"We'll deal with it properly. At the club level." He looked down at Sara, who had her head down and was still working on my knuckles, and his stare lingered there long enough to make the back of my neck prickle. "You about done playing nurse?" Whatever was going on it wasn't what I thought. But that didn't mean I planned to listen to him for a single second.
Sara's hand tightened around my wrist for a split second before she let go. "I'm just cleaning him up, Tony."
"He's a big boy. He can clean himself up," he growled. Then he flicked some of the stray bandage wrappers onto the floor and scowled at her.
"He's bleeding in my mother's diner," she told him. "I'd rather get it handled so I don't have to mop up in the middle of the rush."
Lightning's nostrils flared but he didn't push it further. He turned and stomped toward the bathroom at the back of therestaurant, and the tension didn't leave Sara's shoulders until the bathroom door swung shut behind him.
She sighed and her shoulders dropped about two inches. Then she picked up the peroxide and capped it, keeping her hands busy, and I could see a fine tremor running through her fingers that she was trying to hide.
I leaned forward across the table and kept my voice low. "You okay?" I asked, and her eyes flicked toward the bathroom where Lightning had gone.
"I'm fine, okay? Just doing my job."
But I could tell she wasn't fine at all. Something was going on. If Lightning was trying to control her, or push her into something—I'd kill him. I wouldn't even hesitate. "I want to talk to you, okay?"
Her eyes went wide and she shook her head slightly. "Garret, I don't think?—"
"About us… Please"
She grimaced and looked again down the back hallway toward the men's restroom. "Where?"
"My place." I kept my voice low enough that nobody at the back booth could hear. "Come alone and don't tell anyone. Can you do that?"
I could see her worrying about what it would mean. Chances were if he warned me off, he'd done the same to her for some reason, but whatever it was, I knew our history was strong enough to convince her meeting with me was safe. Her lips parted and closed and parted again, and she glanced toward the bathroom door.
"Okay," she whispered. "Okay, I'll be there."
"Thank you," I said.
She gathered the bloody gauze and the cotton balls and closed the first aid kit and picked it all up just as Lightning came back from the bathroom. He looked at the clean table and then at Sara walking away with the kit and seemed satisfied that she was done touching me.
He dropped into the seat across from me and leaned over the table at me menacingly, scowling like I should be afraid of him.
"You got a problem?" I asked as I set the bourbon down. I wasn't hoping for a fight, but I wasn't going to back away from one. I couldn’t help that she noticed me bleeding and ran over to help. It was human decency, something this loser had no shred of in his entire being.
"The problem is I told you to stay away from her," he said.
"And I told you that what I do on my own time isn't club business." I pulled the gauze from my eyebrow and tossed it onto the table between us as I finished my bourbon. "Getting sucker punched in a parking lot wasn't exactly on my schedule tonight. She happened to be working when I walked in. Would you rather I'd bled out on the sidewalk?"
"Don't be dramatic," he said.
"Then don't be a prick," I told him. "If you can't let a man get the blood wiped off his face without turning it into a power play, why would I want to be around you at all?"
Lightning's eyes narrowed and his hands curled into fists. For a second I thought he was going to come across the table at me,and part of me hoped he would. I bet I could take him in a fight easy, even with my hip screwed up.
But he didn't. He sat there glaring at me with his nostrils flared and his eyes locked on me like a predator watching prey. "You're on thin ice, Crank," he said.
"I've been on thin ice since I patched in," I told him. "You've had it in for me since I was a prospect. Why don't you tell me something new?" God I wished I had another glass of bourbon.
He held my stare for a beat, then shifted in his chair and leaned back. The anger didn't leave his face but he controlled it. It was like he was trying to decide what to do with someone who could kick his ass and had zero respect for him. I didn’t know why Fox elevated him so high and I hated it. The man had no business being in charge.
"Tell me about the one who jumped you," he grumbled, pretending we didn't just almost throw punches. I thought about it for a few minutes trying to gauge his intent and then just caved and told him what happened.
"I told you, it was some young guy… He said we shoulda never chased them off. The prick's lucky I didn't snap his neck." I stared at the bourbon glass and thought about how I needed to stay sober tonight, as hard as that would be after years of drinking. But I had to talk to Sara, and she deserved me at my best. Not wasted.
"And he said it was payback for the grain elevator?" Lightning picked at a scratch on the table with his thumbnail.
