Dex ARe (9 page)

Two of the newer prospects charged through the back door of the bar and ran up to Sly.

“Boss.” The younger one, Gunner I think was his name, slid onto the stool next to Sly and tried to catch his breath.

Sly straightened and so did I. I didn’t like the look in the kid’s eyes and my fingers twitched at my side, reaching for the gun I hadn’t carried in years. I knew I was probably going to have to remedy that real soon.

“Trouble,” Gunner gasped. “Big trouble.”

The other kid, Curtis, came beside him. “Somebody grabbed Franco right outside the gym when he was getting into his car. They threw him into a van and drove off. Avery and Big John were working security. They tried to chase after them but the van shook ’em.”

Sly’s face went gray. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath. “How long ago?”

“Fifteen minutes maybe,” Gunner said. “We flew over here as quick as we could.”

“Shit,” Sly said again. “What the hell was he doing out there so late?”

Gunner shrugged. “He crashes there some nights. Sleeps in one of the loft apartments on the second floor.”

“Hawks?” I said. In all the time he’d spent catching me up to speed, Sly hadn’t said one word about any turf war flaring up. I didn’t even want to think about the other possibility.

Sly shook his head. “I’m not sure. It could be anything. I didn’t think DiSalvo’s people would take anything that far. We’ve got to get over there.”

“Let’s ride,” I said. Adrenaline shot through my veins. As much as I had concern for Franco, a part of me sprang to life in that moment. A part of me that I’d had to force to be still for far too long. This was my club, these were my brothers and someone had reached out to try and hurt us. I missed being a soldier.

We made it as far as the back door before we heard a bloodcurdling scream from the front of the bar. Sly and I moved together, running at top speed toward the source of the scream. It was Catherine, one of the college girls Sly had on as hostess. She stood in the open doorway to the parking lot. At her feet was Franco, covered in blood, his glassy eyes staring up at her. Tires squealed as a black van sped out of the parking lot. I just glimpsed a white hand slamming its double back doors shut. It had no license plate and the windows were tinted.

I got to the kid first. I slid to my knees and got his head on my lap. He wasn’t dead. I felt a pulse. But his skin was waxy and white and he was shivering. I lifted up his t-shirt; it was soaked in blood and more gushed out of an ugly gash in his stomach. The knife was still in him. He had another slash across his left cheek. The skin flapped open and I could see muscle and fat.

“Get me a towel,” I shouted to Catherine. “Something I can use to apply pressure. Call 911.”

Sly already had his phone out and made the call. The kid’s right hand was mangled and bloodied too. I guessed he’d probably tried to fight off whoever came at him with the knife. His other hand came up and he clamped it over my arm. His eyelids flickered and he tried to focus but then his eyes rolled back into his head.

“It’s all right. You’re gonna be all right. I got you.”

He moaned and tightened his death grip on my forearm. We were about to find out just how strong a fighter he really was. Catherine handed me the towel and I pressed it against his stomach, trying to staunch the flow of blood. The other wounds were bad, but it was easy to see that’s the one that could prove deadly.

“They’re on their way,” Sly said. He sank to his knees beside us. We locked eyes and I shook my head. It was bad. It was real bad. If the kid didn’t bleed out on the bar floor, he might have a chance.

“Chicken Hawk,” I said to the kid. It occurred to me the thing to do was keep him with us, keep talking until help arrived. His skin grew colder under my touch and he started to shiver harder.

“You got a blanket or something?” I said to Sly. “He’s turning to ice.”

Billy was already on it. He ran to the back and returned a few seconds later with a big green army blanket. He and Sly wrapped it around the kid and we waited.

“Chicken Hawk,” I said again. “Just hang in there. We’re gonna get you some help. You did all right. You fought real hard.”

He moaned and nodded, tried to say something. A name maybe. I wanted to hear what he had to say. We needed to know who the hell was responsible for this. But my main concern was getting him to a damn hospital. We could deal with the repercussions of what happened later. Later ... but soon.

It probably only took a couple of minutes, but it seemed like forever before I heard the wail of a siren pulling up. I looked around. I’d been so focused on the kid in my lap, I hadn’t realized Charlie and Tiny had got the bar cleared out. They must have led everyone out the back because I was currently sitting in the middle of the floor right in front of the main doorway.

The paramedics charged in with their supplies and a stretcher. A big African-American EMT leaned down next to me and started examining Franco. He talked to him just like I had.

“Pete,” I said to the EMT. “His name’s Pete Franco.”

The EMT nodded. “Hey there, Pete. My name’s Cal. We’re gonna get you some help, okay? You just hang in there.”

Franco nodded. I tried to shift so the EMTs could get closer to him but Franco wouldn’t let go of my arm. He moaned again in protest when I tried to peel myself away from him.

“It’s okay for now,” Cal said. “You can ride along with him. Keep talking to him. Keep him with us.”

I nodded and shot a look to Sly. He and Billy would ride behind the ambulance. Things moved fast. Cal and his partner got an oxygen mask over Franco’s face and the stretcher underneath him. Cal’s partner talked into a radio and we were on the move. I climbed into the ambulance with Franco, never letting go of him. The kid was half dead and probably scared out of his mind but he wasn’t going to let go of my arm. I sure as hell wasn’t going to let go of him either.

Rage rose within me. Whoever did this to him did it to send a message to the club. There could be no other explanation for it. I wouldn’t leave Franco’s side, but I wanted to get Sly alone and figure out what the hell he thought. Was this the Devil’s Hawks? DiSalvo’s people? There was one other likely candidate and that’s what had my blood simmering with fresh hatred. George Pagano. If Sly was right, he was gearing up to try and force the club’s hand into getting further into bed with him. This might be just the kind of cowardly move he’d make to let us know he could get to us. He wouldn’t come at the club members directly. No. That would be too brave. Instead, he’d take it out on this poor kid. Make the other fighters scared to be associated with us.

If I was right, this was bad. This was very bad. God, I hoped I was wrong. But the slow pit of rage forming in my stomach told me otherwise. The timing was too convenient with the phone call I took from him. I get out, roll back into town. Pagano makes his presence known.

“Don’t you go anywhere,” I said when I felt Franco’s grip start to slip. I made eyes at Cal who was busy putting pressure on Franco’s abdomen and packing the area around the knife. Cal’s face was grim. He talked into a radio at his shoulder, letting the hospital know how far out we were and what he thought the kid would need when we got there. Franco’s eyes fluttered and he gave me kind of a nod. But his grip tightened just a little and it set my mind at ease, if only for a few seconds.

I wanted to kill whatever bastard was responsible for this. They were trying to take away everything that mattered to this kid. I knew what that felt like. He tried to fight for his life and his right hand was mangled meat because of it. Even if he survived the blood loss and whatever happened to his insides, I doubted he’d ever be able to fight again after this. Something in Franco’s eyes told me he knew the consequences too.

“We’re going to take care of you.” I leaned down close to his ear so I knew he would hear me. “You understand me? The club is going to take care of you, no matter what. That’s a promise.”

Franco groaned but I knew he understood. Just then, we pulled into the hospital ambulance bay and things moved quickly after that. I ran alongside the stretcher; Franco still had my arm gripped tight. Cal smacked the silver button next to the doors and they slid open. I kept my eyes on Franco, praying it wasn’t too late for him. His grip loosened a little as we ran the rest of the way into the hospital.

“We got a fighter here, Ava.” Cal’s words stopped me short. I looked up from Franco and Ava was standing before me.

Her face looked about as white as Franco’s. She stood there in pink scrubs, her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her blue eyes pierced straight through me and my heart dropped to my feet. She looked me up and down and her head shook. It all happened in a split second. I looked down at what she saw. I was covered in Franco’s blood.

“It’s the kid’s,” I said to her. “I’m not hurt.”

A shudder went through Ava and then she sprang into action. She ran to Franco’s side and muscled right past me, breaking his grip on my arm. She tore his shirt aside and started to assess the damage. She barked orders to Cal and the rest of the hospital staff around her. She was calm, sure and most definitely in charge.

“You can wait over there.” She gave me a stern order and pointed her latex-gloved finger to a row of chairs. “Give me the run down, Cal!”

She turned back to her patient and started chest compressions. Shit. The second Franco let go of my arm, it appeared he’d also stopped breathing.

I did as Ava ordered. I sank into the chairs across from the nurse’s station. They wheeled Franco into an exam room and I watched as Ava—my Ava—became this creature I’d never seen. Cal, the other orderlies and nurses yielded to her commands. They rolled Franco on his back then she gave a three count and they lifted him bodily to another gurney. Cal pulled the stretcher out of the way and backed out of the room. I watched in awe as Ava got busy with the work of saving that kid’s life.

I tried to reconcile the feisty girl I’d left behind with this warrior queen I saw in front of me now. She was amazing. A doctor came in and he seemed unsure of himself. He gave an order, she made a suggestion and he carried it out.

“Thank God Ava’s here.” Sly sat down in the chair next to me, running a hand through his tousled hair. I knew he’d rode like hell on wheels to get here just behind the ambulance. “Did she say how bad she thought it was?”

I shook my head. One of the orderlies came around and snapped back the privacy curtain and now I couldn’t see Ava or what was happening to the kid. “She took over and told my ass to sit right here.”

Sly let out a low laugh. “Yeah. She does that.”

A knife turned in my gut. Sly knew this woman more than I did now. She’d always been smart and sharp. I knew she’d succeed in whatever she wanted to do. But knowing that of the twenty-one-year-old candy striper I fell in love with and seeing this marvel of a woman, I wanted to know everything about the path she took to get there. A path she’d had to walk without me.

“The two of you need to get over yourselves long enough to have a real conversation.” Sly still had a way of boiling a situation down to its core parts.

I nodded. “I’m not sure she’s too keen on spending a whole lot of time with me.”

Sly shook his head. “She will be. You need to quit worrying about hurting her. Ava can take care of herself.”

I smiled and straightened my shoulders. “Let’s just get past one crisis at a time.”

Billy came through the sliding doors and took a position on the far side of the room with his back to the wall, acting sentry. Tiny came in behind him and stood opposite him. They all had their roles to play.

“You know who did this?”

Sly didn’t make eye contact. He just stared ahead at the closed curtain. “That’s another real conversation that has to happen. Like you said. Let’s just focus on the crisis in front of us.”

“What about the gym?” I asked. “Is everybody on lockdown?”

Sly nodded. “It’s secured.”

“Good. You want everyone at the Den tonight?”

Sly nodded. “Until we have a better handle on what’s going on, yes. The rest of the fighters are safe. We’ll close ranks tonight and come up with a plan.”

I slapped Sly on the knee. When I looked down at my arm, it was covered in blood. My shirt and the front of my jeans were too. No wonder Ava freaked when she saw me.

“Yeah,” Sly said. “Why don’t you try and clean yourself up?”

I rose, intending to head for the nearest men’s room. Just then, the privacy curtain snapped open and they wheeled Franco back out. They had him hooked up to a ventilator and about four other machines as they headed down the hallway with him.

Then Ava stood in front of me again, her eyes blazing with hurt.

“Angel,” I said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

I didn’t get to say anything else. She took two strides forward, brought her hands up to my face and pulled my head down to meet her lips.

Chapter Nine

Ava

This man wrecked me. As Dex stood in front of me, covered in that kid’s blood, I knew no matter what else happened, I couldn’t stand not to be touching him again, if just for a moment. I slid my hands up to his face.
God
. I missed this. The feel of his rough stubble under my fingers, his solid jaw as I tilted his head down to mine, rose up on my tiptoes and kissed him.

My heart raced as he slid his arms around me, meeting at the small of my back as he pressed me toward him. Our bodies went right for the familiar. This was exactly how he liked to hold me best. His lips were warm as he feathered them against mine. He hesitated, waiting for me to be bold. I was. I couldn’t help it. God help
me
for being weak. But when Cal said someone had been stabbed outside club property, and in that split second when I saw Dex covered in blood, I thought I might have lost him again.

So this was wrong. This wasn’t rational. This was bad for me. But for now, I just didn’t give a damn. Dex was solid, strong and he felt so good. His lips were soft and wet; I could taste the hint of beer and drank in the scent of him. The feel of his well-muscled chest underneath the soft leather of his cut. I’d missed this so much. My body cried out for his so badly it scared me. It was like I forgot the last thirteen years. Forgot where I was and everything that had happened. I only wanted to keep on feeling Dex as he kissed me and held me close. When he groaned a little, it nearly undid me. Somehow, I managed to get a hold of myself again and he set me down. I took a step back.