Our little catch and grab operation didn’t go as planned. It seems that our rat was burrowed so far deep in Sin City that it took more muscle and manpower to sniff him out. Two fucking days it took us to find that fucking rat. Our hardest job to date.
“We look like a bunch of fucked up motherfuckers.” I laugh. My knuckles are sore and swollen, and my kidney is aching like a bitch where a fucker got in a punch. Sin’s words about maybe changing the role in the MC float through my mind. I’ve got too much to lose now. Too many people depending on me.
“Those Italians like to throw down. What can I say?” Cut presses his thumb and index finger into his broken nose.
“Maybe it’s the fact that you’re getting old and you can’t box like you used to,” Hawk jokes.
“I wouldn’t be talking, pretty boy. Does your owie hurt too bad?” Cut fires back, pointing at the purpling mouse that’s under his left eye.
“Fuck that. It felt good,” Hawk says.
“You must have some pent-up frustrations, because brother, I’ve never seen you pound a man like that,” Sin says.
“Frustrations don’t begin to describe the shit that’s going through my mind.” Taking another pull from his beer bottle, he tries to cut Sin’s probing conversation.
“When are you heading back to LA?” Sin continues.
“I’m not,” he says before turning around, heading over to the jukebox. Cut’s phone rings, making him turn his back on us to take the call.
“There’s some shit going on right there,” Cruise says. Just the sound of his voice makes my eye twitch, but at least he’s been staying the fuck outta my way.
“More shit than any of us know, I’m sure,” I say back. Turning to Sin, I ask, “Has he talked to you about his visits to LA?”
He shakes his head. “Nothing, really.”
“Then maybe you need to take his lack of talking as a sign to stop fucking asking questions he doesn’t want to give you the answers to.”
“Fuck you. He’s my best friend, and he needs to fucking talk.”
“You sound like a fucking bitch right now. You need to ask that woman of yours for your balls back. Especially if you want to–”
“Lick!” Cut calls out before turning his focus back to the call. When he brings his eyes back to me, his expression says it all.
“Shit’s went south. We need to get home. It’s Jenni.”
There’s a stampede of boots hitting the hospital floor behind me. The entire MC enters the emergency room asking questions, yelling and commanding orders. Everyone is demanding they be told what happened.
Savannah enters the lobby from behind the ER’s doors. Her shirt has traces of blood all over it. When Sin sees her, he rushes over, wrapping his arms around her. She breaks down, crying once she’s in his arms.
Savannah’s eyes find mine and my world stops. “Jenni’s been shot.” Sin wraps his arm around her before she buries her face in his neck.
“W–What?” I’m sure I haven’t heard her right.
“Rob, um, he showed up at the park. I told her who he was, that he was the same man who came into the shop a couple months back, and she approached him. I–I went to the kids. I was going to get them away, but then he pulled a gun.”
“Fuck.”
“He was saying how he gave you a chance, how he wanted the money and you ignored him. H-He said that guys were going to kill him and you needed to pay. But then… um, Bubba came out of nowhere.”
“Bubba was there?” Dyke asked.
“Yes. He tackled Rob, but there were shots, one after another, and then nothing. Jenni was h–hit in the shoulder and Bubba in the chest. H–He may not make it.”
“Where the fuck is Jenni?” I spit.
“She’s in with Bubba. Her wounds were a graze to the shoulder. She’s in pain, but okay. She won’t leave his side, though.”
“I need to see my son,” Dyke demands, pushing his way through the doors.
“Hey.” Cut puts his hand on my shoulder. “She’s okay. Savannah said she’s okay.”
I turn towards him. “Not for nothing, but I need to see with my own fucking eyes.”
Leaving the lobby, I make my way down the hall. “Excuse me. Excuse me,” a voice calls from behind. “You can’t go back there.”
When I turn around, I spot an older nurse with graying hair regards me with caution–as she should. “My wife is back there, and no one is going to fucking stop me from seeing her. And don’t waste your time calling security. I’ll break every single one of them in half if it means I get to see my wife.”
Her lips purse in a tight line, but her eyes tell me that she understands. Not wanting to waste any more time, I keep going. I hear her voice coming from one of the rooms. The door is open, so I walk in. Bubba is stretched out in a hospital gown, eyes closed, a tube down his throat. Wires poke out from the top of his gown, needles in both arms. The constant beeping of his heart monitor. He’s pale, has a gray tinge to him.
Jenni sits with her back to me. She has her hand in his, and I notice the other arm is in a sling. Dyke’s standing at the other side of him. When his eyes meet mine, it makes Jenni turn around. As soon as her eyes lands on mine a sob breaks from her throat. She pushes herself from the chair, she pads over to me before throwing her one arm around my waist. I want so badly to lift her to me. To take her out of here and pack our shit and move her somewhere where no harm will ever come to her again. Placing a kiss on the top of her head, I inhale her scent.
“I was so scared. I thought I could distract him so Savannah could get the kids away, but he had a gun, and he pointed it at me. But then Bubba came out of nowhere, and he saved me.” I can feel her tears soak through my shirt as I rub her back.
The entire way home I’d replayed our wedding day over and over again in my head. How fucking beautiful she’d looked when she walked down that aisle to me.
“I Jenni Hoyt, promise to love you through sickness and in health, through the good times and bad. I promise to cherish you, to belong only to you from this day on. I give myself to you because it is you my heart has chosen because you make me complete. I marry you willingly, wholeheartedly, and eternally.”
“I’m so sorry, baby. I shouldn’t have left.”
Tears roll down her face, “No. Don’t do that. Don’t you dare blame yourself. No.”
I pull her back into my body. Standing there in silence, I watch as Dyke whispers into his son’s ear. He rests his head against his son’s, he speaks silent prayers. I’m not entirely sure exactly what happened at the park today, but I do know one thing.
Bubba saved Jenni’s life.