“Didn’t wanna put you or the club in that position, Prez—not until I had firm evidence.” Skate winced as pain from somewhere seared through him. He hissed through his teeth and clutched his left side.
“Doc’ll be here any minute, brother,” Skull said, coming closer. “Reel that shit in, you pussy.”
Skate coughed on a laugh. “Fuck off.”
Skull cracked a grin. “Certainly, motherfucker. Next time I’ll leave you to Agent Lear and his good buddies, okay?”
“I had that shit handled.”
Skull laughed loudly. “Yeah, it looked like it too.”
“So we’ve got the evidence now?” I asked.
“No, nothing to tie Hardy or any other brother to the run, but like Skull just said, we can place Agent Lear and his buddies there. Pretty sure we can get them to break down with a little persuasion,” Vin replied.
I nodded. “Let’s do it then.”
The door opened and the doctor walked in, bag in hand. I patted Skate on the shoulder and turned to leave, and Skull and Buddy followed me while Vin hung back to talk to the doc for a minute.
Outside, the club felt like a much darker place after all the white of the infirmary. Or maybe that was just the mood of the night. Everything had changed tonight—the club, the men, the rules, but mostly me.
Crank was sitting with Semi and Mason, and they all looked over as we came in the room.
“Well?” Semi asked, clearly ready to spill some blood.
“We’re waiting on Vin and then we’re going after that fucker. Bring in our good friend for questioning and get some answers,” Buddy replied. He grabbed one of the shot glasses of whiskey that Ann-Marie put down in front of us all. One by one we all took a glass, barring Crank, who raised his glass of Pepsi and ice.
“For Skate,” Buddy snarled.
“For Skate!” we all cheered, and then threw the whiskey to the backs of our throats and slammed the glasses down on the bar.
“Y’all toasting without me?” Vin grumbled as he came over.
Ann-Marie lined up another round of shots and we all toasted Skate again.
“I’m not dead yet, motherfuckers,” Skate snapped as he walked out to us, leaning heavily on the doctor.
Vin glared at the doctor, who helped Skate onto a stool. “He needs to stay in bed.”
“I’m not a sweetbutt, Prez. I prefer to be up on my feet,” Skate said between hissing in pain and leaning heavily on the bar. “Gimme one of those,” he said to Ann-Marie.
She glanced over at Vin, who nodded. “Just one.”
“He put a gun to my head,” the doctor said, sounding more tired than worried. “He does that again and I won’t be coming back.”
Vin nodded and reached into his pocket, pulling out a wad of cash. He handed a couple of hundred over. “Your help’s appreciated.” He folded up some more bills and handed them to the doctor and gestured toward Skate. “For the threat from this dickwad.”
The doctor nodded and walked away, and Vin turned and glared at Skate. “Finish that up and let Mason and Jase get you back to bed. And don’t even consider arguing with me on this, because if you do I’ll fucking put you down myself.” He looked at the rest of us. “I got eyes and ears on Agent Lear, and I hear that motherfucker’s making a stop tomorrow.”
“Where’s he going?” I asked as we started toward the door.
“He’s making a deposit at the bank, would you fucking believe it?” Vin pursed his lips and I knew he was thinking the same as me: Agent Lear was depositing his blood money.
~ 16 ~
“I’ve brought in another nomad for this. Called him up last night and he should be pulling in any minute now. He doesn’t know shit about Hardy though, so keep that to yourself,” Vin said.
We were sitting behind the parking lot of the Miles City Bank, waiting on Agent Lear to make his entrance. As usual, the day was hot, but there was rain in the air again and any time the heavens were going to open. Skull had brought along a cage for us to bundle Agent Lear into the back of once he showed his ugly mug, and Semi had already gone and slashed Agent Lear’s tires.
