ANTONIO: Diablos MC (14 page)

“I can’t hear out of my left ear.” I say lifting my hand to my ear.  Which is easier now that I have been awake for a little while.  I guess the pink cast on my wrist is the heaviness I felt. 

“Your ear drum suffered some damage.  They said your hearing should come back eventually but it will take some time and it might not come back to be fully functioning.”  Bringing my casted hand up to his face.  He places my hand on his face.  “But none of that matters.  I don’t care about any of that.  I am just so thankful you are alive.” 

I fall silent.  Yes I am thankful I am alive.  But honestly all this is very over whelming.  I lost my baby.  I lost Toni’s baby.  I have been away from Emma for 3 weeks at least.  God she must be so scared not knowing where mommy is.  And I am pissed off that I am going through all this.  I can’t contain my anger or hate that is flowing through me my body begins to shake.  “Haylee what is wrong.  You are shaking.”  Toni says concerned. 

“Oh my god what is wrong?” Monica says. 

“I am pissed off.”  I say through clenched teeth. “I hope she was tortured before she was killed.  That bitch.” 

Monica chuckles.  “Damn you are pissed off.”  I turn and shoot her a look that tells her I am not joking. Holding her hands up she says “As you should be.  But still.  I have never seen you this angry.  Good.”

“Good.  What the hell do you mean good.”  I yell.

“Baby calm down.  Don’t worry. Tank and I have a huge surprise for you when you get out.  One that I am sure will help ease all this anger.”  He says kissing my hand. 

“It better.  Or else you are who I have to take it out on.”  I say pointing at Toni. 

He wiggles his eyebrows.  “Oh you can take it out on me all you want.”  Everyone in the room chuckles.  “Um I do have one question.  Before you passed out you said the words I won.  What exactly did you win at?”  Toni asks with his head cocked to the side.

Smiling big I say “I said it because I did win.  I told the guy who called you on the phone, I said you were going to find me.  And that he was going to die.”

“Wow.”  He says while laughing.  “Ok I agree you did win.  But how the hell did you know I would find you.” 

“I know you think I don’t know about the watch but Toni I knew all along.  I honestly thought you were being a little stalker but now I am very thankful.” 

“You knew.”  He says a little louder than I think he meant to. “How the hell did you know?”  He looks almost mad.

“I actually use those apps on my watch.  You know the ones to track my steps and heart rate when I work out.  Well one time when I plugged it in the computer to download all my progress I came a crossed your tracking system. Don’t worry I didn’t mess with it.  And at first yeah I was a little pissed you were tracking my every move but whatever.  I have nothing to hid.  And I wasn’t planning on going anywhere.  So I figured if it made you happy then I would let you track me.  But now I am damn happy you gave me that.  But when they said they were taking me I knew it was only a matter of time before you found me.  And plus I know you Toni.  You would stop at nothing to find me.” 

“Oh I would kill everyone on this planet to find you.”  He leans down and gives me a kiss.  “And sorry about the tracking.  It is actually not my doing although I probably would have done it anyways even if it wasn’t protocol for the club.”

“Wait. What did you just say?” Monica ask.

“Um.  Well.  Um.  I can’t say anything else.”  Toni stammers.  It is actually funny to see him all flustered. 

“Oh hell no.  You said protocol of the club.  Do we all have the tracking on us?”  She asks angrily.

“You should really talk to Tank.”  Toni says looking down at his feet.

She storms off. Swings opened the door and yells for Tank.  “Tank get your fucking ass in here now.”  Slamming the door, she walks back to the side of my bed. “Oh I am going to ask Tank alright.”

Tank comes rushing into the room looking panicked. “What is wrong?”  but then he looks at me.  “Oh Haylee.  Thank god you are finally awake. You gave us a scare there.”  I give him a sweet smile.  I truly do love Tank.  More like a big brother kind of love but I do love him.  “Why the hell are you screaming woman.”  He walks over to Monica and when he tries to wrap his arms around her she pushes him back. “Ok what is going on?  What did I miss?”

“They know about the tracking system.” Toni says. He shrugs his shoulders.  “Sorry man.  I didn’t tell her.  Haylee did.  I guess my old lady is smarter than all the others and she figured it out.”  He says with his signature eat my shit kind of grin. 

“Baby as you can see we do it for a reason.  It is for us to make sure of your safe.”  He says in a pleading voice.  He has a point.  I mean look at me.  It obviously worked.

“Where is it?”  She says angrily.

Toni and Tank share a look.  Oh this is not going to be good.

“Where is it?”  She says again.  He doesn’t say anything.  He just looks down at his wedding ring.  Monica holds her hand up and the gasp.  “My rings.  You put it in my rings?” 

“Your engagement ring.”  Tank finally says. 

Monica pulls off her engagement ring and throws it at Tank.  Who catches it but looks just as shocked as I am that she actually threw it.  “Lies.  That ring was supposed to represent love, commitment and lasting friendship between us.  Now I just see betrayal.”  Tank goes to say something else but she holds up her hand. “I get the reasoning and yes it worked out with Haylee but to use my engagement ring.  I can’t even look at you right now I am so angry.”  She turns to me.  “I am so happy you are awake.  But you need rest and I need fresh air.  I will be back later ok.”  I nod my head yeah.  And she storms off with Tank following behind. 

“Well that was entertaining.”  Toni says with a smirk.

“Why a watch?” I ask.  He cocks his head to the side at my question. “I mean I loved the watch and just so you know I want another one.  Exactly like the last one.  But why in a watch?  I mean you could have done what Tank did and put it in my ring so why a watch?”  Don’t get me wrong I am happy he didn’t.  I feel the same way Monica does.  But I am just curious as to why Toni didn’t follow his lead.

He sits down in the chair next to my bed and rests his head on my bed. “Because I agree with Monica.  I didn’t want you to look at your ring and ever see doubt.  I only wanted you to ever see my love for you.  A watch is just a watch. No feeling.  No anything other than what you choose to do with it.”

“Well thank you.  Because I agree.  Not a very good place to put it.  Well I guess it is until the girl finds out.”  And we both fall into laughter.  After a few minutes of quiet I ask a very important question.  “So tell me.  When the hell can I get out of this place?” 

Toni laughs. “Oh I missed you.”

CHAPTER 15

HAYLEE

              I had to stay in the hospital for another week after I woke up. If I could have gotten out of here sooner, I would have. I hate hospitals. I was not a very cooperative patient.  I didn’t want to be here a second longer and I made it known to everyone. But Toni convinced me that staying however long the doctor says is best.  I did however get to see my baby girl.  Monica brought her up to my room the day after I woke up.  Although you would have thought she was the queen of England with the escort she got.  Toni told me everything that they did to get me out and about everything that went down after we left.  And how we have to be on high alert for a while because we don’t know what kind of backlash there might be from the Cartel.  As I would expect there to be.  I mean Toni and the rest of the Diablos gang basically killed 75 men and burned the warehouse down to the ground.  Tank assures us he believes everything has been worked out during the talks after they finished their attack.  But I can see in Tank’s eyes he just doesn’t feel like it will be over.  And I can see it in Toni as well.  I can also see Toni’s guilt.  I know he feels guilty for everything because it was his crazy ass ex-wife who caused all this.  But he shouldn’t feel guilty.  I certainly don’t think any of this was his fault. We have all tried reassuring him that it wasn’t his fault.  He couldn’t have known she was going to turn out to be a crazy bitch.  Even Tank has told me that Vera really was such a nice girl at the beginning.  But as soon as they we were legally married he said it was like a flip of a switch.  Got into the drugs, cheated on Toni all the time.  Just turned out to be a horrible person.  But to Toni none of that matters.  He will carry this guilt with him every day no matter what.  All any of us can do is reassure him we love him and we are here for him. 

But today is the day I am getting released from the hospital. And I can’t wait to get the hell out of here. While Monica and I are packing all my stuff Tank and Toni walk in. 

Without even looking up I say in a very smartass tone “Well isn’t it nice for the big bad bikers to come help out finally.” 

“Uh Haylee.”  Monica says a little shaky.

“What?”  I look up at the three of them standing there and I freeze what I am doing.  The looks on their faces tell me something is wrong. Immediately I think something has happened to Emma. “Is Emma ok.”  I ask quietly.

Toni shakes her head yes. “Emma is fine.  Babe sit down. We need to talk.” He walks over and helps me onto the bed.

“Ok.”  I say and I sit down.  Something bad has happened because Monica isn’t looking at me anymore.  Just staring at her hands in her lap.  Ok now I am really worried.  “Ok tell me what the hell is going on.”  I demand.

“Ok babe we are going to tell you but I want you to know you are safe.  No matter what you are safe and will be the entire time.”  Toni says.

Tank walks over and grabs one of my hands.  “Haylee when we got you from the compound we killed everyone that was involved.” 

“Yeah I know you told me this already.”

Tank continues.  “Well we killed everyone.  Except for one.”

I yank my hand away from Tank and stand up.  I know who they didn’t kill.  I felt save for me and Emma knowing she was dead.   But now I need to see Emma. I need to know she is safe.  I turn and look at Toni and I hiss “Liar.”  He looks down at the ground. “You told me I was safe.  You promised Emma was safe.  As long as she is alive neither of us are safe.  Fucking liar.”  I yell the last part.

Tank steps in front of me.  “You are safe.  Vera is not walking the streets or anything like that.  We actually took her to one of our warehouses and have kept her there.” 

“Is she near Emma?” 

“Fuck no.  You really think I would let that bitch anywhere near my daughter.”  Toni says angrily.

I just shrug my shoulders.  Anymore I don’t know what they would do. “Why didn’t you just kill her?” I ask frustrated.

“Honestly we thought maybe you would want to talk to her.”  Tank says.

“I don’t want to fucking talk to her.”  I bark back.

“Do you want to kill her?”  Toni asks from behind Tank.

I stand there frozen for a few minutes thinking about everything she put me through. And everything she wanted to put my baby girl through.  But can I be a killer.  Can I take someone else’s life?  I don’t know if I can.  Am I that kind of person. I don’t even notice when Toni walks up to me. Takes my face into his hands and brings my eyes to look at him. “Haylee you do not have to do anything.  I will take care of everything if this is too much.  Your happiness and safety is all that is important.” 

I nod my head.  Tears streaming down my face. “I don’t think I can kill someone.”  As much as I want to I just don’t think I can end a life.  Even someone as evil as Vera.

Bringing his lips to mine he whispers “Then don’t.  I will take care of everything.”

Knowing I don’t have to gives me a relief I never thought I would feel.  But then all the anger I have built up for what happened and what could have happened rears its ugly head.  I might not be able to kill her with my own hands but I want to make sure she feels pain before she dies.  Making eye contact with Toni I say “But that doesn’t mean I can’t watch.”