15.

Duke

 

“Mamie, shut the fuck up.” God, the woman won’t give me a chance to think. And Doc taking off, shit. What did I expect? I told her to stop. “Why’d you come here? You know you’re supposed to call first.”

“Who was that woman?” She says woman the same way someone might ask, “Who was that monster?”

I didn’t want her to find out about Doc this way. “She’s my woman, Mamie. She and Peaches are mine.”

Dawna’s mom stops her ranting dead, mouth gaping open. Fucking stunned. “No… no. The pieces. You promised, Duke. You’d stick with the pieces. You’d never replace my girl. She was the love of your life. You said that, over and over. At the hospital, you told me… her body was still warm when you made me that vow.”

“We both know it wasn’t fair for you to even ask ’a me. To spend my life alone.”

“No.” She throws her hands to cradle her head as she cries. “What’s not fair is my baby cold in the ground. If not the one you made to me in that hospital room, think of the vow you made to my daughter.”

“It’s not fair that someone as beautiful as Dawna left us so early. But I fulfilled my vow to her. ’Til death do us part. Death parted us, Mamie. I met Doc. And fuck, I ain’t even told her yet.”

“Told her what?” she asks, but damn if it ain’t accusatory.

“That I fell for her.”

Mamie gasps, then drops to her knees crying. I feel bad for her, but I need my family. My girls. While she continues to cry on my floor, I pull my phone and attempt to call Doc yet a-fucking-gain. And yet a-fucking-gain, it goes straight to voicemail.

“Come on, sweetheart. Get up.” I help Mamie stand and lead her to the sofa. She ain’t a hefty woman by any means, but when she plops down on the cushion, the whole damn thing lists to the right and hits the floor. Both legs on that side broken off.

I think it happened when I fucked Doc on the sofa that day. We went at it so hard we moved the damn thing. Mamie starts crying harder. But I think it has more to do with the fact that I’m gonna have to replace the sofa now. And that’s another piece of her daughter’s life gone.

After getting her a bottle of water from the fridge, I start to leave my mother-in-law on the broken sofa to head up to the clubhouse.

“Stay ’til you’re composed. Then I gotta ask you to leave. Sorry, but the way you treated Caitlin, can’t have you in my house, she gets home.”

“Home? No. This… this is my Dawna’s home. Your Dawna’s home.”

“Don’t gotta explain myself, Mame. Not gonna.”

Then I turn to leave, but she stops me. “You forgot.”

That stops me.

“It’s today, Duke. Four years ago, today.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, reach inside my pocket to pull my pack of smokes, but remember I don’t smoke in the house anymore so I don’t light up. “Living life again is the best way to honor her memory.”

“Aren’t you lucky you can do that,” she says snidely.

“No. It ain’t luck. It’s Doc. Peaches.” And that’s all I’m willing to give, because I gotta make this up to my woman.

Finally outside, I light up and suck back the calming effects of the nicotine while I walk across the forecourt to the clubhouse. I walk inside and look around.

“Where is she?” I ask Hero. He’s the brother sitting closest to me.

“Who?” he asks.

“Who the fuck you think? Doc.”

“I haven’t seen her.”

“Anyone seen her?” I call out to the other brothers.

Blaze walks from the back hallway. “She grabbed Jesse, and they took off. Don’t know where.”

Immediately I press his contact and wait… and wait…

Fuck. The punk don’t answer.

I hang up and call again.

Still nothing. That little fucker not answering my calls? His president. Oh hell no. Demote his ass back to puke duty.

“I’ll be in my office.” I grumble to the brothers and stomp off. At least she was smart enough to take her guard.

Behind my desk, I get caught up in paperwork. A shit-ton of it. Though I keep calling my woman, and she keeps ignoring my calls. So I decide fuck it, she has to come back eventually. Then bury myself in work.

Finally, finally, my phone lights up. I grab it and answer, not bothering to look at who’s calling. Four hours since she took off. Four fucking hours. “Talk,” I order.

“Duke, man.” Sneak. “I’m about three miles from the compound.”

The severity in his tone makes my body seize up tight. “And?” I prod.

“Something didn’t look right. Skids, broken branches. Got out to check, Duke, I think… is Jesse there?”

Suddenly I can’t breathe. But I gotta breathe. Hand to the back of my neck, I force in the calming breaths that won’t come on their own. Then I stand and walk back out to the common. “Jesse back yet?” I bellow to any brother who’s in earshot.

“He’s been gone for hours, prez.” That was Blaze again.

“Call him.”

Blaze quickly pulls his phone and calls. “Not answering,” he says.

“He ain’t answering.” Don’t mean to, but my answer comes out a bark at Sneak. “What you got?”

“Jesus,” Sneak mutters. “Prez, it’s got to be his truck at the bottom.”

“Blaze, call 9-1-1,” I order. Running. “Three miles out. Need ambulance. Jesse went off the cliff.” Then turn to Sneak. “On my way.”

On my bike, I speed up the road. It don’t take long for me to ease up on Sneak and Trish pulled off to the shoulder. Sure enough, that’s the ass-end of Jesse’s truck sticking up about halfway down the gully. I try Doc’s cell again. Voicemail.

I’m about ready to lose it when the shrill of the ambulance sirens and flashing lights cut through the dim lighting caused by the canopy of tree coverage. Along with the ambulances, two police cruisers speed ahead. Behind the racing ambulances, one of Ellis Auto’s big towers.

After another forty-five minutes, we get the truck back onto the road. Too steep to send rescuers down, our only option was to harness up one of the officers experienced in repelling to repel down and hook the winch to the rear axle. Once we hauled the truck up, we could get to the occupants.

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. We all hear it, the desperate low, painful whimpering of a child. They wrench her door open. The paramedic extracts my Peaches. She looks okay, but’ll have to be checked out.

Not thinking, I run over to her. She sees me and her eyes go big. “Duke,” she cries. “Duke. Duke. My mama. Duke… my mama.” Fat tears spill down her cheeks, and it takes everything in me to keep standing. I reach her, my Peaches. One medic begins checking her. The other goes after Doc.

They lay her, my woman, on a gurney. She’s gray. That peaches and cream skin drained of color. They check for signs of life. Signs of life? “We’ve got a pulse, but it’s weak.” The medic calls and both load her into the back of the ambulance.

The other medics for the second ambulance have to wait as Sgt. Tommy Doyle and one of his officers cuts the driver’s door with a power saw. They pull Jesse out with much less haste. Not a good sign. I hold Peaches’ hand and force myself to look.

No.

God no.

This can’t be happening.

Half of Jesse’s face is hanging off. And Peaches had to see that for how fucking long? They lay him flat on the road and one of the medics drapes a wool blanket over top of the kid, covering his head.

The ambulance with Doc speeds off. Once they give Jade the all clear, I take her into my arms and hold on tight. She hasn’t stopped crying. I ain’t cried since Dawna left this earth, but dammit, if those tears don’t streak my face.

“Duke…” she cries. “Mama…”

“I got you, Peaches. Shh… I got you.” My voice hitches on the you. Shit I need to get my shit together.

Sneak walks up to me, staring down at the blanket covering Jesse. He places a hand to my back. “Go,” he says. Though that one word comes strangled. He pauses. “Get to the hospital. I’ll stay, call the boys. We’ll take care of things.”

No. I can’t let him do that. Jesse is—was—my responsibility. Fuck. Fuck. “Appreciate it brother, but I’m the president. He’s mine to take care of.”

“Not now. Now you’re a man who has a woman in bad shape. Take care of your family, prez. Consider this a mutiny.”

My little Peaches, her tears still flow just as strongly, though she’s silent now, snuggling closer against me. And I know Sneak is right. My club, my brothers are important, but I got a woman who needs me, who don’t get how much I need her because I was an asshole. Time to take care of my family.

“Thanks, brother.” I tell him. “We’re heading out now.”

He nods, acknowledging me, but never takes his eyes off the blanket as he pulls his phone from his pocket. Knowing he’s got this, he has my back, I walk over to my bike and have to peel my girl from the death-grip she has on me to set her into the sidecar. Only now does she make any noise again, a whimper.

“We gotta get to the hospital, Peaches. Check on your mama. But I won’t leave you. Promise.” She lets me put the helmet and jacket that I kept stored in the sidecar on her, then buckle her in. After a final glance toward Sneak and Jesse’s lifeless body, I climb on my bike and thunder down the mountain to get to my woman.

After a ten-minute drive, with my girl in my arms, clinging, her arms tight around my neck, I stomp through the sliding glass doors into the emergency room of County Medical, the same hospital where Peaches stayed after her accident.

This part of the emergency room ain’t like how it is on all those medical dramas on TV. A bunch ’a people, some look sick, some stressed, some downright worried sitting in chairs, watching the silent television, checking their phones or stopping anyone in scrubs who looks like they might be able to help ’em.

I walk up to the check-in desk.

“How can I help you, sir?” The receptionist asks.

“Ambulance just brought an injured woman in. Caitlin Brennan. I’m her—” Fuck, how do I identify myself to this bitch? Quick-like I decide on “Man, partner. We live together. This is our daughter.”

Compassion spreads across her face. “Sure Mr.—”

“Ellis,” I tell her.

“Mr. Ellis,” she repeats. “Let me see what I can find out.” Then she starts typing on a keyboard. “Take the doors to the left. When you get there, I’ll buzz you through. Go down that hall and turn right. There, you’ll find the surgical check-in. They’ll be able to tell you more.”

“Surgical?” I shout, making Peaches jump. So I try to calm myself down at the same time taking off in a run toward the doors on the left. The buzzer rings before I reach it, letting me yank open one of the doors without waiting, and continue down the hallway. A right turn leads me to the surgical check-in station, just as the receptionist directed.

Out of breath and needing a cigarette real bad, I rush out to the nurse. “Caitlin Brennan?”

“You’re family?” she asks.

“Yes.”

She begins typing on another keyboard, but I’m met by a deep voice, “Mr. Ellis? Is that correct?”

I turn to see the doctor who treated Peaches. “Yeah, that’s right.”

“Karen,” he says to the nurse behind the desk. “This is Dr. Brennan’s partner.” Then, to me, “Not married, right?”

“Not yet.”

He nods his understanding. I finally have time to think, with it all happening so fast. But what Brutus said to me about wifing Doc and giving Peaches a brother or sister makes sense. Knowing that things might get complicated, what with medical decisions and Caitlin being a single mother. I could lose Peaches, too. Her parents would never let some tattooed, Harley riding man raise their granddaughter.

I follow close behind as he leads me to the surgery waiting room, which holds much fewer people, and tells me he’ll be right back.

My turn to nod. About five minutes after he leaves, three women and one baby storm the waiting room. Elise, Trish and Maryanne Doyle, Tommy’s old lady, come right at me. Tears and puffy faces.

“How is she?” Elise speaks for the group.

“Don’t know yet. The doctor went to check.”

“Right,” she says back. “Beau, Chaos and Blood are on their way home. I hope you don’t mind.” She walks over to one of the chairs to drop Gun’s diaper bag. “But I stopped by your house and grabbed a few things for Jade. Change of clothing, because she’d been stuck in that truck for a while.”

It’s not ’til she holds up the bag that I realize my girl smells of piss. Shit. She’d spent all that time soaked in her own piss.

Loosely, I come out of my head enough to hear her still talking. “…her blanket, for comfort and her tablet and headphones.”

I clear my throat. “Thanks sweetheart.” And reach my arm to cup her neck, I give it a squeeze so she knows what this means to me.

“Hey Jade, sweetie. You want me to change you?”

“No,” my girl cries. “Duke. My Duke.”

Elise starts to speak, but I stop her. “It’s okay. Do this at home.”

“You do?”

That gets a laugh. “Sure. She’s my girl, ain’t you Peaches?”

“Your gurl,” she whispers against my cut.

Slowly, Elise sets Gun’s carrier down on the seat next to the bag and begins to riffle through it, pulling a pair of cotton shorts, little girl panties and a T-shirt to hand me.

I nod my thanks. “Come on.” We walk out into the hallway across from the waiting room, the hospital has a men’s, women’s and family restroom. For obvious reasons, I walk straight for the family restroom where Peaches only lets me set her down long enough to help her change.

She waits as I pull several paper towels from the dispenser, wet them and douse them with soap, then hand them to her. And like I always do, because I don’t know the laws with this stuff, I turn around for her to wash her legs and other parts, and change into her clean panties.

“Done,” she whispers.

I turn back, help her with the elastic waist that always gets turned under, help her with her shorts and T-shirt, and hold my arms open for her to climb back up. No saving her other clothes, I toss them in the trash then head back to the waiting room.

We only just get back inside, when the doctor, his badge says Talmouth, walks in. “Can I speak with you? He asks me, real business-like. Too business-like.

“Just a sec,” I answer, then look down to Peaches. “Gonna set you in the chair. Elise brought your blanket and tablet. We’ll put your princess on.”

“No.”

“Sweetheart. Gotta talk to the doctor. Okay?”

She sucks on her bottom lip, but after a moment agrees. “Okay.”

With Peaches in the chair next to Gun, I tuck her blanket around her legs, then let Elise take over setting up her movie so I can find out what’s going down with Doc.

“Talk to me,” I order Talmouth.

“She’s in surgery to repair tears causing significant internal bleeding. And she’s sustained a concussion, ruptured spleen, which they’re also removing, from where the seatbelt cut across her abdomen. Two fractured wrists from where it looks like she covered her head, and hitting the dashboard caused her left lung to collapse.”

My hands rest at my hips, I drop my head. “Fuck.”

Talmouth pats my shoulder. “It could’ve been much worse.”

Don’t I know it. I think of Jesse. One seat over and she’d be gone, too. Or instead.

“We’ll let you know when she’s out, then once they move her to a room.”

Moving a hand from my hip, I rub the back of my neck. “Thanks,” I tell him, then turn to the women.

“How is she?” Trish asks.

“Hey, you should head home and rest.” I offer up first. “She’s still in surgery. We’re gonna be here a while.” The woman is pregnant. She’s gotta take care ’a herself.

“I’m good.” Trish insists. Brother’s done good choosing wives. “What are we looking at?”

I run down the list Talmouth gave me for the women, Caitlin’s friends. All three listen while holding back tears. So I repeat Talmouth’s other words. “It coulda been worse.”

“You want me to bring Jade back to the compound? I’ll sit with her at your house.” Though Elise’s offer is kind, I need my girl safe with me.

“Nah, thanks. I got her.”

“That little girl is lucky to have you. Will you keep an eye on Gun? I’ll run and grab some coffees. What would Jade want?”

“No soda.” I clear my throat, thrown from Elise’s comment. “Her mom don’t like her to have soda. Juice, or chocolate milk or even a hot chocolate if you can find some ice to cool it off.”

She smiles, which I choose to ignore because that woman thinks she knows me so well. And what she thinks she knows is probably right. Boss has got his hands full with that one.

I wait next to a sleeping Gunner until his mom returns with a tray of coffees, then I move to the chair on the other side of Peaches. She seems content to watch her movie, but leans her head against my arm as she does. Damn if that little girl don’t carve out another large piece of my heart with such a simple act.

These Brimstone old ladies—even by association since Tommy ain’t a brother—prove just how brimstone they are, settling in for the long haul with me and Peaches.

My brothers’ text updates on the Jesse-accident situation periodically, and inquiries as to Doc’s condition, others. After several hours, a doctor different from Talmouth, walks into the waiting room.

“Anyone here for Caitlin Brennan?”

“Here.” I stand, walking over to her.

“We’ve moved her to a room. She’s sleeping but you’re welcome to go see her. Follow me.”

“Hold on.” I order. She pauses, but don’t look happy about it. I don’t give a fuck what she’s happy about and pluck Peaches and her blanket from the chair, up into my arms. She still has her headphones on and tablet in hand. Only then do we join the doctor.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the other three women, Elise with Gun, of course, scramble to follow us. And I should wait for ’em, but I got to see my woman.

To say it’s a shock to see her laying unmoving, eyes closed, only slightly less gray than when they pulled her from the truck, fuck, that’s the understatement of the day. Guess I figured once they stopped the bleeding, she’d pink back up. Well, as much as Doc pinks without embarrassment.

Seeing a woman I care about looking lifeless in a hospital bed, it could be four years ago. “Fuck,” I whisper, stumbling a step back, held up by three other amazing women.

Maryanne lifts Peaches from my arms as Trish orders points her finger toward the door. “We got her. Go have a smoke.”