Page 74 of Brother In Arms

Chapter 26

Bailey

The sheriff’s deputy and a paramedic found us crouched behind the truck and once again they tried to put Rush in handcuffs, simply judging him by his vest. I started screaming at them to leave him alone and clung to him and that seemed to settle things down. My house, along with the attached smaller barn were burning in the near distance and I was helpless, forced to watch as my life, livelihood, and sense of safety burned to cinders with it.

I was sitting on the back step of an ambulance, Rush curled around me, wrapped in one of those Mylar blankets and shivering despite the warmth of the evening. Rush tightened his hold around me as Uncle Dragon, Dray, and a few of the other men of the Sacred Hearts pulled up. Nox was the first to reach us, crushing both me and Rush into a hug.

“You okay, man?” he demanded and looked so relieved I thought there might be tears.

“Yeah, fine.”

“Do you mind?” the paramedic asked. Nox backed off and she went back to work, dabbing at a cut in my hairline from flying glass from the truck.

“She alright?” Dragon called and the paramedic turned with a scowl.

“He’s my uncle,” I said by way of explanation and she looked perplexed for a second.

“You don’t look Mexican,” she said, and I didn’t even have it in me to feel outraged.

I rolled my eyes and added, “By marriage.”

“Oh,” she was turning bright pink under the glare of the lights from the back of the truck and the incendiary look she was getting from my uncle and cousin. We ignored her pretty much completely after that.

“I’m fine, Uncle Dragon, just really shook up. Can someone check on the horses we have here?”

Archer grunted, “I’m on it,” and Rush unfurled from where he’d wrapped himself around me.

“I’ll go with him if you’re good.”

“I’m good, I’m good, just go check on them, please.” They may not have been the thoroughbreds worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they were real, living creatures and were probably terrified by the smoke. Guilt swamped me that I was using them the way I was.

Dray sat down next to me and grabbed my hand, squeezing. “You okay?” he asked low and controlled and I shook my head, staring past the paramedic tending my small cuts at my burning house.

“No, Dray-dray. I’m really not okay,” I confessed, if only to get them to stop asking.

“It’s just a house, sweetheart. We’ll rebuild it, it ain’t nothing compared to you or Rush. Our people, we can’t replace.”

“What am I going to do?” I whispered and my cousin put his arm around my shoulders. I leaned my head on his and took the comfort for what it was, remembering when we were kids, before my mother’s true colors had the chance to affect us and start the divide.

“You ain’t gotta do nothing except hold firm. We’ve got this now.” The look on my uncle’s face was terrifying. I don’t think I had ever seen it before. What was more terrifying was the look on my cousin’s face, one that mirrored his father’s near exactly. Both of them had the flames of the house reflected in their glittering black eyes and for a moment, I could believe it wasn’t a reflection so much as the hell of wrath projected from within themselves. I shuddered and Reaver came up.

“I got Hayden bringing a cage to take you back to the club,” he said. I shook my head.

“I have my truck.”

“Honey, your truck is sitting in the ditch over there, the front end pushed in by the fence.” It was a redheaded man who’d spoken. He raised a Bic lighter to the cigarette dangling from his lips and cupping the flame, lit the end taking a strong pull off of it.

“That’s the farm truck. My truck is in the garage,” I told him.

“Well excuse the fuck out of me,” he said.

“Cell,” Dragon’s tone held a note of warning and the guy turned neutral brown eyes on him but didn’t comment any further.

“Impressive,” I muttered to my uncle, and the man said, “Ain’t got nothin’ to do with obedience. Don’t get it twisted. I just really want to be tagged in on this.”

I wanted to ask why but the paramedic was still here and Dragon barked, “Duracell!” The man smirked and walked a ways away, the coal on the end of his cigarette glowing in counterpoint to the embers that my house was becoming.

“Told you it wasn’t me,” Reaver muttered and Dragon shot him a withering look. Reaver held up his hands in surrender, a mischievous sparkle in his blue eyes but it was Trigger who started talking.

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