Rock Chick 08 Revolution (67 page)

He tipped his head to the side and his eyes moved over my face. Then he
moved into me, curled his arms around me and lifted me up so my torso was
pressed to his and my chin was to his shoulder.

I squinted then swallowed, my head swimming, my heart clutching, my
eyes seeing Darius prone on the floor about ten feet away. He was bleeding from
two gunshot wounds to his thighs and a wicked gash on his head.

God.

Please.

God.

Please.

Let Darius be okay and let Ren have mobilized Lee.

My mind went off that thought when Rivers’s hands went into my tee and
pulled it up. Unable to do anything else, my body not at my command, my arms
went up and it was gone.

This was not getting better.

He laid me gently and sickeningly lovingly in the bed, still bent to
me.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” he told me, his hand
moving on the skin of my side, stroking me.

I tried to lift a hand. I got it up, weakly, and rested it on his
forearm.

I took this as good.

“We need to talk,” I told him.

“I like this,” he replied and I was hoping that was an affirmative on
our talking. Though, what he wanted to talk about when he spoke again, I didn’t
like all that much. “I didn’t expect him to be here, but I like it. He had so
much of your time. You smiled at him. You laughed with him. You teased him. So
now, if he wakes up, he gets to watch
me
with you.”

I lifted my other hand and tried to push it against his chest, but I
didn’t have enough in me to do anything but rest it there.

“Snookie, please,” I said softly. “I feel funny.”

His hand slid over ribs and toward my breast, his lips curling in a
creepy smile. “You know my name.”

“Yeah. Now, please—”

“I like that you know my name,” he told me.

Gack!

“Snookie—”

He leaned in closer.

“I’ll make you feel good, Ally,” he promised.

Oh God.

Shit!

“Just five minutes. Please. Just five—”

His mouth came to mine and he brushed it there, back and forth, and
again, and again before he replied, “No, Ally. I’ve been waiting too—”

He stopped speaking and my body jerked in surprise as two hands cuffed
together came between us. They yanked back at Rivers’s throat and Rivers was
gone.

I struggled to sit up and saw Rivers on top of Darius, his back to
Darius’s front. Darius’s cuffed hands were pulling back hard on Rivers’s neck,
and by the sick sounds he was making, it was clear Darius was choking him.

I rolled to my side. It seemed to take years while Rivers gurgled and
he and Darius grappled on the floor as I went for my phone. I fumbled with
yanking it out of my back pocket, cursing to myself and keeping my eyes to the
men on the floor.

Then Rivers took one hand from pulling at Darius’s cuffed wrists at his
neck and it went to his belt.

My eyes went to his belt.

He had a knife there.

“Darius,” I whispered, swallowed, and went for it again, trying for
louder, “Darius! He has a knife!”

Darius rolled Rivers but Rivers was fighting for his life. He wasn’t
wasting time.

And thus he didn’t waste time yanking out a huge-ass hunting knife, twisting
it around, and sinking it into the flesh of Darius’s side.

And yanking up viciously.

Darius grunted, but by some miracle he did not let go of his hold on
Rivers’s neck.

Shock and terror pulsing through me, along with adrenaline
(thankfully), I shrieked, “
No!
” and
moved to grasp the edge of the bed.

I pulled myself off and pushed up on my hands and knees, scooting
toward them, my hands slipping on Darius’s blood flooding the floor.

“Fuck!” I shouted, making it to them as they rolled this way and that. Rivers’s
face was now blue, his legs kicking in panic and agitation. Darius was
grunting, the noises full of exertion and pain. I got my hands on the knife
still in Darius’s side in order to use it on Rivers and get him off Darius, but
they slipped free over the warm blood. “No,” I whispered, going for it again
just as sunlight hit the scene.

I looked up to see Ren charging in, Lee and Hank behind him, Eddie and
Luke following.

Thank God.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, God.

“Ambulance!” I shouted. “Darius. Shot and stabbed.”

Ren hauled Rivers off Darius and dragged him away.

I didn’t look to see what Ren was doing, although I distractedly heard
a fist thudding into flesh then flesh thudding into a wall (or the floor).

Instead, moving urgently, I slid on the blood to get closer to Darius
who was on his back and not moving.

Lethargic, panting, my heart beating so hard it was painful, I didn’t
need the knife to sink it into Rivers and help Darius, so I left it where it
was but pressed a hand to his wound. I lifted my other hand to his chest and
got in his face.

“There’re here. There’re here. You’re gonna be okay,” I told him.

Darius stared at me and I could hear Luke saying, “Gunshot wounds. Stab
wounds. Head wound. It’s bad. We need a medic immediately.”

I felt hands on me and heard Lee speaking.

“Ally, let me get to him.”

I reached out and grabbed Darius’s hand. With effort pulling it to his
chest and pressing in, I got even closer.

“You’re gonna be okay. The ambulance is coming.”

He kept staring at me.

I pushed in at his chest with our hands. “Talk to me.”

“You’re gonna be okay,” he repeated my words quietly.

For some reason, hearing his voice sent relief sweeping through me.

“Yeah. Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m gonna be okay.”

“They’re here,” he said, his voice weak.

Shit. Shit.
Fuck.

“Yeah. They’re here.”

“So you’re gonna be okay.”

The hands on me grew urgent. “Ally, honey, let me in there.”

I ignored Lee and said to Darius, “Yeah.”

“’Cause they’re here,” Darius said to me.

I pressed harder to his wound as his blood flowed over my hand.

“No.” I shook my head. “Because
you
saved me.”

He held my eyes and lifted a hand to my face. “Yeah.”

I pressed my cheek into his hand and held his other one tight.

It was then, he closed his eyes and his lips curved in a smile I
did not like.

“Finally,” he whispered. “Salvation.”

Then his hand fell away, landing at his side.

Lifeless.

After that, I threw my head back and screamed.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Pain in My Ass

The drug having worn off, my faculties back to mostly functioning, I
sat in the hospital waiting room with the rest of the crew, Ren holding me
close to his side with one arm, my hand held to his chest in his.

I had my head on his shoulder.

By the way, the hospital waiting room part of the Rock Chick Ride?

Not my favorite.

Ever.

And this one particularly.

They’d had a look at me when they brought me in. I was fine, still
drugged, but I lost it when they tried to clean Darius’s blood off me.

I struggled, spat, clawed and no one could calm me. Not Ren, who tried
first. Not Hank, who got in there with Ren. Not Indy, who Lee pulled Ren and
Hank away so she could get in because he thought she would do it.

She couldn’t.

The person who did it was my mom.

And she did this by putting her hand on the nurse’s arm and saying,
“She needs it. Let her keep it. We’ll see to her when the time is right for
Ally.”

The nurse didn’t like it, but she moved away.

I stopped fighting.

So I still had his blood on me, there, in the waiting room.

Because Mom was right. I needed it. I needed some part of him with me.

I knew this sounded weird.

But I didn’t give a fuck.

Ren, being Ren, said nothing about the blood even though now it was on
him.

And we were waiting.

All of us.

Indy and Lee. Eddie and Jet. Hank and Roxie. Jules and Vance. Ava and
Luke. Stella and Mace. Hector and Sadie. Tex and Nancy. Marcus and Daisy. Roam
and Sniff. Mom and Dad. Indy’s dad, Tom, and his girlfriend, Lana
(incidentally, Lana was Mace’s Mom; so yeah, we were incestuous—whatever, it
worked). Tod and Stevie. Buddy and Ralphie. Smithie and LaTeesha. Annette and
Jason. Jules’s uncle Nick and her friend May. Jimmy Marker. Brody, Monty, Matt,
Ike, Jack and Bobby. Blanca, Rosa, Carlos, Elena and Gloria. Dom and Sissy.
Vito and Angela. Willie Moses. Brian Bond. Darius’s Mom, Dorothea. Duke’s wife
Dolores. And even Stella’s band, Floyd, Buzz, Pong, Hugo and Leo showed up.

A motley crew of cops and crooks, bounty hunters and baristas, PIs and
rock stars, hot guys and Rock Chicks.

Darius’s people.

Darius’s family.

And last, Shirleen was sitting beside me.

Close.

There was some shifting and my eyes flew to the door, hoping it was a
doctor with good news. But I saw Jane walk in.

She’d been around, not much, and her usual quiet. I knew a couple of
the Rock Chicks and Hot Bunch spoke with her. Since she didn’t return my calls
or give me time when I approached her, and since (for once), I didn’t press, I
didn’t know what they said or how she reacted.

All I knew right then was that she came straight to me, her eyes never
leaving mine.

She stopped in front of us. Ren’s hold tightened, and I looked up to
her.

“Nothing ever
really
bad
happens in a fairytale, Ally,” she whispered, her eyes, locked on me, bright
with tears.

And hope.

“I hope you’re right, chickie,” I whispered back.

“Me, too,” she said. Her eyes slid to Ren, then to Shirleen, who she
gave a small smile before she moved away.

Ren’s hand gave mine a squeeze.

I gave his one back, let him go and shifted.

But not away. Only so I could reach out and find Shirleen’s hand.

When I did, hers closed tight.

I looked to Lee, who Indy was holding, her cheek to his chest, his chin
to the top of her head, his eyes to the door, his jaw hard. My BFF, though, had
her eyes on me.

She smiled.

It was fake, but I smiled back.

Then I looked to Eddie, who had Jet in what Jet called the Eddie’s
Woman Hold. That was his arm wrapped around her neck, holding her tucked deep
into his side.

His eyes were also on the door.

Jet’s cheek was to his shoulder and her eyes were on her husband’s
profile.

I then looked again to the door when there was movement there. I pulled
in breath and it caught when I saw who was walking through.

Not the doctor.

Duke.

And Duke was not alone.

Following him were Malia and Liam Clark.

Holy shit!

I sat up straight.

“What the fuck?” I heard Lee growl.

But my eyes were pinned to Malia, who was looking around, but doing it
looking freaked way the fuck out, and Liam, sticking close to his mom, looking
around and doing it looking cautious but confused.

Eddie broke from Jet, Lee from Indy. They headed her way and I moved.

“Ally,” Ren called, but I ignored him.

No one was going to stop me.

Fucking no one.

Lee caught me with a hand in my belly before I got to them, warning,
“Not the time, Ally.”

But I ignored him, too.

Eyes to Malia, I moved them to Liam and lifted up my hand, covered in
dried blood.

“That’s your father’s,” I announced, and Malia moved close to Liam as
Liam’s eyes got huge and they riveted to my hand.

I heard a gasp and I suspected it was Dorothea’s.

Interesting.

Apparently Dorothea didn’t know about her grandson.

I didn’t have time to ponder that for a variety of reasons.

One of which was Eddie, biting out from close, “Don’t Ally.”

“Lay down the truth, darlin’.” Duke’s gravelly voice encouraged, and my
eyes went to him. He nodded. “Now’s the time.”

“It’s not the fuckin’ time,” Lee ground out, his hand going away from
my belly so he could turn to Duke.