Chapter Twenty-Three

Coyote

Istepped into the cage, knowing how thoroughly fucked up this was, but at least I knew that whatever happened, Bethany would be protected—even if it meant an all-out biker war between the Dark Slayers and Twisted Metal. I just hoped to God, it wouldn't come to that. Once we were inside, the whole Twisted Metal crew surrounded the cage. Their eyes were alit with dark glee at the prospect of a fight to the death. This was clearly a spectator sport in their world. I felt like participating diminished my humanity, but if I was being honest, I didn't have another choice.

I faced off against the man who assaulted the woman I loved, and all my doubts fell away. I would kill this man to protect Bethany and our child. I'd worked out daily, bulked up, and sparred with every man in our club. Truthfully, I'd spent years honing my fighting skills. Now was the moment of truth, to see if all that hard work would earn me the victory I so desperately needed against a larger and deadlier enemy.

If I'd thought we would just be fighting, I would have been very much mistaken. Cyclops immediately started trash talking me. "This is my third time in the cage. You look like a man who has never been in a real fight, much less taken a human life. You're a baby compared to me, and Bethany deserves a real man who can protect her." It was a subtle dig that he'd done as he liked with her three years ago and abducted her right out from under my nose just this morning. But instead of shaking my confidence in this moment of truth, his words just spurred me on. It wasn't a fucking pissing contest, lives depended on the outcome, and I couldn't let my woman down.

While he rambled, I spent the time reviewing the weapons available to me and their locations relative to each other. I had to figure out a strategy to win this fight. But I was pulled from my internal thoughts when my opponent raised his voice.

"Hey, you. I'm talking to you."

I heard the cage door slam shut behind us. That meant there was no going back. Either I walked out of the cage, or he did. No matter what, it couldn't be him, I decided on the spot.

Cyclops sneered at me. "Still not talkin' to me, boy scout? I know all about your club. You like to play at being an MC, but everybody knows you're just a bunch of pussies."

When I didn't respond, he upped the ante. "If you're right and Bethany's little girl is yours, I'm gonna have fun with her, you feel me? And you won't be able to do a damn thing about it from the grave. What do you think of that?"

"I think you're so full of shit that you don't realize how ridiculous you sound, you fucking sick, twisted bastard." I was already determined that I would be the one walking out of here alive, but hearing him talk about my daughter like that, sickened me and urged me to fight harder.

When he came at me, I blocked several punches until one landed on my jaw. This man had a mean right hook that sent me staggering back a step. I spat out blood and kept fighting. The thing about injuries is that you don't really feel them at first because of all the endorphins being released. It was an all-out brawl with people shouting at us from the sidelines.

When we got close to the fence, I grabbed a hunting knife. When I turned around, Cyclops had one as well. It increased the danger tenfold. We lunged and stabbed at each other, doing minor damage. He got in a good swipe and ended up slicing my shoulder open. I couldn't afford to slow down and coddle my wound. Any distraction at all in a situation like this could mean my death. I also wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me pay attention to the wounds he gave me. Maybe that was ego on my part, but I didn't care.

I felt blood running down my arm and covering my hand, making it hard to keep hold of the knife. Bethany was screaming in the background for someone to stop the fight. I didn't want that though. I wanted to finish this motherfucker while I had the chance. Someone must have pulled her away because her voice slowly died away.

Eventually, I realized that I needed a weapon with some reach because he kept getting close enough to cut me. I chose a long wooden stick, the kind made for martial arts sparring. My thought was that if I could get in strategic hits, I could bring him down. After ten minutes of focusing on his head and neck, I discarded the stick in favor of a steel bar. It had some reach but not much. I liked the weight of it in my hand. All I had to do was bid my time until he gave me an opening and then strike hard and fast. By now the fight had been going on what felt like forever. Both of us were slowing down, my hands were slick with blood—mine or his I didn't know.

I turned to face him after a complex set of maneuvers, and he threw dirt into my eyes. I wasn't expecting that. Then again, my club brothers had warned me that there were no rules and that he would fight dirty. I should have paid more attention to their words. While I blinked and rubbed my eyes, he landed a hard blow to my ribcage, and I was momentarily winded. Fighting blind was nearly impossible. He kept catching me unawares and slamming the steel bar into my torso. I felt one my ribs shatter and I decided I wasn't going to go out like this, with the woman I loved possibly still watching from afar. My breathing was ragged, and I was tiring, but I had to keep going, the life of my woman and child depended on it.

Over the din of voices, I heard Mace shout, "Aim up. Stun him with a head shot and then go for the kill." It was sound advice, at least as good as anything floating around in my mind, so I took it.

I gripped the bar harder and when I sensed movement, I struck with all my might. The blow connected. My vision was clearing, and I could see a blurred image of him clutching the side of his head. I swung again, relieved that I was now able to see. The second blow to the head sent his weapon clamoring to the ground.

I sensed that now was my moment. I flipped the steel rod around in my hand and with one sweeping downward motion, I drove it through his chest, hopefully where his heart was located. When he fell to the ground, I kicked the rod deeper until he wasn't moving anymore. I stood there trying to catch my breath, feeling pain coursing through my body.

Relief surged in my chest. I'd done it my Bethany was free of this man once and for all.

The minute the door opened, I staggered through it. Bethany was the first to greet me. I wondered if she had been close all along.

"Oh my God, look at you," She tore off a strip of her bathrobe, that only now I realized she was still wearing, and pressed it against my shoulder wound to stem the bleeding. Mace gave her his belt and she tied it firmly around the fabric to create a tourniquet. Her trembling hand seemed reluctant to leave my shoulder. She was freaked out as hell. I could tell by her expression and the way she moved closer to me.

I covered her hand with mine and assured her, "I'm okay. It looks a lot worse than it is."

I realized at some point that Storm was consoling Steel. "I know he was a personal friend of yours, but you did the right thing."

"Yes, I know," Steel responded in a flat tone. "He knew what stepping in that cage entailed because he's been in there a couple of times already. I guess the third time wasn't a charm," he stated morosely.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Breaker added.

"Cyclops was just a lonely man who didn't understand when he crossed the line. I feel sorry for him. But he chose his own path in life and will be remembered for the good he did instead of his worst moment."

It was surreal to me that my club brothers were consoling the man who wasn't able to control his fucking club, or at least stop them from doing horrific things. Then again Cyclops didn't seem like the kind of man who let anyone tell him what to do. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw his lifeless form lying on the ground still impaled by the steel rod. The stupid fucker would still be alive if he could listen and wasn't such a sick asshole. Taking a human life didn't sit right me but taking his felt like dispensing long overdue justice for my woman.

After a few more minutes of small talk, we left. I was barely able to get on my bike, but I managed it, because I needed to get Bethany the hell out of their territory before Steel had time to reconsider his generous decision to let us walk out, after killing a member of his club. Holding my hand over my broken ribs, I managed to mount my bike and Bethany slid on behind me, careful where she put her hands. We had some talking to do once I got her the hell out of the compound, but I guessed it could wait until we were back at the clubhouse. I really hadn't wanted her to find out I knew Nessa was mine in such an in-your-face way, I hated that she would think I'd not trusted her. It had come as a total surprise to me too, I hadn't known that Breaker was organizing the DNA test. While on the one hand I was happy my brother-in-law had my back, on the other, I wished he'd come to me first.

We didn't make it far before I started throwing up blood. It was hard to breathe to be honest. It felt like there wasn't enough oxygen in the air for me to suck into my lungs. I was an absolute mess after my battle. All those blows Cyclops rained down on me were coming home to roost and I was already beginning to feel each and every one of them.

Storm made us pull over and he called an ambulance. By then I was getting lightheaded. Bethany climbed into the back of the ambulance, refusing to leave my side. The expression on her face was heartbreaking. I'd have given anything for her not to have been exposed to the horrible situation with Cyclops. Seeing someone beaten to death is a harsh reality check about just how bad it can get out there in our world. I didn't want to be the man who destroyed her faith in humanity, I thought dimly. After that, my thoughts started to splinter. I lost the capacity to tell what was real from what were memories or longstanding fears.

***

I must have passed out, because I woke up in a hospital room. Bethany was sleeping in a chair beside my bed, covered with a knitted throw. The woman I loved, looked like she'd been sitting in that chair for days. Someone had pulled a small table over beside her and filled it with snacks and drinks. Something loosened in my chest to know that my family and club brothers were looking after her while she was looking after me.

I looked around and realized the tables on both sides of my hospital bed were filled with cards and balloons. All the cards were standing up and oriented towards me, so I could see the front. I wondered how long I'd been out for, I felt like I'd been run over by a truck, and lifting my hand I could see yellow and purple bruising over my knuckles.

I needed to talk to Bethany, to see her beautiful brown eyes and hear her voice, but I was reluctant to wake her. God only knows how long it had taken her to finally wind down long enough to catch some sleep of her own. Minutes ticked by as I stared at her lovely face, wreathed with now messy dark hair. To me she looked angelic. When she finally moved in her seat and stretched her arms above her head I asked, "Are you awake, querida?"

Bethany jerked upright, her eyes worried as she looked at me for a brief second as though she couldn't believe I was awake. She jumped to her feet and approached the bed. "Oh my God, Lucas, you're awake! How are you feeling?"

"How long have I been down?"

"It's been forty-eight hours. You've woken up several times and each time the conversation starts just like this."

Fuck, two days? That surprised me. I didn't remember waking up before now, nor did I feel like I had been down for quite that long. "I'm sorry if I worried you sweetheart. I'm pretty sure this time is for good, I'm feeling surprisingly okay, I felt worse when I crashed my bike a year ago. Did they say what was wrong with me?"

She took my hand in hers, careful to avoid my bruised and battered knuckles, "The doctor said you have three rib fractures, it took twenty-seven stitches to close your shoulder wound and your lung collapsed. They said the lung collapse was likely related to the chest trauma, and one of the broken ribs nicked an artery. The doctors say there was a significant amount of internal bleeding."

"Fuck me. It sounds like I really underestimated my physical endurance on this one."

"I wish this had never happened, I hate that I'm the cause of it."

"Don't talk like that querida, this is not your fault. Don't worry about me, I've bounced back from much worse than this. I'm feeling pretty strong and clear headed right now. That's got to be a good sign, right?"

She nodded but I could see she was fighting back tears. So, I changed the subject.

"Did the police show up to take a statement?"

"No, thank God," she said quickly. "Storm convinced them you got your injuries from wrecking your bike. I'm not sure they bought that story completely given you looked like you'd been in a bare-knuckle fight, but they went with it anyway."

"Nothing good ever came from talking to the cops in this town. They're fucking incompetent idiots who generate more problems than they solve in a day." That was my opinion, and I was sticking with it.

"Don't think about them. Just try to relax. Your body needs you to rest while it heals."

I gave her hand a squeeze, "I'm gonna be fine." After a pensive pause, I added, "You could have told me about Cyclops. You know that, right?"

She glanced away. "I just wanted to bury it all, not have you two trying to kill each other over what he did to me. And look where that got me."

There was a tired, dispirited tone to her voice that I didn't like. I said quietly, "I wouldn't have wanted you to go through that all alone."

She teared up. "I worried about telling you because it might have gotten you thinking about Nessa and who her father is. I couldn't risk telling you until I knew for sure she was yours, I still don't. Was what you said back there true? How do you know?"

Desperate to make her feel better, I came clean. "I suspected, but I didn't know for sure until yesterday. Breaker had gotten one of the prospects to take Nessa's hairbrush for a DNA test. The morning after the fire when he and Callie dropped by, they got suspicious, telling me she looked older than two. I honestly didn't know what he'd done until he took me to one side yesterday and fessed up, I wanted to speak to you about it yesterday, but we were having such a good time. I didn't want to ruin it, and have you think I didn't trust you or something." I started coughing and Bethany's eyebrows creased in worry.

"I'm the one who should have trusted you. You aren't angry that I kept her from you? I wanted to tell you she might be yours, I just couldn't seem to find the right time."

I reached out for her hand. "You had your reasons, we would have gotten there eventually," My thumb rubbed over her knuckles. I loved this woman with all my heart, and I never wanted to let her go again.

Bethany's expression brightened. "I always thought of her as yours, I wanted her to be yours so much." Her softly spoken admission hit me right in the feels.

"Let me set your mind at ease, even if she wasn't mine biologically, I would have been proud to be her father. That little girl is part of you and we're a family. We might just be starting out and I'm still learning how to be a good dad, but if you would let me, I'd take such good care of her, and you too," I paused, remembering how shell-shocked she looked after the fight, "Maybe you wouldn't want a killer around your child, but I hope you could overlook what happened with Cyclops, because I didn't really have a choice and because I had your best interest at heart."

She leaned down to drop a tender kiss onto my lips. "There is nothing to overlook. If not for you I would have been trapped with him, you saved my life."

I felt the anger roll through me as I thought about what could have happened. "That fucker was bat shit crazy. I hope you know nothing that went down between the two of you was your fault."

She nodded, clearly feeling conflicted about it. "I truly wish I'd never met Cyclops. Their club is a rough, scary place. One of the men was jerking a woman around by her hair while I was there, and several of them were strung out on drugs. Before you arrived, Cyclops punched another guy in the face for staring at me. It seemed like the whole lot of them were varying degrees of unhinged. And it was weird how the women were all acting like it was just another day."

"For them, I'm sure it was. Twisted Metal are outlaws, they were involved in hardcore crimes like running guns, selling drugs, and even trafficking women. Although Steel is getting them away from all that, most of the brothers in the club participated in loads of illegal shit. It taints the soul, ya know?"

She nodded. "Yes. I do know. I could see it in their faces and hear it in their voices. There was a certain hopelessness that permeated the whole place."

"Well, you never have to go back. Just stay here where I can protect you."

"So, you honestly still want me, even after not telling you about Cyclops and Nessa?"

I nodded, even though my neck hurt when I did so. "Of course, I fucking do!"

"So, I'm your old lady now?" she asked as a shy smile crept across her face.

"I think you always were, deep in my heart. And as soon as I get my hands on my phone, I'm gonna be getting you a property cut," I paused, after the shit that happened with Cyclops that got me here, I hoped she didn't think I was turning into a controlling asshole. "You know I don't own you, right? A property cut just means—"

"It's okay, Coyote. I used to hang around the clubhouse enough to know what it stands for. It means that a woman is protected by her man and the club. I'd love to wear your property cut, I can't think of anything that would make me prouder to know you and your club are protecting me."

The note of sincerity in her voice was just the balm my battered soul needed to feel better in this moment. Her words were kind, and her touch was healing on so many levels.

Feeling the love and concern radiating from her, it occurred to me to ask, "How is Reggie holding up?"

Her expression brightened. "I just talked to him this morning. He's doing well. He and Thomas are staying in the pool house while the house is being rebuilt, his insurance will cover the repairs."

"That's good news. Did he tell you about how he and my sister were scheming behind our backs to get us back together again?"

Her eyes flew open, "Say that again! I'm not sure I understand you correctly."

I cheerfully explained, "My sister told me that you talked to Reggie about how you were still carrying a torch for me. He was so excited that he decided to try to get us back together again. Your boss somehow found my sister's number and called her to find out what kind of man I am. My sister has long been of the opinion that you were the love of my life and was worried because I could never seem to move on after you left. Needless to say, she jumped on board. Callie gave me one of your flyers and impressed me the importance of having a successful grand opening. The rest, you already know."

Sounding contrite, she said, "I'm sorry they did that to you, babe."

I quickly let her know she had nothing to feel bad about, "I'm not sorry at all. My sister was right about me being lonely and still being in love with you. From my perspective, things couldn't have worked out better."

She moved closer and leaned down to look me in the eyes. "Do you really mean that?"

"Yeah, of course I do. How about you? Do wish they had left well enough alone?"

Her hands came out to cup my face and she shook her head. "I've never been in a relationship with anyone since we were together, because no other man could hold a candle to you. You're all I thought about and dreamed about while we were separated."

My hands came up to cover hers again. "It was the same with me. I could never take another woman seriously after being with you. My heart has always belonged to you, ever since the first time we kissed. The moment our lips touched, I knew you were the only one for me."

"You were always so romantic," she murmured before she dropped another tender kiss on my lips. When she pulled back, she asked, "So where do we go from here?"

"I'm thinking that I should get you that property cut ASAP so every asshole that crosses your path doesn't make the mistake of thinking you're available."

She laughed. "You're being silly. I only have eyes for you. And that's never going to change."

"Doesn't hurt to warn off any stupid fuckers who get ideas though," I added.

I saw Bethany's eyes get a faraway look to them, with Reggie living in her old place, I guessed she was thinking about where that left her and Nessa. I'd already made it clear they were welcome to stay, but just in case she had any doubts, I thought I'd better repeat the offer, "You do know you and Nessa can stay at mine, right? I'm all ready to pick up right where we left off, but even if you wanna take it slow, you have a home."

"I can't think of anywhere I'd rather us be. And our daughter needs to be with her father," she planted a kiss on my bruised knuckles.

I loved hearing that a little too much. It made every ache and pain in my body worth it. "How's Nessa holding up?"

Her hands dropped away, and she replied, "She misses you and wants to know when you're coming home."

A smile so wide it hurt my injured lips took over my face. "Really? She asked about me?"

"All the time. And she's been making an extra special fuss of Ruby, especially when I told her that Ruby got hurt scaring off a bad man."

My brave little dog, "Nessa doesn't know—"

Bethany shook her head vehemently, "No, she's too young to understand anything like that, and even if she wasn't, I wouldn't want her to know. When she woke and we were all gone, Callie told her that Ruby had gone to the animal doctor, and we'd all be back soon."

Laying back I got comfortable because it seemed as though Bethany was going to stay with me and be my old lady. I vowed to myself right then and there to make sure she never regretted it for a moment. "You don't have to stay by my side, I know Nessa probably needs you. I'd love to see her, but I don't want to scare her when I'm looking like this."

"She's spending the weekend with Reggie's nieces. She hasn't seen them in a while, so she was really excited. She took Ruby with her too, apparently, they are having a whale of a time."

I was thrilled to hear that our daughter hadn't been negatively impacted by this whole situation. "She's a special little girl, and I'm not just saying that because I love her mom."

Bethany's eyes misted over, "And I love her dad too. He's a special man and I can't think of anyone else I'd want in my life protecting us."

My chest ached with happiness to hear those words. I didn't know what in the world I'd ever done to deserve Bethany, but I planned to enjoy and protect what we had together. But in order to do that, I had to get out of this fucking hospital. "Any idea when I'm getting outta here?" I asked, hoping it would be sometime soon."

"I'm not sure. They talked about keeping you in for observation for a couple of days after you woke up. I guess they want to make sure you're stable before they discharge you."

"I'm stable now," I grumbled, secretly loving the fuss Bethany was making over me, this woman was my life, and I couldn't wait to be out of this fucking hospital bed and back home with my old lady and our daughter. I'd missed out on three years of their lives, and we had a lot of catching up to do. I reached out my hand and stroked Bethany's dark hair, gently pulling her head down. As our lips met, I knew that we'd never be apart again.