Rivals 🌈 ✔

70 - Loose Ends

Once, it had undoubtedly led to a panic attack, so many Mayan kuttes around him. Now, Juice was totally indifferent to it. It might as well have been turtlenecks. He felt empty, almost as if he had died inside. Does that mean Raine has passed away? Were our souls so intertwined that mine has now been ripped off too?

Someone knelt down in front of him. The face had no features, it was just a blurred mass. Maybe he was right and he too was dying now—in which case his senses just quitted one by one. He didn't care if that was the case. If Raine was dead, he saw no reason to stay alive.

. . .

Worried, Skye looked at Juice. Alvarez was kneeling in front of him, but her friend did not respond. He stared forward idly. It was as if he was even beyond the panic. Was he in shock? Was he trapped in the darkness inside his head? She let go of Sammy's hand, who had just lost her battle against the tears again.

"I'm going to check on Juice, I'll be back soon," she promised.

The girl wiped the traces of tears from her cheeks and nodded.

Skye got up and headed to Juice. She put a hand on his shoulder and shook. "Juice... Do you hear me?"

He didn't respond.

With a sigh, Alvarez stood up. "I need to know what happened."

Skye took his place, taking Juice's face in her hands and stroking his cheeks with her thumbs. "Do you hear me, baby? I know he's your whole world and that you don't know what to do if he doesn't come out of this. But right now, he is fighting for his life. And to help him, you have to tell Alvarez what's going on."

Juice had sounded so incoherent on the phone... She knew the Sons had done this, but the reason was completely unclear to her. He had also been afraid they were coming to finish the job, which was why he had called Phantom. But she understood that the president of the Mayans had to be able to assess the danger. If the Sons suddenly called in the help of other charters, they were incredibly outnumbered here. Besides, he had not called with his own phone.

"What—what should I say?" Juice's voice sounded hoarse as if grief had clung to it.

"What happened exactly." She looked up briefly at Alvarez, who nodded in agreement. She lowered her hands and stood up. "Come, let's find a quieter place."

For a moment, she thought she had lost him again, that her words were not getting through, but then he stood up. Skye put an arm around him and they left the waiting room. Outside in the corridor stood two nervous-looking nurses. It wouldn't surprise Skye if they wanted all those rowdy men to leave, but no one dared to speak to them.

Skye let it be. As long as Raine's safety was at stake, they just had to deal with these men. They had nothing to fear from them. She smiled politely at the two and stood still a few steps further down the corridor, in front of a counter that would not be manned until tomorrow.

"Did you... clear your head a bit?" Skye tried.

"I... I don't know." Tears gleamed in his eyes. "I think he's dead. I feel... I don't feel him anymore."

"Oh Juice..." Skye swallowed her own tears and wrapped her arms around him. "He's still fighting for his life. Otherwise, they would have told us."

Still, his words scared her. She believed that sometimes you could feel doom coming. She tried not to think about it and to stick to the facts, rather than rely on anxious hunches.

"Can you tell us what happened?"

Juice shrugged and bowed his head. "They said he was dead. And they had left him there. In a dump."

The boy began to tremble. Alvarez—who had been walking silently along—stepped past her. "Listen," he said firmly as he stood between Skye and Juice. "I understand it's hard to keep your mind together, but I have to know exactly what's going on and whether Raine and my men are safe here. So pull yourself together, Juice. You can grieve later, now you have to put that aside. And I know you can, otherwise, you would never have worn a kutte. So man up and help me make sure nothing else happens to your guy."

Juice raised his head again. Alvarez's words had exactly the impact he was hoping for. He took a few deep breaths and wiped his eyes, standing up straighter. For a moment, his gaze went to Skye. "It started with... club business."

Skye had lived with him long enough to take the hint. The details could be dangerous for her. And now that even his own club had turned its back on him, he wouldn't trust the Mayans with her at all.

"I'm going back to Sammy for a moment."

Actually, she would like to press a kiss on his cheek or squeeze his hand to encourage him, but Alvarez was still standing between them. Maybe it was better this way. He did not need such tenderness at a time when he needed to put his feelings aside to look at the situation as subjectively as possible.

. . . 

Juice didn't know how to feel towards the man opposite him. He had been like a second father to Raine—and that bond had already suffered a lot because of their relationship. Alvarez had not given Raine the support Juice would want to give his child later. On top of that, he had robbed the Sons and he should have realized that Raine would be blamed for that. Juice might have abandoned his club, but it was because of this guy that his boyfriend was now fighting for his life.

The sadness was swept away by a surge of anger.

"You should have foreseen this." Juice did his best to say the words calmly, but suddenly, his blood was boiling. 

"What is that supposed to mean? Should I have known your brothers would do this to him? Raine made his own choices, and so did you. I had no say in that, even if I would have preferred him with someone else."

Juice squeezed his hands into fists. "I'm not talking about that! You gave the order to raid our warehouse! And you should have figured they'd think I..."

"Hey, easy now..."  Marcus raised a hand. "What are you talking about? We didn't raid anything at all."

"Fuck off. There's footage that clearly shows Mayan kuttes!"

"Listen, Juice. I don't know what game you got involved in, but my men have nothing to do with this."

Juice snorted. "Oh no? My club made this all up, just to get rid of Raine? I saw their faces, man. Those weapons belonged to the IRA and if they don't get them back the whole club will be killed."

Alvarez stared at him for a moment. "I swear on my daughter, hijo. My club has nothing to do with this. Although it's clear that someone did want to blame us."

There was a painful pressure behind his temples, which caused his eyes to sting. He raised his hand and massaged the spot with his thumb and middle finger. "I can't do this now," he grumbled.

And he didn't care either. He just wanted Raine to come out of the surgery well; to leave this place together and never have to deal with any club ever again.

"I get that." Alvarez sighed. "But if your brothers indeed find out Raine is here and find us here, chances are they won't be able to hold back their anger."

"I don't care. You guys figure it out." 

"This is just as much about Raine's life, Juice. And that of Sammy, of your friend Skye. What else happened tonight? Do they know he's here?"

"They left him for dead. At the dump." A sting tore through his chest. "Chibs took me there, to say goodbye. Only the body wasn't there, Ezra had found it in the meantime and brought it here."

Something looking like relief shimmered in Alvarez's eyes. "So they don't know he's alive," he said.

"I shot Chibs in the leg and left. At some point they will wonder where we are and look there. If Chibs is still responsive, he'll probably figure out that we're here. If not..." Juice shrugged. He never imagined that the fate of someone who had been so close to his heart once, was now so indifferent to him. "Then they must think Raine is dead and that I have taken revenge."

Alvarez stroked along his chin. "So Chibs is a loose end... something that needs to be done about."

. . .

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