Chapter 17
Priest
“Oops,” Indigo said innocently, shrugging and holding her hands up in the air.
“Oops?” Duke questioned, an eyebrow raised in wry amusement as Tank hefted the dead Iron Raider from the truck Indigo had driven back to our compound after she and Lennon were attacked in town.
When they’d driven onto the compound, we’d met them over by the confessional, and Bones had Indi recount what had happened.
Lennon had been uncharacteristically quiet while Indigo told us about having breakfast at Misty’s Diner and how two men had tried to snatch them from the parking lot.
I’d put a call into Clover, who was working now to erase any security camera or traffic footage taken on their route so it would be as though Indigo and Lennon had never been in Sagebrush at all.
“Well, what do you want me to say, Duke?” Indigo snapped. “I didn’t plan to kill him. He just went ahead and died! I brought you one living souvenir, though. Oh… unless you’re mad I didn’t bring you any pancakes. Are you hangry, Mr. President? In that case, I am sorry.”
So she wasn’t sorry she’d killed a man, but she was sorry she didn’t offer to DoorDash my old man brunch? I shook my head and resisted the urge to pull her into my side and kiss her on the top of her head. She was too adorably insane sometimes.
“I ain’t hangry, darlin’,” Duke rasped, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Where’s the other one?”
“Waiting below,” I responded. Sticks had his arm wrapped around Lennon, who didn’t look good. Bones was obsessively scanning her from head to toe, looking for signs of injury or damage. Tank had the dead man draped over his shoulder in a fireman’s hold.
“Where do you want him, Prez?” he asked, not even straining to carry the dead weight.
“Call Gia,” Duke responded. “Store him in the confessional until then. I’m sure his friend will appreciate the company,” he said with a dark look at the dead Raider.
“Who’s Gia?” Indigo asked curiously.
“A friend of the club, like you,” Sticks answered, still holding his daughter firmly at his side. “Georgia owns a hog farm about an hour away, and from time to time, she helps us get rid of the trash.” Indigo’s eyes lit up, and I knew what she was going to say before she even said it.
“Can I go visit the piggies? Oh my gosh, I bet they’re so cute!” I sighed. Of course she’d think seven-hundred-pound hogs that eat dead bodies would be cute.
“We’ll see. Once the threat of the Callahans and Iron Raiders is gone, maybe we can ask Gia if we can visit,” Duke said placatingly.
I hoped Indigo forgot about Georgia and her farm because I really didn’t want to drive out there for anything other than a body drop.
She didn’t raise too many man-eaters, but the ones Georgia did have creeped me the hell out.
“Sweetheart, why don’t you come home with me?” Sticks asked his daughter, thankfully drawing Indigo’s attention away from man-eating pigs.
“You would have been so proud of Lennon if you’d been there, Sticks,” Indigo said with a big smile. “She remembered her Sith training and helped me kick that guy’s ass.” Indi gave Lennon a thumbs-up, but her friend didn’t return it. Instead, she gave her dad a weak smile.
“I think I’d like to go back to my room, if you don’t need me, Indigo?
” Lennon looked worn out, and I had the feeling she was having a difficult time processing what went down this morning.
She grew up witnessing occasional bar fights and brawls, but that was very different from what happened today.
Indigo quirked her head to the side and gave her friend a reassuring smile.
“Get some rest, bestie.” Sticks released his daughter so she could give Indi a hug, and I heard her murmur into Lennon’s ear as they embraced.
“You defended yourself. You didn’t do anything wrong.
You didn’t kill him. I did.” She pulled back from the hug and put her arms on Lennon’s shoulders.
“It was me, okay? You had every right to protect yourself.” Lennon’s eyes widened to hold back tears.
She nodded and turned away from all of us before her tears could fall.
Bones watched her walk away with her dad for about thirty seconds before he gave up pretending and stalked after them without giving the rest of us a backward glance.
“Alright, Priest, you’re up,” Duke said, slapping me on the back.
“I want to know what the Raiders are up to. We’re gonna have to move our plans with Petrov up so that we can retaliate sooner rather than later and put the Iron Raiders down for good.
” My dad turned to Indigo. “Indi, I saw Lorna looking through her cookbook tryin’ to find a new cookie recipe for y’all to try.
Why don’t you head over to our house and spend some time with her? ”
Indigo snorted back a laugh. “Good one, Duke.” My father’s eyes narrowed at Indi, not appreciating being brushed off.
“That guy tried to snatch me and my bestie, and almost rear-ended Sheila. He totally ruined my Wicked Sisterhood bonding vibes, and that just grinds my gears because we had a real good thing going! I love cookies as much as the next gal, but I’m not in the mood to bake right now.
I’m in the mood to fuck that guy up. And give Priest pointers on intelligence gathering,” she said with a grin. I frowned at her.
“Respectfully, of course,” she tacked on, giving me a thumbs-up. Great, looked like it was “take your crazy chick to work” day.