63. Chapter 63
Smoke holds up a device that’s a little like a gun, and once again, worry fills the kids’ eyes. “I know this looks a little scary, but all I do is hold it up to your hip, push the trigger, and you’ll feel a little pinch as it goes under the skin. Then, you’ll get to pick out a band-aid to put over it.”
“I’ll go first so you guys can see, okay?” Mae asks as she scoots a chair closer to Smoke.
She takes a band-aid that Smoke holds out to her. Then pulls down her leggings and her underwear just enough to expose the side of her hip. I know this must be awkward for her to do this, but I’m extremely grateful she offered to show them how it gets inserted in us.
Smoke holds the gun to Mae’s hip and when Cassie whimpers, Smoke stops when Mae whispers to him. Mae holds out her hand to Cassie.
“Come here, sweetie. It’s just going to be a little pinch. It’s okay.”
Mae hugs Cassie to her and at her nod, Smoke pulls the trigger. Cassie jumps a little at the sound, but Mae doesn’t react at all, though her eyebrows raise a little in shock.
“A vaccine hurts worse than that does,” she says before Smoke puts the band-aid over the injection spot.
Her comment has most of the kids’ worry easing. None of them like getting shots. Not that I blame them. The regular doctor that we use was dictated by Stephan and he never cared for the kids’ comfort when doing something like vaccines.
Wait a minute.
“Smoke?” My voice shakes and I try to level it out so that I don’t scare the kids. “Um, how small can those trackers be made?”
He frowns at my question and then when he nods as he grits his teeth, I think he’s figured out my train of thought.
“Give me one moment and I’ll be back.” He picks up his little case of tools and the trackers, sets it on a shelf up high and then leaves the room.
“Kids, you can go ahead and play until Smoke comes back. Then we’ll finish, okay?” They give me weird looks, but thankfully, they do as I ask.
Turning around, I do my best to keep my frustrations from bubbling up out of me, but I’m almost positive that I’m right. Patch crouches down in front of me and cups my cheek. I’m vaguely aware of Mae, Timber, Tío (Uncle) Mateo, and Elvira going to the other side of the room to give us a bit of privacy.
“Talk to me, Siren.”
“What if there’s one small enough to be put in us with a needle? For regular checkups and vaccines, Stephan made us go to a certain doctor even though he was creepy as fuck. He was never gentle and didn’t care if he hurt the kids or me when doing vaccines or exams. What if Stephan had that doctor put trackers on us? What if that’s how they keep finding me when we go into town?”
Before today, I had gone into town a couple of times with Levi, Mae, Patch, and a handful of club members for grocery and supply runs. Each time, we spotted someone from Stephan and Diego’s circle watching us.
A murderous look crosses Patches face before he masks it and cups both of my cheeks. “If that’s the case, then we’ll get them out before putting Smoke’s tracking in its place. Maybe we can use theirs to lure them into a trap or something. I lost you once, and I’m not losing you again. You are my heart, Mary. You, Asher, Isaiah, Cassie, and any other kids we might have. All of you are my heart. I lost nine years with you. I’m not losing any more.”
His words break through the dam, and despite tears falling down my cheeks, I pull him forward, crashing my lips to his.
“Ewwww,” Isaiah cries, and we both laugh as we break apart. Turning, I chuckle again when I see his little face squished up.
Smoke comes back with a small bag and comes over to me. “Let’s start with you, but I’ll need you to take off your bracelets and shoes, then you’ll need to stand for this.
I unhook my bracelets and hand them to Patch before slipping out of my flats and standing. Smoke waves the wand over me and when I hear a little ping, I close my eyes and bite my lip to keep from breaking down or screaming out in anger.
He actually did it.
The fucker’s been tracking me this entire time.
“Why am I surprised that he did this? I shouldn’t be with everything else he’s done.”
A guilty look crosses Smoke’s face. “I’m sorry, Mary. I didn’t think to check when you guys came.” He pauses and looks up at Patch. “We’re gonna need to do hers in the med room.”
He grits his teeth. “Check the kids. If they aren’t tagged, then you can give them their trackers. We’ll do Mary’s last.”
“Okay, kids. Can you guys come over here?” Smoke asks them. He produces a key out of his pocket, the master key, and unlocks their bracelets. Unlike mine, since mine has mini-blades and theirs don’t, theirs are secured and can only be cut off if someone doesn’t have a key. To some, it may seem like overkill, but to me, it was a grateful extra layer of protection.
When Smoke is finally done checking all three of them, I release the breath I’d been holding.
Stephan wasn’t tracking them.
Just me.
“He probably thought the kids would be wherever you were, with the exception of school,” Tío (Uncle) Mateo says quietly, which makes sense, but I’m relieved nonetheless.
One by one, Smoke inserts the trackers starting with Patch and Timber.
“I’ll go first,” Ash offers and both Cassie and Isaiah crowd around him to watch. Cassie takes his hand and he gives it a little squeeze. “It’s okay, Cass. It didn’t hurt Auntie MaeMae, Dad, or Uncle Timber, so it’ll be okay.”
My heart squeezes as I watch him reassure her. Damn, he’s going to make someone extremely happy when he’s an adult.
“Ready?” Smoke asks him.
“Ready.”
Smoke pulls the little trigger, and Ash doesn’t flinch at all. Instead, surprise floods his face.
“See? I told you it didn’t hurt,” Lindsey says as she comes around the couch where she was hiding to give him a bit of privacy and gives him a hug.
He looks down at Cassie and Isaiah. “She’s right. They were all right. It doesn’t hurt at all.”
I chuckle when both Cassie and Isaiah move to lower their pants enough for the tracker. Smoke gives Cassie hers first, since she’s wearing leggings, and then he gives Isaiah his.
“Thank you, kids. I really appreciate you doing that for us,” I tell them and open my arms to give them all hugs.
“What about you, Mom?”
“I’m going to get mine, but because of everything, I need to go to the med room to get mine put in. But come here and give us kisses for the night. Granny is going to watch you in here so you all can sleep in the fort.”
“Even me?” Lindsey asks as she hops on her toes as she stares up at Elvira, who smiles down at her.
“Even you, Pumpkin. Your daddy’s outside, but he was waiting till we were all done in here. Let’s go see him so he can give you hugs and kisses goodnight.”
Five minutes later, I follow the others out into the hall, including Drae. I’m sure it will be a bit before the kids settle down, but I can’t even begin to describe how happy I am that they’re able to play so much with another kid so frequently, especially since Lindsey is right in between Ash and Isaiah age-wise at eight years old. I’m guessing, that when all this mess is over, we’ll be seeing more of Sadie and Jordan as well.
Once in the medical room, my nerves return as Patch pulls out some pills for Mateo.
“Take one of these every six hours or as needed. Let me know if any of your wounds start to look inflamed or are itchy while you’re here. I pumped you full of a bunch of antibiotics, which were these, as well as fluids while you were out of it,” he says as he passes him a piece of paper with the medication and times on it as well as a water bottle. “Drae, since I need to help Smoke with Mary, can you show Mateo where his room is?”
Drae gives Patch a chin lift and then Patch turns toward Mateo.
“Our room is two doors down from yours on the same side, if you need anything.”
Mateo gives me a questioning look and when I give him a small smile, the corner of his lips ticks up slightly. “ Gracias (Thank you). Buenas noches (Good night), and I’ll see you in the morning.”
“ Buenas noches (Good night), Tío (Uncle) Mateo,” I call out and get a wider smile from him in return.
God, it feels good to connect with him again, and then my stomach sours as I realize that this is it. Time to get Stephan’s tracker taken care of.
Wiping my hands on my leggings, I take a steady breath. “How should we do this?”
“Let me see if I can feel it,” Patch says as he snaps on some gloves and starts feeling around on my arm, a few inches below my shoulder. “Got it. I can give you local anesthesia for the incision if you want. Once the area is numb, we should be able to use tweezers to get it out and then, depending on if I need to lengthen the incision, I either use glue or stitches to close it up or just a band-aid. If we’re lucky, you’ll only need a band-aid because it’ll be the size of a paper cut.”
He gets up, looks through his cabinets and pulls out a headband with a light attached to it. Standing, I hobble over to the table, and with Smoke steadying me, I get situated.
“Do you want the local anesthesia?”
I bite my lip as I look at my shoulder. Patch puts his finger over the tracker, and then I feel around to get an idea of how big it really is.
“With my history, I don’t think I’ll have any problems going without for this. Do you want me to lay down or stay sitting up?”
He gives me a sad, small smile, but it’s the truth. This won’t be anywhere close to the worst that Stephan’s done to me.
“If you could lay down, that would be better. Then you’re not as subconscious about not moving your body and possibly tensing up as a result.”
By the time I lay down and am semi comfy, Patch has everything out that he needs and is rolling the table over to me. Smoke has also washed up and is putting on gloves as a just in case.
After cleaning the area, he grabs a scalpel and I stare up at the ceiling for a moment before turning slightly to watch as Patch makes a small incision in my arm. The urge to lay eyes on the tracker is intense. In all honesty, I wish I could crush it, but then the guys wouldn’t be able to possibly use it.
“Do you think there’s anything in it that can tell it won’t be in my body anymore?”
Out of the corner of my eye, Smoke shakes his head. “No, they aren’t that sensitive yet. At some point, maybe, but not yet. And especially not with this one. I’m betting he did this not too long after getting a hold of you. Or hell, Diego could have had it done before he handed you over to Stephan as well.”
“Fuck,” I curse. I hadn’t thought of that. Which one is tracking me? “Is there a way to tell who’s been tracking me?”
“It depends on the location it sends its signal to. Since both Stephan and Diego are in the wind, we might not be able to know.”
Patch puts down the scalpel and Smoke hands him some tweezers. It feels weird as he digs around inside of my arm, but he does it as carefully as possible. After a few moments, he pulls out a small circular device. Smoke holds out a plastic bag and Patch drops it inside.
“You won’t need any stitches since I was able to get it pretty easily,” he says as he wipes away a little blood and I take over putting pressure on it with a cotton ball while he gets me a band-aid.
“Okay. Let’s stand you up and do a double check that there aren’t any other trackers before I put mine in.”
Patch helps steady me as I stand, and thankfully, no other beeps emit from the scanner.
“Perfect, and I really am sorry for not thinking about that when you first came here.”
Shaking my head, I retake my seat on the table. “It’s not your fault, Smoke. I knew he had one in the ring, which you took, but I didn’t think he’d go that far, either.”
Patch and Smoke switch places and I lower my leggings, trying not to flash Smoke in the process. A few seconds later, I hear him pulling the trigger, and a small sting lets me know that it worked.
Setting the gun down, Smoke pulls out a tablet and opens a program, which is pretty impressive. On the screen that he’s on now, he can click to different areas of the compound or look at it as a whole. He picks the clubhouse, since we’re all here and on lockdown, and I can see eleven dots light up on the screen. He then goes by floor and I grin when I see four little red dots close to each other in the playroom. He moves the screen slightly and then I see our three blue dots in the medical room.
“So kids are red and adults are blue?” I ask and he nods.
“Yes, and if I click on one, it shows me which code number it’s assigned to and then the picture of who it is appears in the bottom right-hand corner, like this.”
My eyebrows raise in surprise at how much information he can store and access with this program.
“What if someone goes missing? Can it easily tell you who is not here?” Patch asks and I grimace. Yeah, that would be a nice feature to have to immediately realize who is missing.
“Yes, but not all the guys are chipped yet. I’m still working on syncing it with the trackers in all of our cuts and bracelets, so it’s not a hundred-percent complete yet. However, this is at least a start and with the shit that’s going on right now, you five are the most likely targets, so it’ll definitely help that you’re all now chipped.”
I lean against Patch’s side as I look at the program on Smoke’s tablet. A niggling of worry worms its way into my mind. I really hope that Smoke won’t have to use his program, but deep in my gut, I know he’s going to have to use it.
It’s just a question for who Stephan or Diego will try to grab next.