Page 59 of Utah

I followed him to Rascal’s truck, pointing at it as we approached.

“Did you wanna ride bitch on my bike?” he asked rhetorically.

“My truck’s at the bar.”

He nodded, and we set off back to Rocky’s. We didn’t make it a mile before he started in on me.

“You beat the guy because he kissed Ria?”

“As soon as I heard him say it, I just lost it.”

“Don’t you think you overreacted?” he asked.

I turned to face him, semi-shocked by his response. “If you found out Sanders kissed your woman, what would you do?” Knox straightened in his seat and tightened his hold on the steering wheel. “Wanna ask me again if I overreacted?”

“I get it,” he finally said, “but from what I hear, you didn’t just pop him once. You beat him unconscious. They had to takehim away in an ambulance. There’s more behind your attack than him just kissing Ria.”

I sat with his accusation a moment. “I’ve been on edge ever since Crash was killed. I think hearing that guy kissed Ria just sent me over the edge.” I reached inside my cut for my pill bottle only to discover the cop never returned my medication. There were only two pills remaining, but I needed them. “Fuck!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I never got my pills back when they released me.”

“Maybe it’s for the best. You’ve been more on edge since you’ve been taking them. I’ve seen you popping more than you should.”

“You keeping tabs on me?”

“Just concerned, is all.”

“You ever been stabbed before?” I didn’t wait for him to answer. “Then you have no idea how much medication I need.” Several moments passed before I spoke again. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s goin’ on.” Because it was well past the time the pharmacy closed, I was shit out of luck on getting my refill until tomorrow. But I didn’t think I could go all night without anything. “Do you know if Nash is at the clubhouse?”

“There’s a ruckus goin’ on. Of course he’s there. Why?”

“I gotta see if he has anything to tide me over until tomorrow.”

Nash had messed up his back years ago and had been on Percocet ever since. I only hoped he had a few pills to spare.

I saw by the flare of my friend’s nostrils that he wanted to say something about me asking Nash for pills, but he refrained.

“Thanks for the ride and for bailing me out.” I hopped out of the truck, regretting the speed with which I did because a shot of pain ripped through my stomach. I didn’t have a single concern for the state of my body when I went after Will, and now, I was paying for it. Even more reason I needed to see Nash.

Knox and I pulled into the clubhouse lot at the same time. He returned Rascal’s truck, then took off on his bike. I didn’t expect him to stick around for the ruckus. He had a woman waiting on him.

Was Ria waiting for me to show up?

Was she angry with me? Scared of me?

The only way for me to find out was to go to her place and see if she’d talk to me about what happened.

“Look who it is,” Rez shouted when I walked inside. “I hope you didn’t drop the soap.”

I gave him the middle finger. “Fuck you.”

He laughed, as did Rascal, Dax, and Miles.

Darlene and Darcy, two of the club’s wannabes, sauntered up to me, flanking me on either side. “Hi, Utah,” Darlene cooed, trailing her finger down my arm. “Wanna play with us?”

Once upon a time, I’d taken them up on their offer, but the moment I started things with Ria, I never looked back.

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