Damaged & Dangerous: The Sacred Hearts MC Book VI (14 page)

Dani…

“Kiss me before you go?” Thirteen asked. I smiled and went
to his bedside. Leaning down, I placed my lips gently against his. His hand
cupped the side of my face, his thumb gently edging my cheekbone, and peace
settled into my heart. I straightened reluctantly and smiled a bit wanly.

The Sacred Hearts wanted to speak to me again and had sent
Reaver and Blue to fetch me. I was dressed in my own clothes, which had been
brought in from my car along with just about everything else in it, which made
me feel marginally better. I was comfortable in jeans and a long-sleeved black
top that fit me like a second skin. It was simple in the front, a scooped
neckline and plain, but the back plunged low and I loved the feel of the sweep
of my waist-long hair against my skin.

I couldn’t wear a bra with this particular top but that was
alright. While I wasn’t ungifted in the bust, I wasn’t small-breasted, either.
Just one of those women genetically lucky enough that wearing a bra wasn’t
mandatory all of the time. I walked with Reaver and Blue out to the common
room. Blue kept giving me these sidelong looks to check and see if I was okay,
and I suppressed a smile.

“I’m fine, thank you,” I murmured and Reaver raised an
eyebrow.

“You talking to yourself?” he asked.

“No, Blue asked,” I said quietly. Reaver looked at me as if
I was crazy.

“They sent you,” I stopped at his look and amended what I
was saying, “No, you
volunteered
to come get me because you want me to
like you. You work very hard at being liked and it bothers you when you aren’t
trying to be scary and someone is scared of you. It makes you feel bad. Blue
came because he didn’t like what was happening to me, he genuinely feels bad
about it and wants me to feel safe. Am I right?” I asked quietly. I’d stopped
in the archway and Reaver was looking at me in a new light. Blue was smiling.

“Smart and perceptive,” Blue said and I looked at him. He
smiled a secret little smile, and went to the table and pulled out a chair for
me.

“Living with them, you have to be perceptive,” I took the
seat, acutely aware that I was further down the table and on its opposite side
this time, and closer to Archer, Rush and Nox. I bit my lips together and tried
very hard not to look at them, focusing instead on their Sergeant-at-Arms. He
was huge. Tall, blonde, and broad of shoulder, with silvery blue eyes, and as
Nordic as they came.

“How’s that?” he asked.

I told them about Pig’s moods and about how it was
commonplace to be roughed up or slapped around for simple mistakes, “They
started calling me Coon a few months into my being…” I struggled for the right
words and came up empty, settling with, “…being with them. They thought it was
cute, on account of just about always having two black eyes.” Stormy looks were
exchanged.

“We found this in the door of your car, and this in your
purse. We can’t figure it.” Dragon said after a long pause in the conversation.
Reaver set down my bottle of perfume and the Crown Royal bag.

“It’s, um, it’s how I kept myself valuable to Pig when he
started to get bored with me. My grandfather was a Frenchman and a custom
jewelry maker. When the people who bought their drugs from the Suicide Kings on
the street started bringing them jewelry, most of it stolen, Sparks got pissed.
I told Pig I could melt it down, refashion it into things more valuable that
they could pawn without a trace or sell online to turn their profit.” The table
was quiet and I felt the need to fill the silence.

“I know it was wrong but it was mine, you know? I didn’t
want to die. They left me alone for the most part, to create new things, and
they couldn’t hurt me too badly anymore. At least when Sparks was alive… If they
broke my arm or my fingers, I couldn’t work, and Sparks would be pissed. I was
stupid for thinking they might stop beating on me altogether. That if I was
more valuable to their bottom line, that maybe…” I turned my face so I wouldn’t
have to see some of the more pitying looks.

“This something you like to do, Darlin’?” Dragon asked from
the head of the table. I sniffed and nodded weakly.

“I miss my
grand-père.
I
had to leave all my tools in my apartment and my workshop downstairs there. I
thought I could take this stuff when I ran, that I could pay Thirteen back
somehow and if he didn’t… if we… I thought I could use it to start over
somewhere.” The men exchanged some looks and a silent decision was made.

“How heavy and how much of this shit is there?” Dray asked.
I told him about everything that I had for my grandfather’s trade and what it
required.

“Do you want me to do for you what I did for them?” I asked
finally. Dragon started laughing and so did some of the other guys.

“Darlin’ all our business is legit, we don’t have any need
for you to flip stolen jewelry. None at all. I think we’re all thinkin’ the
same thing, though. If we go out with you and get these tools and supplies and
bring it back here to store it where those fuckers can’t sell it or do
whatever, would that earn us some trust and maybe a smile or two out of you?” I
stared at him open-mouthed.

“You’d do that for me?”

Archer cleared his throat, “No. We would... consider it our
apology,” he said, and I dared to look at him. Rush and Nox were nodding their
agreement and I found myself nodding as well.

“Okay, um, yes.” I nodded.

“Rev and Data should be back any time now. We’ll wait for
them and go to it. Might as well spend some time with R.T. and get something to
eat while we wait,” Dragon said. I nodded. I couldn’t really remember the last
time I ate but with everything happening the way it’d been and my stomach all
in knots, I wasn’t exactly hungry.

“I’ll throw a couple or ten frozen lasagnas in the oven,” the
tall, slender tattooed man who had followed Doc’s barking orders the night
before got up and went through a doorway behind the bar.

I got up and stood patiently as the guys started milling and
talking before Trigger noticed me just standing there.

“You okay?” he called down the table.

“Um, don’t I need an escort or something?” I asked.

“Honey, you’re not a prisoner here,” Dragon said.

“Do you know your way back?” Trigger asked. I nodded.

“Well go on, then.”

Dragon smiled and as I turned I heard Trigger sigh and
utter, “This would be so much easier if Sunshine were here.” There were murmurs
and grunts of agreement and I frowned and decided to test the waters a bit.

“Who is that?” I asked, turning back around. Trigger
straightened and I held my ground, heart hammering as he came towards me. He
pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned on the home screen, and there was
a picture of a beautiful, petite woman with auburn hair as long as my own, her
eyes a peculiar golden color, smiling at the camera. I blushed furiously and
handed the phone back, and Trigger grinned. She’d been nude and from the
perspective, I gathered she’d been on top of him.

“Sorry, we like to be watched,” he said. I felt myself turn
a shade or two green and nodded, leaving the men and hurrying back to Thirteen.

“You okay?” he asked as I shut the door behind myself. I
turned and nodded.

“I think so,” I said softly. He frowned and held out his
hand. I sat on the floor beside his bed and held his hand.

“Talk to me,” he urged gently and I did, easily. I told him
about the exchange from the beginning and he smiled that his brothers were
going to help me get my stuff. And then I told him about Trigger and Sunshine.
His smile collapsed.

“Oh, hey, Sunshine and him are into that sort of thing, but
you and me? No way. Never. It’s just you and me behind closed doors. I don’t
share and I wouldn’t do that to you.” I nodded and kissed the back of his hand,
laying my head on the mattress beside where our fingers were entwined.

“You going with them when they go to get your jeweler’s
things?” he asked softly.

“I think I have to, they might miss something important if I
don’t.” I swallowed hard.

“You’ll be okay. They’ll protect you, Baby. They know what
you mean to me.”

He took his hand from between mine and smoothed it over my
hair. I closed my eyes and relished the touch. Being touched in this way was so
different from what I’d been living with for the last three years. It was
taking some getting used to, but for the most part I was starved for it. So
thirsty…

I looked up, “What are we going to do, Thirteen? After all
of this?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Rocket, but we got time, lots of time to
figure it out,” he sighed, his green-blue eyes searching mine, and he struggled
to sit up.

“Help me up,” he said.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Coming with you. Come on, help me up,” he reached and I
stood up.

“You were just shot last night!” I cried. He laid back down
and tried to catch his breath.

“I know Babe, but you’ve been tested past your limits. I’m
not letting you go by yourself.” I dropped on to the edge of the bed and
gathered his hand between mine into my lap.

“We don’t have to go anywhere right now. They said they
wanted to wait for someone named Rev to get back.”

He nodded, “Not a bad idea, he can handle himself and some
heavy lifting. I’m still coming with you, though.” I pursed my lips and sighed.
I figured it was best to say nothing and to maybe let the doctor or his other
brothers argue with him. Instead I toed out of my Converse and came around the
bed, getting in with him.

“Please don’t hurt yourself for me,” I whispered, he smiled
and let me cuddle into his side.

“Can’t think of anything I would rather hurt myself for.
We’ll talk about it later when Rev and whoever he went off with gets back.
Deal?”

“Deal,” I murmured.

We lay close in his bed and talked softly until he fell
asleep. I lay beside him, listening to his even breathing, and wondered how
this would all come together in the end. Would the Suicide Kings let me go?
Would they have a choice? Their numbers were greatly diminished compared to the
Sacred Hearts, so it would seem. I mean, they thought Thirteen was dead, and
they thought the demon…
no,
Reaver
, I reminded myself, was dead.
I wondered if the Old Lady had really died or if they were hiding her somewhere,
too.

I know that Archer, Nox, and Rush’s brother had died. Their
rage was too pure, too raw for it to be otherwise. A soft tap came at the door
and the doctor poked his head in.

“He sleepin’?” he asked. I nodded. “Good, I need to check
his shoulder.” He came in and set his bag on the floor next to the bed. He
snapped on a pair of white latex gloves.

“How you holdin’ up?” he asked me quietly as he laid out
what he would need on the bedside table.

“Okay,” I said quietly.

He sighed, “You look like you got a lot you’re thinking
about,” his comment an invitation for me to speak.

“I was thinking about how this would all play out. I mean,
the Kings think that Thirteen is dead, and Reaver, too…” I swallowed hard. The
doctor paused and closed his eyes, a pained look flickering across his face.

“They got Grinder and they got my woman, Chandra, when they
broke in here.” I blinked back tears in the face of his pain.
His woman,
I
looked up at him. His woman had been killed and yet when Thirteen had called,
he’d come. He’d come and healed me, when I was technically one of
their
women.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and he gave me a crooked but sad smile.

“Not yer fault. Wasn’t like you was in their cheer squad or
anything,” he looked me up and down.

I shook my head, “I hope you kill them all,” I said
truthfully.

“Ain’t a single damned one of ‘em you would spare?” he
asked.

I thought about it, I mean really thought about it. The only
name to really come to mind was Skid’s… I chewed my bottom lip. Skid had, on
one or two occasions, stood up for me. But there were a lot more of them where
he’d stood by and let Pig…

“Maybe Skid. He stopped Pig from branding me, and would
sneak me pain medicine from time to time, but he’s just as guilty as the rest
of them in his own way,” I murmured.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for
good men to do nothing. A man by the name of Edmund Burke said that. Sound
about right?” I looked at him and nodded finally.

“I think that would fit Skid, but he isn’t exactly a good
man anymore. I think he used to be once and that it’s down in there somewhere, but
it got scoured away somehow,” I scraped my bottom lip between my teeth.

“That was us once, The Sacred Hearts,” he sniffed and shook
Thirteen gently by his good shoulder. He jolted.

“What? What’re we talking about?” Thirteen muttered
sleepily. I smiled and laughed a bit.

“Asking your woman who she would spare out of the Suicide
Cunts if she had her way,” the doctor said. I choked on his name for the Kings
and smiled broadly. I liked it. “I’ve gotta change that shoulder, you ready?”
he asked.

Thirteen struggled into a sitting position and nodded. The
doctor carefully peeled the square of bandage off of Thirteen’s shoulder and
Thirteen hissed.

“Pussy,” Doc chuckled and looked through his half-moon
spectacles at the carefully stitched wound.

“It’s awfully red,” I murmured. It was, around the edges,
the black stitching neat and spiky. It was slightly swollen but not too badly.
The doctor took his time cleaning it off with some more gauze.

“Eh, it looks pretty normal actually. Still gonna get a shot
in the ass there, got some antibiotics and a tetanus booster.” He said and
slathered more antibiotic ointment over the wound.

“Tetanus? What the fuck I need that for?”

“Dunno the last time you had one and the last time I
checked, the slug I dug outta there was made out of metal. You’re a lucky son
of a bitch. The Kevlar mostly stopped it. You had a grade less ballistics plate
over your heart you wouldn’t be here. I’m still not sure how that blow didn’t
stop your fucking heart. Chalk it up to you being one tough son of a bitch.”
The doctor spoke low and intense as he redressed the injury.