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Chapter Seventeen

Prayer Meets Toilet

D arrow stood with some distance from the hospital bed. It looked like some science fiction movie. The amount of tubes, wires, machines and noises. Watching Priest’s chest rise and fall, only happening because of some piece of equipment. He couldn’t imagine how much this was costing per day. Per hour. Per minute. Per fucking second. It wasn’t like the outlaws had a gold plan health insurance policy or anything. Certain societal aspects they were forced into dealing with. Especially when it came down to medical situations.

But this? Darrow had never seen anything like this. Closest was when Warren had a heart attack during a blow job. That was a few years ago. The old bastard’s heart tried giving out while some deecee worked him. The legendary part of the story was that Warren made sure to finish before completely passing out and collapsing.

“Nothing’s changed,” Cyrus said to Darrow. “He’s got brain activity and all that. He’s in there. Somewhere.”

“You ever think you’d live to see the day where a doctor says Priest has brain activity?” Monte asked with a grim smirk.

That at least got a chuckle out of everyone in the room.

“Prayer?” Darrow asked with a nod.

“Yes,” Linc said. “Priest should be part of this.”

“Some normalcy for him might help,” Slade said. “They say he can hear us.”

Cyrus moved closer to the hospital bed, standing so that Priest was on his right side.

The rest of them casually found their way around the room, sort of standing in the same positions they would be in if they were at the clubhouse.

“Chief Dick said there were a couple cops that spotted a stolen car,” Cyrus said. “The driver acted weird and took off into the woods. He pulled them off it, claiming it was some yellow bunny tweaker.”

“I’ve been in every camera I can find in the area,” Darrow said. “He’s on the move but he’s not leaving town.”

“Why?” Linc asked. “He has to be getting help by now. SS13 ? Rattlers ?”

“I’ll go door to door if you need, Prez ,” Monte offered.

“I don’t want to start fifty wars over this rat,” Cyrus said. “Maybe that’s what he wants. Waiting for us to slip up and do something wrong. Plus, we start chatting up other crews and it makes us look weak. Fuck, we already look weak. I’ve got the other charters on notice. They’re on a semi-lockdown schedule. They have their enforcers on twenty-four-seven rotation watch too. He steps foot near another charter and he’s fucked.”

“He must know that,” Slade said. “That’s why he’s staying local. He’s going to cut a deal with someone. He already talked once. For all we know, he’s in protection and singing like a bird on a hot summer morning.”

“Chief Dick would give us a line on that,” Linc said.

“I’ve found nothing that supports it,” Darrow said. “I’ve been in every system and database too. Fitz is—”

Darrow lost his thought for a second when Cyrus looked at him with an evil glare.

“ The fucking rat ,” Darrow corrected himself. “The fucking rat is smart enough to know how to navigate between the cracks. But he can’t last forever. He won’t. Something will happen. And when it does, we will be there.”

“Or Damien,” Linc said.

That took the life out of the room for a second.

“I brought that to our clubhouse,” Slade said. “I should figure that out.”

“No,” Cyrus said. “We’re a club. We’re a brotherhood. Doesn’t matter who does what. For the most part.”

Cyrus glanced at Darrow once again. Then he looked at Priest. Sorrow spread across Cyrus’s face.

“This son of a bitch better wake the fuck up soon,” Cyrus said. “I refuse to think about the direction of this charter without Priest around.”

Just like that Cyrus turned and stormed out of the hospital room. Darrow and Linc met eyes. They nodded at one another. They were the last two to exit the room. At the exact same time, they both made a fist and extended it to the other. Their faces still showing evidence of their fight, but a fist bump allowed time to keep moving forward.

Without moving forward, the entire club would be dead.

Cyrus worked himself deep into a bottle of whiskey. Three quarters of the way gone and he stood up from the bar and stumbled right back. It felt like the clubhouse fell into a black hole or something. Cyrus’s massive back smashed against the wall, denting the drywall, leaving two holes where the backs of his shoulders hit. Maggie debated sneaking the bottle of whiskey off the bar but knew better than to step in and get involved. Her best chance at helping Cyrus was to get Muffin involved.

In the kitchen, Muffin was already hard at work, cooking the biggest burger he could make, plus some freshly cut steak fries, knowing that was the easy part. The hard part would be getting Cyrus to actually eat the food and trade the whiskey for some beer. No chance at the outlaw president drinking water right now, so beer would be the lesser of the two evils.

“He’s losing it out there,” Maggie said.

“It happens, sugar,” Muffin said. “Hectic times around here. Just keep slinging those drinks, okay? You’re important to this whole thing, Maggie. Remember that.”

Muffin came out of the kitchen to find Cyrus at the bar again, holding the bottle of whiskey.

“Eat up, Prez ,” Muffin said. “Get some food in your stomach.”

Cyrus chuckled and reached behind him and pulled out a gun.

“Whoa, Cyrus,” Muffin said.

“This isn’t for you, big guy,” Cyrus said. “Oh, no, not for you. I’ve got something else on my mind here tonight.”

Cyrus touched the gun to his own head. Muffin tensed, knowing just one drunk slip of a finger could really fuck things up around here…

Cyrus then looked at the gun. Blinking fast, drunker than he could remember in a very long time. He decided to make an announcement for everyone in the clubhouse to hear.

“Someone bring me Darrow right fucking now!”

Darrow heard the slurred words of the president. He looked right at Mara, who sat next to him. They were tucked away at a table in the corner of the clubhouse. Mara with a soda in front of her. Darrow had slipped her a flask of whiskey but Mara hadn’t taken a sip yet. Her stomach felt like one big, awkward knot.

The clubhouse never bothered her like this before. Everything felt tense, off and violent and felt ready to explode without notice. Her worries proved true when she saw Cyrus waving a gun around, looking for Darrow.

Darrow stood right up and whistled. “Right here, Prez . Talk to me.”

“No talking,” Cyrus said. He pointed the gun in the general direction of Darrow. “I’m done talking. My mind is thinking a lot. Oh, there’s a lot going on…”

Slade stepped into the frame and said something to Cyrus. Cyrus nodded and stumbled back a few steps.

“He’s going to want to talk to us, babe,” Darrow said to Mara. “This shit won’t end.”

“Why would it?” Mara asked. “We’re in a corner, not just literally either.”

“Stand up and play the part,” Darrow growled.

Mara climbed to her feet. Slade walked over to them, shaking his head.

“What the fuck is this now?” Darrow asked. “I love the guy and all but he’s losing his fucking mind.”

“Of course he is,” Slade said. “What do you think is going to happen here? Just give him what he wants.”

“He pointed a gun at him,” Mara said. “He didn’t say what he wanted.”

“He wants what he said before. Right before Damien showed up. He wants Mara to take a pregnancy test. On the spot. In front of him.”

“Fuck that,” Mara spat.

“We gave him the proof,” Darrow said. “He got his pregnancy test. He got the doctor’s files. What the fuck…”

“It’s convenient, Darrow,” Slade said.

They don’t believe us, Mara thought to herself.

She started to think quick. She knew the easier lie, waiting at the tip of her tongue. Plenty of reason why she wasn’t pregnant anymore. But what would happen to her then? Cyrus was dead drunk, holding a gun.

“Slade,” Darrow said.

“With all due respect here, I didn’t cause this. You two together is a bad idea. It’s wrong for the club. Mara being pregnant just makes this messier.”

“Fine,” Mara said. “Then just act like I’m not pregnant. I’m not showing anyway. I mean, at least not yet. What does he want? He wants me dead? That bad? For what?”

“I’m trying to hold this fucking club together right now,” Slade growled through gritted teeth.

“You’re the one that brought the goddamn Russian mafia down on us,” Darrow said without thinking first.

Slade threw a punch, hitting Darrow in the face, opening a mostly healed cut that came from one of the punches by Linc. Darrow went after Slade. Mara got in the middle. She was instantly knocked to the dirty, sticky floor of the clubhouse. She landed on her elbow and a tingling, stinging pain shot up her arm. Without realizing it at first, she started to scream. Not a girlie scream. Not a crying scream. A feral scream. The kind of scream only a woman could make.

It felt like something snapped in Mara’s head as she hurried back to her feet. She slapped Darrow across the face. She turned and slapped Slade across the face with her other hand.

“Don’t fucking touch him!” Nelle screamed from the bar, ready to fight Mara and defend her man’s honor.

Slade quickly ran to Nelle to keep the situation from getting worse. Darrow didn’t act quick enough and Mara was already on the move, charging toward Cyrus.

If she slaps Prez… , Darrow thought.

Mara didn’t slap Cyrus across the face. Instead, she walked up to him, eyeing the gun, trying her hardest not to piss herself because she was terrified of guns. Especially drunk outlaws with guns.

“Where’s the fucking pregnancy test, huh?” Mara asked Cyrus.

She hoped to be calling his bluff. Cyrus reached back again and this time pulled out a pregnancy test.

“Stole one from the hospital,” Cyrus said.

Mara felt her heart collapse into her stomach.

Her fate… officially sealed.

Mara sat on the surprisingly clean toilet in Cyrus’s private quarters of the clubhouse. Cyrus stood with his back to her. She stared at the massive skull and SOFRAW name on the back patch on his leather cut.

“Need me to turn around too?” Darrow asked.

He was pissed. Livid. He knew when the test came back negative shit was going to hit the fan for good. Hell, for all Darrow figured, he was down to his last few minutes of life. If anything, Cyrus would call a prayer for a vote on Dr. Smile . Then again, Cyrus was so drunk, he’d probably just kill Darrow and Mara right on the spot.

“I’m trying to go here,” Mara said. “Not that easy with an audience.”

“Figure it out,” Cyrus said, his words heavily slurred.

Darrow stepped forward and crouched down. Mara felt in a very interesting position right now. Sitting on the toilet, waiting to go pee. Holding a pregnancy test in her left hand. Knowing Darrow could just look forward and see between her legs. Not that it mattered. His fucking tongue was like a magnet to her pussy as it was.

She had a wild image of Darrow knocking Cyrus out and then she and Darrow take off, running for their lives and running for forever…

“I’ll get a picture and try to do something with it,” Darrow whispered to Mara very carefully.

Mara shook her head. Darrow touched her knees and her body loosened up. She felt moisture between her legs. Her face burned red hot. She really didn’t want Cyrus to… smell her …

Her teeth chattered and the sudden urge to pee attacked her. Mara moved the pregnancy test between her legs and started to go. Darrow watched for a second, eyes wide, and then he stood up and turned away.

“There,” Mara called out.

She placed the test on the bathroom counter and reached for toilet paper to wipe. She then lifted her panties and pants and washed her hands.

“You can’t take this personally,” Cyrus said. “Nobody can. There are just answers I need. There’s shit on my mind. There’s just…”

He looked at Darrow. Darrow saw the pain and the sadness hidden within Cyrus’s eyes.

“ Prez , let’s just talk it out,” Darrow said. “Just you and me, brother. Leave Mara out of it. Let me explain everything.”

Cyrus’s lip began to curl. “What is there to explain…?”

“Think about the position you put us in,” Darrow said. “And I get it. We’re all fighting demons. And with Priest in a coma. Fitz on the run. I get it.”

Cyrus grabbed Darrow’s shirt. “What the fuck are you getting at?”

Darrow told himself this was it. This was the moment of truth. Darrow opened his mouth, ready to accept his fate.

“Holy fuck!” Mara suddenly screamed.

Cyrus and Darrow turn their heads and Mara stood there, eyes wide, jaw dropped.

Mara was holding a positive pregnancy test.