“Jacob?”
“Yeah, Care Bear.”
“He said he was going to kill me.”
“I know baby, but you don’t have to worry anymore. He won’t hurt you ever again.”
“I know but he…”
“I told you baby, you don’t have to…”
“Jacob! He has a bomb at least I think it’s a bomb,” I exclaim and I can hear the wild panic in my voice.
“Carrie…”
“Under his coat, Jacob! We have to get out of here!”
Jacob lets go of me to investigate. I look over his shoulder when he bends down. I don’t want to look at the dead guy, but I have to know if that is really a bomb. Jacob moves the coat back and the small timer device now has only a minute showing. Jacob grabs my hand, and pulls me to the door.
“Run!” I stumble to catch up because of the force he uses to get us through the door.
“Alexand…”
“Drag said Crush was in the garage! GO CARRIE!” He yells and I take off running as soon as I clear the door. Jacob must have decided I didn’t move fast enough, because he picks me up in his arms and takes off running.
We’ve almost made it to the garage when an explosion rocks and vibrates around us. Jacob is propelled downward from the force of the blast and we hit the ground. He braces himself so I’m not crushed beneath him. Even more, he uses his body to shield me. This is a man. This is the type of man you love for life. This is a good man. Please God, let me keep him.
My ears ring and sound becomes distorted either because of the loud noise of the blast, the gunshot or maybe both combined. Jacob is asking me if I’m okay, but it sounds like his voice is in a dark hole and being filtered before it gets to me. I can barely make it out.
Dragon and several others come running toward us. I look at the house and the entire right side is in flames. The roof is caved in over the area we just left.
“Bull! Where’s Bull?” Dragon growls when he makes it to us.
“Bull? What are you talking about? You only mentioned Crusher being in the garage?” Dancer responds, motioning over to where Poncho, the club doctor and a couple of the other boys are.
“Dani said Crush called Bull this morning and asked him to come watch Carrie while he did some things. We went back and checked the cameras. They picked up Bull getting here right after you left. It looked like they met outside and Bull went in the house while Crusher went on in the garage.”
“No one was here when I woke up,” I respond, feeling a sense of dread come over me. Could the man already have killed Bull?
“I didn’t see anyone in the house either,” Jacob adds. “Only rooms I didn’t check were the hall bath and the second bedroom.”
We all look back at the house engulfed in flames and I get physically sick to my stomach. The thought of Bull trapped in there…
“Fuck, let’s go around back. Maybe we can get in through a window,” Dragon orders.
“The bathroom window in Carrie’s room is already open, it’d be our best bet, plus it’s furthest from the main blaze.”
Jacob stands up and he and Dragon start running towards the other side of the house.
“Be careful!” I yell, but I don’t think he hears me. I start to follow them, maybe I can help them somehow. I feel a hand on my shoulder and look up to see Freak.
“Where are you going?” Freak asks.
“I need to be close by in case they need help getting Bull out.”
“Dragon and Dance can handle it and Gunner and Frog are there too. You stay here where it’s safe. If you get closer to the house, you’ll just distract them.”
I don’t necessarily agree, but I give up trying to go after them. I don’t want to do anything that might distract Jacob and get him hurt.
In the distance I can hear sirens.
Freak leads me over to the garage. I look back at the house not wanting to leave Jacob. I want to see him the minute he gets free…
“We’re getting company, is Crush going to be okay?” Freak asks.
“Shit! There would have been less questions if we could have taken care of Crush at my place,” Doc says.
I turn around to see a very pale Alexander, a white bandage stained with red blood on his chest, up close to his shoulder. Dani is standing close by and there are tears in her eyes. It could be nothing, but it seems like more. I finally decide it is my imagination, since she makes no move to touch him.
“Shot in his chest, but you could tell the man either didn’t know what he was doing, or was in a hurry. If Crush hadn’t hit his head on the fall down he wouldn’t have been out of commission. It went straight through, so there was a lot of blood, but it was clean.”
“Shouldn’t you be glad an ambulance is here to take him to the hospital?” I ask confused. The others say nothing.
Alexander gives me a weak smile. “I’ll be okay, Red. I’ve had worse.”
I don’t think I believe him, but I’m too worried about Jacob, Dragon and Bull to say anything else.
Please God, let them be okay.
Dancer
I
make it
back to the window. I can’t see fire in the room itself, so I jump in without wasting time. I hear Dragon fall in behind me. There’s smoke, lots of fucking smoke, but no real flames. It seems the blaze has been limited to the site of the homemade bomb. Thank fuck it was a homemade bomb and small. It took out half of the kitchen and started a fire, but had the man been a professional, there would have been nothing left.
You can’t see a damned foot in front of you for the smoke and haze. I’m holding my breath and I’ve got my arm up over my mouth and nose, but soon I could be in real trouble.
I feel my way through Carrie’s bedroom and out into the hall. I can hear Dragon behind me, but I can’t stop to check on him. I have to hurry. If Bull is in here, there’s a limited time to get to him. He’ll die of smoke inhalation. Hell, I can already feel the burning in my lungs. I make it to the hall bath first.
“Bull!!!” I call out, but can’t find him anywhere, even with the low visibility, had he been in there I would have.
That only leaves one room. Holding onto the wall I make my way to the spare bedroom. The door is locked. I use my shoulder and ram it, Dragon joins in and it breaks away from the frame and opens up. Lying on the bed is Bull. He’s unconscious, that much is clear. Still, even through the smoke I can see the blood. A fucking lot of blood coming from his head! I don’t have time to inspect him further, I grab him in a fireman’s hold and start back the way I came. Dragon leads the way to our escape route, none too soon. The heat is closing in on us and you can hear the crack of wood all around. We need out of here before the whole damn place collapses on us.
“Damn Bull, you are a big motherfucker,” I say to no one in particular, as I struggle to carry this hulk of a man.
We make it back to the bathroom much quicker, but by now the flames have spread and they are reaching out towards us like deadly hands. The creaking of weakening beams becomes louder.
Dragon helps me carefully get Bull out the window, handing him out to Gunner and Frog. He then insists I go out the window first and since we’re both coughing like little bitches, I don’t argue. He plows out just seconds behind me and we drag our tired asses from around the house and back to the garage.
I see Carrie the minute I turn the corner and she runs straight at me. She’s a damn mess, but at the same time so achingly perfect. She is the answer to every dream I’ve ever had.
I grunt as she connects with my body at full force. She wraps her arms around me and I grab hold of her ass and lift her up. A second later her legs are locked at the back of my ass.
“I was so worried,” she whispers against my lips. I push into her mouth kissing her hard. My throat is burning and dry but I do not give one damn. I need this. Our lips break away slowly and I give her one more chaste lip touch before pulling away completely.
“Care Bear. I’m okay.”
“I love you, Jacob.”
The words give me the familiar kick in my gut and a speeding heart. They also bring me a feeling of joy. I can’t stop myself from kissing her again—this time with everything I’ve got inside of me. Our tongues dance and mate and then war with each other, fighting for dominance. Even the taste of smoke can’t stop the flavor of Carrie from coming through. This woman is better than a drug. She’s like pure air and I need her to survive.
“Bull?” She asks and I shake my head, because I don’t know.
I’m jealous which is fucked up seven ways to Sunday. My brother is in bad shape, even I could tell that through the smoke. Yet, here I am jealous because my woman is worried about him. Hell, I’m worried about him. I grab her by the back of the neck and turn her face towards me.
“Give me the words.”
She looks thoroughly confused and I understand, because I am too. Still, she takes her hand and moves it along the side of my face. With her other hand, she places it over my heart and applies gentle pressure. The warmth of it is enough to calm the heavy beating.
“I love you, Jacob.”
“Sir, we need to check you over,” I look over my shoulder and there’s a paramedic standing behind me.
“I’m fine, see to my brother.”
I don’t want to be bothered. I want to stay with Carrie. It’s weak and totally the wrong time to be feeling shit, but crowds trigger panic attacks. I do not want to have one of those surrounded by strangers and having my brothers here would make that shit worse. I hold on tightly to Carrie’s hand. Can she tell how it shakes? I look at her face, but she just smiles. I pray I’ve kept it hid.
“The other wagon has your buddy,” the paramedic explains referring to the other ambulance. “Please sir it’s my job, you inhaled a lot of smoke. Let me just check out your lungs. I also see some blood, it won’t take long.”
I’m about to tell him to fuck off when Carrie’s hand goes to my side. Is it wrong to get turned on with all the shit going on around us? I swear I can feel my dick harden as her hand moves along my side and her fingers tease against the edge of my jeans.
“Jacob, you’ve been hurt!”
I look down as she pulls my shirt up. It’s a jagged cut down my side. It’s nothing, but my woman is worried about
me
and I’m an ass enough to eat that shit up. So, I let her guide me to the ambulance. I sit on the base of the bumper step, while the paramedic does his business.
I’ve barely settled before the guy pushes an oxygen mask in my face as a ‘precaution’ whatever in the hell that means. Then, Carrie leaves me to go check on Bull.
Motherfucker!
I’m left with a piece of plastic held over my mouth and nose, watching her cry over another man.
I want Bull to survive. I love the man, I want him to be okay and I know he is in scary ass shape. That said, right now in this moment, I want him to get better so I can kill him.
I look over at Dragon and he’s pretty much being poked at like me. We look at each other for a second and nod. Shoving the masks back, we head over to Bull with the paramedics yelling behind us.
We make it to the wagon where they have Bull inside working on him. Shit, it looks like someone bashed his head with a baseball bat. That’s the only thought I can form before it hits me that they are performing CPR on my brother. What the fuck? I knew he was bad, I had no idea he wasn’t fucking breathing.
One paramedic is applying chest compressions, while another is squeezing a balloon like thing with a mask attached over his face. There’s still another one holding up paddles.
“CLEAR!”
One of them hollers and the others back away while the paddles are put over the heart and he’s hit with electricity. His body jerks. We all look at a monitor willing it to move. There’s just a green line and it’s barely moving. They assume their first positions again and you can hear the electricity surging from the paddles, as the other paramedic turns the knob increasing the charge.
“CLEAR!” She calls again.
I feel Carrie curl into my side and I hold her close. We wait while Bull is hit again. The beep of the machine is faint as a heartbeat is found, but it seems like thunder and the line on the screen appears steadier.
“Let’s get him to the main road. Medi-vac is waiting for transport to send him down to UT,” one of the paramedics orders.
“You’re flying him out?” Dragon asks and my heart stops in my throat.
“Sir, your friend has major head trauma and went into respiratory failure. UT is the closest trauma center around equipped to deal with head trauma like his.”
“I’m going with him,” Dragon says starting to get in the ambulance.
“Sorry sir, I can’t allow that. You can drive down to Knoxville,” she pulls out a card from her pocket and hands it to Dragon. “You can call that number, give them your friend’s info and they can give you updates. Now we’ve got to go.”
She bangs on the ambulance doors with a strong thud and slams them shut. We watch the ambulance take off, each one of us in shock. I don’t think any of us thought we could lose Bull until we watched the paramedics struggle to keep a heartbeat.
Carrie looks up at me with soot and dirt marring her face. You can see streaks left behind by the tracks of her tears.
“Will he make it?” She asks her voice weak.
“Damn straight he’ll make it,” Dragon growls, running towards his SUV. I see Frog and Gunner pile in with him. Crusher was taken to the hospital earlier. I need to check on him too. I need to get to Tennessee…. Fuck.
“Let’s go to the club, get cleaned up and go check on Bull.”
“Okay, Jacob.”
We walk towards the group hand in hand. Even with all the shit that has gone down, I can almost smile at the feeling that settles inside of me. My hand tightens over hers as we move forward…together.
Carrie
I
’m exhausted and
I don’t even know how Jacob is functioning. He couldn’t have slept much the night before and it’s midnight now. We’re all piled in the waiting room for trauma surgery. We had gone to the club. Jacob and I quickly showered (and by that I mean we showered together and since I had never done that before, I wished we had more time, but we didn’t). We got dressed and headed out just in time to load up in the SUV with Dragon and Nicole. Crusher was still in the local hospital and in no shape to travel, though he was raising the roof because no one would let him. Dani was watching over him closely and again I thought I saw something between them.