Chapter 26 #2
We both knelt on the ground. I glanced over and it broke my heart to see my girls crying.
“Stay there,” I told them. “We’ll be just fine, okay?
Just listen to the policemen alright? I’m going to talk to them and then we’ll be heading home together.
They won’t hurt you.” What I wanted to do was drop kick the asshole who was about to put cuffs on me, but even I had to concede to my own advice.
Tonight was just another in a long list of traumatic nights for my girls.
Watching their father get shot by the police was the last thing they needed.
Gabby nodded and held onto Caitlyn tighter as the little girl struggled in her hold. Caitlyn looked frantic.
I met her gaze. “We’re okay. I promise. Everything will be okay.”
“Lay down on your stomachs. Put your arms out like an airplane,” the cop instructed.
“That might be hard,” Jenny told them. “That guy over there kicked me in my ribs and they hurt pretty bad.”
“Get the EMT’s” the cop directing us told another. “Fine,” Put one arm out like an airplane and keep the other by your side. You’d better not go for a weapon,” he warned her.
Anger and worry flooded me as I listened to him speaking to her, barking at her was more like it. I wanted to run my hands over her, check that she was okay for myself.
As soon as we assumed the positions the officers came in and I grunted when one knelt his weight onto my back as he jerked my hands behind me.
The cuffs clicked tightly over my wrists.
I turned my head and found Jenny watching me.
I schooled my features into a cold mask.
She didn’t need to see me pissed off that they were arresting us when fucking Chet had tried to kill my family.
The cops helped us stand up and walked us toward the door. “Wait,” I called out. “Those are my kids.”
“CPS will be called.”
“No,” Jenny said, shaking her head as the second cop finished searching her. Satisfied that she didn’t pose a threat, he helped her up, being careful of her ribs.
“Both of you are being detained until we figure out what happened here,” the officer told her, helping her to her feet. He was being kind to her so I kept my mouth shut. I wasn’t happy to see his hands on her, but they weren’t about to uncuff me so I could help her.
“Their Aunt Kit can pick them up from the police station,” she told them. “She’ll meet us there if you let me call her.”
EMS pushed their way into the room and loaded up Chet’s body onto a gurney. We all watched as they wheeled him out.
“Is he…dead?” Jenny asked.
“Yeah, he is,” the cop answered. He looked down at her and saw the fear on her face. “If what he says is true,” he says, motioning to me, “then it will be self-defense. But we have to look into it.”
“What’s the number?” the second cop asked Jenny, holding up a phone.
She rattled off the clubhouse phone number. We listened as the cop talked to Kit and relief made my knees almost buckle as I heard him tell her that we’d meet her at the station.
Another EMT came in and poked and prodded at Jenny.
I was worried about her. Each time he put pressure on her ribs she winced.
“They’re just bruised,” he told her. “I’ll wrap a bandage around them and it’ll make things more comfortable for you.
I’ll clean that up, too,” he said, pointing at the cut between her brows.
“Let’s go,” the officer said to me.
“Go with the police,” I told the girls. “You’ll be safe with them.” The cop holding onto my arm shoved me out of the house and into a cop car. None of my brothers were around so I assumed they’d already taken them in.
Laying my head back against the seat, I shut my eyes.
I was holding onto my control by a thread.
It wouldn’t help any of us if I lost my shit in the back of a police cruiser.
Seeing my girls and my old lady’s scared expressions as they’d walked me out had made me want to fight back.
Instead, I’d had to swallow down my anger and go peacefully.
It didn’t take long for the uniformed cops to take me to the police station and book me. They shoved me into a holding cell near my MC brothers.
“Are they okay?” Lockout asked, worry coating the words.
“Mostly. Chet went after Taz before I got there. Bruised her ribs. She got him back though. Bashed his skull in with a shovel. He’s dead.”
Butcher chuckled from where he sat on the other side of the cage. “I knew I liked your old lady.”
“What happened to you?” I asked Lockout, who was sporting a split lip and a black eye.
“Had to give you a chance to get your ass in the house,” he said with a shrug.
“Lucky you didn’t get fuckin’ shot fightin’ back like that,” Hush muttered. “Especially with the rest of us already sportin’ handcuffs.”
“Where’s Riptide?” I asked, looking around.
“Hospital. He wasn’t cuffed up yet either so he helped Lock.”
Dread swirled around inside me as I heard that. “Is he-”
“He got tased,” Toxic told me. “He’s fine, but he hit his head on the ground pretty fucking badly, so they took him in to get checked out.”
I leaned my head back against the wall. “Fuck. I shouldn’t have told her she could take the girls to the house.”
“This isn’t your fault, Priest,” Lockout snapped. “None of us knew he’d end up looking through the fucking court files to find Caitlyn. We thought if anything he’d start with CPS. Not go around them entirely.”
“Who knew the asshole was smart enough to think of that?” Toxic asked.
Guilt still pricked at me as we settled in to wait. If this caused me to lose custody of Caitlyn—or my other daughters—it was going to fucking destroy me.