Kristen Ashley - Rock Chick Revolution

Darius rolled Rivers but Rivers was fighting for his life. He wasn’t wasting time.

And thus he didn’t waste time yanking out a huge-ass hunting knife, twisting it around, and sinking it into the flesh of Darius’s side.

And yanking up viciously.

Darius grunted, but by some miracle he did not let go of his hold on Rivers’s neck.

Shock and terror pulsing through me, along with adrenaline (thankfully), I shrieked, “No!” and moved to grasp the edge of the bed.

I pulled myself off and pushed up on my hands and knees, scooting toward them, my hands slipping on Darius’s blood flooding the floor.

“Fuck!” I shouted, making it to them as they rolled this way and that. Rivers’s face was now blue, his legs kicking in panic and agitation. Darius was grunting, the noises full of exertion and pain. I got my hands on the knife still in Darius’s side in order to use it on Rivers and get him off Darius, but they slipped free over the warm blood. “No,” I whispered, going for it again just as sunlight hit the scene.

I looked up to see Ren charging in, Lee and Hank behind him, Eddie and Luke following.

Thank God.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, God.

“Ambulance!” I shouted. “Darius. Shot and stabbed.”

Ren hauled Rivers off Darius and dragged him away.

I didn’t look to see what Ren was doing, although I distractedly heard a fist thudding into flesh then flesh thudding into a wall (or the floor).

Instead, moving urgently, I slid on the blood to get closer to Darius who was on his back and not moving.

Lethargic, panting, my heart beating so hard it was painful, I didn’t need the knife to sink it into Rivers and help Darius, so I left it where it was but pressed a hand to his wound. I lifted my other hand to his chest and got in his face.

“There’re here. There’re here. You’re gonna be okay,” I told him.

Darius stared at me and I could hear Luke saying, “Gunshot wounds. Stab wounds. Head wound. It’s bad. We need a medic immediately.”

I felt hands on me and heard Lee speaking.

“Ally, let me get to him.”

I reached out and grabbed Darius’s hand. With effort pulling it to his chest and pressing in, I got even closer.

“You’re gonna be okay. The ambulance is coming.”

He kept staring at me.

I pushed in at his chest with our hands. “Talk to me.”

“You’re gonna be okay,” he repeated my words quietly.

For some reason, hearing his voice sent relief sweeping through me.

“Yeah. Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m gonna be okay.”

“They’re here,” he said, his voice weak.

Shit. Shit. Fuck.

“Yeah. They’re here.”

“So you’re gonna be okay.”

The hands on me grew urgent. “Ally, honey, let me in there.”

I ignored Lee and said to Darius, “Yeah.”

“’Cause they’re here,” Darius said to me.

I pressed harder to his wound as his blood flowed over my hand.

“No.” I shook my head. “Because you saved me.”

He held my eyes and lifted a hand to my face. “Yeah.”

I pressed my cheek into his hand and held his other one tight.

It was then, he closed his eyes and his lips curved in a smile I did not like.

“Finally,” he whispered. “Salvation.”

Then his hand fell away, landing at his side.

Lifeless.

After that, I threw my head back and screamed.

The drug having worn off, my faculties back to mostly functioning, I sat in the hospital waiting room with the rest of the crew, Ren holding me close to his side with one arm, my hand held to his chest in his.

I had my head on his shoulder.

By the way, the hospital waiting room part of the Rock Chick Ride?

Not my favorite.

Ever.

And this one particularly.

They’d had a look at me when they brought me in. I was fine, still drugged, but I lost it when they tried to clean Darius’s blood off me.

I struggled, spat, clawed and no one could calm me. Not Ren, who tried first. Not Hank, who got in there with Ren. Not Indy, who Lee pulled Ren and Hank away so she could get in because he thought she would do it.

She couldn’t.

The person who did it was my mom.

And she did this by putting her hand on the nurse’s arm and saying, “She needs it. Let her keep it. We’ll see to her when the time is right for Ally.”

The nurse didn’t like it, but she moved away.

I stopped fighting.

So I still had his blood on me, there, in the waiting room.

Because Mom was right. I needed it. I needed some part of him with me.

I knew this sounded weird.

But I didn’t give a fuck.

Ren, being Ren, said nothing about the blood even though now it was on him.

And we were waiting.

All of us.

Indy and Lee. Eddie and Jet. Hank and Roxie. Jules and Vance. Ava and Luke. Stella and Mace. Hector and Sadie. Tex and Nancy. Marcus and Daisy. Roam and Sniff. Mom and Dad. Indy’s dad, Tom, and his girlfriend, Lana (incidentally, Lana was Mace’s Mom; so yeah, we were incestuous—whatever, it worked). Tod and Stevie. Buddy and Ralphie. Smithie and LaTeesha. Annette and Jason. Jules’s uncle Nick and her friend May. Jimmy Marker. Brody, Monty, Matt, Ike, Jack and Bobby. Blanca, Rosa, Carlos, Elena and Gloria. Dom and Sissy. Vito and Angela. Willie Moses. Brian Bond. Darius’s Mom, Dorothea. Duke’s wife Dolores. And even Stella’s band, Floyd, Buzz, Pong, Hugo and Leo showed up.

A motley crew of cops and crooks, bounty hunters and baristas, PIs and rock stars, hot guys and Rock Chicks.

Darius’s people.

Darius’s family.

And last, Shirleen was sitting beside me.

Close.

There was some shifting and my eyes flew to the door, hoping it was a doctor with good news. But I saw Jane walk in.

She’d been around, not much, and her usual quiet. I knew a couple of the Rock Chicks and Hot Bunch spoke with her. Since she didn’t return my calls or give me time when I approached her, and since (for once), I didn’t press, I didn’t know what they said or how she reacted.

All I knew right then was that she came straight to me, her eyes never leaving mine.

She stopped in front of us. Ren’s hold tightened, and I looked up to her.

“Nothing ever really bad happens in a fairytale, Ally,” she whispered, her eyes, locked on me, bright with tears.

And hope.

“I hope you’re right, chickie,” I whispered back.

“Me, too,” she said. Her eyes slid to Ren, then to Shirleen, who she gave a small smile before she moved away.

Ren’s hand gave mine a squeeze.

I gave his one back, let him go and shifted.

But not away. Only so I could reach out and find Shirleen’s hand.

When I did, hers closed tight.

I looked to Lee, who Indy was holding, her cheek to his chest, his chin to the top of her head, his eyes to the door, his jaw hard. My BFF, though, had her eyes on me.

She smiled.

It was fake, but I smiled back.

Then I looked to Eddie, who had Jet in what Jet called the Eddie’s Woman Hold. That was his arm wrapped around her neck, holding her tucked deep into his side.

His eyes were also on the door.

Jet’s cheek was to his shoulder and her eyes were on her husband’s profile.

I then looked again to the door when there was movement there. I pulled in breath and it caught when I saw who was walking through.

Not the doctor.

Duke.

And Duke was not alone.

Following him were Malia and Liam Clark.

Holy shit!

I sat up straight.

“What the fuck?” I heard Lee growl.

But my eyes were pinned to Malia, who was looking around, but doing it looking freaked way the fuck out, and Liam, sticking close to his mom, looking around and doing it looking cautious but confused.

Eddie broke from Jet, Lee from Indy. They headed her way and I moved.

“Ally,” Ren called, but I ignored him.

No one was going to stop me.

Fucking no one.

Lee caught me with a hand in my belly before I got to them, warning, “Not the time, Ally.”

But I ignored him, too.

Eyes to Malia, I moved them to Liam and lifted up my hand, covered in dried blood.

“That’s your father’s,” I announced, and Malia moved close to Liam as Liam’s eyes got huge and they riveted to my hand.

I heard a gasp and I suspected it was Dorothea’s.

Interesting.

Apparently Dorothea didn’t know about her grandson.

I didn’t have time to ponder that for a variety of reasons.

One of which was Eddie, biting out from close, “Don’t Ally.”

“Lay down the truth, darlin’.” Duke’s gravelly voice encouraged, and my eyes went to him. He nodded. “Now’s the time.”

“It’s not the fuckin’ time,” Lee ground out, his hand going away from my belly so he could turn to Duke.

Before they could get into it, I kept at it.

I looked to Liam. “A bad guy was touching me. Your father had already been shot in both legs and slammed in the head with a tire iron but he still got him off me. He barely got a hand on me and your father dragged himself to me and pulled him off. I was drugged. I couldn’t defend myself or help him. But he kept him off me even when that asshole stabbed him. He kept him off me until help came. Blood pouring out of him and he kept him off me.”

“Ally—” Malia whispered, her voice pained, but I kept my eyes glued to Liam.

“Look around you,” I ordered. “All these people, this,” I jerked my bloody hand in the air, “that’s your father.” I looked to Malia. “I don’t know what went down with Eddie and Lee. What I know is, if Darius makes it through this, he’s gonna stay away. From you. From his son.” I swung an arm out behind me. “From everybody.”

I took a step toward her. Liam put an arm around her waist and pulled her back just as Lee put an arm around mine and stopped me.

Time to wrap up.

So I whispered my plea, “Don’t let him, please.”

“Zano, a little help,” Lee said about two seconds before Lee released me and immediately two arms clamped around me. One at the chest. One at my belly.

Ren’s lips at my ear, he said in his sweet voice, “All right, baby, that’s out. Now come sit with me.”

I drew in a breath.

It failed to calm me.

But I’d laid it out. That was all I could do. I had nothing left in me.

“Don’t let him,” I repeated to Malia.

Before I could turn back to my seat, Malia moved forward and caught my hands.

Even them being bloody.

“I talked with Liam this morning and he wants to meet his dad,” she whispered.

Oh.

Well.

Shit.

Apparently my dramatic speech was unnecessary.

Whatever.

“Well, uh… that’s good,” I muttered.

Her head tipped to the side and a ghost of a genuine smile played at her mouth even as her hands squeezed mine. “I see you haven’t changed.”

“Nope,” I agreed, and my gaze went to Liam. “Though I’m not usually this crazy.”

Liam looked like he didn’t believe me.

“Yes, she is,” Eddie said.

I glared at Eddie.

Ren pulled me away, but I got a squeeze back to Malia before I let her go.

He took my hand and I walked stiffly back to our seats with my man.

Once I sat, I gave Duke a look.

He gave me a chin lift.

Jeez.

Even Duke did the chin lift.

Well, again, whatever.

I gave him one back and watched his face get soft.

Shirleen caught my hand.

I looked at her profile.

She didn’t look at me.

But I saw the tear slide down her cheek.

And I saw her lips trembling.

So I held my man’s hand and I held my friend’s hand.

But it was Shirleen’s shoulder I laid my head on.

And she rested hers on mine.

* * *

Half an hour later…

For the fiftieth time (maybe an exaggeration), I caught Vito looking at Ren. And for the fiftieth time (okay, so maybe the twenty-seventh), I saw Ren avoiding his uncle’s eyes.

So I turned to my man.

I found his ear with my lips. “Go to him.”

He shook his head and I pulled back slightly to look at him.