50. Tee
Tee
A few days later
“ H ello.”
Amy Nygard blinks twice as I slink into her hospital room, then squints and turns white.
Considering she almost died four times, that she can turn whiter is a miracle.
I twist around to glower at Cody who, against his original plan, is at my back. When she shifts her hands and covers her face from the pair of us, I grumble, “You were supposed to wait outside. You said we shouldn’t freak her out.”
“And did you wait outside the stables like I told you?”
“Four times. Four . I listened but it didn’t work.”
“You can’t expect to gentle a dog in four days.”
I flip him the bird, then grimace when my newly bitten finger stings at the gesture.
“W-What are you two talking about?”
We stop glowering at one another to turn and face her. She’s peering at us through her fingers, and if I didn’t know she was still a kid, that’d confirm it.
Being raised in an MC didn’t totally annihilate her innocence. Yay?
“I have a dog who hates me,” I inform her as I flounce in, the too-big, bright orange shirt Callan bought us all to commemorate the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation billowing around me. Plunking my bag beside her legs, I take a seat. “Cody gave me instructions, but he didn’t realize I’m not very good with them.”
“Neither’s Callan. Which makes no sense considering how smart you both are.”
“Maybe they think you’re not as smart as them,” she whispers.
I waggle my hand at her. “Callan might think that. I don’t. I like Cody’s brain. It’s very attractive. You just know his gray matter game is up there.”
Cody stares at me. “You think about my gray matter?”
“Of course. Gray matter’s sexy.”
Amy clears her throat. “Who are you?”
“I’m Cody’s…” Um. “…friend.”
“With benefits?”
“Yes!” I pause. “Just don’t tell my mom that.”
Amy gives me that look new people tend to give me. The ‘she’s crazy’ one. She glances at Cody, who shakes his head.
I don’t bother huffing.
“Why are you here?”
“People visit sick people in the hospital.” I turn to Cody. “Doesn’t she know that?”
“Oh, she knows that, but we are strangers, Tee.”
“You’re not.”
“Only by association am I a friend.”
Amy’s gaze darts to the door and the window beside it. “Am I allowed to leave?”
“Why would you when you’re still recuperating?”
Cody smiles. “It’s a fair question.”
“Then, can I have a fair answer?” Amy whispers, her fingers digging into the blankets now she’s plopped them on either side of her thighs.
“You’re free to leave when the doctors discharge you.”
“You don’t have to be scared,” I chime in, reading the girl’s fear better than Marshal Korhonen over there can. “Cody’s not going to arrest you.”
“But I?—”
“I’d be very careful of what you do or don’t say, Amy,” Cody counters, but his focus shifts to his phone when it buzzes. “Your father claimed that Kit was behind James Fairweather’s death. When you’ve been awake for more than five minutes, I’ll need you to make a statement.”
His wry tone is lost on her. If anything, Amy appears torn between an escape attempt and tears.
What he doesn’t tell her is that her father’s dead.
I have to assume that’s for a reason, so I keep my nose out.
(Hey, I’m capable. Sometimes.)
“Colt says to tell you that Milord’s in the house. Callan bribed him inside with a steak.”
I scowl at him. “Why’s Callan bribing my dog? He has his own dog to blackmail.”
Amy croaks, “Excuse me?”
Ignoring her, I prompt, “Ask Colt, Cody.”
Lazily, he tucks his phone away. “You ask him. You get along better with my brothers than I do.”
“Gross overstatement,” I retort with a sniff. “Callan and I agreed we weren’t going to bribe them yet.”
“You’re weird,” Amy rasps.
“Think that’s the first time I’ve ever been called that?” I pshaw. “I thought you had to be clever to get into that fancy school.”
“Obviously, I’m a dumb MC brat because I didn’t get to graduate.” Amy bites her lip. “Callan…”
“My younger brother.”
“She knows that already, Cody.” I tsk. “How many times do I have to tell you? Everyone knows you and your brothers.”
Cody heaves a sigh. “What about Callan?”
“H-He used to… I competed against him in some school tournaments. H-How is he since he graduated?”
My gaze drops to her fingers, which are pleating her blanket. “Callan’s working for his family ranch.” Her brow puckers, but when she doesn’t reply, I prompt, “What is it?”
“Is he studying long distance?”
Cody and I share a look, but he answers, “He’s mostly just handling accounts.”
“Oh.” Some more pleating goes down. “And, erm, he has a dog?”
“Hellhound,” I correct, ignoring Cody’s scoff.
Amy ducks her head. “I bet he’s really sweet to animals.”
Clearly, she has it bad.
A smile dances on my lips. “He’s sweet all round. Better than maple syrup.” That has Cody grunting, but I shoot him a wink. “Nanaimo bars, that’s you.”
Because he’s aware of my ongoing addiction issues with Canada’s premium baked good, he smirks and settles in the other chair.
(Ah, men. Such simple creatures.)
Amy coughs. “So, um, yeah, it’s just been a long time since we talked. I thought it was strange that he was the rich one and I was the poor one, but he attended public school and I was at a private boarding school.”
“Our sperm donor insisted that what was good enough for him was good enough for us.”
“Huh. That’s a kinda shitty mentality, but I get it. Dads aren’t always the smartest. At least mine let me try to…” Her bottom lip pops out. “Of course, he’s the reason everything got so fucked up.”
I nudge Cody’s arm with my elbow, but he doesn’t take the hint as he agrees, “Fathers are good at that.”
(Okay, my nose is officially in .)
“Razer’s actually not…” I nudge him again. “Cody, want to take over?”
He purses his lips, and I realize he was going to hold the info back from her, but I don’t think that’s wise. Her father might have been a piece of shit, but he was still her dad. I’m pretty sure he’d want to know if Clyde had died—even if it was only to celebrate.
“What is it? What’s going on?” Amy asks warily.
“I’m so sorry, Amy, but Razer’s actually been found… dead.”
She releases a gasp. “What?!”
Cody leans forward. “During our interview, he pinned the blame on Kit for everything—and I mean everything .” His look is a warning before he prompts, “In your statement, you need to corroborate the fact that Kit was the?—”
“—dastardly evildoer,” I insert when Cody struggles to finish the sentence without incriminating himself in that little ol’ perverting the course of justice thang.
Grateful, he tips his chin at me. I know that gratitude stems from the fact that I’m totally on board with this plan.
My moral compass doesn’t necessarily uphold the letter of the law. In my honest opinion, the justice system is a flawed and discriminatory one. (Ergo, it’s rife for skullfuckery.)
I know he doesn’t want to cook the books, but sometimes, laws were really just made to be broken—not that I’d tell him that. I’m pretty sure he’d give me a lecture.
Amy, her gaze locked on her knees again, whispers, “He was a dastardly evildoer.”
“His rap sheet confirms that,” is Cody’s retort.
“I-I didn’t want to be with him.” She peeps at him. “He scared me.”
“He can’t anymore.” And now, I’m even happier that the douche is dead and is taking the blame for everything.
Her brow flutters. “The MC will…”
“Your dad’s passing was…”
“Retaliation?”
“A course correction,” is how Cody chooses to finish that sentence.
She chews on the inside of her cheek. “There’s a new Prez?”
“Guy called Filch. But Dana said that he was only a temporary leader.”
Amy’s throat bobs. “Filch isn’t a psycho, so that’s something. But that’s why he’s temporary. You need to be a dumb-fuck, drugged-up dopehead with a penchant for shooting the wrong people to be the President of the Rabid Wolves. A-Am I in danger?”
“Filch said the MC would leave you alone.”
“I need to get out of the country then. Filch won’t last long. Bracket will blow his brains out to take the patch. Bracket’s a nutcase. He’ll come for me. I know he will.”
“You need to finish your education.”
She gapes at me. “Why would I give a damn about my education if I’m six feet under?”
“Because you got into one of the best schools in the country on a scholarship, Amy,” I splutter. “We can’t waste your intelligence! IQ levels have been falling since 1975!”
“It’ll be wasted if my gray matter is splattered against a wall because I’m a rat. Snitches don’t survive—that’s a fact that my ever-so-big brain never thought about when I called Cody.”
I don’t need the machines to tell me that her pulse has skyrocketed.
“Why did you call me?” Cody asks softly.
“I was desperate. Kit was saying some really…” Tears well at the corners of her eyes. “He wanted to brand me. Said I deserved the honor.”
I’m used to some of the Satan’s Sinners’ quirks, so I ask hopefully, “Brand as in a tattoo?”
“N-No. Actual brand.” Her throat bobs. “Razer was all for it. He was p-proud of me for… James. Agreed that I deserved to be Kit’s woman.”
There’s too much wrong with that statement for me to begin tearing it to shreds.
“Why was James even there?” Cody inquires, but from his gruff tone, I know he’s mad too.
“James came into the bar every night. He figured that’s where I’d hole up?—”
“I don’t understand why they didn’t move you to one of their sister chapters,” Cody mutters.
“The bar was Kit’s baby. He suggested it. Said it was a way to piss off the locals. Your brother cutting off their farming operations infuriated the MC. The bar came with a plot of land that they were going to use to grow more weed. K-Kit said my place was with him.”
I hear what she isn’t saying and I hold her hand. Her fingers tighten around mine. “You’re free of him now.”
Her eyes close. “For how long? He was the only person who kept me safe, but safety was relative with him. It’s… I’m glad he’s gone but…”
Jesus, what a number the MC have done on her.
“So, James was there to confront you?”
“I-I was told to stay in the kitchen, keep my head down until things had blown over, but the short-order cook sliced his fingertip off. Some dumbfuck had taken the first-aid kit from the kitchen, so I had to find it. James saw me, waited in his car until closing and I was taking out the trash.” She rubs her temple. “He kept screaming at me that it was my fault he’d been expelled. That his father had cut him off. That I was going to help him get back in his dad’s good books by taking the heat off him and coming forward?—”
“It’s okay, Amy. Just take a deep breath,” I order gently when she looks like she’s about to have a panic attack.
My eyes glance at the monitors, and I know that if the panic overtakes her fully, the nurses will shoo us out.
While Cody needs answers, I also recognize that she needs to get this off her chest.
Gulping down air, she rasps, “He wouldn’t stop screaming at me, and I knew that if he carried on, the brothers would hear. K-Kit’s so jealous. So fucking jealous. If he t-thought… I pleaded with James to be quieter, but he wouldn’t. He was so much bigger…
“When he tried to drag me over to his car so he could take me into town, I h-hit him with the trash bag.
“Everything just seemed to derail, but the sequence of events was…”
“Was what, Amy?” I prompt, squeezing her fingers.
“It was like everything aligned at the same time as everything went to shit. Kit screamed my name. H-He wanted me in there to…” Shame flashes over her expression. “…I always knew when he’d snorted. He was so much louder than usual. Dad used to control his blow habit, though, because—” Her hand comes up to her cheek as if she’s shielding an old hurt. “I knew Kit would be worse if he saw me with James. The coke made him even more paranoid and violent. I hated it when he was high.
“James was so strong. He just kept on pulling me over to his car, but if he shoved me in there, Kit would have thought it was f-for sex. He was already certain I had a boyfriend at school.
“So, I hit James harder with the garbage bag and I mustn’t have tied the knot in it well enough because everything tumbled loose.
“When the cook cut his finger, he’d nicked the tip of the paring knife so he tossed it in the trash. It was in that bag. K-Kit screamed for me, and I just knew that he was going to come out and he’d see and he’d hit me, and I-I couldn’t go through that again.
“Last time, he broke every finger of my right hand apart from my thumb and pointer so I could still use a pen.
“So, I grabbed the knife and I shoved it in his face. I-I only wanted him to back off, I swear. I didn’t mean to?—”
“Just breathe, Amy, just breathe,” I reassure as best I can when this girl has experienced far too much for someone so freaking young.
“James saw the knife and it made him even madder. I swiped it in the air and backed off a couple steps, but Kit yelled my name again. I-I turned to the door, praying he wasn’t there, but James was on the football team. He t-tackled me. A-And that was when I?—”
I squeeze her hand. “You stabbed him?”
“I-It wasn’t on purpose,” she pleads with us for understanding. “He pushed me down and the knife was there, and it went through his gut.
“Kit and a bunch of brothers came running out when I screamed, s-s-saw us on the ground, and h-h-he thought… But Dad understood and grabbed James off me. K-Kit was so jealous,” she weeps. “He started s-stabbing him over and over and over. There was blood everywhere. O-On me and just…” Her weeping turns into sobs. “Kit was so fucking proud. Not just of me but himself.
“H-He’s the only guy I’d ever been with and he wanted to keep it that way. I am… was Razer’s daughter. With Paulie dead, it was likely Razer’d pass down the mantle to Kit. At least, that was what he thought. Kit was too volatile to lead.” She gulps. “G-Guess that doesn’t matter now. B-But h-he made me do it last night when we were both covered in…”
“Jesus,” Cody rasps.
Shaking hands hide her face. “That morning, he started talking about the brand and how he was going to fuck me as he did it. I knew I had to get out. I just knew I had to. I was so fucking scared.
“Without school, that’d be my life. Him getting high, hurting me, fucking me as I hurt, forever and ever and ever. Dad would stop him sometimes, but not every time, and when he died, I’d be alone with Kit. No Paulie, n-nobody. And then I remembered I had your number and I-I called you because you said you would help me…”
When she gulps down air, Cody vows, “And I will keep you safe, Amy. I will. Thank you for telling us that.” He grabs her other hand and squeezes it. “But don’t tell anyone else. Understood?”
“I-I understand.”
“We have plenty of room on the ranch. You can stay with us. We have what it takes to keep you safe. You can finish your education?—”
“Callan will be there, right?”
I hide a smile as she blushes. “He’s in the main house.”
“I don’t mean to seem ungrateful because I’m not,” she says on a rush. “But w-whereabouts would I be staying?”
“I’ll know more when you’re ready to leave the hospital.” Cody points his thumb at the door. “You have a security detail just in case. Did you and Dana get along?”
“I guess. It’s every woman for herself in the MC,” she mumbles.
“Really?” My eyes widen at how very different it is to the Sinners. “There’s no sisterhood?”
She blinks. “No. Why would there be?”
Wow, that sucks.
Not all MCs are created equal, I suppose.
“Do you know her number?”
“It’s on my phone. I don’t know where that is though. I can access it on the cloud, I guess.”
Cody dips his chin. “If I talk to her, maybe she’ll give us a heads-up if things change with Filch and this Bracket guy takes over as Prez?—”
“She won’t rat out?—”
He lifts a hand. “I don’t expect her to. But for Paulie’s sake, Paulie who loved his baby sister, she can try to warn us if we need to move you urgently.
“In the meantime, you can concentrate on schoolwork. I’ll talk to the principal, ask her for any homeschool programs she might recommend for you, and we can at least get you to graduate.”
I can literally see his mind racing and I don’t think he’s ever been sexier to me—trying to help this poor kid who, through the postal code lottery of fate, had to endure a horrific childhood.
“You’re being so kind to me,” she whispers. “I don’t deserve it.”
“Paulie wouldn’t agree. He kept my ass safe. I can’t… He’s…” He pauses. “It’s my turn to keep you safe, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
It takes a while for that to settle in, for her to calm down, but when we talk about what’s going on with her injuries and how long she’s likely to be in the hospital, gradually, she relaxes.
By the time we’re leaving, she’s even smiling, which I take for the massive win it is.
On the way out of the hospital, I ask, “Do you trust her to be in the house with us?”
“I’m going to talk to Colt and Mrs. Abelman. Make sure the fam’s on board with the idea.”
“Did Colt do the same when he invited me to live with you?”
“No. But Colt’s not as thoughtful as I am,” he says wryly. “Plus, you’re a mad musician. She’s an MC brat?—”
“That’s discrimination!”
He arches a brow at me. “Can you seriously not see the difference?”
“I can, but it’s still not fair. She’s only an MC brat because she was born unlucky.”
“Perhaps, but everyone still deserves a say. I’ll explain her situation, and I’m sure they’ll take that into consideration. It’ll help that Callan knows her. She’s so young that I don’t want her on her own in a bunkhouse with a bunch of strangers, but I’ll respect their wishes and do what I can to help her acclimate if need be…”
Hearing the truth of that, hearing his fairness, hearing his kindness, I hum. It’s a lilting chord.
Happy.
More of a tweet than my ear’s comfortable with.
I’m long since past blushing when I do this with him, but the sound has him smiling, which makes it so much better.
In fact: “We need to go to our spot.”
“Huh?”
This time, my hum drops an octave. “You deserve a reward for being her knight in shining armor.”
His lips twitch. “I don’t need a reward.”
“I disagree. To the lake, kind sir. I don’t have a token for you, but I figure you’d prefer a blowjob to a bouquet of flowers.”
His gaze darkens. “Can you do that breathing thing again?”