Chapter 9
FINGER
Standing in Tracker’s office with Cap, Rides, and Hot Rod watching, I maintain my stoic position. At the front of Tracker’s desk, I give him my full attention because anything less and he’ll kick my ass or shoot me in the head.
“When you are on duty to provide security and you are to be at a place to escort someone you make sure you arrive early. Not on time, not late, early. If you had arrived early, The Seer would not have been hurt.” Tracker is scowling so hard I’m in a position where I say nothing, take what he’s dishing out and am thankful that’s all I’m getting.
“Do you understand, Finger? I am laying the blame for this last fiasco on you because if you’d been early to the diner Cilla would not have left to walk home. ”
“I understand, Pres. I was helping at the rescue because Bull was stretched. I didn’t realize the time, but it won’t happen again.”
“You will stay at the diner all Cilla’s shift.
I don’t care that it’s boring. You stay there and keep your eyes open.
This bastard may have another go at her.
If he does, you take him down, and we get him back here.
We are watching where he was last seen, but he’s a sneaky bastard and keeps slithering past us.
” Tracker picks up a cigar and puts it between his teeth, which tells me this is over.
I quickly say what is expected, “Yes, Pres.” Then I turn, pass the brothers watching my humiliation and make for Cilla who I’m taking back to her house. I’m sticking to her like glue from this point on.
“Oh, and Finger, Cap, Rides and Hot Rod will bring Nicholas Denning to the shed. You watch Cilla until we get him in custody,” Tracker snarls, but has that feral look on his face. I nod and quickly exit the office.
As I’m driving Cilla to her house, I keep giving her side-eyed looks because she’s not saying a word. Eventually, I can’t stand the silence. “Are you okay, Cilla?”
Turning her head to look at me, Cilla gives a small smile.
“I’m okay. I know the guy was going to get rid of me because I took those pictures, but you know, Finger, I am not sorry I took them.
He could have murdered all of you in one single blow.
I’m not happy to ignore something like that.
Bono tried to warn me, but it was too late because the guy was on me before I understood what Bono was doing.
But Bono waving his arms around and bellowing like a fool didn’t help either. ”
“I’ll be sticking with you from now on, Cilla. I’ll sit in the diner and watch for the fucker to come again. Pres knows where he’s been hiding, so it won’t take long to track him down and get hold of him.”
Cilla looks at me with a frown on her pretty face. Shit, why did I think that?
Once we are at Cilla’s house I watch as she switches on the coffee machine and checks out the fridge. “Let me do that. Take a seat, Cilla.”
“I can do it.”
“I know you can…but take a seat anyway. Is Bono around?” I only ask because, honestly, it’s spooky as shit to think someone dead is watching what you are doing.
Cilla lets out a tiny giggle. “No, he’s not around at the moment.”
“I’m not sure about having ghosts following us around, Cilla. It’s kinda fuckin’ spooky.”
“You get used to it. I’ve seen the dead since I was a child, so to me more than not they are just people who want closure before they move onto the next level.
” Cilla jumps to her feet and opens the fridge where she takes out a beer and holds it for me to see, and yeah, I nod that I’ll have one.
But seeing her take out a can of soda for herself tells me a lot about this woman, and how careful she is being with her own health.
After raiding the fridge myself, I make scrambled eggs and bacon. I throw in some toast and call it a meal. Actually, Cilla eats every bite, and as it’s early evening after eating, she takes herself to shower and get into bed.
Now, I’m not sleeping on this couch another night. I wash up and clean the kitchen before putting the TV on for an hour. Hearing no movement upstairs for quite some time, I walk up and check if Cilla is asleep.
Yeah, she’s out for the count. I quickly shower and do the last thing she’d expect, which is climbing into bed, keeping my boxers on, mind you, and lie on my back with one arm behind my head.
I want to catch this asshole myself now he’s caused me grief with Pres.
I don’t know how they haven’t caught the piece of shit yet, especially when they found where he was staying.
Waking the next morning, I stay perfectly still. Cilla has her head on my chest, arm wrapped around my waist, and a leg thrown over mine. I would chuckle, but the movement is liable to wake her, and she’s got that low snoring noise going on which sounds kinda cute coming from her.
I know the moment Cilla wakes, as her entire body stiffens, and she does her best to slowly extricate herself from my body. I can’t hold back the laugh, and when she shoots from the bed bolting into the bathroom, I laugh again.
It doesn’t take long to dress, go downstairs to get the coffee on, and check everything is still locked as it should be.
“Morning!” Cilla states in a way I’m not sure is good.
“Morning, you slept well. Anything to worry about from your latest health incident?" I ask, keeping my voice even. I hand her a coffee and take a seat at the kitchen table.
“What were you doing in my bed?”
Ahh, at last she has broached the subject. “Well, I’m not sleeping on that hard couch when we can share the bed. I didn’t encroach on your side. It was you who plastered yourself on top of me.”
“But…”
“Cilla, it’s happening. I’m not breaking my back on that couch.
If that asshole comes after you, I don’t want to be stiff and hurting and not able to protect you.
So, you’re gonna have to live with it.” Continuing when Cilla tries to speak again.
“I wore my boxers. It’s not like I was naked now, is it! ”
Mumbling under her breath as she placed her dishes in the sink, she walked past and up the stairs to get ready for work. I hear her mumbling something about morning wood, and I can’t help but smirk because she’s right, I had wood this morning.
Four hours later, I’m bored out of my skull. Sitting here in the diner watching Cilla work is about as invigorating as watching paint dry. I have been outside and around the diner, but I’ve seen nothing untoward.
Cilla walks over to my table and places a pot pie with all the fixings in front of me, along with a large mug of black coffee, sweetened just how I like it.
Not saying a word, Cilla walks back to the counter and returns with a plate for herself. Once she is sitting, she looks up and smiles. “I thought we could eat a meal here and then have something simple later.”
“Okay, well, we have to stop at the clubhouse for an hour later because Pres has called an officers' meeting. It shouldn’t take long, but we can check what they have on offer for supper while we’re there.”
Cilla looks at me while giving a nod, “Okay, we can do that. I’ll have to jog again if I have two full meals a day.
I usually nibble on breakfast and lunch, then eat supper.
I don’t want to put on a lot of weight. When I was younger, I was a chubby thing and took a lot of ribbing because of it.
I don’t want to be stick thin, but I don’t want to be porky either. ”
Now, I can’t help but smirk as I reply. “Well, you are not thin, Cilla, but you’re not overweight either. In fact, I would say you are fit and healthy. You have an aura of being healthy.” What the hell am I talking about? An aura of healthy, for fuck’s sake!
While Cilla finishes her shift, I wander outside and check over the truck.
I want to make sure it’s not been tampered with while we were inside.
It has been in full view of the diner, but you never know with the sneaky asshole that is after Cilla.
Finding nothing, I wait at the side of the truck for Cilla to come out of the diner before holding the passenger door open for her to climb inside.
The quiet between us as I drove had no strain to it. Cilla leans forward and turns the radio on. After fiddling with the buttons for a while, rock music fills the cab, and I watch from the corner of my eye as Cilla taps her thighs to the beat and sings under her breath.
Suddenly Cilla stops and sits bolt upright. “Stop!”
I pull over and look at Cilla who is obviously listening to Bono, or some other apparition that I’m thankful I can’t see. “What’s wrong?” I can’t help but ask.
“Bono said that Ghost and Demon are back, and they need to check their hogs. I don’t know what he’s telling me, Finger." Cilla shakes her head at Bono. Well, I think it’s Bono, but who knows when you can’t see the one she’s speaking with.
“Just repeat what he’s saying,” I state with some urgency in my tone of voice.
“Okay. He said underneath the chassis on Ghost’s is something that needs to be removed. On Demon's, it’s inside a headlight vent.”
“Fuckin’ hell!” I snap and get us back on the road. I don’t waste any time either. I get us back and have Cilla inside before bellowing for Ghost and Demon to get to their hogs.
I don’t waste time filling them both in, but tell them where to check for whatever this asshole has planted on their bikes.
Ghost has a hidden camera, complete with a tracker.
Demon’s, however, is a different thing altogether.
He has what looks like a timer or something similar, but it is difficult to tell without removing it.
Demon shakes his head. “I’m going to get Bull to look at this. He has bomb squad experience, so if it’s more than a camera or tracker he’ll know what the hell it is.”
Bull arrives along with Keys to look at the headlight. When they both go still and stare at each other, I know something is wrong. Now, Keys has been checking what they found on the tablet or whatever it is he works on remotely.
Keys snarls, “Get the hog to the back of the compound, Demon, and do it fast.” Bull steps back and shakes his head, that no, not to turn it on. Demon pushes the bike and we all follow at a discreet distance, but I can tell you my stomach is in knots that nothing happens to my brother.
Once there, Demon leaves his bike and walks over to us. Waiting for him, I’m not sure what’s going to happen next. I look at Bull, then Keys, waiting for them to say what they are going to do.
“Step back further. I’m going to remove that damn thing. But if it blows, I want you far enough back not to be hit by it.” Bull doesn’t hang around but quickly walks up to the hog and starts working.
Ghost, Demon, Keys, and I all step back, but my heart is pounding. I don’t want to see one of my brothers blown to pieces. Saw enough shit while in service and I don’t ever want to see more.
It only takes a moment before Bull has the device off the hog, then takes it to the furthest part of the compound before throwing it as far as he can. He then takes out his phone and fiddles with it a moment, when a tremendous bang erupts and my gut clenches, knowing that could have been Bull.
“How the fuck did you do that?” Ghost asks as we walk back down the compound toward the clubhouse. Demon is riding his girl back down the compound and looks more than happy she’s still in one piece.
“High frequency,” Bull replies, and we know that’s all we are getting out of him. Ghost nods as though that answers his question, but I know he’s no idea really how high frequency set the bomb off.
Walking into the clubhouse, we come to a halt when Rita and Trix are having a hell of a catfight in the middle of the common room.
Because we are men, we watch a minute or two before making any effort to stop them.
I know I have to do something because it was my responsibility that had Rita on bathroom duty.
“What the hell is going on here?” I grab hold of Rita and point at Trix.
“She’s been in my room, and she’s touched mine and Daisy’s stuff. I’ve told her to stay out of our room. She has no reason to be inside, but she’s wearing Daisy’s top,” Trix snarls while giving Rita a deathly glare.
“I’ll deal with this, Finger. You need to get into Pres’ office for the meeting,” Bull states, and grabs each of the women by the elbow and guides them away. Bull’s not an officer so he’s not needed for the meeting. Hence, I’m okay with him dealing with these two.