Chapter 33
CLUTCH - AFTER THIS
Chestnut hair and clear blue eyes, a soft smile she saves just for me. I’ve missed you… She laughs, and it’s a sound I haven’t heard in so long. A sound I love. She doesn’t laugh often, but when she does… I am so sorry, Bex, I am going to fix this. I will…
I wake with a groan, the pain coming back to me all at once. Not just the physical, but the pain no doctor could treat. Because it is self-inflicted pain in my heart that only one person can help heal and I am the reason she is gone.
I crack my eyes open, bracing for the bright light of the kitchen, but I am… where the hell am I?
I don’t recognize the room, but I know I am still in the clubhouse. I feel like I haven’t slept in weeks and somehow like I've slept for far too long.
Dr Hart comes into my line of sight, a smile bringing out the lines around his eyes.
“Nice to see you awake. How are you feeling?”
I try to sit up, instinctively putting my left arm down, but then the pain lances through my shoulder and chest, forcing me to stop.
“Like I got shot.” I croak.
Gregory moves beside me, helping me sit up and adjusting me so I can lean on the wall beside the bed with a pillow behind my left side.
I scan the room, trying to place what part of the clubhouse I am in.
He must notice the confusion because he says, “One of the ladies, I think her name is Dani.
Said this was a bunk room and ordered the beds that were in here to be taken out and I quote, ‘people don't need to be healing from being shot on disease-ridden beds.’” He made a face like he agreed, then continued, “She had new beds brought in and we moved you all in here after Gavin treated each of you.”
At that, I scanned the room and saw Axel out cold in a bed across from me, and Meg who was slightly propped up, her large brown eyes watching me.
“How…” I crooked out again, Gregory moved and grabbed a glass of water from a table beside my bed. I took a sip, and then handed it back with a nod of thanks. “How are you feeling, Meg?”
“Like I got shot,” She mimics back to me, but then her eyes go to the ceiling and then she closes them for a moment sighing, “I feel like shit. But hopefully I will be well enough to get out of here soon.”
Gregory moves across the room, sitting next to Meg and doing a quick check of her vitals.
“That was very brave… what you did out there.” He says to her in between listening to her heart and asking her to take a deep breath.
Meg opens her eyes but keeps them looking up at the ceiling, “Brave… or stupid. I could have gotten everyone killed. I…”
He pats her arm, pulling her attention to him, “Young lady, no one else was doing anything. Sometimes in life you have to make hard choices. Who knows if they are the right or wrong ones… but what you did. I think you helped more than you hurt.”
Meg closes her eyes again, a tear slipping down the side of her face and into her hairline.
The doctor scans the room, a somber look on his face. “You are all incredibly lucky. Gavin says with the three of you if the bullet was a little to the left… a little bit higher, hit at a different angle…” he says looking at me, Meg and then Axel, “I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”
Meg opens her eyes and gives a soft smile to Dr Hart, “Is your son here, I would like to thank him.”
Just as she is finishing the door opens and in walks Angel, who looks more like an avenging angel of death right now, than how he earned his name saving brothers.
He walks right for me, “I thought the fucker wasn’t gonna talk but then Torch…
well he threatened to torch his,” Angel paused looking at the Doctor, like he was assessing how much to say.
I tried to laugh but it came out more like a wheezed cough, “I think he’s seen and heard worse so far, being here.”
Angel sighed, rubbing his hand down his face, I noticed the split knuckles and slight bruising, “Torch got out the blow torch from the garage and scared the shit out of Razor. I think he enjoyed it maybe a little too much. He says he wasn’t working with Preacher, that it was just convenient that shit was going down at the same time. ”
He flexes and stretches out one arm, rotating the shoulder, “But he did give us something I think you’d wanna know.”
I sat up a little taller at that… What did he know?
“Did…” My heart was racing, “Did he find, Bex?”
Angel rested a hand on my good arm, giving it a squeeze, “No, brother, I even asked Mara to make sure she is still good. She said she’d let me know when she hears back. He… he gave me the address for her parents.”
Meg sucked in a breath and it took me a minute to put together what he was telling me. The folder Cypher had put together for me flashed through my mind.
“Her parents?” I asked, feeling like I needed it said again.
Angel nodded, “Ya, he gave us an address, Cypher is running it right now, along with some information that could lead us to the group who had her and all the other kids.”
I didn’t miss how Meg turned her face away from us at the mention of Cypher.
“When I can get out of this bed, I am going to pay them all a visit. I am going to make it safe for her to come back.”
Angel’s eyes looked glassy, he reached up and grasped my good shoulder, “We are with you. With her. We owe her this.”
I choked down the tears that were threatening to come, reaching for the glass of water. I groaned when my stitches pulled and Angel helped me.
“That’s not all, Cypher needs to dig a bit more. But we may have found where Bex lived after she was rescued.”
Fuck, maybe that’s where she went. But if that was the case, I couldn’t go there until it was safe. Until I took care of her so called parents and traffickers who profit off of selling children.
I lowered my voice, “Where is Cypher, I kind of expected him to be…” I nodded in Meg’s direction.
She laughed and then groaned. Gregory, moving over to check on her, “I had to kick him out of the room until he could keep himself calm…” The older doctor looked from Meg to me, “He was being a little too… dramatic.”
Angel stood tall and went to move away, but I grabbed his arm, “I want to be there when he takes his last breath.”
Looking down at me, he nodded a sad tinge to his dark eyes, he had dark circles and he was looking older, worn down.
“I think there a few people would like to be there to see Razor take his last breath in person. Gavin is fixing him up now. So you rest, and when we have everything out of him… we will make sure you are there.”
I slid back down into the bed, feeling heavy and tired. Angel moved across the room, taking the seat the doctor left to check on Axel.
“Now you might be the biggest surprise of this whole shit show. I didn't know you could shoot like that.”
Meg shot Angel a look, “That’s because it isn’t just Razor who underestimates or just flat out misses shit when it comes to the women in this club. But why pay attention to us, we are just the weaker sex…” She lifted an eyebrow at him in an almost challenge.
“Who knew all the club Ol’ Ladies were all so strong willed.”
She gave him a look that said, ‘you are just proving my point asshole.’
Angel chuckled and held out his hands in defence, “How’d you learn to shoot like that?”
Meg studied Angel for a moment, before adjusting herself slightly and answering, “I grew up with my dad and brothers. They taught me to hunt, to shoot, and how to defend myself. They are all military or law enforcement. I didn’t like the violence, didn’t want to be surrounded by it all day and baking always gave me peace, this quiet joy…
you know…” She cleared her throat and smiled sadly, “It’s funny, he never even asked me about my family…
I think he assumed we don’t talk because I moved here on my own when I bought the building for my bakery…
I grew up watching my brothers train their whole lives to be the best at what they do, and watched my brother hack into his first government agency when I was ten.
I grew up around computers, and guns… but it never made me happy… not like them.”
Gregory moved back to Meg handing her some pills and a glass of water.
She smiled up at him, “Thank you.”
Angel watched her for a few minutes, and then asked, “If you know computer shit and have all this training... Why didn’t you ever say anything or offer to help Cypher.”
At that Meg laughed and then winced.
Gregory moved to me, handing me a few pills, “For the pain.”
Meg’s usually warm brown eyes were cold when she responded, “Seriously. You guys treat women like property, not as partners. I did offer to help, but he brushed me off saying it would just slow him down to teach me… But he had it taken care of right… and then he had Lacey…” A tear rolled down her cheek, but she didn’t wipe it away.
“Why would I expose my family, or myself… for this club? I am just a simple sweet girl who has a cute hobby business. Why would anyone take me seriously…”
“I would…”
She held up a hand shaking her head at him, “Bullshit, if I came to you and said hey… I can help. Would you have believed me, or would you have brushed me off like Cypher did?”
Angel opened his mouth and then closed it, muttering fuck.
Axel groaned, pulling our attention and then the door opened and in walked Gavin, covered in blood. He kept his eyes on the floor, “I just need to get cleaned up and then I can look Axel over to make sure he’s healing alright.”
I could feel the warmth of the pills kicking in, but at the mention of Axel, someone else came to mind. “Marisol… is she? And Mara?”
Gregory smiled at me, “They are both ok, and so are the babies. I am keeping a close eye on Marisol. She wasn’t harmed physically, but…”
He didn’t finish and he didn't need to. Marisol wouldn’t be the same after this.
Gavin quickly changed his shirt and washed up, then moved beside Angel.
Before sleep pulled me under again I heard him tell Angel, “Lacey isn’t going to live long if we keep her out there.”
The last thing I heard was Meg’s voice turned ice cold when she said, “Good.”
I don’t think any of us will be the same after this.