Highway Don't Care (Freebirds) (31 page)

  “What?”  I screeched.  “You had charges brought
up against you?”

  “Uh, yeah.  Sorry for not explaining that well
earlier.  I didn’t want to worry you.”

  I rolled my eyes at his attempt levity.  Of course,
he would keep the fact that he was being arrested from me.  Max had
stopped by and stayed with me until I got tired and fell asleep on him. 
Literally on him though.  I used him as a pillow, and he let me because he
was worried about me.

  He wasn’t the most touchy feely kind of person, but he’d
do anything for his baby sister.  “Max went home?”

  “Yeah, he was here until I got in.  Then went
home.  Said you had a rough couple of hours.” 

  I had.  I cried on and off for the rest of the
afternoon, and then fell asleep.  I’d wake up screaming, and then Max
would soothe me back into sleep again.

  “I almost got you and our baby killed.  I almost
lost two of the most important people in my life.”  I whispered.

  “Oh, Em.  It’s all right.  It wasn’t your
fault, and you know it.  All you were responsible for was making friends
with a stupid kid.”  He said gruffly into my hair.

  I believed him, too.  For the first time in hours, I
felt like I could breathe again. 

  “I love you, Gabriel.”

  “I love you, too.”

Chapter
16

Four wheels move the body.  Two wheels move the soul.

-Biker Truth

Ember

  “Are you ready?”  I asked Gabe.

  We were at the courthouse.  It’d been one month
since the accident.  One long month of drama.  One long month of hair
pulling, scratch your eyes out fun battling it out with a lawyer that Gabe’s ex
employed.

  She’d tried everything under the sun to undermine my
abilities as a parent.  Today was the day the judge would rule over our
case. 

  I was scared shitless.  This was the day Cora comes
home.  For good.  We’d been in deliberation for nearly five hours
now.  We were on a lunch break, and I was about to die of
starvation.  I was going on my eighth month of pregnancy, and I was still
no bigger now than I was five months ago. 

  Not that you could tell from my appetite though.

  I turned and studied Gabe’s beautiful face.  “I’m
gonna go to the car and get my Lunchable.” 

  He nodded absently, and I left without looking back at
him.  He was in a mood.  His ex was a total bitch, and kept bringing
up things that “supposedly” made him a bad father.  Like the fact that he
killed four men months ago.  Not that saving the life of his wife, unborn
child, and himself was worth it.

  We’d never been able to prove that Sidney set up the
ambush that we drove into.  We all had our suspicions, but without proof,
the cops could do nothing about it. 

  I passed Sidney on the way out the door, heading to the
ladies room, and I even managed the keep the disgust off my face. 

  Bitch.

  Once out in the parking lot, I shivered at the bite in
the wind.  Today was cold for Texas at thirty degrees.  With the wind
blowing made it feel more like twenty.  It was positively frigid compared
to yesterdays seventy.

  I was weaving through the cars to get to Gabe’s new truck
when I happened to see Sidney’s Audi three spaces over from ours.  I
glanced at it quickly, but looked away again because I thought about keying
it.  Something made me look at it again, though.  Veering off toward
her car, I was nearly to the front bumper when it finally hit me.

  Cora was strapped into her car seat.  She wasn’t
moving.  It was colder than fuck, and she wasn’t even wearing a fucking
coat.

  Oh, Jesus help me.

  “GABRIEL!”  I screamed.

  I put everything I had into that scream.  It felt like
a hot fire poker was shoved down my throat, but I didn’t stop screaming. 
I tried all four doors, but they were all locked.  I looked around
frantically for something to break the windows with, but could find
nothing.  Somehow, I found myself up on the roof of the SUV, and I was
kicking the windshield with the heel of my dress shoes.  I kicked it over
and over again.  On the sixth kick, the windshield cracked, but still
didn’t break.

  I found myself hauled down by a pair of unfamiliar arms,
and I started kicking and screaming to get back to what I was doing, but
stilled when I saw that Gabe had his Glock out prepared to break the window
with the butt of the gun.  He had the door open in seconds, and was in the
backseat with Cora seconds after that.  Gabe worked diligently, getting
the baby out of the car seat in short order.  Cradling her in his arms, he
ran for the door to the courthouse steps.  I could hear sirens in the
distance, but disregarded them.

  I ran after Gabe, and found him on his knees on `the floor
of the lobby.  Cora was cradled tight to his chest.  His shirt was
off, and he was wrapping his jacket around her back.  I ran and dropped
down to my knees.  Mashing myself against her other side, trying to use
the heat of my body to get her back with us.

  The baby still wasn’t moving.  She was so still, I
feared Cora was dead, and bile crept up my throat.  Gabe had a haunted
look in his eyes, and I knew how he was feeling.  Over the last four
months of knowing Cora, I’ve grown to love her as my own.  She even slept
with us when she was staying the weekends at our house.

  The paramedics arrived, and Gabe rode with the baby to the
hospital.  Seeing the two of them together made my heart kick.  They
looked so much alike it was uncanny.  Once the stretcher was loaded into
the ambulance, they took off out of the lot.  Feeling like a zombie, I
turned to head back into the courthouse and came face to face with
Sidney.  Not one ounce of remorse showed on her face.  She didn’t
even look at all affected.  She had a small smile on her face even.

  “I saw this happening a different way, but this
works.  For two years, I’ve resented him for what he did to me. 
Seeing that just made it all worth it.  His stupid stepfather didn’t make
it worth it.”  She sneered before leaving through the maze of hallways
that led deeper into the courthouse.

  Max came bursting through the door not a minute after the
Sidney left, and came straight up to me, pulling me into a tight embrace. 
Once his arms closed around me I lost it.  I cried for that poor
baby.  I cried until I had nothing left to cry.  Deep ugly sobs
poured out of me.  Snot, snorts, the whole nine yards.  I prayed
repeatedly that she would survive.  Hoping beyond hope.

  Her lips and face were blue.  Her limp little body
showed none of the signs of life.

  “Max.”  I said gruffly.

  “Yea, honey?”  He asked.

  I told him what happened in the hallway, and what Sidney
said only moments before he showed up.  A veil came over Max’s eyes,
shielding something.  I didn’t know what, but whatever it was, it wasn’t
going to be good.  If he wasn’t my brother, I would have been scared of
him at that instant.  He pulled his phone out and called Sam, telling him
everything that had happened in the last hour.  Grabbing my hand, he took
me to his bike, and we climbed on.  The ride to the hospital was
torture.  I knew that our lives were about to change, and I hoped that
little girl would be there as a part of it.

Ω

Gabe

  I’ve gone through many things.  I watched my father
waist away from cancer.  I’ve patched up men with their limbs blown
off.  Stuck my bare hands in wounds to stop bleeding.  Witnessed one
of my greatest friends die.  Saved the life of a woman that meant the world
to one of the people I loved.  Killed four men while my wife was tied to
the chair, scared shitless that she was about to die.  Nothing and I mean
nothing, compares to this.  Seeing someone you love so deeply, so near the
brink of death, was heart wrenching.

  My Cora was fighting a losing battle. 

  I was in the back of the ambulance, close to the
door.  I was doing my best to stay out of the way, so the medics could do
their jobs.  They intubated her, and then started IVs in both
forearms.  They started her on heated drips to help bring her temperature
up to a more stable level.  Then they took her vitals, and monitored her
levels.  Nothing much they could do but drive to the hospital as fast as
they could.  The wail of the siren, the sharp honk of the horn, and the
beeping of the monitors were nearly overwhelming.  I wasn’t prepared for
this.

  I was so goddamn mad at Sidney.  During the trial,
she’d brought up every bad thing I’d ever done.  The time I smoked pot
when I was sixteen.  When I took a joyride in my neighbor’s ’64 Ford
Mustang.  The time I had sex with her in front of an open window, even
going as far as saying that I forced her.  Everything she had on me was
seriously stupid shit that I haven’t done in over ten years.  (Minus the
sex thing.  Ember brought out the bad in me.)

  When Ember left me sitting on the bench, I knew she was a
little miffed with my attitude, but I just couldn’t help the deep-seated hatred
I felt for Sidney.  Every time I saw her, I wanted to choke the life out
of her.  I was trying my hardest not to take my annoyance out on Ember, so
I kept my mouth shut and waited for the judge to call us back in to his
chambers.

   I was about to get up and head after her when Ember’s
piercing scream tore through me.  My heart dropped down to my toes, and I
ran faster than I’ve ever ran.  I slammed the doors open and bounded down
the steps.  I saw her on top of a car, kicking for all she was
worth.  Taking in every little detail, I saw form of a small child in the
backseat, and knew exactly what she was trying to do.  Extracting the gun
from the small of my back, I used the butt to break the passenger window.

  The next few minutes flew by as I tried my best to bring
Cora’s temperature up.  The paramedics arrived, and I decided to ride with
them.  I rode with her, and left Ember on the courthouse steps looking
devastated.  I sent Max a quick text telling him to get to the courthouse
ASAP, and shoved it back into my pocket.

  We arrived at the hospital, and I stayed out of the medic’s
and doctor’s way as they brought Cora to the trauma room.  One of the
emergency room nurses told me to have a seat in the waiting area, and I did so
reluctantly.  It was the hardest thing I’d ever done, walking away from
her. 

  I was in the rickety waiting room chairs for a little over
ten minutes when Ember burst through the doors.  Her hair was wild. 
What was once a braid, now more resembled a rat’s nest.  She had bruises
forming up and down each of her arms.  Her face was a tear-streaked
mess.  Her mascara was running down her cheeks in little black
streaks.  She looked horrible.

  She saw me and ran full tilt towards me.  She
barreled into me and wrapped her arms around my neck.

  “Oh God, Gabe.  Is she okay?” she asked rasped.

  Just as I was about to answer, a hysterically screaming
Sidney entered through the doors of the main entrance.

  “My baby, my baby!” the bitch screamed over and over again.

  My blood ran cold.  That fucking bitch.

Ω

Ember

“
You have got to be fucking kidding me!”
  I
screeched. 

  I sounded like I’d just chain smoked twelve packages of
cigarettes.  My throat burned with each word I said, but that woman made
me see red.

  I made it two steps before Max was able to catch me. 
I struggled to get away from him while security went over to the horrid
woman.  Two cops that were inside the trauma room came out into the lobby
at the sound of the commotion.  One split off and came in our direction,
and the other went off towards Gabe’s ex. 

  “What’s going on here?” the cop asked.

  “That woman was the one who left her child in the car to
die.  I saw her in the hallway when the ambulance pulled out.  She
said she resented Gabe, and seeing all that happened with her baby made it all
worth it.  She also said something about Gabe’s stepfather, but didn’t
elaborate.”  I managed to get out.

  Gabe passed me like a shot.  One second he was behind
me, and the next he was shoving the cop out of the way to get to Sidney. 
Max cursed and let me go, heading to intercept the fight that was inevitably
about to break out.  That was the last thing that Gabe needed right now.

  Coughing to get my voice to come out a little stronger, I
listened as the officer addressed the one trying to get Gabe away from Sidney.

  “Murphy.  Give it a second.”  The uniform yelled.

  Murphy backed up, and let the train wreck play out. 
Max had his arms banded tight around Gabe’s chest from behind.  Muscles
were bulging on both of their bodies.  Gabe looked like he was about to
choke the life out of her. 

  “How could you forget our baby in the mother fucking car?”
he seethed.

  “You’re nothing to her.  Where were you when I had to
give birth to that little rat?  That’s right you were deployed.  I
needed you and you weren’t even there.  So I did what I had to do.” 
She sneered.

  “Sidney!  You told me you aborted her!  How was I
supposed to be there with you when you told me you aborted it, and then wanted
to break up?” he said with deadly calm.

  She must have sensed that she was in serious danger, so she
retreated two steps back and bumped into the wall.

  “That kid ruined my life.  My husband left me when he
found out that kid wasn’t his.  He was skeptical in the beginning when he
saw the black fucking hair and the dark skin and left me, but I managed to
convince him to come back.  All was fucking great until that bitch came
along and ruined everything.  I lived for the day that I got to rub her in
your face.  Today turned out a little differently that I had planned, but
it all worked out well in the end.  Too bad your step daddy wasn’t here to
witness this.”  She sniggered.

  The bitch was not only crazy, but she was suicidal. 
Max strained, but his grip held true.  Time for me to intervene.  I
walked up slowly and placed myself in between Gabe and Sidney.  I was
plastered right up against Gabe so I didn’t touch Sidney at all.  He was
looking over my shoulder, not acknowledging me in the slightest.  I got up
on my tiptoes to look him in the eyes.