Chapter 43
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
TRIXIE
Icouldn’t stand being in that medical room.
It wasn’t just that the bed was functional rather than comfortable.
It was more that the whole area had reminded me of things I’d rather forget – the time that I’d spent in the hospital in New York after Piero’s final attack.
It makes me remember Irish. I still hate that he was taken too soon.
What would he make of me now? An old lady. I like to think he’d be pleased for me.
Bronwyn had found me crutches, impressed that I’d immediately been proficient using them.
I didn’t explain that it wasn’t the first time I’d had to resort to their use.
Piero had once dislocated my knee. I’d hopped my way through the empty clubroom and remembered how to tackle stairs, with Ace hovering beside me, in case I’d lost my balance.
Exhausted, I was relieved when I finally hopped into Freak’s room.
“You want anything, Mom?”
“No, kid. I’m good.” I’d wanted to be alone, but Ace has taken it upon himself to keep me company, and I don’t have the heart to tell him to go.
He’d taken it hard when he’d seen what had happened to me.
And he’s told me in no uncertain terms that when Freak’s not around, he’ll be my self-appointed protector.
Until… Well, he didn’t finish that sentence, but we both share the same sentiment.
While we know there’s no way Piero will be able to escape from the Kings, neither of us will be able to breathe easy until we get the confirmation that I’m a widow.
Freak’s taking longer than I expected, and I hope he’s using it wisely and is making Piero hurt. Does that make me a bad person to hope that my husband’s feeling every bit of the pain he’d doled out to me? A swift bullet would be far too easy.
Ace takes a book and settles down to read.
I close my eyes and try to relax, but it’s hard when every bit of me is throbbing.
I’m alive, I remind myself. Freak came for me.
I’ve won, and Piero lost everything. I’m free to live my life without looking over my shoulder.
Unless the Mafia comes after me to avenge Piero.
I can’t think why they would. I was only of interest to him.
I’m no threat to them. Like the club business often quoted in the club, the Mafia didn’t tell their women anything. I’m not even a loose end worth tying.
Suddenly, Ace shuts his book. Like me, he seems unable to keep still. “What’s on your mind?” I ask him.
“We won’t be able to go to Big Daddy’s rally next weekend. You won’t be fit to travel.”
I know how much he was looking forward to it.
He hadn’t been before. And I, too, had been getting excited, going along with Freak as his old lady, and not as a whore.
I’d been relishing the thought of arriving on the back of my man’s bike – Ace had been going to travel in the crash truck alongside one of the prospects.
Unusually for Ace, he’s pouting. “I’ll be sixteen the week after. I kinda thought the rally could be my birthday celebration.”
I keep quiet, knowing full well Pippa will continue to arrange the party, even if I’m not physically able to do much myself. Unbeknownst to him, he’ll only have another week to wait for his birthday surprise.
Without giving too much away, I simply say, “We’ll do something for your birthday, kid.”
His eyes narrow. “When I turn sixteen, can you drop the ‘kid’ shit?”
“Nope.” I pop the p. What are moms for if not to annoy their offspring, even if they’ve been gained by pseudo adoption?
“Mo..om,” he whines.
“Want to watch something on television?” See? Alone would be better. I feel I have to entertain him now. Not that I resent it, but to be honest, all I want to do is close my eyes and sleep.
He considers for a moment, then shrugs. “Sure.” Grabbing the remote, he summons the screen to come to life, and then browses the menus so fast I can’t keep up with him.
“What about this?” he asks, landing on a true crime documentary.
Unfortunately, it’s about a woman who was kidnapped, beaten, and left for dead. Spoiler – she died.
Not quite the light entertainment I was hoping for, but he takes my noncommittal grunt as confirmation and clicks on the program. Her naked, battered body was in the opening titles, the words strategically placed to preserve her dignity.
I remind myself that the case is not similar. Unlike that poor woman, I’m alive. Despite my misgivings, I become engrossed in how the on-screen law enforcement tracked down the perpetrator. It’s just getting to the good part when the door opens, and Freak steps inside.
My eyes ask the question that’s topmost on my mind.
“You’re free, Trix. He’s dead.” He stands in the doorway as if waiting for some sign.
I hold out my hand to him. As if chains have dropped from his ankles, he suddenly starts moving, and in just one second, he’s by my side.
Dropping to his knees, his hand hovers as though he’s afraid to touch me, and his eyes narrow as they fall on my face.
“When did you last take some painkillers?”
“Before she came up to this room,” Ace replies for me. “Dad, the tablets Bronwyn gave her are on the nightstand.” He points to where he left them by my side, along with a bottle of water. Then, he stands. “I’m starving. I’m going to see if I can scrounge up some food. Either of you want any?”
“I could do with a sandwich,” I tell him. “Can you see if Pippa’s around?”
He scoffs. “I can make something. Dad?”
“Yeah, I’ll take whatever you find,” Freak replies to him.
When the door closes behind Ace, Freak continues to examine me with his eyes. “How are you feeling, really?”
“My head hurts, I’m tired, my stomach aches, my back’s sore, and my ankle throbs. And I’m not looking forward to tonight when, according to Bronwyn, you’ll have to wake me every two hours. But other than that, I’m A-okay.”
His eyes close briefly as if he’s the one in pain. “Think I’m going to get a prospect to take Ace back to his nana’s. Or none of us is going to get any sleep tonight.” His eyes fall on the cot where Ace used to sleep before we moved to the house.
I place my hand on his cheek. “Or, we could go back to the house.”
He rears back. “No fuckin’ way. I want you here, close to Bronwyn, should you need her skills in the night.”
“She’s not working?”
“Nah, I checked. But she is tomorrow.”
My injuries are nothing new, and I’ve recovered before. I want to protest and go home. Then, I remember, earlier, as I’d been drifting in and out, I’d heard almost every word Freak had spoken. He’s been so fucking worried about me, I don’t have it in me to give him more cause for concern.
“I want to go home tomorrow,” I compromise, giving him tonight. “Perhaps Bron can clear me before she goes to the hospital?” Then I wonder if there are things he needs to tell me. “Unless it’s not safe?”
“He’s gone,” he reminds me. “He can’t hurt you again. And from what I gleaned when I questioned him, he didn’t tell the Mafia you were here.”
“I suspected that. He had only one soldato with him.”
Freak nods his head.
“He confirmed he wanted to kill you so he could get married again.” He pulls himself upright, walks around to the other side of the bed, lies down, and then his hands hover.
Hiding my wince, I turn to face him, twisting so I can leave my ankle in the partially comfortable position where it was.
He hesitantly puts his arm over me, gently giving me his weight while studiously studying me to make sure he’s not causing pain.
I sigh as his warmth seeps into me. It’s only now that I realise I truly feel safe.
“At least Piero’s death saves another young girl from being treated like me.”
“He was a sick bastard,” Freak snarls, lifting a hand to brush a strand of hair off my face. His gentle action is totally at odds with the words he’d just said.
It’s then that I notice his grazed knuckles. Lifting his hand to my mouth, I make sure to kiss each of his injuries. A wave of gratitude floods through me. “Thank you for searching for me, for finding me, for making sure Piero can never hurt me again.”
“Don’t need any fuckin’ thanks,” he snarls.
“Babe, I’d never have stopped looking for you.
But I might steal your idea, make sure you have trackers on you, in your purse, your shoes.
I’ll get them sewn into your fuckin’ clothes.
” I’m staring at him, and see moisture form in the corners of his eyes.
I swallow hard, filled with emotion at the unexpected sight.
“I don’t know what I’d have done if I couldn’t find you, or if I’d have gotten there too late. As it was, it wasn’t in time…”
“You got there before he killed me.” Suddenly, I frown. “But you didn’t tell me how.” I’d just accepted it was a miracle at the time.
He proceeds to tell me how the woman at the bakery had seen what went down, and how Pippa and Genie had picked it up from their routine monitoring of the police’s waveband.
He draws in a sharp breath and shudders, as if trying to control himself as he finishes up with, “Thank fuck they were on the ball. We were able to make a good guess as to where he’d taken you.” He pauses, and this time swallows an audible sob. “If we’d been wrong…”
“You weren’t.” Risking turning my ankle on its side, I swallow the pain and place both my hands on his cheeks. “You found me. Nothing else matters.”
His phone rings, interrupting the moment. He pulls away, takes his phone out, then, pushing himself up, sits on the side of the bed, his free hand reaching back to hold one of mine as though he doesn’t want to lose contact with me.
“Prez…Yeah?” His fingers squeeze mine. “They did?… And Tyrant’s got her?… That’s fuckin’ good news, Prez…Yeah, we can all relax now. Thanks for letting me know.” He ends the call.
His face suggests he’s received good news, but the way he reclaims his hand and cradles his head with his palms suggests the opposite.
Expecting to be told “club business”, I tentatively ask, “What was that, Freak?”
Now there’s no doubting the tears in his eyes as he turns to fully face me. “It’s my fault, Trix. This…” he waves his hand toward my body. “All your injuries, your suffering, that your fuckin’ ex was able to find you, it’s all down to me.”
Completely confused, ignoring the pain, I sit up, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
His voice drops to a whisper. “Alongi was only able to find out where you were because I didn’t do what Prez asked of me.”
I’m not understanding this at all. “You had nothing to do with him finding me.”
Again, he shudders. “Trix, I’m so fuckin’ sorry.
I let Toni go. Should have ended her permanently.
Didn’t realise she must have put two and two together and saw the way the wind was blowing, even before I claimed you.
A woman scorned?” He snorts. “Yeah, that was her. If she couldn’t have me, she certainly didn’t want you to.
Or maybe she just didn’t like the way Ace adored you.
I don’t fuckin’ know how, but somehow, she got in touch with Alongi—”
“Stop!” I bark, then regret my sharpness as a wave of pain goes through my head. I ignore it. He’s blaming the wrong person, and from that phone call, it sounded like retribution was going to happen. I had to prevent it. “It wasn’t Toni who betrayed me.”
“Trix…” His voice has gentled. “I know you like to believe the best in people, but—”
“I fucking know how Piero found me, and it wasn’t through her.
” Fighting the pain, I put all the strength I have into the words.
“Freak.” I shake his arm as hard as I can, which isn’t very impressive, but it gets his attention at least. “I know how Piero found me. That night, at the MDMC compound, when I was…”
“Raped. You were fuckin’ raped.”
I ignore his harsh words, not needing the reminder.
“Those assholes took a photo of me. They put it on the internet. Piero had a facial recognition program set up to look for pictures of me. He questioned them. They said they didn’t know who I was, but dropped in that the Kings had attacked that night.
Piero did the addition and staked a man outside our compound.
Then, they watched for me and followed. It was the fuckin’ photo those assholes took of me that led to him discovering my whereabouts.
” I focus my blazing eyes on him. “It had nothing to do with Toni.”
“What?” His pinched brow shows that he’s having difficulty processing my words.
“Toni didn’t do anything. Whatever you’ve put in motion has got to stop now.
” I see I still have to convince him. “Most men carry a pretty picture of their wife in their wallet. Piero showed me the photo he carried of me. He brandished it like a trophy. It showed me, sprawled out, on the pool table after I’d been raped. ”
He stares without blinking. I can almost see the wheels in his head turning his thought process a full one-eighty.
Then he bursts into action, picking up the phone he’d so recently put down.
“Bullseye? Get back to Tyrant. Toni didn’t betray us…
How do I know? Alongi found out from a picture the fuckin’ MDMC assholes took of Trixie.
She’s innocent, at least of this.” He listens for a moment, his face going red as if he’s being given an earful.
Then finally, rather gingerly for him, he says, “Thanks, Prez.”
“Who’s Tyrant?”
He breathes in deep. “Pippa had given her a new phone so we could track her. She ended up in Turmoil, in the territory of the Nebraska Kings. They caught up with her and took her to their clubhouse.” He draws in another breath, then lets it out on a shuddering sigh.
“Tyrant, their Prez, agreed to end her. For us.”
My eyes go wide. “You get yourself off your fucking ass, Freak. Go down and see Bullseye now. You make fucking sure this Tyrant isn’t going to hurt her.
” I’m spitting with rage. No, I don’t like Toni, but she doesn’t deserve death, and certainly not for something she didn’t do.
I prod Freak again. “Go, make this right.”