Chapter 29 Grave
GRAVE
I took Everly to see a doctor the next morning so she could get properly cleaned up.
The doctor didn’t seem too concerned about her wounds, and actually complimented me on how well the dressings were done.
I wasn’t about to tell Everly that I had plenty of experience on myself, but I did.
Being a protector and enforcer for a motorcycle club gave me practice with certain things.
I knew how to stitch. How to disinfect. How to clean out a wound.
How to remove a bullet. How to pack a knife wound.
All sorts of shit people shouldn’t know how to do on a regular basis.
But the doctor was insistent on Everly taking a standard antibiotic everyday until her skin healed.
I made good on my promise. Diesel called church and I told him Everly was coming with me.
She could hang out and nap in one of the back rooms, but she wasn’t staying at my place alone.
I realized that not giving Diesel a choice made things easier.
There was no fight about it or him trying to reason with me.
Maybe that was because everything we had been through. Or maybe it was because he was tired.
Either way, he rolled with it.
Everly clung to me as tightly as she could as we rode to the lodge, but I still went slow.
Her grip was still weak and the last thing I needed was her sliding off the damn bike.
We cruised through town and took our time getting to the lodge.
The guys could wait. I had many more important things to address before I could get to that church session.
And if the guys didn’t like it, they could suck my dick.
“How are you feeling?” I asked as I parked the bike.
“That stuff the doctor gave me is making me tired,” Everly said.
“Then allow me to help you inside. I’ll lay you down on one of the beds and you can sleep it off.”
“Are you sure the guys are okay with this?”
“They’ve been wondering how you’re doing. They’ll be glad to see you.”
I scooped her up into my arms as the guys poured out onto the porch.
Rock held the door open for me as I carried her in and I could see Knox eyeing the bandages around her hands and feet.
I walked her down the hallway and DIESEL threw the door open, and I laid her down onto the queen-sized bed in back.
It wasn’t the best thing in the world, but it was clean and would give her a place to rest. Brewer handed me a bottle of water and I had Everly drink some of it before I tucked her in and kissed her forehead.
“Will you be here when I wake up?” she asked.
I bent down and pressed a kiss to her lips as the guys stood at the doorway.
“Yep. You sleep as long as you want, okay?”
“Can we go to that wing place for dinner?”
I chuckled and shook my head before giving her another kiss.
“Anything you want,” I said.
Everly let out a massive yawn and I got up from the bed.
I took one last look at her as she snuggled down into the sheets.
He curled the comforter up to her chin and turned to her side, and I stood there and watched as her breathing evened out.
I closed the door behind me and turned off the light, giving her as much darkness as I could for eleven in the morning.
Then the guys and I took a seat in the living room.
“How’d the appointment go?” Knox asked.
“Good. I cleaned her up mostly last night, but he finished off a few of the things I didn’t think to do,” I said.
“How bad is it?” Mick asked.
“I don’t think it’ll be as bad with this pain medication the doctor has her on. That’s why she’s so tired,” I said. “Her wrists are bloodied, but the skin on her ankles is gone completely. That’ll take time to heal, and the bandages will have to be changed often.”
“Did she have problems sleeping last night?” Diesel asked.
Just the mentioning of our activities from the night before made the veins in my groin pulse.
“I think having me there helped,” I said. “But she is pretty bruised. The doctor gave me some cooling stuff to put on her back.”
“Her back?” Rock asked.
“Yeah. She’s got some bad bruising on her back. From rolling around in the fucking trunk they stuck her in.”
It still made me heated to think about.
“She gonna stay with you for the time being?” Mick asked.
“Yeah. At least until she’s better. She’s still got three more weeks of paid vacation from work, so we’ll see how things go after a couple of them,” I said.
“Well if there’s anything we can do, you let us know,” Diesel said.
“Sure thing. Now, what’s all this business about church the day after a shooting. We never do shit like this because of the heat that run with the police the day after,” I said.
“Actually, the police aren’t really heated this morning,” Brewer said. “I checked with a trusted contact of mine and no one’s really looking into who shot up The Black Saddles. They’re more concerned with arresting them for what they had on their property.”
“Oh shit. So I missed some stuff last night,” I said.
“You really did,” Diesel said. “The police came around the corner just as we took out the last of the people that were patrolling that neighborhood. They came at us hard, but we held it down.”
“That fucking gun I had was a good one to take with us,” Knox said.
“Yeah, Knox was a nightmare out there in all the best ways,” Rock said with a grin. “When we heard the sirens, we all jumped back into the van and Brewer got the hell out of dodge.”
“And if the police know it was us, then they don’t care. They’re finding loads of shit on their property. My contact said outside of illegal guns and some damn grenades, they also found a shit-ton of drugs,” Brewer said.
“Drugs? The Black Saddles were dealing drugs?” I asked.
“Doesn't look like they were dealing. Just taking. But they found a lot. Pills. Coke. Meth. The works,” Brewer said.
“Sounds like a hell of a party,” I said.
“But that’s still not why I called church,” Diesel said.
Then, it clicked as to why we were all sitting in the lodge the day after a shoot-out.
“We have a rat,” Diesel said.
“Nice to finally hear you admit that,” Rock said.
“Trust me, it was more pride than anything,” Diesel said. “I’m the judge of character around here. The one who can read people in the span of fifteen seconds. The fact that we have a rat means I misjudged someone, and I don’t like what that says about me.”
“At least we’re all on the same team now,” I said.
“Someone in this core group is informing The Black Saddles what’s going on, and I’m not okay with that,” Diesel said. “I did a lot of thinking about it, and Grave?”
“Yep?”
“There’s no fucking way some pilled-up, coked-up, drunk-ass Black Saddles saw you come out of the woods and found Everly in that damn cabin.
Not possible. They’re idiots, at best. They’re trigger-happy, sorry excuses for motorcyclists.
They can’t coordinate shit like that. Which means someone told them where you guys were,” Diesel said.
“But that doesn’t look good on you,” I said. “Because you and I were the only two that knew where that cabin was to begin with. Before you told Mick to check up on me.”
“So, three of us knew,” Diesel said as he eyed Mick.
“I didn’t technically know where the cabin was. All I knew was that Everly and Grave were at a cabin. That’s it,” Mick said.
“Then it’s back to Grave and Diesel,” Knox said.
“I couldn’t have told someone. There was barely any cell service that deep into the damn woods,” I said.
“And if we buy that-- no offense, Grave, you understand?-- then it’s back to Diesel,” Brewer said.
We all panned our gazes over to him and he shook his head.
“That cabin isn’t the only time something’s been leaked. Remember how the U.S. District Attorney got all that fucking information on the case even before Monroe did?” Diesel asked.
“Fuck. I completely forgot about that shit,” Rock said.
“I didn’t know a damn thing about what was going on with any of that until Knox brought it to our attention,” Diesel said.
“None of us knew what was going on,” Mick said.
“Is it possible we have a listener? That the lodge might be bugged or something?” I asked.
“Then we’d have to start looking at people who have come into the group from the outside,” Diesel said. “And I’m sorry, but I refuse to believe Everly’s some kind of fucking mole or some shit.”
“No, that’s not possible,” I said. “Minus the fact that we’ve known every step she’s taken for the past three weeks, no one even knew who she was until she came forward. Not even the police. She’s got an alibi fourteen fucking miles long sitting in a file somewhere in the Redding precinct.”
“So, we’re back to square one,” Diesel said.
“Nope. Square two. Because we finally got you to admit that there’s someone feeding information to people they don’t need to be talking to,” Brewer said.
“I’m about eighty percent there,” Diesel said.
“Eighty perc-? The fuck? Are you serious?” Rock asked. “How the hell are you still only eighty percent convinced we have a fucking rat sitting at this damn table?”
“Because I’m having a hard time believing any one of you would roll over on this damn club. Take you, for instance,” Diesel said.
“Me? The fuck did I do?” Rock asked.
“You came to us during one of the most vulnerable points in your life. You’d lost everything.
Everyone you ever loved. We literally saved your ass.
I’m hard-pressed to think you’d roll over on us,” Diesel said.
“And you, Brewer. You came along with Rock. You were the only thing he had close to a friend after what happened to him. Roaming the halls together as high school best friends. I have a hard time believing you’d roll over on any of us, much less your best fucking friend. ”
“Damn straight I wouldn’t,” Brewer said.
“And Grave. Really? You? It isn’t even fathomable.
Not only can you not stand law enforcement in general, but you pledged within three months of hooking up with us.
You took bullets for me. For Rock. You put yourself in front of Brewer on four occasions when shit went south with a business deal.
You really mean to convince me you’d roll over on us? ” Diesel said.
“Not a fucking chance,” I said.
“And Mick. You’re our numbers guy. The newest member of us, but the most dedicated.
You’re the guy we call to talk to. The guy who knows all our bullshit when we can’t sleep at four in the morning.
You came to us after your family was murdered in cold blood and you asked for our help.
Said you’d take out any loan you needed to in order to pay us. Remember that?”
“How the fuck could I forget?” Mick asked.
“You ran with us before you were one of us. Hopped on your bike and rode with us to figure out who the hell had slaughtered your family. You were loyal to us before you were one of us. You really mean to tell me you might be someone who’d roll over on us?” Diesel asked.
“Nope. Never,” Mick said.
“And then there’s me. The one who looks the most plausible as the rat.
But I’m not. My great-grandfather fucking founded this club.
This group was my father’s life support.
My mother’s backbone. I live and breathe and drink this club.
You’re my family. I’d die for my family.
And anyone that comes into it from the outside-- like Monroe and Everly-- they’re my family as well.
I would never fucking roll over on my damn crew. On my damn family!”
I believed him. I also saw the hurt in his eyes. Diesel was trying to convince himself that he could trust this family he’d put together. This family he’d known his entire life. But even though the truth was hard to swallow, it didn’t make it any less truthful.
“Eighty percent is better than nothing,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean we stop trying to figure out who the rat is.”
“We can’t rule out that someone has come in from the outside and compromised us,” Diesel said. “Until I’ve got concrete proof otherwise.”
“I get it,” I said.
“With Monroe being pregnant, can we just keep this away from her for now?” Knox asked.
“Of course,” Diesel said. “Just be aware of what she’s doing. In the meantime, I think we should do a full sweep of the lodge. Recalibrating of cell phones and shit. Just in case.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Rock said. “Ante up.”
We all tossed our cell phones across the table to Rock for him to start doing… whatever the fuck it was he did.
“I’ll go get the sweepers from the closet and we’ll split up,” Brewer said. “But everyone rakes over the whole house. So, no one can cover up anything.”
“Good idea,” Rock said. “And I’ll do the last sweep once I’m done with the cell phones.”
“Who’s going to check behind Rock and make sure he isn’t doing something to our cell phones?” Mick asked.
“You wanna sit here and watch what I’m doing? Be my guest,” Rock said.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Mick said.