Avenged (Angel's Halo MC 7)

Fuck that shit.

She didn’t have to do it anymore.

I was here, and I would help her.

I would fucking take care of her for the rest of my life.

Chapter 16

Kelli

The change in the sound of the car had my eyes snapping open. Heart racing, I jerked upright, glancing around for some sign of where we were. Seeing the nursing home in front of me, I breathed a small sigh of relief. This place was massive but on beautifully kept grounds. The fence around the exterior was inconspicuous and decorative, so that occupants didn’t feel like they were in prison when they looked out their windows.

Other than the guards who walked the property to ensure patients didn’t try to jump the fence, there was no additional security aside from the code each patient’s family members got. A six-digit code that was specific to each patient to keep track of whose family came and went.

I’d fallen asleep at Colt’s urging, but I slept fitfully. Anxiety over what state I would find my mother in turned my stomach into the rough waters of the Atlantic in February. I couldn’t remember the dread I’d just had, but it felt like a premonition the likes of which left me panicking. A soul-deep sensation was telling me—fucking screaming—that something was wrong.

Calvin already knew about Bubbles. I didn’t know how he’d found out so soon, but he did. Why else would he turn his predatory eyes on Mom?

While I was still gathering my bearings, Colt was out of the car, and he came around to open my door. When he offered me his hand, I was too afraid of what I might find inside to hesitate. As I put mine in his, he gave my fingers a reassuring squeeze and guided me into the facility that had been my mother’s home for the last few years.

The receptionist at the front desk, a fortysomething petite blonde with a cheerful personality, knew me and normally would have had a smile for me. But today, she was somber, and it only made my stomach tighten. “Good morning, Miss Murdock,” she greeted.

“I was told my mother was being moved to a different room. I’d like to see her and then your administrator.” My anxiety made my voice harsher than I was going for, but when her eyes flickered with a hint of fear mixed in with her discomfort, I wasn’t sorry. “Where was she moved to?”

The woman touched her tongue to her lips nervously. “Let me inform Mrs. Newton that you’re here, ma’am. She’s been expecting you.”

She picked up the phone, and I just stood there, staring her down. She squirmed in her black rolling chair as she waited for her boss to answer. “Miss Murdock is here to see you,” she murmured demurely.

I turned away from her as she hung up and told me Mrs. Newton would be right out. I fought the urge to punch her in her pretty little nose, reminding myself that whatever was going on, it wasn’t this woman’s fault. She had no say over what happened with my mother, and besides keeping an eye on the front door so that patients didn’t try to walk out of the facility, she didn’t have any contact with them.

It was Mom’s nurses who saw her every day who would know if this room change had upset her and why it was done in the first place. But the administrator was in charge of the entire facility. It would have been under her orders that the change came about, and I was going to hold her responsible for my mother’s reaction.

Colt must have sensed how torn up I was because he wrapped his free arm around my waist, tucking me close to his chest. I felt his lips at my temple and closed my eyes. When was the last time someone tried to comfort me like this?

The sad truth was, I couldn’t remember. I knew Mom must have done it when I was a little girl, but those times were few and far between, and by the time I was ten, they stopped altogether. It was then that I started taking care of myself full time and Mom’s obsession with making Calvin happy doubled to the point that I realized love was a sickness that took over people’s minds and lives.

“Kelli.”

I stiffened at the woman using my first name. Like she knew me and we were old friends. Slowly, I turned to face her, and the look on my face must have been enough to make her change her mind. Mrs. Newton swallowed nervously but amped up her smile. That smile must have cost her a pretty penny. All those expensive veneers on her teeth didn’t impress me. Neither did the perfectly coiffed hair with the expertly applied high- and lowlights. Everything about this woman, from her head to her designer-label shoes, screamed that she enjoyed her lucrative job very, very much. “Miss Murdock, let’s talk in my office.”

I nodded, and Colt followed right behind me. Newton’s eyes widened when she saw him, her eyes taking in all the ink that was visible on his body along with the leather MC cut, and it was like the room exploded with her nervous energy. “Um, I’m not sure it would be appropriate if your…friend…was present for this conver

sation.”

“He comes,” I bit out. “He’s here more for your protection than mine. I’m not sure how much control I have over the urge to bitch-slap you right now. Trust me, you want him present.”

Behind me, Colt coughed, but I wasn’t deaf to the laugh he was trying to cover up. By the shade of red Newton’s face turned, I was sure she wasn’t either, but she made no more arguments as she guided us back to her office.

Inside, she waited for Colt to come through the door before closing it and moving around her desk. It was a large office with an elegant desk and comfortable chairs. Newton had scored big when she landed the job at this nursing home. It was the best in the state, and she killed it at Christmas time when half the patients’ families slipped her a few grand to ensure their loved ones continued to get the best treatment money could buy.

Colt waited for me to sit before taking the plush chair beside me. Newton sat up straight in her chair, her hands folded primly on top of her desk. She inhaled deeply a few times before her lips twisted and she dived into whatever she wanted to tell me.

“Senator Samson called me first thing this morning and requested Leslie be transferred to the west wing. Since he is still her legal medical power of attorney, I had no choice but to do as he requested.” My breath hitched in reaction, but Newton continued on. “As you might have suspected from your quick arrival, Leslie didn’t take the sudden change very well.”

“You fucking think?” I exploded.

This was worse than I’d originally expected it to be. The west wing was full of the less mentally competent patients. Not necessarily the dementia patients, but the ones who were seriously disturbed. Half that wing was made up of patients decades younger than the patients in any other wing. Their families couldn’t take care of them because they were too damn violent, but they couldn’t take care of themselves either, hence the nursing home.