Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Therapy isn’t enough. I need to bite people.
—Text from Birdee to Creed
Creed
I was called away.
Again.
I let Bernice know that I had to leave and to have her check on Birdee in a couple of hours, then slipped out of the house heading for my truck.
Apollo met me at the police station, jerking his chin toward me as he stood from the waiting room chair.
Gentry caught my eye as I passed him and gave me a chin lift. “He’s in his office. Head on back.”
I did, winding my way through the police station which was giving me fuckin’ hives.
I hated being here.
It reminded me of my darkest days, and I would rather be anywhere but here.
Yet, there I was at the police station to answer even more questions.
This time it was informal, unlike the last two of the day.
“What’s up?” I asked the sheriff.
Sheriff Black jerked his chin toward the chair. “Have a seat.”
I did, gritting my teeth as Apollo came in like he owned the place and took a seat beside me.
“Your friend here showed me quite a few views of what happened today with Cody,” he said. “And again with what happened with Vito and Grace at your place. He made a special stop here, however, when he showed me what Vito was whispering to Grace after he was allowed to check out of the hospital.”
My brows rose. “What’s up?”
“Vito and Grace devised a plan to come back to your place and kill you,” Apollo said point-blank.
“I tapped into the cameras.” He grinned.
“Which I had full permission from the hospital to do, in case you’re wondering like Sheriff Black here.
” I wasn’t. “I shared that information with Sheriff Black, and they caught Vito on the way to your house. He had a gun in his truck.”
“Fuck.”
“He’s in police custody. He’s admitted to everything,” Sheriff Black grumbled. “And I’m really fuckin’ tired of hearin’ things coming up in relation to this. If I have to hear about one more…”
“Sheriff Black,” a hesitant female voice called out.
Sheriff Black’s cold gaze turned to the woman cowering in his doorway.
“Yeah?” he snapped.
“Uh, I hate to tell you this, but that guy’s wife is missing from the hospital.”
Sheriff Black let his head rest on the back of his chair, his angry eyes glaring at the ceiling. “That whole damn family is fuckin’ off their rocker!”
I looked over to Apollo. “Can you find her?”
Apollo pulled up his phone and started tapping away.
It took him a few minutes, but he said, “She left in a brown SUV from the hospital’s front parking lot. Ambulance bay entrance. I tapped into a few cameras that go through that area. She’s heading toward…Creed’s place.”
“I don’t want to know how you got this information,” Sheriff Black said. “Gentry!”
Gentry appeared looking hesitant.
It was funny, despite the situation, to know that he was wary of his boss.
I could see why.
Sheriff Black was a powerhouse of a man. Six-foot-five, older in his late forties. Salt and pepper hair. Square jaw. Permanent scowl.
Oh, and a member of the Dixie Wardens MC.
“Yeah, Sheriff?”
“Get out to Creed’s place. If a brown SUV manages to get out there, I want you to arrest the fuckin’ twat in the passenger seat. Whoever gave her a ride, you can bring them in, too. We have fuckin’ questions.”
“You think she’s actually paralyzed, Sheriff?” Gentry wondered.
“If she was able to get out of the hospital, I’m betting she played the long game,” Sheriff Black grumbled.
“All right.” Gentry headed out.
“Go home, Creed. You see that woman getting arrested, keep drivin’.”
“Yes, sir.” I grinned.
He flipped me off as Apollo and I left.
Apollo and I were in the parking lot when he said, “I have a few more things.”
“What’s that?” I asked, eager to get to my place.
I didn’t think that Grace had a chance to get in thanks to half my living room filled with bikers who were too inebriated to go home last night, but that didn’t stop the itch between my shoulders urging me to leave as fast as possible just in case.
“One, Vito and Grace, as well as Cody, weren’t as clean as they would like everyone to believe.
When you started to spend time with Birdee, I kind of looked into her parents.
Her mom was obviously a psycho, which you know about.
But the dad wasn’t much better. Apparently, they were committing some hella fraud through their business.
Scamming people out of their lunch money, practically.
Nothing too big or scary, just overcharging on services.
Charging when they asked for services to be stopped and not giving their money back.
Making it impossible to cancel at the gym.
Just being altogether asshole human beings. Oh, and one last thing.”
“What’s that?” I scrubbed at my face.
“When y’all have an animal that’s brought in that’s been killed, y’all usually donate the meat, right?”
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“Well, they’re the ones that get the meat.
There’s a good ol’ boy agreement between one of the men at your department and Vito.
When an animal is found—which they call in about might I add—they’re the ones that get the call to come get it.
They take it to the processor and take a good chunk of the meat. ”
“Fucking fantastic.” I snorted. “Who’s the asshole at the department that’s calling them?”
“Some man named Pastry.”
“Pastry,” I scoffed. “I should’ve known. He’s a fuckin’ dick bag. He’s the reason I don’t have a newer snowmobile. His ‘I have seniority’ comments among the staff. He doesn’t even leave the office half the time anymore. I have yet to see him on a snowmobile this season. What a dick.”
“I’ll be finding a way to turn all this information in in a way that y’all can use it. Pastry might be incentivized to share. Then you can have Major let him go,” Apollo suggested before clapping me on the shoulder. “Get home to your girl.”
I offered him my hand. “How’re the wife and kids?”
“Perfect.” Apollo smiled. “Take care.”
I headed back home and forced myself not to stop when I passed Gentry’s cruiser pulled behind a brown SUV.
I did, however, flip Grace off when she was taken to the back of a cruiser and shoved inside.
She had a cast on her left leg and her left arm, which happened to coincide with my bodily tackling her to the ground and that side of her hitting the concrete.
She started cursing, and Gentry flipped me off in response.
I missed the rest, pulling up into my drive a few minutes later.
Boone and Odin met me on the porch as I got up to it.
“What happened?” Odin grumbled.
I gave him a rundown, and he shook his head in exasperation. “What fuckin’ morons.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” I agreed. “Everything okay?”
“Ladies are still sleeping,” Boone said as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. “I gotta get home. Let me know if you need anything these next few days.”
I offered him my hand, which he took before heading out. It left Odin and me standing on the porch watching him go.
“Your girl’s parents are fucking shitty,” Odin muttered.
“Agreed,” I said. “I think she got shafted. Then again, mine weren’t any better. Hopefully y’all can step in and be the family neither one of us has.”
Odin looked at me. “I think that’s asking a little much.”
I chuckled, knowing damn well and good that he would be part of that family before long.
He just didn’t know it yet.
The time would come, and then I could remind him of this moment.
“I’m headed out, too,” Odin murmured. “Got a couple of things to do before I head back.”
“Take care, buddy.”
Odin shot me a grimace before heading to his truck.
I watched him leave and kept watching as the sun slowly started to rise in the sky.
It was just peeking over the trees when I heard the door open behind me.
Bernice.
“Hey,” she said softly.
I held my hand up, and she walked under it, leaning into me.
“I’m glad you got her to like you again.” She bumped me with her hip.
I snorted. “I am, too.”
“Is now a bad time to tell you that I’m going to live with you for a while?” She snickered.
I looped an arm around her shoulders before saying, “How about, if they’re amenable with it, you take over Birdie’s lease?”
“Perfect,” she said. “As long as it’s not a shithole. I don’t do anything less than excellent accommodations anymore. Been there, have the t-shirt, don’t wear it.”
I chuckled. “Birdie’s old place is nice…now. The club bought the place from Reyelle, the local coffee shop owner. We fixed it up after everything that went down. Small, but nice. And even better, I have a couple of club members that live on the street. Plus, it’s right in the middle of town.”
“Perfect.” She bumped me with her hip again. “Seeing as my job is right smack dab in the middle of town.”
“You already have a job?”
“I do.” She paused. “For now. I’m going to be working at the General Store. I saw the help wanted sign when I was here puttering around town. They needed help, and I needed a temporary job.”
“Are you going to go back into work as a nurse practitioner?”
“No,” she sighed. “I wouldn’t mind, but when I said I’d drop off the side of the planet, I meant it.
I can’t very well register as a NP in Montana unless you want them to have a paper trail.
Your friend set me up with a new Social Security number, but I’m not sure how that’ll work with the state licensing board and all that fun stuff. ”
“I’ll talk to Apollo,” I said. “I’ll see what we can do.”
“I know I already said it, but I missed the hell out of you, Bubba.”
I groaned at the old nickname. “Damn, that one hasn’t been used since I was fifteen and begged you to stop.”
“I know.” She pulled away to stare up into my face. “But I figure if I can’t call you what I want to call you, I’ll call you the second best.”
The door to the house opened behind us, and I turned to find Hux yawning loudly. “Your girl’s up and acting like she’s about to cook us all breakfast. I told her not to worry about it, but she’s insistent.”
I squeezed Bernice hard enough to cause a wheeze to squeak out of her, as well as expel every bit of air she had.
When I let her go, she inhaled swiftly, then punched me in the gut not all that softly before saying, “Go make us some breakfast, big brother.”
I did just that, but only after I collected the kiss from the woman who’d stolen my heart.