Page 38 of Cage's Fall

Autumn

Moments shape you. The moment I was told my father wouldn’t come home. The moment I was told my mother had died in that accident. The moment Cage told me to leave the lifestyle behind. The moment Hawk hit me and I left the club life behind. And then this framing moment.

As I sit in a hospital bed, staring at the cup of tea in my hands. My eyes drop to the bruises around my wrists, running up my arms. I was in a hospital gown. I couldn't even pull the sleeves up without seeing the visible marks.

Looking up I catch my reflection in the mirror. Swollen and cut lip, bruised jaw line. Yeah, I looked a mess.

The hospital’s room door opened, and I looked up ready to tell the nurses I was fine. They said if I didn’t get fluids in, they would put me on a drip. Hence the cup of tea.

But it wasn’t a nurse whose eyes were locked with mine. It was Hawk’s. Immediately tears of embarrassment and shame flooded me. He had to have known. My lip started to shake as he closed the door and walked to my bedside.

What do I say?

The police had questioned me. Over and over. I told them nothing. They didn’t understand till I told the staff to call my father. Then when they knew I was connected with the club, the police disappeared.

Hawk pulled up a plastic chair, and his hand went over the one of mine that was laying on the bed. Clenching on to my hand I looked back up unto his eyes. What I saw almost broke me more. He had tears in his own eyes. I recalled the last time I saw Hawk cry. At my mother’s funeral.

“I’ll make this fucking right Autumn. I promise you that.” He said, and leaned in kissing my forehead. And just like that I fucking broke into tears. He got up, wrapping his arms around me. My hand leaving the cup of tea on the small meal tray and the tears just fell.

I heard him mutter in my hair that the man that this to me was a dead man, he’d make sure of it.

CAGE

Accepting who you are, and who you become after life events, is what can test your soul. As a child, I was innocent. Through my teenage years I danced with the law. But it wasn’t till I did time, that I became a man.

But it was moments likeright now, as blood was sprayed over my clothes, my knuckles bleeding, it defines you. I was drenched in blood. His blood. Like I said it was moments like now I questioned if I was a man, or a serial killer.

My phone rang on the basin sink and I was going to ignore it, till I saw Crow’s name. Picking it up, I barked a hello into the phone.

“Got word on the street that you killed a citizen tonight. The Club is not happy, ” Aaron Crow spoke dryly into the phone.

I straightened up looking at myself in the mirror. “He hurt the club. If your club has a problem with that, tell ya prez to call me.” I wanted to ask since when did the their club start keeping an eye on us.

“That would be me,” Aaron said into the phone and I frowned.

“You walked from the club. You wanted nothing to do with it.”

“Yeah well that ain’t the case now,” Aaron barked at me rudely. Clearly he was frustrated with the situation. “Just giving you a heads up, that ya bringing heat onto the clubs. Pull ya fucking head in Cage. Knifing a bastard in broad daylight, will result in you getting the injection.”

“Hey Crow?” I said before he hung up.

“What?”

“Just wanted to know, what is her name? The girl that has you back at the club?”

He hung up immediately causing a grin across my face. Only a woman would have Aaron Crow back in club colors. The man and I did time together in Penten. Just two months before he was freed. It was long enough for Aaron to open up to me.

He told me something his father told him. Killing a man, doesn’t make you a man. Living with it does. So was I a man because I was living while I had taken the lives of those who had done wrong?

Then again I was no god to determine if their life was meant to be over.

I flicked the shower on, ready to wash away the evidence of what I had done. But no amount of soap or water, was going to wash away the man I was becoming.

Autumn

“I don’t blame him,” I blew out. “Perhaps I should. But I went there because I wanted to help. He didn’t force me.” I looked at the flowers. “Hawk isn’t really coping with it. He keeps looking at me waiting for me to break. I know he has something he wants to tell me, but he is staying quiet about it.”

I placed the flowers down, staring at the two headstones. “He loves me. I know that, Mom. And Dad, you’d be proud. Hawk is a hell of a man and I’d be lost without him. As for Jacob,” I paused frowning, “he’s changing. I don’t know what happened. But he’s gone quiet. The type of quiet that comes after a storm. I’m worried about him.” I snuck a glance over my shoulder. Seeing him by the bike on his phone. “Between him and Hawk, I’m never by myself.”

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