I’d tried to take Kilo’s place on the Colorado run. He didn’t need to be leaving behind his six-month pregnant old lady, but Ruck had needed me here. He was over in Pennsylvania handling his own personal shit. I didn’t know what it was yet, but I’d find out once he got back. That meant I was in charge of the rest of us who were still here in Phoenix until Ruck and the others got back. I answered the phone.
“OD?”
Jesus. Fuck. Goddamn it.
Mercy’s voice had caught on a sob as she said my name. She sounded terrified. Kruzman, the man who’d been after her and her family, was dead. She was safe from him for the rest of her life, but something had her upset. If it was anyone else, I’d wonder if she was calling me up to cry about that damn movie, but that wasn’t the way she was.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I…I fell.”
“What?” I asked, trying to ease the intensity of my voice. She was clearly already petrified. The last thing I needed to do was worry her more. I didn’t know shit about pregnancy or babies. Fuck, I barely knew anything about women, other than how topleasure them in bed. My life had been a fucking shit storm of constant deployments and death before I’d gotten out of the military. There hadn’t been time for anything other than some fucking. Nothing long-term, that was for sure.
But even I knew a pregnant woman falling wasn’t good. “Are you okay?” I winced. Of course she wasn’t. That was why she was calling me. “I mean-”
“I’m…cramping.”
Shit. What did that mean? Normal or… The sobs that started up on the other side of the line answered that question fast enough. “Okay. I’ll be there in less than ten minutes,” I told her. “Where are you?”
I moved as I listened. Starting the SUV, I reversed out of Relay’s backyard and didn’t bother to shut the gate behind me. He was going to have to bail on those plans of his today to come lock up his house.
“I’m sitting on the porch,” Mercy said with a sniffle.
“Is your mother home?”
Her family lived right next door to Kilo and I hoped like fuck someone was home. Her mom. Her sister. Someone. Anyone.
“No.”
Fuck.
“I’m going to have to hang up so I can call you an ambulance, Camila.” I used her real name because that ‘no’ had been full of so much anguish I needed to help calm her down. Mercy was the nickname Kilo had given her. Once a brother gave their old ladies a nickname that was often what we went by, but this was a different situation. Of course, Kilo was the first brother from this chapter tohavean old lady. So we were just figuring things out as we went as far as having women be a permanent part of our lives.
“Okay.”
“I’ll call you right-” I swore and jerked the wheel as some dickhead ran the red light. He’d been trying to catch the yellow but failed. By a long shot. That wasn’t uncommon in this city, but I was in such a fucking hurry, I’d already started out into the intersection. I flipped the fucker off even though he was already long gone. “I’ll call you right back,” I told her. “Hang on, okay?”
“Okay. Thanks, OD.”
Jesus. She was hurt, alone, and probably scared to death for her baby, and she was thanking me. I had to call the ambulance though. I wasn’t going to be able to do shit to help her.
“Should have made sure Drifter stayed here. No. Instead, he’s states away and I’m fucked.” He’d been a field medic. He’d know what to do in this situation.
The nine-one-one operator answered the phone, and for the next couple of minutes, I simultaneously answered her millions of questions, swore, and tried not to die in a fiery car wreck as I flew across town. I should have been on my motorcycle. Then this would have been so much faster.
Finally, the operator let me get off the phone so I could call Mercy back. When she answered, I let out a relieved breath. “Any better?”
“No,” she whispered. “I’m so stupid. I went out to get the mail. I wasn’t paying attention and my foot kicked the step. I fell up the couple of stairs on the porch.”
I winced. A direct hit to the gut? That couldn’t be good. “I’m almost there. Three minutes at the most. Ambulance should be getting there right around the same time,” I told her. “It was an accident. But you’re going to be fine,” I said, trying my hand at being comforting. I was pretty sure I didn’t do it right.
What did I know about comforting a woman in that way? The only time I saw pregnant chicks was in passing and I usually made a beeline in the opposite direction. Couldn’t do that withmy best friend’s girl, though. I’d promised Kilo I’d take care of her.
Shit. The guns.
Using my knee under the wheel to keep the cage ride on the road, I texted Relay to let him know he was going to have to come pick these weapons up. And get his house locked down. There seriously was probably some shit inside his home we didn’t want some innocent passerby seeing.
I’d shut the backdoor, but hadn’t locked it and Relay lived in an older neighborhood that had a lot of families in it.AndI left the back gate open.Shit, shit, shit.Not my finest hour, but in the grand scheme of things, the pregnant lady took priority. Everyone would agree on that. Still, the last thing we needed was a kid to take the opportunity to break into the biker’s house while everyone was gone.
