Damaged & Dangerous: The Sacred Hearts MC Book VI (13 page)

“Yeah,” the demon said, surprised, “Yeah he is, thanks to
you.”

“Come on. Our Pres., he wants to talk to you and then you
can go see Thirteen.” Trigger helped me to my feet, which was weird because
they were both still numb. I shook out first one leg, then the other, and
looked at the tattered remnants of the black bandanna that’d been used to tie
my wrists. The demon had his hands back in his pockets.

“Were you at the lake run?” he asked me quietly as first the
giant SAA went out the door, then me. He followed behind me closely, the demon
did, and I nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Ah, okay,” he nodded and I think he was blushing. They led
me out of the building and back across the grass, into a back door and down a
dark hall, past bathrooms and I think more sleeping quarters, though I couldn’t
be sure. The common room of the club looked like a bar, except there was a
glassed-in room to one side. That room contained banks of video monitors and
computer equipment. One of the monitors was the camera focused on the front
gate.

There was a group of men all around a big table in the
center of the room, and I faltered. The demon, his hands still deep in his
hoodie pockets, lightly ran into my back as I stopped, and I jumped.

“Easy, Dani,” and I startled that he knew my name, “No one’s
gonna hurt you here.”

“Don’t lie to me,” I said tartly.

“He ain’t lyin’, Darlin’. C’mere and have a seat.”

The man who spoke was at the head of the table and patted an
open seat to his left. He was probably in his late forties, early fifties, and
had long black hair in a loose ponytail down his back and a neatly trimmed -
but full - black beard. He was just barely starting to go gray at his temples
and at the corners of his mouth which, was tipping his age slightly younger,
not older, for me. He was Hispanic, and his deep, dark eyes burned like coal in
his face.

The man seated to his right might as well have been the
older man’s younger carbon copy, except for the beard. He was clean-shaven but
his eyes sparkled with intelligence and burned just as fiercely as, what had to
be, his father’s.

The demon put his hands lightly on my shoulders and steered
me past the big Sergeant-at-Arms, and into the vacant seat. I tried not to look
at the three men at the end of the table; Nox, Rush, and the unnamed man who
had frisked me, tied me up, and thrown me into that room alone. Once I was
seated, the big man at the head of the table introduced himself.

“I’m Dragon, President of The Sacred Hearts,” he said.

“I wish I could say it was nice to meet you but considering
you’re probably going to have me killed and I don’t care anymore, I’m just
going to stick to the truth from now on and say it’s really not,” I said with false
bravado. I was scared as hell on the inside but if there was one thing I had
learned while with the Suicide Kings, it was that scared didn’t matter. None of
it fucking mattered. They were going to do what they were going to do and there
wasn’t
anything
I could do about it. I was small and I didn’t have a
weapon, and even if I did, I didn’t know how to
use
one and so what
would be, would be. I just had my smarts to rely on and had to be more clever
than them and …yeah… there were just plain more of them than there was of me.

I was sunk. I officially had nothing left to lose except for
Thirteen, and I didn’t really have him to begin with. He’d been lying about who
he was the whole time… but he’d saved my life and I had returned the favor. I
owed no-one nothing, except myself, and so I would try to figure out a way to
weasel out of this and if I couldn’t, then I would at least try to see Thirteen
one more time to say goodbye. For some reason that was important to me.

Dragon and the rest of the table gave an incredulous laugh
at my words and when the chuckles had settled down he got down to business.

“Archer, Rush and Nox,” he said and he sounded pretty stern.
The three from when I arrived shifted in their seats. So the third one was
Archer. Interesting. “I believe you owe the little lady an apology, Brothers,” and
the look
he gave them was hot enough to burn right through them.

Archer growled, “She’s got their VP’s name inked into her
back, what the fuck were we supposed to think?” I flinched at his words and
Dragon the younger, the name flash on his cut reading ‘Dray’, looked at me
curiously from where he sat across the table. I shifted uncomfortably and a
large hand fell on my shoulder. I startled and looked up into the SAA’s face,
his silver blue eyes kind despite his hulking frame.

“Steady,” he told me, and everything about him radiated
reassurance.

“It’s Pig-Pen’s ‘tramp stamp of approval’” I said bitterly.
They must have seen it when they’d had me bent over the table. I suddenly just
felt weary, bone tired. “I got lucky. He tried to brand me with an iron. Skid
stopped him, so he had me tattooed instead. Not like I want it there,” I
shrugged and new tears started. The humiliation, it just never stopped.

“What’s your story, Princess?” Dray asked, low and careful.
Inviting me to talk, to make them understand. I studied him for a moment or two
and, deciding he was sincere, I told them. I told them about Jared, about
Pig-Pen claiming me, about how things were with The Suicide Kings, and about
Thirteen. I looked at them all in turn.

“You almost got him killed, whichever one of you nailed Ace
and Deuce’s cuts to the wall. Your little message? Taunting them? Gordy, he
isn’t into the drugs like Pig. He isn’t stupid, he figured it out. That the
only reason you would know about your brother’s cut and the score card was if
you had someone on the inside. News flash for you, you’d already taken out the
low ranking members of the club so that just left Thirteen.” I felt a rush of
emotions, fear and frustration and just sheer anger at the situation.

“You keep saying he’s okay!” I bit my lips together and
reined in my outburst before I asked, “Can I see him now? Can I say goodbye or
whatever, before whatever comes next?” Tears welled up hot and fresh and I had
a headache from crying so much but truthfully, I hadn’t really cried much in
the last three years, and I think that the dam had burst and that was all
coming out now, too.

All of them looked solemn and the three, Archer, Rush and
Nox, looked guilty as hell. They were receiving some downright hostile and
unfriendly looks from some of the brothers around the table and I swallowed. I
didn’t mean to start anything and
if
I managed to survive this, I was
pretty sure I’d made an enemy for life from at least Archer. Nox and Rush I
wasn’t so sure, they wouldn’t look at me, but Archer… If looks could kill, I’d
be incinerated where I sat. Whatever had given him pause when Blue had given me
water was gone now.

“Enough of this. She’s told you the truth about everything,
I’m taking her back to see him. That’s just enough for one night. If it weren’t
for her getting him here so quick we’d have lost another brother tonight!” We
all turned, the doctor standing in the archway by the end of the bar where I’d
been brought in from.

“Doc’s right and you are too, go on,” Dragon uttered and
nodded at me. I looked around and stood up slowly. No one stopped me and so I
carefully rounded the chair and slipped past Trigger, who made no move to grab
me. I swallowed hard and drew closer to the doctor, who held out his hand to
me. I bit my lips together to stop their trembling and stopped close to him but
didn’t take his hand.

I didn’t trust any of them, and with a sharp ache in the
center of my heart I realized that I couldn’t really trust Thirteen, either. I
mean, could I? I followed the doctor through the labyrinth of doors to an open
one that led into a bedroom with cool gray walls and a low bed, neatly made.
Thirteen lay back on one side, shirtless, the covers pulled up to his ribs. A
big, deep, ugly bruise, so deep a purple it was almost black, stained the
center of his chest. High up on his right shoulder, a snowy square of gauze, a
splotch of red at its center, was taped in a patch that just looked
wrong
.

The doctor waited by the door as I crept into the room. I
knelt down by the bed at his side and slipped my hand into his where it rested
at his side. It was warm, and his chest rose and fell in shallow, even breaths.
I sobbed in just pure relief that he really was
alive,
realizing I
hadn’t quite believed them when they’d said he was okay. That I’d needed this,
needed to see it with my own eyes. I pressed my lips to the back of his hand as
I knelt on the floor by his recovery bed, and then rested my cheek there. I
just wanted to feel him.

He took a breath out of form from his original cadence and I
looked up. His green-blue eyes were open and a slight smile curved his lips,
“There’s my clever girl,” he said, then, “How you doin’, Rocket?” I laughed,
brokenly.

“I’m okay,” I promised, and with him looking at me like
that, I really was, because the way Thirteen was looking at me screamed two
things at me: that he’d believed in me, and that he loved me, which I
completely understood and finally had to admit to myself. I loved him, too.
There was just something about this man. We connected on some deep sublevel of
our beings. I hadn’t felt anything like it before and I was absolutely certain
I never would again.

Some things were just worth the risk and whatever kind of
rare connection Thirteen and I had wasn’t just worth a risk here and there, it
was worth risking it
all.
He took his hand from mine and, wincing,
smoothed it over my hair. I smiled at him, and he whispered, “Come up here and
lie next to me.” I nodded and struggled to my feet. My body was as tired as
everything else. A voice stopped me from the doorway as I went to round the
bed.

“Brother, if you’re gonna have her do that, she might as
well have a shower and get changed now so she can stay with you,” the Vice
President had spoken and I was startled to realize that Thirteen and I had an
audience.

“I don’t want to leave him,” I said.

“We can see that, Baby, and we’re uh… we’re trying here. So
how about it? You grab a shower, get cleaned up, and we’ll bring the rest of
your stuff in from your car.” I blinked. They’d gone through my car? I shook my
head. Of course they did.

I worried my bottom lip between my teeth and Thirteen
grasped my hand in his. His eyes weren’t on my face, though. They were on my
wrist and the dents made from my bindings that still hadn’t smoothed out all
the way.

“What the fuck?” he demanded and cast his eyes at Trigger.

“We’ll talk, Brother,” he said and Thirteen looked at me.

“Grab a shower, take one of my tee shirts from the drawer.
No one’s going to hurt you...” I snorted and he scowled. “Anymore,” he amended.
“Hurry up, I want you back here with me where I know you’re safe.”

“C’mon. I’ll stand watch while you’re in the bathroom if it
makes you feel better,” the demon gave me a wink and a mock lecherous grin. I
scowled and quailed on the inside but it must have showed some, his expression
went cold.

“Wow, never quite had one of
those
reactions to one
of my jokes before. For serious. I’ll make sure you’re okay,” he waved me
forward towards him and Thirteen gently shook my hand and let go, urging me to
go. I took a reluctant step away from him.

“Dani, Baby, I know I haven’t been exactly honest about who
I am and shit, but have I ever lied to you?” he asked me. I looked down into
his very serious face and shook my head.

“I promise you’re going to be okay. Go with Reaver, he’ll
make sure you’re left alone and then he’ll bring you right back here. I
promise,” he said. I nodded and went towards Reaver, the demon sent straight
from hell. He smiled at me and held out his hand, a switchblade resting on its
palm.

“This is my new very favorite knife. I gave my old very
favorite knife to my best friend’s girl a long time ago. I just got used to
making this one my new very favorite knife but it looks like you could use a
bit of trust and an insurance policy, so I’m going to give my new very favorite
knife to you. Okay?” he said and I met his eyes with mine, blue on blue. I
plucked the knife from his palm and gripped it tightly with my fist. He smiled
and it was a slightly haunted and sad thing, and I got my first inclination
that maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t as monstrous as first impressions led me to
believe.

I gave him a tentative smile back and he turned sideways so
I could go past him, out into the hallway. As we moved across it to what was
presumably a bathroom, I heard the Vice President say, “He makes friends in the
weirdest fucking ways sometimes,” which made me smile for real.

Red-XIII…

I watched Reaver lead Dani across the hall and, with just
about every reserve of strength depleted, I gave up my bravado which I’d been
putting on for her benefit and laid my head back down. Trigger and Dray brought
in a couple of chairs and sat down by the bed. We only had a little time before
Dani got back and I wanted to know…

“What. The. Fuck?” I growled out.

Dray sighed, “Doc saw her and it was a good thing he did,
too. She was jumping up and down screaming and crying and laying on her horn
outside the gate, but nobody heard shit, we were all inside. Doc happened to
see her on the camera and said he knew who she was and to let her in. He gave
us the 4-1-1 that she was the Suicide Kings’ girl you’d called him in to help,
and Archer, Rush, and Nox went ‘own fucking program’ while we were tied up
helping you.”

Trig picked up when Dray left off, “Dragon got a call that
you’d been taken out and where to find you, he took Duracell and Ghost and were
out going for the overlook when she showed up. And then it took me and Dray to
get you in where Doc could look at you. Reave was passed out, Dis was following
Doc’s orders, and Archer, Rush, and Nox were left to deal with Dani. We had our
hands full with you and they weren’t hurting her...” I stopped him.

“She doesn’t look unhurt to me, you see her wrists?” I
demanded.

“Yeah, okay, fair enough,” he conceded.

“Finish the fucking story, Man,” I demanded and Dray picked
up.

“They locked her in one of the unfurnished rooms out back
and posted up outside the door. They wouldn’t let anyone near it until Dragon
got back. Wanted to put it to a vote on what to do with her. We didn’t know
what happened, you were out and we had nothing to go on until we could talk to
you. She was alone in the room and we figured her being locked up wasn’t the
worst thing that could happen until this entire shit show could be sorted out.”

He had me there, but just because he was right didn’t mean I
had to fucking like it. Trig pressed on, “We fucking argued like a motherfucker
but these guys are still new to our ways, so we tried to give them a little
leeway. They finally agreed to let Blue in with some water because the dude
doesn’t say shit anyways.” That was the truth.

“By the time Blue came out, my dad was back with Duracell
and Ghost,
with your bike by the way.
” That made my lips twitch, she
would have been a bitch to replace but honestly, she was just an object, a
thing
,
if anything had happened to Dani… Dray must have read the look on my face
because he didn’t dwell on that finer point too long.

“We decided to bring her out and have a fucking chat,
Dragon’s orders,” he said.

“You got a fucking hellcat there,” Trig observed, “Dragon
pretty much matched up everything that came out of her mouth with what you told
us about her and she gave every one of us a fucking what-for over you getting
shot. Put it together rather neatly for us. Dragon’s out there with Archer,
Rush, and Nox, living up to his name. He’s fucking livid, man. They went OFP in
a big fucking way and that’s what compromised you. We’re sorry, Dude. We
thought we could trust them to believe in the brotherhood, to follow the plan,
but they just had revenge on the brain and fuck everybody else.” Trig looked
heartily sorry.

“They’ll be lucky if their patches aren’t pulled,” Dray added.

“Don’t do that,” her voice was gentle from the doorway. She
looked like some tiny, fragile, china doll; hair dripping, making darker
patches on the gray tee shirt of mine she had on. I know these guys all had
women that they were mad for but it didn’t make me feel any better. The tee she
had on didn’t cover near enough for my tastes, barely skimming the tops of her
thighs beyond where would be considered indecent. Reaver stood behind her, a
hand gently on her shoulder, and I didn’t like that either. She gripped the
knife he’d given her in one of her hands, took a deep breath, and let it out
slowly.

“Why not?” Trigger asked, eyeing her speculatively.

“I just don’t think it needs to go that far,” she said
evasively. But I could see her fear.

“Come here,” I patted the side of the bed that was vacant
and she hesitated. Reaver took his hand off her shoulder, belatedly realizing
that it was what was stopping her, which made him really frown. He came around
and, with his right arm drawn against his ribs, he used his left to pull back the
blankets for her. She got into bed and swallowed hard.

“Relax, Dani, these guys aren’t here for a show,” I said
softly. I pulled her into my side where she belonged and pressed her head into
my uninjured shoulder. She was careful where she put her arms so she wouldn’t
hurt me but I didn’t care. I just wanted her close to me. My smart and clever
and
ridiculously
brave girl.

“You’re cool, Sweetheart. You can take what Trig - hell what
any of us - asks you at face value,” Reaver said, and helped himself to sit on
the foot of the bed.

“They hate me,” she said bravely, “At least Archer does. Nox
and Rush, I think they follow him. If you take their patches, they’ll blame me.
Come after me… I don’t know what they did to Ace and Deuce but it was bad for
Skid to get that drunk that early in the day.” She swallowed hard. “Please,
don’t make me a target. I don’t know who the one Ace and Deuce ran off the road
was to them, but he had to have been important to them.”

Trig sat back in his chair and Dray looked thoughtful. “You
got all that from where?” he asked. I kissed the top of her head and couldn’t
suppress the proud smile on my face.

“Smart girl,” I said. She shook her head.

“If I were half so smart, I would have left a long time
ago,” she murmured.

“Nah, you just needed the stars to align and give you the
right motivation and a place to run
to
,” I said. She closed her eyes and
sighed.

“Come on, let’s leave these two alone,” Doc called from the
door.  Trig, Reave, and Dray left, my VP and SAA taking their chairs and
shutting the door behind them. Dani and I were alone.

“You okay?” I asked her, and she trembled against me.

“You know, I don’t know. I want to say I’m not, but with you
holding me like this… I am. It’s so confusing. I just,
who are you?
” she
asked.

“You comfortable?” I asked softly and she nodded against my
chest. “Okay, then close your eyes, I’ll tell you a bedtime story.” She huffed
a broken laugh that held bitterness at its edges.

“Fairy tales aren’t real, Thirteen. If you lose a shoe at
midnight you aren’t a princess, you’re drunk.” I laughed and pain seized up my
chest and ribs, like the entire cavity had filled with shards of broken glass.
Doc had told me that with the shot to my center chest plate and with how close
Gordy was, that I’d been damned lucky the blow hadn’t stopped my heart. I
closed my eyes and breathed Dani in. She smelled fresh and clean, with that
subtle hint of fruit and musk that was whatever soap she used.

“You smell like you,” I murmured.

“They went through my car. My stuff was waiting in the
bathroom for me.” I could hear the frown in her voice and I fought not to laugh
again, instead concentrating on telling her what she wanted to know.

“My name really is Chris, my last name is Welker, and I was
born here in the state,” I started. “Family life was good but not great, went
to high school, didn’t graduate, went to trade school, got my GED and picked up
welding. Moved to Tennessee for work, started working as a deck hand on a river
boat. One month on, one month off.” I sighed, “One of the crew was a Sacred
Heart man and introduced me to the life when I was twenty. I took to it like a
fish to water.”

“Joined up with the chapter out of Memphis, my bike was my
dad’s and I restored it when I was seventeen and found it rusting in our barn.
Got tired of the boat, had made plenty of money, got tired of the bullshit and
petty back stabbing going on in my club, and so I went nomad. When D. put out
the call that the mother chapter needed some help, I figured it was time to
come home. Was here all of a couple of weeks before your boys blew up Trig and
Rev’s business. D. took me aside since I hadn’t been around much, asked me if
I’d be willing to infiltrate The Suicide Kings. I’d done it before for the
Tennessee chapter and said sure, that’d I’d give it my best shot. Never thought
it would be so easy and never in my wildest dreams thought that it would find
me you.” I lay staring at the ceiling as the room started to grow light with
the coming dawn through the high window. I thought she’d fallen asleep, but
then she spoke.

“So other than the whole, belonging to a rival club thing,
you never lied?” she asked softly.

“Not to you, not ever,” I promised. She nodded against my
shoulder.

“Chris?” she asked gently when enough time had gone by. The
sound of my name, tremulous and softly spoken from her lips, both aroused me
and put me into a perfect state of peace.

“Yeah?”

“Can I ask you something?” I smiled.

“You can ask me anything, Dani.”

“How do you feel about me?” she asked, and I could hear her
swallow. This was important and not the time for me to question anything, or
buck up and try to seem cool, or to overthink shit, either. She needed the truth
and so I gave it to her.

“I think you’re amazing. I think you’re smart and kind and
incredibly brave. I think you’re beautiful, I’m finding that you’re funny, and
I think it’s a combination of all of those things that first attracted me to
you, but it’s the fact that you are so damned willing to
try
and to
trust
no matter how many times those assholes gave you a reason never to do any of
those things again… I think it’s that, that makes me love you.” I said, and
kissed her hair. She sniffed and trembled slightly at my side.

“You really think those things?” she asked, and I could hear
the waver in her voice.

“Yeah Dani, I do.”

She was just so
damaged
and yet, even when I found
her at her worst, so sick and knocking at Death’s front door, she fought not to
be. To choose her own way. Dani had a will under there as strong as iron and
yeah, I think I could safely say I was in love with her.

She could have just gone. She could have made her escape and
put the Suicide Kings and the Sacred Hearts and their stupid war firmly in her
rearview, but she didn’t. She’d stayed and followed me into the lion’s den,
stood by, waited for an opportunity and seized it. Saving my life, saving her
own life, and standing up to every damned one of them in the process. That was
sexy as hell.

“Why didn’t you just leave, Baby? Why did you put yourself
in danger for me? Why did you follow us? You could have been caught! If Flyer
and Pipes had seen you when you passed us,” she gasped, a sharp exclamation of
sound.

“You saw me?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said grimly, leaving off that it had scared the
shit out of me.

“Just… why?” I asked.

“Because you saved me, and you were gentle and kind even
when it could have gotten you in trouble. Because you treated me like I was
worth something. And because of all those things, I just… I needed to save you
back. I owed you at least that much, and because I’m in love with you too,” she
murmured. I sighed out, content.

“Promise you’ll stay with me, that we’ll figure this out.
It’s gonna take time, so to start with, just promise you’ll be here when I wake
up,” I murmured.

“I can do that, I promise,” she murmured softly in return.

“Okay, good.”

We both drifted in each other’s arms, I needed to heal and
so did she. Me physically, her emotionally; I think we both had a better shot
of doing it together and as much as I didn’t want to be anything like that
asshole, Pig-Pen, I couldn’t deny to myself or my brothers that Dani Broussard
was
mine
. My woman, with all the weight and responsibility that carried.

Right now I had her, right now I could hold her and as soon
as I was able, I was going to make sure that she was mine by blowing a hole in
every single one of those fuckers. Whether it be by my hand, or one of my
brothers’, it didn’t matter. Every last one of them was going to die, starting
with every one of them that I had ever seen touch her. Together Dani and I made
a whole, and where she hadn’t been strong enough to punch or kick or knock a
motherfucker out for laying a hand on her, I had no such problem doing so. And
I was going to make damned sure that when I did it to them, that I was
operating as her hands and from her heart to theirs. You reap what you sow, and
they were about to reap three years and more of pain all at once.