Page 2 of Spooked
“No one.” At Peg’s words, my eyes open wide. With a grimace, he expands, “Wrong fuckin’ place, wrong fuckin’ time. Tanker driver had a micro-sleep at the wheel, overcorrected, and the tanker went down on its side, sliding up the road. Just out of view, up around the bend. Diesel all over the road.”
“Diesel?”
Drummer’s head bob confirms Peg’s words.
My sergeant-at-arms’ mind races. “Could have been made to look like an accident. Someone could have been targeting us.”
Placing his hand lightly on my shoulder, Drummer tells me more. “It was a huge mess—injured bodies, bits of bike everywhere, tanker blocking the road. Had to get the cops involved.” The twist of his mouth shows how much he didn’tlike that. “Seems it was just an accident, down to the driver’s inattention.” His eyes fix on mine. “I know you want someone to fight for this, but we’ve looked into it, and there’s nothing beneath the surface. Mouse hacked into the company’s records and found evidence that the driver took his eyes off the road. He also found he’d been driving too many hours, but on the route exactly as planned. We’d told no one our plans. No one knew we’d be riding that road at that time.”
Peg’s raising and dipping his head in confirmation. “Brother, it was like some macabre version of Skittles. Wizard lost control of his bike, and Hawk and you did the same slip and slide. Throttle fought hard, but he too went down. Mouse, Heart, and Dollar managed to slow, but crashed into your wrecks, though they were mainly unharmed.” He lets out a shuddering sigh. “Took a few fuckin’ years off my life.”
“Yours?” Drummer raises a brow. He swallows tightly. “Seeing brothers,” he glances at Peg, “our kids, go down? Fuckin’ never want to experience that again. Hound, you better believe if we had anyone to blame other than an asshole taking his eyes off the road, then we’d still be torturing them in the storeroom now.”
Momentarily, I wonder what was worse—being knocked out and unaware of what was happening or being forced to watch the disaster as it occurred.
That doesn’t make me feel any better. “What about the driver?” I still want someone to blame.
Drummer rakes his fingers back through his hair. “Man, he was a fuckin’ mess. Puking up all over the road.”
“You let him walk away?” I’m incredulous.
“Cops were there,” Drummer explains. As I open my mouth, he shakes his head. “They arrested him.”
I think he should have gotten a fucking beatdown at least. My scowl must convey my thoughts.
“Hey, we were too busy picking up broken bodies and bikes to pay him any attention. And who do you think fingers would be pointed at if, after he was released, we’d taken him out? Brother, got more things to worry about than revenge on an over-tired trucker who doesn’t even live in the same state.”
“And,” Drummer adds, “he’s very much unemployed now.”
I suppose that’s something.
My brain seems overly slow to tick into action, not knowing the pertinent questions to ask. I realise I don’t have any idea how long it will be before I can get back on my bike, which brings me to another concern. “What happened to my ride?”
Drummer seems more comfortable now that he’s on more solid ground. “Back at the compound. Blade’s doing what he can to fix yours and the other bikes. Heart and Mouse are talking to the tanker company about compensation. It looks like they’re going to pay up, but it’s going to take time.”
Godfuckingdamnit! I’m without a bike and without a working leg. At this point, there’s surely a question mark about how much my brain’s been fucked up. I realise now, despite my earlier horror about the F.O.G.s moving back into their previous roles, my brothers know what they’re doing. While it really hurts to give up the role I’d been so proud to achieve, realizing I won’t be capable of giving it my all until I heal, I surrender. “I’ll step back.” My eyes meet Peg’s.
I can tell it hadn’t been in question. Drummer’s back in the hot seat now, and it will be his decision. But Peg’s chin lift tells me he's accepting my capitulation, both of us pretending that I really had any say.
“I’m still a member, though?” I’d earned my fucking patch. I wouldn’t give it up without argument.
Drummer rears back as if I’d thrown a punch at him. Which, of course, at the moment I can’t. I’ve got tubes and lines comingout of me everywhere, anchoring me to the hospital equipment that had presumably kept me alive.
“Of course you’re still a fuckin’ member, same way the others are. All we’re doing is stepping up to take care of club business to give you a chance to heal.” Drummer’s staring at me as if I insulted him. He adds gruffly, “Got your cut waiting for you whenever you’re ready for it.”
“I’m just keeping your seat warm, Brother,” Peg assures me as seriously as if he’s taking a vow. “Until you’re fit enough to take it up again.”
When he reaches out his hand, I only hesitate for a moment before clasping it in mine, telling him honestly, “Know you will, Brother.”
“Gentlemen, visiting time is over,” a nurse says as she enters the room. I’d like to say she’s gorgeous, and someone I’m going to have wet dreams about. But, hey, lucky me, my nurse has about twenty years on me, making her near retirement age. If I hadn’t previously understood how women could be described as battle-axes before, I certainly do now.
Even Drummer almost salutes as he responds sharply, “Yes, ma’am.”
Then he and Peg disappear out of the door, leaving me to her mercy.
In truth, I don’t give a damn how the nurse looks or how old she is, as long as she’s proficient at her job and gets me out of here as quickly as possible. I hate being cooped up, especially in a hospital. Moreover, I don’t like the thought that I’ve lost all dignity by my bladder emptying directly into a tube without even feeling the urge to piss.What if, when they remove the catheter, I’ll find I no longer have control?I shudder as that possibility occurs to me. I’d never given a thought that Depends might be in my near future. Now that that thought’s planted in my brain, it’s all I can think about. I force myself to consider the plus points.I’d be able to ride my Harley all day without stopping other than to refuel the tank.Uh uh.No way. What woman would want to give it up to a man wearing diapers?
Fuck my life.
