Chapter Thirty-two
King
The water was cold, but I didn’t feel it. I hadn’t felt anything since I saw Grace fall. I didn’t think about what I was doing; I just followed her over. I’d fucking follow her into the depths of Hell if I had to.
I broke the surface, my head twisting from side to side as I spun in the water, searching for her. I dove back under, my eyes burning as I looked for her, coming up only to take a breath. Down I went again and again, searching. I wouldn’t give up until I found her.
I heard Karlyn scream from the bank of the river. Her frantic voice as she called out to Grace gave me hope. If she’d made it, maybe Grace would too. I dove down over and over, searching the icy depths for the woman I loved.
Then I saw her.
Her lifeless body suspended in the water beneath the surface.
My boots weighed me down, but I fought against the current to reach her.
To save her. I swam as fast as I could and pulled her against me as I struggled to raise us both to the top.
My arm locked around her waist as I swam toward Karlyn.
She waded back into the water and helped me bring her to safety.
I laid her on the ground, her body cold and turning blue, and I remembered a line I heard from that stupid medical show she made me watch when I showed up at her house in the dark.
‘You’re not dead until you’re warm and dead.’
“Come on, baby.” My voice was a hoarse whisper to my ears as I tilted her chin up and breathed into her lungs. Karlyn dropped beside us and didn’t hesitate as she started chest compressions.
I focused on the whispered numbers as Karlyn counted out loud with each press on Grace’s chest, and I prayed to a God I hadn’t spoken to since my parents’ death. I silently made deals with both God and the Devil, offering my soul to the first one who brought her back to me.
After what felt like hours, but was likely mere minutes, Grace gasped and coughed. Turning her to her side, she spat out the water that had filled her chest. Sitting back, I sighed with relief and looked around.
“Where is Jackson?” I asked, frowning as I searched for my brother.
“What?” Karlyn’s eyes went wide with fear as she focused on the river behind us.
“He jumped before I did,” I snapped, jumping to my feet, rushing back to the river’s edge to search for him.
“What?” she gasped.
My eyes scanned the water’s edge. I couldn’t lose him, not now. I moved along the shore, and that was when I finally saw him, face down in the water.
“JACKSON!” I roared right before diving back into the water and swimming toward him.
My body was cold and tired. I feared I would lose the fight against the current, but I pushed on.
Kicking my heavy feet, my arms sloshed through the water as if pulling myself along an invisible rope that tethered me to my little brother.
Karlyn’s scream gave me the push I needed to forge on. The pain and heartache of losing the man that had brought her out of the abyss was what I needed to push myself that little bit more. She needed him as much as I did.
Reaching him, I flipped him onto his back and dragged him back to the shore.
Karlyn once more met me in the water and helped carry him out.
Her strength was admirable, not only physical, but mental and emotional.
I knew what she suffered at the hands of the Death Dogs and Zephyr.
But she didn’t let it stop her. She hadn’t curled up in a ball and shut out the world the way Grace was doing now.
I could only hope she was in shock from the fall into the cold river.
I needed her to come back to me, but I had to save my brother first.
“Jackson!” Karlyn cried beside me.
“Come on, little brother,” I snarled, pressing hard on Jackson’s chest. “You are not dying before me.”
Karlyn pressed her ear close to his face, whispering his name, pleading, bargaining with whatever power might be listening. The same way I had for Grace.
“Fuck!” I cursed, looking down at my hands. They were covered in blood, and I ripped open his shirt. “Fuck!”
Karlyn’s hands covered his heart as she tried desperately to stem the flow of blood, while I looked around helplessly for something, anything I could use to stop the bleeding.
Grace crawled in next to me and pulled Karlyn’s hands away. Without a word, she grabbed some mud and slathered it on my brother’s chest.
“What are you doing?” Karlyn cried. “We need to clean it. He’ll get an infection.”
“He’ll bleed out long before the infection sets in. We need to stop the bleeding.” Grace’s voice was void of emotion. She worked silently to cover Jackson with mud and then struggled to push him over.
“With mud?” I asked, confused as I rolled him to his side. There was no exit wound, which meant the bullet was still inside his chest.
“Yes, there is something in soil that helps the blood clot,” she explained. The robotic sound of her voice terrified me. I wasn’t sure she was really here.
“Grace,” I whispered as I laid Jackson back down.
“No,” she said. “We have to focus on getting out of here.” She reached over and placed two fingers on his neck. “He has a pulse, but it’s weak.” She looked up at me, and the light in her eyes, the twinkle that made her green eyes look like emeralds, had disappeared. “Can you carry him?”
I stared at her, searching for my Grace. Trying to look into her soul, like the hundreds of other times we’d been together. But something had broken inside her.
“Nothing has changed, Grace.”
Her eyes closed and she sighed. The sound of her frustration pulled at my chest. She was in there. Somewhere. Hiding. I’d find her if it was the last fucking thing I did.
“Can you carry him?” she asked again, her eyes focused on Jackson rather than me.
“Yeah.” My little brother was a big motherfucker, but love had a way of giving people strength they never knew they had. And if I had to carry his heavy ass a hundred miles to make sure he lived; I’d fucking do it.
It turned out I didn’t have to carry Jackson as far as I’d feared. We’d only walked a mile or two when my brothers found us. But without Karlyn taking point, and using what Jackson had taught her, we might have been wandering in circles for fucking hours.
“Jesus Christ, I thought we lost you,” Blade cursed as I laid Jackson down before he crashed into me, hugging me tight.
“What the fuck, man?!” When he stepped back, he pulled Grace into his arms, and she clung to him.
Cash, Gunner, and the rest of my men took turns stepping forward and hugging me tight.
Jingles pulled Karlyn against his chest as she cried, and I was glad Jackson was still unconscious.
“We need to get him back to the clubhouse. He’s been shot in the chest. I need Bane and Patch.”
Asclepius stepped forward and said, “Let me take a look.”
He kneeled, wiping away the mud, and I snapped, “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I just want to see what we’re dealing with. Good job putting the mud on it. It stopped the bleeding. But we need to get that bullet out ASAP and get him on some antibiotics,” Asclepius said.
Big Ben stepped forward and lifted Ravage without a word, as though he didn’t weigh more than a fucking feather pillow. I glared at the bastard’s back, and Cash chuckled. “I’m sure you’re worn the fuck out, but face it, that kid is a fucking machine.”
“Yeah,” I grumbled. I turned around, looking for Grace. She was staring at Morpheus, fear in her eyes. I took her hand in mine and praised God she didn’t pull back. “Come on, baby. Let’s go home.”
She pulled her eyes from the giant man and looked at our hands before looking up at me. I squeezed her hand and reminded her, “Nothing has changed.”
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed and I knew she was trying to hold it together. She finally nodded and walked beside me as my men, the Gods of Mayhem, and the Brotherhood surrounded us. Morpheus had been suspiciously quiet. He’d stared at his son’s chest, watching it rise and fall, I was sure.
By the time we made it back to the bikes, I could see Morpheus planning. I’d kept my eyes on him on the walk back. From what I knew of the big bastard, he wasn’t one for staying quiet. And I was right. He’d only been biding his time.
Blade handed me my cut, and as I slid it over my shoulders, I heard his booming voice. “Jackson is coming home with me,” Morpheus announced as if it were a done deal.
“Fuck, no,” I said.
He turned a glare my way, as though I should be afraid of him. And sure, he was a motherfucker to be feared, but this was my brother. My family. And I knew he wanted nothing to do with his father.
“He’s my son. I’m taking him home.”
“He’s my brother. The fuck you are.”
Morpheus stepped up in front of me, and I let go of Grace’s hand, pushing her behind me. I heard Cash whisper, “I’ve got her.”
“That piece of fucking leather you so carelessly dropped on the fucking ground doesn’t give you a fucking say on what I do with my son,” he sneered.
I grinned. He didn’t fucking know. I was going to enjoy putting this big bastard in his place. “The piece of leather that Jackson and I both dropped to save our women isn’t what makes us brothers, asshole. Being born from the same fucking cunt does.”
Morpheus narrowed his eyes and took another step forward. “What the fuck are you saying?”
Karlyn slipped in front of me, standing between me and Morpheus.
As soon as he saw her, he stepped back. “King and Jackson are brothers. They have the same mom. And Jackson is dying while the two of you stand here measuring your dicks. You may share DNA with him, but I’m his next of kin, and we are going back to Diamond Creek. ”
I smirked at Morpheus, knowing I’d won. It didn’t bother me a fucking bit that it was Karlyn who put him in his place. I couldn’t wait to tell Jackson when he woke up.
If he woke up.
“Let’s go!” I yelled, twirling a finger in the air. I gathered Grace and Karlyn into the SUV; Asclepius climbed into the back with Jackson to monitor him during the ride. We were too far from Diamond Creek, and a lot could go wrong. I just needed him to stay alive until we got back.
I called Patch and told him and Bane to get ready. As soon as we got back, Jackson would be taken downstairs so they could work on him. I wasn’t taking him to the hospital. I trusted both Patch and Bane to save my brother’s life. Asclepius only added another layer of defense.
We pulled into the lot, and my men moved in a flurry of activity. The back doors were yanked open, and Ravage was carried into the clubhouse. Karlyn disappeared with him as I held my hand out to Grace.
She hesitated for a moment before putting her hand in mine. She climbed out of the SUV as Morpheus climbed off his bike. I looked at the front door, knowing who was inside, and wondered if my clubhouse would survive the coming storm.