Page 90 of Lady Sings the Blues

25.

Beau

At Elise’s call, my stomach dropped. We’ve been in the city for a few days now, she just never knew it.

Blood tracked a hot trail up Chicago way, no doubt now, Houdini’d been comin’ after Liv. We thought we could get to him before he got to our women. Clearly we underestimated the son of a bitch.

As upset as Blood got with word of his sister’s kidnapping, understandably, Chaos went ballistic. An out of his mind, blinded by fear and rage, kind of ballistic I couldn’t sweep under the rug as mere friendship any longer.

Blood knows now.

Duke knows now.

Neither have confronted Chaos yet because he’d probably kill them second degree for doin’ it, before we get her back safely. Lord help us if we don’t get her back safely. He won’t make it if she don’t. And I know he won’t, because I wouldn’t make it if Elise didn’t. Women. Biggest practical joke God ever played on men. Get us to care. Feed us the need to protect. So much that a woman gets under your skin, really and truly under your skin, there’s no digging her out again. A real man’ll give his life to make sure hers is good.

Life would be so much easier if we were all the heartless fuckers most women accused us of being. Yet knowin’ I have my Elise to go home to, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Goin’ off the messages Houdini left us, we’d looked up the magician Houdini’s greatest escapes, and knocked the ones he’d already done off the list, or the ones too benign for him to use against our women. This was about the time I’d gotten the call from a scared Elise, and Blood got the call from a paid informant that he’d seen some outside the normal operations goin’ down at the shipyard.

Duke, Blood, me and Chaos race down to the end of the pier where a together enough to catch it Chaos had seen the glint of what he thought was metal. He’d been right. The metal came from a chain wrapped around one of the pylons holdin’ the pier up in the water. More brothers file in, each grab a length of chain and we haul up whatever’s attached to the end of that chain. Several times I look to Chaos, whose face has gone blank. Completely blank.

One final tug has us successfully raise the end of the chain, wrapped around a large, soggy wooden box about the size of a beanbag chair. Water drips in heavy rivulets to the ground until we set the box carefully onto the solid plank board, and then the water begins to pool around our feet.

One of our brothers from the Missouri chapter hands off a crowbar to Chaos where he immediately begins to dig under the outside slat of the wood and pries it up.

Two more slats broken away.

He throws the crowbar to the ground where it bounces and clanks, then he reaches inside to pull a trembling, soakin’ wet, yet very much alive Livvy out of the lake water, fillin’ up half the box. Between the water in the box and pooled at our feet, she had to have been completely submerged. She wasn’t coughin’ which means we got to her before her lungs gave out from holdin’ her breath.

Thank God.

Arm under her knees, arm around her back, Chaos pulls Liv to his chest plantin’ a very public, very unchaste, highly un-platonic kiss to her slightly blue lips. He keeps on kissin’ her until she whimpers into his mouth, and he pulls back. His breaths come heavy.

Her breaths come as heavily as a woman’s pulled from a wooden box which had been submerged under water would, which ain’t that heavy at all.

“Blanket,” he calls out.

Another brother appears from the crowd with an old Indian print woolen blanket. Chaos only lets her go enough to wrap her snuggly.

“We got to get her to a hospital. I’m taking her to the truck. You grabbing Elise, Boss, or she coming with us?”

“I’ll grab her. Levi’ll ride your bike back home.”

Blood opens his mouth to protest, but I stop him with a hand to his chest and a headshake.

“Not now. You gotta have words, do it back home. Let him have this. Letthemhave this.”

He scowls at me and glares at Chaos, yet he nods his acceptance and heads off to follow Chaos and Liv on his bike. The hunt’s still on to find Crass. Though, we leave the Illinois and Missouri brothers to handle that for now while we make sure Liv won’t suffer any residual effects.

Probably the most beautiful sight I’ve seen in weeks, my Elise sits in the cab of the truck, thin arms wrapped around her middle, her eyes on Chaos and Liv so much that she don’t notice me until I reach the door and knock. She jumps and turns toward the window, visibly relaxin’ for only a second before she throws open the door to launch herself into my waitin’ arms.

“Darlin’,” I whisper into her hair.

That’s all it takes for her to break, tears well and fall freely down her rosy cheeks. Then for the first time in seven weeks, my lips find hers, their home. She’s so beautiful. My arms stay locked around her shoulders even as I pull her away to allow Chaos to gently set Livvy inside the cab.

“Liv?” Elise calls to her. But Liv won’t take her eyes off Chaos.

“He’s got her. Let him take care of her. You’ll see her back home at the compound, yeah?” I end that last statement waitin’ on his reply.

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