Chapter 15
*~* Barbara *~*
Chickenpox? How the hell did that happen?
Where does a grown man, no, a biker, manage to get chickenpox?
Talk about being a virgin bride, for Christ’s sake.
I mean, I’m not a virgin, but I am where Cannon and me are concerned.
There is definitely a higher power involved in this.
This is not normal. It is not how a courtship is supposed to run its course.
A knock at the door has me snarling, “What?”
The door opens just enough for Molly to poke her head inside.
“Is it safe to come visit?” She looks like she doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and I know the damn feeling only too well.
“I don’t know. Depends on what you want or what you have come to tell me! It better be something good, or I’m likely to rip your head off and eat it with ketchup!” I don’t know where that came from, but it just about sums up my mood right now.
“I just spoke to Jamie. She told me about Cannon and his chickenpox. Have you had it as a kid?” She’s slipped into the room now and looks like she’d rather be anywhere else.
“No. Of course not. That would just be too darn simple for my life. I had measles, German measles, mumps, and whooping cough as a kid. I was sick with something all the freakin’ time, but, of course, I never had chickenpox.
” I sit on the bed and raise my knees with my hands around them.
I feel like a teenager who’s just been told she’s not going to the prom.
“Oh. That’s a shame.” Obviously Molly doesn’t know what to make of all this.
“Ya think so? I have a million other words for it, and I can guarantee none of them are in the dictionary.” I begin to cry, despite my best efforts to keep it bottled up inside.
“I can’t believe my life. How can it go to shit so fast and so completely?
” I take a big sniff, and Molly offers a handkerchief from her jeans pocket.
Blowing my nose thoroughly and wetly, I offer it back, and she declines.
“Hang on to it,” she says.
There’s another knock at the door, this one slightly more urgent. Before I get to say anything, Jamie bursts in, asking, “Have you…”
“No, I haven’t had it, and no, I don’t think I was ever vaccinated.
My parents didn’t like all the injections and stuff, so I had to suffer every common disease known to man or beast. This is probably the only one, other than malaria, that I didn’t catch as a kid.
” My tears are running freely now, and I shrink back as both Molly and Jamie try to give me a hug.
“We’re both good, so we can hug you. You’ll need to stay away from people who haven’t had it though. I suggest you stay in here for a few days, and we’ll keep you stocked with food and drinks.” Jamie’s bedside manner is straight to the point with no holds barred.
“How come you’re so sure that I’ll get it?” I’m positive myself, but I have to ask.
“Well, you spent the night together, naked and snuggled up, so I’d say it’s a fairly safe bet you’re going to break out in a rash soon. Cannon doesn’t know where he may have contracted it, but most adults never do. He told me to tell you he is sorry.”
“Sorry? I’ll give him sorry. If I break out in a rash, does that mean I don’t have to stay away from him? I mean, if we both have it anyway…”
“You should certainly stay away from each other, or you could prolong how long you stay infected. You don’t want to see Cannon start to get over it only to catch it again while you’re still contagious.
It’s rare but not unknown, and why take the risk?
You’ll both be at risk of shingles later in life, too. ”
“Oh, you’re just such a bundle of joy, happiness, and good news. I may take you on as my good luck charm.” I know it isn’t anyone’s fault directly, but Jamie is an easy target for my frustrations right now.
“I can live with that as long as you’re not planning on chopping off one of my feet as a keychain. It was never lucky for the rabbits, you know?” Jamie grins at me and I have to grin back.
Knowing that is not really any one person’s fault, except the asshole who gave it to Cannon in the first place, I take a deep breath and try to focus on what is coming.
I’m going to be looking at five days, possibly more, of being cooped up in this room.
I don’t know how many of the MC are susceptible to this or indeed may have already been infected.
Holy crap, it doesn’t bear thinking about.
“I’ve already got Steven and Angela at the practice going over everyone’s records. I know what you’re thinking. We’re on the ball as far as we can be. Don’t worry and just try to keep your mind occupied. Time will fly by.” Molly has her turn at giving me a grin.
*~* Cannon *~*
I don’t have to be a mind reader to understand that Barbara must be about ready to skin me alive.
I’ve never found it so difficult to have sex, make love, whatever, with anyone ever before.
I know she wants it as badly as I do, maybe more.
You can bet this is going to keep us apart for another week.
I’m not sure I’d blame her if she just called it quits with us and walked away. I won’t let that happen, no way, no how, but she must be fuming right now in her own room. At least she’ll get the freedom of the clubhouse. That’s a lot more than I will.
How am I going to get my truck back stuck in here? Pres will want to get it back more than ever now, knowing how much that will get under my skin. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
Trying to get a relationship started with my woman. Trying to get my truck back and have some revenge on those assholes. Trying to sort out Percy the Python at the crem. What else could possibly go wrong? At least they say things happen in threes. That’s my quota, right there.
My cell pings, and I see a message from Bull.
Opening it, I have a video clip. Watching the clip, I see it’s from the crem security camera where the guys have put the water out to entice Percy, if he is still around.
The floor looks white, so they put out flour, sugar, or something to show any tracks.
Only a few seconds in and, sure enough, a large snake slithers across the floor. It looks like Percy is coming from the furnace area just off camera. He’s a damn big snake, and he’s got a bit of a lump just over what appears to be halfway along his body. That must be Whisky.
Percy reaches the water and spends more time than I would have thought drinking.
It must be hot around that furnace area, so maybe he’s gotten dehydrated.
He slithers off in the general direction he came from, leaving clear marks across the floor.
Hopefully, enough of that stuff will stick to him to show us where he’s calling home.
Being cooped up in here for five to seven days means that the guys will have their work cut out catching him without me.
Yay! At least some good will come of this.
I’m no coward, but I’m also no snake wrangler.
It gives me the heebie-jeebies watching those guys, and some gals, doing that shit in the Everglades. They have some balls, I gotta say.
I don’t suppose I’ve been lucky enough to infect Vortex with this disease?
God, that sounds so bad, what an awful thing to think.
It sounds like it came straight out of some zombie apocalypse movie or novel.
In twenty-four hours, I’ll be begging for any one of my brothers to come visit me, tell me what’s going on, or just talk shit!
Prophet surprised me when he turned up bearing my evening meal.
He brought a tray with a bowl of lasagna, garlic bread, and a side salad.
He has several bottles of beer with him, too.
Nice! The whole effect is ruined by the freaking gas mask he has covering his face and the coveralls.
He grins as he removes the unnecessary garments and takes a seat in the only chair in the room.
He sits quietly as I eat and pops the top off one of the beers. I raise my eyebrows at him, and he pops the top off a second beer and passes it to me.
“No, dumbass. What’s happening in the big wide world outside my cell?” I still take the beer and swill most of it in one go.
“We couldn’t find that damn snake. I think he wiped his tracks as he slithered like the Indians and outlaws did in the old western movies.
He just vanished. He can move fast when he wants to, as well.
For a big python, he can get into some surprisingly small spaces.
I think we’re going to have to wait until he gets hungry again and lure him out with something bigger that will slow his ass down.
” Prophet finishes his beer and reaches for another.
“That’s a great idea, but how long will Whisky keep him full?
He might not need to feed again for a month.
Do we want Percy slithering around the place for that long, unaccounted for?
I know I don’t.” The thought of Percy lying somewhere watching me, measuring me up as a potential meal, makes my skin crawl.
“Maybe we need to get a snake expert in. One of those that sits with a flute and a basket.”
“He’s a freaking python, not a cobra. He ain’t gonna dance in or out of a basket for no one.
Can you imagine the basket you’d need? It would have to be a commercial-size laundry basket or something.
We need one of those purty Florida gals with them nice muscles.
You know what I mean?” Prophet smiles an evil smile.
“I know what you mean, and they don’t call them muscles, neither. One of those women would wrangle your little-biddy grass snake clean out of them jeans and probably rip it clean off.” I smirk as he grimaces at the thought. “What have Zion and Winger come up with? Anything?”
“Winger thinks we should find Percy’s original owner and stake him out as bait.
I reminded him if he’d got his details like he was supposed to have done, we wouldn’t be in this mess.
Oh, and Zion turned up with a piece of roadkill, but it was so flat and dried out it was more like a raccoon frisbee.
Damn lunatic. We need to get something found soon so we can do Whisky’s cremation.
” Prophet finishes his second beer and wipes his mouth.
“Any news on my truck yet?” I ask hopefully, but not expecting much of a response.
“Pres told us we can’t discuss it with you,” Prophet smirks.
“He’s afraid you’ll escape and infect the town with your nasty, spotty disease.
Personally, I think he’s hoping to have all the fun of getting it back and exacting retribution without you.
” Taking up his two empty bottles, my one empty bottle and my tray, he gives me a chin lift and walks out laughing.
Fucking Pres! I knew he’d try that!