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With a shrug, Cinnamon accepted his answer, turned around and headed into the clubhouse.
Mountain walked over to Hack, Preacher Girl and Lil’ Mama. “Are Red and Roadkill going to spend the night at the hospital?”
“Yeah, I believe so.” Hack nodded. “I just wanted to bring the rest of the crew back here. Last thing the docs and nurses need are a bunch of bikers getting in their way. Might as well get the barbeque started and wait and see how everyone is. Red will let us know. He knows to call me, with Hollywood handling the highway clean up and Cass—” Hack checked his phone, his lips pursing to hold back whatever emotion was hitting him and shook his head. “No word yet.”
Preacher Girl had her arms wrapped around the man’s waist and head resting between his shoulders as she held him from behind. The young woman, barely twenty had tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Cass sent me a text,” Lil’ Mama said with a sharp inhale. “Lil’ Bit—” Her hand covered her lips and the hard façade faded for a brief second, allowing two fat tears to escape her eyes at the report about her sister-in-law. “Lil’ Bit finally passed out from the pain meds as they arrived at the hospital. She’s frantic about Baldy, but he hasn’t heard anything yet.”
Mountain nodded. “Baldy and Lil’ Bit they seemed to take the brunt of the accident, those two have me worried. Everyone else just had surface wounds.”
“I know. Baldy is a tough guy, been through plenty and has too much going for him to not fight.” Hack reached out to Lil’ Mama and cupped her cheek in his hand. The touch brotherly in a way since Casanova might as well be blood to him which made Lil’ Mama just as close and he needed to be the rock at this moment. “Same with Lil’ Bit, they’ll be okay. Come on let’s go and let Maggie and the rest of the women know what’s going on.”
Hack led the little group into the clubhouse, taking a mantle left to him by the missing officers leaving him to lead alone.
Mountain stopped at the bar. “Yo Kid, can I get a beer?”
A prospect, they’d left behind to do grunt work was behind the long wooden counter. Kid, was Hollywood’s nephew Billy. Barely old enough to vote, Kid had been helping around the club for a few years. Penance for the trouble he caused that brought Hollywood back to Montana and to keep him off drugs. His mother Ruby had been recuperating on the ranch, a ghost in a way that rarely left Maggie’s at the original home on the property. Even if Kid had wanted to ride with them, his mother wasn’t letting him on a bike, not yet.
Kid may be legal, but the men of Steel weren’t going to cross the woman, especially in her weakened state. Having lost one son to an overdose and watched a second nearly die twice what had been done to her body by her ex-husband was nothing compared to her mind. The man was persona non grata in town and every Steel knew his face and vehicle. There wasn’t a kill on sight order, but there was a remind himhe’s not welcomeone.
“Sure. Coming right up,” Kid replied, reaching in the cooler to dig up a cold one.
Hollywood and Free stepped up to the bar, Hollywood flashing his nephew two fingers and Kid got two more bottles. “Hey Mountain, how are you doing?”
“Hollywood, I’m good. Thought you were doing the cop thing?”
“That’s why I have deputies,” he replied. “Once the semi was hooked up, there wasn’t much to do. Pictures were snapped. Last thing I wanted to do was pour Coke on the pavement to fully clear the scene.”
“I thought that was an urban legend?” Mountain questioned. Clearing blood from a scene with the acid from a Coke wasn’t just for highway beautification. Nope, not all animals were herbivores and the ones that weren’t could cause issues tracking blood on a highway.
“We only keep it in the trunk during the warm months,” he replied. “Last thing I need are frozen two liters exploding in the back of a squad car. Plus, I couldn’t do it. Knew too well the man it came from.”
“It was a shit day.” Mountain shook his head and caught sight of Freaky sitting on a couch staring blankly ahead. His wife, Dreamer sat by his side unable to console him. “Freaky taking it hard?”
“Road Captain, it was his first trip, to end like this has to be hard,” Hollywood said taking a swig of beer. “Not his fault, but right now, I know his shoulders are weighing about three hundred pounds more.”
“Rank has its drawbacks.” Mountain nodded.
“Hope you’re not too scared of it,” Hollywood replied. “Making good from bad, what you did didn’t go unnoticed. Enough of the voting members were in a chat and you’re getting patched in finally.”
“Congrats, Mountain,” Free said, the beam on her face a hard contrast to the first time he had been around her. Now, her jet black hair was tamed in a long braid from the ride and if she was a bit tender in moving her arm, she made sure to toast him with a clink of her bottle to his.
“Seriously.” Mountain couldn’t believe it. It had been way past a year since he’d left the Road Killers and joined the Steels. But he waited and didn’t want to remind anyone that his year had ended a while ago. “It feels wrong to be happy right now, but that’s terrific news.”
“It’s time, don’t you think.” Hollywood grabbed his hand and they chest bumped. “Besides, if you wouldn’t have pulled ahead and signaled, we could have had a dozen more being patched up if not worse. Let’s go and figure out what’s going on with the food, it feels like days have passed not hours and I’m starving.”
“I’ve been looking forward to Maggie’s lemon bars all week.” Mountain chuckled as he followed Hollywood and Free up toward the kitchen.
“Hey Duke, If you could get some of the prospects to help carry out all the food will have the picnic set up outside.” Maggie, Red’s mother, ordered from the kitchen. As matriarch, she refused to use road names for anyone, expect Topaz for some strange reason.
Hollywood took it in stride seeing as the woman had known him and his family since he was in diapers.
Patch pending, Mountain knew it was still his job to help. “Maggie, I’m here tell me what to do.”
The woman looked flustered, having the group returning hours ahead of schedule had her normally calm demeanor a distant memory. Add to that the worry about members she’d loved for decades and watch grow had her bouncing between tears and taking moments to breathe. She may be Red’s mother, but to her every member of the club was hers. “Oh Björn. If you could grab a couple of those pans and follow me, we can get this food set up and get people started eating.” Maggie grabbed a disposable metal pan with towel, the contents covered in aluminum foil.
He copied her, stacking one on top of another one and followed her.
