Page 56 of Patch's Bride
I should never have let her leave alone today. Worried about how she’s responding to me, I glance over my shoulder to find the fighting is over. The majority of the Diggers are down. There are still a few backing away with their hands up. They clearly want no part of the kind of violence the Legion is dealing out tonight.
I look at Siege. He gives a nod, indicating that it’s over.
I turn my attention back to Beth. She’s got some scrapes and bruises, but I think she’s just in shock. Her arms are still locked around her knees. She flinches when I gently move forward and begin looking her over. All her injuries look superficial.
“Darlin’, it’s me,” I say. “You’re safe now.”
She falls forward, and I catch her before she hits the floor. I get the lock undone on the restraint around her ankle and lift her into my arms. Her grip tightens around my neck, and her face presses into my shirt.
I carry her past the wreckage our club made of the Diggers’ hideout. They’re all staring at me, silent and anxious.
When we reach my bike, I settle her on the seat in front of me. I don’t trust her to hold on in the state she’s in, so I hold onto her by wrapping one arm around her waist. When we take off, the rest of the Legion follows, leaving Marauder to clean up his own club.
When I leave, he’s standing over Lynch’s body gazing down at him.
***
The house is quiet when we pull up. The front door shuts behind us with a soft click. I carry her upstairs with one arm under her knees, the other cradling her back. She hasn’t let go of me since the ride. I don’t want her to.
I carry her straight to the master bathroom and sit her down on the toilet while I run her a bath. Whatever Lynch’s got coming for him he deserves it for thinking he could buy my fuckin’ wife and pimp her out. She’s worth a thousand Lynches in the general scheme of things.
I kneel beside the tub and turn on the faucet, adjusting the temperature. When it’s just right, I undress her and lift her into the massive tub.
Beth hasn’t said a word since we left the Diggers’ sad excuse for a home base. Her eyes stay on my chest, staring blankly. I run my hand gently over the back of her head, not pushing, just trying to soothe her.
“You’re back home now, Beth,” I tell her. “Everything’s going to be okay. We took that whole club apart, so they can’t hurt you anymore.”
She nods once, glancing away.
Her chin dips to her chest. I grab a soft cloth, lather it up, and start gently cleaning the grime off her skin.
She winces when I get to her elbow. There’s a scrape there, raw and red. I say nothing, just rinse and move carefully. I find bruises along her ribs and shoulder. Nothing deep, but I still take my time. I clean around them without pressure.
When I reach for the shampoo, she finally looks up.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” she says. “They were hidden away and bragged that they had been right under the Legion’s noses for years. I thought I’d die there.” Her voice is rough, probably from screaming at them.
“There is no place anyone can hide that I wouldn’t find,” I assure her. “Marauder had an inside man. He’s the one that stayed close and did his best to keep you safe.”
I pour the shampoo into my hands and lather it gently into her hair. Then I rinse with a cup of warm water, shielding her eyes with my hand.
She blinks up at me as water slides down her cheeks.
“That’s how you found me?” she asks.
“Yeah. I’ll always find you, no matter what.”
I help her out of the tub and wrap her in a towel. She doesn’t let go of my hand as we walk to the living room. I grab the med kit from the hall closet and sit her down on the couch. I take a minute to light the fireplace before going back to kneel in front of her.
I dry the last bits of water from her skin. Her legs are drawn up. I gently clean the scrape on her elbow and dab antiseptic cream on it. Then the one on her knee. A row of cuts on herankle. Nothing that won’t heal, but I treat them anyway because there’s no reason to risk them getting infected.
When I finish, she leans forward and puts her arms around me.
“I’m going to be okay,” she whispers. “It was just hard going from just getting over what happened before to something even worse happening today. It’s a bit of a mind fuck.”
“I imagine that it was,” I say. “None of us saw that coming. If we had, we’d have done something about it.”
She nods again, but this time it’s slower. “Why do you think this keeps happening to me? It makes me feel like I’m destined to be used by men for my body, like I don’t matter as a person.”
