Page 42 of Bound by Wreckage
13
Nox
Present
Fuck,I hate this place. The smell alone is enough to drive a man over the edge. The sterile environment just screams of death and illness. No matter how much they try to scrub it away, this place is never clean.The air is heavy with every emotion from despair and loss to elation at new life. While it’s filled with people, at times it feels like you’re completely alone. Each one of us here our way of coping and pushing through.
Sometimes though, even your family can’t help you pull yourself back up, when they are all drowning too.
My sister, Austyn, squeezes my hand. “We almost lost Popsand now this?” Tears well in her eyes as I squeeze her back, trying to give her a little reassurance. She’s right, though. Not so long ago we sat in these same chairs wondering if fate was going to rip the man we all looked up to away from us.
Gunshot wound. Yes, he was shot, but it was his heart that gave us the scare. He teetered between life and death for way too long and somehow, someway,he pulled through. It was damn close and turned the entire club on its head.
It was the reason we were out riding today. Pops was finally cleared to go for a ride, and we waited no time getting on the road. We were off for a family ride letting the road pass mile for mile, enjoying the air whipping across our face with our family by our sides.
The day was sunny and gorgeous for it.
It was perfect.
Until …
The screeching of tires as I look around us, but there’s no time. A car veers to the left, but clips Dagger and Mearna’s bike, hard.
Their bodies fly in the air, end over end flipping like they’re on a twisted carnival ride. The bike lands opposite as everything crashes down to the ground in a sound I never want to hear again. Crashing, crunching,breaking, screaming; sobs of confusion… all of it happening so fast my brain can’t register what is before my eyes.
This can’t be real life.
This can’t happen.
Not to the Ravage MC. Yet, it is because as much as I want it to be, it’s not a dream for me to wake up from.
Flipping my kickstand, I dart to Dagger whose body shakes uncontrollably, his limbs moving every whichway. Blood comes out of his nose, mouth, and eyes. His body trembles so badly that Jacks reaches into his pocket and grabs a handkerchief, putting it in his mouth so he doesn’t bite his tongue because his jaw is moving so quickly.
911 is called, by who I don’t know, just heard someone yell it. I look over at Mearna. Her daughter Tanner is screaming, crying for help as she holds her handover a wound trying to stop the flow of blood. She has broken bones because I see one coming out of her skin.
She doesn’t look conscious.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Rhys takes off down the ditch heading to the car. I jump, following him. “Fuck!” he yells, smashing his fists in the hood of the car over and over again, the metal cracking from the force.
The car is empty.
Those sounds play on repeat in my mind, never stopping and clouding my head. The bike crashing as bones crack and break, metal scraping on the hard ground. Fuck.
Wiping my hand over my face, there is nothing I can do right now that is going to fix anything. There is nothing in the world that hurts more than feeling helpless. That’s exactly what I feel.
It’s how everyone around mefeels and why it’s so damn quiet except for the tears and sobs. Looking around the room, shock is pretty much on everyone’s faces, including mine.
It hasn’t fully processed yet. I remember it. I was there, but it hasn’t really sunk in what exactly happened. It’s a strange thing, almost like you’re out of your body and all of this is happening below you and you’re unable to do a damn thingabout it.
Dagger and Mearna were immediately taken back for surgery. There are so many things wrong with both of them I had to tune out the doctors before I lost my shit on them to shut them up. Broken bones, organs in trouble, head trauma… it didn’t stop.
It’s bad. They’re both close to dying. A critical care team has been assigned to each of them.
That’s all they neededto say and then to get back and work on them. That’s their fucking job, not to stand out here and list all the things wrong. Right? My sister would tell me that I’m taking out my aggression on the wrong person because they are there to help. But fuck, inside I’m a damn coil pressed down too hard that’s ready to spring at any moment. It’s like the shock feeds that beast inside of me for action, becausethat’s what we do. Make those hurt who hurt us.
Right now, we can’t because not a single one of us will leave this place until we find out the outcome of the surgeries.
