Broken & Burned (21 page)

Everett…

I sighed as I entered my workspace and shut the door behind me, twisting the lock. Brandy gave me her customary dirty look and I smiled back. I wouldn’t stoop to her level, if anything I would do my utmost to use the Irish diplomacy my father had taught me growing up.

Irish diplomacy, unlike regular diplomacy, was pretty much the art of telling a person to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to taking the trip.

I hung my backpack and Dray’s spare helmet on the coat rack peg with my name written on a piece of masking tape underneath it. I tucked the safety glasses into one of the backpack’s side pockets. Brandy and I didn’t speak. I set about arranging my barista station the way I liked it and made sure everything I typically used was stocked. About ten minutes into this a young man walked up to my window. I slid it open and told him,

“I’m sorry Hon we’re not allowed to serve walk-up customers.” He was lanky, his hair hung greasy and he wore a faded band tee shirt under a leather jacket and motorcycle cut but it wasn’t a Sacred Heart’s cut. The colors were wrong, not white with blue writing but white with red. He looked left and right and pulled a small pistol out of his pocket and pointed it at me.

“Well you’re going to serve me.” He said and the whole world slowed. I saw Brandy give me a triumphant look out of the corner of my eye but then she put her hands up like you would in a movie hold up. Palms flat and facing out to either side of her face. I swallowed and stared at the gun. A serenity fell over me, a calm I couldn’t even begin to describe. I nodded slowly.

“Okay, Friend, what can I get you?” I asked.

I kept myself still. My chest felt tight and my blood raced through my veins but that sense of calm persisted.
Don’t make any sudden moves Evy m’girl. Nice an’ quiet like, jus’ do what the boy tells you.
I blinked slowly. Now was a really strange time to hear my da’s voice in my head… or had that been out loud?

“Open the cash drawers.” He ordered and I complied. “Good, good. Now open the safe.” He said.

“I can’t do that.” I said. My voice felt thick, sluggish coming out of my throat and I realized that tears were threatening. I really couldn’t open the safe. None of us could. Only Eddie, our boss, had the combo.

“Jesus Ev! Do what he says!” Brandy said frantically.

“I can’t.” I repeated and something flashed in the young man’s eyes. He lowered the gun and I sighed out in relief, but then the world erupted in a riot of sound. There was a flash and the smell of hell poured out into the small shack and something bit me, hard, in the middle of my left thigh. The ethereal calm that had fallen over me moments before shattered.

I fell backwards onto my ass and looked at my leg. Red welled and soaked the light denim of my jeans and I clapped a hand over the wound. A scream split the air and I looked helplessly at Brandy who had her hands clapped over her mouth. She looked down on me in a mixture of horror and revulsion. I turned my head to look at the young man who was screaming at me.

“Open the god damned safe! Open it! Open it now, or the next one will blow your god damned head off! You hear me bitch!? You hear me!?” he was screaming. Brandy started screaming at him.

“Jesus Ronnie what did you do!? You weren’t supposed to fucking shoot her!” I sobbed, the fire in my leg unbelievable. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, couldn’t believe what I was hearing! I dragged air into my lungs through a throat raw from screaming and wept.

“Please don’t, please don’t kill me…” I begged piteously and he turned back to me from screaming at Brandy. She was pulling money from the kiosk’s drawers. Something flashed to the right of the window and the boy, man, I don’t know, disappeared. His face connected viciously with the stainless steel shelf on the outside of the window where we set drinks and I heard something metal skitter across the blacktop, under the kiosk.

He disappeared again and I closed my eyes. I opened them again to see the door to the stand shudder in its frame. The young man’s back fetched up hard against the glass by the door and the visage of king, like one on a playing card, filled my vision. Brandy was cleaning out the cash drawer and went out the window on the other side of the stand leaving me bleeding on the cheap linoleum floor.

“Everett!” I heard Dray’ voice scream and I screamed back.

“Dray!”

The young man who’d shot me slumped to the ground outside the window to reveal Dray, who stood heaving in desperate breaths. 

“Oh god! Oh shit!” he yelled and went for the door, but I’d locked it.

The door shuddered once, then twice in its frame as Dray viciously kicked it before it finally gave way. It exploded inwards and I was peppered by shards of wood as the frame shattered around the lock. Dray slid in the door along the tile on his knees and came up next to me.

“Oh god, oh Baby, it’s okay, it’s going to be okay…” He looked at my leg and I turned my tearstained face up to him.

“It hurts…” I complained woefully. Dray got behind me and I leaned back into his chest, he put an arm across my chest and pressed his phone to his ear.

“God damn!” A familiar voice with a southern drawl made me turn back to the broken door. One of my customers, a trucker by the name of Mark, went to his knees on the side where I’d been shot.

“Hold on Evy, help’s on the way.” He said and pressed his big hands tight over mine. I cried out from the pain and Dray glared at the man but Dray was on the phone.

“Army medic back in ‘nam,” Mark said. “Gotta keep pressure on this.” Dray relaxed marginally and kept talking into the phone.

“No, no, she’s awake. Just get me a fucking ambulance bitch! She’s fucking bleeding!” he turned those dark intense eyes so full of panic to my own and rested his forehead against mine. I closed my eyes and fresh hot tears tracked down my face. We could hear sirens.

“You’re going to be okay Baby. You’re going to be okay Baby. I’m here. We’re going to get you to the hospital, we’re going to get you fixed up. You’ll see. Just don’t fucking go anywhere on me.” I sniffed and cried tears of relief.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said, “I love you Dray. I love you.” I sobbed out.

“I love you too Baby. I’m right here. I love you too…” He cradled me tight against his chest and I closed my eyes.

Dray was here. I was safe. Dray was here… Oh God it hurt so much.

Dray…

I held Em’s hand in my own. As soon as we’d gotten to the hospital they’d rushed her into a curtained area. Doc was on duty, thank fuck, and she was under his care. After a quick look he’d sent her to x-ray and now we waited.

She was in a hospital gown the nurses had put her in after cutting off her pants. Pillows were under her leg and gauze had been wrapped around the wound. The back of the bed was up so she was sitting but she looked pale and wan against the pillow behind her head.

She was alive.
Thank you God, thank you Mom
… she was alive. I was glued to her side, once they’d let me back to see her. I’d called my pops while they’d worked on her and he’d shown up in about fifteen minutes flat. Doc pulled aside the curtain and stepped in looking all official and straight laced and shit. It was weird as Hell for me. We all knew he was the local ER doc but we didn’t see it often enough for it to really hit home.

“Calvary is in the waiting room.” He grunted. Em opened her eyes and frowned. Her edges tight with pain. They’d given her something for it but it had barely taken the edge of. Doc looked at her and frowned then riffled though her papers. He cursed and went out. We could hear him chewing someone a good one but couldn’t hear what he’d said. He came back and put something through Everett’s IV and everything smoothed out. Her body going lax after a moment or two.

“Who’s here?” I asked.

“Your dad, Trigger, Ashton, Reaver, Hayden, Loyal, Zander, Squick, and Data.” Doc said. He smiled down at Ev, his blue eyes sparkling. “Looks like you got yourself a fan club.” He said.

“Everett!?” Mandy, her best friend skirted around the curtain in her pajamas.

“Oh my God!” Large hands landed on her shoulders and the red head jumped.

“Easy Red. Let Doc do his thing.” Zander had ahold of her.

“Mandy?” Ev said, confusion tinging her voice.

“Yeah Babe, I’m your emergency contact, remember, you didn’t think Jerry was up to the job…” Everett nodded and closed her eyes. Tears slipped out.

“I’m okay Mandy.” She said.

“What happened?” her friend demanded.

“Brandy set it up… she knew him. Called him Ronnie…” Em swallowed.

“She was robbed, he shot her, I got him though. Cops have him.” I said.

“Everett I need to talk to you about some things before the drugs kick in too hard.” Doc said. Mandy nodded to me and let Zander take her out to the waiting room.

“You’re lucky.” Doc said flatly. I snorted and he ignored me.

“You were shot with a .22 long rifle round. It’s still in there and I got to dig it out, no surgery. I should be able to give you a local and go in right here. Okay?” Ev nodded and tears sprang to her eyes.

“Nothing’s broken Baby, we’re gonna keep you for a few hours and make sure you’re good before I let Dray take you home.” He rested a hand on her shin and smoothed over it with a thumb and she nodded.

“Will I dance again?” she asked in a tremulous voice and Doc’s posture eased.

“Oh Honey, yeah, a week or two on some crutches and probably a couple of months in physical therapy. It might pain you some when it gets cold but yeah, you should make a full recovery.” He smiled and she sucked in several breaths. I leaned over her and let her have her melt down.

She had herself a deep ugly cry, weeping out all that pent of fear and negativity onto my cut and I smoothed a hand through her hair and let her do it. I was just glad she as here, I was just glad she was alive, not like my mom… not like my mom. Doc went away while she worked through things and came back as she was finishing up.

“Better?” he asked. She nodded.

“Sorry I gotta do this. Dray you may want to lay over her and hold her some. This shot for the local is a bitch.” I nodded and did what I needed to.

“You scream you cry, you do whatever you need to do to let me get this done Everett. I’ve heard it all before from people a lot less pretty ‘n you.” He said and she nodded a little too rapidly. God it broke my heart. You’d like to think Doc was killing her with that shot. He waited about five minutes. She couldn’t see him, her face buried in my chest as I held onto her.

“You feel that Evy?” he asked and she shook her head.

“No.” I answered for her.

“Okay good.” He said a minute later there was a metallic on plastic clack as he dropped the bullet into one of those disposable kidney shaped pink dish things.

“Almost done.” He said. He said something to a nurse standing beside him, he cleaned, stitched and bandaged my girl’s leg.

“Okay Hon relax. You’re all done. Dray I’ma talk to your old man.” He said.

“Yeah, thanks Doc.” I said. I pulled back slowly from her and looked into her dazed blue eyes.

“I don’t understand…” she started.

“Shhhh, we’ll get it all sorted out later Baby.” I kissed her forehead and her eyes drifted shut. The sound of the curtain on the rails had me turning around. A man, late forties early fifties, stood there holding my old pack and my spare helmet. I glared at him.

“Who the fuck are you?” I demanded.

“I’m Eddie.” He said and my frown deepened.

“He’s my boss.” Everett whispered and closed her eyes.

“You want him here Babe?” I asked.

“It’s okay.” She murmured.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I just wanted to bring Everett her things.” He held up the pack and helmet and set them aside on a chair against the wall.

“She going to be okay?” he asked concerned.

“The fucking lying twat you had her working with had her shot trying to rob the place with her boyfriend! What do you think?” I demanded. We’d already had the cops come by. The man who’d shot Everett was in custody down the hall. They’d gotten the full story from him after he’d woken up. They’d had to bring his ass to the hospital after I’d knocked his ass out. The man flinched.

“Please don’t call her that. She may have behaved that way but she’s still my niece.” He gave me a pleading look and I snorted. I didn’t give two shits who she was at that point. All I kept seeing was the glint of neon off the fucking gun in the dude’s hand… I saw it from almost two blocks away. I was half a block away when he shot her, the crack of the gun and the most god awful wounded animal scream… I gritted my teeth. Her screaming was the only thing that had held my shit together. If she was screaming it had meant she was alive. Meant that I’d had time…

“Dray I know you’re mad. I’m okay. Really.” Everett’s voice was gentle, and wavered with her drug induced high, snapping me out of reliving the nightmare… I looked from her boss down into her eyes. Her pupils dilated to the point there almost wasn’t any blue. I smiled down at her.

“Doc gave you some good shit.” I said and she smiled tremulously.

“Nothing hurts anymore… I’m fine.” She half said, half sang. Eddie looked stricken.

“Yeah she quits, fuck your two weeks’ notice.” I told him and the look on my face was enough to make him shit himself. He nodded a little too rapidly.

“Yeah, no, I understand. Thank you. You may not believe it but I like Everett. I’m glad you were there, that she’s okay. Have her call me, if she wants to…” he said, backing out of the curtained area. I gave him a chin lift. Everett was sound asleep. I had a nurse tuck some warm blankets around her and went out to give everyone the news. Mandy stood up as I entered the waiting room.

“How is she?” she demanded.

“Easy Red.” I told her, adopting Zander’s pretty fucking unoriginal tag for her.

“Doc says she’s gonna be on crutches for a couple of weeks and then physical therapy for a couple of months but after that she’ll be just fine. Dancing shouldn’t be affected.” I said, shoulders slumping. Mandy came up and hugged me. I stiffened. I wasn’t really one for this kind of crap.

“Thank you so much for getting there when you did.” She sobbed and I softened, patting her back awkwardly.

“Yeah, no problem.” I said, capturing my dad’s gaze. I’d told him what made me go back and I was more than a little bit surprised that he actually believed me. He nodded and I nodded back. Mandy went and sat down, Ashton hugged her and said something to her in her too-quiet ethereal tone.

“So what happened? For those of us late to the party…” Reaver asked.

“Look, they’re going to keep her for a few hours and then let her go. I want to take her back to the club house for now. Easier to get around than the house. More open. We need to have a club meeting about this anyways.” I said. “Dude that shot her was wearing a cut. Colors I’ve never seen before.” I said. Trigger’s eyebrows went up.

“Get a name?” he asked.

“Yeah, Suicide Kings. King like on a playing card as their emblem, colors look to be yellow and red. I want to get back with Em. Sadie wouldn’t start this morning, I left Matilda near her coffee stand.” I looked at my Dad.

“Keys.” He grunted, I tossed them to him.

“I’ll give you a ride.” Ashton murmured. She rose and a bleary eyed Mandy rose with her.

“Can I go back with you?” she asked me. I nodded.

“I’ll hang out here if you need anything.” Zander said and gave her a crooked smile. She looked him over and nodded slowly.

“Okay…” she trailed off, “Thanks.” She went with me back to Em’s room. My girl was still out cold.

“She looks so exhausted.” Mandy said and took the stool by the bed. I leaned back against the wall. I knew the feeling.