom.
Towards the screams.
Belatedly, I realized that the screams weren’t coming from Hannah.
I finally made it to the bathroom and leaned against the door frame breathing hard. Crash was on the floor, his arm bleeding and my gorgeous girl was pointing a gun at him like she might actually use it.
The cops and the MC burst through the door at the same time and I took the weapon from Hannah’s hands.
We were safe.
Jinx and Crash were handcuffed and led away.
We gave the police our statements, then loaded up the dogs and went back to Hannah’s place.
I’d taken quite a few hits in the fight, not to mention a knife wound to the side.
I’d had worse, but as the adrenaline wore off the pain started to seep in and I was exhausted to the bone.
As we were getting the dogs from the SUV to the house, a short, curvy woman about Hannah’s age came barreling through the door and threw her arms around her neck. My instinct was to snarl at anyone who came within ten feet of Doc, even with the shit heads in jail.
She was mine.
“I’m not hurt, just a little shaken up, I promise.” Hannah said, tears collected in her eyes but they didn’t fall. “Moose, this is my best friend, Montana.”
The woman was even shorter than Hannah, but when she let her go, she rounded on me. “You were supposed to keep her safe! What the hell happened?”
I should have guessed anyone Hannah was friends with wouldn’t be a wilting violet. I didn’t feel like defending myself to her, especially when I hadn’t been able to keep danger off Hannah’s doorstep.
Before I could reply, Hannah stepped in. “There were two of them and they were acting crazy. Moose took out one of them and Daisy and I handled the other. We’re okay.”
Montana visibly deflated, then they were hugging again.
I left the two alone to talk while I had a shower.
My body was a tenderized steak. Bruises had bloomed on my legs, arms, chest and back.
The knife wound wasn’t deep, and it had stopped bleeding by the time we’d left the rescue.
I cleaned it in the shower and it started to ooze again.
I languished under the hot water, letting it ease some of the tension in my muscles. By the time I was clean and dressed, Montana was gone and Hannah was curled up on the couch staring off into space.
“Everything okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah, she just worries. I don’t think she understands why I trust you.”
I stalked towards her. “Why do you trust me? Any woman in her right mind would cross the street when she saw me, not run into my arms.”
“You are just as tough as you think you are, Moose. On the outside. On the inside, you protect those who can’t protect themselves, just like I do.” She wrapped her arms around, but I flinched when her arm brushed my side.
“You said the blood on your shirt was mostly his,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “You told the paramedics that you were fine.” She snagged the hem of my shirt and lifted it, revealing a six inch gash across my side.
“Oh my god, we need to take you to a–”
“I’m fine, Hannah.”
She pursed her lips. “No you’re not, you stubborn man.”
She was yanking my shirt over my head just as the front door swung open.
“Oh shit, am I interrupting a little post fight celebration?” Wrench asked, walking into the room anyway.
Diesel and Deadeye followed.
Hannah gave them the stink eye. “I was just about to patch up your very headstrong brother.” She pushed me onto the couch and left the room, returning a moment later with a first aid kit.
“So what happened at the warehouse?” I asked, teeth gritted while Hannah worked on sterilizing my side.
Deadeye sank into the couch opposite me and ran a hand through his short beard. “The shitheads had recruited more guys than we’d expected. We were able to surprise them, but there were too many. It wasn’t just Jinx and Crash that got away. There were a few more. It was chaos.”
“What the fuck were they doing in that warehouse?”
Deadeye glanced at Hannah then back to me. “There were dog cages around, a few crates of weapons. They were gearing up for something.”
Hannah pursed her lips but didn’t comment.
“Any of our guys hurt?” I winced, as Hannah put in the first stitch.
“Just you,” Diesel said. He’d helped himself to a beer from the fridge in the kitchen.
I filled the guys in on what had happened at the rescue while Hannah finished patching me up and put a bandage over the stitches.
I leaned over to kiss her, but found myself unable to pull away. She kissed me back, her hands finding their way to my thighs, before she seemed to remember herself and pull back. Her ears were red. “I should wash up,” she said, before scurrying out of the room.
The guys looked at each other. “We should head out,” Wrench said. “I think our patient would appreciate some time with the Doc.”
I flipped him off as they headed towards the door, laughing.
“Glad you’re okay, brother. Take some time off for that to heal before coming back to the shop,” Wrench said, then they were gone.
I locked the door behind them and turned to see Hannah standing awkwardly by the kitchen door.
“What’s wrong, Doc?”
She frowned. “I’m sorry I got you into this mess.” Tears welled in her eyes and I reached out to her.
“Trouble finds me no matter what. This isn’t on you. Besides, we were already at war with these guys. We just didn’t know it yet.”
She nodded as if that made perfect sense and pulled me to her bedroom. We’d have to talk more about this later, but for now we were both dog tired.
Speaking of dogs, all five came wandering into the room like they belonged there.
“Come on everyone, time to sleep,” Hannah said, herding not just me but five dogs onto the bed.
“Those dogs are never getting adopted, are they?”
Hannah flashed me a smile and I groaned. “So a year from now, when we get into bed, we’ll have to fight for space with five full grown dogs?”
She stopped and faced me. “You want to be sleeping in my bed in a year?”
The side of my lip quirked up. “I was hoping to. Dogs or not.”
“Oh, definitely dogs. Just wondered if I would be too boring for you now that all this has died down.” She fidgeted waiting for my answer.
“Every storm needs a calm. You’re mine.”
“Really?”
I kissed her in answer. “Besides, if all else fails I still have this.” I slid my thumb over her nipple and she shuddered.
I flashed her a grin then pushed off my jeans and got into bed, followed by five dogs and one very sexy veterinarian. In being with me, she adopted the entire MC. It was only fair that I adopted a band of trouble makers in return.