CHAPTER ONE #3
I step out into the waiting room and see that Mick sees me immediately and gets up to walk over to me.
I meet him halfway. I give him a small smile.
“Your baby girl was born about twenty minutes ago. She’s been taken to the NICU.
I’ll take you there to meet her in a little bit.
I have a feeling your wife was a week or so further along than we thought, which in this case is a good thing.
Your daughter weighs four pounds, three ounces, and so far, is as healthy as can be expected for being born this early.
All our tests show she wasn’t oxygen-deprived after…
after the incident. She’s gonna have to be in the NICU for a while since she is considered premature.
They need to watch her lung development and continue to monitor her for a while for any issues that may still pop up. ”
I see a nurse from the nurses’ station come over and ask Mick, “Do you have a name picked out? I want to get your information in so you’ll be able to go back to see your daughter whenever you want.
” Mick nods and looks back to his family in the chairs.
“Yeah, we picked out a name. Her name is Mikayla Erika.” I can see that the name holds meaning for the family and that always warms my heart.
Mick looks back toward me again and asks, “How is my wife? Is she…” I take a deep breath before answering and give him the answer he needs.
“Your wife lost a lot of blood before we even got into the operating room. She’s had multiple transfusions.
She did have to be revived twice after your daughter was born.
” He starts to buckle at his knees, but two guys are there holding him up before I can do anything.
I can see the tears begin to fall, and I know I need to get it all out now.
I continue, “We were able to stop the bleeding eventually, but due to the blood loss and some other complications that arose, we had to perform a hysterectomy.”
I can see Mick’s devastation, and he starts losing it more.
I reach out without thought and touch his arm.
“She’s alive. Focus on that. She’s in recovery.
It’s going to be a bit before they have her in a room.
She’s under heavy sedation right now, but once they have her settled, someone will come out and bring you back to her. ”
Mick nods a couple of times and looks up at me. “Thank you…thank you for saving my world.”
I squeeze his arm again. “Your daughter is going to be ready to meet you shortly. Go and see her, meet her, and we’ll find you wherever you are when Madison is in her room.
I will be honest with you. She might need some more transfusions, and we need to watch her closely for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
She’s stable for now, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep her that way.
” The older gentleman holding on to Mick speaks up.
“Thank you, Doctor. Thank you for saving both of them.” I nod and go back through the doors.
As soon as I’m behind the doors, I sneak into a supply closet and lose my shit.
The tears come fast and hard. I let myself cry for a few minutes and then get my shit together.
I walk out of the supply closet and physically run into a wall.
I look up and see it’s Darius. He gives me a smile.
“I figured you might need these.” He holds up a clean set of scrubs.
I take them from him and give him a smile. “You really are my favorite, you know that?”
He gives me a huge grin. “Darlin’, of course, I am.
I also double-checked, and they have rescheduled your appointments for the rest of the day until next week.
Your two patients who were in early labor are here.
The first-timer is still early on, and the expert is sitting at about six centimeters.
You go do the things I know you need to take care of, and I’ll check on both of them again and find you with an update.
I ain’t leaving you to deal with all of this alone.
I’ll go check on our gal in post-op.” I thank him and hurry to the bathroom to get changed. It’s gonna be a long night.
Ben
Mike, Jackson, and I have just arrived on the labor and delivery floor. We are walking over to the tables, and I can see by his expression that Jonah is trying to contain his rage.
Jackson updates Jonah and the others sitting in the waiting room.
“Cops can’t tell us much of anything. Sounds like whoever it was has some serious IT people in their corner ‘cause the feeds that are in the area where Madison was were magically all turned off for five minutes before and after everything happened.” Jonah looks frustrated.
He speaks up just loudly enough for us to hear.
“I think our best bet is to speak with that doctor lady before the cops do. We need to find out what she saw and if there’s anything we should ask her not to disclose to the officers.
I know she knows my boys and Shane pretty well.
Do you think one of them is the best bet to speak to her?
” Fuck that. No one is going to talk to her without me.
“Fuck no. I’ll go talk to her. She’ll listen, and she’ll give us everything she saw.
” I see her over at the nurse’s desk, and I head her way.
Right before I get to her, I can tell Mike has come up next to me.
Kimbra looks up as we get close to her, and I see she’s got a big bruise on the side of her face. Seeing that makes me see red. Someone touched her. Someone hurt her.
She gives us both a nod. “What can I do for you, gentlemen?”
I can’t help but ask her, “What happened to your face? Who did that to you?” I watch her hand come up and touch her cheek.
“Same person who caused everything else today. It was his parting shot.” I reach up and brush my fingers along her cheek. I need to know. “He hurt you anywhere else?”
Kimbra shakes her head. “No, I wasn’t the one who he was focused on.”
Mike clears his throat to get our attention. “I know we’ve met, but it’s always been when a baby is being born. I’m Mike. Do you remember anything about the man? What he looked like, or what he said?”
Kimbra gestures away from the nurse’s station to the coffee maker.
As she gets herself a cup, she answers Mike.
“I remember everything he said. He didn’t give us a name, but he was wearing one of those vest-like things like you guys wear when you're doing charity events for the community.” I look over at Mike, and he looks at me.
What club could it be? I ask Kimbra, “You mean a cut?” She nods.
“Yeah, if that’s what they’re called. His didn’t look like yours, though.
His looked kind of dirty, and on the front, it read ‘president.’” Please don’t let it be who I think it might be.
“Did you get a look at the back of it?” She stirs her coffee and looks at both of us.
“Yeah, but I only saw the first letter of the first word. It read something that started with an S, and the word on the bottom read ‘Devils.’” Holy fucking shit. It is that fucking piece of shit.
Mike finds his voice. “Could the first word have been Sangre? As in Sangre Devils?” I watch her as she thinks. She nods. “I think so. I know it had a skull with like devil ears and blood dripping from its mouth.”
I’ll fucking kill them all. Those fuckers. I need to know it all. I look into the eyes of the woman I want to claim as mine. “Tell me everything that fucker said.”
She replays everything the soon-to-be-dead man said. When she finishes, Mike thanks her and walks off to go update the brothers.
I move in closer to Kimbra and look her in the eyes.
“You get that our club and that fucker’s club are nothing alike, right?
” She looks at me and surprises me with her answer.
“I know that. It’s like all oranges are orange, but not all orange things are oranges.
” She gets it. “We’d really like it for the cops to not know the name of the club that was on the back of the guy’s cut.
You okay with keeping that from them? You understand why? ”
I watch her contemplate my question, and I see the moment she decides her answer.
“I understand. You guys do your thing and find him. Find him and make him pay.” I nod.
I want to continue our conversation, but Jackson calls my name.
I look at Kimbra and decide at that moment she needs to know how I’m feeling.
“You and me. This ain’t over, Kimbra. We’ll talk soon.
” I turn and head back to the brothers, the need to hunt down the fucktard, Taz, and his minions coursing through my body.
I spend the next few hours chasing down leads and searching the area for the fuckers.
Seems he dropped into town, did his damage, and hightailed it out of there.
Mike, Tripp, and I give Juan, Samson, Logan, and Ry descriptions of the guys that we think are still with the club. They’re gonna do some digging online.