Chapter Thirty Five
ALEX
Mytruckskiddedaround a corner as I clung onto the oh shit handle on the ceiling of the car with Stevie in my arms, wrapped in a blanket.
My muscles burned as I tried to absorb the jostles and bumps from the speed at which Mac drove us home, trying to keep the small, fractured girl curled up on my lap from any more pain.
She was shaking so hard, her tremors matched my own fury-fuelled trembling. Her tiny body was battered, bruised, and broken. She looked so little and vulnerable, and I wanted to kill the fuckers responsible for destroying her.
Jake and her bitch of a mother.
“Quit driving like a fucking asshole, Mac,” I snarled, pulling Stevie closer to my body, scared I’d lose her again if I let her go even a little bit.
Mac and I searched Carlin Valley for over seven days until we got to her in an abandoned warehouse in Kelso Bay, bleeding and tied up to a chair in an almost pitch-black room.
She stunk of infection, a rancid rich earthy scent that resembled something decaying in a forest, that came from the wound on her leg. Her skin was nearly grey, her lips a pale pink verging on white with cracks around the edges, and her hair was matted with dried blood.
“I’m doing the best I can, brother. I’m just trying to get her to the doc as quickly as possible,” Mac replied, pushing my truck harder, winding in and out of traffic as he raced back to the house where Will had to have arrived already with his on-call doctor.
Mac’s hands were white-knuckled, gripping the wheel as he swore and banged on the horn, cursing any driver that pulled out in front of us.
“I’ve got you, Stevie baby,” I whispered into her hair. “Just stay with me. Almost home.” Her blue eyes opened, the only colour on her sickly pale face, before fluttering shut as she remained limp in my arms.
Mac kept glancing back at Stevie and me in the rear-view mirror and eventually said, “Stop bouncing your leg, Alex.” Taking a sharp left, we careened around a corner, forcing my hold on Stevie to tighten. “The motion of that, along with the car, would surely hurt her more.”
“Maybe you should stop taking corners at fifty miles per hour.”
After what felt like a lifetime, we made it back to the house. As agreed, Will was standing on the wrap-around porch with the door wide open and Rocky tied up to the railing, no doubt keeping him away so the doctor could work on her as soon as she was inside.
Mac slammed on the brakes, the truck skidding along the stones, then threw the car door open and ran to my side to swing that one open too. I gently passed Stevie into Mac’s open arms and followed as he carried her inside and straight up to her room.
He hadn’t been in our house in years, but could still remember the layout like it was yesterday.
Will came behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. I spun to face him and swung for his jaw. My fist connected and pain radiated through my hand, but it was nothing like the pain Stevie must be in now.
“This is your fault,” I snarled in his face, my teeth bared and my hand fisted in his pristine baby blue shirt. “You gave her this fucking job, and for what? Shitty intel that he may be someone of interest?”
He pried his shirt from my hand and pushed me aside, following the direction of our brother. At least Will had the courtesy to look shaken up. He might not be as close to Stevie as Mac and I were, but she was still his family, and he had failed to protect her.
He was standing in the doorway by the time I reached his back. The asshole didn’t seem to be moving any closer to our girl, so I pushed him back and joined Mac and the doctor in her room.
Stevie was already on her bed, the duvet pulled back, the blanket removed and a cannula already sticking out the back of her hand. The doctor finished hanging a second IV bag, hooking it up to the plastic tubing it was connected to, and then began to prime the line.
Just as he connected the line to the IV pump, Mac jumped from the side of the bed and grabbed the doctor’s arm, stopping him from attaching the line to Stevie’s hand.
The doctor’s gaze flitted from Mac to Will and back again before Will pushed from the doorjamb and moved into the room to stand by my side.
“Let him be, Mac, it’s just fluid and antibiotics,” he said calmly, rubbing his jawline from where I’d punched him. “Let him do his job.”
Mac unhanded the doctor with a snarl and returned to Stevie’s side, where he sat on the floor. His big broad shoulders, covered in his leather biker cut, shielded her from view. Mac sighed and ran a tattoo-covered hand through his long dirty blond hair, which had fallen out of his stupid man-bun.
The doctor finished up and Will escorted him back out of the house. I walked to the foot of the bed and looked over my best friend.
Lying there, completely exposed and in the light, I could see the extent of her injuries. The white shirt she wore was torn up and covered in brown and red-coloured stains as her blood dried into the fabric. Her bare legs were caked in dried blood and mud and the leg which had her wound had half a boxer leg hanging from her hip, the material was torn vertically from seam to seam, something she would have done to stop the material from touching the wound.
“That’s my girl,” I whispered as I dragged my eyes up to her face for the first time since getting her back. I had been avoiding looking at the injuries on her gorgeous face because I knew seeing her like that would snap something inside. But I could no longer avoid it.
I sucked in a breath at the black circles lining her eyes, one dusted with purple bruising along her cheekbone. Her mascara had run and dried down her face with smudge marks that could also be seen on the tops of her shoulders, as if she tried to wipe away tears with them. There was a gash running down her eyebrow and dried blood dotted around the edges of her nose, temple, and the outside of her ear.
Noticing her tartan blanket on a pile on the floor, I scooped it up and walked to the other side of the bed. Mac had managed to pull back the duvet before laying her down, and I didn’t want to risk tucking that weighed blanket over her injuries.
Mac stood and held a hand out to take the other edge of the blanket so we could place it over her broken body together.
Reaching underneath, I gently slid my hand under her wrist and brought it out from under the blanket. I didn’t want her feeling trapped or pulling out the IV if she happened to move in her sleep.
My rage increased as I saw the red friction burns and jagged skin from where she had been cuffed and had obviously tried to fight her way out.
“I am so sorry I didn’t come sooner,” I whispered through gritted teeth as I slowly set her hand by her side with care so as to not disturb her.
She didn’t move, not after any fussing, not after the doctor ran his tests or prodded her ribs and alluded to them being broken. And not even after Mac and I tucked her in.
Will returned from showing the doctor out and stood in between Mac and me, the three of us looking over our girl. Stevie would be loving this so hard right now if she could see my brothers standing under one roof, that she was the reason for this unlikely reunion.
Checking his watch, Will cleared his throat.
“I need to get back to Missy. Her morning sickness has been pretty much round the clock. Keep me updated on any changes.”
I nodded, keeping my eyes on Stevie for a moment, then turned to follow Will out of her room. We didn’t say a word as we walked along the hall and down the stairs, stopping at the front door. Rocky was now laying in his bed after being brought back in at some point.
Will turned the handle and stepped into the night air. He paused his back to me and tipped his head back, looking up to the stars.
“She will be fine, Alex. Stevie is strong.” Then he walked down the stairs toward his silver Land Rover, leaving me staring at his retreating back. I closed the door and rested my head on the middle glass panes that were on the top of the door.
Emptiness consumed me, like the calm before a storm. Then the tingling started at the tips of my fingers and gradually slid up and along my hand, continuing to my wrists and then my arms.
Pure fury ignited in my bones, a surge of energy tightening every muscle, every organ as I released a roar of anger.
I swiped at the little trinkets Stevie had placed on the side table by the door, scattering candles, a photo she had framed of the two of us and Rocky sitting on the porch steps on one summer’s day, and other things she thought made the place look ‘homey’ across the floor.
Reaching up, I pulled down a watercolour sunflower thing she hung on the wall, throwing it like a frisbee to the opposite wall, smashing the glass as it fell to the floor in a resounding crash.
But it wasn’t enough. My limbs trembled with the urge to fight, and my breaths came out in frantic bursts as I reached for the side table next, pulling it off its wall mounts, growling in frustration, along with Rocky’s barks and small whimpers, as it finally came free and toppled to the ground.
Mac thundered down the stairs, his biker boots banging down each step before he launched at me, throwing himself at my back and grabbing me from behind, holding me to his body.
“Enough, brother, this won’t fix anything,” he said into my ear as I thrashed against him, rearing my body into his, trying to break free from his hold.
The man was stronger than I was, and he moved in time with my bucking as my fury and rage started to subside, leaving me exhausted and broken as I sagged into his embrace.
“You can’t go all caveman on her ass. Not now. Not when she needs you the most,” he said, still holding me as I panted, my chest rising and falling in time with the pulsing sound echoing in my ears. I nodded, and he released me.
“Thanks for coming to get her,” I said, running a hand down my face.
“Thanks for calling,” Mac replied, his voice gruff and serious, unlike the last time I’d spoken to him in the bar.
For the first time, I saw my brother, the MC member, the guy who would put his family first and ask questions later, and I could not be more grateful for him.
He pulled me into his chest and wrapped an arm around the back of my shoulder, his large palm cupping the back of my head as he held me close.
“Take care of her, baby brother,” he murmured and then slapped the back of my head once. We looked at each other, a silent apology and acceptance of all the shit from the past flowing between us.
With a nod, Mac let himself out of my house, and I returned to Stevie’s side.