Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
HASH
I’m raging, but I’m not about to go into a situation blind with no backup. My brothers would kill me themselves if they found out about it, so I bang on the door of the most psychotic asshole I know.
Cyrus.
The door whips open, revealing a butt-ass naked, cranky-looking Cyrus. His hair is pointing in a million different directions. “What the fuck?”
“Let’s go.” I lift two fingers up as I jog down the stairs, taking two at a time, not bothering to look back to see if he’s following me.
“You could at least wait for me to get some pants on, asshole!” Cyrus yells after me.
“I ride out in five with or without you!” I yell back, already halfway out the door.
“Goddamnit,” Cyrus bites out.
Two minutes later, Cyrus walks out the front door of the clubhouse, pulling a shirt over his head. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Aisling called and said someone broke into her place,” I tell him as I mount my bike.
“What the fuck? Did she call the cops?” Cyrus asks, following suit.
“Don’t know. She sounded freaked and said he’s in the house. She locked herself in Cormac’s room.”
A hard look comes over Cyrus’ face. “Let’s ride.”
I’ve never felt adrenaline like this in my life, not even when I took my first ride. It’s a distinct feeling when it’s someone you love on the line and you’re trying to get to them.
I’m really scared, Hash.
Her voice was fucking shaking.
Whoever made her feel like that is going to bleed rivers of blood.
Cyrus and I fly onto her short driveway. I’m off my bike and sprinting toward her house, desperate to see my woman and kid. I need to see with my own two eyes that they’re okay.
Finding the key that I swiped out of her junk drawer on my chain, I unlock the door and sprint toward Cormac’s room, hearing his screams and cries.
“Holy shit,” I hear Cyrus say behind me, but I don’t pay any mind. All I can think about is my woman and my son.
My heart is in my stomach at the sight of Cormac’s door busted down and practically folded in half over his dresser.
“Aisling!” I yell. My eyes are wild and frantic as I take in the scene before me.
Cormac’s face is beat red with tears streaming down it as he screams bloody murder, arms outstretched through the slats in the crib toward his mom, who is lying lifeless on the floor.
Leaping over the dresser, I crouch next to her.
“Aisling, wake up, baby doll,” I say desperately, my voice sounding foreign to my ears as I gently shake her, looking for any sign that she’s alive.
Nothing.
Cormac screams louder as I shake Aisling again. “Come on, baby. You need to wake up.”
“Hash,” Cyrus’ voice sounds from behind me.
“You need to wake up,” I repeat, my voice cracking. “I can’t lose you after I just got you back.”
“Hash, brother,” Cyrus says again, his voice low with sympathy as hand grabs my shoulder, trying to pull me away.
I shrug him off, going back to Aisling.
“I know you want to help her, but you shaking her while we don’t know what happened isn’t going to help.
Do you want to fuck her up even more?” Cyrus asks, moving in to pull me back again.
I resist but don’t shrug him off. My eyes are locked on the welt that’s on the side of her face.
I can practically see it growing in size before my eyes.
“Go to your son, brother. He needs you. I already called Prez, and he’s on his way. Texted Doc too.”
I don’t move, not able to leave her until I know she’s alive.
“She’s breathing, brother. Look at her chest moving up and down. That’s a good sign.”
My mind is numb as I nod my head, looking up for the first time and really seeing Cormac. His face is the color of a tomato, and his little lungs sound like they hurt from screaming and crying for God knows how long.
I slowly stand and carefully step around Aisling and reach inside the crib to pick my son up, who now has his arms outstretched to me.
“I got you, little man,” I murmur against his head as I hold him close to my chest, my hand rubbing small, gentle circles on his back. “Daddy’s got you.”
His wails slowly die down to little whimpers, but he’s still breathing heavily.
“That’s it. You’re safe.” I kiss the top of his head.
He’s the only thing stopping me from going rogue and hunting this motherfucker down and killing him by myself.
“You got a lock on it?” Cyrus asks, not leaving Aisling’s side.
I nod my head, not able to trust my voice right now.
“Her place is trashed. Whoever did this wanted in bad and didn’t give a fuck how they got in.
Her sliding glass door is shattered. And I mean shattered.
There’s no glass left in the pane. I bet he just walked on through it.
Every cushion on her couch has been slashed; her coffee table is snapped in half.
I don’t even know how he did that because the thing looked like solid oak through and through. ”
My arms holding Cormac twitch as I listen to Cyrus list off everything they did to Aisling’s home. The home where my child lives.
“And that’s not all, brother, her room is trashed too. I don’t know what they were looking for or what your girl might be into, but they were trying pretty hard to find something.”
It doesn’t make sense.
“She’s not into anything. All she does is go to work and take care of our kid. He’s her world.”
“She doesn’t have anyone she might have pissed off?” Cyrus asks, looking at the broken door as he tries to think what might have caused this.
I shake my head. “I don’t think so. The only person she hangs around with is her girl Frankie.”
“What about the date you crashed? You think he would do something like this?”
“Suit and tie?” I ask, laughing a humorless laugh. “No. He’s too much of a bitch to do anything like this. He put on a good front, but I could see the fear in his eyes. Besides, I can’t see him wanting to get his precious hands dirty.”
Cyrus grunts in agreement. “Fucking pussy.”
Pipes roar in the distance, the sound growing nearer the closer they come.
Cyrus shoves the dresser back against the wall so it’s out of the way of the door before he rips what’s left of the door off the only hinge left. “I’ll go let them in,” Cyrus says before leaving the room, knowing I will not leave Aisling’s side.
Cormac has settled against my chest, finding comfort in his thumb or me, I’m not sure which. I’ve only held him once before this, but he and his mom and the only two things in this world that, when I held them for the first time, I knew they were mine.
“She breathin’?” Cain asks as he walks into the room, his face hard and unreadable, and he takes everything in.
I nod, still not able to voice it. She hasn’t moved since I found her. Not a single fucking movement except her chest rising and falling in the smallest way.
“Oh my God.” Evan gasps behind Cain, her hands coming up to cover her mouth.
“You fucking brought her?” I ask in shock.
Why the fuck would he bring Evan to something like this? I know he tells her some club business, but to bring her along is a whole new line I didn’t know we were ever going to cross.
“I brought her so she can drive Aisling’s car back to the clubhouse with Cormac,” Prez says, already having a plan for something I haven’t even thought about. “I didn’t think you would want to leave him here.”
“Thanks,” I mumble, my head in a fog.
“I’m going to pack him a bag. I have a feeling he’ll be staying a couple of nights in your room until we get her place cleaned up,” Evan says as she moves to his dresser, going right into action.
“How far out is Doc?” I ask.
The only thing that will be able to take a slight edge off this rage I’m feeling is having her checked out and hearing the words that she’s going to be okay.
Cain pulls his phone out of his pocket and looks at it. “Five minutes out.”
“I’m going to grab Aisling some things too. Do you know if there’s anything specific besides the basics she would want? Anything that would make her more comfortable?”
“Can you grab the pillows off her bed?”
“Sure.” Evan gives me a soft smile before slipping out of the room.
“You have any idea who might have done this?” Cain asks, his voice hushed so Evan can’t hear.
“No clue.” My arms twitch again. Cormac has passed out in my arms. The little man has to be fucking exhausted. “Cyrus thought it could have been the guy I caught her on a date with, but he doesn’t seem like he has it in him to do this scale of a break-in.”
“I agree with that.” Cain hums as he thinks it over. “I hope she got a good look at him. This is personal now.”
I nod, understanding exactly what he’s saying. “I’ll take care of it. Nothing will blow back on the club, so don’t worry. I appreciate you coming out and calling Doc.”
“Are you claiming her?” Cain asks straight up. “Because the way I see it, you already have.”
I give him a jerky nod. “Yeah, she’s mine.”
“Then it’s not only your problem. It’s the Dirty Devils’ problem now.
And I know you, Hash. You want to go in guns blazing and take out the motherfucker himself, but I’m telling you, you’re not going to do that without a brother at your back.
Your woman and your kid are Dirty Devils now, and no one fucks with one of our own.
Whoever did this is going to fucking pay in blood. ”
“Cain?” Doc calls from the front door.
“Back here!” Cain yells, making Cormac stir.
I glare at him, not happy he’s yelling after everything that just happened.
“Where’s Cyrus?” I ask, noticing he hasn’t come back.
“He’s tarping up the door so bugs and shit don’t come in. This place is already a mess; I don’t need to be chasing a goddamn raccoon out of it too.”
I’m going to need to roll him so many fucking joints to say thank you.
“Has she woken up at all?” Doc asks, his tone all business as he goes right to Aisling.
“No,” I answer.
“Has she stirred at all?” Doc asks as he opens up his medical bag and takes out a stethoscope.