Page 23 of Demo

“I’m free,” she told him softly.

He nodded once and then turned to leave her clinic. Paige stood there, cold as stone, for several long minutes.Jenna?She knew the statistics, but still… MS was a difficult diagnosis. She had to fight against many odds in the coming years. Even if she did, the disease would eventually claim her life. The average was five years following diagnosis. There were many cases, more in recent years, where the patient lived to ten or twelve years past diagnosis. Treatments and new therapies were being developed each year to help with symptoms.

But no cure.

The door opened. Steel guided Jenna into the clinic, using his body almost like a shield against the elements. Paige noticed immediately why Steel wasn’t wearing a jacket—because Jenna was wearing his jacket. She certainly looked more haggard from the last time Paige had seen her before the holidays.

Paige came around the desk. “Hi, Jenna.”

Jenna was walking on her own accord, which was a fantastic sign. Paige wondered how long it had been since she’d gotten her diagnosis. She placed Jenna in her late fifties, which put her in the ‘late onset’ category as Steel had said. Despite wearing two coats, she shivered like she was still cold. “Hi, Paige. How’re you?”

“I’m doing well. The bigger question is how are you?”

Jenna shrugged, trying to brush it off but Paige saw pain mixed with fear on her face. “I’ve had better days. My hands don’t seem to want to cooperate today and I can’t seem to get warm. Jack left me in the car with the heater running on high and I was still shivering.”

For some reason, Jenna referring to Steel as ‘Jack’ made Paige’s heart clench in her chest. She’d never heard anyone but Jenna call Steel by his legal name.

Paige was glad she’d cleaned up her second therapy room while Kelly had been resting in the first. Jenna’s symptoms did not surprise her. “Let’s get you back into my room. Steel, can you grab the heat lamp from the first room?”

“Of course.”

As they walked back towards the second therapy room, Jenna said in a soft voice. “They don’t know. I haven’t had the heart to tell them.”

Paige knew instantly who she meant. “You’re going to need to tell them eventually. You’ve got a doctor and a nurse living next door to you. They’re going to figure it out.”

“I know,” she said in a sad voice. “Maybe I’m just hoping to keep from burdening them a little longer.”

“You’re not a burden!” the women heard Steel call out from the other therapy room.

Jenna caught Paige’s eye and rolled her own. “Damn his Vulcan hearing.” The affection in her voice was accentuated by her smile. Jenna had the most beautiful red-orange hair Paige had ever seen. It always shone like her hair was on fire.

Once getting Jenna settled on the massage bed, Paige said, “Let me go get a new patient chart. I’ll be right back.” Paige passed by Steel carrying the second heat lamp on her way out. “You can plug that one in over there and get both of them turned on her how she needs.”

“Paige?” She turned around in the doorway to face Steel. “Grab some food while you’re out there. You still haven’t eaten. You don’t need to stand on formality with us.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he snapped, “Eat your damned lunch, Paige. Demo would never forgive me if I let you starve while sitting here talking to us.”

The mention of Demo brought a blush to her cheeks. She nodded. “Can I get either of you anything? There was some of the diner’s pie in the bags?”

Both Jenna and Steel shook their heads. Paige left to get a new chart and the necessary paperwork and then went back into the junk room to get one of the containers of lunch Demo had delivered for her.

Despite the sadness she felt at the knowledge of Jenna’s illness, the fact that she had three patients in a row was hopefully a sign that she was going to continue to have a good day.

Demo glanceddown at his phone again. Still nothing from Paige. It was possible she was busy, but too busy to reply? He didn’t like the thought of that. Had he talked to too many people today and sent multiple patients over to the clinic where she couldn’t handle them and reception herself?

Maybe he should swing by the clinic after he was done at the club’sHarley-Davidsondealership. Though he had an office at the clubhouse and the club’s bar,Demon on the Rocks, Demo also kept one at the dealership. It was just easier to keep certain papers and items in certain locations while he, his laptop, and his legal pads traveled to where he needed to go on whichever date.

When the club had first put forth the idea over two years ago to purchase the dealership up for sale, Demo had gone through the old owner’s books with a fine-tooth comb. At first, he was fearful that the owner was fudging his sales numbers. How else could he explain selling so many motorcycles in the winter in Pennsylvania? But the man was a bit of a genius. He put forth and marketed such winter sales that people would come from all over the state and even surrounding states just to get a newHarley-Davidsonthat they wouldn’t be able to ride for months at a massive discount. He might have sold the occasional bike, but the real sales during the winter were on merchandise. Selling the amount of shirts, helmets, and even offering discounts on maintenance and services kept the dealership running just as smoothly during the cold, unrideable months as it did during the summer. The man never went into the red over the winter.

Steel had put Demo in charge of the books for the dealership. As the club’s Treasurer and accountant, that made sense. What Demo had not been expecting was for him to suddenly have to become an expert in retail.Thathad been a bit of a learning curve. Thankfully, the previous owner’s records and notes were so meticulous that Demo had been able to catch on fairly quickly. After a couple of bumps and what Scotty would call anoopsiemistake, Demo seemed to have found his footing.

The biggest concern when purchasing the dealership was employees. One could not have a sales business without salesmen. The previous ownership had been family-run with only a few non-family members working. When they’d moved, they were taking a good chunk of the workforce with them. The idea had been put forth that the best representation for the club would be if the patched members were the salesman, except every patched member but Jumper already had full-time jobs and careers. Lucky had then suggested that the patched members be put on a rotating schedule. Rather than a couple of them working full-time at the dealership as salesmen,allmembers worked one or two part-time shifts during the week.

It had taken some finagling, and someTetrisskills Demo hadn’t known he’d possessed, but he’d finally been able to get a potential schedule to present to Steel, showing that Lucky’s idea held merit. Since then, the club had lost two members, gained two patched members, and had three new prospects. The ol’ ladies even took the occasional shift—so long as they were never left alone in the dealership.

Demo himself had purchased his hog from this dealership when it had been with the previous owner. Unlike Steel, Bulldog, and Jumper, he hadn’t come to the VDMC officer table knowing how to ride a motorcycle. Lucky, Bear, and Demo had gone through the classes to get their licenses together. Scar had just shown up one day with a motorcycle and no one had the guts to question him as to whether it was acquired legally or if he even had a license to drive it.

The service department was taken over by the club’s auto garage that Grumpy managed. Two of his techs were already certified in motorcycle repairs and one had been interested in getting the certification. Those three moved over to the dealership and Grumpy hired on new mechanics at his garage for the workload there. He’d since lost Jumper as a mechanic due to Jumper’s head injury.

Like Demo, Jumper had been severely injured in Jasmine’s kidnapping. His head injury had required surgery and resulted in him being unable to drive either hisIndianor his cage for over six months. In fact, if Demo remembered correctly, he had a driving exam coming up to have his medically suspended driver’s license reinstated. While Jumper spent his days with Jasmine at her veterinary clinic and didn’t need his license during the winter, Demo knew that Jumper wanted to get it reinstated in time for Jasmine and Jumper’s honeymoon in April and May. They were taking their motorcycle with the sidecar for Aerial on a cross country trip to see some of the more famous National Parks, like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. They had other stops both there and back but hell if Demo could remember the long list. Their plan was to be gone approximately six weeks. A vet from Johnstown that Jasmine had worked with before and was considering offering a partnership to would be coming into town for the six weeks to cover Jazz’s clinic during her vacation.

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