Nomads' Fall: Burning Bastards MC (8 page)

“Okay, so you know what you have here, so how much is it worth to you? Since you know what it is, you should know that it’s worth more than I’ll ever give you to pawn it.”

“I know it’s expensive, and I know you’re a pawnshop. I won’t come back for it. It was a gift from a rat bastard, and I never want to see it again. That doesn’t mean I’ll give it away either.”

She walked out of the shop with a wad of cash and a new friend. She stopped at the coffee shop and splurged on a small frappe, before going back to her perch on the curb.

*****

Demon was in a pissy mood, he was higher than shit, and wasn’t speaking politely to the middle aged nurse when Knight walked into the room. She told him that he didn’t have anything she hadn’t seen before, and he laughed at her.

“Lady, my prick is probably enough to make you faint, just give me the washcloth and I’ll wash it myself, and since you’re being nice, I’ll wash my own balls too.” He smiled at her and she was turning pink in the cheeks. He winked at her, and Knight had to laugh.

“Don’t mind him, his ego is legendary. You might as well let him wash himself and save yourself the trouble of arguing with him. Truth is he’s shy and women chase him for some mysterious reason. I don’t see it myself, we all know I’m better looking.

Demon was laughing, “You just keep telling yourself that, asshole. Hey did you meet my nurse? She’s a hot cougar, and she wants to see my dick.” He looked sideways at the pretty nurse and winked at her again.

Knight had to admire the woman, she stepped up to the bed and pulled the sheet off Demon. “Okay, handsome, roll over, I really don’t care about the size of your penis you know, and you might want to ask your friend to step out of the room for a while.” She busied herself with several items on a rolling cart.

Knight saw a bottle of liquid with a nozzle she was screwing down on top, and lost it. He laughed until he was propped against the wall behind him to keep from falling. He kept pointing at Demon and cracking up. He couldn’t say a coherent word, so he ran to the door. The sound of, “Oh fuck no, you ain’t doing that,” sent Knight back into gales of laughter. The few people in the hallway hearing his laughter smiled, wondering what was so funny. Seeing the big man sitting on the floor with his back propped against the wall while he tried to control himself was an unusual sight in the hospital, especially a big handsome biker type. When the nurse finally came out of the room, she had a smug smile on her face.

He felt bad for his friend, he really did, but that wouldn’t stop him from busting his balls about getting an enema from a motherly nurse. This was going to be fun. He looked around the door before walking back into the room. Demon refused to look his way until he started talking about Dorsey and his downfall.

“Hand to God, brother, I walked in behind Georgie and thought about shooting the woman, she looked like one of those Zombie things you like to watch in movies. She had blood drying on her skin and not a drop of it belonged to her. She was standing there, hair wild like it might look after a good fuck session, she had a Walther P99 in her hand, and my dick got hard. You gotta know I enjoyed the sight of a bloody zombie bitch threatening Georgie with that Walther.

Chapter
Seven

Demon didn’t believe him, “You’re so full of shit, man, seriously, it’s a good picture you paint for me though.” There was no way Georgie would let a split tail threaten him with a gun or anything else. He was painfully old school about a woman’s place, and not one of them would be holding a gun on him.

“I know you’re fucked up on painkillers, but I swear it happened. Georgie was more worried about Gladys than the woman with the gun. He walked right up to her and she got scared, ran into a closet, and stayed there all night. He even ignored Dorsey lying on the floor all trussed up like a Christmas turkey.

“Big Dog came in and talked her out of the closet, and yeah, not my most shining moment. I saw her and, hell I don’t know, it’s a clusterfuck. I’ll bring her by tomorrow and you can meet her. She’s running from something, and not talking about it.”

Demon wasn’t listening, the big redhead was asleep.
Well hell
.

Knight stopped by Gladys’s room on his way out of the hospital and stopped in his tracks before he reached the closed door. The shouting coming from inside the room was entertaining some of the nurses, but a security guard was reaching for the door. Knight walked into the room behind the guard.

“You don’t want a woman, you want a doormat. I won’t tell you a damned thing, so just leave, you are unbelievable, who do you think you are? My daddy’s been dead ten years now. I don’t need a substitute. If I had my gun I’d shoot your big ass. Tell me what I can and can’t do, fuck you, George.” She spied the two intruders and actually bared her teeth at them. “Get him out of here before I strangle him with an IV tube.”

Gladys pointed her finger at Knight, “You, you take Jolly back to the campground and have her bring her car to pick me up.” She held up her hand when George started to speak. “I have nothing to say to you, I appreciate what you did for me, but I will never play at being a beaten down ‘yes Master’ type of woman, I am as good as you, and won’t be treated like I have no brains. Get out, you’re giving me a headache.” Georgie wasn’t moving and she arched her brow at him. “Okay, you want to be an asshole? I’ll show you an asshole.”

She reached for the phone beside the bed and dialed a number. “Hi, sweetie, can you come pick me up at the Hospital? I might have a friend with me, you’re gonna love her, she’s the one that caught your rat last night.” She held the phone away from her ear to keep her eardrum from being broken at the scream from the other end of the line.

Georgie shook his head and left the room. The security guard followed him from the room. Knight stayed until the call was completed.

“You know he’s in love with you right? Finding you laid out on that rock last night scared the hell out of him. He’s a good man, be sure you know what you’re throwing away here, lady.”

Gladys was barely holding her shit together and didn’t need to have him giving her a guilt trip right now. “A good man? Yes, he’s a good man, a good man to have at your back, especially if he’s backing up one of his Bastards brothers. You say he loves me, but what he said to me wasn’t love words. He told me that he was going to beat my ass if he ever saw another gun in my hand that he didn’t put there. My place is in my house where I’ll be safe and he’ll do the protection thing. Do you know something? I’m forty-one years old and never, not once, have I been treated with so little respect, even in the Middle East. So fuck him very much, I don’t need his version of love.”

She gathered her clothing to change, “Would you ask Jolly to come up here please? Future is picking us up and we won’t be bothering you or the club again if I can help it.”

He stared at her wondering what to say to make her understand. She ignored him, and went into the bathroom.

He made his way down the hallway and saw a pretty brunette that reminded him of the woman brought in with Demon last night.

Barbara Collier’s room was in ICU. They refused to allow him to see her, but when he saw the kid sitting in the waiting room with an older woman, the little boy was too recognizable to ignore. One of the brothers had some explaining to do. There was a rule the club adhered to, and it was that you never abandoned your kid. This kid looked to be about five or so, and Knight knew that it was his mother lying in ICU. Barbara was the only patient in the small ward.

He left the hospital and saw Jolly sitting under the only tree in the parking lot. “Gladys asked me to tell you she needs you up in her room, she called someone to take you both back to the campground.”

She stood and politely held her hand out to shake his. “Thank you for staying with me and breakfast and bringing me here.”

Fuck this
. He pulled her to him and laid his lips on hers, pushing his tongue inside her open lips until he had her cooperation in the kiss. He let her go and walked away.

He was halfway to the clubhouse when Future sped past him heading to town. That was another bad luck for someone story. Had anyone told Future how Dorsey came into their hands? What the hell was happening around here anyway?

*****

Knight parked in front of the building and looked at the bikes lined up. The bike he wanted to see there was parked next to Big Dog’s hog. He walked in and stepped up to the bar. He downed the beer that was put in front of him and looked around the room. “I need to have a word with Fuller, got any idea where I can find him?”

“I think he’s out back with Big D. They said something about looking at plans for a new place in town. How’s Demon?”

“Demon is flying high on the painkillers and his nurse has his number, she’ll keep his big ass in line.” He grinned and took another beer to go.

Big D and Show were sitting on a weathered picnic table talking with Fuller and Needles. Fuller wasn’t as big as the rest of the men at the table but he was well liked. Knight stared at him to make sure he wasn’t thinking wrong about the kid. There was no doubt in his mind now.

After the greetings were taken care of, and he gave his report on Demon and his evil nurse, he brought up the good Samaritan’s name.

“Do any of you know Barbara Collier? She’s the woman that stopped to help Demon, and got ran over for her trouble. Her car’s sitting at Joey’s junkyard. It’s pretty much totaled. Not that is was much to begin with, but I was thinking maybe someone should donate a vehicle for her if she lives. She’s still in ICU, and they refused to tell me anything.”

Big D was looking at him strangely, the man knew him too well. He knew something was about to go down, and Knight nodded his head at the unspoken question. “Hey, Fuller, do you have family around these parts?”

Fuller shook his head, “Nope, no one. My people are from Oregon.”

Knight asked again if anyone knew a woman named Barbara. Fuller looked puzzled but walked away from the conversation.

“I hate it when shit like this happens, the boy better step up and be a man. Wait until Demon finds out he’s been fuckin’ that girl over, he’ll know what an ass whippin’ really is. He’s lyin’ about not knowing the kid is his. He’s just being a pansy motherfucker.”

Georgie came stomping outside carrying four beers with him.
Yeah
, Knight thought,
this day just gets better and better
.

*****

Future drove up at the hospital entrance just as they rolled Gladys out through the front doors of the hospital. The low growl of the 440 under the hood echoed against the windows of the building. Gladys was in a hurry to leave and she wasted no time getting her ass in the passenger seat and pulling the lap belt over to click it in place for the benefit of the nurse who was watching. Jolly slid into the backseat when Future moved the backrest for access, so she could get in.

“How did you talk Big D into letting you bring the Charger? I thought this car was sacred and would only start and drive down the road for the big strong man of the house. Didn’t you tell me he said this baby was too many horses for a woman to handle all at once or some horseshit like that?” Gladys was still in a foul mood, but since she was taking a few potshots at Big D’s ego, she felt justified.

Future laughed, “Yeah, well, he wasn’t around for me to ask, so he’s just going to have to deal right? We can eat at your house, if that works for you girls.”

She looked into the rearview mirror and saw Jolly looking at her. “I’m Future.”

Jolly nodded and sat back in the seat. She felt like Alice just landing at the bottom of the rabbit’s hole. If she didn’t know better, she would be looking for the Mad Hatter to show up at any time.

The drive to the campground was exciting. Future’s foot found the gas pedal and didn’t seem to let up at all until they pulled into the gravel driveway. It was the first time Jolly had ridden in a real muscle car and she liked it, maybe a little too much. She loved driving, and she would have given a pint of blood to be allowed to drive the beautifully restored ’69 Charger.

Gladys was limping by the time they sat down to eat the huge greasy burgers and Jolly got her first taste of a real malted milkshake. “Oh lord that’s good, I don’t know what they put in these shakes, but it’s so tasty that these might have just become my favorite food.”

Gladys laughed and explained the difference was in the ingredients, “They use real malt in the smaller mom and pop places like Georgia’s. No skimping on the quality of the food either.”

“So, I want to hear all about last night. Tell me, was it fun to tie up Dorsey? I would have been laughing with every moan of pain he made. I would have tightened the rope as much as I could and made him scream bloody murder. No amount of pain is too much for the hell and harm he caused me. He needed to suffer.”

Future wanted details, Jolly wasn’t particularly fond of the memory of shooting and hog-tying the man, but she related how the “capture” went down step by step. “All I did was defend myself really. He was coming at me and reaching for the gun at his side, I felt threatened and shot him in the shoulder and in the side. I didn’t want to kill him, mainly because I didn’t know where Gladys was, and she seemed to want to get her hands on him pretty badly. I didn’t even know his name until one of the men said it.”

“When those gang members came in the door, and Georgie threatened me, I almost shot him too. I’m not real proud that I hid in the closet until some guy calling himself Mad Dog or something like that told me he was the boss of the gang and I could come out and be safe. Mostly I had to pee so badly by that time, I was ready to find a corner. I came out and the man who’d kept pounding on the door and yelling at me to come out was there. He scared me worse than the first man.”

“He stayed with me last night and bought me breakfast before we went to the hospital. I’m not sure how to take a man like him, but I don’t have plans to learn how.” Why Future smiled at her words was puzzling, but Gladys was drooping, so Jolly helped her to her bed.