The Thunder Wolves MC - Jaylee (Book #1)

2. Jaylee

Because of my injuries, I spent my eighteenth birthday in the hospital. The whole time I was there I was miserable. I tried over and over to tell anyone that would listen that it was my dad who had attacked me. But no one listened. The only thing I could do was feel relief when the doctor said I would spend at least another day in the hospital before he would even consider letting me go home. My mother and father walked into my room, passing the doctor on his way out. “Oh my baby, how are you feeling today?” Keeping my eyes down, I shrugged my shoulders as my mom grabbed my hand. “The doctor thinks I will be able to go home tomorrow.” The, room door closed letting me know I was once again alone with my parents.

My father grunted, tossing a small bag into my lap. “Well, then, I guess this little gift was pointless. But for show, I will let you keep it for tonight.” The door to my room opened again as the nurse walked into the room. My father’s attitude changed instantly. “Happy birthday, baby girl.” He leaned in, kissing me on the forehead. “Go on, sweetheart. Open it.” Glancing at the nurse, I forced myself to smile as my hands moved to the bag and opened it. The nurse watched with excitement as I took out a brand new cell phone my father was gifting me for my birthday. A large smile on her face as she watched my father take the phone’s box from my hand and take the phone out for me. “I have it all set up for you and everything. The kid at the store even put a couple of games on here to help pass the time while you are here, see?” He held it out for me to see. Again I forced a smile on my face and nodded. “Thank you so much, Dad. I love it.” The nurse patted my shoulder, her smile growing. “You are one lucky young woman.” She gave my father and mother both a smile before turning and leaving me alone with them again. My father glared at me as he tossed the phone back at me. “You better enjoy it now you little cunt. It goes back to the store as soon as your ass gets back home. Unless you have learned how to listen.” Slowly I nodded my head. “I have. I am sorry, Daddy. I was confused after hitting my head so hard. But I remember now.” Satisfaction filled his face. “Good girl, maybe you aren’t as stupid as you look. I may let you keep the damn thing after all.” I nodded my head, keeping my eyes down. I didn’t mean what I said, but maybe just maybe, I could use the phone to find someone that would believe me. Someone that would listen to me.

My parents stayed up with me at the hospital for a few more hours before my dad decided he was done. Standing from his chair, he snapped his fingers at my mother. “Let's go. I am hungry and want a drink.” He pointed at me. “You get some rest, so the doctor will send you home tomorrow. You have already racked up a high enough bill as it is.” Nodding, I slouched down in the bed as if I was going to do just as he told me to. My mother leaned over me, kissing me on the forehead. “Goodnight, my dear, and happy birthday.” I gave my mother a small smile. My father snapped his fingers again, making my mother jump and move away from me quickly. Both of them walked out of my room without a second thought.

Laying there, I waited until I counted to a hundred slowly before sitting back up in bed. Even then, I was ready to lay back down quickly just in case my father decided to come back and make sure I was actually sleeping. Picking up the phone, I looked at it for a long time. I had no idea where to even begin. I had no idea how to even work the thing. My father never let me have things like this before. I have seen all the other kids in school using them. They couldn’t be so hard to figure out. There had to be a way for me to use it to find my uncle. I have only met him a couple of times before. He and my father never got along. But I remembered he was always nice to me. I could only hope he would listen to me and believe me. Taking a chance, I clicked on a couple of different applications, but none of them seemed to be what I wanted. One of them wanted me to set up an account, but I was scared to do so.

A soft knock on my door had me jumping and hiding the phone. A nurse walked into the room. She had been my nurse the night before. I already knew she wouldn’t listen to me. She said my file said I had hit my head pretty hard and was confused. All she did was repeat back to me what my father said happened. Nonetheless, I gave her a smile as she walked in and smiled at me. “I hear it is your birthday today. Happy birthday.” I nodded and continued to smile at her. “It is, thank you. My dad brought me a phone, but I don’t know how to use it.” Her smile grew. “Oh, that was nice of him. I have some time. Would you like me to show you?” It was risky, but I nodded anyway. “Could you?” She smiled at me and pulled the chair over so she was sitting next to me.

“I would love to. You are actually my only patient tonight, so we have all night.” My smile grew, and I handed over the phone. “My dad said the guy at the shop put some applications on the phone already, but I don’t know what any of them are.” She nodded, looking over what was on the screen. Turning it so I could see it, she began pointing at the different applications. “These two are games. This one here is the app store, where you can get any application you want, like more games or whatever you want. This one is the internet. This one is your phone book.” She clicked on that one. “Looks like you only have your dad's number. You can add more numbers here so you have your friends listed as well.” She closed out of that one. “Oh, this one is your social media application.”

“What’s that?” She looked up at me, confused at first, slowly giving me a pity smile. I ignored it while waiting for her to answer my question. “Well, you can use it to connect with people you know, like friends from school, family members, and so on. You can also follow your favorite stars and watch videos and whatnot on it.” I nodded. “Can you show me how it works?” Again she gave me a pity smile but helped me. It took us a little bit because I didn’t have an email address, so we had to set one of those up first. Then we could set up my social media profile. Once we had that done, she showed me how to look for someone. My uncle came up instantly. “Thank you, I think I got it now.” Smiling, she nodded and stood up. “Ok, well, let me know if you need any more help. Like I said, you are my only patient tonight, so I am at your beck and call.” Smiling, I nodded my head and turned back to my phone.

Clicking on my uncle's profile, I hit the message button, sending him a message.

‘Uncle Al?’

‘Jaylee?’ His response was almost instant, only taking a few seconds.

‘Yes. I am sorry to bother you.’

‘You are not bothering me. How are you? Happy birthday.’ Tears filled my eyes.

‘Thank you….I have been better. I am in the hospital. They say I should be able to go home tomorrow, but I don’t want to leave with my dad.’

‘What hospital? I will come and get you. What about your mom?’

‘She doesn’t know I am talking to you. She is going along with his story. But it’s not true. And nobody believes me.’

‘What hospital are you at? I am on my way.’ My tears started to flow from my eyes like rivers. It took everything in me to hold in the sob that wanted to go with them as I told him.

‘Saint Marys. Thank you so much.’

I didn’t hear anything back from him. I could see he read my message, but he didn’t say anything else. Fear filled me as I lay in bed watching my phone, waiting for him to respond. But he didn’t, and I fell asleep waiting for him to respond. My fears disappeared as the sun came up, and I woke to my uncle sitting in the chair next to my bed. “Hey, kiddo, you ready to skip town?” Sitting up, I nodded my head. “Yes, please.” Standing, he reached out and gave me a soft hug. “The nurse says you have clothes in a back in the closet there. Go on and get dressed, and I will let her know you are ready to go.” Nodding, I set up the rest of the way. Releaf feeling me. I wasn’t going home with my father. I can only hope he doesn’t get angry and take it out on my mom. But then again, she was going along with his story again. And it was all a lie.

By the time I was dressed, Al was coming back into the room with my nurse. “Jaylee, are you sure you want to leave with this man?” I nodded. “He is my uncle, I will be safe with him.” The nurse smiled and nodded. “Alright. Then here are your discharge papers. Make sure you have everything, and I will have someone come up and help you out.” I smiled at her and nodded. But the moment she was out of the room, I stood from my bed, leaving the phone on the table. I looked at my uncle. “Can we just go now? I can walk out. I don’t want to wait.” He nodded and helped me out, sneaking past the nurse and out to the elevators. We rode down in silence, walking out through the lobby. Both of us noticed my father walking in as we walked out. Ducking my head, I hit my face the best I could. Al steered us away from my father, helping to make sure he didn’t see us.

Once my father was in the hospital, Al picked up the pace, getting us to his car quickly. Wasting no time, I climbed in, putting my seatbelt on. Al did the same as he turned the car on and pulled out of the parking lot. Holding my breath, I watched behind us, using the mirror on my side of the car. I was sure my father would send the Chief or one of the other officers after us. But they never came. And soon, the town was no longer in view. I still didn’t relax at all until we were a good couple of hours away. Al pulled off for us to get something to eat.

Walking into the diner, Al walked us to one of the back booths so we could talk without everyone hearing us. The waitress walked over to us instantly, her eyes on me. “You alright, dear?” She glanced over at Al, giving him the side-eye. I smiled up at her and nodded. “I am now. Thank you.” She nodded once, giving me a smile and taking our orders, and walking back around the counter. “Jaylee, what happened?” Instantly I looked around to see if I recognized anyone in the place, making sure none of my dad's friends were there. Not seeing any of them, I focused on my hands. “Dad came home drunk. I heard him and Mom fighting downstairs, and then it went quiet. I thought he passed out on the couch when he didn’t come upstairs, so I snuck downstairs to check on Mom, but Dad was still awake. He caught me sneaking out of my room and got mad. I tried to run away from him, but he caught up with me. It’s a little blurry after that, but I know what he says happened isn’t what happened.” I shook my head, looking back up at my uncle.

“He says the neighbor boy broke in and beat mom up and then attacked me. But I know that's not what happened. I hit my head, I know, but it wasn’t the neighbor that did this. It was dad, but everyone believed my dad.” Wiping the tears that began to fall down my cheeks away, I shook my head. “I don’t even know the kid's name, and my dad is set on blaming him.”

Nodding, my uncle gave me a sad smile. “We will figure it out together. I believe you, and we will do what we can to get everyone else to believe you. But your dad has the cops in that town in his back pocket.” I sighed. “But you will help me try? I have to at least try.” Nodding again, my uncle promised to do just that try. It was all we could do.

—

My uncle would also go on to help me get everything moved over so I could finish my last year of high school. He insisted I see a therapist, which I did and am grateful for now. At first, I hated it, but now I understand that the way I had been treated while growing up was not right. We spent many hours trying to convince my mother to leave, but she wouldn’t hear of it. After graduation, my uncle gave me a job at his tattoo shop, and I fell in love with the atmosphere. I went to art school to refine my skills as an artist and learned how to give tattoos. I loved what I did and enjoyed working with my uncle. He and the other guys at the shop made sure I knew how to protect myself as well. And the nights that I worked late, I was never allowed to walk by myself to my car. There was always at least one of the guys with me, and he would make sure I got to my car safely.

It had been three years since that night, and I had never gotten the boy from next door out of my head. He had saved me, and I had tried many times to find a way to thank him. I even tried to visit him once, but they wouldn't let me in since I wasn’t on his list. I had even started writing a letter to him many times but always ended up trashing it. And then the courts notified me that Brandon McConnel, the boy that had lived next to my parents, was up for parole and was trying to get out of prison early. My father’s lawyer asked me if I wanted to be at the hearing or if I wanted to write a letter on why he shouldn’t be granted early release. He had said my father would be at the hearing. I knew I didn’t want to see my father ever again, so I told the lawyer I would write a letter, and he gave me an address and told me it had to be there in two weeks. To my father’s dismay, my letter didn’t hold within it what he wanted me to say, and I later got a call from him telling me how worthless I am and how disappointing I am as a daughter. Because of my letter, Brandon had been released on parole. My father continued to say more, but I hung up and blocked his number. I was glad Brandon had been released and would be able to get on with his life now.

I know I did after that. Well, I did for the next six years, until a few days ago, when I got a call from my father’s lawyer to tell me that my father and mother had been in a car accident and neither had made it. And according to my father’s will, everything was left to me. So I would need to come back to town and deal with everything, the house, his bar, and a storage unit he had. The funeral home would be able to hold their bodies for up to three weeks, but they didn’t really like to do that, so the sooner I could get there, the better. I would need to make arrangements for their funeral and then take care of the rest. If I chose to sell the house, I would need to get it cleared out, and I had to decide what to do with the bar. If I chose to sell that, I would need to sign some papers in person. So here I was back at my father’s house after nearly a decade, sitting in the driveway in the middle of the night, working up the courage to walk through the door. The lawyer had put a key in a lockbox on the front of the door and texted me the code to get into the house when I got there. My uncle had put me on leave from work until I decided what I was going to do. If I chose to stay, he said he understood and would fill my position then. But to take my time and do what I needed to. He was only a call away if I needed anything. I had brought my dog with me since I wasn’t sure how long I would be gone. I didn’t want to have to pay for boarding or rely on someone to watch him. I had to smile to myself as we sat in the car. My father would be so pissed with me for bringing a dog to his house. He was against animals being in his home and never allowed it.

I, however, couldn’t see my life without Duke in my life. He looked mean as hell, but he was the sweetest guy you would ever meet. My uncle and the guys at the tattoo parlor got him for me on my twenty-fifth birthday. He is a mastiff rottweiler mix, and even at two years old, he acted as though he was an old man. He hated walking farther than needed and loved just lying around. His bark and looks were a good deterrent, though nobody bothered me when he was with me, which I loved. He must have grown tired of being in the car because he pushed between the seats and licked my face, whining a bit. I smiled at him as I scratched the side of his face, “Alright, it’s not like he will be inside. Let’s go in and get some sleep. We got a lot to do.” I shut the engine off with a sigh and got out, opening the back door for Duke, who jumped out and walked up to the front door with me. We went inside, finding that nothing had really changed. Everything looked the same as it had when I had last been there. My room was even the same except for a few boxes. I cleared off my bed and found some sheets, blankets, and a pillow, and made the bed before shutting off the light and letting Duke jump up on the end of the bed. We both soon fell asleep.