Chapter 53

Viper

I let my brothers finish off the rest of the Reapers and wait for the cleaners. I'm going to follow Tony in the med truck. I want to see her for myself. No, I need to see her. I want to know if she is ok. I heard Tony on the radio and it made me see red and my blood ran cold. I want to talk to her. I want to tell her I'm sorry that I didn't protect her better. I ran back to my bike with one thing on my mind. Seeing my sister.
The truck is through the club gates and parking at the ramp to the front door when I make it through the gate. I stop just long enough to park, yank off my helmet and run. I get to the truck just as they open the back door. Thor jumps out and grabs the bottom of what looks like a backboard. I didn't even know we had one of those. Doc Ryan runs down the ramp and grabs the middle. Tony is sliding out grabbing the top.
That's when I see it. Merigold strapped down on that thing. There is a portable heart monitor on one side with wires attached to her chest. On the other side is a bag of clear fluid with a tube going to an Iv in her arm. She has an oxygen mask on her face. A canister laying by her side. They have straps across her legs and chest holding her arms down. They even have one across her forehead to keep her still. Where did they get this equipment? I don’t care as long as it helps Merigold. I'm going to have to thank Doc Ryans after it is all said and done. I owe him big time. I’m going to make sure to compensate him for his time and the equipment.
She isn't moving. She isn't making any noise. She is just still. " Let's keep her steady. Let's move. " Doc Ryans says. " Clear a path!" Thor yells. I run up ahead to make sure they can get through no matter who I have to shove out of the way. A prospect holds the door. I yell " Clear out!" Thor enters first with Tony at the back. I hear gasps and " Oh God." " Son of a Bitch."
When they pass me I see why. Merigold's face is completely black and blue. One eye is swollen shut. Her arms are bruised. She has marks on her wrists like she was tied up. And that is just what I saw in passing. Who knows what I can’t see. They get her in the med room and carefully transfer her to bed.
Thor backs out of the way while Tony and Ryans get to work. Ryans is checking her Iv and hooking up more monitors. Tony starts to cut her shirt off and I grab him. He puts his hand on mine. " She is my sister too. I don’t want to do this. I have to. I have to check for other injuries." " Viper, if you can’t stand out of the way. You need to get out and let us work," Ryans yells. Tony finishes cutting her shirt off. Ryans starts to run some kind of wand over her stomach. She has more bruising there and a few cuts. I back out but don't leave yet. " Quiet!" Ryans bellows over the chatter of people in the room. You could hear a pin drop with the sudden silence. Ryans moves the wand around then stops. Why is he stopping? Then I hear a whoosh whoosh sound. " There you are," Ryans says and Tony's eyes get big like he is shocked by what we hear.
Ryans looks at Tony, shakes his head, and looks at me. Before I can ask anything Ryans starts strapping monitors to her stomach. " Viper, go now." Tony says as he pushes me out of the room. I should punch his ass for forcing me out. This is my club damn it. Tony closes the door in my face. I pound on the door wanting back in. Thor grabs me " Prez I know you want to be in there. So do I. But we have to let them do their job. Let them take care of Merigold. They will come get us when they are finished. Then we can go in and see her." I know he is right but I want to be in there with her. I need to see with my own eyes that she is ok. I shake Thor off and go to the bar. I'm not going to get drunk but I need a beer to calm down.
Tank comes up to me with a young girl I've never seen before. She is covered in dirt and grime. It looks like her shirt is torn. She is a tiny thing. " Viper?" When Tank says my name she has a look of recognition. But I know I have never seen her before. " Where did she come from?" " She was glued to Merigold. Wouldn't let us get close till we told who we were. And that we were there to take Merigold home." So she was protecting my sister. She looks at Tank and he nods. " Is Merigold going to be ok?"
"What's your name?" " Lilly" she says. " I don't know. The docs are with her now." " You're her brother, right?" I nod. " She is a fighter. She protected me and kept me safe. Even when they were hurting her she wouldn’t let them touch me. I thought you might want to know." Lilly says. That sounds like something Merigold would do. “ Merigold has a message she wanted me to tell you if I could find you. She told me to tell you that she loves you. She has never regretted a single day since she met you. She is happy you found her. Merigold says don’t shed any tears for her. She is going to be ok. She said don’t blame yourself for what has happened. She wanted you to take care of her boys. Bring them up to be good men like yourself. Make sure they know they are loved. And she wants you to take care of the family. I thought you might want to know.” Lilly says. That tells me Merigold didn’t think she was going to make it out of there alive. She was saying her goodbyes though Lilly. " Thank you. Did she say anything else?" I task her and she smiles. “ Merigold said you would keep me safe. And she has a message for Alaric.” " Tank, take our guest somewhere to get cleaned up. Find her some clothes. Then feed her. Help her find Alaric when he gets here." He nods. Before they go I tell Lilly “ I’m going to have some questions for you later after you rest up.” She just nods as Tank leads her away.
They guys start coming in slowly. The wounded go to the back to get cleaned up. Everyone else just hangs around the bar and main area of the club. Anna and a few bunnies are setting food out but no one touches it. We should eat. I know that.I can’t remember the last time I had a decent meal. Before Merigold was taken for sure. None of us have much of an appetite. We are all waiting for news. Finally after a while Alaric and his crew come in as well as Rowdy, Axel, Brick, and Ace. That’s everyone now. After what feels like an eternity Tony and Ryans come out of the med room. I can see from the looks on their faces that I'm not going to like what I hear. Alaric gets close to Tony followed by Mac and the rest of their crew.
I can't stand the silence anymore " Tell us!" Tony speaks up " She is unconscious and not responding to commands. Her right wrist is fractured. More bruises than I can count. Defensive wounds to her arms and hands." Tony has to stop talking. He is getting choked up. I can see his eyes watering. Ryans finishes when it looks too much for Tony to handle. " Three broken ribs, two broken fingers. Her left eye is swollen shut. She is dehydrated and malnourished. Both lips are busted. Her breathing is shallow due to her ribs pushing on her lungs. I have her on oxygen. And she is severely anemic. We have Iv’s with all the medicine she needs. We have her strapped with monitors. We cleaned up quite a bit of blood from her. It looks like most of it wasn’t hers. I had to check. From the looks of it she wasn’t assaulted." I get what he is saying without saying it. Merigold wasn’t raped, just beaten. It doesn’t make what they did to her any better. But at least it isn’t worse. I don’t think I could live with myself if she was raped.
Alaric and I say at the same time " I want to see her." Ryans and Tony take us to the room. As soon as I enter it feels like all the air is sucked out of the room. Ryans explains the different things they are doing. The fluids she is getting. The medications Ryans is giving her. What the different monitors are doing. " When will she wake up?" " I can't give you a solid answer. She has taken a lot of blows to the head combined with the anemia and weakness that it caused. It could be hours or days. Her body has been through extreme trauma. Merigold needs time to recover. Brick said that she was awake when they got there so that is a good sign. Her being unconscious is a way for her body to heal itself."
Alaric has his fists clenched when he growls “Tony, tell me those aren't what I think they are." I see he is looking at something that is laying across Merigold's stomach. What is it and why is it bothering him? Tony closes the door. " It is." Before I can ask what the problem is Alaric looks at Ryans `` How far?" " I can't tell you that," Ryans says. Alaric looks like he is ready to pummel Ryans.
" What the fuck is going on?" Alaric points to the straps on Merigold's stomach " Those are fetal monitors." then he points to a monitor behind Ryans " and judging by what I see on that. There are two fetal heartbeats." Fetal heartbeats? I look at Merigold's stomach then back at the monitor. " Wait, are you telling me she's pregnant?" Tony and Alaric nod " with twins." “ Are you fucking kidding me?” I yell. Why didn't she tell me? Who the fuck is the father? Was she seeing someone and didn't think she could tell me? Or was I just to blind to see what was going on? Did she think I wouldn’t approve of the guy she was seeing? She has been under guard for a few weeks. Did they know? Was it one of them? I have so many questions and the only person who can answer them is knocked out