Chapter Seventeen
Kit
Fuck, his body hurts. The smell of Cam’s perfume lingered in the room. After the meeting, he had to find a way to get out his frustration, so he’d gone to the fighting ring. Of course, he got his ass kicked because he couldn’t think clearly. His mind was filled with the image of Megan lying on that bathroom floor.
After leaving the ring, he was still too hyped up to sleep, so he worked in the shop, getting as many cars done as possible. It was only once his body had been completely exhausted, and he’d dropped off Cam’s truck that he finally passed out. He needed to get his ass up to the hospital to meet Megan. They’d probably release her today. If not to go home, they’d send her to a rehabilitation place.
He peeled off his dirty clothes, leaving them on the floor before getting in the shower. He let the warm water wash over him. His mind cleared the longer he stayed under the water. As much as he wanted to kill Venom with his bare hands, the club was right. Their best option was to get him out of their hair and wipe their hands clean of this. But that didn’t solve the most significant problem on his hands. Megan. She needed to go back to rehab, but it’s not like he had the money to send her anywhere. Maybe if he would have won some fights last night, he’d have something to offer. Getting out of the shower, he changed into jeans and a t-shirt before walking out of the room. He passed Zeke on the way outside to his bike.
“Hey, did Cam find you?” he asked.
Kit ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, she found me.”
Zeke’s eyes went to the bruise on his face. “You win?”
He shook his head.
Zeke sighed. “How’s Megan doing?”
“She was okay last night. I was just going to the hospital to check on her.”
“Let her know that we’re here if--”
“You know how she feels about the Spades.”
“Yeah, I know…you want me to talk to Cam?” Zeke offered.
Having Zeke talk to Cam about selling the bar would take one thing off his plate, but that’s a conversation he needed to have with her, no matter how much he was dreading it.
“She said she might not sell.”
“I’m sure she did,” Kit said, a hint of a smile on his face. In addition to him leaving her at the hospital last night and not answering his phone, he was sure that’s part of the reason she was so pissed at him this morning. God, he really fucked up. “I’ll talk to her,” Kit told Zeke before patting him on the shoulder and walking out the door.
*****
“And you don’t remember anything specific about the man?” a police officer asked Megan as Kit came into the room.
Fuck, he should have known the police would be involved. The officer looked up at Kit. But he wasn’t just a police officer. It was the fucking Sheriff. Sheriff Garrett, the asshole who had been after the Savage Spades for years.
“Kit Wolke, what a nice surprise,” Garrett said.
Kit walked towards the hospital bed and crossed his arms over his chest. “Don’t mind me, go ahead and finish interrogating my sister while she’s lying in a hospital bed.”
Garrett’s jaw twitched. “Watch yourself, boy.”
“Or what?” he challenged. It was stupid to poke a bear, especially when Garrett was already sniffing too close to the club.
Garett closed his small notepad and placed it in his pocket. “You know, you’re right, Mr. Wolke. There is another case I could be working on. Such as Dustin Connor, who was found in his bar…burnt to a crisp.”
“I heard. That’s unfortunate, although I did hear he had a thing for young girls, so maybe it’s not that unfortunate,” Kit said, keeping his expression stoic.
Garrett furrowed his eyebrows, attempting to stare Kit down. He wasn’t worried. If they had any evidence tying the Spades to Dustin’s burned-down bar, they would have already arrested them. These crooked cops were the reason the Spades had to take things into their own hands anyways. If they had kept Dustin in custody, he wouldn’t have had to die.
Garrett looked back over at Megan, who stayed quiet during their conversation. “If you remember anything, please let me know.”
Megan nodded. “I will.”
Garrett walked past Kit, making sure to shoulder check him. Kit gritted his teeth at the pain that shot through this arm. Fuck, he shouldn’t have gone to the ring last night.
He turned his attention back to Megan. “Let’s get you out of here.”
*****
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay here?” he asked Megan.
They’d released her from the hospital, but he felt odd leaving her alone in this apartment. Everything about it was the same but something had changed.
“I’ll be fine. I found a group online. They have a meeting tonight. I’m going to go” She sat on the couch, crossed-legged .
He nodded. “Are you sure you don’t need to go back to rehab?”
It all seemed too normal that she could just join a group and go to meetings after such a big relapse. He wanted to offer her more.
“I’m fine.”
He nodded and tucked his hands into his jean pocket. “Zeke wanted me to tell you that the Spades are here if you need them.”
She snorted.
“What is your problem with them?” he asked, finally voicing the question that had been bothering him for years. Now wasn’t the best time to bring it up, but it was starting to bug him. “You need people right now. You told me that you came back here for a support system.”
“Those people are not a support system. You want to know why I can’t stand that club of yours?” she snapped.
“Please, enlighten me.”
“Because you had them. While I was at home cleaning up after our drunk father, you were busy trying to work your way into that club. I was the one who had to clean up the mess at home.” She crossed her arms over her chest as her voice broke with her admission. “You should have been there, but you weren’t. You were surprised when Dad got arrested, but I wasn’t because I’ve watched him basically try to drink himself to death. I knew it was only a matter of time.”
Her words were like a punch straight to his gut. It was so long ago that his memory was fuzzy. He’d found the club months before his dad had gone to jail when he was just a teenager himself. He hadn’t thought about what Megan was dealing with at home. Kit had found a place that accepted him and he’d been too busy doing everything he could to stay in that spot. By the time their dad had been put away, he’d been spending every waking hour at the club.
“Megan--”
She put a hand up to stop him. “I don’t want to get into this tonight…please.”
He wanted to push her, but she was in a fragile state right now. But wasn’t she always? Megan was always one step away from falling into another bender. Instead of leaving, he took a deep breath and joined her on the couch. She inched away from him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know Dad’s drinking had gotten that bad. I found a place that accepted me, and I was just trying to make the best of it. If I had known, I would have been there.”
She stayed silent. The only sound in the apartment was the air conditioning running.
“In treatment, they encourage us to make amends. I never have,” she admitted.
He waited for her to continue. He made a mistake all those years ago, but Megan had hurt him too. All the lying and stealing was hard to look past.
“I’m sorry for everything. I’ve been so mad at you for so long. I came back because I don’t have anybody else, Kit. When we were little, it was just you and me, and then you joined the club, and Dad got sick, and I was just so mad at the world and everyone.”
He wrapped an arm around his little sister as she cried. He stayed quiet as she let herself feel all the emotions. After a while, she wiped her face and smiled at him.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“I’m sorry, too.”
“Can we start over? I just want to put all this behind us. I want my brother back.”
“I never left,” he reassured her. Even when she’d been in California, he’d always worried about her.
“So, where are you going now?” she asked him.
“Well, now that you’re okay, I have something else I need to deal with.”
“Cam?” she asked
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“We might have talked at the hospital. I like her…a lot. Don’t screw it up.”
He swallowed. “I’m trying not to.”