Nomads' Fall: Burning Bastards MC (13 page)

“He handed me the keys, told me it was mine, and gave me a bunch of other stuff like the phone, and told me to call him if I had any problems. So that’s the extent of my dealings with him.”

Knight came back and handed her the phone, before walking to the lawmen who were gathered by the sheriff’s cruiser.

William was still on the line and she apologized for bothering him yet again. He must have lost his cool because the next words coming from him were not what she expected to hear. “Little girl, the only reason I’m not on my way there is because you don’t know what the press will do to you if they catch wind that I have an adult daughter. The bottom feeders will splash your name and picture all over the world and you will have nowhere to hide. Listen up and listen good. Nobody fucks with my family and gets away with it,
nobody
. My family now includes you so suck it up, Jolly, and if you see that cop sniffing around again, you call that biker I talked to earlier or me. You didn’t tell me you knew those boys when you were here. They retrieved something for me a few years back, so I’m familiar with the Bastards.

“Now, get in the car and be on your way. They won’t bother you again.” She opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her words off with a gruff, “Be safe, little girl.” The connection went dead, and she was left staring at the shiny surface of the phone in her hand.

Since Demon was sitting right next to her, he’d heard most of the conversation. “So daddy really is a badass, huh, that’s so cool.” He liked seeing her pale skin become a light pink as he teased her. Now that he actually paid attention to Jolly Baker Kelley, he liked what he was seeing. He heard a vehicle and looked toward the bikes up on the road, and saw Show directing the brothers to the bikes.

Knight came back with her ID and the papers for the vehicle. He walked around the Mustang and got into the passenger side. “Let’s go, my bike is trashed, and I need to get back to the club. I ain’t riding on Demon’s bitch pad, so you get to be my chauffer today.”

Chapter
Thirteen

She couldn’t believe that she was docilely allowing this asshole to tell her what to do. Demon stayed on the hood of the Mustang as she drove toward the wreckage. She slowed down even more when Knight told her to drop Demon off. She watched the man hop off the fender as she slowed almost to a stop. Obviously intelligence was missing from his brain. He could have broken an ankle or fallen under the wheels of her car, but he smiled and waved them on.

“So, where were you girls headed? And thank you for stopping by the way. I wasn’t looking forward to riding on the back of Demon’s bike. Last time that happened, he bitched all the way complaining about my fat ass, and how he was afraid the tires would pop under the added weight.”

If making her laugh was his intention, he succeeded. “We were headed to your clubhouse. Gladys wanted to retrieve her property and we planned to get some groceries. I think I’m happy we hadn’t been there before the shootings. I can just see how that deputy would react to seeing a weapon or two in my car.” She glanced sideways at the handsome biker. “Did you call Future and tell her that her man is on his way to the hospital?”

“Show did that when he called the crib for the brothers to pick up the bikes. He said Tarzan was going to pick her up, the way she drives when she’s not upset is bad enough. The woman knows two speeds, floor it and stop. She’s pregnant now and we don’t need to let her behind the wheel when she’s worried about her old man.” He gestured to the left, “You need to turn here, it’s a shorter route to the hospital.”

“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me why anyone might want to shoot at you, right? Aside from the bossy attitude, and tough guy act I mean. I told Demon the white truck came from the fire lane, but he didn’t say a word to the cops, so it makes me believe you know who wants to kill you boys off.”

Okay, this was news to him, he hadn’t been listening when she’d talked about the truck. “I missed that part, would you mind repeating this truck thing for me?”

She did, and he closed his eyes laying his head back for a minute. She knew he was still awake from the way his fingers twitched on his thigh. “William said he knew the Bastards, did you know that?”

Traffic was getting heavier, and she didn’t look to see his face before he replied, or she might have known he was lying, when he said, “Nope, must have been before my time.”

She pulled into the hospital’s parking lot and found a spot fairly close to the emergency entrance. She was putting her license away when Knight opened her door. He must have seen the surprise at his gallant gesture, because he laughed.

“I do have some manners, I was raised by a father that would have busted my head if I didn’t open doors and treat a woman like a lady. At least until she proves I shouldn’t bother to treat her any differently than one of the men. If you stick around for any length of time with the Bastards, you’ll see that most of us can be courteous. Hell, even Beadle will open a door for a woman, and right now that man is one grouchy fucker.”

She vaguely remembered the name. “Is that the man who refused to bring gasoline for my car?” At his nod, she sniffed, “Well why would he open a door for me, but not worry about my safety out on a deserted road after dark? That makes no sense.”

They debated Beadle’s attitude and treatment of women as they walked into the building, and Jolly found herself hating the abusing asshole. She wanted to send the wife a card of congratulations. “He deserves to be alone, no woman in her right mind would put up with some man beating the hell out of her whenever he has a bug in his ass. What kind of man could even call himself a man yet bring his pregnant girlfriend home and expect his abused wife to take care of her?” Knight saw Show, Demon, Mick, and Beadle sitting in the waiting room right behind Jolly. Her words were heard by everyman in the room, and one woman that was sitting on her own in a corner of the room.

He tried to let her know they had an audience, but she kept running her mouth, so he lowered his head and kissed her. He found she tasted better than he remembered, and didn’t really want to let her go. When he drew back, she looked like she should look after being thoroughly kissed. Her cheeks were pink and she had a slight case of whisker burn near her mouth. He’d been attracted to her the last time they met, and wondered if he was out of his mind at the time. Now she looked and acted different, this time his brain was enjoying her company too, rather than just some mysterious sexual attraction on its own. She was still too skinny for his liking, but the starving Chihuahua look was missing, and she showed more confidence in herself.

He stepped back and allowed her to enter the room first. She recognized the goth guy, Show, and Demon, who was watching another man sitting across from him. The man wasn’t bad looking in a greasy working in an auto shop kind of way. His eat-shit-and-die look toward her made her hesitate to step closer, but Knight was leading her to the seat next to Demon, so she let him lead. Demon smiled at her and patted the seat so she knew where to plant her ass.

The other stranger was drop your panties gorgeous, and she wondered why she didn’t find him appealing. With his looks, he should be modeling men’s underwear, or something that women would buy just because he was wearing them. He was wearing paint stained jeans and a tight t-shirt that advertised Mick’s Body Shop.
Tools,
she thought,
maybe he could advertise tools
. Men that looked like him were usually either gay, or too uppity for words. This one gave nothing away in his expression.

Demon grinned at her before introducing the two men. “The movie star is Mick, he runs the best body shop in the business, and the other guy you seem to have already heard about, that’s Beadle. He’s the best mechanic in town, just don’t expect him to cut you any slack if you’re a woman.” He leaned closer, “Beadle has issues, don’t mind his attitude.”

“You’ve met Freakshow. If you want a tattoo, that’s the man to see, his new shop downtown is almost ready to open, and I’ll be getting the first tat opening day.” As he spoke, Gladys and Tarzan came into the room.

Demon stood as soon as he saw who walked in, and went to take the older woman’s hand. “Hey, sweet cheeks, how’s Georgie?” He could see she’d been crying, but she was mad now. He wondered what happened to give her that hard look in her eye. “What’s up?”

While Demon was busy talking to Gladys, Jolly looked around the room and noticed the only other occupant in the room was quietly taking pictures of the gathering of bikers with her phone. The woman didn’t look at all grief stricken, or worried about a loved one in the hospital. She looked like a fanatic, the kind that used to picket the strip clubs and liquor stores back in Louisville.

Jolly leaned her head closer to Knight, who thought she wanted to be kissed again. He lowered his head, only to have his lips land on her cheek as she turned her head to speak to him quietly.

“That woman over there is taking pictures of everybody, look at her eyes. I know you men are eye candy and all, but that’s not what she’s taking the pictures for. I’m going to go over and talk to her for a minute, maybe she is just curious, but my guess is she’s up to something more.” She drew back, and Knight nodded slightly, acknowledging her observation and plan.

He sat back in his chair and folded his fingers over his stomach watching Jolly walk over to the woman. He could see what she meant about the look on the woman’s face.
Oh yeah
,
whacko in the room
. He went to Demon and Gladys while Tarzan sat down with the other brothers. “Let’s walk outside and talk, fresh air will help clear our heads.” He looked over to the sitting men and jerked his head toward the door, they filed out of the room with Demon and Gladys. He spared a glance at Jolly as she spoke to the middle-aged woman, and hoped they weren’t being paranoid, but he had learned over the years to trust most woman’s intuition. Hell, look at Future. She was a psychic, but her pregnancy seemed to haywire her abilities and reason. Yet he would always veer on the side of caution if she told him there was danger or something was off. She might have her wires crossed at times, but she’d proven herself to him.

Once they exited the building, Knight told them what Jolly saw and was doing talking to the woman. “I think one of us should follow the woman when she leaves the hospital, just in case. Did any of you drive a four wheeler here?”

Mick and Beadle had ridden together in Beadle’s rusted out Chevy half ton, so they agreed to follow the woman. Demon told them to, “Be on the lookout for a small white truck. Unless they washed it, the thing would probably be dirty if it came out of one of those fire lanes. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, and the mud is like fuckin’ glue.”

Since Big Dog, Butch, and Georgie were all out of commission, Demon was in charge until one of the top three were able to take over. He wasn’t a people person at the best of times, but Gladys was a special case. Aside from the fact that she was a hell of a nice woman, and Georgie having his panties in a twist over her, he liked her.

“So let’s hear about Georgie.” He smiled at Gladys and she shook her head at him.

“He’ll live. He has two broken bones in his left hand, a hairline fracture in his ankle, and a lump on his head the doctor’s had to drain the fluid from, because it was taking up too much room in his tiny skull. The fluid was putting pressure on his brain, and even if I could hope the pressure would open his mind up a little, it was only causing him pain and possible brain damage. The stubborn fool shouldn’t lose any more brain cells. They’re cautiously optimistic he’ll be back to being the ass we know and love soon. He’s still sleeping it off, but the doctor told me it’s a good thing. When he wakes up he’s going to have the mother of all headaches.”

Gladys was passed around the men for a hug, and even Beadle patted her on the shoulder for comfort, because her eyes had started swimming in tears while she talked about Georgie.

The only thing Tarzan heard while with Future was that Big Dog was in surgery for a punctured lung. The bullet had been removed, and they had no idea how that’d gone either. Future was in the surgical wing waiting room, and Show decided to keep her company. He had a particular fondness for their President’s old lady, and everybody knew it. Big Dog knew it too, but they’d come to an understanding early on, and it was all good between them.

“Well, I’m staying with Georgie, at least for the night, so I can call if there is any change.” Gladys didn’t tell them she saw proof that the stubborn ass cared about her. The tattoo of a small heart with her name inside situated over his heart, right under the Burning Bastards logo was proof of his affection.

*****

“Hello, I saw you over here all by yourself and thought you looked lonely, no one should be alone in a waiting room in a hospital. It’s bad enough if your loved one is hurting, but when they’re in pain, or worse, you need someone to talk to or your imagination goes wild. At least that’s what I imagine happens. So far I’ve been lucky that no one I really care about personally has been in an emergency situation.” She hoped her babbling would set the woman at ease, and aside from the eye roll during her little offering of sympathy, the woman must have decided she was no threat.

“Aren’t you with those bikers? I could swear I saw you with them.” The snide tone when she said the words “those bikers” gave Jolly all the information she needed to start a more in depth conversation.

“Oh those people? Good God, I was just driving along this country road and saw what looked like an accident. So I stopped just like any good Samaritan should. It turned out one of the bikers was shot and another one is in a coma or something. I gave one of the men a ride here, since I was running to town anyway.” Jolly tried to look shy by putting her head down a little, “He said his motorcycle was wrecked and he was so nice to me, that I gave into temptation and gave him a ride. When we got here, I decided to see how the injured men were doing.”

She could see the woman was eating her story up. “My name’s Jolly by the way, what’s yours?”