Page 32 of Hounds Ascend
“Don’t know. He just left. Said he had some things to takecare of.” Linc shrugs and I know that I won’t get anymore information out of him. I’ll just have to wait until he calls.
“What’s going on with the bar?” I ask.
“We hired a few new girls to work and run it. Cass told me he didn’t want anyone club affiliated working until they got this shit straightened out with the Moccasins. That, and he’s hired a few guys to sit at the bar with the girls and look like they’re just hanging out but they’re really there for protection. He didn’t tell you?”
“No, but I also didn’t ask and it hasn’t come up. I miss it, though. I miss working the bar,” I sigh. I miss a lot of things, if I’m being honest.
“It’ll still be there when this shit blows over and you’ll jump back in without missing a beat.”
Mindy’s optimism even when she was lying in a hospital bed lifts my spirits. My best friend is the most amazing person I’ve ever met. I put my hands on either side of Mindy’s face, inspecting her injuries.
“Damn, it’s good to see you. I was so scared I was going to lose you,” I confess.
“I’m not going anywhere, but those fuckers that did this…let me get my hands on them,” she shakes her fist in the air then flinches and lays it back down on the bed.
I giggle and put my own hand over Mindy’s, gently. I look over at Linc, who’s been sitting silently throughout Mindy and I’s exchange.
“You’re an ass, you know that?”
He raises his hands up in surrender. “Look, I’m just a prospect. I do as I’m told and never in our conversation was I told to let you know what was going on. That, and I was worried as fuck and couldn’t wait to get down here to check on my girl.”
“True. I retract my earlier statement. Cass is an ass.” The smug look on my face says I’m satisfied with my redirection of ass-assigning. It feels good to say it out loud, and slightly ridiculous, but that’s irrelevant. I even crossed my arms for emphasis.
“What happened, Min? The nurse said it was a single-car accident…”
“My car went down on me after I got home from the benefit, so I asked Linc if I could borrow his truck for a few days until I could get my car looked at. I’ve been driving the truck around and earlier tonight, I was followed. If it would’ve been motorcycles, it would have thrown red flags up in my head way before it did, but there weren’t any bikes. Instead, it was just a truck. They followed me for God knows how long before I even realized they were behind me. I was on my way to Baton Rouge for a few things I needed to pick up for the bar before tomorrow when I noticed them behind me on a cut-through road I normally take. It has minimal traffic and before I knew it, there was something on the road in front of me. I swerved, then over-corrected and the truck started flipping.”
“What was in the road?” Linc asks and I’m surprised that he hasn’t gotten this information already. He must not have been here long before I arrived.
“I don’t know. It was huge, though. I didn’t get a good lookat it before the truck flipped.”
Linc and I share a puzzling look, and I want to pull him aside right now and pick his brain on what he’s thinking.
“Then,” Mindy continues, “When the truck finally stopped flipping over itself, the truck that was behind me came to a stop with their headlights shining on me through the bent metal and broken glass. I could hear voices and boots, crunching the shards of glass beneath them. I knew when they were so quiet and calm that they weren’t there to help me. One of them grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him, then dropped my arm and cursed. He said, and I quote, “Fuck! We weren’t supposed to kill a fucking woman; it was supposed to be the prospect. Asher is going to lose his shit.” Then they left and that was that.” Mindy shrugs her shoulder indifferently.
“So, you’re going to find these bastards so I can give them a dose of their own medicine, right?” she asks Linc, looking hopeful.
He chuckles and raises her hand to his lips, kissing it softly. “No, babe. I’m going to find those bastards soIcan give them a dose of their own medicine. Nobody fucks with my girl.”
Linc isn’t domineering in the same essence that Cass was, but he radiates an energy like no other. He means every word he says. Mindy’s face lights up at Linc’s response and I realize I haven’t ever seen Mindy so happy. She’s always been happy, in a sense, but nothing like this. This is different. This is that glow people spoke of. Mindy has it.
“Okay, you two. I’m going to leave you alone and go get somerest. I’m exhausted.” I rise from where I was sitting on the bed.
“No,” Linc protests, shaking his head.
“What? Why not?” I ask.
“Because, I can’t let you leave here in that damn car that can be spotted from two miles away when they just nearly killed Mindy. Cass wouldn’t only have my prospect patch, which, might I add, I’ve worked my ass off to prove I’m worthy of, but he’d have my head to hang in the clubhouse to make an example of what happens to people who don’t protect their own.”
I huff in frustration. “I’m really getting tired of these fucktards making my life difficult.”
“You can sleep on the couch right here if you want. I won’t be getting any sleep anyway.” Linc stands up and opens the cabinet at the end of the couch. He reaches in and reveals a stiff hospital pillow and a thin, weird-textured blanket. The plain white ones that are standard to damn near all hospitals. I want to stomp my feet and throw a fit so badly, to tell Linc I’ll be fine because I have a gun in my car, but I’m too tired to argue. And too tired to drive.
I put the pillow on the end of the couch and curl up with the scratchy blanket pulled to my shoulders. Linc sits at the foot of the bed and gently rubs Mindy’s legs.
“Good night, you damn love birds.”
“Good night,” they say in unison.
