Page 118

Tundra

I didn’t want to leave Mickayla’s side, but the doctor had asked me to step out of the room for a moment. In the corridor were two police officers, and they needed my statement. Luckily, Duane wasn’t resisting - far from it, and we finished in under half an hour.

The police beat me to Mickayla’s room, and insisted on questioning her without me there. I’d have understood that if Duane were being difficult or cagey, but they said it was standard procedure.

Since I drank a large coffee with breakfast, I went down the corridor, found the restrooms and took care of business. I came back down the hall and ran into Nickel.

“Did you tell her everything?” he asked.

I shoved my hands in my pockets. “I tried not to, but she insisted.”

He shook his head. “Not what you said yesterday.”

His tone rubbed me the wrong way. “We could have lost her, Nickel. Her life is more important than anything else. After sleeping on it, I didn’t want to tell her, but she put it together.”

He arched a brow. “You could have lied.”

I crossed my arms on my chest. “I’m not lying to your sister.”

“Guess I have my work cut out for me.”

I shook my head. “She doesn’t want to see you. Not today, anyway.”

The bravado slipped and the attitude wasn’t in his tone any more when he asked, “What?”

“Straight up, she’s devastated, Nickel. One more reason I didn’t want to tell her.”

Gamble sidled up to us. “Give her time, son.”

“This is the kind of drama we don’t need at the bar,” Lark muttered from behind me.

I twisted to the side and glared at him. “You instigated most of this drama - making sure the Biloxi brothers were here.”

Lark shrugged a shoulder. “One and done. I’m not here to rehash it with you, I’m here to make sure she’s okay before I head over to open the bar.”

“She’s fine, all things considered,” I clipped out.

Volt sauntered up to our huddle. “No need to head out that way, Lark. Beast is opening the restaurant today, and will be managing until Ricochet or Nickel get there.”

Irritation clouded Lark’s features. “You’re shovin’ me out?”

Volt dragged his thumb and index finger down the sides of his goatee. “More like I’m giving you a new project.”

“She’s the one who violated—”

Volt shook his head. “Save it. You’re the one who called in another chapter. As much as I’m sure Gamble appreciates it, that isn’t how we do things. Someone pointed out you let your guard down—”

“I didn’t—”

“Don’t care if you did or not, the way I see it, you have shiny toy syndrome. You get off on launching a new business, and lose interest once it settles into a routine. On a Lark has essentially settled into a routine. Go to the clubhouse. Patch and Blood have more details for you there.”

Lark stared at Volt for a moment. “Are you renaming it? Seems pointless to have my name on it—”

Volt stepped toward him. “Your road name was given to you by your brothers. And last month, you pointed out that you hated issuing the cease and desist letters because it was too secretarial. It has your name on it, but you won’t protect it. You left it to Mickayla to do that…seems clear, she’ll take better care of it than you will.”

“This is fucked up,” Lark muttered.

Volt tipped his head back and exhaled before looking Lark in the eye. “You hit the clubhouse, you’ll find this isn’t nearly as fucked up as you think.”