Ruined #5 (The MC Motorcycle Club Romance Series - Book #5) (4 page)

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Dax called me before I was even out of bed the next
morning and I groggily answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey! Can you come break me out of this place?”

“Sure, I’m sorry. I just assumed your mom would be
taking you home.”

“She said she would, but she had an appointment this
morning. I didn’t want to wait ‘til noon. I want to go home…now.”

“Okay you big baby, I’ll be right there.”

“Big baby? I survived getting shot. How much tougher
can you get than that?” he asked.

“You can be in love with the guy who got shot and
survive that,” I said with a giggle.

“Yeah, yeah. Hurry or I’m going to start walking.
Worse yet, I’ll take a city bus. You can catch anything on one of those.”

“I’m on my way,” I told him.

I jumped in the shower and quickly got dressed.
After I was ready I went and let my uncle know what I was going to do.
I
wasn’t scheduled to work that day but I just wanted to
make sure he hadn’t planned on me being there. He wasn’t, but he was concerned
about me picking up Dax.

“Where are you taking him?” he asked.

“To his parent’s house.”

“Okay, so you won’t be near the club at all?”

“No, straight to his parent’s from the hospital.
I’ll be fine.”

He nodded and said, “I used to worry about you,
some. I knew you had sense enough not to get in the middle of their nonsense.
But a gunshot…an internal war…that’s heavy shit.”

I kissed him on the cheek and said, “I know. I
promise to stay away from all of that and be safe.”

“You better,” he said, “I kind of like having you in
the family.”

“Yeah, well…you’re okay too,” I told him.

I made the fifteen minute trip to the hospital and
when I got there, I found Dax fully dressed in clothes his mom had left for
him. For a guy who had just got shot a few days ago, he looked
really hot
.

“Hey, look at you. You look good.”

“Thanks,” he said, pulling me into him and covering
my mouth with his. We kissed deeply and it was the best kiss that we had shared
in a long time. I felt his hand slip from my waist down to my ass and squeeze.

“Hey! We can’t do that here, mister.”

“Okay, but as soon as we get to my parent’s house
right?”

I laughed. “Yeah right. That’s just what I want to
do when your mother is sitting in the next room.”

“Then let’s just do it here real quick.”

“Stop it! You’re recovering from a gunshot and major
surgery. I doubt that having sex is in your treatment plan.”

“If there’s no sex with you in it, I want no part of
that treatment,” he said with a grin.

“Horn-dog,” I told him.

I didn’t hear the nurse come in but Dax saw her and
said, loudly, “No, you’re the horn-dog. I just had surgery. I don’t think I’m
supposed to have sex.”

“Dax!” I said. I could feel my face turning red. I
looked at the nurse and said, “He’s the one who suggested it, not me.”

She was an older lady. She laughed and said, “I
believe you, honey. He’s been ornery like that since he woke up from surgery.”

She had his discharge paperwork and as he signed it
she read off all the follow-up and aftercare instructions.
No strenuous activities
were one of them. When she said it, he
looked up at me and wrinkled his forehead.

When all the paperwork was signed, she gave us his
copies of everything and put him in a wheelchair that he argued with her about
and rolled him to the elevator and all the way out to my car. She had to be at
least sixty and the whole way out, my boyfriend was shamelessly flirting with
her. It was good to see him back in true form.

We stopped at the pharmacy to pick up his meds on
the way to his parent’s house. I told him to stay in the car, but of course he
ignored me. When I got up to the door he was right on my back. Besides his meds
we left with three candy bars, a bag of beef jerky, a bag of Cheetos and
another of pork rinds as well as a six-pack of soda and a pack of gum.

“What is all of this junk food for?” I asked him.

“Because I know my mother is going to have me eating
healthy foods. I’m going to hide this stuff in my room where she can’t find it
so I have something to subsist on.”

“Good luck with that. I’d be willing to bet she
comes in there every day while you’re convalescing and cleans the room. She’ll
find it.”

“You forget that I lived with her for eighteen years
in that very same room. I have my secret spots that she has yet to find.”

“You’re crazy,” I said.

“That’s what my father said Brock called me.” The
comment made the tone of the conversation turn serious. Neither of us cared to
talk about it at that moment so we just rode silently the rest of the way to
his parent’s house.

Gail, and surprisingly enough, Bull were waiting for
us when we got there. Dax had stuffed the junk food as well as an entire six
pack of soda in my purse. It was heavy and the strap was killing my arm. I told
him we should have hid it in the
Personal
Belongings
bag the hospital had sent home but he insisted she would take it
and wash the clothes right away.

As soon as Gail said, “Hello,” she said, “Give me
that bag and I’ll put those straight in the washer.” Dax gave me a smug look. I
hated when he was right.

He sat down with his dad in the living room and I
excused myself so that I could sit down the heavy purse. I had to smile when I
saw his room. Gail had set it up with a little table at the side of his bed and
she had folded the bed down halfway. He was such a mama’s boy.

I went back out and sat next to him on the couch.
Gail had made cinnamon rolls and brought them out with coffee and juice. It was
weird, but as long as I’d known Dax, this was the first truly
normal
family moment I’d ever been involved
in with him and his parents. I guess it takes a shooting to bring some families
together.

CHAPTER
SIX

DAX

Olivia hung out with us until early afternoon and
then she had to leave to go with her uncle to pick up some supplies. I waited
until she was gone to have the conversation with my parents about the meeting.
I knew my mom would be on my side, but I also knew that my dad was going to
object, and probably strongly. I didn’t want Olivia to have to be there for the
argument.
I
was kind of hemming and hawing about
starting the conversation but was forced into it when my dad started to stand
up after saying, “I should probably go check on the supplies at the bar.”

“Hey Dad, wait. Can we talk for a minute before you
go?”

“Do you want me to leave?” my mom asked.

“No, I’d like to talk to you both if you have the
time.”

My dad settled back in and asked, “What’s up?”

“Okay, I know when you first hear this idea that
you’re not going to care much for it, but just hear me out, alright?”

They both nodded. My mom looked worried and my dad
just looked impatient. I took a deep breath and said, “Okay, I’m just really
sick of all the drama and I’m sure everyone else is too. I need to get on with
my life, but I feel like I’m just stuck until I prove that I was falsely accused
and falsely imprisoned. I know who it was that set me up. I want to confront
them all at once, but I want it to be in front of plenty of witnesses. They
deserve a jury of their peers, right? So what I want,” I said, looking at my
dad whose impatient face suddenly looked like he knew what I wanted and he was
prepared to say no. “I want a club meeting. I want everyone there, even Brock
and his nomad crew. I want to confront them in front of all of their peers and
see if they have enough spines to admit what they’ve done.”

“No,” my dad said, as soon as I finished talking.

“Why not? It’s safer than him sneaking around trying
to do it himself. Look at him, Bull! They put him in prison and then they shot
him. All he’s asking for is a little help from you. All you have to do is call
the meeting.”

“You don’t know how any of this works,” he said to
my mom. “You only want to get in on it when Dax is a part of it.”

“Because I’m concerned about my son…our son,” she
said. “You should try it sometime.”

“Damn it Gail! Don’t you think I am concerned and
that’s why I don’t want him spouting his foolish accusations out loud? He’s
going to get his damn head blown off next time. He needs to just let this go
and move on with his life. Leave all of this in the past where it belongs.”

“Hey!” I startled them both. I really don’t think
either of them remembered that I was still in the room. “Still here, remember?
Listen, Dad. I’m not going to
leave this
alone
, until I prove that I’m innocent and that these men set me up. I’m not
going to walk away and let Blake, Terrance and Brock get away with this.”

“Will you stop that? You can’t just go around making
those kinds of accusations.”

“I’m not just making accusations. Brock admitted it
and so did Terrance and Blake shot me.”

I heard my mom’s sharp intake of breath. I really
hadn’t meant to say it in front of her, it had just come out. My dad was
glaring at me and my mother looked like she was going to be sick.

“Blake shot you?” she asked. Without waiting for an
answer, she looked at my dad and asked, “And you knew this?”

My dad continued to glare at me. He was waiting for
me to tell my mother that he was right there when it happened. I wasn’t going
to do it though. I was going to leave it up to him.

“Yes Mom, Blake shot me. He also set me up. Dad
doesn’t believe it though, do you?”

“No, I don’t believe that my best friend of
twenty-five years would set up my son.”

“But you do believe he shot him?” my mother asked,
looking confused.

“He saw him shoot me,” I said. My dad wasn’t going to
tell her. My mother really looked like she was going to be sick.

In a high pitched voice that she reserved for when
she was really freaked out, she said, “You brought him here just yesterday. You
son of a bitch! You had the man who shot my son sitting at my kitchen table
sipping coffee and stuffing his fat face with my pastries while my son was
still recovering. What the hell is wrong with you?”

My dad gave me one
more long
,
hard stare. Then he turned back to my mom and said, “Blake said that Dax is
mistaken about setting him up, and I believe him. And by the way, the part of
that story your baby here is leaving out was that when Blake walked into that
garage, Dax was holding a gun on me.”

My mother looked at me with shock on her face. “Oh
God, what the hell kind of messed up family is this?”

“I wasn’t going to shoot him, Mom. I was desperate
for him to listen to me and I didn’t want him to stop me from what I was
doing.”

“Which was?” she asked. My dad had a smug look for
me.

I swallowed hard and said, “Putting heroin I stole
from Brock’s crew in Terrance and Blake’s saddlebags.”

“I swear if this was an old western I’d swoon.” She
stood up and came over to me. With her palm, she smacked me on the back of the
head. Then she did the same to my dad. “I’m finished with this crap after this.
I want both of you to hear that, loud and clear. I’m done! First,” she said,
with her finger in my dad’s face. “You’re going to set up that meeting.
Second,” it was my turn for the finger and the fire eyes, “You will state your
case and then you will let it go or third, I pack my shit and get out of this
mess once and for all.” We both watched in shock as she stormed out of the
room. My mother had threatened us with a lot of things over the years, but
she’d never threatened to leave.

My dad turned to me when she was gone and said, “I
hope you’re happy you little shit.”

“None of this makes me happy,” I told him, honestly.

“I’ll set up the meeting and let you know when.
Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to reach your brother.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“I
ain’t
doing it for you.
I’m pissed at you for not being able to keep your big ass mouth shut. There’s a
reason your mama doesn’t know all about our business and you would do well to
remember that.”

He walked out the front door.
I
heard his bike start up a few minutes later and for the moment I was left alone
with my thoughts, and my plans to confront three dangerous men in a room full
of men that were probably going to take their side. Maybe Brock was right and I
was crazy.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

OLIVIA

Dax called
me
later that
day, after he’d gotten discharged from the hospital. He told me what happened
at their
family
talk. I was grateful
he waited to bring it up after I’d left. I didn’t even know what to say, but at
least he knew the daughter of a Meth-Lab king wasn’t going to judge. We were
quite the pair.