Nine
I watched Tish ‘til the medication started working, and finally she slept. I smashed my fist into the wall above the bed, hearing the satisfying crunch as my knuckles made contact. They split open; blood began running down my wrist. Turning to the bathroom, I got up and rinsed the blood away. Reaching into the medicine cabinet, I pulled a couple Band-Aids and my beard-trimming scissors out, then cut them into wedge shapes before I slapped them on the busted flesh.
Glancing into the bedroom, I could see Tish’s still form on my bed. The sight of her beautiful face marred with bruises, her eye swelled shut made me furious. I wanted to kill the fucker that did this. When I got my hands on him, I was going to beat him to a bloody pulp.
While I had been watching over the girls, my brothers had been hard at work, finding out everything they could for me. Not one had left or would leave until I had everything I needed to fuck this guy up.
Sonny was a whiz with the computer; he could ferret out information from just about anywhere. From the little Jiji had told him, Aden had connections in the police department. That’s probably why there wasn’t much information about the attack or my mom. Sonny hacked into the local hospital database; he found out that my mom had been taken there but she was listed as DOA. I hadn’t told Jiji yet. Sonny wanted to make sure the information was solid. He was looking into the nurses on shift that night, as well as anyone else who might have seen her come in or been in her treatment room.
Sonny also had a dossier on Tish. Her mom had died a few years ago from a heart attack. Tish still lived in the house she grew up in, but alone. From the intel he gleaned, there didn’t seem to be a man in her life, which was a good thing, because I would have had to beat the shit out of him for not taking better care of her.
She worked at a hospital, plus she helped Jiji at the pet shelter. She bowled on a ladies’ team that included Jiji on Tuesday nights. She loved bright colors and animals. Her credit score was decent and she paid her bills on time, putting a little away from each paycheck to give her a little nest egg. She had also set aside money her mom left from her life insurance policy. The house was paid off, as was her car.
I didn’t feel bad about gathering information about her. She needed help and I was going to be the one to help her. I would have asked her for specifics, but she was in no condition to tell me and I refused to pump Jiji for info. I felt compelled to know all I could about her.
Settling onto my cot, I let my memories drift back. I remember the first time I saw her.
She was about thirteen or fourteen years old. I rode up to my mom’s house on my motorcycle a few days before I shipped out to boot camp. Jiji and her friend Tish were riding bicycles when they saw me pull into the driveway. Jiji came flying up to me, and she jumped into my arms. I whirled her around, kissing the top of her head. She pulled back to introduce me to her friend, Tish, who had just stopped her bike a few feet away.
She was a few years older than Jiji. I could see that she was going to turn into a beauty. She had thick red hair caught up in a ponytail at the back of her head, clear green eyes, and a round face with high cheekbones. She was a little chunky; she hadn’t developed all her curves yet. She shyly smiled, wagging two fingers at me when Jiji introduced us. There was something about her that caught my attention and held it.
Putting Jiji down after giving her a big squeeze, I left them, heading in to see my mom. That was the last time I saw Tish in the flesh before I went into the Marines.
During my four-year hitch, Jiji kept me updated with cards and letters. She sent pictures of her with Mom, her with Tish, her with her animals. Mom had told me in her letters that she considered Tish one of the family. I watched the girls bloom into beautiful women. I loved my little sister. She could always bring a smile to my face. She was warm, funny, and she loved me without reservation.
Mom said Jiji was an oops baby. My Dad and her split for a time, but when they got back together, the result was Jiji. My dad had a heart attack at 48 and died from a defective valve. Mom didn’t like being alone. I was gone, Jiji was growing up. She met Aden when a bunch of her friends talked her into signing up for one of those online dating sites. Jiji said Mom came out of her shell then; she started to love life again. She had written in a letter once that Tish had told her during a drunken girls’ night out that her mom never did that. When they buried Tish’s dad, they buried the woman her mom used to be right along with him; her life became shades of gray and stayed that way ‘til she, too, died. Tish had been glad to see my mom wasn’t following in those same footsteps.
When I was deployed to Iraq, Jiji’s letters, emails, and weekly Skype sessions were what kept me sane. I thought being a Marine would be my ticket to making something of my life. There was also the GI Bill—it would get me into school if I wanted after my hitch was up. I was never very good at school. I got decent grades, but school didn’t excite me. I thought joining up would get me that excitement I was craving.
The guys in my unit became my family. I found out I was good with guns. It helped me advance my skills and I moved up in rank because of it. When we lost a man, it was like losing a brother. I loved the camaraderie, the feeling of community, family, discipline, and regimentation.
After my four years were up, I decided to get out. I went home but didn’t feel like I fit in there anymore. My mom had married Aden, but I hadn’t made it back from my deployment in time for the wedding. It had been a small ceremony with only Mom, Aden, Jiji, and Tish at the courthouse. Jiji didn’t talk about him much when we Skyped or emailed; whenever I tried she would make a joke or change the subject. I don’t know why I hadn’t found that unusual.
I should have been more involved, asked more questions. I was too busy thinking about what I needed, what I wanted, getting back to my life in one piece… Too busy to worry about my baby sister.
I screwed up.
Aden and I were cordial when I went home, but I didn’t like the fucker and my mom knew it. Something was off about him. He didn’t want me home any more than I wanted to be there. Jiji was still in high school and Tish was away at college. That’s when Breech called and urged me to come up to see him. I knew he was in an MC; we had discussed our mutual love of bikes many nights while we were deployed. I decided to take him up on the visit and ended up loving the Devil’s Wind MC. I found my way again. The guys in the club became my second family. I loved the life. Bikes, brothers, and pussy! What a way to live.
I was pulled back to the present when Tish moaned in pain. I left the cot to check on her; she was still asleep, but fretful. Since there wasn’t anything I could do for either of them, I left them sleeping in my bed.
Making my way downstairs to the office where we held church, I saw that Dukes was sitting at the table with Sonny and Danko when I entered.
“Shut the door,” Dukes said.
I closed the door behind me. Making my way to the coffee pot, I poured a cup before taking it to my chair at the table. It was too quiet. The room felt tense; something was going down and it had to do with me or the girls. Sonny looked at me with sympathy.
“I’m sorry, Fighter, the intel we got was correct; your mom is gone. We think Aden’s still alive, though. A John Doe fitting his description came into the ER with a neck wound, but he left AMA before they could get his information. A buddy of mine got into your mom’s house but no one’s been there since the incident. He said there had been a cleanup. Looked ready for a House and fucking Garden shoot in there.”
I bowed my head, silently mourning for the woman who raised me. When I got up suddenly, my chair flew backward, hitting the wall with a loud crash. I wanted to hit something. Grabbing my coffee cup, I threw it as hard as I could and watched it smash then shatter into a million pieces, spraying hot coffee all over the wall.
“God fucking damn it,” I bellowed. “That scum of the earth is still breathing and my mom is dead. She won’t be here to watch Jiji walk down the aisle or be there for her when she has her first child.” I slammed my fist down on the table. “I will get that fucker if it’s the last thing I do.”
“We will get him, Fighter,” Dukes said. “Remember, no one in this club goes rogue. We got your back! You will not be alone!”
I looked at the three men seated around the table. Hard men, sure, but they would never hurt a woman or a child. We all had a story; good or bad, it made us who we were. Just because we had long hair and tattoos, drove bikes, and handled weapons, that didn’t make us killers. We would go to war for each other. Every man here would do whatever they had to help me find and take down the bastard that killed my mother. He would never hurt another person again.
“Thank you doesn’t seem enough, but it’s all I got, so I’m gonna say it and hope to hell the day comes when you guys need me at your back. I’ll be there, no questions asked.” Slapping one fist into my palm, I said, “Let’s get this motherfucker.”