That’s when I noticed Itchy lying on the floor with Medic kneeling by him.
“Shit,” I muttered, as War and I approached them together. I crouched down on the balls of my toes and looked at Medic. “How bad?”
But it was pretty obvious. Itchy had to have been right behind where they hit the gate. I closed my eyes when I saw his face. Half of it was gone and his whole left side was burnt to fuck. The smell almost choked me.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I huffed out as I got to my feet and turned away from the mess of our prospect. He was due to be patched in tomorrow and now we’d be burying him.
“Church,” King said as he got off his bike and walked past us. “Now.”
I looked up as Waverley moved away from Connor and headed straight for her father. She was running her mouth as she got to him, jogging alongside him. She was tall but no match for King’s long stride. He didn’t shout or tell her to back off. In fact, he watched her as she waved her hands around.
“Well, that can’t be good,” War watched his sister as she and King disappeared inside. Then he went into full on VP mode. “Medic, get someone to help you with him. Casper, find out what that was they hit us with and Omen, contact Tate Brenner about fixing the gate.” He turned to see who else was here. “Whoever saw what happened, come inside to give us a play-by-play. Did anyone get into the compound?”
“No,” Handlebar spoke up. “Itchy sounded the alarm, and we were on our way out to him when the blast went off. We got some shots at them. They just peeled out after that.” He glanced over to where our fallen brother lay, his head dropping.
War nodded. “You come in too,” he told Handlebar. “King’ll want to know everything.”
Once he’d given his orders War headed to the clubhouse, I fell in step beside him.
“Why were you out?” he asked me. It didn’t sound like he was blaming me, but I bristled anyway.
“Wanted to go for a ride, didn’t think it was gonna be a problem.”
“Yeah, well, we all need to be careful from now on. We’re lucky we left people here and sent the others back.”
We hurried up the stairs into the clubhouse. Tanya came over to me straight away, a look of concern on her face. She opened her mouth to speak, raising a hand like she was going to comfort me, but I glared at her.
“Not now.”
She stepped back. There was no sign of King or Waverley.
“Lily,” War looked over as Omen’s wife came hurrying into the room, carrying blankets. “You and Rosa should go speak to Itchy’s mom. Medicis clearing things up. Let him know you’re gonna head over there. She’ll need someone who can care for her.”
“He’s passed?” she asked, scrunching the blankets in her hands.
I realized she was taking them down to tend to Itchy. Her face fell and her eyes filled. I’d never understood how she fell for a biker and married into the MC.
She was a good girl, not the kind we were used to around here. I hadn’t spoken to her much, but I’d seen her in action with the girls. She didn’t take any shit from them. She was a complete contradiction, but she’d be the best person to go to Itchy’s mom.
Her husband had been in the MC until he died from liver failure a few years ago. Itchy was her only son. It was going to break her heart. Lily went outside, still clutching the blanket. If anything, it could cover his body.
“You think this is retaliation?” War asked as we made our way towards the basement where we held church. It was big enough to fit all the brothers when required, but it was just the officers unless others were invited in.
“Hammer got rid of the body. There was no evidence he’d been here.”
“What if someone saw Ballistic picking him up?”
I gave him a look. Ballistic didn’t make mistakes like that. War nodded as he hurried to the stairs. But he paused when he heard his sister’s voice behind us. He rolled his eyes.
“I need to go deal with that before King kills her.”
“You go down, get things started, I’ll rescue King.”
War let out a shocked laugh at that imagery. “You sure?”
I nodded and slapped his back, then turned as he continued downstairs. I followed the sound of voices to King’s office, the door was ajar, and I could see him sat on the edge of his desk, one hand gripping onto the edge the other held up to his daughter, who I could only see from the back.
“Did this happen because of what you told us about mom? Was it the Kingsmen?”
