Page 77 of JoyRide

“Is Danny hurt?”

“Yes, he is, ma’am. I need you to speak to Doctor Keene and he’ll explain what he needs from you. Here he is.” Tammy handed her phone to the doctor, and he took over the conversation.

“Mrs. Burridge, your son is suffering from two bullet wounds, and I need your permission to remove the bullet from Danny’s leg. It’s imperative that I begin immediately before he loses any more blood. Do you understand?”

The doctor got what he needed and handed the phone back to Tammy. “The patient won’t be awake until sometime tomorrow.”

We left when Danny was taken into the operating room with the understanding that the kid was under arrest and had to be chained to his bedrail when he came out of surgery and was transferred to intensive care.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

On the drive home to the ranch, I told Tammy we were making progress. “The surveillance at the fairgrounds paid off. We caught Danny Burridge, and he might lead us to the rest of the gang.”

“Do you think he’ll deal?”

“Yeah, I do. He’s a punk kid and he’s been shooting at cops and got himself shot in return. He’s in way over his head.”

“Maybe he doesn’t think he’s so tough now.”

“He has to be scared and in a lot of pain. He might even wish he was home with his mommy.”

“His daddy tossed him out of the house. That’s one parent that won’t be happy his son is in this mess.”

“Right. This might fall all on his mother, and that’s hardly fair either.”

We grabbed a beer when we got to the house, sat down at the kitchen table, and told Travis and Billy about catching Danny Burridge.

“Nice work, kids,” said Travis. “Y’all don’t need the old man helping y’all.”

“As soon as Burridge can leave the hospital,” said Billy, “we’ll take him to the station, book him and lock him up.”

“We’re hoping he’ll be scared enough to give up the others in the gang,” said Tammy.

Billy shrugged. “Might happen, Tam. Hope it does. Be a giftfor us if it worked out that way.”

We still had chores to do, and I wasn’t much help to Tammy, and she was so fuckin tired, I could see it in her eyes.

She reached for a shovel, and I pulled her close to me with my one good arm and kissed her. “I’ll do all the chores for a week as soon as my arm is healed. I owe you, Tam.”

“I’m okay. We’re just doing our jobs. It’ll work out when Travis is okay again.”

I kissed her again and pulled away from her. “I’d better do something useful. I like kissing you way too much.”

She giggled. “Yeah, me too.”

Chapter Fifteen

Sunday, August 4th.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

Tammy always made pancakes on Sunday. My favorite day for breakfast and today was extra special because Savanna slept over with Dad and she was there with us. Our family seemed complete—except for Virgil—and I had no clue where that little fucker had got to with Travis’s bike.

“I’d love to take Windrider out for an hour this morning,” I said, “before it gets too hot. Think we have time for a ride before we go to Shelby?”

“I’ll go down and feed the prisoners,” said Billy. “One less thing for y’all to do.”

“We have to go to the hospital today too,” said Tammy. “Danny Burridge will be waking up and I want to be sure he’s chained to his bed. The minute that little fart opens his baby-blues, I’m gonna be all over him about the other kids. I’ll thump it out of him if I have to.”

---