3. Crusher
Chapter 3
Crusher
It’s been a long hard ride. I think I’m getting too fucking old for this shit. We pull into the parking lot of the hospital the McDaniels chick named, one right after another. There’s not that many of us. Until I know what I’m dealing with I tried to play it safe, and to be honest our club isn’t that big. Diesel had trouble bringing new members in because he wasn’t sure he could trust them. After everything he has been through, I can’t say that I blame him.
I’m leading the pack and behind me is Fury, Gunner, and Rebel—our newest member. I left Devil behind to run things and Scorpion is there with him. We have some prospects and I told Devil to test the fuckers out while I’m gone. It’s time to figure out who we have to count on during a firefight.
You can hear the rumbling of our pipes as we pull in. I used to get off on that noise, the racking, the roar. Back in the day, when I ran with Dragon and the boys… Fuck… We’d tear up the backroads of Kentucky just to let people know we were there. I can’t lie. There are days when I miss those boys like you would miss losing a limb. They’re family.
Savage wasn’t a part of a huge chapter that migrated to Kentucky. We built that fucking shit from the ground up. There are a few chapters scattered here and there now, but that’s it. We only had one mission and that was a mission we felt deep.
Live free.
Where some clubs were fucking concerned about mixing the colors of our skin, more concerned with staying with their own… We said fuck off. We were brothers in every way that counted. We shed blood together and why some people can’t get that it doesn’t matter the color of your skin, because underneath we all fucking bleed the same color blood, is beyond me. We didn’t let that shit in our club. We didn’t let that in our lives.
We still don’t.
So, yeah, I miss it. When Diesel opened up a Savage Tennessee Chapter, that wouldn’t have happened if Dragon didn’t trust Diesel. Diesel might not have been in our core group, but he was of the same ilk. Our beliefs, our values, they were the same. He became family.
Shit went down and I fucked up. Dragon fucked up. Jesus, it was so bad it still hits me in the middle of the night. In the end, the love between my brothers and I was still there, but I needed to start over. I wanted that for Dani, but if I’m completely honest… I needed it even more for myself.
Which means, I might miss my brothers in Kentucky, but Tennessee is home. And my feelings run just as deep for Diesel and the men who have my back now. The fact that Diesel was brought down, has been in a coma for almost two weeks and I had no idea… Jesus. That cuts me alive. I’m pissed at myself. There’s no denying it. If I had just stopped and thought, I would have found Diesel earlier. I let him have his space, let him do what he needed to do and trusted him to contact me when he was ready.
That was stupid.
That was another mistake on my part and I pray to hell and back that I didn’t let my brother down, making mistakes like I made with Dragon, Bull and Dancer. I pray, but in my gut, I know I did. I knew Diesel had a place here in this damn town. I’d forgotten, but in the back of my mind the knowledge was there.
Definitely pissed at myself.
I’m off my bike, and walking toward the entrance, without waiting. The others fall in line with me. I can feel eyes on us, but I ignore it. This town probably has ownership from another club—most do. I don’t know whose territory it is, because I didn’t take the time to research that shit. I needed to get to my boy. Scorpion is working on that intel, he’ll let me know and then I’ll make moves from there.
I follow the signs that point to the registration desk. I figure they can tell me what room Diesel is in. I called the hospital before we headed out, but they refused to give me information. In fact, they hung up on me. I didn’t have resources to find out anything quickly, so I made this fucking trip in record time and the boys and I have rode hard, barely stopping to take a piss. We made it here in about twenty-four hours. All of which means, I’m fucking tired, hungry, pissed and a bunch of other shit I’m not even naming. They’ll let me see my boy. If they don’t, I’ll burn this fucking town down and at this point I’m deadly serious.
“I’m looking for my brother,” I tell a startled looking older lady behind a reception desk.
“Uh, what’s his name?” she asks, taking a pin out of her permed, gray hair and adjusting her glasses. She has a white stack of papers, about four or five that have been stapled together.
“Westin Cross,” I tell her.
She sifts through the numbers, and swear to God the woman is slow as fucking molasses. Gunner is beside me and he exhales to the point it sounds like he’s snoring.
“I don’t have a Westin Cross listed,” she says, looking up at us nervously.
What the fuck?
“Check again,” I growl.
The old lady jumps visibly and if I wasn’t so worried about Diesel, I’d feel like a piece of shit.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “There’s no Westin Cross listed in a room here.
“We were told he was in a coma and recently came out of it,” Gunner adds.
“There’s a chance he could be in the Intensive Care Unit. Those names are protected for family privacy, but since it’s your brother you should be able to check with them.”
“Where is that?” I ask her.
“ICU is on the fifth floor,” she responds. She barely has the words out before we’re heading toward the elevators.