15. A Slip of the Tongue
CHAPTER 15
A SLIP OF THE TONGUE
Leo
"What the hell do you mean she's not in there?" I yell into the in-helmet microphone and watch as Rumble cringes walking back towards me. The only reason I let her come on her own here is because I was sure that I'd be able to watch her and help her if she needed any help. I saw her fucking walk into the laundromat. I know she didn't walk out of the fucking laundromat, so unless Nisa all of a sudden became fucking Houdini, there's no way that she's not in there.
"Rumble, you better get your ass in there and find her. She has to be in there." I meet him halfway in the middle of the street.
Lash walks up to me and pulls his mask down off his face. "Leo, Rumble's telling the truth. She's not in there. I checked every room. I even tried to get the old lady in there to show me her surveillance tapes, but there's none actually working. It's all for show."
"This is fucking bullshit!" I turn and scream up to the sky.
I know she's fucking in trouble. Yet she refuses to tell me what the problem is. Whatever it is, she'd rather put her mother and herself in danger than come to me. I can't have that. When Hugh was with us, I promised him that I would always be there to help his family, and now it feels like I'm going to fail him again.
"I think we need to go back to Ms. Maddy," Rumble says when he gets close enough to me.
"What the fuck is that going to do but worry her some more? She's already going through so much because of the fire. I'm not going to add her daughter being missing again to the list of shit that she has to worry about. No, we need to find her on our own. She can't have gone far. Spread out and go look for her. Everyone keep in contact. Check in every ten minutes." I order before I hop on my bike.
Before I can get my lid on, Shake puts his hand on my arm. "I know you want us all to go looking for her, but do you think some of us, or at least one of us, should stay by her house in case she returns there without us knowing?"He waits for my directive. I take a deep breath and try to think straight. I'm so fucking pissed off that I'm acting recklessly. Right now I have the club going in all different directions, leaving everyone, including Nisa, open to danger. Shake is right, there is every chance that she will either go home or to her mother's house if something goes wrong with whatever she was doing at the laundromat.
"Yeah, you're right. Rumble, you go over to her mother's place and find the friend she's supposed to go stay with. Don't bother her, just stay there and watch. Shake, Tella, you two go over to Nisa's place and see if she comes back there.
The rest of us will do a square grid for at least fifteen blocks. Hopefully, she hasn't gotten very far. Lastly, Doc, you get on the horn to all your contacts in the actual hospital just to make sure she hasn't come in. " With a solid plan in place, we all get on our bikes and ride away. Over the next twenty minutes, I ride back and forth up and down the streets looking for any sight of her. The entire area is pretty much a ghost town except for a few people walking either to get home or to get away from here. No one really catches my eyes and then I get a call from the one person I hadn't been expecting.
Eva. It's too late at night for her bullshit. Any other day, I would have entertained her for a little while if it meant she was going to come over and suck me off or we'd have a good fuck, but right now that's the last thing on my mind. I let the call go to voicemail, and a minute later, she calls back. Eva calls, again and again, five times in a row. Finally, after I finish checking the block I'm on, I pick up the phone ready to ream her out for being so fucking needy.
"Eva, For fucks sake. What do you want? I don't have time to talk right now." I snap.
"Leo, you need to come. Nisa is here. She's hurt. You need to come." She doesn't give me any more information, just that Nisa is hurt.
"Fuck!" I call Eva back, but she doesn't answer.
How the fuck did Nisa get all the way back to the motel without any of us seeing her? How long had she been there? All of this was fucked up. A large part of my brain wants to go back to that laundromat and find whoever is inside that had the fucking audacity to put their hands on Nisa, but then I know the right thing to do right now is to get over to her and make sure that she's not as bad as Eva is making it sound.
Eva's always been a little bit of a drama queen.
I activate the in-helmet mic and patch through to everyone.
"Creed, head back to the compound. Doc, Spike, you two on me.
"Heard!" Zero barks back at me.
"Copy that!" Lash says.
"On the way!" Doc says through the headset.
All of Chrome Creed do what I need them to do, and I know that in my time of need I'll be able to count on them for whatever I need to. I race towards the motel only to see Eva standing outside, looking like she's waiting for me to get there. She's smoking a cigarette, but her face is pale and she's pacing. When I pull up, she puts out her cigarette and hustles over to me. Doc is off his bike next to me in no time.
"Leo, I don't know what that girl is into, but she came here all messed up. She won't go to the hospital, but she needs to go. She's messed up badly. " Eva says, and she backs up so I can get off the bike.
"What the fuck, did she say anything about who did it to her?"
"No. I asked. Trust me, I did. I swear, if she would have told me who it was, you'd be the first person I'd tell. Whoever did this shit doesn't deserve to actually be walking around. " She turns and beelines straight for the lower level of rooms. Spike and Doc are moving just as fast as I am to get to Nisa. All of us view her as family.
The moment I walk into the room that Eva leads us to, and the moment I hear Nisa's painful cry, the anger I feel doubles.
"Nisa!" I call out for her and she tries to turn, but just that small movement of turning her body, her screaming bloody murder.
"Shit!" Let me through. "Doc says from behind me, and I move to the side so he can get to her. The movement in the room is enough to kick me in gear, and I make my way to the other side of the bed and help her turn on her back. My jaw drops, and the mere sight of what they did to her has me wanting to go outside and burn every fucking building on that street down to the ground.
"Nisa, I need to get you to the hospital." Doc tries to lift her shirt, but she uses her bruised hands to push him away.
"No, no hospitals. You have to leave. " She says as blood bubbles up into her mouth.
"What is this?" The doctor passes a soft hand over one of the bruises on her body. They are everywhere that I can see, so I'm sure they are in places that I can't see as well.
"Don't worry about it. Please go. " She turns her head and stares at me. The determination and anger are only partially overshadowed by the pain that she's in.
"No." It's the only word I can get through my clenched teeth. My body shakes as I sit next to her, careful not to touch anything in case I inadvertently hurt her.
"Leo, please don't make this any harder for me than it already has to be. Just go! " She tries to nudge me away, but I don't move.
"Goddammit! Why are you doing this to me? Why? Please, I'm begging you! He's going to make me hurt you, please! Please! Oh God, please Leo. " She wails, and both Spike and Doc's eyes jump up to mine. They heard the same thing I did. Someone is using her to get to us. That's why she won't tell us what's going on. She thinks she is protecting us.
"Who? You fucking tell me right now. Nisa, who is making you do something? Fucking hell Nisa, I don't care what you just told me, we can fucking fix this. I don't care. " I lean closer and grab hold of her shoulder. The marks on her skin are the only reason that I don't squeeze the life out of her.
"Nisa..." My voice breaks when she tries to breathe again, and she has to lean her head all the way back to get any air.
"This is going to have to wait, Prez. I'm sorry." Either we're getting her to the hospital or she's going to fucking suffocate on her blood right now. We gotta move. "
"No. Don't take me to the hospital. Please, she grabs my arm, and I can see the desperation in her eyes.
"Doc, can you take care of this at the clubhouse?"
"I can, but she won't be as comfortable as she could be in the hospital." He rolls her over to the side and she starts to cough. Blood splatters on the sheets.
"Clubhouse. "Go to the clubhouse," Nisa says, through the coughing.
"Fuck it. I need a car. " I can't leave Nisa's side right now. I shoot a pointed look at Spike.
"Got it. Give me five minutes. " Spike rushes out of the room, and I rub the hair out of Nisa's face as the sweat and blood moisten her face.
"You don't need to protect me, Nisa." Whatever this is, I can take care of it. Whatever you did, I'll fix it. "All you have to do is tell me." I peer into her eyes, but instead of her opening up about what's going on, she just lifts a hand and rubs my cheek.
She's not going to tell me anymore tonight. No matter what I ask.Her hands shake and her eyes water with more tears as Doc's fingers press against something on her back. At one point, in particular, she clutches my shoulder, her nails scratching against the leather of my kutte. She screams in pain and cries pitifully.
"What the fuck are you doing to her?" I look up to Doc, who pays me no mind. This is the only time I'll allow something like that. It means he's trying to save her, and that's the most important thing.
She cries harder, and I lean down to lay my forehead against hers. I smooth down her hair while whispering soothing words in her ears. all the while trying to push down the fury still festering inside of me. Right now, Nisa needs my support. She's hurting and scared. I can deal with whoever the fuck did this to her later, but I wasn't going to let this slide. If I have to lock her in a room for days on end until either she tells me who did this or whoever did this to her fucks up and comes looking for her on their own.
I'm not aware of how much time has passed, but just as Nisa stops another bout of screaming, Spike bursts back into the door with keys in his hand.
"Thank fuck, Doc, we can go." I go to pick her up, but he stops me.
"No!" His eyes go wide, and after a second, he pulls his hand away.
"Sorry Prez, I've got her as stable as I can right now, but if we bend her or move too fast she could puncture a lung." This rib right here is broken badly. I need some sort of stretcher just so we can keep her even. It's going to hurt going slow and it's going to hurt when we're driving. " He leans over and looks into her face, "Are you sure I can't convince you to go to the hospital?"
Nisa just mutters no. She's so exhausted that she can barely speak.
"Come on, we can do this, Doc."
"Yeah, let's go. "What can we do?"I stay with Nisa as Doc and Spike both run around the hotel looking for anything they can to get a stretcher made up.
I run my hands down her side, gently cringing when I see the dark bruise right on her hip bone. I don't know what they hit her with, but whatever it was, they hit her over and over, probably after she was unconscious. So much pain for what? If only I fucking knew.
My hand settles on her hip, and her jeans pocket is slightly uneven. There's something in there. I reach in with two fingers and pull out a sheet of paper. On the note it says: I'll be in touch, one way or another.
The threat alone makes me want to punch my hands through a wall, but on the flip side of that, at least with this, I know for sure whoever it is will come after her again. This time I'll be right there by her side. I don't give a fuck what anyone in my club says. I'm not letting Nisa out of my sight again.