Page 25

Twenty-Five

Them: You have no dignity. Me: It’s pronounced diggity.

— Text from Aella to Chevy

CHEVY

“You’re going to have to repeat that.”

Apollo did, this time a little less detailed, and then stared at me.

“They put a hit out on Aella, and every other person in that room’s significant other, because we killed his kid?” I asked, repeating myself for the third time.

Apollo was probably frustrated with me.

“Yes,” he answered. “I’ve been scouring the dark web for the last half hour, and at least two people picked up the contract before I was able to have it removed.”

Nausea churned in my gut as I stared blankly at the tabletop in front of me.

When Apollo had called me to get over to his place as soon as possible, I’d been thinking that there was something going on concerning himself.

I hadn’t expected this.

“I gotta go,” I said as I stood.

My phone rang just as I stood.

Silver.

Again with the nausea.

“Hello?” I answered hesitantly.

There was sniffling and then a distraught voice croaked, “Hey, um, Chevy. This is Silver. You need to get to the hospital.”

Thousands of possibilities raced through my brain, and every single one of them was horrible.

My stomach sank. “What happened?”

There was a long pause and then Silver said, “Someone shot Aella.”

The ride to the hospital was fast because I made it fast.

I’d passed quite a few law enforcement officers on my ride, but none of them were able to keep up with me, even though every single one of them tried to and failed.

I also didn’t feel bad about running that old lady off the road because she was going so goddamn slow.

By the time I got to the hospital, I was so fucking scared that I was trembling.

I got to the cubicle in the emergency room that was housing Aella in five minutes, and I knew it was Aella’s room because there was a crowd around the cubicle of all the people she knew in the hospital.

On hesitant, but still rushing feet, I made my way into the space that housed my girl and stopped dead the moment I saw her.

There were so many possibilities that could’ve run through my mind when it came to Aella being shot, but her being shot in the face wasn’t one of them.

Doctors—Val and Felix, the best of the best—were working on her. She had a breathing tube down her throat, and she was lying flat on the gurney as they worked tirelessly to get her stable.

“What happened?” I croaked.

It was Dru of all people that answered.

She caught my hand and pulled me farther out of the way of the chaos surrounding Aella.

“Silver’s in the waiting room. She was really freaking out, so we sent her there with the night charge nurse,” Dru explained. “Let’s go find her.”

I couldn’t make my feet move from the spot.

“I got this,” a deep male voice said.

I didn’t take my eyes off of Aella—they’d shot her underneath her right eye—but I knew it was a police officer that stood next to me.

I didn’t know who he was, but he introduced himself in the next moment.

“My name is Officer Assman,” he said quietly.

I’d heard of him.

Who wouldn’t with that name?

“Okay,” I croaked.

“Police responded to the bank just after six p.m. when the victim’s sister called in to tell us that there’d been a shooting,” he explained. “Police and medics arrived on the scene, and Ms. Donahue let us know that the shooter had taken off toward a black SUV with a missing front and back license plate. Ms. Donahue also couldn’t give much of a description because the shooter had been wearing a mask to cover all of his features. We do know he was male though, and white because on the surveillance cameras you can see a sliver of white skin at his back. We have a BOLO—be on the lookout—for the vehicle. There were a few identifying features on the vehicle that we were able to be specific.”

I didn’t tell him about the hit on Aella.

I also didn’t tell him about the hit on the rest of the significant others.

I kept my mouth shut, because there was no fucking way that I wanted the police to be out looking for this guy. If they found him, they’d bring him into custody, and I wouldn’t be able to exact my revenge.

I was numb inside.

There was something significantly wrong inside of me that was telling me that I should be freaking out.

The woman that I loved—something that I’d known deep down but hadn’t admitted to myself yet—was fighting for her life in that room right now.

Yet…I wasn’t afraid.

It was like instinctively I knew that she would live. That we would get through this.

“Thank you,” I said stiffly.

Assman nodded. “If we get any more updates on the situation, we’ll let you know. She told us that you were her fiancé, and you could get any and all updates on the case as well as medical information.”

Something inside of me cracked, yet I sealed that feeling up behind an impenetrable wall.

“Thank you,” I replied again.

Assman left, and Val and Felix stepped back almost at the same time.

Both the best hospital ER docs in the area were working on my woman.

Obviously they’d gotten her stabilized enough that they felt like they could get her into surgery.

Because, despite the carnage of blood on her face, I didn’t see an exit wound.

Surgery would be necessary.

Stiffly I stood back when they came out of the room with her gurney.

Val hung back while Felix wheeled her past me, not bothering to stop despite them knowing that she was mine.

I watched her get rolled past me, so limp and broken, and tried and failed not to look at the wound on her face.

It would scar.

Quite badly.

She’d need reconstructive surgery, but she’d always carry that scar.

Val caught my hand in hers and said, “Walk with me. Let me tell you what’s going on.”

Dru, who’d been a silent sentinel at my side, stepped back and let Val take her place.

Val caught my arm and guided me to the side of the ER, nearest the lounge, and started to speak.

“She suffered a gunshot wound to the face,” she started with, causing me to inwardly flinch. “The angle in which she was shot caused the bullet to go in just under her eye, shattering her cheekbone. Her jaw, luckily, is not broken. Unluckily, the bullet is lodged in her neck, just short of her spine.”

I swallowed hard.

“Other than her cheekbone, it missed miraculously everything vital. She’s going to be in pain. She’s going to look like Frankenstein for a minute, but she’s going to make it. I have every reason to believe she’ll make a full recovery,” she expounded.

I nodded once.

“Do you want to inform the sister?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No.”

I needed to get the fuck out of here.

I needed to break something.

And that something would be the man responsible for what had just happened to the love of my life.

“If you need anything, come find me.” She left, leaving me standing there, heartbroken and angry. So fucking angry.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I gave Aella’s phone a call.

I knew that she wouldn’t answer it.

It was still sitting on the counter at the bank where she’d left it.

Fuck, all she’d done was go get a bank account with her sister.

Something so stupidly simple that made her so fucking happy.

God.

Her voicemail answered, and I heard her voice say, ‘I’m not here right now, leave me a message. Or, better yet, text me. Because I never answer the phone.’

At the beep I said, “I love you. And I accept. When do you want to get married?”

The men of the Truth Tellers Motorcycle Club gathered around me.

We were in a parking lot in the middle of Downtown Dallas, and we were listening to Apollo explain what he’d found on the hit that’d been put out on Aella and the others.

“…Arriel Jimenez thinks he’s smart and savvy, but he’s not. I was able to track his IP address, which in turn gave me his location because he was stupid enough to think that his shit was unhackable. It wasn’t. He’s currently in that hotel right there with his team.” Apollo jerked his head toward the hotel in question. “He’s set to leave in fifteen minutes via limo.”

“Who’ll be with him?” Webber asked.

My pocket pinged, and I pulled my phone out of my pocket to see I had a text message from Val.

Val:

They’re changing doctors now. A plastic surgeon has come in to make the final repairs, as per your request.

I tapped a quick reply and shoved it back into my pocket, once again returning my attention back to the group.

“…and another man that we’ve now identified as his bodyguard. The one that did the shooting,” Apollo answered.

“Well, I can pick him up,” Cakes said as he smoothed his hand down the lapels of his black custom-fitted Armani suit.

He’d been at a work function when I’d called him to explain what had happened.

The two of us were both here, when we should be there, for one reason.

To get our revenge.

I wouldn’t have her waking up from surgery and feeling unsafe.

We would get this taken care of now, before she could fully acknowledge that fear.

And we’d do it in a way that everyone would think twice about messing with a Truth Teller’s old lady or daughter again.

“Perfect,” Webber said. “Here the limo comes now.”

I stepped out into the street, forcing the limo to stop or hit me.

The driver stared at me hesitantly, and I jerked my thumb and said, “Get out.”

He swallowed hard but proved he wasn’t stupid.

He got out of the vehicle and held his hands up.

“You just got the night off.”

Thirty minutes later, Cakes was pulling into the underground garage of the newest acquisition of the Truth Tellers MC.

Funny enough, the Truth Tellers were pretty affluent in the area, and owned not one, but three hotels. One of which was the one that the congressman had just been driven to.

Though the hotel wasn’t a hotel anymore, but a halfway house that veterans could move into when they were having trouble and needed family and friends nearby.

Cakes’s baby, now called One Way, was fully owned and operated by a nonprofit organization that the Truth Tellers MC had set up for this very specific project.

We wanted a place for veterans that were struggling to live and thrive on their own where they could go where they had their own surrounding them, but also a safe place where it was top of the line, and they could visibly see that they were more than safe.

The place also had a couple of live-in specialists that were available twenty-four-seven if any of the veterans residing in One Way had trouble and needed to talk to someone who could help them walk through their demons.

Cakes brought the idea to the table last year sometime when he’d lost a close friend due to suicide.

And we’d run with it from there, creating a veteran oasis that had thrived.

Cakes got out and headed to where we were standing.

“They’re both freaking out in there.” Cakes smiled.

“Good,” I said as I marched toward the door.

The funny thing was, the bags that I knew were carrying their guns were in the trunk.

The most the bodyguard had was a side piece that carried at max six shots.

“You know if there’s any water in there?” I stared through the glass.

“There’s none. I removed it before I pulled in to get him,” Cakes answered. “Also, the child locks are on. And, wouldn’t you know it, this bad boy is bulletproof. So he can’t very well shoot his way out.”

“Gets pretty hot down here,” I said. “Would be a shame if he was cooked to death.”

It was something that this hotel had been fighting for a while.

That was why we’d had the chance to buy it.

The underground parking garage got close to flaming during midday through the summer months.

Which in turn heated up the bottom three floors to a near unlivable level with the outdated air systems that needed replaced years ago.

But, whomever had built this stupid building, hadn’t taken into account the heat index of Texas, and had thought that something that would work in Montana would work here.

Newsflash, it didn’t.

Which in turn gave us a pretty sweet deal on a hotel that needed quite a few updates.

“Get that driver in the hospital. Rough him up a bit, and tell him to tell them that it was a gang member. Give him enough money that he has enough incentive to keep his mouth shut in the future,” I suggested. “We’ll leave them here, and sacrifice them to the Texas heat.”

“I’ll stay and make sure they don’t accidentally get out.” Webber paused. “Got the gates closed to the underground garage?”

“Ten-four,” Cakes answered and slapped my back. “Let’s go see our girl.”

We arrived at the hospital as a group, and despite wanting to leave my cut exactly where it was so everyone could know who they’d be messing with when it came to me, I took the cut off and tucked it into my saddlebags.

The hospital’s policy on no gang affiliation was clear and concrete.

Cakes got off his own bike and straightened his suit jacket.

He looked ridiculously stuffy.

“Ready?” he asked as I took the ball cap off my head.

I ran my fingers through my hair and replaced the hat onto my head.

“Yes.”

Val and Felix were outside when we arrived and followed us up to the surgical floor as they spoke about what had happened during surgery and what the next steps were.

When we arrived outside of her room, Val stopped me just short of going inside.

Movement caught my eye, and I glanced up.

I watched as a male nurse headed into her room, not thinking anything of it.

I turned back to the two doctors. “What’s up?”

“We heard a rumor about a hit that was put out on the…” Felix stopped.

I whipped my head around when the alarms that were connected to Aella stared to pierce the air with their intensity.

The male nurse slipped out of the room and started creeping down the hall, but some instinct inside of me nudged me to react.

Nurses and doctors flooded her room as they went rushing toward her, and I launched myself at the male nurse who’d just rounded the corner of the nurses’ station.

I took him down to the ground, forcing his arms behind his back, and growled, “What did you do?”

The nurse started to writhe.

“I didn’t do anything! Get off me! Security!” the nurse growled.

I shoved his face into the floor with the palm of my hand and looked over at the people now working tirelessly to fix whatever this motherfucker had just done.

“Tell me what you gave her,” I said as I got near his ear. “Or I’ll ruin you.”

“They have my wife. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t,” he replied.

“Well, they’ll have her anyway if you don’t show up and tell them the job’s done, I’m sure,” I snarled. “And if they do let her go, I’ll make sure that whatever they did to her, I’ll do it ten times worse, and she won’t be walking away from what I do. So either tell me, or I will go hunting.”

“Insulin,” he said into the floor. “I gave her a deadly dose.”

I reared back and punched him in the side of the face.

With nowhere for his head to go but farther into the solid floor beneath him, it was a deadly hit.

I heard the bones in his cheek and eye crack, but didn’t care.

Standing up, I hurried to the room and called out.

“Val, Felix!” I bellowed. “Insulin. He gave her insulin!”