Kale, p.29
Kale, page 29
part #2 of Texas Kings MC Series
I silently opened their door, just enough to squeeze myself through. I moved close to the bed and reached out to put my hand on Smokey’s mouth like I had Kale. His eyes opened instantly, and he started to move. I shook my head no and leaned in close to him.
“There are men outside speaking Spanish. I don’t know if they’re in the house. Do you have a gun?” Smokey nodded yes. “Wake Martha. Kale’s in our room. I’m going to wake the others now.”
I moved back to the door and stood listening for a second. I moved out of the room and quietly closed the door behind me. I crept down the hallway and went into the next room. I found Clem asleep in there and woke him up. His room was closest to the staircase on this side of the house. I knew that if someone was going to come up the stairs, this would be the first room that they stopped at. I whispered to him that I was waking the others and he nodded his head as he slowly moved to the edge of the bed. I left his room and moved back in the direction I had come from. When I got even with Smokey’s door I saw that it was open and Smokey was crouched down in the doorway, a gun in his hand.
I moved past Smokey without a word and got to our doorway. I saw that it was open and Kale was down on one knee, his gun aimed down the hall toward the top of both sets of stairs. I reached down and brushed my hand through his hair as I passed him. I kept low, my back against the wall until I reached the window. I waited for a few breaths, listening for anything downstairs. I thought I heard movement, but I wasn’t quite sure. My heartbeat was so loud in my ears it was hard for me to figure out what I was hearing.
I looked over at Kale and saw that he was still focused on the top of the staircase. I crouched down and took a deep breath. I went down on my hands and knees and started to crawl, but I looked up and saw how bright the moon was shining through the windows. If someone was downstairs, they would see my silhouette moving across the windows. I laid down on my stomach and started to Army crawl. I was half way across the windowed expanse when I heard the first voice downstairs. It was someone whispering in Spanish. I put more effort into moving fast and stood up as soon as I was past the windows.
I hurried along the edge of the wall and slipped into the bedroom door, leaving it open as I hurried inside. I wasn’t as delicate when I woke up Daughtry. He started to move almost the second I put my hand on his mouth. I whispered that someone was downstairs and then I moved back to the doorway. Within just a second, I heard the sound of a leather and then what I knew was a gun leaving a holster. I poked my head out and looked over at Kale. He glanced my way and nodded.
I moved quickly against the wall to Bird’s room. I was almost to the door when I heard someone speaking at the steps right below me. I moved away from the wall, so I could move faster and quickly opened the door to the master bedroom. I turned and shut the bedroom door quietly. I locked the door knob in case someone came up the stairs while I was across the room at the bed.
I got close to the bed and leaned over to touch Bird. His hand shot up and grabbed my arm and he yanked me over him onto the bed. Before I could blink his hand was at my throat and he was on top of me.
“What the...”
“Shhh. There are people downstairs in your house. I woke everyone up but we’re all stuck up here.” I whispered.
“Fuck!” Bird slid out of bed and pulled a pair of jeans on. He grabbed a shirt from the chair beside the bed and put it on. As he whispered to me he opened the top drawer of his dresser and handed me another gun. He took another two out for himself and put an extra clip in each of his pockets. He looked over at me for a second and then gave me a large knife in a scabbard with a Velcro strap. He stuck another large knife in the back of his pants. “Put this on your leg in case you want to throw it at someone. There’s a secret set of stairs leading from here downstairs, it’s in case of a fire. Or this, I guess. We need to get down there.”
I stood at the edge of the bed and bent to put the knife on my thigh. I stood back up and watched him move into the closet. He reached down and moved the edge of a folded blanket and opened a door in the floorboard. I heard footsteps outside the bedroom and then someone jiggled the handle of the bedroom door. I rushed to the closet and saw that Bird was moving down through a hole in the floor. I stepped down behind him and grabbed the door to close it above me.
“There’s a latch to hold the door shut. They shouldn’t be able to see anything because of the blanket, but just in case.” Bird whispered from a few steps below me. I pulled the door closed and felt around for a latch. I twisted it and then turned back to Bird. “We will come out in a panel on the other side of a bookshelf. Follow me toward the front of the house. We’ll have them trapped in the living room. They will have to go out through us or up the stairs and be shot by the guys. Be mindful of cross fire from upstairs.”
Bird slowly slid open the panel at the bottom. He waited just a second for our eyes to adjust from the total darkness in the stairwell. As he moved out of the small doorway I followed close behind him. We moved along the edge of the room toward the front of the house. We were close to the wall, so I couldn’t see up to the balcony across the room where Kale was.
Bird stopped when we heard a thud right above us. I looked up at the ceiling and realized that we were under the room Daughtry was sleeping in. A door slammed upstairs, and it sounded like it was on the other side of the house.
Bird started moving again and I kept one hand on his waist so I could make sure to follow right behind him. We got to the edge of the small section that was the library and moved behind the desk in his office area. I could see that there was someone silhouetted in the window beside the front door. He was a large man but had both of his hands down at his sides. It didn’t look like he had a weapon.
As Bird and I passed behind the desk he bumped into the chair and it slammed into the desk. I saw the man at the door turn his head and look directly at me. As he opened his mouth to alert the others I pulled my knife out of the sheath on my leg and threw it, aiming for his chest. I almost missed. It stuck into the side of his neck and blood started spraying around him.
A man shouted in Spanish from my right, and then I heard footsteps thumping on the staircase. Within just a second, the room exploded with gunfire all around us. Bird and I dropped down behind the desk to take cover. He crawled around one end of the desk and I did the same around the other. I saw a man crouched down against the sofa in the alcove we had just passed. Once I made sure that it wasn’t Smokey or one of Kale’s brothers I shot the man three times. I heard Bird’s gun going off behind me and then a grunt and a loud thump as someone fell on the floor.
There was complete silence for a good thirty second and then I heard an odd sounding whistle, followed by a different whistle and then another one. A few seconds later a fourth whistle came from upstairs. Behind me, Bird whistled but stayed still. I heard footsteps above us and then Clem’s voice from across the house yelling for Kale.
My heart stopped for a second and then started racing when Kale finally answered his brother. I felt Bird move behind me and I crouched down and moved to the edge of the room. I realized too late that the man I had shot had bled out all over the floor. I tried not to let my stomach heave when my feet stepped in the warm blood.
Suddenly the lights came on in the living room.
I stood up and looked around the living room and saw that there were men laid out on the floor in quite a few places. I looked up at the bedroom we had been sleeping in just minutes before and saw Kale standing at the railing, looking down at me. I smiled at him and he shook his head for a second before he smiled back. He called out for the dogs to retrieve and both of them shot past him to the stairs to look for any unknown person who might be hiding.
Kale started for the stairs and I saw Clem doing the same. When I turned my head, I saw Daughtry coming down the stairs closest to me. As he passed each body, he leaned down to check and see if the person was still alive.
“Are you okay, Terra?” I looked up to see Martha at the rail above me. She was wearing a nightgown with a black t-shirt over it and a pair of cowboy boots on her feet. In her hand was a long-barreled pistol.
“I’m okay. You?”
“I could use some coffee. I’ll be down in a second to get it started. Let me just get some clothes on.”
I looked down and remembered that I was buck naked under Kale’s black t-shirt.
“Will you throw me a pair of pajama pants, Martha? I don’t want to track blood up onto the carpet.” I looked down and saw that I had left bloody footprints along the wood floor where I had stepped in that puddle right before the lights came on.
“Honest to God, woman. This house is going to have to be gutted after all the shit that happened tonight. A little fucking blood isn’t going to fuck anything up worse.” Kale had finally reached me, and he pulled me up into his arms. “You scared the fuck out of me, Terra, but you did so good. We’d probably all be dead if you hadn’t gone ninja and warned everyone.”
“There are bonuses to falling in love with a woman who was raised off the grid in the wilderness.”
“Catch.” I looked up to see Martha toss a pair of pajama pants over the rail. “Put those on, girl. We can all see your bootie.”
Kale set me on my feet and I stepped into the pants before I threw my arms around his waist.
“I’m so glad you’re okay! Your brother has a secret staircase in his closet. How fucking cool is that?”
“Jesus. I’ll never understand the way your mind works but I love it.” Kale leaned down and kissed me.
“Hey, guys.” Bird called from the front door. “Do any of you know what Salazar looks like?”
Kale put his arm over my shoulders and started moving toward Bird. Martha passed us and went directly into the kitchen to start coffee.
Daughtry and Clem were standing next to Bird, staring down at the man I had thrown the knife at.
“Well, the picture I saw of him looked an awful lot like that guy, but he didn’t have a Bowie knife sticking out of his neck.” Daughtry spoke and Clem rolled his eyes. “I’d say that’s him. Who wears a suit and tie to go and kill people in the middle of the night. Did he think he was part of the mafia or something?”
“I was actually aiming for his chest. I was off a little bit. I need to practice.” Kale snorted but Bird and Daughtry both laughed out loud.
“If that’s him does that mean we can go home?” I asked the room in general.
“I’d guess so.” Smokey came up behind us and then stood at my side. “Kale don’t ever piss this woman off.”
“She threatened to hit me with a frying pan.”
Smokey patted me on the shoulder and then walked into the kitchen to join his wife. As he left he called over his shoulder, “You could probably take a hit from the frying pan, son, but I’d get rid of anything sharp.”
25.
O=O=O=O=O=O
KALE
I sat down at the table in the middle of the open area of the clubhouse. In the six months since the shooting at Bird’s house, so much had changed around me.
My family and I, along with the club, had ironed out a contract for three seasons of a reality show documenting our process of building custom motorcycles. As a side to that part of the show, they wanted to see the way that ‘true bikers’ lived in their everyday lives.
The production company paid to have our entire clubhouse remodeled. We now had a brand-new wood floor that was created to look like it had been around since the seventies, a shiny bar with a refrigerated section for three kegs, new plumbing throughout the place and a state-of-the-art heating and air system. Terra actually liked to come to the clubhouse now. She said it didn’t remind her of prison at all anymore.
Terra had changed my life in so many ways. I had always been someone who needed my own space, my own quiet time. Now, if she wasn’t with me I felt like I was missing a part of myself. I woke up next to her every morning and went to work with her every evening. We laughed and talked throughout the day, with plenty of kissing and naked time in between.
I looked up to see the object of my fascination walking into the room carrying the little girl who had stolen my heart from our first meeting. Terra paused and bent to stand Brighten down in front of her. Brighten wobbled for a second and then started walking toward me. I got down on one knee and held my hand out to wait for her to get to me.
My heart swelled as she giggled at her progress, Terra just a step behind her to catch her if she fell. When she got to me I swept her up in my arms and spun around in a circle.
“Good job, Bright Eyes!” I growled and nibbled on her cheek and neck until she was screaming with laughter. “Such a big girl. Go get Leon.” I leaned down and set her on her feet and she started toddling over to Leon and Rolo who were on the floor about fifteen feet away.
Terra and I watched her plop down between Leon and Rolo. Both dogs started licking her face, causing her to giggle uncontrollably. I called out a command and they stopped licking but both stuck close to her. She used Leon’s big head to hold her steady when she stood by herself and then as she started walking, each dog fell into step beside her. She was so small all I could see from the side was the little bow in her hair bobbing in between the two dogs.
“You ready for our trip?” I asked Terra as she and I started following Brighten and the dogs toward the back door.
“I am. Your parents called. They’ll be ready when we get there. Martha said that Smokey already moved the luggage to the porch.”
“Jenna and I are the only ones in our family that has ever flown before, you know. This is going to ruin them for commercial flights forever.”
“I can’t believe the TV guy is just going to give you a plane.”
“He didn’t give it to me, he loaned it to me. It was part of his sucking up process.”
“All of you made them dance like monkeys before you signed the deal. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
“Woman, they hired hair and make up for you, Jenna and Mom. You all three have your own personal, whatever you call it, at your beck and call. Tell me I asked for too much.” I snorted. “I just asked for a plane.”
“We got them to hire Sarah and two of the ladies that live out with Kari. It’s not like they brought in Oprah to do my hair or something.”
“You asked for Oprah, didn’t you?”
“Maybe. In negotiations you’ve gotta start out big so you have some wiggle room to meet in the middle.”
O=O=O
TERRA
I held Kale’s hand as we walked down the hospital corridor. We passed the nursery on our way to Carlie’s room. Kale and I looked in and saw that there were quite a few babies in the room, but none of them said that they were a Duke baby.
We moved down the hall quietly and finally found Carlie’s room. Kale tapped on the door and then pushed it open when he heard Carlie’s voice call out to enter.
Carlie was laying in the bed; her hair was pulled up to the top of her head and her eyes looked like she had been crying. There was a baby laying on her legs, wrapped up like a little burrito. Sam was sitting beside the bed, another little burrito bundle in his arms.
“Hi, Mom and Dad.” Kale said softly. “Congratulations!”
“Thank you!” Carlie beamed up at us. Kale sat the bag of gifts we had picked out on the shelf by the window. “Do you want to hold one of them?”
“Well, yeah!” Kale moved over to the sink and washed his hands. When he was finished, I did the same.
Kale took the baby from Sam and I gently picked up the baby from Carlie’s lap.
“Kale, you are holding Zane. Terra you have Zoey.” Sam, now that his hands were free, leaned down and kissed his wife when she was done speaking. He touched his forehead to hers and they just smiled at each other lovingly.
I moved over to stand next to Kale. We stood there staring at the beautiful babies in our arms for a few minutes.
“We need to do this soon, Terra. I want a little baby girl that looks just like you.” Kale whispered. He never looked away from the baby in his arms. “Maybe a couple of them, just not at the same time.”
“When we get back from our trip I’ll skip my next appointment. No more shots.” I whispered back at him. “Maybe this time next year we will be in here.”
“Just quit the shots and if it happens it happens, right?” Kale leaned over and kissed me, across both of the babies in our arms. “Until then we can just visit these two and Bright Eyes. My cousin and his family will be home soon too. We will have plenty of baby practice by the time it’s our turn.”
A nurse came into the room and we moved to the side, so she could get to Carlie.
“We’ll go ahead and go. We just wanted to stop in and say congratulations before we leave town.” I laid Zoey down on Carlie’s legs. “Your babies are beautiful, Carlie. When we get back we’ll babysit for you, okay?”
“I’m going to hold you to that! You guys enjoy your trip. Bring me back a polar bear, okay?”
“They live by the water, we’ll be in the forest. Maybe I can get you a Kodiak instead?”
“Okay. They’re all cute.”
“Yeah, they’re really only cute in pictures but I’ll send Kale’s brothers out to hunt one down for you.” Kale and Sam laughed. “Those city boys might fall for it.”
Kale handed Zane off to Sam and we said our goodbyes. Kale took my hand once we got back into the hallway. He pulled it up and kissed my knuckles.
“Love you, Terr.”
“Love you too, Kale.”
O=O=O
KALE
I looked around the cabin and saw that almost every person who was important in my life was sitting here together, miles above the earth, speeding off to the place that helped create the strong woman I loved with every piece of my heart.
Clem, Bird, Daughtry and my father were sitting on the other side of the plane playing an intense game of poker. The insults were flying, money was being lost, but worse yet there was a pile of papers in the middle of the table with markers written on them.
