Page 13 of Exile & Lula
Hugging her tighter, I swayed back and forth until she finally snickered.
“I get it,” she said and smiled at me. “You’re a big girl now.”
“No, I’m a big baby, and my feet hurt. Now, hug me more.”
Dillon stopped eating and walked over to join our cuddling. I smiled at my daughter and mom. We looked so much alike. I had never gotten a chance to meet my grandmother or aunt. Before Bebe met Pax and changed our fates, the women in my family lived hard and died young.
I was still cuddling with my mom and daughter when my siblings arrived on their motorcycles. Bebe sighed and grabbed a bagel. Dillon and I sat at the large kitchen island while my sisters and brother entered the house.
Sabrina’s brown hair was tied back, and her dark eyes were bright with rage. She looked the most like Bebe and me. My sister was more athletically inclined than I was, and she fully believed in romance. That was why she managed to fall in love with two women who currently yawned behind her.
Strawberry blonde and frequently sarcastic Xandy was our childhood friend, while blonde, forever smiling Moe was one of the few members of the Crimson Guard that didn’t grow up with us.
While Moe and Xandy struggled to remain awake as they dropped on the couch, Sabrina forced me into an extended hug.
“You are a badass. I never worried for you at all.”
My other sister, Vanessa, took the most after Pax with her tall build, fair blue eyes, and light blonde hair. Looking half-asleep, she shoved Sabrina out of the way and hugged me.
“I did worry,” she said, kissing the top of my head. “I cried.”
“It’s true,” Rowdy said, swooping in behind me while Vanessa refused to let go. My brother was a dark-haired version of Pax, complete with the smartass smirk and icy blue eyes. “Vanessa was genuinely hysterical. Her sobs distracted me from my tears.”
Sabrina squeezed in between Vanessa and Rowdy. My siblings were all taller than me, taking after Pax. I looked up at them and felt a burden ease off me. When everything else fell apart in my life, I always knew these three people would have my back.
“I’m scared to see Stevie and Cher,” I whispered.
Vanessa immediately began to cry. Sabrina waved over Xandy and Moe.
“Deal with this,” she said and adjusted our crying sister toward her girlfriends, “while I give Lula a pep talk.”
Tomboy Xandy and girly-girl Moe sandwiched a crying Vanessa, who got a sympathetic head rub by Rowdy.
Sabrina stared into my eyes and refused to look away. “Cher got seriously fucked up.”
“I know.”
“Her brain might be ruined. Her body is all broken. She doesn’t look like herself, and she might never be Cher again. Feel that now, so you can face it at the hospital without flinching.”
Sabrina and I were similar in that we always felt as if we had something to prove. I wanted to outrun the Green women’s bad luck while she was a tough girl demanding to be viewed as one of the guys. Though Rowdy and Vanessa didn’t mind showing their hearts, Sabrina and I kept ours locked away.
As cold as I pretended to be, seeing Cher and Stevie wasn’t something I could face alone. In fact, as soon as I walked into the hospital room and saw the sisters, I began shaking.
Cher’s head was wrapped in gauze, and her face looked wrong. She seemed so small, like a child rather than a twenty-eight-year-old woman. Her mother, Anise, sat next to the bed, cradling Cher’s hand.
In the second bed, Stevie slept deeply. Her pink hair had been brushed. Besides her pale skin, she looked okay with her wounds hidden underneath her gown.
Anise watched me approach from her spot in a chair between the two beds. My first memories of Anise were of her seeming overly weird. The women of the Everything Nice Crew came from traumatic backgrounds. None of them were normal, but Anise skated along the line between weird and dangerous.
Right now, she appeared tired and sad, like any mom would be with two injured daughters. Her pale blue hair was held back by barrettes. She wore a black shirt likely belonging to her husband, Hazard, based on its fit.
“I’m sorry,” I told Anise as I joined her next to the bed.
Hugging me, she whispered, “Tell me the men who did this are dead.”
“Their bodies are nothing more than ash.”
“Good girl,” she said before looking at Cher. “My baby’s going to rock a bald head when she wakes up.”
