With those words he stalks toward Momma B and takes his son into his arms. “Hey, buddy,” he murmurs, laying the baby against his chest.
He seems to have gotten so big since the last time I’d seen him which was I don’t know maybe a little over a week ago. I stare after him as he walks out of the room closing the door behind him.
“Lordy, if only I didn’t know that look so well,” Momma B chuckles.
“What look?” I ask.
“The one of you being in love with that man,” she smiles just as there’s another knock and it opens at the same time.
“Hey, Tinsley,” Harlow says as she enters the room.
“Hey, Harlow,” I greet in return. I’d seen her around and spoken to her in passing at the hospital, but I hadn’t really gotten to know her like the others I’d met. Hell, I didn’t even know she was associated with the club.
“How about we get you cleaned up? I highly doubt the brothers will wait much longer to find out what happened.” The smile that Harlow gives me is genuine, but her eyes don’t hold any sort of emotion.
The mention of having to tell them causes me to want to vomit.
“Ugh, I don’t know if I can,” I mutter as I climb out of the bed with Harlow and Momma B’s help.
“What do you mean you can’t?” Harlow asks.
“I don’t want to have to talk about what happened. It’s bad enough the images are in my head,” I say, stoically. “I have to get out of here. Go to Grigory. Better yet go to Greece. Yeah that sounds good. Then I don’t have to worry about anyone finding me and I can keep Cody’s whereabouts a secret. They’ll kill him if they find him.”
“Who would kill him?” Momma B snaps.
“Shit, I need to stop talking out loud to myself,” I grumble.
“Sweetheart, those men out there, they’re not about to let you go anywhere. If someone is after Coyote’s kid then you need to tell him,” she says, softly but firmly enough to tell me she’s not playing around.
“She’s right, Tinsley. There’s no need to run when those men out there will do everything in their power to protect the little boy as well as you. Let me guess this happened because you refused to tell them anything,” Harlow mutters and I nod in response.
“Fuckin’ hell. Okay. Let’s get you cleaned up and deal with the rest in a little bit,” Momma B states.
Panic seems to want to take over and my throat becomes tight. It feels as if I can barely breathe at the thought of talking about what Mason and Sam did to me. The only thing I’m grateful hadn’t happened to me was them raping me.
But what if they get hold of me again. Mason did say they’d do far worse.
God, I need to get out of here.
Chapter Eight
Coyote
I didn’t want to leave her alone. Didn’t matter that she wasn’t really left by herself. Momma B and Harlow were with her. I wanted to be in there helping her, soothing her, making her feel safe.
The sobs that racked her body as I held her sliced into my heart and at the same time caused me to be blinded by fury. I don’t know what all they did to her, but I’ll find out and make them pay.
When Ranger asked me if I was claiming her, I answered without hesitation. Does that mean I want her as my ol’ lady? I don’t fuckin’ know, but she’s mine regardless.
At least until I know what the hell these feelings are running through me.
I’m not one for this shit. I hate emotions. Well besides the emotions I feel for Cody. He’s the only thing that matters.
Quickly changing Cody’s diaper and putting him in a clean sleeper. With it being cool outside, no reason for him not to be in a sleeper. It guarantees his feet are covered with the rest of his body. It’s what Momma told me when my little sister was born and I’d asked.
Shit, thinking about Cara makes me feel even more guilty, because I haven’t called her in a while or vice versa. I get the last time I saw her she’d been pissed at me for dragging her out of a frat party. I went to visit her that weekend and when I didn’t find her, I’d had Nerd check her whereabouts. Let’s just say it was hilarious when those little college boys tried to go against Shadow and myself.
Cara had been fuckin’ pissed saying I’d embarrassed her. Way I see it, I kept her from doing something stupid. Being that she’s eight years younger than me, I’m more than a little protective.
I’ll have to remember to call her soon to see if she’s coming for Thanksgiving. Being that she’s in her first year and trying to stay ahead of the game, I’m sure she’ll probably try to use that as an excuse not to come.
Picking Cody up from the changing station, I lay him in the bassinet for his nap. It doesn’t take long before he’s out. Grabbing the baby video monitor, I head back out of the room. Wanting more than anything to go back in the room Tinsley is in, I hold myself back. Momma B will let me know when they’re done.
I don’t know what’s going on with me but it’s fuckin’ with my head.
Something inside me changed the other day after finding Tinsley on the floor. Never in my life have I felt the need to protect someone that wasn’t attached to the club or my sister. But seeing her that way, it was a punch to the gut I never want to experience again.
If I close my eyes, I can still see her crumpled on the floor, face bloody, body black and blue, her hair sheared.
Shaking my head, I head toward the main room of the clubhouse. Spotting several of my brothers sitting at one of the tables, I head in their direction.
“She awake?” Ranger is the first to speak up as I take a chair, spin it around and straddle it.
I nod my head as I cross my arms over the back of the seat. “Yeah, she woke up. I don’t know what they did to her, but she’s fuckin’ scared.”
“You know what I want to know?” Venom asks.
“What?”
“She’s a nurse, right?” At his question I wonder where he’s going with this. “Why wouldn’t she want to go to the hospital? I mean I know it’s where she works and probably would have been embarrassed but fuck, she needed a fuckin’ hospital.”
“Could be she’s scared they’d find her there,” Shadow states.
“Who are we thinking?” Whip asks.
“I’m betting Milley’s brother. Nerd do we have any new information on him?”
“Everything that I’ve found so far on Milley has shown she was an only child. No name showing for the father. Mother was a drug addict that died when she was about five. Went to live with her aunt. Now, aunt, she had a son, but I highly doubt it was him.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He’s incarcerated,” Nerd shrugs.
“Doesn’t mean he couldn’t send someone after her. We all know those walls are thick and words can get through to the outside. What’s he in for?”
“Rape and murder.” Nerd says, stiffening in his seat. “At eighteen he raped a fourteen-year-old girl before slitting her throat.”
“Fuck,” I whisper yell.
“You're telling me. I take a lot of shit. See a hell of a lot but reading the report I wanted to throw the fuck up.”