My hands start to shake.
“Santana . . .”
“S . . . s . . . s . . . some of them died.”
“Santana!” I scream.
“Tyke is alive. He’s injured. So is Maddox, Mack, and about four other guys. They’re being transported to the hospital now. No one knows how bad it is. Krypt said . . . he said it was horrible.”
“No,” I choke out.
“Ash and Jaylah are a mess, but Ash is holding it together because Krypt is only mildly injured. She’s coming to get us so we can be at the hospital when they arrive.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
I hang up the phone and smother down my tears as I rush to my closet and get on some day clothes. Then I run downstairs and wait at the door. I’ve never been so terrified in all my life. The fear coursing through my veins is enough to bring on a panic attack, but I fight it back. When I hear the sounds of a car outside, I run out.
The moment I climb in, Santana pulls me into her arms. We cry the entire way to the hospital; Jaylah huddled in close, too. Ash drives, her face grim. When we arrive, we all pull it together and rush inside and straight towards the desk. “We’re here with the men who were brought in from the explosion,” Santana says desperately. “Have they arrived?”
The nurse nods. “Are you family?”
“Their wives,” Ash informs her.
“Right this way.”
We follow the nurse down some halls, and then into another ward. We can’t see any of them, but when we round a corner, about five bikers are sitting outside. Krypt is one of them. Ash cries out and runs towards him, throwing herself into his arms. He holds her, his eyes closed, his mouth tight. He’s hurting. He looks horrible, too. His skin is marked with black streaks and his clothes are torn. He has blood on his cheek and on his hands. I don’t know if it’s his . . . or someone else’s.
He pulls back and looks over to us, and his face breaks. He looks as if he’s going to cry. Coming from a hard biker, it means only one thing. It’s bad. He walks over, holding Ash’s hand tightly. He scans all three of us, then his eyes settle on Jaylah. “Mack is bad, Jay. He . . .”
Jaylah starts to shake. “Please, Krypt. Tell me.”
“His leg . . . it was damaged so badly, the doctor . . . he said it has to go.”
My knees start to wobble.
“He’s got third degree burns on the other one. It’s . . . bad.”
Jaylah crumples to the floor and Krypt lets Ash go so he can scoop her up into his arms. She clutches him and cries so hard I can’t fight back any more tears. I cry, too. So does Santana. So does Ash. We all stand there crying. Another biker, Grimm, comes over and takes Jaylah, holding her tight.
Krypt looks to Tana next.
“Maddox was in a different area, and the explosion didn’t hit him as hard. He’s injured; he had a piece of rubble hit him in the stomach. It partially impaled him, but the doctor said it missed vital organs. He’s got burns on his neck, but they’re not third degree. He also broke his arm when he was launched from his bike, but the doctor said he’s okay.”
Tana nods, her bottom lip quivering. I clutch her hand, holding her tight as Krypt turns to me.
“Tyke was with Maddox, too—as was I. He was thrown from his bike with the force of the explosion. He snapped one of the bones in his leg and sliced open his arm badly enough to require at least twenty stitches. Otherwise he’s okay. He’s having surgery on his leg, though. It’s a mess.”
Not his leg. Anything but his leg.
I nod and whisper, “And you, Krypt? Are you hurt?”
“I was behind Maddox and Tyke, further back, keeping a look out. I only received a little bit of the force. Mack was with the other guys, closest to the heat of the explosion—it’s why he’s so badly injured. It killed four other men who were even closer than him. Everyone else was lying further back, so that’s all the injuries.”
“H . . . h . . . h . . . how did something like that happen?”
He shrugs and reaches for his wife, pulling her into his side. “It wasn’t planted by us, or for us. They wouldn’t blow up their own compound as revenge. Someone had put it there before we got there. It would seem they have more that one enemy. The good news is there were a lot of them inside. It wiped out a good portion of their operation.”
I nod and turn to Jaylah, who is still tucked in Grimm’s arms, looking utterly broken. I walk over to her and pull her into mine. Santana joins us, then Ash, and there we sit, waiting for the fate of our men.
Praying they will get through.
~*~*~*~
NOW - Pippa
There’s nothing like the pain that is lodged deep in your chest while you wait for the news of a loved one. You wait to hear if they’ve lived or died, you wait to hear if they will ever walk again, or if they will ever ride. You wait to hear if the damage that’s done is so severe that they’ll never be the same again. That’s what we’re doing. We’re waiting, praying, hoping.
The doctor comes out about twelve hours after we arrive at the hospital. He approaches us and we all stand. His eyes scan over us all and then he asks, “Who is the wife of Miakoda?”
Jaylah raises a weak hand. “Me.”
The doctor nods. “We’ve operated on your husband. Sadly, we’ve had to amputate his right leg—it was a mess. However, he should make a full recovery, and can have a prosthesis fitted down the track. It will be uncomfortable and somewhat of a long journey, but I have every faith he will make it just fine. His other leg was severely burned—we’ve done the best we can but sadly there will be a good deal of scarring.”
“But he’ll be okay?” she whispers.
The doctor nods. “Yes, he will be okay.”
“Can I see him?”
He nods and waves down a nurse. “Betty will take you.”
When Jaylah disappears, the doctor turns to Santana. “Who are you with?”
“Maddox.”
He nods. “Maddox has just come out of surgery. There was no severe damage from the impaled object, but he’s going to be sore for a good few weeks. The burns on his neck aren’t too bad and should heal nicely. He had a few deep gashes we’ve had to stitch, and we bound up his broken arm, but otherwise he’s well. You may go and see him.”
Another nurse takes Santana away and the doctor turns to me. “You must be with Tyke?”
I nod. “Yes.”
“Tyke had a good deal of surgery on his leg. The bone was broken quite badly, but it would appear he’s had broken bones before.”
“Yes, he had an accident years ago that crushed his legs.”
The doctor nods. “Makes sense. Anyway, because of that it took a little more to repair, but when his bone heals he might find he walks better than before as we have realigned his damaged bones more firmly. The gash on his arm was stitched and he didn’t have any burns. You can go and see him.”
Another nurse arrives and I hurry down the hall after her, desperate to see Tyke. She takes me into a room and points to a bed. Tyke is lying in it, his eyes on the ceiling. His leg is in a cast and slightly risen, and his arm is bandaged. He’s got some cuts and scratches on his face, but otherwise he looks okay. I take a small moment to thank God for that.
I walk over and when he hears me, he turns. “Little one,” he croaks.
“Hi there,” I whisper, reaching down and pressing my forehead to his. “You scared me.”
He smiles weakly. “Scared me, too.”
“Are you in pain?”
He shakes his head. “Nah, they have me on some pretty solid medication.”
“I was so afraid,” I say, and a tear spills out.
“Come here, baby,” he murmurs, pulling me into the bed. “I’m okay.”
“You broke your leg.”
“Yeah,” he murmurs. “Must have been meant to be, hey?”
“Tyke, it’s not funny.”
“I never said it was, little one.”
“You could have died.”
&n
bsp; He squeezes me. “But I didn’t.”
“The other guys are okay, too.”
“Mack?”
“He lost a leg, Tyke,” I croak.
Tyke is silent, then he yells, “Fuck!”
I hold him as he pants out his rage over that fact. “It shouldn’t have happened, Pip. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If we had been one hour too late . . . we wouldn’t have had to do this.”
“I’m so sorry, Tyke.”
He turns and presses his lips to my head. “You couldn’t have done anything about it.”
“No, but I’m still sorry.”
“It’s going to be a long road for Mack.”
I nod.
“But we’ll be there for him. We’ll always be there for him,” I whisper.
Forever.
Because you always save the ones you love.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
NOW - Pippa
One month later
Mack is sitting in the compound, glaring at all of us as we watch him. His leg is healing well, so the doctors said, and his other is scarring up the way it’s supposed to. Mack didn’t come out of the hospital feeling sorry for himself—he came out determined. He’s just that kind of man. He vows he will walk again, and I have no doubt he will.
Maddox recovered well, and was the first back on his feet. Tyke still has a cast on his leg and was forced back to his chair, but he’s recovering, and each day that passes he grows more determined to make sure he gets back up and walks after this. We had a funeral for the lost men, and it was a sad, gloomy day when we laid them to rest. Now we’re here, a month later, and all staring at Mack.
It’s his birthday, and apparently he does not want to celebrate, but instead would rather glower at all of us. Especially when Jaylah put a party hat on his head. He’s not getting away without celebrating, and so we’ve locked down his chair and made him participate. We just sang happy birthday to him, to which he told us he was ‘too old’ to receive such a song.
Poor Mack. He doesn’t do well with public affection.
I’m sitting on Tyke’s lap while he sits in his chair. He’s got an arm firmly wrapped around me, and I have no doubt he doesn’t plan on letting me go. I can feel his erection prodding my backside, and I know he’s hanging to make love to me. I haven’t done anything with him since the accident, and he’s not happy about that.
“Stop wiggling on my lap, Pippa,” he growls into my ear.
“You’re the one holding me down here,” I point out.
“And you’re not making it easy.”
I turn and look down at him. “It’ll all be over soon.”
“Like fuck,” he says, turning the electric chair and driving us down the hall. “It’ll be over now.”
“Tyke!” I protest as the trails of laughter disappear behind us.
“Need to feel you, Pip.”
“But . . .”
“No buts.”
“I’m on my period, Tyke.”
This isn’t a lie. It also doesn’t stop him.
“Been wanting to try that sweet mouth for some time now. We’ll give that a shot, yeah?”
My cheeks flush as he pulls into the room and closes the door. I climb off his lap and stare at him. His eyes are hungry, and suddenly my core clenches with need. I’m all in for trying new things, and I’ve been wanting to do this with Tyke for months now.
“I haven’t done this before,” I whisper.
“On your knees, baby. I’ll guide you.”
I lower to my knees in front of his chair, and he shifts so I can get between his legs. Then he takes his belt and unbuckles it before popping the top buttons of his jeans and unzipping. Then he reaches in and frees his thick, hard length. He strokes it a few times, groaning, before he looks over to me. “Just suck it like it’s a big lollypop, baby.”
A lollypop?
Jesus.
I flush and nerves flutter around in my belly as I reach over and curl my hand around the warm length. Then hesitantly I move forward. I put my tongue out first, touching it to the soft skin. It’s silkier than I’d first thought. I slowly part my lips and slide him into my mouth. He’s equally as soft against my lips as he was to my tongue. Tyke groans above me and I tremble nervously as I begin to suck.
“Fuck, yeah,” he grinds out. “Yes.”
I do as he asks, sucking him like a lollypop. Then he takes my head gently and moves it up and down at the same time. “Like that,” he says through clenched teeth.
I follow his instruction and suck while bobbing my head up and down. My lips burn at the corners as my mouth stretches around his ever-increasing size, but I love how it feels. I love how he tastes. I love the sound of his groaning above me.
“Going to come fast,” he hisses.
What do I do when that happens?
I suck him some more, moving a little faster. His groans become deeper and then suddenly he’s pulling his length from my mouth and stroking it furiously. Then, he explodes. White strands shoot out and hit his palm, and he makes a strangled sound as they do. Over and over he pumps his release out, and I can’t tear my eyes away, fascinated.
When he’s finished, he reaches over to the towel hanging on the back of the door and pulls it off, wiping his hand. I get off my knees and watch him clean himself up, then he looks up at me with a devilish grin on his face. He wheels towards me and I take a step back. He does this until the backs of my legs hit the bed. His grin gets bigger and he rasps out, “Your turn.”
Oh, boy.
EPILOGUE
Six months later
Tyke and I are at the lighthouse where he first taught me to use my voice. We’re sitting, eating a meal that I ordered. I’ve come out of my shell so much during the past six months, and each day it gets easier and easier. Tyke and I live together now, and I handed my lease over to Belle so her and Immy could stay in the house. I see them nearly every day, and Belle has become a good friend.
The rest of the club is recovering well after the explosion. Mack is getting around well on his prosthesis and all his burns are healing nicely. Tyke got his cast off and continued with his physical therapy until he was able to walk comfortably again. Each day he gets stronger and stronger, and his pain gets less and less. He said whatever the doctors did when they fixed his leg has most certainly helped.
Everyone is happy.
We’re all a family again.
Tyke brought me here today because he wanted to do something nice. It’s been crazy lately, with work and moving in together. I jumped at the chance to spend some one on one time with him. He brought me here, which I thought was super sweet, considering it’s where everything really started between us.
“Want to go for a walk?” he asks, smiling over at me.
“Yes,” I groan. “My stomach is so full.”
Laughing, he stands and reaches out for me. I join him and we walk down to the beach and along the sand. He stops us in the spot we first stopped at, when I so foolishly kissed him. He steps in front of me, and stares down, a small grin on his face. “You can kiss me safely this time.”
I snort. “Are you sure about that?”
He chuckles, stroking a finger over my cheek. “Mostly sure.”
I reach up on my tiptoes and press my lips against his. He kisses me like that for a long moment before pulling back and turning me around so he’s standing behind me with his arms wrapped around my middle, both of us facing the sunset.
“Do you see how beautiful that is?” he whispers into my ear.
I nod. “Yes.”
“That’s how beautiful you are to me, little one.”
I swallow and squeeze his hands.
“Words won’t ever come close to explaining what you do to my heart, but I’m going to try. You came to me as a broken angel, fragile and sweet as hell. Over time you came out of your shell, and I fell even harder in love with you. Now, you’re confident and beautiful, and all the things I could ever want, bu
t you know the best part?”
I shake my head, my chest swelling with his words.
“You’re still my broken angel. You’ll always be my broken angel. But that’s okay, because it’s what broke you that makes you beautiful. I don’t want those parts to ever fully be fixed, because that’ll mean you disappear.”
I let out a choking sob and he releases one of his hands, reaching behind him. He fumbles about for a second and then brings his hand back, clutching my left one. He pulls out my ring finger and slides a stunning diamond onto it. I start crying harder and go to turn, but he holds me there.
“Every time you look at the sunset, Pippa, I want you to think of me. Every time you cry, know that my shoulder is always yours. Every time you feel joy, I hope that it’s me who gave it to you. Every time you try to pick up the pieces, thinking it’ll make you a better person, remember how much I love that broken part of you.”
“Tyke,” I say in a shaky voice.
“And when you walk down the aisle towards me, know that I love you with every single part of my heart, body and soul.”
I turn towards him and he’s staring down at me, his face full of love.
“Marry me, my beautiful broken angel?”
“Yes,” I cry, throwing my arms around his neck. “A thousand times yes.”
He wraps an arm around me and holds me tight, standing there in the sunset holding me as if I’m the only reason he breathes. His words sink into a part of my soul that I’ve been trying to fix for so long. I never realized that I was trying to fix what had become a part of me. I might be fragile, and a little broken, and a whole lot sensitive, but I’ll always be the most amazing thing in the world to him.
His broken angel.
THE END
That concludes the Jokers’ Wrath series. It’s been a sad time for me, finishing up their books, but it’s time for a new chapter. You’ll be pleased to know, those chapters include Raide’s story, which is being released by St Martin’s Press in August 2015 – and Max and Belle’s story, which will be released in June 2015.