Page 47 of JoJo

“I know, babe.”

“I fucked up though. Forgot that damn road was a dead end.”

Steel’s jaw ticked at that admission, but he didn’t say anything to admonish me. “You did good today, let’s just leave it at that, yeah?”

Another knock at the door pulled our attention just in time to see Keys come in followed by Quickshot. She ran right to the side of my bed that wasn’t already occupied by my giant of a husband. “Oh my God, I was so worried about you. When we heard the first call come in over the scanner I nearly died,” she said. Then she grimaced. “Oh sweet Jesus, that came out all wrong. You almost died,” she hissed out at the end.

“I’m okay, the baby is okay,” I told her.

She threw herself at me, jostling my shoulder as she did and causing my to yelp in pain. “Shit!” She jumped back. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’m just so happy to see you again.” She looked me over and then glanced at Steel. “What can I do?”

“I need some clean clothes. I feel disgusting right now,” I admitted. I was still covered in dried blood and grime in places.

“The nurse was supposed to come back and help her wash up, but she needs clothes. Do you think you can stay with her while I go get something?” He asked Keys, but turned to look at Quickshot too. They both agreed. “I’ll be back real soon, babe.” Steel told me as he leaned in to give me a kiss. “Do not get out of that bed while I’m gone.” His words were an order I didn’t intend to ignore. Hell, I wasn’t sure I had it in me to move. My body was worn out and I was beyond tired, despite the involuntary nap I’d already taken.

Once Steel was gone, I looked beyond my friend to the man who seemed to be standing guard at the door. “Do you know who it was yet?”

Quick’s fierce scowl told me everything he didn’t seem inclined to divulge, so instead I turned back to my friend, knowing she would know the answer, and daring her to keep it from me.

“Looks like someone was hired to kill you,” she stated slowly.

“My brother?” I asked.

“We don’t know yet. One of the men we have admitted that he was hired to take you out around the same time that someone else was looking for information about some of the women in our club.”

“Two different jobs then?”

“Sounds like it. They’re still questioning the three we got, but so far that’s what I know.” I closed my eyes taking in the fact that someone wanted me dead bad enough to try to have me killed. I didn’t even know how to feel about that, especially since the only suspect that came to mind was the last of my blood family.

“Well, that sucks,” I finally huffed out. “Who were they asking about?”

“MiMi and a couple of the girls we pulled out of the ring with her when we took out Winter’s Renegades.”

“Will those bastards never die? Jesus, they’re like cockroaches. We think we have them exterminated, but they keep coming out of the woodwork.”

Quickshot chuckled. “I don’t think it’s still the club. Whoever is behind this has been pulling the strings of his puppets for a while now.”

“Do you think it’s that Reardon guy?” I asked.

Quick nodded. “He did send a message that he’d be coming for the boy. Stands to reason the boy would be stashed with one of the women of the club.”

“Where are MiMi and Grant now?”

“They’re at the clubhouse under lockdown right now,” Keys answered me. “MiMi was none too happy about that either until Dane explained that it wasn’t about her, and that she had a little boy to look after now that meant more than her pride.” Keys smiled at me then. “He was madder than a wet hen.”

I laughed and so did Quickshot. Keys just couldn’t help the down home southern girl she was. I closed my eyes for a minute, thinking on everything and before I knew it, someone was shaking my shoulder. “We need to get you cleaned up, Cynthia-Jo,” the voice called out to me.

“I know you see she’s asleep,” my best friend’s caustic warning bellowed out into the room. “She was awake for all that time and you couldn’t be bothered to help her clean up. Now that she’s finally getting some rest you want to come disturb her?” I opened my eyes to see Keys escorting the woman from the room. “Nuh-uh. You carry your ass out of here, and get us someone who knows what the hell they’re doing.” I wanted to laugh but the pain slicing through my shoulder made it sound more like a hiss of air instead.

“My shoulder hurts,” I admitted out loud.

“Probably because that dumb bitch just shook you to try to wake you. I know she could see you had a sling on that arm. What the hell she was thinking, I do not know.”

“What’s going on?” My husband asked as he came in through still open door of my room to Keys ranting about the woman who had just been in here. Keys recapped what had just happened and Steel turned right back around and marched out of my room. A very small part of me wanted to get up and follow to see what he was doing, but the rest of me was too tired to care enough to try.

“Someone might want to make sure he doesn’t get thrown out.”

Quickshot was out the door in a flash while Keys made her way back over to me with the bag my husband had handed off to her on his way back out. “I can help get you cleaned up,” she informed me then.

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