Page 14 of Jacked and Jaded

Jackson was puttinghis son Ryker to bed when his phone rang. If it woke him up, he was going to be pissed. It took him a long time to convince him to go to sleep. He’d been hyped up on sugar thanks to Keegan’s birthday party. He kissed his cheek and backed out of the room, closing the door, but leaving enough of a gap that he could hear him if he needed him.

He looked at the number and saw it was Maureen, Calliope’s mom. He thought his mom said she’d left on a cruise with her boyfriend, Tom. “Maureen? Aren’t you out of town?”

“Yes. I am. That’s why I’m calling you. I got a call from Boulder Medical Center. They say Calliope’s been in an accident. Could you please go check on her?” He could hear the anxiety in Maureen’s voice. She had to be doubly upset, being so far away right now. “We’ll catch the first plane out of New Orleans we can get.” She was supposed to board a cruise ship there and be gone for a week as they sailed around the Caribbean.

“Hold on, Maureen. Don’t come home. I got this. I’ll go check it out and let you know.” His heart lurched when he heard Calliope had been in an accident. An accident bad enough that they were trying to track down family.

“I can’t go on a cruise if my daughter’s in the hospital!” She was getting herself worked up and was starting to sound a little hysterical.

“Maureen. Listen to me. I will go to Boulder and see what’s happened. I’ll call you and let you know. If I think it’s bad enough you need to be here, I’ll tell you to get your butt on a plane. When does your cruise leave?”

“In the morning.” She didn’t sound convinced.

“Do you trust me, Maureen?” He didn’t want to be the one responsible for Calliope’s mom canceling her once in a lifetime vacation.

“Yes. I trust you, Jackson.”

“Good. Now I’m going to get off here and get to Boulder. I’ll call you when I know something.” Once he was able to get off the phone with Maureen, he immediately called his mom. “Mom? I need you to come stay with Ryker while I head to Boulder. Maureen got a call from Boulder Medical saying Calliope’s been in an accident. She’s beside herself, talking about canceling her cruise. Yeah. I know. Okay. See you in a few.”

Holy shit. Calliope was in an accident. He looked down at his hands and realized they were shaking. Fuck. What if she’d died in whatever accident she’d been in? The thought was sobering. Fuck. How close to losing her had he been?

His mom got to his house quickly. He wasn’t surprised at all to see his dad standing there with her. He repeated everything Maureen had said, then took off. The need to get to Calliope and see for himself what happened, was riding him hard. He felt like he’d climb out of his own skin, if he didn’t get there fast.

Since it was raining and he didn’t know what condition Calliope might be in when they released her, he’d driven his truck. It took him three hours to get there and had to park what felt like miles away, then he had to walk in the rain. Upon entering the emergency room, he asked for Calliope Reynolds and told them who he was.

“Hello, Mr. West. Miss Reynolds’ mother called and said that she was out of town and that you would be her representative. She’s in room 306,” the lady at reception told him.

He nodded his head in thanks, then followed her directions to the elevator. He ran his hand through his hair and forgot it was wet from the rain. He tried to pat it down as best he could in the blurred reflection of the elevator. There was a ding and the door opened onto the third floor. Checking the arrows to see which way he should go, he turned right and found 306 toward the end of the hall.

The door to her room was partially open. He pushed it wide enough to enter and came to a sudden stop. He inhaled a sharp breath and thought he might throw up. The sight of Calliope lying against the white sheets in her battered condition was almost too much for him to take in. Being in the Sons of Redemption, he’d seen his fair share of injuries, had even inflicted several himself, but nothing prepared him for the sight of what he saw now.

“Fuck me,” he whispered as he wiped a hand across his mouth. He stepped farther into the room, stopping at the side of her bed. “God damn, Calliope. What the hell happened to you?”

“Oh, hello. I didn’t know anyone was in here.” An older man in a white coat came in and stopped at the foot of her bed. “I’m Doctor Fineman. I’ll be taking care of Calliope. And you are?”

“Jackson West.” He shook the doctor’s hand. “I’m a friend and her mom was out of town, so she sent me here to take care of Calliope.”

“Ah, yes. I believe I got that message.” The doctor swiped his finger over his tablet and nodded his head. There must’ve been a note in her record confirming what he’d said.

“Can you tell me what happened? Pardon my language, but she looks like hell. Someone said she’d been in an accident?” Jackson wasn’t a doctor, but to him, it looked like someone had beaten the shit out of her.

“Well, yes. The statement the Uber driver gave the police says he found her collapsed on the side of the road. He’d thought maybe she’d been hit by a car because she told him she would be the woman walking on Pemberton Road. He couldn’t miss her. After the ambulance got her here and we could examine her, it was obvious someone had beaten her badly.” The doctor’s demeanor changed from pleasant and polite to angry.

Jackson’s stomach rolled at the thought of someone taking a hand to Calliope, to purposely set out to hurt her. And then to be found lying on the side of the road, in the rain, like an animal? He wanted to hit something, to throw something, to fucking hurt the one responsible for what was done to Calliope.

“Can you tell me the extent of her injuries? I need to call her mother and let her know what’s going on.” Jackson shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from tossing a chair through the window.

“Since you are a representative of her mother, I can fill you in. As you can see, the right side of her face is is swollen and bruised. We did an x-ray and there were no fractures. She does, however, have a fractured wrist and she’ll be in a cast for six weeks. She also had three cracked ribs and a lot of bruising. The worst injury, in my opinion, was the fact that she’d been sexually violated. Physically, it could have been much worse, but mentally, it will no doubt be traumatizing. I’ll make sure she has a list of excellent counselors who specialize in this kind of trauma before she leaves.”

“Have the police been notified?” Jackson forced the question through a throat gone tight with emotion, his voice sounding gruff. He hoped not. He wanted to dish out a whole lot of biker justice. Jail time would be too damn good for the son of a bitch.

“Yes. They’ve been notified and are looking in to it.” The doctor came around and patted Jackson on the shoulder. “Personally, I hope you find the son of a bitch who did this before the police do.”

He waited until Dr. Fineman left the room, closing the door behind him, before he pulled his phone from his pocket. He walked to the window, peeked between the blinds and absently noted the rain was still coming down. Scooting a chair closer to Calliope’s bed, he took a seat and waited for Maureen to answer.

“Jackson? How is she?”

Damn. He really didn’t want to tell her the truth. If he did, she wouldn’t go on the cruise. If he didn’t, she’d never forgive him. He closed his eyes. “She’s been a hell of a lot better.”

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