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Sliding behind the wheel, her hand gripped the steering wheel as she looked back at the white-washed building with the spotlights illuminating theMuther’ssign. Whip had been screwing with her for years, always pushing her into corners. Riley was done. If they wanted her out, they could buy her out and she’d be gone.
When she went to pull the door closed, she changed her mind. “Screw this shit,” she said to herself. Stepping out of the Nova, Riley marched back to the building and pulled the door open. An argument was spiraling out of control as she let the door slam shut behind her. When everyone turned and saw her standing there, they all went silent. “You can buy me out. I’ll have my lawyer draw up the papers and have them delivered to you ASAP. I’m done being a doormat for you guys to wipe your shit on.”
“Hang on a minute.” Whip moved from around Temple.
“No, Whip, you’ve been shoving and pushing me for years. I’m tired of dealing with it. No one appointed you as boss. You decided that on your own.” Riley looked at the other girls standing around the bar. Not one of them would go against Whip.
“Thanks for not having my back,” Riley told them then walked out, leaving behind everything she’d worked for and the family she thought she had. She hadn’t dragged her sorry ass out of one hell to live in another one. Like her mother always told her, no matter how pretty the drapes were, a shithole was still a shithole.
Muther’s appeared to be the perfect place, but when you got past the wall décor and neon lights, it was still just a dive bar serving overpriced bar food. Nothing special about it except the races, and those weren’t all that either. Just a different form of entertainment.
Climbing back into her Nova, Riley turned the key and listened to the engine roar to life. Angry and hurt, she rested her forehead against the steering wheel. One part of her wanted to go back in and fight it out. The other half wanted her to drive off and say screw it. The mood she was in, Riley picked option two and drove out of the parking lot.
ChapterFourteen
Bones and the other brothers sat crammed into the small family room, waiting on news about Preacher. A nurse had informed them that Preacher was undergoing a splenectomy. The doctors were hopeful they could repair the punctured spleen, but if not, they would be forced to remove it completely.
Not understanding what all that entailed, Bones had started researching the surgery, the recovery time, and what Preacher would be facing without his spleen. What he wouldn’t give for Bishop to be there. The brother was a doctor and could answer all his questions. Bishop was in New York at a medical conference until the following Thursday, but Bones knew if he called and told him what was going on, Bishop would be on the first flight back.
Unless something didn’t feel right, Bones would hold off calling him. He had called Wick and asked if Sloan could call him back. The couple were en route to the hospital. Bones hated that they were all spending more time in the damn place. At least the last time they were there, it had been a happier occasion, when Wrench and Frisco had their baby girl, Everly Grey, at Christmas.
Maybe that was how it was supposed to be. For every bad reason they ended up there, maybe there had to be a good one to follow. Bones wondered if anyone else was expecting a baby he didn’t know about. Smirking to himself, he closed his eyes, resting his head against the wall.
“What’s that smirk for, Bones?” Hammer asked as he slouched in an uncomfortable chair.
Bones looked at Hammer. “Wondering who’s gonna have the next baby.”
“Shit, don’t jinx us.” He shoved out of the chair and walked out of the small room.
Chuckling to himself, Bones didn’t respond as he closed his eyes.
* * *
After getting home, Riley closed the front door to her one-bedroom cottage and peeled the bloody clothes from her body. Holding the stiff, dark-stained clothes in her hands, she felt queasy. The adrenaline of the evening’s events was wearing off. Now, the what ifs were setting in. Rushing across the house, she barely got to the toilet before the contents of her stomach came up.
Reaching up, she flushed the toilet and rested her head on the cold porcelain seat. Lying on the floor, she wished she could just sleep there. Instead, she climbed to her feet and turned on the shower. The hot water did nothing to relax Riley. Her head was full of Preacher. Every time she looked at her hands, she saw his blood. Every time she closed her eyes, she heard him ask her to call his brother.Damn it.He’d known he was dying. Shoving the heels of her hands against her eyelids, Riley tried not to cry.
How many times had she listened to men and women on the battlefields asking her to save them? To tell their families they loved them? How many times had she ran her hand over the face of a fallen soldier, closing their lifeless eyes? Too damn many. Her knees went weak, so she sat in the tub and let the water beat against her skin. Bringing her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around her legs and cried. When the water turned cold, she finally turned it off and dragged herself from the tub.
Now, she stood in her closet, getting dressed. Her mind wouldn’t settle without knowing if the guy had made it. Picking up the phone, she called the hospital but got nowhere since it was well after ten p.m. Knowing she wouldn’t get any rest, she shoved her feet into a pair of beat-up Converse, grabbed her messenger bag and her keys, then headed out the door.
The twenty-five-minute drive seemed to drag on. When she finally pulled into the hospital parking lot, Riley sat in the car, staring at the wall of glass. She watched as people came in and out through the sliding doors. Some came out, heading for their cars, while some came out to smoke a much-needed cigarette.
Two spaces down, she saw Preacher’s car still parked in the same spot where she had left it. “This is a stupid decision,” she whispered to herself then opened the car door and eased out into the muggy night air.
Walking across the parking lot, she kept her eyes peeled for anyone who looked suspicious. The guys who jumped Preacher had to be curious if he had been brought into the ER and if he had survived the attack. One thing she kept thinking about was that one of the guys yelled at another,“Why did you stab him?”She barely heard the response as she rushed toward Preacher as he struggled to get up.“I owed him that.”Could that small detail mean something to Preacher and his friends? To her, it meant the attack was personal. At least for one of the assailants, it was.
Stepping through the doors, she immediately wished she’d listened to her own words as she saw bikers standing around the ER. From what she could tell, they weren’t all Gypsy Kings. Seemed the Gypsy Kings had lots of friends. Turning to leave, she heard her name called out. Cringing, she pulled herself together and turned back around. “Bones.”
“What are you doing back here?” he asked with a concerned look on his face.
Damn it. “I couldn’t stop thinking about your brother. Also, I remembered something and thought you should know.” She watched Bones look around the room, then he grabbed her hand and pulled her through the crowd of men.
As they weaved their way through the room, men followed behind them.This was such a bad idea, she thought. When Bones opened the door to the family room, Riley stepped in and watched as the small room filled with patch holders.
Bones saw Riley look at all the men filing into the room. He saw the concern on her face. “Sorry, but it’s not just me who needs to know what you remember.”
Riley smoothed a hand down her hip, trying to settle her nerves. “Um, can I ask how your brother is doing?”
