Page 9

9. FIND HER

BIGFOOT

“Am I in danger of dying?”

“Well, no, but we don’t want you to impede your recovery by leaving too early. You might not realize it, but you’ve been on some pretty heavy duty pain killers, and they can make you feel like you’re a lot better off than you really are.”

“I’m not staying in this hospital another fucking day. An hour is too long.”

“We know where she is,” Baffle said to me as the doctor all but ran out of the room to get my paperwork started.

“I know you do, but she doesn’t know that I’m coming for her. Melissa made her think that I have a woman.”

“What are you afraid of, man? Think she’s going to run off and marry the first man she sees in an attempt to get over you?”

“I’ll fucking kill him. She’s mine. You know how it is for the men in my family. She’s the one.”

“Then we’ll make sure you get to her as soon as humanly possible. Sit back and relax until the doctor comes back with your papers. It will give me time to get a cage here to pick you up.”

“Fucking hell. How is my baby?”

“I’m sorry to say that your baby is down for the count, but she might have some parts that are salvageable if you want to do a custom build with her.”

I shook my head. “Just scrap her. Putting any piece of my wrecked bike on a new one feels like bad luck.”

“Maybe it would be good luck. That wreck brought Sammy into your life.”

I stopped to think about it for a few minutes and then shook my head again. “Nope. The bike can go. I’ll get a new one as soon as my arm heals. Sammy can be my good luck. Gonna put her on the back of my bike as soon as I’m able to ride again.” I struggled to get my boots on my feet but refused to ask Baffle for help. As I did, I felt the energy drain right out of me. Fuck, getting boots on my feet shouldn’t completely drain me.

“Maybe you should listen to the doctor and stick it out another day, just to be…”

“If you say ‘just to be safe’ I’m gonna knock your teeth down your damn throat. Since when do any of us play it safe?”

“Just a suggestion considering all the color drained from your face when you bent over to try to get your fucking boot on, you idiot.” Baffle leaned down and tugged my boot over my foot and then laced it up. “These fuckers saved your toes, but they look like the road ate the shit out of them.”

“I’d say I don’t know how I made it out without more damage, but swear to fuck, Baf, it was because my guardian angel was there that night.”

My asshole friend laughed at me. “You know she didn’t do anything to help you out, right?”

“She shot a man before he could kill me,” I reminded him.

“Yeah,” He waved that off. “I meant, she didn’t really give you any first aid or whatever. She checked to make sure you were breathing and told me what she thought might be wrong with you, so I could pass it on to Doc.”

“She was there. I kept fighting to come back to her voice over and over again when I would slip.”

“Yeah, okay, I guess that’s something.”

“It’s everything. You might not understand now, but one day you’re going to meet a woman who is going to click for you, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

We sat quietly after that and waited for the doctor to bring back my discharge papers. The coward never showed. He sent the nurse instead.

I was back at the clubhouse less than five minutes before Glitch came to find me in the office. “I knew you wouldn’t want to wait on this,” he suggested as he flicked a folder on my desk. I got ready to open the file he had gathered about Sammy when a prospect called out a warning.

“Incoming: Melissa and Hawk!”

I slid the file into the top drawer of my desk and looked up just as the door flew open. Melissa stood there looking smug as my boy ran to me. Baffle caught him before he could leap into my lap. “Whoa there, little man. Your dad might be out of the hospital, but he’s still hurt right now. You can’t jump on him. He might break.” I didn’t miss the pissy look he threw to my boy’s mom. She should have talked to him about that shit before they even walked through the door.

“Shit! Sorry, Dad.”

“Language!” Melissa chastised. I pretended not to see my son roll his eyes at his mother because I didn’t have the energy to deal with it.

Baffle might have been right about staying in the hospital another night. They had better pain meds there than I did here. What they sent me home with wouldn’t touch the pain that had already started to make me nauseous. It didn’t matter. There was shit to handle, my kid to see, and my woman to hunt down. The loyalty she showed to me, when I was owed none, was the biggest reason I knew she was it for me. The fact that she worked with my brothers to get me care instead of going against their orders was another. There was also the fact that she was beautiful and had a sassy little attitude that made my dick painfully hard.

I needed to get to Sammy, but I had to reassure my son first and deal with his mom’s bullshit, since she was at the clubhouse.

“You know, I had things to do today,” Melissa spit out. Every head in the office spun in her direction, including my son’s.

“Glitch, take Hawk to get some snacks. I’m sure he’s hungry. Kid has a bottomless pit for a stomach.”

“Sure thing.”

“But I want to see you!” My son whined.

“G-maw Tilly made her special brownies,” I told him. “They’re in the kitchen.”

“Let’s go, Glitch!” my kid cried out as he grabbed my brother’s hand and attempted to haul him out of my office. Glitch chuckled as he followed behind my son. Melissa stomped her fucking foot.

“I didn’t bring him all the way over here just to go eat brownies with one of your club brothers. I brought him to visit you.”

“And we’re gonna have a little chat that my son shouldn’t hear. Sit the fuck down, Melissa.”

When she looked as though she might refuse, Baffle stepped closer to her. Melissa finally took me seriously and flung herself into a chair in front of my desk. “What the hell do you want?”

“I want to know why the fuck you thought it was okay to tell Sammy that you’re my ol’ lady.”

“Are you serious right now?” Melissa stood up and dropped her hands to her hips before she thought better of it and flailed them about as she spoke. “This is what you’re trying to hold me hostage in your office for?”

“No one is holding you hostage,” I growled.

“Oh good, then I’ll go grab my boy and leave.”

“Sit the fuck down!” I yelled as I came to my feet and stabbed a finger from my good hand down toward the chair. “You’re going to answer my fucking question, Lis, and you better make it the fucking truth!”

“I didn’t mean anything by it. She’s a stranger, a nobody. It looked like she was hanging around to take advantage of you, and then I brought our son there. What if she hurt him or said something to upset him? Hawk was already suspicious of her when we got to your room. I didn’t want her to say something that confused him. I didn’t want you to wake up and maybe not have memories and have her take advantage of you.”

“Do you think Baffle would have left her alone with me if there was any fear of her being a threat?”

Melissa’s color-contact enhanced blue eyes shifted toward my VP and back to me. “I didn’t know what all he had going on. Sometimes things slip through the cracks when you guys are all up in your club business.”

“You saying I can’t take care of my club and my prez?” Baffle asked.

“No, it’s just…” Melissa stood again. “Look, I did it to protect you and our son. I’m sorry, okay? There were better ways to handle the situation, and I didn’t do that because telling her that I was your ol’ lady seemed like the easiest option to get rid of her while I had Hawk there to visit you.”

A knock sounded on the door before I could put Lis in her place. “What?” I called out. The door opened and our youngest prospect, Reece, stepped inside.

“Sorry, Prez. There’s an important call on the clubhouse line, and I think you should take it personally.”

“What the fuck now?” I asked as I reached over and picked up the phone. Glitch thought it would be funny to put in a landline, but not only that, he put in an old-school business landline that had several lines that could be transferred to different parts of the clubhouse. No one said anything as I answered, “Bigfoot.”

Baffle laughed at me as I glanced up at the prospect who leaned over my desk and clicked the button for line two. “The one that’s lit up, Prez.”

“Fuck’s sake,” I grumbled.

“Hello?” A man’s voice called down the line.

“This is Bigfoot,” I told him.

“This is Brady Morton. Pretty sure you know who the fuck I am, so I’m going to get right to the point. We have a problem out here at Morton Motors Campground. Sammy just took a guy out.”

“On a fucking date?” I asked before he could finish.

“No asshole. She took him out in a permanent kind of way we shouldn’t discuss on the phone. No doubt that this is linked back to your club, considering he’s wearing a cut of his own.”

“Which MC?”

“Mojave Devils.”

“Son of a…” I slammed my fist down on the desk. “We’ll be right there. Do not let anyone else near her, Brady. Not a single fucking soul until I get there.”

“Yeah, we’re going to have a conversation about that shit later. You trying to claim my niece?”

“Like you said, later.” I hung up and stood. “Get out. Leave Hawk here with Glitch if you have shit to do. Take him with you if you don’t. Tell him I’ll see him later.”

“What’s more important than your son?” Melissa asked in her haughty tone.

“Nothing is more important than him, but seeing as he is alive, well, cared and accounted for, there isn’t an issue. Now, be a part of caring for him or get the fuck out. I have club business to handle.”

“I’ll have Jester bring the van around,” Baffle announced.

Fucking hell. I was going to have to show up with my competition in his fucking murder van as he cleaned up after another body Sammy dropped because of her involvement with me.