Page 71 of Never Wed an Outlaw

I sat on the cracked patio outside my motel room, puffing my pipe like a chimney, trying not to chew clean through the stem. I was gone, too deep in dark thoughts, too distracted watching my old man's ghost laughing at me to notice Firefly 'til he had his hand on my shoulder.

“News from the scouts,” he said. Soon as I saw his serious expression, I hopped up, studying his eyes. “Her car's been spotted at a hospital about thirty miles away. I told the boys to cruise every exit. Don't let her leave for anything.”

“Fuck, what are waiting for?” We both went for our bikes, threw on our helmets, and peeled out of the lot so fast my head whipped backwards.

It was all open roads out here. Normally, a comfort, a zen-like blur I'd lose myself in when times were fucked, letting the growling engine and spotty lines on cracked asphalt bring me into a zone where I didn't have to worry about any bullshit.

Wasn't working today. I sweated in the cool winter air the entire way, wondering what brought her to a goddamned hospital.

Sixty, Skin, Crawl, and Joker waited for us near the main entrance when we rode up and parked at the small medical center. I started heading for the door, but the Veep grabbed me by the shoulders, pushed me back, holding me scary tight.

“Joker? What the fuck?!”

“Hold up, Prez. We've got company.”

It took everything I had to look over his shoulder instead of knocking him flat, and then rushing in to find my girl. Too bad he wasn't bullshitting.

Over on the other side of the parking lot, several squad cars were parked along the curb, quietly blinking their cherry-blue lights. Far more cops than there oughta be at anout of way hospital like this on a normal day.

“What happened here?” I growled, my hands tugging at my Veep's leather.

“Don't know yet,” Skin cut in next to me. “None of us do. We figured we'd let you decide how to approach the questioning. If we all go in there at once, it might draw more attention than we want, depending on what's gone down here...”

“They've got patrols out front,” Crawl said, pushing his shaggy black hair away from his eyes. “Whatever it was, they put the whole hospital on lockdown. Nobody armed is getting in, or out.”

I glared, sighing when I saw Skinny boy's face filled with concern. “You're right. Firefly, you're with me. The rest of you boys, stay put, and watch the bikes. Any of those badges come over asking what we're doing here, you tell 'em we're checking one of our crew in for a nasty stomach bug.”

They nodded. I headed inside with my Enforcer, hoping like hell we'd both be able to keep a lid on our emotions if the answers we got about Hannah came back ugly.

A panicked looking woman sat at the front desk. Had to slam my hand down flat in front of her to finally get her attention.

“Can I help you?” She sat up taller when she saw us, like a woman who'd just spotted a couple wolves roaming close by.

“Sure hope so. We're looking for Hannah Grayson. Should've been a pregnant lady who checked in here sometime in the last couple days.”

The woman's fingers clicked across her keyboard. She chewed her lip, telling me either the system was fucked, or nothing was coming up easy.

“Try Hannah Davis, too,” Firefly said.

I turned my head, staring him down. Hannah wouldn't use her fuckin' maiden name...would she? If she wasn't under mine, I had to believe it was something different, some alias that wouldn't shove my heart into the chipper for another round of pure torture, knowing she'd given up my name, like we never happened.

“No patients named Hannah the last few days,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “I'm sorry, gentlemen. We're having a bit of a situation at the moment. If you can't provide more personal details about the woman you're looking for, I'm going to have to ask you to –“

“Mind telling us what happened?” Firefly stepped up with a lot more tact than I would've mustered just then.

“Oh...Jesus. You haven't heard? Guess it hasn't hit the evening news yet, huh?” She sat back, rocking the little chair on its wheels. We both shook our heads. “A group of really creepy men went after this pregnant lady who checked in last night.”

“Pregnant lady?!” I spat both words, choking on my heart leaping into my throat.

Firefly laid a hand on my shoulder and gave me a look.Just let her talk, Prez. Don't fuck this up.

“Yeah.” She sighed. “Really, really sad. They took her away before she even had her kid. Killed a nurse and roughed up a few doctors. The cops are hunting them downright now, calling for backup across the county. It's a full on manhunt.”

Shit.

“Did you see them? What did they look like?” I asked, leaning over the high top above her, trying to talk like a rational human being.

“No. I was on break at the time when the crazy went down, thank God. It could've been me at the end of their knife.” She paused, looked at me, and wilted a little when she saw the intensity in my eyes. “Um...I think I've already said too much. We're supposed to keep this to ourselves, seeing how it hasn't made it to the news just yet. Who are you looking for again?”

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