Chapter 62
Rachel
After an hour or so, Jenna turned up at the hospital with huge bags under her red-rimmed eyes. She looked as though she had aged decades in the space of a few days.
As soon as she saw me, she threw herself into my arms and let go of years' worth of tears, sobbing into my shoulder as though she was never going to recover from the heartbreak.
I soothed her the best I could, stroking her hair and murmuring soft noises, comforting noises in her ear.
At some point, Dante had slipped out of the room to give us some privacy, although neither of us noticed at the time. It’s only when Jenna came up for air that we both looked around and smiled sadly at each other.
“I’m sorry,” she breathed, angrily wiping her tears with the back of her hand. “I didn’t mean to break down on you like that.”
“You’ve nothing to apologise for,” I assured her, picking some tissues out of the box next to Shark’s bed and took over cleaning her face. “This is a shit time, and I’d be surprised if it didn’t make you cry. Together, we can mend the broken pieces, and we can get through this.”
“How do you do this?” She asked, her chin wobbling as she looked back at Shark. “How do you do this day after day?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, pushing the hair back from her face and tucking it behind her ear.
“It’s just… God!” she sighed heavily and ran a frustrated hand through her hair. “I think I get it now. I think I understand why you wanted to run, why you wanted away from this fucking place. Why did you come back, Rachel? How can you do this?”
“ We do it because we are the old ladies of the Devil’s Disciples.
We are strong, and we are powerful. We run sin.
We keep those men in check. We can do this because we have each other.
Never forget that, Jenna. I haven’t always been the greatest friend, especially running away without so much as a goodbye, but I promise you, I will help you get through this.
I’ll be around so much, Shark will be begging you to send me home. ”
“If he comes home,” she said, her voice shaking.
“You can’t think like that. He will come home.
Both Shark and Vienna. They’ll be back at the bar in no time, trying to interrupt our sin meetings and acting as though they run the place.
Vienna will be dunking his disgusting beard in people’s drinks and Shark will be trying to kick our asses at pool. I guarantee it.”
“He really does fucking suck at pool,” she half laughed, half sobbed, wiping some stray tears with her index fingers. “You’re right. I’ll look back at this in a few months’ time and long for the break away from him, with no one clogging my toilet or leaving bike parts all over my house.”
“Exactly,” I grinned back. “You’ll soon forget being scared of him dying and go back to wanting to kill him yourself. The nurses have already said he’s responding really well to the treatment. He’s a tough cookie.”
“Yeah…”
“I mean it, Jenna. Trust me. Remember when you told me it’s not always like this?
You’ve had a shit few days, and it’s shaken you.
But you’ve had so many good times as part of this club.
Don’t let one bad day ruin a lifetime of happy memories.
And that’s coming from me. I’ve run away more times than I can count.
And trust me, the world isn’t any safer away from here, either. ”
“I guess,” she murmured. “Thank you, Rachel.”
“Anytime.”
“I don’t mean for today,” she said, making me frown. “I know what happened that day. I know what they planned for you, and what you were willing to let happen to keep him safe.”
I flinched, pulling away slightly. I was reminded of my teenage years, when everyone knew I was being raped and abused, and everyone was talking about it.
You’re not the same girl. You’re okay. No one here would sit back and allow that to happen.
That was true. But I couldn’t help draw the similarities.
“I know you saved his life, Rachel. If it wasn’t for you, they would have killed him there in that alleyway. So, whatever happens here, whatever the outcome… I want you to know I’m thankful, and I’ll never be able to repay the debt.”
“Hey,” I almost snapped at her. “There is no debt. Not with family. We protect each other. Shark took the worst of it because he pushed me behind him. We defended each other, and that is never, ever , a transactional thing.”
Tears welled in her eyes again, and I pulled her into a fierce hug, holding her shaking body tight against me.
“Where’s Trex?” I asked her when I pulled away. “Do you need me to get him?”
“No. Heather has him. That woman is—”
“A godsend,” I finished for her. “I know. Fuck knows where Dante found her, but we’d be lost without her.”
“It’s funny…” she said with a soft smile.
“What is?”
“It’s just… Dante kidnapped you to be a mother to his child. He wanted someone to look after Bee. And all along, there was a woman like Heather out there. He could have just hired someone.”
“Yeah… but since when has Dante ever applied logic to his actions?”
“That’s true. It’s weird to think, though. None of this needed to happen. You might never have been part of our lives had he just engaged his brain… But I’m really glad you are.”
“Me too,” I said, holding her hand in mine.
“Excuse me,” came a soft voice from behind us. We both turned to see the nurse poking her head around the door. “Sorry to disturb you, but the doctor is here. He wants to do some check ups.”
“Can I stay?” Jenna asked.
“You can but—”
“I was just leaving anyway,” I said, getting to my feet. “You stay as long as you need. I’ll get Trex to bed tonight. Come and stay at the club when you come back to the compound.”
“I will, Rachel, thank…” her words trailed off as I scowled at her attempt to say ‘thank you’ and then we grinned at each other before I stepped aside to let the doctor in.