Fallen Idols MC - Complete (6 page)

TWO

AXEL

“Let’s go, Cook. You’re bleeding all over my cafeteria. Gotta get those stiches reset.” A hand gripped me around the arm, hoisting me to my feet.  “Jesus, Axel, you haven’t even been here twenty-four hours yet. What the fuck?”

I spit the blood from my mouth as we walked to the infirmary, glad to see a friendly face. Well, as friendly as a dirty cop on the take can be. “Hell if I know. I didn’t even see who hit me till we were all down. Something’s up with the Almas. Gotta be. Lemme have your phone. I need to put a call in to Rogan.”

Officer Max Bradley had been a friend of the Fallen Idols since he was a beat cop almost fifteen years ago. He usually didn’t work corrections, which tells me someone sent him. “I’ll talk to Rogan, see who he’s got lined up for protection, and if he knows anything about this morning.” He stopped abruptly and looked at me. “Am I going to have to put you in protective custody?”

“Hell, no.” I freed my arm from his grip, pivoting to face him full on. “That’ll just make me look weak. Make the club look weak. That shit can’t happen. Just give me your phone. It’s club business; nothing you need to be in the middle of.”

Bradley huffed, but handed over his cell. “You’ve got two minutes. I’ve got to get you to the infirmary, or people are going to start asking questions."

I took it, and dialed the club. Maya answered on the second ring. “How are you holding up, Axel? I’ve been worried about you.”

Maya was like a mother to us all. The type that would backhand you with one breath, and hand you a cookie in another. No one messed with Maya.

“I’m hangin’ in there. Is Rogue or my pops around? I only got a minute.” I eyed Bradley and he backed up a few paces, giving me some privacy. A few seconds later, Pops got on the line.

“Hey, son,” Dad’s voice, gruff from smoking at least a pack a day since I was old enough to walk, greeted me. “We’ve got protection lined up for you from the Aryans. We had to get them a few Maserati’s, but you should be good for the rest of your stint.”

I wiped blood from my lip. “Fat lot of good that did. I already got jumped by an Almas this morning. This retaliation for the beat down on their boy who straggled into our town, or more fallout from the war?”

Pops sighed, cursing under his breath. “We’re just finalizing the deal. We had hoped they wouldn’t come after you so soon. I don’t think this is the war. They’d hit all of us, not just you for that. Nah, the fuckin’ pricks are pissed because the kid had almost a kilo of blow with him.  When the cops broke you two up, they confiscated all of it, and then used it to get a warrant to search their club for more. Ended up with almost ten kilos in all, and they blame you.”

I’m dumbfounded. “Are you shittin’ me? Those idiots not only let their newbie wander into our turf after what went down yesterday, but then gave him that much blow to keep on him? What the hell were they thinkin’?”

“Shit if I know.” Pops paused, coughing up half a lung. “But I’ve got a few prospects looking into finding out more about where all this shit with the Almas started. They usually aren’t that stupid, so it has me wondering what their end game is? Why break the truce now, after we’ve been good for so long?”

Bradley cleared his throat, and I glanced up. He signaled me to wrap it up. “Alright, I gotta go get these stitches fixed. When does the protection come through?”

“We promised them two. Got them one so far, will get the other by this afternoon. Think maybe you can chill in the infirmary for a few hours? I don’t want you in the yard until everything’s in place.”

I nodded, knowing he can’t see me. “Yea, I can do that.”

“Take care, son. I’ll be up in a few days for visitation. Hopefully, I’ll have more intel by then.”

“I will, Pops. See ya then.” I hung up the phone, and handed it to Bradley.

***

PAIGE

The alarm clock came way too early this morning. If the other shift nurse hadn’t already called in sick for the day, I would’ve totally taken a personal day, and stayed in my warm, comfy bed, and done nothing but sleep, watch movies, and drink. Yes, lots of drinking. Three hours of sleep is not nearly enough.

I was up—again—talking Gina down off a ledge. Not a literal ledge (she’s never been that bad off), but, while I love her like crazy and would do anything for her, she’s a basket case—zero self-esteem (thanks to an asshole father) and she lets that son-of-a-bitch husband of hers exploit that at every turn. Last night was just one of a hundred where she called me at midnight, begging me to come pick her up. Bags packed. She swore she’s leaving for real this time, and not putting up with it for another minute.

The longest she’d ever lasted was forty-eight hours. And that’s only because she was unconscious for twelve.

I rolled out of bed, and dragged myself into an extremely hot shower, letting the water scald my back as I thought about how this happened again, and more importantly how I could stop the cycle.

Gina Probola had been my best friend since the fifth grade. We did everything together, and were as thick as thieves, until Gina met up with an asshole biker at a bar four years ago: Leo Alvarez, but to everyone else he was Chubs. He was in some kind of biker gang called the Las Almas. She was thrilled with the attention he gave her, thought he was so cool in his leather vest and with his black, shiny Harley.  He’d even invited me to tag along, introduced me to a few of the guys, but that was not my scene. Within an hour of being there, three of the shitheads had attempted to feel me up, and one outright asked me to suck his dick.

I didn’t mention my misgivings to Gina at first. She was happy, and I figured it was just a phase. Once she got the “I gotta have a bad boy” thing out of her system, things would go back to the way they’d always been.

Four years later, she’d not only dropped out of nursing school, but she’d cut ties with all of her family and friends except for me, and had ended up in the Emergency Room half a dozen times.

The first time he hit her, she admitted it to me, swearing up and down it was a one-off incident, that he was drunk, and didn’t know what he was doing. She fed me some cockamamie story about her being pissed he stayed out until four in the morning with his buddies. She said she pushed him, and he only meant to push her back, but lost his balance because he was loaded, and ended up sucker punching her in the eye. Yeah, because that’s what usually happens when someone is about to fall down: they ball their fist, and aim for your eye.

He promised her, swearing on everything, including his mother, that it would never happen again. He loved her so much, and it was just an accident. She bought it, hook line and sinker, and stayed with him.

After that she began to hide it, but having gone through training in nursing school, I knew what to look for. He’d hit her in places that wouldn’t always leave marks, but I don’t need a mark to see that she was having trouble taking a deep breath because he bruised her diaphragm, or that she could barely sit because he beat her so badly.

Over their four-year relationship, she’d left him at least a dozen times. I’d begged and pleaded for her to press charges, get a restraining order—anything that would get her away from Chubs, but she always refused. Apparently, his gang had dirty cops on the payroll, and she was too afraid of what he might do if he found out.

I turned off the water, dried myself with the towel, and slipped into my scrubs before padding into the kitchen to pour myself some coffee. I could hear Gina snoring in the other room, and smiled. At least, for now, I knew she was safe. That eased my mind some.

I poured the coffee, laden with sugar, into the biggest to-go cup I owned, and left a note to Gina, telling her I’d be home by three with pizza, before I slid in my car, and headed to San Quentin for the day.

I pulled into the staff parking lot, cutting the engine. After I graduated nursing school with my BSN, I was up to my eyeballs in debt. The California State Prison System had a debt forgiveness program with my nursing school: work for the system for three years, and they’d reimburse fifty percent of your tuition fees. It wasn’t my ideal job, but I was making it work.

“Good morning, Paige,” one of the front gate guards greeted me.

“Hey, Jimmy. It’s too early for good. I’ll let you know after another cup of coffee if anything changes.” I placed my purse and keys on the conveyer belt to be scanned, stepping through the metal detector.

He chuckled. “Late night?”

“Something like that.” I signed in, locking my purse in the provided staff locker. “You escorting me to the infirmary today?”

“I’ve been looking forward to it all morning.” Jimmy held out his arm, and the look in his eyes made me want to shrink into myself, or take a shower. Guess it’s not just the inmates who don’t see many women.

He’d been subtly flirting with me for months, but I’d been dodging him. I had absolutely no chemistry with Jimmy. No spark whatsoever. He was probably a nice guy, and was fairly attractive, with wavy blond hair and blue eyes, but he just didn’t do it for me. Besides, I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I broke up with my last boyfriend just before entering nursing school, and never really dated much after that. School kept me too busy. Thank God for every girl’s battery operated best friend!

Jimmy stopped at the door, pausing with his hand on the door handle. He stepped toward me, his tall, beefy frame towering over me. “So, Paige, I was wondering if you had any plans this weekend.”

Crap. I didn’t want to deal with this. “I’m actually working two twelve’s this weekend. Sucks, huh?” 

“Oh, well, what about next weekend?”

God, this guy couldn’t take a hint. “Gee, I don’t know. I’ll have to check the schedule. They haven’t posted it yet.”

Jimmy nodded, shuffling his feet. “Oh, okay. Well, let me know. I was thinking that maybe—”

“Be right there, Hannah!” I pretended, waving through the window before turning back to Jimmy. “Crap, sorry, Jimmy. Looks like a busy day on tap. We’ll talk later, okay?”

I didn’t give him a chance to respond before entering the code to the infirmary, and heading inside, being sure to firmly shut the door behind me. I don’t want to hurt the guy’s feelings, or burn bridges at work, but if he keeps pursuing me, I’m going to have to. I didn’t have time for this. I needed to focus on my job, and my job alone.

The infirmary was actually just one large room containing twelve beds, separated by privacy curtains. We also had two private rooms, mainly used for more severe traumas, or prisoners in isolation, and a back office where we kept supplies, meds, and the computers for charting.

Hannah, one of three other nurses at the prison, was taking the blood pressure of a patient when I came in. They were the only two here, which hopefully meant a quiet morning where I could just sit, and enjoy my coffee.

“Morning, Ms. Paige,” he greeted me.

I paused at the foot of his bed, checking his chart. “Good morning, Wally. You doing okay today?”

“Eh, this ticker of mine is acting up again. Same shit, another day. But Ms. Hannah here is taking really good care of me.” He smiled a toothless grin, wheezing out a laugh. He was a sweet old man, never uttering a disrespectful word, and had a million stories that put a smile on my face every time I saw him.

Wally had been a resident of San Quentin for over forty-five years, doing a life sentence for a series of bank robberies back in the day. They never did find the money he stole—over five million in total—and Wally would probably die with his secrets. He had congestive heart failure—end stage, and inmates were at the bottom of the list when it came to transplants.

I didn’t have to see many of the inmates throughout the day, and I always felt safe knowing there were cameras and armed guards within a few feet. Most of the inmates treated me pretty decently, often giving me a “Yes, ma’am” or “Thank you, Ms. Paige” after I treated them. Every once in a while, I’d get an asshole who thought it was fine to grab my ass or make a lewd comment, but, amazingly, those were few and far between.

I had just sat down in the office, reviewing Hannah’s notes from the night before, when there was a knock at the door.