Blaze frowns.
“What?” I ask him.
“What triggered this? He’s been gone for three years, now this?”
“We kicked him out, burned off his patch. He’s festered, like the fucking open wound we left on his back,” Beast mutters.
“He’s right, something happened,” I muse, looking across the dusty ground to the outdoor pen. There are two pigs standing there, not doing anything, just staring at one another. “We need to find out what it was. Day and night, until we figure this out. We question anyone who worked with the shitbag, I want to know every move he’s made over the lastthree years, from the second he dragged his sorry ass into the ER to treat that burn.”
Everyone agrees.
I don’t know how to explain it, but I fully believe Storm has gone to ground. He has failed, after three years of venom filling his bloodstream, he didn’t get near us. But he will come back. And we need to be ready.
“We can’t leave that mess for Stryker’s workers,” I pull out my keys.
“Not it, I did it last time,” Nashville says holding a hand up.
“Pussy,” Fury shakes his head.
“They creep me the fuck out. You ever heard them crunching bones. That shit is fucking obscene.”
“Where is a prospect when you need one,” Blaze laughs.
Anyone watching this would think we’re insane, but this is who we are.
They don’t think any less of the situation, they know how grave it is and how pissed I am but they understand that sometimes, we need to let it out in different ways.
Do I hate that I am not going to get at Storm now, damn fucking right I do, but I will get him. Rebel still thinks we can catch up with him, and he’ll go at it for as long as it takes to convince him otherwise.
“I don’t care who, someone do it. Nashville, I’m going to check on Jesse, you’re with me.”
I pretend not to notice when he flips them off and follows me.
Nashville waits in the hallway while I go into the private room where they’re keeping Jesse. He may be loaded, but I’m not exactly living on the breadline. I stand by the side of his bed for a long time, looking down into the face of my best friend.
If anyone other than Taylor was there today, he’d be dead. And without Jesse, I would never have met her.
I stay for an hour, then head outside. Nashville is busy chatting up a nurse, but he walks away, with a wink and a smile. That shit comes easy to him.
“Speedway called,” he says as we make our way out of the hospital.
“What he say?”
“He’s pissed he wasn’t there.”
“If he had been, he’d likely be dead.”
Nashville lowers his head. I haven’t forgotten that one of our brothers was killed today, last night… I can’t remember what fucking day it is anymore. The sun is lightening as we leave the hospital. Gunner’s death won’t be forgotten, it adds to the list of things Storm will pay for.
“Fuck I’m tired,” I rub my forehead.
“It’s been a rough twenty-four hours.”
I blow out a sigh. “What else did Speedway say.”
“He said call him when you get a chance. Where to now?”
Nashville won’t ask, even though he sees there is an underlying tension.
