“Nope.” Some part of me is screaming at me to stop, but I just can’t help twisting the knife one more time.
“Your food’s ready,” Adam calls out as he backs out of the door leading to the kitchen, quickly coming to a stop when he sees the three of us standing practically toe to toe.
Not wanting to dally with a credit card transaction, I reach into my back pocket and grab forty bucks, telling him he owes me a beer the next time I’m in.
“Maybe I’ll see ya at breakfast,” I tell the biker, throwing him a wink as I spin and head for the door, my heart racing at my bravado.
My cell is ringing as I’m getting into my truck and I smile, comforted when I see it’s Dad calling.
“Baby, where are you? I just got your message,” he starts the moment I pick up.
“Hey, I’m just leaving Wolf’s Den,” I let him know, aiming my truck for the main road.
“Are you alright? I was going to tell you to skip it. The crowd there has changed,” he’s talking uncharacteristically fast, and my eyes flash up to my rear view mirror, making me smile when I see the biker stepping outside.
Turning on my left blinker, I take another look for wildlife and vehicles before pulling back onto the road and that’s when I see the biker being pushed forward and instantly surrounded by at least five men, all kicking him while he’s on the ground.
“Shit! Crap! No!” I screech out the words and slam on my brakes. “Daddy!”
“What?” The terror in his voice getting my attention.
“They’re beating a man in the parking lot! Daddy, it’s bad, call 911 and I’ll…”
“Drive! Now, Everly!” My dad’s tone gets me moving even though I know it’s the wrong thing to do. “You watch your speed through town. Use your blinkers, pause at the stop sign, but don’t you stop until you get here.”
I’m sobbing, terrified for the man I don’t know. “Call Adam, Daddy. Call him and make sure he saves the footage from the parking lot.”
“I will, baby. Don’t you hang up, not for a second. Watch your speed, don’t forget it cuts down to twenty-five…”
“I know. I know,” my jagged breath makes it hard to get the words out and I’m relieved when I hear Dad on his other phone, talking to Adam. “What the hell?”
Flying toward me is the Sheriff’s SUV, and despite what Dad told me to do, I pull to the side of the road as it passes, continuing past me in the direction I came from.
“Someone must have called the Sheriff,” I tell Dad. “He’s on his way there now.”
“Adam, get it done. Now,” my dad’s speaking to Adam on another phone in the background. “Sheriff’s on his way. No, no, you’ll have to tell him her name if he asks—someone else there will have recognized her, and I don’t want you in more danger. Wait a couple of day, then meet me at the usual place.”
“Everly, you still with me, girl?” Dad asks, switching back to talk to me on his mobile phone.
“Dad, I’ll be there in five minutes, and holy shit, do you have some explaining to do,” I say, way past caring that I’m swearing to him.
“I have you on speaker,” he needlessly tells me. “I’m just going to text a friend or two, see if I can get someone to swing by.”
I stay quiet, knowing he’ll have to concentrate to type out a message, but also wondering why he wants to drag someone else into this.
Pulling into his driveway, I finally realize how hard I was clenching the steering wheel and take a deep breath. At least until he comes outside with a duffle bag and his shotgun.
“Slide over, I’m going to drive,” he says, reaching for the door behind me and tossing his things in there; staying quiet until he’s turned on the brights and maneuvered onto the back road that cuts through to another farm. “Eda’s cow is giving birth and if anyone asks, she needs your help. We’ll spend the night there.”
This is the first thought I’ve given to the food I picked up and I reach into the bag, shoving an onion ring into my mouth. The first of many as I use food to help calm me down.
“I told you some of it, I just didn’t want to worry you,” Dad tells me after we’ve cleared a cattle guard. “We’re trying to be careful because there’s a lot of money being thrown around and we don’t know who to trust. People are afraid, and they have every right to be.
“Adam said Davis was talking to you when he came out of the kitchen. He’s the new Sheriff’s right hand man, and a spiteful little shit,” he continues, and I take a breath after swallowing a mouthful.
“The biker, he had a Kings of Anarchy cut on,” I tell Dad and his fingers tighten around the steering wheel. “Who is he in all of this?”
“If it’s who I think it is, he and Mills were friends. In their own sort of way,” he replies, reaching over to squeeze my shoulder after passing another cattle guard. “Joanie introduced me to him a couple of months ago.”
