AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“She’s perfectly fine. Worried out of her mind, but other than that, not a scratch. I’ll let her tell you about it at the hospital.”
Ozzy walks over to the car that must belong to one of the Irish as I’m changing in the back seat into a pair of soft shorts and a large t-shirt. From the smell of the shirt, I know it’s Linc’s. The tears come back full force as I wrap myself in his scent. Ozzy knocks on the window, and I roll it down.
“Jude is taking you to the hospital where Linc is. We’re still a few hours outside of Shine. Lucy is waiting at the hospital, and Tanya is on her way up.”
I nod and look at the warehouse. The Irish are standing outside having a smoke like nothing is amiss, even though there are dead Italians inside and one almost dead piece of shit a few yards from me.
“What about all this?” I ask, waving my hand in front of me.
“This…” Ozzy looks behind him. “Is nothing for you to worry about. We take care of family, sweetheart, and that’s what you are now.” Ozzy closes the door before Jude gets behind the wheel.
“Nice shirt,” Jude comments.
I hold the neck to my nose, inhaling Linc’s scent.
“Yeah.”
God, please don’t let this be the only thing I have left of him.
Chapter twenty
Charlie
Theridetothehospital is eerily quiet. Jude keeps looking from the rearview mirror back to the road over and over.
“Are you afraid more guys from the Italian crew are going to come after me?”
“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about them coming after us.” He glances at me, then back at the road. “The Irish are cleaning up the mess. The Italians had a long-standing feud that involved us briefly, but Trick took care of it years ago. But the fact they were involved with anything having to do with us now has everyone a little on edge.”
“What happened?”
“Before Linc or even Ozzy were in the MC, they came into the clubhouse and shot it up. They were unhappy with the business we were doing with the Irish and wanted to, I don’t know, hurt the Irish or some such shite. Trick cut them down pretty quickly, and the head of the family and Trick had a tentative truce for the last decade and a half. Cataldi said it was a young capo trying to make a name for himself, and he understood that shooting up a clubhouse full of families and kids was crossing a line.”
After the conversation involving Jace selling me to Alberto at the warehouse, I doubt there are many lines the Italians won’t cross.
“Does Ozzy know they’re in the business of selling women?”
Jude clenches his jaw and exhales. “There have been rumors, but considering we don’t do any business with them, or anyone associated with them, it’s just talk.”
“Well, it’s not. Jace was going to sell me to the men who got shot up. They’re definitely in the skin trade.”
“Trust me, Ozzy is going to be a part of whatever the Irish want to do to handle the Italians. No one that helped Jace in any of this bullshit is going to get away unscathed.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he’s handling it, and you don’t need to worry about it, sweetheart.”
“It’s kind of hard not to, considering where we just came from and where we’re going, Jude.” I’m being a little snippy, but I have zero fucks left to give.
“Listen, you don’t know me, and up until a few days ago, I was afraid you were going to do something to screw my brother over. But believe me when I say Linc cares about you and that you’re important to my brother, which means you’re important to everyone in the club. We protect our own. If Linc wants you to know specifics, he has to make the call to tell you, but know that you’re safe with us.”
“Easier said than done,” I mumble under my breath as we pull up to the ER.
Jude stays with me as the nurse hooks me up to the IV and tells me the doctor will be right in. Before she leaves, she makes sure to quietly let me know if I need to report the assault, she’ll make sure no one else was in the room with me. Of course, she thinks the tense biker next to me did this to my face, if her suspicious glances at Jude are anything to go by.
I smile politely and thank her for her offer, but let her know there’s no need. The story we came up with was I was mugged on my way to the car, and Jude was the good Samaritan who chased the attacker away.
I don’t think she buys it.
