Chapter 16
*~* Fury *~*
Ican’t believe Cannon has chickenpox. Where do you even go to catch them these days?
I’m not mentioning kids around him, I value my life too much to ask that sort of question.
I haven’t heard of anyone having those things in years.
Maybe I’ll delve into it with Jamie later.
Or maybe I’ll just delve into Jamie and forget all about Cannon and his pox.
Turning to the doors when I hear a cough, I see three guys walking in. They are dressed neatly enough, but my hairs stand up with a warning that I don’t feel I should ignore.
“Sorry, guys. We’re not open for at least another week.
There are some nice bars in town, though.
There’s a very nice one near the sheriff’s department that’s open till late every night.
” I see the look that passes between the two of them who are flanking the one I assumed was the boss, and I think my barb hit home.
They don’t like to be around law enforcement.
“We like your bar. In fact, we like it so much that we want to supply you with beer, liquor and girls.” The boss gives me what I think is supposed to be a friendly smile, but he looks more like an alligator viewing the lunchtime special.
I give him a grin back that should tell him what answer he is about to get, but I think he misses the point.
“We already have our suppliers in place for beer and liquor. As for girls, we’re not that sort of bar.
Thanks for stopping by, but I don’t think you’ll like it here.
We obviously have different ideas of what a good time entails.
” The two flankers take a step apart, and I smirk as I step back and to one side, putting a table between me and the three of them.
They no longer have direct access to me, and I can see that has thrown them.
“You shouldn’t be so quick to turn us down, my friend. You haven’t heard our terms of business yet.” Boss’s eyes narrow, and I see cogs turning in his head. He’s not used to such a quick refusal, that’s for sure.
“I don’t think your terms of business will fit in with how the Bitter Slayers MC want to run their legitimate enterprises.
Let’s just agree to disagree and then you can take your two mongrels and walk out of here.
Either that, or they can carry you out. No matter what happens here, you will be the first one to go down.
” I move my right hand slowly behind my back, and I can see this has the desired effect. They think I’m armed.
“Perhaps we’ll come back another time and speak to the man in charge. He may have a little more business sense than just a bartender.” Boss man starts to turn away until I reply.
“You just spoke to the man in charge and my decision won’t change.
If you should decide to come back again, I suggest you come ready for anything but talking.
There is nothing left to say in the matter.
” He gives me a last look that tells me he doesn’t like how this has played out, turns, and walks out.
Once they’re outside, I stand near the door to see where they have gone.
They are not in sight, so rather than try to follow them I go back through the bar and head to the back door.
If I can at least see what they are driving and maybe get a license plate, I’ll have something to give Bull to check out.
Taking care not to step outside without knowing where they are, I see an old Jeep Cherokee at the back of the lot. It may be old, but it looks as though it just rolled off the production line. There is no one inside it or near it. Where the hell have they gone?
Calling out to Mateo, Hellion, Bear, and Rage, I take a careful step out of the door. I don’t want to step out and into the waiting arms of those three goons. Hearing footsteps, I turn and see Hellion, Rage, and Bear approaching.
“Where’s Mateo?” I ask and can feel my blood start to run cold before Hellion answers.
“He took some crap out to the dumpster. Why? What’s up?”
“Fuck. We have intruders, and they may have Mateo.” Rushing out onto the parking lot, I look to where the dumpster sits and see nothing at first. As I rush around the side of it, I see Mateo being held by the two mongrels while their boss punches him.
It looks like Mateo is in a bad way, from the way he’s being held up.
“Hey, motherfuckers!” I yell and run straight at them. I feel the others follow me around the dumpster and the two mongrels’ eyes open in panic. I guess they don’t like the odds anymore.
Boss turns to me and starts to speak, but my fist slams into his mouth before he forms any words. I don’t hold back and slam my fist into him until he’s unconscious. I only stop hitting him so I can hit someone else.
Bear has one mongrel, arms pinned, and Rage has the other. Hellion is battering first one and then the other. I take over punching one of them, but I don’t even get to hit him as he’s already out cold. Hellion stops when Bear lets go of his mongrel who just slumps to the ground.
“Call for Jamie. Mateo looks badly hurt.” I check for a pulse and am relieved when I feel one, but it doesn’t feel as strong as I’d like. Hellion hands his phone to me.
“Fury? If he looks as bad as Hellion says he does, get Mateo to the hospital or call 911. Whichever will get him medical aid the fastest. Do it now.” The call ends, and I scoop Mateo into my arms and head for the club's SUV.
“Hellion, with me. You two, get those three to the clubhouse. I’ll want to talk to them myself as soon as I know Mateo is in good hands.” I sit in the back of the SUV, supporting Mateo as best I can while telling Hellion to get us to the hospital as fast as he can.
Pulling up outside the emergency department, there’s a gurney, two nurses and a doctor waiting for us.
They take Mateo and disappear inside, Hellion and I following.
When they go through a set of doors one of the nurses stops us in our tracks and tells us that’s as far as we go.
I’m about to push past when Hellion drags me back and looks me in the eye.
“We’ve done what we can, Fury. Now we let the experts do what they can for him. ”
Five minutes later I’m still pacing up and down outside those damn doors when Jamie rushes in.
“Where is he?” She shouts at me, and when I point at the doors, she’s through them in a flash.
Ten minutes later, I’m still pacing only now I have a cup of some godawful brown liquid in my hand.
I think it is supposed to be coffee, but I wouldn’t put money on it.
Jamie pops through the doors, and I drop the cup as she launches herself at me. It’s only when she throws her arms around my neck and I hear her sobs that I realize she isn’t attacking me.
When she gets her breath back, she steps away from me and in a voice cracking with emotion, states, “They could have killed him, Fury. He could still die. What the fuck happened?”
I try to explain it as best I can, but her anger is beyond anything I have ever seen from her, and she keeps cursing at every turn.
When I think she’s finished and calming down, she turns to Hellion, who jumps to his feet.
“You stay here, watch over him, and call me with any update. Anything, you hear me? No matter how small or insignificant, you call me.” Hellion nods and retakes his seat.
Pointing at me, she gives me the most fearsome look I think I have ever seen from anyone in my life. “You, come with me. I want answers, and I want them now.”
“Where?”
“I’m going to show you how a doctor interrogates a suspect. I know all the ways to inflict pain, and I intend to use them to get answers.”
“I think you’ll find that’s torture, not interrogation.”
“You want to split hairs with me over my vocabulary, right now? You can always become a fourth suspect.”
“No. I’m not splitting hairs, I was just mistaken.” After being dragged from the hospital, I wish I’d driven back to the clubhouse instead of Jamie. If I’d eaten anything today, it would have reappeared several times during the journey.
Sitting in Whack’s office, we’re all waiting for Jamie. She’s finished her interrogation, and we only have two suspects left now. One succumbed to what would appear to have been a heart attack, but was undoubtedly due to whatever she injected him with.
She walks in, sits on my lap and throws her arms around my neck. We can all hear the small sobs that she makes as she unwinds from her actions.
“I swore an oath to save lives, and by doing what I’ve done, I broke my oath.”
“No, Jamie. I don’t believe you did,” Whack says in a surprisingly tender voice.
“I think you probably saved a lot of lives by doing what you did. No one need ever know what happened today, and you have nothing to reproach yourself for. The other two will have joined their partner in crime by now and will be on their way to the crem for their final journey. I almost hope they’re not dead when the brothers light the furnace.
What they did to Mateo was for no reason other than their own gratification.
They weren’t sending a message as they tried to claim.
Fury had made it perfectly clear that we wouldn’t stand for their bullshit.
Now, though, we have another problem to solve.
They were Stephan Haroldson’s men. They knew that the bar was our property, and they knew about Cannon’s pickup truck being in his collection.
I think it’s time I had a face to face with young Stephan. ”
“You do that, I’m going back to the hospital.
I need to be there when Mateo wakes up. He was good to me when I needed protection, and the least I can do is show him I’m there for him when he comes around.
Fury, you can drop me off, and then I need you to do something for me.
You get your ass back here, you help plan whatever revenge it is that is going to happen, and more than that.
You are going to be the one who gets payback for Mateo.
” Jamie looks at Pres and she leaves no doubt that she means what she says.
He gives her the smallest chin lift, and she nods in return.
*~* Jamie *~*
Sitting by Mateo’s bedside, holding one of his hands, I look across the bed and see the tears running down Spirit's cheeks. They run freely and copiously as she stares at her man. I can’t imagine what she’s feeling as she sits there. What if that were Fury?
“The doctor said he thought the brothers stopped the attack in the nick of time. He seems to think that there won’t be any permanent damage and that because there’s no bleed on the brain, it will just be waiting for the swelling to go down.
” I give her a very thin and watery smile, as the doctor wasn’t quite as positive as I made it sound.
He hopes that he’ll be okay, but as with any brain injury, there are no guarantees.
“You’re a poor liar, Doc. You forget Wolf was a prepper and taught me more than most parents teach their kids. I’m not as uneducated as you might think when it comes to head trauma.” Caught in my own white lie, I have no comeback, so just sit quietly.
Thinking back to my arrival at the hospital after the interrogation, I was surprised to see Spirit sitting at Mateo’s bedside. I hadn’t given it a thought to contact her, and she must have seen my surprise and then my guilt all over my face.
“Hellion called me. I came immediately. I understand you had other things on your mind. Are those other things dealt with?”
“Yes, they’re dealt with. I’m sorry, Spirit. I should’ve been the one to make that call.”
“Are those other things dealt with permanently?” She has an intense look on her face as though she thinks I might lie.
“Permanently. Decisively. Never to bother Mateo again.”
“Good, and it doesn’t matter who made the call, just that the call was made.
I’m grateful to Hellion for his thoughtfulness.
” She has stopped crying, but the look she has now is the look I probably had when I went into the interrogation.
“I will need some information. Can you help with that, or should I seek it elsewhere?”
“I will help as much as I can. What do you need to know?” The next hours were spent discussing many things, but they all revolved around getting revenge for what had been done to Mateo. If I didn’t have the answers, I could at least point her in the right direction.
When there is a light tap on the door, we both look up to see who it is. Hellion slips into the room with a thermos and some sandwiches. He leaves them with us and as he is about to slip back out, Spirit asks, “Where did these come from?”
Hellion grins at her. “I know some people,” and with that he’s gone. When I slip out later to go to the restroom, Hellion is standing outside the door. When he tips his head to me, I tell him he should get someone to take over from him so he can get some rest.
“I can’t do that, Doc. I was told by a very scary lady to stay right here and watch over Mateo. That is exactly what I intend to do.”