Chapter14

Tank
I stand there and watch Lilly walk out the door. I’m waiting for someone to go after her. I know if I do she will just run faster. “ What just happened?” Merigold asks. Axel wraps his arm around her shoulder and pulls her close. “ I don’t know baby girl.” Poor girl looks so upset. Not nearly as upset as Lilly just before left. Anne walks around to stand in front of us and puts her hands on her hip. Damn she looks pissed. “ I’ll tell you exactly what happened. You assholes just ambushed that poor girl and she never saw it coming.” “ We didn’t ambush her.” Thor says but there isn’t much conviction in his voice. “ Yes, you did Thor. All of you standing around here waiting for her. None of you looked friendly. Some of you looked down right pissed.” Anne says, looking at Viper. “ Then you bombard her with questions and accuse her of lying. You don’t give her a chance to defend herself.” “ She did lie to us.” Rowdy says. “ Was she really lying, Rowdy. Did any of you ask her if she was singing at a bar? Did you ask her if she could play guitar? No you didn’t. All she did was something personal to herself.” Anne asks. Viper turns his head “ You knew, didn't you?” Anne smiles “ Who do you think was making her costumes? But that's besides the point. Since she knows several members don’t want her here. So what do you think she is going to do after the way you acted towards her? The way you acted like she wronged the club. She figured you were going to kick her out so instead she left on her terms.”

I’ve heard enough. Lilly has only gone about three minutes yet no one seemed to want to go after her. Maybe I can still catch her before she leaves the compound. I race out the door and I see her just about to the gates. I call out to her but she ignores me and keeps walking. I chase after her. She heard me coming up behind her and took off running. I catch her just as she gets outside the gates. “ Lilly, wait. Come back and give them a chance to explain.” I plead. Lilly whirls around with pure hatred in her eyes. “ Are you happy now? You finally got what you wanted. I’m out now. You never have to look at my fat ugly ass again. The club won’t be wasting their time on me anymore.” She says back things I have said or agreed to even if none of it was true. “ I don’t understand. What did I ever do to you? What did I do that was so wrong to deserve the things you said?” “ Lilly, I.” She holds her hand up to stop me continuing. “ I honestly don’t want to hear any excuses. You won. I’m done. Enjoy your life.”

She takes off across the street. Out of the corner of my eye I see something move. I turn just in time to see a black SUV coming right at her at high speed. “ Lilly, look out.” Lilly turns but it is too late. What happened next I swear was in slow motion. Like something out of a movie. I saw the front bumper hit her so hard she flew through the air. Her body hit the windshield with enough force to shatter the glass, then rolled off the hood to the ground where she rolled twice more before she stopped moving face down on the asphalt. I’m already running towards Lilly when two large guys dressed in black jump out of the truck. One says “ Let’s grab her quick and get back to the boss.” and tries to grab her arms. “ Stay the hell away from her.” I yell. The second guy reaches his arm around his back and grabs a gun. He fires once at me before I can pull my gun. I fired at him and hit him in the arm. He yells “ Let’s get out of here man. She is not worth it.” They both jump in the truck and take off. I don’t chase after them. My first priority is Lilly.

I ran to Lilly’s side. She still isn’t moving so I kneel down beside her to check to see if she has a pulse. She does but it is faint. I hear boots pounding the pavement. I guess my brothers heard the gunshots. I reach out to roll Lilly over so I can check for injuries when Brick yells “ Fuck Tank what did you do?” I shake my head. I don’t have time for this. “ She was hit by a car and almost kidnapped.” Viper reaches my side “ Tank, don’t move her. We don’t want to make any injuries worse.” I don’t like it but I know he is right. Axel and Thor are on the phone talking to who the hell knows. I keep my focus on Lilly. Viper is asking me questions about what happened. I tell him but I don’t move from beside Lilly. I move her hair from her face. When I do I see she has multiple cuts that are bleeding Axel says “ Doc says the ambulance should be here any second. He says don’t move her. He is going to meet it at the hospital.” Thor says “ Our cop friend is on his way as well.”

The next thirty minutes is a flurry of activity. The ambulance arrives and the paramedics get to work on Lilly. They put a neck brace on her then very carefully rolled her onto a backboard. Next they lay her on a gurney. They check her breathing, hook her up to oxygen and to monitors and start an Iv. One says “ She ‘s unresponsive and I got decreased breath sounds. No pupil reaction We need to move.” Just as they are loading Lilly’s bruised, broken and bloody body in the back of the ambulance I hear Anne yell “ I’m going with her. I’m her Aunt.” They don’t even question just let Anne load up with Lilly. Once they pulled away I finally looked around and saw the whole club outside. Merigold and Trina look like they have been crying.

Prez pulls me aside to talk to Bradford, our cop friend. I lay out everything that happened from the time I chased Lilly right up to me shooting one of the guys that tried to kidnap her. I”m just finishing up when Thor and Rowdy come over. “ Prez if you don’t need us here right now we are going to head over to the hospital.” Rowdy says. Prez runs his hands down his face “ Yea. I’m going to finish up here then I’ll be over. You find out anything before I get there let me know.” They nod and head out. I want to go to the hospital as well but I know prez isn’t done with me.

“ Not that I’m not happy you did, but why did you chase after Lilly?” Prez asks as we walk back to the compound. I know why he is asking, I’m the last person anyone thought would chase after Lilly. It is time to come clean. Past time really, but seeing Lilly like that. If she didn’t make it I would never forgive myself for being a fucking fool. “ I don’t know if you will believe me. I know everyone thinks I wanted Lilly gone. I can’t blame them for how I've been acting. But the truth is.” I sigh and lean against the wall. “ The truth is you care for her and rather than admit it to yourself you took the coward's way out and turned into an asshole no one wants to be around.” Prez says. I can’t even say a word. He is right, but how did he know? Prez just laughs “ I have eyes Tank. Anyone who paid attention could see how much you cared for Lilly when she first got here. Hell, I saw you last night. You had some much pride and attraction in your eyes. When you started to distance yourself I thought you were just giving her time. But instead you made sure she would never have anything to do with you. Even after all this time and everything you have done to keep her away you still care for her.”

“ I thought I was doing the right thing for her. She deserves so much better than a gruff, tattoo artist biker. You saw her. Lilly is incredibly talented. She could do so much better than me.” I answer. “ Tank, brother, you are an idiot. I saw the way she looked at you. And how sometimes she still looks at you. Don’t you think it is Lilly’s decision who she wants to be with? If she wants to be with anybody? Yes, you are right she is truly talented. And she could have had any guy in the place last night. From what Lug tells me it is like that every time they perform. But she never even notices. My advice if she makes it through this, don’t let her slip away.” Prez says.

I know he is right. “ Prez I have fucked up so badly with the club and with Lilly. I don’t even know where to start.” “ First thing is for you to get cleaned up.”Prez points to my hands. I have Lilly’s blood on them. “Then we need to get our asses over to the hospital and get some answers on how she is doing. As far as the club now that you have your head out of your ass, with time it will work itself out. Just being present is a start.” I run in and wash my hands fast. I don’t want to wait another minute to find out what’s going on. We load up on our bikes and head out. He is right. It is time for me to get right with my club and get my girl. I wasted a year of my life being miserable not having her by my side. No more, I’m going to do whatever it takes to win my girl and make her my ol’e lady.