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When I was little, and my mom was still alive, she used to tell me the sun always came out after the storm. That no matter how bad things seemed, there was always something better coming down the road.
Well, I was firmly in the middle of the storm, and all I saw coming down the road was a hell of a lot more rain.
Chapter Three
Yarder
Poppy lay asleep in her hospital bed, her breathing steady and peaceful. I watched her for a few moments, feeling a surge of relief wash over me, knowing she was safe, at least for now. Slowly, I stepped out of her room into the quiet hallway, leaving her door slightly ajar so I could keep an eye on her while I made a call.
I dialed Compass’s number and waited for him to pick up.
“Hello?” His voice sounded tired, worn down by the events of the past few days.
“It’s me,” I replied simply, not needing to elaborate further.
“How are things going there?” Compass’s voice held a note of concern.
“She should be discharged today. Just a concussion and bruises,” I informed him, relieved to share some good news.
“Fucking lucky,” Compass muttered, and I couldn’t help but agree. Poppy was damn lucky, and so was I. I had escaped with nothing more than a scratch over my left eye and some bruises scattered across my body.
“Have you heard anything more about Faye?” I asked, my tone grave as I broached the topic of our missing friend.
Compass sighed heavily. “No sign of her, man. Olive’s going crazy demanding we look for her, but she doesn’t even know where to start.”
“She had to have taken off, brother,” I asserted, trying to inject some sense into the situation. “There isn’t any other reason why we can’t find her. Sure, she might have been in the garage when it blew, but the storeroom wasn’t close to the bay that Poppy’s car was in. I think she got out and saw it as her opportunity to get the hell out of dodge.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Compass agreed wearily. “You’re probably right. It would just be nice for us to be able to confirm that’s what happened.”
It sure would be. The club was dealing with enough without having to now find Faye. We were still looking for her ex, Anthony, too. Compass’s lead on him had fallen through, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that he had somehow gotten wind of our search and vanished.
“You think her ex somehow got his hands on her?” Compass asked, voicing the same concern that had been gnawing at me.
“It’s a fucking possibility,” I replied grimly, my mind racing with the implications of such a scenario. “Look into it. If we get our hands on him, maybe we can find her.”
“For that idiot’s sake, I hope he didn’t take Faye,” Compass muttered darkly. “Fade’s already wanting to beat the shit out of him, and if he took Faye, then he’s likely to fucking kill him.”
“Fade interested in her?” I inquired, curious about the dynamics at play within the club.
“He wasn’t, but I think her disappearing made him take a second look at everything,” Compass explained, and I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy for Fade.
The guys of the club seemed to be dropping like flies lately when it came to women. Now, it seemed, Fade was no exception.
“You bringing Poppy here when they discharge her, or just dropping her at her house?” Compass asked, shifting gears to more practical matters.
“Swing by her place to grab some shit, and then we’ll head to the clubhouse. You know that’s the safest place right now,” I replied, my mind already strategizing the next steps.
Compass hesitated before speaking again. “You think she needs our protection? She’s the one who brought the fucking bomb into the garage.”
“The jury’s still out on that one,” I admitted, my thoughts drifting back to the events of the explosion. “But from what she’s telling me, she’s pretty much as clueless as Dove was with all of her dad’s bullshit.”
“Yeah, but Dove just had to spy on us. Poppy literally drove a fucking bomb into the garage,” Compass chuckled darkly, highlighting the gravity of the situation.
“There’s a lot more going on with Poppy than you guys know. Life hasn’t been easy for her, man,” I said, my voice tinged with sympathy for her hard life.
“Okay, okay,” Compass conceded, his tone softening slightly. “But we all got shit going on. Doesn’t mean we take the easy way out and agree to blow up a bunch of people.”
I knew it was going to be hard for the club to accept the nuances of Poppy’s situation. They couldn’t understand the pressure she must have been under to resort to such drastic measures. But I also knew that if she hadn’t taken that risk, I might not be alive right now.
