Reapers Creed MC: Damon's Salvation Page 8

  She turned my way and grabbed me by the shoulders. Looking me directly in the eyes she said, “I need you to be brave right now. Leslie is back with her family and everything’s going to be okay. So move your pretty ass. Let’s go and get our MC princess.”

  As soon as I walked through the emergency department’s doors, I saw the waiting room full of leather jackets. There were twenty or so of the guys in there and even though it felt good to know that my daughter had wrapped so many badasses around her pinky finger, in that moment I couldn’t care less. I needed to see that she was safe and sound.

  Lucas was there, and as soon as he saw us, he walked over to Cora, and after kissing her he hugged me.

  Without saying a word he grabbed my hand and took me to a door at the end of the hall.

  When I walked inside the room I couldn’t contain my sobs. Sitting on a recliner was Damon, with a lifeless Leslie in his arms. His eyes were red and his expression was somber. In that moment I thought the worst.

  When he saw me, he reached his hand out for me to go to him and without thinking twice, I ran to his arms.

  I grabbed Leslie and he pulled me onto his lap. After burying my head in his neck, I started crying again. He hugged me tight and started whispering reassuring words in my ear. I looked at him and asked, “Is she going to be okay? Why does she look like that? What happened?” I couldn’t stop asking questions but realized I wasn’t giving him time to answer any of them. I took a deep breath and waited for him to explain.

  “I don’t know a lot of details. The first and only thing on my mind was bringing her to the hospital. As soon as she's out of the woods, I’ll get the answers out of that son of a bitch. About Leslie, I can only tell you that motherfucker drugged her. The doctors are running tests to try to find out what he gave her so they can wake her up. For now, her vitals are okay. We’ll know more soon.”

  I tried to remain as calm as I could, but it wasn’t easy. A tall, young doctor walked into the room with a nurse following him. I jumped out of Damon’s lap and waited for the worst. The nurse asked me to put Leslie down onto the bed. After she took her vitals, she gave the doctor the chart. He looked at it and went to check Leslie. Then he turned to us.

  “I assume you’re Leslie’s mom. I’m Doctor Castaing. For now, I can tell you she was given a very strong sleeping medication. Because she is only three years old, I don’t recommend giving her a shot of adrenaline to try to rouse her. What I would like to do is keep her overnight, to monitor her and wait for her to sleep it off.”

  Damon looked at him and asked, “How long are we talking about? Are you sure she's going to wake up?”

  The doctor remained silent for a while then breathing deeply he said, “I don’t have a specific time frame for this. Only time will tell. It’s hard because of her condition; we can’t try to talk her out of her sleep.” He turned to leave but looking at us he whispered, “Try to rest, both of you and if you see any changes just call.” With that he left.

  Damon stood up and went to Leslie’s side. He touched her hair and bent to give her a kiss. I could tell he was hanging on by a thread. After what felt like forever, he came to me, grabbed my hand and walked me to the bed. He sat with me on his lap and grabbed Leslie’s hand.

  “Lyra, try to sleep, I’ll keep an eye on her,” he said kissing my forehead.

  “We need to talk. Let’s do it now because there’s no way in hell I can sleep.”

  He looked me in the eyes. “Now isn’t the time or place for it. But I’ll promise you we will.”

  I laid my head on his shoulder, and he started brushing my hair with his fingers as I tried to fight the blackness that was pulling me in. In the end, I couldn’t fight it anymore and I fell asleep.

  I could hear my girl crying in the distance but it was hard to open my eyes. I saw Leslie standing at the end of a long tunnel. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to reach her, it was impossible.

  When I finally awoke, I noticed I was on the sofa and Damon was pacing the room with a sleeping Leslie in his arms. When he saw me awake, he came and sat by my side.

  “You’re both having nightmares. How are you feeling?”

  I looked at him without answering. How was I? Scared, tired, and very confused. That’s how I was but I couldn’t say anything. He sat on the recliner next to the sofa and grabbed my hand. Feeling safe and exhausted, I fell asleep again.

  The next morning I woke up hearing my daughter talking a mile a minute. She acted as if nothing had happened. Like it was only a bad dream. I was so happy to hear her voice again. From now on, she can talk my ears off and I will never complain.

  I jumped off the sofa, and after kissing my baby girl, I went to the bathroom to take care of my business. Cora had come early that morning with clothes for Leslie and me, so after I took a shower, I dressed in jeans and a Reapers Creed support shirt. I came out of the bathroom and found Leslie sitting in Damon’s lap sucking her thumb and holding his beanie in one hand while playing with his hair. I would give anything to play with his hair and many other parts of his sinful body. I smacked myself in the back of the head for being so horny and took Leslie in my arms. Walking back to the bathroom, I undressed her and with a warm washcloth I cleaned her the best I could, checking for any marks on her body. Damon came into the bathroom and noticed she had a bruise on her arm in the shape of fingertips and went ballistic.

  I looked at him and silently pleaded with him to control his temper in front of the Leslie. He took a deep breath.

  “The doctor just came to let us know we can take her home,” he said without really looking at me. “As soon as we get there, there is something I have to do and after that we are going to talk.”

  “Okay, we’ll be ready soon.” I was trying to avoid that conversation but deep inside I knew that it was impossible.

  Without another word he left the bathroom. I was surprised to see Cora and Lucas waiting for us in the room.

  “Gamma!!!” Leslie went stumbling to both of them. She looked for Damon. When she saw him she ran to his side.

  He took her in his arms and without saying anything else he started walking to the door. She looked at Lucas and grabbing Damon’s face with chubby hands she said, “Look, Papa Pwetty. My Olipop," smiling at Lucas.

  We all laughed. Then she took the hair band out of Damon’s ponytail and grabbed his hair in her hand, putting her thumb in her mouth and resting her head on his shoulder.

  He left the room with all of us following them.

  Damon

  I was so desperate to leave the hospital that I didn’t realize half of my club was in the waiting room. As soon as I got to the parking lot, I put Leslie in the car seat in the back of my ma’s car. After I buckled her up, I went to open the passenger door for Lyra. She jumped in without saying a word. I was on my way to the driver’s side when my phone started ringing. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was James.

  “What’s up, bro? We’re leaving the hospital right now.”

  “Then I’ll wait for you to get here,” and without another word he hung up.

  I tried not to read too much into it. I got behind the wheel and drove out of the parking lot. Behind me, I could see the line of bikes escorting us. In the back of the car, Leslie was singing while looking out the window. I took that moment to ask Lyra, “Why was she so upset the other night when she wanted to dance? I raised the volume for her.”

  “She can’t hear anything. She dances with the vibrations of the music.” Without looking at me she continued, “I’m sorry, I should have helped you then. That’s why I asked you to bring her little table. It has speakers underneath and when she puts her hands on it she can feel the vibrations.” She looked at me for a second and then looked away.

  “I need to take care of some things as soon as we get to the club. Please promise me you‘re not going anywhere while I’m dealing with that and that you’ll wait for me.” I don’t know if she could hear the plea in my voice.

  “I just ne
ed to feed Leslie and then I need to rest. I’ll wait for you.” After thinking through what she was going to say next she looked at me. “I just hope I don’t have to see your woman there because I’m tired and still on edge. I can’t deal with her right now.”

  “Don’t worry about that and for the record, I don’t have a woman.”

  “Whatever.” And with that, she didn’t say anything else until we arrived.

  As soon as we entered the parking area of the clubhouse I saw Ani, Jordan, and Kat waiting for us. Lyra got out of the car without waiting for me to open the door for her and ran into Jordan’s open arms. I went to the back to take Leslie out of the car seat but Ani beat me to it. I couldn’t help the jealousy I felt at the connection between Ani and my baby girl. They adored each other. Kat came to my side and whispered in my ear, “She’s perfect and beautiful. You are so fucked!” Laughing, she went back to the group and introduced herself to my daughter. After Ani told Leslie that Kat was my sister, I held my breath waiting to see what name my baby girl was going to make up for Kat. My daughter was goofy like that, so after a couple of minutes she looked at her aunt and announced to the rest of us that she was her Kitty Kat.

  Lyra looked at her with so much love in her eyes. Then tugging on her hair she asked, “Goofy monkey. Why Kitty Kat?”

  “Bewcase that’s her name, Momma.” With that she went running into the clubhouse.

  I went to my sister, happy to see her smiling for the first time in days and told her, “Nice name. Don’t complain—she could have named you pussy.” Laughing I turned and went looking for James.

  There were a couple of things I had to do today. One was talking to fucking Gina. I have to set her straight if I want to be able to claim my woman. I also have to go and settle the score with the asshole that was waiting for my revenge. He’s been tied up in one of the sheds we have at the end of the property.

  When I knocked on James’ door, Alex was the one to open it. I looked inside and to my surprise my dad and Leigh were there too.

  “What’s up? Can somebody explain to me why the secrecy?” I was losing my temper.

  “Everything I found out so far doesn’t make any sense.” James pointed to a bunch of papers on top of his desk.

  My dad came to me, and with a hand on my shoulder he walked me to a nearby chair.

  “Damon, sit. James searched through all the info he could get on Kevin. He’s not talking. We tried to make him talk but either he’s a complete psycho or he knows if he does and makes it out of here alive, somebody is going to kill him.” My dad pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath.

  “Let’s go and see this asshole. I’m pretty sure I can get some information out of him.” I stood up and walked to the door.

  “Son, wait. That’s why we’re all here and not in church.” He moved to block my path. “Last night while we were at the hospital someone let Kevin loose."

  “SON OF A BITCH! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! I’m killing that mother fucker as soon as I get my hands on him. As for whoever let him go, that person’s going to wish they had never been born or crossed my path.” Turning around, I put my fist through the wall. The pain I felt in my knuckles helped me control myself. I just wanted to kill.

  My woman and baby girl weren’t safe. This fucking shit was getting out of hand.

  “Calm the fuck down. I’m with you and nothing will make me happier than having the blood of those sons of bitches on my hands, but we got a rat here and we need to figure out who. Show your anger but keep your eyes open. We need that person to just make one mistake and we’ll catch them. When that happens, their blood is yours.” I knew he was right but it was hard to control the fire that was growing inside of me.

  “How are you planning to do this? Don’t you dare say with bait. My daughter is nobody’s bait.” I looked like I had the devil inside me.

  “I’ve already put trackers on every bike and the calls are all being monitored,” James said, while doing something on his computer. Then he turned to me and asked, “Would you mind if I get your baby girl a bracelet with a tracker?”

  “Go for it. I’m sure she won’t take it off. She loves jewelry.” Looking around I asked, “Anything else? Because if we’re done here, I have to find Gina and have a serious conversation with her.”

  Leigh looked at me and started laughing. “Good luck with that, brother. Last I heard she was on her way to buy furniture for her new home.”

  “Her new home? Where is she moving to?” Confusion set in.

  “To the third house behind the clubhouse.” I wanted to erase the smirk from his face with my fist. “According to her she’s moving in there with you. Never thought Lyra was up for a threesome.” He stood up and on his way to the door said, “Mind if I join?”

  “Fuck you. You touch her and I’ll cut off your dick and shove it down your throat.” After he walked out the door, I looked at my dad who was laughing at me. “Jesus Christ, would there be a day I don’t have to deal with bullshit?” I turned around and went to the bar to get a beer.

  As soon as I got to the bar, I asked the prospect if he knew where Gina was. He said she was out with Marla. When those two bitches got together it was always bad news. Marla was one of the Ravens. Gina wasn’t technically one of them, but she behaved like one. She was the daughter of a late brother from the Oregon chapter and one of his club’s pussy. After both of them were killed, she went crazy. The president of that chapter called my dad and asked as a favor, if we can have her here for a little while. That was five years ago and because she offered and I was stupid, I started fucking her. Now, that easy pussy was going to be the death of me. I was paying the price for being horny. Before Lyra came back, I’d been fucking the other girls, trying to make her understand there wasn’t any exclusivity between us. Now she must be tripping on acid because she thinks she’s my woman.

  “Call her on the phone and tell her to haul her ass back here!” I yelled.

  I finished my beer and went to check on my girls. My intentions were to get into bed with them or to wake Lyra up so we could talk. Immediately I changed my mind because in the short time I've spent with her I noticed when she is tired she can be a bitch, and even though that’s fucking hot, I need her on her best behavior for this conversation. The fact I was going to let her know I was claiming her was a lot to swallow, never mind having to do it when she was cranky.

  I stood there for a while looking at my girls. They were both beautiful. I wanted to give them both everything they cared for. I turned around with my mind set. I entered the kitchen and found my mom talking to James, while fixing lunch.

  “The two people I was looking for.” I turned to my mom and said, “I need you to get the room close to mine in my house ready for Leslie. Get her everything you think she’s going to need.” With that being said, I handed her my credit card. “Also call the furniture store immediately and tell the manager to refuse to sell anything to Gina. That bitch is there trying to get furniture for my house.”

  She went in search of her phone. When she came back I told her, “One more thing. I’m claiming Lyra at the party tonight. I’m not getting into details with her yet but I don’t want her in the dark either. It won’t be fair, so I need you to sit with her tomorrow and explain in a subtle way about the ceremony to become a full patch old lady.”

  She looked at me and smiled. Then she asked, “Why don’t you tell her the whole truth today? I can ease her into this life but the ceremony explanation is up to you. If you can’t trust she will accept the ceremony, maybe you shouldn’t claim her.”

  “Ma, I need to protect them both. But things are complicated. After everything that’s been going on, if she finds out today how to change from probate to a full patch old lady, she’ll be running for the hills.”

  Then I looked at James and asked, “Can you give me a crash course in sign language? I need to learn that shit fast.”

  The asshole had the nerve to tell me, “I can get you a book called Sign Language
for Dummies.”

  “The only dummy that’s going to live in this club house is going to be you after I finish smashing your head against the wall, asshole.” I said with fire in my eyes.

  He raised both hands in surrender. “On it, boss. I’ll get you something. Do you want me to do it now or to keep searching for information about that Kevin guy?”

  “You have at least three computers in your room and even though you look like a moron, I don’t think you are one. Do both things at the same time.”

  I walked out the back door and went to see my dad at the shop. When I entered he was looking at some receipts. Without raising his head he asked, “What can I do for you, Son?”

  “Pops, I need you to build a small table with speakers underneath so they can produce the vibrations that Leslie needs to be able to dance.” I sat on the chair closest to him and waited for his ideas.

  “So that’s what it is. I can do more than a little table for her but it’s going to take time.” He stood up.

  “There’s not much time. Put all the prospects to work so we can have this ready as soon as we can.”

  Opening the door he called out. “Hey, Billy, I'm going to make a list for you to get at the hardware store. Get two of the other prospects to go with you.” With that, he turned my way and asked, “Anything else?”

  “That will do for now.”

  I turned to leave but then he asked, “Did you deal with the Gina situation?”

  “She’s not here. I’m going to claim Lyra tonight at the party so I guess Gina will find out soon enough. After that, I will deal with the aftermath. Not waiting any longer, I want everybody to know they both belong to me.

  “Oh and, Pops? James is getting a book or something on how to do sign language, so be ready to learn.” He growled and I laughed. My dad is one of the smartest people I know but he hates to read. He will bitch about this forever. I know he’ll do it because I can see the love in his eyes when he looks at my baby girl.