Chapter 10
Joy
The room is full of red rimmed eyes and I know it’s because of me.
Lovely is staring at the wall, her eyes swollen and dry because she has no more tears left to cry.
She’s curled into Pops and she lets out a whimper every now and then.
She’s broken. Because of me and my little girl and the monster I married just to escape my sad, lonely life with my father.
Well the joke was on me. I traded one sad lonely life for another.
I curl deeper into myself, huddling in a chair away from the DRMC. Protecting them from me and the poison that seems to follow me around.
“Don’t do that,” a husky voice breaks into my spiralling thoughts.
I rub a hand down my face, pushing away the tears. “Do what?” I ask in a hoarse whisper.
“Blame yourself. Think that everyone would be better off without you. That you brought this shit raining down on everyone -”
“I did bring this!” I reply through clenched teeth.
“No. You. Didn’t,” Willa says, punctuating every word with a hard jab of a finger into my chest. “Your ex-husband did this. Not you.”
I stare at her as her eyes bore into mine, full of fire, not putting up with my pity party for one moment.
“I see you, Joy. I know what you’ve been through because I have survived the same.
My piece of shit husband died and left me to pick up the pieces.
And I did. But every time something good happened to me, every time I met someone I made a connection with, every time I was happy, I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I was convinced that good things never happened to someone like me. I was wrong.”
My gaze moves around the room again, on the people hurting because their friend, Ol Man, brother, is through those doors fighting to survive.
None of them have blamed me. None of them were angry or disgusted with me.
Instead they bundled me up and brought me here.
So I could sit with them and cry with them and worry with them.
“Ah, now she’s getting it,” Willa grins with a nod, before looking over her shoulder and winking at Jazz, whose shoulders relax.
I give Jazz a watery smile, and then all the other women. “Thank you.”
“No worries, chick. Remember, I’ve been where you are,” Willa says, patting my shoulder.
“And now look at you.” I smile up at her, as she grins back.
The doors to the operating room slam open, banging off the wall, revealing Switch. Wild eyed, full of panic.
“Oh no!” My hand covers my gaping mouth and my stomach drops.
“I need blood.”
“We’re in a hospital, shouldn’t they fucking have blood?” Rider asks through gritted teeth, not the happy go lucky man I'm used to.
“It’s taken us longer to stop the bleeding than it should have.
We have one unit of O Neg left and he’s going through that now.
We’ve called all the surrounding towns that can get here within two hours but there was a pileup in Roxburgh, all bags have been sent there.
We don’t have enough.” Switch runs a hand down his exhausted face.
“Rhodie, Mad Dog, I need you to live donate.”
“What?” Mad Dog whispers, reaching instinctively for Willa.
“We run a line from you directly to Marx. It’s our only option.” Switch says, the lines of worry on his face stark under the fluorescent lights.
Rhodie slumps down in his seat, running his hands roughly through his hair. “Fuck.” he murmurs, looking at Mad Dog sadly. “Me and dad are both A positive. We’re not a match.”
“No. But he is,” Chewy says, pointing a finger at Roman. He is looking worse for the wear too; his pristine suit crumpled and stained where the bullet that hit Marx went through him first. Only a graze he says and I guess the huge bandaid covering his side can attest to that.
“What?” Gus asks, staring at his sister.
“They’re brothers.”
The room is silent. No one says a word, no one even breathes until Roman stands to his full height, and then I see it.
The same dark eyes. The same almost black hair, so much darker than Mad Dog and Rhodie’s.
The same line of their noses. All the small things that made Marx look different to Rhodie, is what makes him resemble Roman.
Mad Dog stares at Roman, as if seeing him for the first time.
“Fucking hell,” Mad Dog rasps out, slumping back into his chair. “Elena was your mother?”
“Da. And she left me, just as she left you and Marx. It’s what she does-”
Roman’s words are cut off as Rhodie lunges for him, grabbing him by his shirt and shoving him into the wall.
“How long were you going to keep this secret? Why the fuck are you here? To fuck with us? You’ve been pulling strings and fucking us this whole time, to what?
Get back at Marx, at us? Why?” He roars out the last words and Sasha steps up, glaring at Rhodie.
“You will take your hands off him. Roman has done everything to keep you safe. Do not question his methods or his commitment to protecting his brat.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you’ve done I need blood and it looks like you’re it. Tell me you're O Neg and then get your ass in here,” Switch booms, his voice reverberating off the sterile walls.
“I am O negative.” Roman moves toward Switch before turning to look around the room. “I will answer all questions once your brother is stable.” He nods and then disappears, following Switch, the doors swinging wildly behind them.
We sit quietly, the clock on the wall ticking loudly, doing nothing to soothe my thoughts.
“Soooo, just addressing the elephant in the room,” Tav begins, “How the fuck did you know Roman and Marx are brothers?”
Chewy looks at him like he’s an idiot, before shooting that same gaze at everyone else waiting for an answer.
She rolls her eyes and lets out a bone weary sigh.
“They have matching Darwin’s tubercles.” We stare at her.
“Pointy elf ears? Both of them have them on the right side. Highly genetic. Given that Rhodie and Mad Dog don’t have them, I figured it was their mother.
” She shrugs. “Alongside their nose shape, hair colour, eyes.” She waves a hand flippantly in the air.
“And you never thought to tell me this?” Rhodie grits out.
“Didn’t really seem all that relevant.” Rhodie stares at his woman like she grew two heads. “Which now seems like perhaps it was relevant after all?” she says with an apologetic grin.
“I need a smoke.” Mad Dog says, standing and clapping a hand on Rhodie’s shoulder. “Call me if you hear anything.”
“Wait, I’ve never seen you smoke?” Pops says, his head popping up from where it had been resting on Lovely’s crown.
“The situation calls for it.”
Pops stares at him for a moment before dipping his chin. “That it does, brother. That it does.”
I catch Mad Dog’s hand as he moves past me, giving it a squeeze, trying to pass on what little strength I might have. His lips tip up and he presses his lips to the top of my head.
“Wait here for Switch. He's going to need you when he’s done.” He pulls back, his gentle brown hazel eyes searching mine, making sure I understand him.
I give him a little nod and a tight smile. I will be there for Switch just like he was there for me. I’ll be there for all my friends, I owe them that much. Before Mad Dog can pull away fully the doors open and there he is. Weary but still shockingly handsome.
“He’s going to be OK,” he says hoarsely, his hand shaking slightly at his side as he clears his throat and says again, louder, “He’s going to be OK.”
A roar goes up around the room we’re in, everyone hugging and celebrating.
Marx is alive. He’s going to be OK. My gaze meets Lovely’s and I give her a shaky smile, and instead of looking at me with disgust at what I’ve brought to her doorstep, she gives me a brilliant smile, reaching her hand out and squeezing mine gently.
“Can you give little Bee a big kiss from me and tell her that her daddy will be home soon?”
I swallow down the lump in my throat and nod. “Yeah, I can do that,” I whisper.
Switch rests his hand on Lovely’s shoulder, murmuring into her ear, before stepping back and pressing a kiss to her head, then he turns to me and I’m frozen in place.
“Let’s go home.”
Switch
Joy is quiet next to me, as we leave the hospital behind us.
Moss has officers stationed at the hospital, officers that Fox and Nitro have vetted themselves, and we have two more escorting some of us back to the clubhouse.
The brothers with kids wanted to get back to them, hold them a little closer and tuck them into bed tonight.
Lovely will stay with her Ol Man, Rhodie and Mad Dog to keep her company.
Tilting my head I take in Joy’s profile in the fading light.
She picks at her cuticles and I know that she’s tearing herself up about what happened.
Nothing I can say will help and at this moment I don’t have words to offer her.
Closing my eyes I try to shake off the fear that seems to cling to me still.
The fear that I wasn’t going to be able to help Marx.
It came so fucking close and if Roman hadn’t have stepped up and dropped a big fucking bomb on us, then I shudder to think what could have happened.
A warm hand covers the top of mine that rests on my thigh and I turn my hand over, linking my fingers with Joy’s. So small and pale, her cuticles red raw. Her thumb twitches in place, index finger curving around mine to reach the raw skin.
“I don’t like seeing you hurt,” I murmur low, sandwiching her hand between my two, large mitts.
The corner of her lip twitches before her warm brown eyes meet mine. “I don’t like seeing you hurt, either.” She holds my gaze and I can’t look away. I don’t want to.