Page 7 of Crusher

“You stop answering your phone?” Strokerasked.

“Shower, didn’t hear it,” I answered andwalked over to stand by my dad’s desk and Flirt took a chair.

Speed was ready to combust by the rednessshowing from his neck up, I figured he was about five seconds awayfrom total combustion.

“Did you hear anything from her?” Iasked.

“She’s at Haven,” all eyes turned toward Samias soon as the words left her mouth.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“She didn’t call, my dad did. He didn’t gointo any detail of what she said when she arrived there. He wasjust letting me know she was safe.”

“I asked you to call me if you heard fromher. I would have liked to have had that information.” Strokerturned at my tone and Speed glared at me.

“It was late, brother. You’re hearing itnow,” Speed said.

“Still not understanding why the fuck shewould go there by herself. Isn’t that why Wild Bill moved you andher here, to keep you away from the club?” It made no sense tome.

“Seriously, don’t yell at my woman, brother,she’s trying to help with this and Carly is her friend.” If thissituation wasn’t serious I would’ve laughed at the fiercenesspouring off Speed. The brother was a goner and it hadn’t taken thatlong either. I didn’t know which way I leaned more: happy that mybest friend had a family of his own now or the envy of the peacethat showed in his eyes, something I wondered if I would everexperience again after leaving the military.

“Sorry, Sami. I’m just pissed I couldn’tcatch up with Carly yesterday and didn’t mean to yell at you.” Shesmiled in acknowledgement but it didn’t reach full force, I knewshe was worried for her friend.

“Before you got here, we were discussing whyCutter wouldn’t have said anything about Clarice being at Haven andhooked up with the VP there, Wallace Monroe?” Speed looked at me,then at my dad.

“Like I said, we didn’t know about it. We’dheard she went to another club but that was it. We never thoughtanymore about it until news reached us about her overdose. Which ifI had to guess, Cutter just got that paper and headed into town,not bothering to tell us shit before he left.”

“Bullshit, Dad wouldn’t have run out thegoddamn house because some piece of shit sent him a paper statingClarice was whoring it up over at Haven and Cutter should come totown so they could sit down and chat about the whore they hadshared.” Yeah, my buddy was wound tight.

“Makes her your half-sister, Speed—” He cutme off before I was finished.

“Like I don’t fucking know, yeah Carly is myhalf-sister, but that doesn’t answer why Cutter got the fuckingnote. That fucker from Haven is on the run, has been for close tofive years. Who knows what he’s up to. If he was in town, don’t youthink he would have stopped in and saw his daughter? Sami swearsHaven doesn’t know anything other than he tried to take over Haven.They didn’t know he’d figured out she and Carly were here. What Ido question, is why after eighteen fucking years, he decided todrop that shit of Clarice and having something that belonged toBlack Hawk. Fucker couldn’t have been talking about Clarice, and ifhe had been, why fucking wait? Something doesn’t sit right, becauseif it had been just to rub Dad’s nose in the fact that Clarice washis old lady, the asshole would have done it when Clarice hooked upwith him. Now we need to figure out why he felt Cutter was the oneto go to. Clarice was dead a couple years by that time, not likeshe was alive and he expected Cutter to sit down and share storieson a woman they each was screwing. None of the shit makessense.”

“Like I was saying, she’s your sister, man.And if the prick was in our territory, she didn’t know that. No wayshe knew anything until today when she came across that damn paper.Her face went pale, and her eyes were huge and tear-filled.” I knewSpeed was running every possible scenario through his head witheach one ending with the same conclusion—why contact Cutter?

“Yeah, but why run out. I was in the nextroom. Why not question me, or bitch about the shit? I realize shedoesn’t know me but if all this is true, then we share a mother,well, an incubator, ‘cause the bitch was never a mother to me.”Sami got up and walked over to Speed and wrapped her arms aroundhis waist. He took a deep breath as I watched him physically relaxin her arms. As I continued to watch them whisper to each other, myresolve to have that became more clear than the target through thescope of my sniper’s rifle ever had. No matter what it took Ialways hit my target. The situation might be different, the outcomehowever, would be the same—I’d locked in, now I just needed to hitthe mark. Difference—instead of eliminating, I wanted topossess.

“So why we try to piece all this shittogether, what are we planning to do? The asshole is riding in thewind with a couple of flunkies, who knows where he is, but my gutsays Carly shouldn’t be alone.” All eyes turned to me.

“Sami, is Wild Bill going to call when shegets ready to head back here?” Stroker spoke to Sami but his eyeswere still watching me. I know he was wondering why I was sointerested in finding Sami’s friend.

“Yes, he said he would, Stroker. We haven’tleft this town since the day we moved here. The farthest we wentwas over to Morehead to go to classes at the community college. Mydad stressed to us about keeping a low profile, it’s why he camehere to visit. He didn’t want us around the mess he was trying toclean up at Haven, nor did he want us near the members until hecould clear them as being a threat. He’s still unsure if he hasweeded them all out.” I ran my hand over my hair, stopping when Ireached the back of my neck to rub it as I listened to Samianswer.

“Okay,” Stroker said and looked around toeach of us. No one had breathed a word, they sat quietly andlistened. When I wasn’t stressed, I’d think about the fact no onespoke or interrupted. It had to be some kinda fucking record. “Weare going to have to wait for Carly to call or show back up. I knowsome of you aren’t going to like that option,” he paused and lookeddirectly at me, “but deal with it. I will check-in with SheriffLance to see if he remembers anything strange going on around townor if any unknown bikers had been spotted in town around the timeof Cutter’s accident. Speed, we need verification she’s yourhalf-sister, it will be the first step to finding out what the hellis going on in Black Hawk territory. We’ve gotten to comfortable.Maybe a little too relaxed with what happens in our town.” Strokerheld up his hand to stop Speed from interrupting him, “We need toknow exactly what we are dealing with. Stone had his sights onHaven, what advantage was he looking to gain by bringing Black Hawkinto his shit back then.” Speed nodded his agreement with Stroker.I knew my friend was having his own issues with finding out hestill had a blood relative in this world, even if it wasn’tconfirmed yet. But I couldn’t stop the uneasy feeling about Carlybeing on her own.

“I can’t sit tight waiting for her to fuckingcome back. What if she’s in danger at Haven? How the fuck we goingto help her?” Speed squinted his eyes at me and Stroker’s eyebrowsknitted together. I wasn’t in the mood to be rational. I had my ownissues with Carly and now it seemed I was going let those rule me.Not only was I jonesing over Carly, I could say almost positivelythat when Speed knew what I wanted from her, he’d feel like he’dneed to stand between her and I out of a misguided brotherly duty.He’d learn quickly enough that I would take what he had to dish outif he felt the need, but I also inwardly smiled that Carly wouldn’tlet him play protector because she had enough in herself to handlethings on her own.

“Crusher, I’ve watched that girl since shearrived as barely an adult. She and Sami never caused any problemsaround here. I think no matter where she is, she can handleanything she comes up against. She…” Stroker’s words were paused asthe door flew open and bounced against the wall, causing everyoneto look who dared to bust into the Prez’s office.

“What the fu…” was spoke from several andimmediately cutoff when they saw who it was. Ally walked in likeshe owned the place, her little hand holding her momma’s phone toher ear, eyes taking in everyone in the room as she chattered awayto whomever was on the other end of the call. I waited to see howmy dad was going to handle this because I’d done the same thingabout her age and it had quickly been taken care of with a sternyelling and me put in my place. But since Ally hadn’t lived aroundclub life, it should be interesting how it would be handled.

“Ally?” Stroker got her attention though shenever missed a beat in talking. “No one is to come in my officewithout knoc—” he stopped before finishing his sentence and I’msure it was because of Ally’s action. I know it was why I bit theinside of mouth and why the others either lowered their heads tohide or covered their mouths to keep from bursting out laughingalso, when Ally’s hand that was currently not holding the phoneraised up and was held palm out in the ‘hold on a minute’ action asshe continued her conversation.

“When you coming to visit me at my daddy’shouse, Papa? You gots to see my bed.” Her question at leastinformed us who she was talking with as she headed toward Sami.“Yep, she’s right here. Yep, I’ve beens good. ‘K, bye, Papa. Lovesya toos.” Ally handed the phone to Sami as we all listened.

“Hey, Dad? Yeah, did she tell you why? Uh,huh, okay? Sure. Alright. Talk with you later, Dad. Love you too. Iwill.” Sami chuckled at the last comment and hung up, then lookedat Speed while she talked, “Carly is staying at my dad’s, she toldhim she was staying there a few days and asked if he was cool withthat. He thinks she just needs some time to process it.” To say Iwas happy about her being at Haven would have been a lie. They werestill unsure if they’d weeded out everyone affiliated with Stone’sattempt of taking over.

“I could go to Haven and stay until she isready to come back.” The thought came out of my mouth before Icould stop it and Stroker, Speed, and Sami just stared at me. Butleave it to the youngest to question.

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