Page 22 of Saint
“Hurry Saint. She’s in a bad way.”
Fuck! As I approach the water I’m yelling at Reign. “Get back to the others and get everyone back to my cabin. It’s the closest thing to us and there’s a full medical kit there. Go! Dublin, let’s go! My place. Where the hell was she?”
“She was floating just over there, hanging off a log brother. We only found her because she was trying to sing” says Taps shaking his head “she’s one strong lady. She’s barely conscious and she’s freezing cold but she’s breathing. I can’t see the wound properly out here but I dare say it will get infected. She must have rolled all the way to the lake edge. Her clothes are all torn and she’s all scratched up. She’s going to take a while to heal.”
Tags lifts her into my lap to help warm her and places his own shirt and jacket as well as Dublin’s over the top of her. She starts to whimper. Her voice is so faint, almost a whisper. “Sorry Saint. I tried. I love you.”
“Tried? Tried to what Beautiful?” Her breathing is laboured as she tries to answer.
“Stay”
“Oh you’re staying Jade. No way on earth you’re leaving us. Dublin, make this thing go faster!”
As we speed across the lake I can hear her mumbling again. Tags looks up at me with a quizzical look on his face “Sounds like she’s saying happy birthday. That’s what she was trying to sing too. Is it your birthday?”
“Not mine. And I don’t know when hers is either to be honest”
I watched her sleep. She twitched a lot and her face was a constant stream of changing emotions and I couldn’t help but wonder what went on in that beautiful head of hers. And where did she go those times she’d just disappear, like in the car today. I can tell she’s deep in thought even though she’s out of it and whatever it is bothers her but she won’t let on what it is. I play with her hair and stroke her back to relax her.
We move at full throttle back to my cabin. It takes an age but we eventually make it back and tie the boats off at the back deck. Dublin passes her tiny, limp body up to me and with Tags hot on my heels I run inside and lay her out on the rug near the couch. In the background, someone gets the fire going to warm the place up and someone else heads into the bathroom and starts filling the bath.
Tags goes to cut her clothes off her and I almost break his arm. “Calm down brother. You see this blood? We need to know where it’s coming from? Okay?”
I remove my hand from his arm and hold them up in surrender, then sit back and let him work. Tags is an ex-army medic. He never takes his dog tags off and we could always hear them jangling around his neck. Tags seemed like the obvious name choice. He is also very skilled and has experience with gun-shot wounds – which comes in handy in our line of ‘work’.
He cuts her shirt and peels it back over her shoulders and down her arms. Thank God she’s wearing a bra under there. No-one else gets to see what is mine. She’s so cold her skin is translucent, her lips and extremities are blue and there is a gunshot wound at her left shoulder. There’s very little blood though. She’s so tiny and helpless just lying there.
“It’s lucky she’s so cold Saint. It’s minimised blood loss from that wound.” He rolls her to one side to inspect the back of her shoulder. “And it’s a through and through. The bullet has come out the other side. I won’t need to operate. Just clean up the wound. Pass me that kit.”
I pace as Tags cleans her up. The men are all gathered around the kitchen bench drinking coffee and waiting for news. I know I there’s nothing I can do to help Tags right now so I join my brothers and thank them all for their help. “I don’t know what I’d have done without all of you tonight. Thank you. It’s been a long night and it’s not over yet. We still have a job to take care of however.”
My brothers all stand coming in to bump shoulders with me and all stating that they’ve got my back. I am truly grateful to have them all in my life and as my brothers. This is what family does and I’m fucking lucky they’re mine.
Tags calls me over and I invite Smoke and Dublin. “She’s lost some blood but thankfully not too much. Her body temperature is way too low though. Get her in that bath to warm her up. You’ll need to get in with her to hold her up. She’s unconscious and will be that way for a while. Dublin, Smoke, if you’re staying, find us all some blankets, make another pot of coffee and set us up in here for the night. She’s not out of the woods yet.”
My deep tub is full thanks to someone having run the bath when we came in. I climb in first and sit down and Tags passes her into me. I sit her in my lap and pull the rest of her clothes off and lean her back to my chest. I cannot believe how cold her body feels. I rub her arms and body to try and improve her circulation and get her warmed up. Her hair is swirling all around us in the water as her head rolls back onto my shoulder. I stare in wonder at the beauty in my lap and ponder how the hell I got so lucky, and how it all fucked up so badly, so quickly. I knew she was something special that first day I laid eyes on her. Then she saved Reign and was practically handed to me on a platter. The perfect combination of sass and submission. She has a way with people too. Everybody likes her. The perfect Queen.
I can feel the water cooling down and decide to get her out of here before it gets any colder. I stand up holding her in my arms and grab one of the thick, fluffy bath sheets from the bench top and wrap it around Jade. I walk her straight into my room and set her down on my bed while I quickly get dressed. I try to dry off her hair as best as I can. Unwrapping her, I notice the multitude of bruises and scrapes on her body. Her skin is looking a bit closer to normal colour and she’s not as cold but she’s still not warm. I dress her gently in one of my flannel shirts that she loves so much and place her in the middle of the bed, covering her with a couple of comforters and blankets that have been warming by the fire. She moans quietly as I kiss her forehead and promise her I’ll be back.
Leaving the door open to keep the room warm, I went to join my brothers. There are bodies all over my small cabin and they all look at me with questioning eyes. “She’s still out. A bit warmer but not back to normal yet. I’ll go back in soon. Does anyone know how the fuck Ranger got into the country and what’s more, into our town without us knowing?”
Dublin speaks up “Axel called just before I met you at the mall. Seems he called in a favour from some marines he knows. They smuggled him in.”
“Well the fucker won’t be going back home. Do Ink and Axel know?”
“Yep. Apparently he’d already been stripped of his colours. No one else in the club was on board with his behaviour and they voted him out. He won’t be missed.”
“Good. We’ve got work to do. Kitty, Tags – you stay up here with Jade. The rest of you can follow me.”
We head outside and around the side of my cabin. There’s a trapdoor in the ground which leads to a small underground bunker about thirty metres away from the cabin. This place is easy to hide with the amount of tree cover and dropped leaves that fall from them. We all climb down the ladder that leads into the bunker and line up across the room in front of Ranger. I’m in front of him, Bull and Smoke flanking him. His hands are chained up to the ceiling and his feet are dangling about a foot off the ground but chained so he can’t kick out. Not that he looks like he could. He’s passed out cold. His head hangs down and there’s dried blood trailing all down his side and a pool of it underneath him. I nod at Bull and he throws a bucket of freezing lake water over the asshole to wake him up. He groans but doesn’t move so Bull gives him another face full. This time he looks up. His face is a mess, covered in cuts with purple bruises blooming across his cheeks.
“Well look what the cat dragged in. I hear the most appropriate Aussie term for you is a shit cunt. Just who the fuck do you think you are trying to force yourself on a woman who doesn’t want you? And to top it off, you fucking shoot her!” Ranger spits a mouthful of blood at my feet as he glares back at me.
“Bitch is club property and I’m Prez. That makes her mine if I want her. Guess I’ll be seeing her in hell now though. Bitch is dead. Now nobody’s got her” He grins at me through blood and broken teeth. I nod at Bull who swings a steel bat at Ranger’s knee, shattering it completely. Ranger screams and struggles but gets nowhere.
I give him a shit eating grin as I start to speak. “Jade was Pipe’s ol’ lady. He’s gone. She was never meant to be yours. And, seeing as you’re no longer Prez since you were voted out and kicked out you don’t even have the right to look at her let alone own her. She’s free to make her own choices. Jade chose me – unfortunately for you. That means she’s mine to love. Your bullet didn’t kill her. Jade’s way too tough for that. She’s laying upstairs right now in my bed, wrapped up in my shirt being watched over by my men. When I’m done with you, I get to keep her. You on the other hand, have a one way ticket to hell and you better believe it’s gonna be a rough ride.”
This is Bull’s cue to go to town and he starts by smashing the bat into Ranger’s other knee before he hands it to Smoke. Smoke raises the bat up and swings at the back of Ranger’s elbow smashing one and then the other leaving Ranger hanging mid-air by broken, dislocated limbs. Dublin steps in looking for his turn. Taking the bat, he raises it over his head and brings it down on top of one then the other of Ranger’s shoulders dislocating them both. “Cunt” he spits out in disgust.