Chapter 49
forty-nine
GREER
Sutton removes the lid from the giant stockpot.
Steam billows out, filling the room with the scent of bay leaf and thyme.
After ladling the chicken and dumplings into a glass serving bowl, she hands it to the waiting Folgers.
Gesturing to the Styrofoam containers stacked on a kitchen aisle, she tells him, “Salads are over there.” I guess big guys need mega portions.
Not that the other men aren’t wolfing down Sutton’s cooking. Mudbug’s already had three helpings.
“Thank you,” Folgers says around his first bite, already wandering back the way he came.
He’s been locked in a room with Jude since we got here an hour ago. The same room where I heard them talking the night of the party.
“Are you sure you don’t want to eat?” she asks me next. “There’s plenty.”
“No, thank you.” I smelled it cooking. Huge no for me right now. “Maybe I should bring lunch to Jude, though.”
Sutton grimaces. “I try to leave them alone when they’re in Folgers’ office.”
The kitchen door slams open, and Meadow rambles into the room carrying a large bag. She kicks the door shut and lets out an exaggerated huff. “Well, that was fun.”
Sutton's voice is airy. “How much was the bail?”
“Two grand. Mom’s so mad she refused to get him this time.”
“What happened?” I ask.
Meadow sets the bag down on the counter and says, “Eh, Dad was in a little bar fight.”
“Did he come with you?” Sutton asks. “I’m worried about there being enough food for everybody.”
“No, he’s at home getting his ass handed to him by Mom. Dad knows better than to do anything in that parish. They’re coming down hard on certain minor offenses, so the fines and bail are ridiculous.”
Sutton hands me a bowl of the soup, “Maybe you should bring this to Jude after all. Knock first.”
“Do you know why they’re locked in there?” I whisper, the bowl warm in my hands.
“They caught the people causing all the fights in the crowds during the underground matches. They were doing it on purpose to try to get us to cancel the fights. Competition, ya know.”
“Who is it?”
“Students from the university, all of them. The police shut their circuit down some time ago, and they haven't been able to restart because we took all their fighters. Odin and Flinch are off dealing with them today, but Folgers and Jude have to help find some of them.”
P.J.’s original circuit. The frat boys with walkies?
I start to ask what’s going to happen, but stop myself. I don’t want that answer.
“Well, sounds like they’re working up an appetite,” I dismiss.
Hank follows behind as I carry the steaming ceramic bowl with a metal spoon down the hall and rap on the door.
The door opens abruptly, and Jude’s body blocks the entryway, his posture tense.
“I brought you food,” I say, stretching out my hands.
“Oh, thanks. I’m starving. Just didn’t find a chance to break off.”
“I figured as much.” After taking the food, Jude presses a quick kiss to my lips, then looks back to the room as if distracted. “I have to wrap something up here. I’ll be free in about an hour. I want to talk to you about something.”
“Okay, well, you know where to find me.”
Our conversation is strangely awkward. Jude’s off. “Did you eat?”
“No, but I will.”
I give him a reassuring smile and turn to leave, letting him go back to work. Even with him distracted, I’m enjoying the constant stream of visitors. “Hey, remember…” he calls out.
“I know. Only use the kitchen side door if Hank needs to go out, and don’t wander.”
He shoots me a wicked grin, “Now turn around so I can watch your ass when you leave.”
I shoot him a naughty look, twirl, swaying my rump back and forth as I walk away.
He wolf whistles at me.
As soon as the door clicks closed, Hank starts whining eagerly. Speaking of bathroom breaks.
Walking through the kitchen, where Sutton and Meadow are now sitting with their own meal, I pick up Hank and carry him down the raised steps.
He noses around the air conditioning units, enjoying some time on the grass. I tell myself he’s happy with a park across the street, but part of me feels guilty that he doesn’t have a backyard anymore.
I’m sure we’ll eventually look into a larger place, especially with a baby on the way.
From the corner of the building, the club’s wolf dog, Chloe, appears. She and Hank both freeze in an unspoken standoff. “Hank, come here now,” I reprimand.
He growls, and Chloe scurries off the way she came. Since my dog is a world class brat, he ignores my commands and darts after Chloe. The little stinker can run when he wants. Ironic for a dog that refuses to walk half the time.
I know Jude says to stay in this part of the compound, but not when Hank is running loose on the banks of the bayou. I’ve seen alligators in the water.
I jog behind him, trying not to make myself nauseated from running to the front of the building.
Hank chases the much larger, shy animal down a walkway for a long time until she dips off the gravel and into the woods.
My little prince is not going to get his feet wet on grass, something I can appreciate for once.
With panted breaths, I scoop up Hank. “You know better than to run like that. I was scared.”
My heart is still beating rapidly in my ears, and my stomach is doing flip-flops as I scan the area, looking for somewhere to sit for a second while it settles.
It’s then that I see it. The cabin, the open curtains, the flash of blonde hair.
Then Flinch appears, pulling a woman close in a kiss, and everything in me jerks tight at once.
I scan the clearing too fast, too sharply, as if I can find somewhere else to look, I might stop feeling this sick.
Odin said Flinch has family staying. He must have an old lady.
But why hasn’t she been to any of the parties?
It feels like my feet have lead in them because my brain is already trying to outrun what my eyes don’t want to believe.
Allie. She steps back into the window, and the hoodie she yanks over her head reveals bruising blooming purple and green along her ribs.
My stomach drops so hard it’s like the ground tilts under me.
She’s been hurt in a way that doesn’t look accidental.
I’ve worked enough shifts during clinicals to know that trauma that bad in the torso usually means broken ribs.
I suck in a breath when Flinch leans down and kisses Allie wildly, his hands on her bottom. His body is covering my cousin, so I can’t make out her reaction.
Boots pound on gravel. Before I can get my bearings, Couyon appears from the direction of the clubhouse.
“You shouldn’t be out here,” he says, but the words barely register because the couple vanishes again, then reappears in the window like a broken image snapping back into place.
I stare, confused, until everything finally clicks.
“I’m going to see Allie,” I inform him, certain.
He tries to herd me back the way I came, but I shove and claw until he backs off. From seemingly thin air, Flinch appears, still wrestling with a pair of jeans. “What the fuck, man. Someone is supposed to be watching her while Band-Aid’s working.”
“She ran off with the dog,” Couyon defends.
Flinch comes to stand in front of me, calm, cool. “Take her back to Band-Aid.”
“Not without talking to Allie,” I demand with a furious shake of the head. “Is this why she’s not answering our calls? You’ve had her here the whole time?”
“Go back to the clubhouse now,” Flinch demands.
With Hank still in my arms, I turn and head straight to the small rustic building. “Go fuck yourself.”
I feel like a horrible cousin. I’ve been so buried in Jude that I’ve not pushed, wanting to give her space. Meanwhile, she’s been going through something really big.
But did she want me here? I might not have that answer now, but before today’s over, I’m going to know for sure, from Allie herself. As hard as it is, I’ll give her whatever space she wants or needs, but not until I’m certain she doesn’t feel abandoned.
Flinch captures me by the waist, “The last thing I need is the two of you conspiring together. Now do as you’re told.”
“If you don’t want Allie and me in the same room, that just proves we should be.”
I stare at the door, his body blocking my path, and I know with absolute certainty there’s no getting by him.
“I’m not going to tell you again. Go inside. Now.”
“For crying out loud! The jig is clearly up. Get over it.” Allie’s voice after weeks apart is a welcome sound. She’s on the porch, slowly roaming towards us. She’s fully dressed in a matched set I don’t recognize. Someone’s bought her clothes to accommodate broken ribs.
Flinch looks to Allie with narrowed eyes, “Why are you never where I tell you to be?”
“Because I have this thing called free will,” Allie shoots back. She puffs out a long breath, turning in my direction. “I’m okay, swear.”
The conversation Jude mentioned. This was it. He knew about this. He knew Allie was here, bruised and battered. She wasn’t answering our texts because, like me, she doesn’t have her phone. They aren’t allowed without the club’s tampering. Betrayal runs sour in my gut.
Jude’s voice is booming, dark, and demanding from out of nowhere, “You think you can touch my property?”
“Says the man who tried to steal mine from under my own nose,” Flinch seethes, releasing his grip on my body.
I draw in a breath. Flinch claimed Allie? Right after she has a big breakup? Jude’s proven that a little thing called consent doesn’t matter when it comes to biker rules.
As Jude storms closer, I notice his eyes. The glint of a one percenter. The man who does things I don’t want to imagine. Couyon starts to march towards Jude. “Take your old lady and go back to the clubhouse now.”
His command goes unheard as Jude continues his sinister approach. The expression on his face is feral, “I told you this was going to blow up.”
“And I told you to butt out of it.”
The two men start to clash, Couyon literally in the middle. There’s shoving, threats. As hot as Jude’s temper is running, Flinch is keeping an icy cool demeanor that’s downright dangerous.
As I start to heave, I go to the nearby grass and empty my stomach.
I stay bent over, Hank in one hand, whimpering while it lurches again and again.
Someone takes the gremlin from me, and then that calm, steadying hand is on my back.
I wipe my mouth with shaking hands, suddenly aware of the sour taste still clinging to my tongue, and face Jude.
The man who’s known all along that Allie is here. He has to have known. The arguing with Flinch, the insistence that I don’t go roaming. I can hear Flinch bringing Allie back inside, bickering with her now. There’s nothing I can do about that now. My war is here, in front of me.
“You lied,” I accuse.
“I fought this every step of the way,” he insists. “I had no way of stopping it. Flinch claimed Allie right before I was patched in. She’s his property.”
“Would you like to tell me why Allie is so bruised up?” I hiss.
Jude gives me an incredulous glare. “You don’t think someone in the club did that?”
“No, I don’t,” I admit. “But I can also see someone’s beaten the shit out of Allie, and didn’t tell any of us where to find her.” I pull in a deep breath. “My aunt and uncle are almost certainly going to drive to the campus today. They’re going to file a missing persons report.”
Jude clenches his jaw, “We headed that one off.”
“I don’t care what any of you say. I’m marching my ass straight up to my cousin and getting some answers as to what the hell is going on.”
Jude scrubs his hands down his face. “You’ll get all of them, I promise. Give them a moment to get dressed, and they’ll explain. Flinch can’t keep the two of you apart anymore.”
As angry as I am, as deep as betrayal cuts, in the light of all this, I still believe him.