Page 67 of Sweet Pea

Minus

Sweet Pea bolted outthe door with clearly no intention of listening to me about riding with a wingman.

I turned to his brother, Ropes. “What the fuck makes him so pigheaded?”

“Genesis, chapter four, verse nine,” Ropes replied. “Then the Lordsaid to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know, am I my brother’s keeper?’”

“So, in this scenario, I’m God, and you’ve killed Sweet Pea?”

“There are days when I’d like to,” Ropes replied in a way only a brother could.

I leaned over to Warthog and asked, “Go find Spike and Tacky and tell ’em to catch up with Sweet Pea, will ya?”

“10-4,” Warthog rasped, and ducked out of the room before returning a minute later, giving me a thumbs up.

I brought the meeting back to order and got down to business. Now that we knew Wolf was intent on expanding the Spiders’ territory into Portland, we knew what our next steps would be. I reminded each officer of their orders and reviewed the current inventory of our armory and the Sanctuary pantry. In the event of a lock down, I wanted every Saint and their families to be able to hunker down here safely and comfortably for as long as needed.

We’d covered everything I needed to, and I was ready to adjourn when Tacky came bursting through the door, covered in sweat.

“It’s... Sweet Pea. He’s... been hit,” he said, panting heavily.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“He’s on Forrester. Spike is with him. He called 9-1-1.”

“Hit? Was he shot?” Ropes asked, frantically.

“No, someone ran him down in the intersection.”

Ropes was out the door before I could say another word.

“Me and Spike had almost caught up to Sweet Pea,” Tacky continued. “We had just ridden past Larch Street and could see him just one block ahead of us. He was crossing the intersection and a black truck came barreling through without slowing down at all. They smashed right into him and didn’t stop for a second.”

“Sweet Pea is alive though?”

“He was when I left him with Spike, but he was pretty fucked up, Minus,” Tacky said softly. “They rammed him at full-speed.”

“Did you get a good look at the truck?”

“I’m sorry Minus. All I know for sure is that it was black. As in, all black. You know, like murdered out and shit.”

“Alright, good job, Tacky,” I said and pulled out my phone to call Spike.

He picked up right away and I could hear sirens in the background.

“He’s alive but he’s in bad shape, Minus.”

“I’m on my way,” I said and hung up.

* * *

“You look terrible.”Cricket’s voice stirred me awake from my uneasy slumber on my makeshift waiting room bed.

“Thanks, Sweetness. You know just what to say to a guy.”

Cricket bent down and kissed me.

“What time is it?” I asked.

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