Page 73 of Guarding Glenda

I hung up, then went back inside, locking the door behind me. The digital beeps sounded down the hallway from the door opening and closing.

“You can come back in,” Sam yelled.

I had a long fucking night ahead. Hopefully Manny would pull through and we could get some info. At least I knew I had Glenda to take home with me.

Chapter 27

Glenda

I stayed busy most of the day. That was the beauty of the clubhouse. So much to do. It was easy to keep yourself occupied and not think. Lots of rooms stayed vacant, some only got used occasionally, but some were rooms of the guys that lived on site. A few of the guys had assigned rooms that they used here, but had homes somewhere else.

There were always other ladies around to chat with, but for whatever reason, I felt an immediate pull to Linny when we met. Maybe because she didn’t know me before. I had a clean slate with her. Having her at the clubhouse to do chores with was great.

They’d been staying at the clubhouse ever since we got attacked. I wasn’t sure if Bama was still worried about being ambushed again or if Linny didn’t want to go back because of Ollie.

She hadn’t known him as long as me, but you didn’t have to know him long at all to love him. He’d been a long-time member of RBMC but he patched in here when they set up shop. He had been assigned to Linny’s protection detail for when Bama wasn’t around. When we decided to swing by the house that day, he followed us.

I’d not had a recollection of him being shot until my last nightmare. It was horrific and sad. He died for us. I had to keep fighting for him just as much as me. I didn’t want him to have died in vain.

“Momma, Daddy said you need to come eat,” Sofie said as she found us folding the last of the laundry for the day.

“Thank you, sweet girl. We’ll be there soon,” Linny told her.

Sofie grabbed my hand. “I’ll save a seat for you.”

“You better,” I said as I squeezed her hand.

Sofie smiled then ran out of the laundry room.

“No running!” Linny called out. “That girl.”

I giggled. “She sure seems chipper.”

Linny moved her pile to the cart we’d use in the morning to replace towels and change sheets where needed. “She thinks it’s a long vacation. She never stayed in a hotel before, so she’s living it up. Sucks the pool is closed. but that water was cold.”

I gathered my piles and moved them. “Yeah, the air stays warm because of the humidity. When it’s overcast all the time and the sun goes down earlier, all the water gets cold fast.”

“It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” she said with a laugh.

“Have you been to the desert? Dry heat is so different.”

“No. Before last year, I hadn’t been out of Georgia.”

“Well, Nevada is hot as fuck, but it doesn’t feel as bad as down here, I can tell you that.”

Linny waved me to the door and I turned the light off as we walked out. “You went overseas, too, right? Were you in the desert there?”

“It was pretty much desert. And same thing. Even hotter there than Nevada, though. But I’ll take the dry heat over high humidity any day.”

I started to head toward the old buffet side of the first floor, but she pointed to the bar. “This way.”

“Oh.” I stared at the closed, ornate, doors. “I thought we were eating with Sofie.”

“We are. She loves it over here.”

Sucking in a deep breath, I said, “I wonder if Hammer’s in there.” I managed to steer clear of him all day. Leigh said everything was handled, but that only meant I wasn’t kicked out. I had no idea if he hated me, wanted to flog me, or if I had to pay a fine. If the patched members did something, that was the punishment: fine and flog.

Linny grabbed my hand. “Hey, Bama is here. Rogers is here, too. You’re not going anywhere, so may as well get this over with. You’ll see him sooner or later.”