Page 25 of Colt

We knew there were protocols the hospital needed to follow, but we weren’t feeling very patient. Thankfully, Melissa showed up just a few minutes later, her husband following close behind.

She ran over to Viking, wrapping her arms around him before she lost it and cried into his chest. “Please tell me he’s okay,” she pleaded.

“They haven’t told us anything yet, sweetheart. They were waiting for you to get here.” Viking had a way of comforting those who were hurting, and Melissa clung to him, needing all of his support.

I watched Viper walk out of the room to let the receptionist know that Melissa had arrived.

“You must be Mr. Fitzgerald’s sister,” Dr. Tam said as he entered the room again and moved to shake Melissa’s hand. “Would you like to speak privately?.”

Melissa shook her head. “These men are his family, you can talk here.”

The doctor looked around the room skeptically but relented. “I regret to inform you that Jacob died at the scene. The paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but there was nothing they could do. He had several gunshot wounds, including one that hit his heart. I’m so sorry.”

I watched in silence as Melissa crumpled to the floor in a heap of sobs and mumbled words I couldn’t make out. Her husband rushed to her side and cradled her in his arms.

I could hear angry growls and rumblings break out all around me. We knew things weren’t good, but before the doctor spoke, we still held onto some hope. Now there was nothing.

“Um… there was also a young lady with him,” Dr. Tam added, interrupting our conversations.

That caught all of our attention. “Fuck, it must be Ember,” I said, alarmed and wondering if she’d been hurt too.”Is she all right?”

“Did they bring her here too?” Viking asked at the same time, looking worried.

“They did, but she’s okay. She’s able to go home soon. She told me I could update you on her condition, and if you wanted, you could go back and see her.”

That was said to Viking, and I figured the doctor was only extending the invitation to him.

My initial concern for her well being faded away when the doctor said she was okay. It was slowly sinking in that Fitz was gone. I could feel the anger seeping in at the thought that she was the reason I’d just lost one of my closest friends.

Having enough of this hospital and the stupid conflicting emotions it was causing, I slammed open the door of the waiting room and headed back outside. I pulled out my pack of cigarettes and lit one up. After a few drags, I started thinking about the most important thing right now, figuring out who was responsible for killing Fitz.

Our club wasn’t going to rest until whoever was responsible paid, in the most painful way possible.

I tried to wrap my brain around how it all went down, imagining what happened in my mind as I smoked another cigarette. Drive-bys weren’t common, even for us. We normally knew what was coming if we were having territorial issues with another club but there had been no intel to lead us to believe something like this would happen. The Phantoms were the obvious suspects since they’d hit Reno to cause shit with Ice, but after the incident, we’d heard they’d gone back up north. It also didn’t make much sense someone would take a shot at Ember, but it wasn’t completely out of the question either. With Ice in jail and her mom and sister in New York City, if the club had issues outside the Phantoms that we weren’t aware of up in Reno, it’s more than possible that trouble followed the only person that enemy could hurt. If that was the reason...

“Hey, man.” I heard Mac come up behind me, a cigarette in his hand too. “This is fucked up.”

I nodded. There wasn’t much that could bring any of us to our knees, but the loss of one of our own would be felt for years. If anything, it’d make us stronger—later on. But right now, emotions would run high and I could see that brimming in my friend’s eyes.

“How’s Wolf dealing?” I asked.

Wolf and Fitz were close. Or rather, had been close. Fitz took Wolf under his wing when he was prospecting and Fitz acted as a surrogate brother for Wolf when Hawk went into the Army.

Mac shook his head. “I don’t know. He’s quiet, like it hasn’t really sunk in yet, y’know?”

I did. In the end, we’d all lost someone we considered a brother. Someone who we would all lay our own life down for. Someone who lost his life doing what the club asked of him. It wasn’t the first time we experienced a loss, but it had been a long time since one of ours was taken like this.

“How’s Ember?” I asked, both angry and concerned for her. It was strange, feeling two opposite things at the same time, but Ember seemed to bring that out in me. I had no perspective when it came to her.

“Viking went back to check on her. But I think everyone else is heading back to the clubhouse,” Mac said, subdued. “A couple of us should stay here to ride back with him. And someone will need to stay here until Ember’s discharged. No one should be alone right now.”

How we handled business and how we traveled was going to change for the time being. At least until we knew exactly what went down this morning. We needed to know if this was a random attack or if the Desert Sinners were the target.

I stared off, seeing people going in and out, the sky bright and sun shining. It was a stark contrast to the reality back inside the hospital. The idea of never shooting the shit with Fitz again made my chest tighten and that anger bubbled up again. I had no one to blame other than Ember at the moment, and right now, it felt good to blame someone, no matter how unreasonable I was being.

“She shouldn’t be our concern anymore. It’s her fucking fault this happened in the first place,”

“C’mon, man. Even you know that’s not fair. You’ve been real hard on her for no reason, so don’t be an ass. She’s going to be a mess over Fitz without you blaming her,” Mac said, giving me a hard look. “It’s too early to determine what happened, and it sounds like she’s pretty fucking lucky to be alive. She might even have some useful information that could help us figure out who was responsible for this. Besides, Viking doesn’t operate like that. He’s not going to leave her to fend for herself, especially now. You’re going to have to get your shit together and not cause any further problems.”

The anger dissipated a bit and I knew Mac was right, about all of it, but I seemed to have lost all capability of rational thought where Ember was involved. I knew I was blaming her for no real reason other than my own issues that had nothing to do with her, but I just couldn’t get over it. And now this situation with her and Fitz, it only made things more chaotic and confusing for me.

But deep down, the fact it could have been her that took those bullets caused feelings in me I wasn't ready to deal with.