Chapter 4
Garret
Forty-Five Minutes Earlier
I had just stuffed the Triple Chunk Rocky Road brownie into my mouth, chewed, swallowed it, and reached for another. Man, I was going to have to work out extra hard after this.
But for Creedence to be enticed by small things after she achieved something, I wouldn’t be complaining.
Not at fucking all.
It was half an hour later when I heard a cell phone ring. I knew it wasn’t mine, and it wasn’t Cree’s.
“Sorry, give me a second to silence this,” she told Cree. I watched her grab her phone from her bag and look at the display; a curious expression marred her face.
“I’m sorry, let me take this,” she murmured as she got up and walked a few steps from the kitchen table.
“Hello?” she asked.
I watched as she listened intently to whoever was calling her.
“Yes, he’s one of the students I tutor.” It was then that Cree even watched her after she glanced at me with a nervous expression.
Valerie gasped. “Is he okay?”
I could even see her hand starting to shake.
“Yes, yes, of course. I’m on my way.” As soon as she said that, I got up and walked over to her.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Umm.” She was breathing heavily. “A student that I tutor, his parents... they...”
“Hey, it’s okay, take a deep breath and calm down.”
I watched the rise and fall of her chest as she did as I instructed.
“They beat him. He’s in the hospital. I gave him my number if he ever needed me. He had it on him and had been clutching the paper in his fist.” I wiped away a tear that fell from the corner of her eye.
“Cree, throw some shoes on and grab a jacket, babe,” I said to her.
“Sweetheart, grab your bag,” I murmured in her ear.
“Oh, y’all don’t have to come,” she said stubbornly.
“Sweetheart, you’re shaking. No way can you drive in your condition. Not to mention if his parents come after you, they’ll have to get through me,” I told her sternly. It just so happened that she fell under my protection for no other reason than being a good person to my daughter.
“And nobody gets through my dad.” Cree held her own bag and Valerie’s. She put her arm through one of Valerie’s and pulled her out the front door.
After I grabbed my keys and wallet, I locked the door and jogged to my truck, opening the passenger side door and the rear door for them.
The whole way there, not a word was spoken. Valerie was holding tight to her emotions if her fists clenching and unclenching so hard was anything to go by, they were white.
The moment we made it to the hospital, I parked the truck and climbed out with them.
As we made it to the nurse’s station at the emergency room, I wanted to scream. Could I not go anywhere without women checking me out? Come the fuck on.
“Hi, my name is Valerie Strickland. I got a call from a nurse about Alexander Lawrence.”
The nurse who had been batting her eyes at me looked down at her computer screen.
“Yes. Can you take them to room nineteen?” she asked another nurse.
“Sure. Follow me.” Thankfully, this one didn’t look at me with condemnation or lust.
We followed her down a hallway that was bustling with activity until we came to the room on the right.
“Thank you,” Valerie said as she entered the room.
I wasn’t prepared to see the boy lying on that hospital bed or the damage that had been done to him.
Before I fully entered the room, I pulled my cell out of my back pocket and called Dale. I motioned for Cree to go ahead and be with Valerie.
“Hey, Garret, what’s up?” he answered on the first ring.
“Need you to run two names for me and get me anything and everything you can find: Dane Thibault and Alexander Lawrence. The second name as fast as you can.”
“You got it, man.” He hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Everything okay?”
“Nah. But it will be.” I hung up the phone. I got this shit.
As I entered the room, I saw Valerie with a chair pulled up to the boy’s bedside, holding his bruised, torn-knuckled hand.
“Alexander. It’s Valerie. I’m right here,” she softly said to him.
I watched from the end of the bed as he struggled to open his swollen eyelid. The other eyelid was black and blue, and you could see the swelling. It was obvious that someone had beaten the shit out of the boy.
“Ms. Strickland,” he rasped out. It was also then that I saw the large handprints around the boy’s neck. And upon closer inspection, the whole left side of his face was black and blue. He even had bruises up and down his arms. And what pissed me off to no end were the handprints on his biceps.
“Yes. And remember, outside of tutoring, I’m just Valerie. Okay?” she chastised him softly.
When the boy nodded, tears rolled out of his eyes. It was then that he took in the other people in the room. His eyes lingered on Cree, but it was a respectful look, so I didn’t flip out on him, and then his eyes landed on me.
They widened in fear.
“Hey, it’s okay. He’s a friend of mine.” Valerie could tell that he was scared, and she wanted to reassure him.
“Bud, the only reason I’ll ever hurt you is if you hurt my family. Other than that, you ain’t got a thing to worry about. And since Valerie is your friend, I’m your friend too. Yeah?”
He thought about that for a moment, taking all of me in. I’m a thirty-two-year-old man standing at six-foot-five. I’m two hundred seventy pounds of pure muscle. The only fat I have on me is from those blasted cookies and brownies. I know I’m a big son of a bitch.
He nodded at me and settled back into his bed.
With visible tears in her eyes, she asked him, “Alexander, who did this?”
“My father,” he whispered, barely audible, but we all heard it.
“I’m so sorry, sweetie. Why?”
At first, he didn’t want to answer, but when she looked at him expectantly, he did.
“Because I walked in on him raping my little sister.”
Without thinking, I pulled my phone out. As soon as Dale connected the call, I didn’t even let him speak.
“Need that address on that second name. Now.” I waited as he typed and then rattled it off to me.
I hung up and called Cotton.
“Brother?” he answered.
“Need a brother here at the hospital to watch over Cree and Valerie. A student she tutors has been hurt.” I told him the basics, but I’d tell him more once I reached my brothers.
“Alright. Sending Xavier and Walker to you now.”
“Appreciate that. You and Knox meet me.” I rattled off the address to him.
“Alright. Meet you there in fifteen.”
“Have Cooper come with and bring his medical bag too.” Cooper used to be an EMT. Luckily, he learned a few things.
“Fuck. Okay.” I hung up as he disconnected the call but not before hearing him bark out orders.
“Sweetheart.” I motioned to Cree to follow me out into the hall.
I waited for her to clear the door, then I closed it.
“Meeting the brothers at his house. Xavier and Walker are headed this way. The both of you stay with them. Straight to the house as soon as visiting hours are over. Both of you.”
“Kick his ass, Dad.” My brave, beautiful girl’s eyes were holding back tears. I pulled her into me and hugged her.
We walked back into the room, and I bent down and placed a kiss on Valerie’s forehead.
“Hey, buddy, how old are you?” Please be eighteen.
“Eighteen,” he whispered sadly.
“When did you turn eighteen?” Fucking A.
“This morning,” he said softly. Fuck, I was making some goddamned heads roll.
Then I heard Valerie say, “Well, when you get out of here, you’re having a party, and I’m making you a cake.”
“Yeah, her cookies are awesome, and her brownies are even better. You’re in for a treat,” Cree told him from her side.
“Be back,” I said as I turned on my booted foot and left the room.
I was making my way down the hall when I ran into Xavier and Walker.
“They’re in room nineteen. Your sister and my girl are in there. I’m talking to Cotton and York about the boy prospecting. After visiting hours, take both of them to my house. Don’t fucking leave either one of them.”
“Yeah, brother,” Xavier murmured and clapped me on the back as he passed me by.
“Go do your thing, brother.” Walker nodded to me as he followed Xavier.
It took me ten minutes to get to the address Dale gave me. I pulled up beside Cotton, Knox, and Cooper.
“Father beat his boy. He got his fucking ass kicked, brothers,” I told them while I tried to contain my anger.
“Why?” Cotton growled out. It was one thing to beat someone, but it was another thing to beat on a child. Even if they are eighteen and a legal adult now, they’re still your child.
I growled out, “He walked in on his father raping his little sister.” Their faces were masks of fury, which I was sure matched my own.
We all turned as one and made our way up the front walk. Without knocking, I kicked the fucking door in. It bounced off its hinges and slammed onto the floor.
There was an acrid smell of piss, alcohol, and something I didn’t want to smell—blood... lots of it.
The father, I assumed, was lying back in his recliner, passed out drunk. Without a word, I walked to what I assumed was the kitchen, found a pot, started the burner up, and filled it with water.
Turning, I stalked into the room and went in search of his little sister. Knox was standing sentry at the door, keeping his eye outside and on the son of a bitch.
As I made my way up the stairs and ran into Cotton and Cooper, the smell of blood was more than I could bear.
I peered into the open doorway and halted. Cooper had his fingers on the little girl’s pulse. He looked down, shook his head, and stood. He then pulled a towel from the towel rack and covered her body.
I wanted to weep for her. That was a foreign feeling that I had never felt before.
Her little body was black and blue, almost like Alexander’s, but nowhere near as bad.
However, the slits to her wrists—those were damning.
She sat naked on the floor, propped up by the bathtub.
Her skin was pale and ashen, and she was already so cold.
She couldn’t have been more than twelve, only three years younger than Cree. He was a sick, twisted son of a bitch.
I stormed down the stairs, went to the kitchen, and, seeing that the pot was boiling over, I grabbed it, turned off the burner, and strode into the living room.
Without a word, I threw that pot full of hot-as-sin water on the son of a bitch’s pants, relishing in the scream that escaped his mouth as the hot water burned its way through his jeans and down to his dick. His screams filled the night air.
Fuckers who rape are trash. Fuckers who rape their own child, deserve a special place in hell, a place where they wish they could burn to death, which would be like heaven.
“Yeah, man. Need you to send a couple of units.” Cotton rattled off the address.
I grabbed the motherfucker around the throat and hauled his fat ass to the nearest wall. There, I slammed my forearm into his throat. He sputtered and wheezed, trying to get my arm off of his body, but to no avail. There was no moving me when I was in this moment.
I held my forearm there until his body was almost limp.
“You dared touch your own daughter? You dared touch your son? Your son, who is under the protection of Wrath MC? I’ll see you in hell, you son of a bitch.” I pressed even harder, and when his frame went limp, I let go.
They would revive him, of that I was sure. But while he did his stint in prison, I was calling in a few markers that I’d been sitting on for just such an occasion.
After about an hour of answering questions and another hour of them being at the hospital, I got a call from Xavier saying they were headed to my house.
Also, Walker had talked to a nurse, and they were letting one of us stay with the boy. I was glad that Valerie and Cree were there when, no doubt, the cops had given him that kind of news.
I walked into my house and stopped still. Valerie was curled up on my couch, and Cree was curled up at the other end. Never did I think I would have another woman in my house. And never did I expect that woman would be the woman that Cree would turn to.
I carried Cree to her bedroom and tucked her in after I placed a kiss on her forehead.
I went back into the living room and carried Valerie to my bedroom. I stole the feel of her pressed tightly to my side as I turned the covers down and tucked her in. I swiped at the tears she was shedding in her sleep with the same gentle touch I gave to Cree.
After I kissed her forehead, I closed the door.
Tonight, my ass was on my couch. My two girls, whether one of them knew it or not, were safe. No one was getting through me to harm either one of them.
***
What I didn’t know... was that Alexander didn’t agree that the son of a bitch deserved to go to prison.