Chapter 11
Widow
There’s nothing worse than seeing a brother wounded.
It was a reminder that we weren’t as invincible as we’d like to think.
Country was black and blue from head to toe, and even though he still hadn’t fully woken up, Doc assured us that he was strong and would eventually come around.
The waiting hadn’t been good for any of us.
We were all on edge. We’d spent the last forty-eight hours stewing over who could’ve hurt our brother.
The only thing keeping us from completely losing it was the fact Menace was making some headway on finding out who was behind Country’s attack.
The guy was a fucking genius when it came to computers.
Once he set his mind to it, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do, so none of us were surprised when Viper called us all into church and informed us that Menace had news to share.
It was clear from looking at him Viper was exhausted.
He’d been sitting with Country around the clock waiting for some sign that he was going to be okay—a sign we’d all been waiting on.
The only reason he’d left his side was to deliver the information Menace had brought him.
With a fierce look on his face, Viper started, “Menace believes he’s found the men who attacked Country.
I’ve looked over the photographs, but I’ve never seen these boys before.
Not part of any revival club or gang I’m aware of, so I’ve got no idea why they’d jump Country. ”
He slid several photographs to the center of the table and waited as we all took a look.
The second I saw the first guy’s face, I knew I’d seen him before.
I reached for the picture, holding it up close, and that’s when it hit me.
He was one of the men who’d come to party at Stilettos on the night of the game.
I glanced down at the other images and recognized several of the others.
When I was certain it was them, I turned to Viper and said, “They were at the strip club a week or so ago.”
“When?”
“The night the Titans played the Colts.” I pointed to one of the photos as I said, “One of them manhandled Izzy.”
“Yeah, and if I remember right, you fucked him up pretty good.”
“Yeah, I did.” I ran my hand over my goatee with a grumble. “But it was Country who ended up kicking them out and banning ‘em. And I gotta tell ya, they were pretty fucking pissed about the whole thing. They were mouthing off about payback, but it wasn’t anything we hadn’t heard before.”
Axel, our VP, shook his head. “Looks like they made good on their threat.”
“I thought they were just a bunch of blowhards. Never thought they’d have the fucking balls to come after any of us, especially not Country and his big ass.”
“You’re not the only one,” Lynch added. “We all saw what went down and thought the same.”
“This was over some drunk who got his ass kicked for manhandling one of the girls?” Hawk leaned forward and looked to me as he said, “I don’t know, guys. I’m not buying it. You have to have some pretty big balls to mess with the Sinners.”
“I have to agree.” Axel shook his head. “There’s gotta be more to it.”
“From the minute they walked through the door, I had a bad feeling about ‘em. No idea why, but something just wasn’t right. I kept an eye on them, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary until the shit went down with Izzy.”
“There has to be something we’re missing here.” Viper glared over at Menace as he asked, “What about that van? Were you ever able to find anything on it?”
“I tried, but I couldn’t get a clear view of the license plate from the street cams. I also went back and checked the parking lot on the night of Country’s attack, but there was no sign of it.”
“Damn. What exactly do you know about these assholes?”
“Honestly, not much. I’ve only been able to identify one of them.
” Menace pointed to one of the photos as he said, “Dalton Grant. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t own any property here in town.
For that matter, he doesn’t have any property anywhere, but he does have a credit card.
He goes to Smokey’s Bar and Grill a couple of times a week.
Makes me wonder if he’s got a place nearby.
Maybe at one of those dive motels across the street.
Thought we could go check it, see if we could bring him in, and have Shotgun have a go at him. ”
Shotgun was chosen as the club’s enforcer because of his special talent for getting folks to talk. The man even had his own special rooms designed for extracting information from our adversaries, so I wasn’t surprised when he replied, “You get him here, and I’ll find out what we need to know.”
“Dalton Grant is the key to finding the others. We have to find him and find him now.” Viper turned to Hawk as he stated, “Divide up. I want groups of three monitoring both locations until we get our hands on him.”
“Sure thing. I’ll figure out a schedule.”
Menace leaned over to him as he explained, “Smokey’s and those dive motels are pretty close together so that shouldn’t be a problem for one group of three to monitor both.”
“That’ll work.” Hawk turned to Axel as he asked, “You good with taking the first shift with Rafe and Shotgun?”
“Absolutely.”
“Good deal.” Hawk turned to me as he said, “You and Bear are with me. We’ll relieve them at eight.”
Bear was one of the older brothers. While he was often quiet, he’d been around longer than most. He was a big guy, six-three and about two-eighty, and he’d gotten his road name for being hairy like a fucking bear.
He was strong like one, too, so I wasn’t surprised when Hawk wanted him to tag along. I nodded as I replied, “Understood.”
Once we were dismissed, I followed Rafe down to the infirmary.
He wanted to check in on Country before he headed out with Hawk and Lynch.
Rafe was completely silent as we walked in and made our way over to Country’s bedside.
His eyes were still swollen and bruised, his lips were lined with scabs, and his chest was covered with two bandages hiding his gaping wounds.
It was clear from the nicks and gashes on his knuckles Country had done his best to fight back.
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t stand a chance. There were just too many of them.
Guilt washed over me as I stood looking down at my broken brother.
I was the reason why he was in the condition he was in.
If I hadn’t gotten carried away with that asshole who’d put his hands on Izzy, then they wouldn’t have a reason to hold such a fucking grudge.
At the very least, I should’ve been the one who kicked the motherfuckers out.
Then, I would’ve been their target. They would’ve come after me, and it would be me lying there in that infirmary bed instead of Country.
I was sinking further into my guilt when I heard Rafe ask, “You think he’s gonna be alright?”
“Yeah. He’s too fucking stubborn not to be.”
“Hate seeing him like this.”
“You’re not alone there.”
Rafe leaned forward with his mouth close to Country’s ear as he fussed, “Enough of this bullshit, Country. It’s time to wake your lazy ass up.”
“I am up, dick-head.” Country never opened his eyes as he mumbled, “I feel like shit, and I’m gonna lie here as long as I fucking want to.”
“Holy fuck,” Rafe gasped. “You’re awake?”
“Yeah, and I’d still be asleep if you two weren’t in here frettin’ over me like two fucking girls.”
“It’s about fucking time. It’s been days of you coming in and out. We were really startin’ to worry about ya, brother.”
“I’ll be fine.” He was still lying perfectly still with his eyes closed as he grumbled, “Just trying to get my beauty sleep.”
“God knows you need it,” I mocked.
“Widow...” Country’s voice was strained as he told me, “It was the guys from the other night...the ones we kicked out for fuckin’ with Izzy.”
“Yeah, I know, brother. We’re working on trackin’ them down.”
“When you do, bring me the big one with the fucking gauges in his ears.” An angry tone crept over his words as he growled, “I want him for myself. That fucking piece of shit shanked me, and I want my chance to return the favor.”
Rafe nodded as he said, “You got it, man.”
I was about to ask him if there was anything we could do for him when my burner started to ring.
I quickly pulled it out of my back pocket and was surprised to see it was Frankie calling.
I hadn’t heard from her since she picked Corry up from the clubhouse.
Concerned something might be wrong, I looked over to Rafe. “I’m gonna step out and take this.”
“Well, lookie there. Widow’s girl’s a callin’,” Country poked.
“You know better than that shit.” Without waiting for his response, I walked out of the room and into the hall, “You got Widow.”
“We need to talk.”
“Oh, well, hello there, Frankie,” I shot back after her abrupt greeting. “Good to hear from ya.”
Without skipping a beat, she replied, “I know you’re probably busy with whatever you have going on there at the clubhouse, but do you have some time later today? I really need to talk to you about some things.”
“What kind of things?”
“Things I’d rather not discuss on the phone. Can you meet?”
“Yeah, I can work something out. What time did you have in mind?”
“After I close the shop for the day. I should be able to get out of here around 4:30? If that works for you, I could get Sydney to hang out with the boys for a couple of hours.”
“Alright.”
“Great. I could come there, or you could just meet me here at the coffee shop.”