Page 52 of Banshee
Kytten walked over to greet Aspen, and Diesel growled at her. He was feeding off Aspen’s tension; it had nothing to do with Kytten, but seeing her wariness, she didn’t know that. Tuckernipped at him and he settled down, though his fur stayed up as he watched the tiny woman.
“Hi, Kytten.”
“Aspen. How are you?”
She shrugged. I stepped up behind her and whispered in her ear, “I’ve got your back, and I love you.”
She smiled and nodded, while the officers filed in a few minutes later, and King and Cash appeared from the hallway. They headed into church, Haizley following them. Aspen and I were right behind them, with Diesel at her feet.
Cash walked in with Kytten and motioned for her to sit by Aspen. She reached over and held Aspen’s hand. “You’ve got this,” she said, and I felt Aspen relax a little.
“Aspen, we know you’ve been through a lot the last few months, but we need to talk about the Death Dogs,” King began.
“I understand,” she said, her voice filled with bravado I knew she wasn’t feeling.
“You gave a brief rundown before. But now we need to know everything,” King said.
“After I graduated college, my father told me he had chosen someone for me to marry. You all know that someone was Banshee. When that didn’t work out, I thought he’d let it go. And he did for a while. Until Skinner told him he had information about my sister.”
“Diana?” King asked, and Aspen nodded.
“He wanted a solid alliance with the Gods of Mayhem, and everyone knew my father was open to it. So, I married Pepper. It wasn’t until after I had moved to Arizona that my father found out Skinner had lied. He didn’t have anything concrete to offer my father.”
“Why didn’t he take you back?” Cash asked.
I waited for her to speak. I wasn’t sure what she would tell them, but something told me she would continue to protect her father’s reputation.
“He tried. But I told him I was staying. I told him I was happy and he should be happy for me. Then as time went on, I slowly distanced myself from my family.”
“Tell them why,” Haizley pressed.
“Pepper had threatened them. The Death Dogs were a much larger club, and Pepper said if I told them anything about the abuse or how unhappy I was, Skinner would attack and wipe out my family and the club.”
“What happened the day you were hospitalized?”
“Pepper came home angry. I didn’t know what set him off; I never did.” She was holding something back, but I wouldn’t ask her about it here.
“Kytten,” King called. “What can you tell us?”
“We got the call within minutes of Aspen being brought into the hospital. It wasn’t the first time she had been there, and the contact we have knew that if we didn’t get her out, next time she would be in a body bag.”
“How did you get her out? Without raising the alarm?”
We waited for Kytten to answer. The answer she gave wasn’t what we expected.
“Club business,” she replied, her expression blank. King sent Cash a look, and Kytten continued, “Without permission from my president, I can’t give you that information. I’m sure you understand.”
“Sypher?” King asked, his eyes locked on Cash’s old lady.
Sypher let out a long breath. “Every member of the Nyght Nymphs has medical training. Valhalla goes in as a doctor and orders tests. The patient is then transferred, if they are stable enough, for thetestsand wheeled out into an ambulance that takes them to an undisclosed location.”
“Jesus Christ,” Cash muttered. “Enough with the pissing contest. King, don’t be a dick to my woman.”
We were used to the way Cash spoke to King. He didn’t hold anything back, and it was why he was the VP. The two of them worked well together and called each other on their shit. Kytten, however, didn’t understand their dynamic.
“What the fuck did you just say to your president?”
“Rose—”
