A/N: Just a quick note to say thanks so much to all of you still reading, and to those who got in touch for the first time - always much appreciated! T x
Thirty-four
Eden could taste blood in her mouth and her stomach churned in response, even as her mind raced, trying to think of a next move. Preferably one that wouldn't get them both killed.
So far, she'd only succeeded in further angering the desperate and therefore dangerous man effectively holding them hostage. Her anxious efforts to make him see the futility of his plan had fallen on deaf ears and her insistence that his comrades needed hospital treatment beyond anything she and Desi could hope to achieve in the field had only earned her a vicious backhand that had drawn a shout of protest from her partner and left her reeling.
She knew they were both cursing themselves for not having realised sooner that something wasn't right. But they'd been too caught up in getting to the location they'd been called to and finding their patient to think bigger picture, at least until it was too late. An ambush never crossed their minds.
The bike laid down by the roadside had been their cue to pull over and they had both gotten out to go to the fallen rider – both of them caught off-guard when he rose up suddenly, gun pulled and trained first on one of them and then the other. Hearts sinking, they knew they couldn't risk giving him an excuse to take a shot and, with no other option, had slowly raised their hands in surrender.
"If it's drugs you're after, we don't carry the good shit," Desi had lied.
It didn't make a difference. They had no choice but to do as they were told, driving the ambulance at gunpoint miles off the beaten track to a grim-looking house with broken front windows. The scene inside was chaotic, with blood on the floor and the smell a potent mix of burning and chemicals that made them wince.
The injuries of the two men huddled in a corner were ghastly, but the one with the seared face was still focused on pressing blood-soaked rags to the leg of the other. He lay there deathly pale and writhing in agony and no wonder, given the shard of metal protruding from the meat of his denim-clad thigh.
Eden and Desi had exchanged a look, knowing it was worse than they had feared.
"The fuck are you waiting for?" their captor had roared. "Help them!"
"He needs a hospital," Eden had said, singling out the one with the leg injury. "They both do, but him especially – I dunno what you think we can do, but this is-"
"You're fucking medics – do medical shit! That's what you fucking do!"
"We're paramedics, not surgeons," Eden tried. "We patch them up long enough to get them proper help. He needs that surgically removed. He could get an infection, lose his leg, bleed out. He could die …"
The backhand had stunned her into silence and sent Desi surging forward furiously, only to be forced back by the gun in his face.
"Back the fuck up. Now, let me be real clear here. If he dies, you die. Both of you. Don't think I ain't serious. And you, try anything – she dies. You, try anything and he dies. Got it?"
Eden touched a hand gingerly to the throbbing side of her face and shot Desi a warning look. "Got it."
Their captor hesitated for a moment before lowering his gun, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the trembling young woman in front of him.
"Don't you fucking hurt her," Desi tried, watching as the other man grabbed his partner, only to roughly yank her hair out of its ponytail and look at her again.
"Holy shit," he gawped at her. "You're the chick from the garage. You're Telford's bitch."
With no idea if denying it would make her more or less of a target, Eden floundered for a response and could only stare back at him as he started to laugh in disbelief.
Pacing the floor of his apartment, stress etched across his face, Seth rounded on the biker stood by the window with his back to him.
"I'm sorry, man, I just didn't know who else to call," he said. "The cops want me to stay put in case she turns up or calls, but … I can't just sit here and do nothing. They're asking all sorts of fucking crazy questions, Chibs. Like, I know they have to cover their bases, but seriously? Eden's the one who's missing – if she's caught up in something, it ain't her doing."
"You sure?"
"Am I sure?" Seth echoed, stunned and then offended by the question. "Am I sure? You, of all people, really think Eden's going to get herself involved in some shady shit?"
"Just covering my bases," Chibs said, refusing to back down. "Can I see that girl nicking an ambulance full o' drugs to sell on the black market? No. But can I see her bending a few rules to help at some free clinic or something and shit she ain't banked on going south?"
"I … didn't think of that," her brother admitted, before a frown crossed his face again. "Nah, nah, that ain't it. She'd have said something. And she wouldn't just take off mid-shift. Whatever's happened, it ain't through anything she's done."
"And this partner o' hers?"
"I dunno. Sounds like a decent guy, from what I've heard. I mean, they seem pretty tight – Eden trusts him, I know that. Desi. Desi Shah. He's, uh, got a wife and a kid. Boy, I think. That's all I know. Jesus, I need to get out there, start looking. For Eden to just disappear like this, something has to be really wrong. And I know she ain't your problem, but …"
Chibs looked round sharply at that, finally revealing the worry in his dark eyes.
"Not my problem?" the Samcro president said, raking a hand through his silver-streaked hair, as he tried to push dark memories of another missing love back into the recesses of his mind. "Listen, bud, I'm gonna level wi' you here just so we're clear. I'm gonna do whatever it takes to find that girl. Whatever the fuck it takes. Because I know I've been a stupid bastard, I know I've hurt her, but … Whether you like it or not, I'm head over fucking heels in love wi' your sister and I swear I'm gonna find a way to make things right. So I'm gonna find her, even if I have to tear half o' bloody northern Cali apart to do it."
While the biker braced himself for the punch in the face he had already decided he deserved for leaving it too late to come to his senses, there could be no doubting the intense sincerity of his words. So even though he had resigned himself to allowing Seth that much, the former boxer just stared at him, his fists clenched and body tense. Then he nodded.
"I was kinda hoping you'd say something like that. Just tell me what I can do."
"Look, if you want our help, then you have to at least let us get some supplies from the ambulance …"
Mack glanced between the two paramedics, clearly trying to decide on the least risky option, and then jerked his head at Eden. "You. On your feet. Try anything and I will fucking kill you. He stays here."
Desi looked ready to protest being separated from his partner under such circumstances, but Eden silenced him with a little shake of her head.
"Fine," she said, getting up to head for the door, only to be grabbed in a rough, vise-like grip. "I'm not going to run," she said. "I'm not leaving Desi behind."
But the biker's grasp never let up as he half dragged her outside, stopping just before they reached the neglected ambulance parked at the back of the tiny property in the small clearing in the middle of the woods.
"Wait," he ordered her. "Don't you move."
Eden, mindful of the gun in his hand, didn't. She could only watch, her heart sinking, as he climbed into the front seat of the vehicle and set about ripping the radio out. Another potential lifeline severed. Not their only one though – as long as their captor continued to neglect to search them and he was clearly too erratic to be really thinking straight, his mind obviously consumed by whatever the hell had happened back at the house.
If this was an indication of how the War Boys operated …
The bike should have been the first clue, but too shocked by what was happening when they'd first found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun, it hadn't actually dawned on Eden who their captor was until she saw the cuts on the backs of the injured men. The patches let her know they were the president and vice-president, although she was able to look past the facial burns and recognise one of them from the first big fight night at the Scrapyard. Archie something, she thought. The president, she only knew by his nickname – Johnny Six. And as for the man who had effectively taken her and Desi prisoner … She realised she had seen him before, with the crazy blonde woman shouting the odds at the garage a while back. And now, having gotten a closer look, she hadn't been sure at first, but something around the eyes had made her take a guess as to his identity. They didn't look much alike, but the family resemblance was definitely lurking in his face.
Mackenzie Rockwell, War Boys sergeant-at-arms. Shane's brother.
She didn't know how much, if any, family loyalty lay between them. And, all things considered, she didn't really want to find out.
He had to take it to the table. In this new era, still finding his feet as he wielded the gavel, he knew he couldn't just act alone as and when he felt he needed to. Jackson had drifted down that path and nothing good had come of it. At the very least, he needed to keep his men informed, not leave them feeling like they'd been pushed aside. Even if, ultimately, this was a challenge for him alone to face.
He didn't get very far in trying to make that clear.
"With all due respect, boss," Bug spoke up, leaning forward in his seat. "If this is your shit to handle, then it's our shit to handle."
"And I know I'm just here as a visiting patch," Knox added, from where he sat at the back of the room, not at the table but listening in just the same. "But no one knows more than me that Seth Moore has proved himself a real friend to Samcro. Returning the favour shouldn't be a question."
"Besides," Quinn said wryly. "We know how you feel about that girl and what that makes her to this club. We've all just been waiting for you to get your head out of your ass."
Shaking his head a little, still taken aback despite knowing how deep their brotherhood ran and deeply grateful for the support, Chibs glanced from his left to his right, at his silent VP and his sergeant. "Boys?"
Tig looked around, surprise in his piercing blue eyes. "Oh, you were never going anywhere without me and Hap," he shrugged, as Happy nodded in agreement like it should have been obvious. "Sorry, brother, did that need saying? I didn't know that needed saying."
Chibs reached out and clapped each of them on the shoulder, his hand squeezing in wordless thanks as he took a second to gather himself.
"Right then," he tried, clearing his throat. "Seth's outside, so I'm gonna bring him in. I told him to find out everything he could from Eden's bosses and the cops. Details o' her and Desi's last shout before they went off grid – location, who made the call, everything. We'll see what he has to say and go from there."
"We'll find her, bro," Bug said firmly. "And we'll bring her home. Where she belongs."
"I love you boys," Chibs said, managing the ghost of a smile for them before he brought down the gavel on the table to mark the official end of their session. "Thank you."
Striding out into the clubhouse, Chibs could see Seth sat at a table by the bar, peeling the label off an only half-finished bottle of beer and shredding it into tiny pieces in his distraction. He was intercepted before he could get to him though.
"I want in."
Charlie's face was set determinedly, his brown eyes hard. He seemed to have aged even in the mere days since his mother's death, something of his usual boyishness lost in a way that was sad to see.
"Listen, son …"
"No, you listen," the prospect snapped. "You might be able to just push her away, but Eden's my friend and if she's in trouble, I want to help. I'm not a fucking kid!"
"No, you're a pain in the bloody hole, is what you are," Chibs sighed, but there was no malice in his voice and he reached out to ruffle the young man's hair, giving his head what he saw as a much-needed wobble in the process. "Get Wheels and get your arse in church then. And, Charlie? Take that tone wi' me again, lad, and I'll prove you ain't too big for me to tan your damn hide."
Seth got to his feet as the president joined him, the two men shaking hands warmly as Chibs motioned for him to follow him through to the club's inner sanctuary.
"What was that about with Charlie?"
"The boy just wants to help," Chibs said. "As does my whole club. For you and what you've done for us in the past, but also for Eden. For my old lady. If she'll have me back."
Seth wiped a hand over his face as he considered that. "Can't be much more of a risk than the shit she's gotten into without you," he grimaced. "I ain't gonna stand in your way."
"For what it's worth, I do know I've got a lot o' making up to do."
"You're lucky Eden ain't the unforgiving type. Hell, the amount of second chances she gave that prick Shane …"
The biker frowned at that. "This Shane … You told me he's dangerous. Manipulative. Gets in people's heads. You think he might go further than that? I mean, I know he was still trying to contact Eden a wee while back. That was why I had her change her number."
"I know," Seth nodded. "She told me. I dunno, man. I mean, I wouldn't rule anything out when it comes to that asshole. But at the same time … Even he's bound to see he couldn't just take Eden, Desi and an entire freaking ambulance without sparking a major investigation. And he likes his nice respectable reputation too much to jeopardise it with something like this. He wouldn't risk the fall-out, not even for Eden. Because we are gonna find them, right? I mean, they can't just disappear. Not forever."
Chibs, knowing all too painfully well that wasn't true, said nothing.
