Page 71 of Grumpy

Fuck. His instincts were slow, having not lived this far south in a decade. But Maddie had lived in Texas her entire life, and if she was sensing what Grumpy was, then they were in trouble.

“Pull over now,” Grumpy instructed, his voice leaving no room for argument. He was already dialing Jackson as Kelly hit the shoulder. The prospect answered on the first ring. “Ditch your bike. Get in here now.” Not wasting time hanging up, he told Kelly. “Back seat. Go.”

She hastily unbuckled her seat belt. No sooner than she was in the back and Jackson was in the driver’s seat with his too long legs squeezed under the steering wheel did hail start to fall. Like golf balls hitting the cage, it sounded as if someone had opened fire on them.

“What is this?” Kelly asked again, but Grumpy shouted over her. “Go!” He was already passing pillows into the back to his girls. “Protect your heads!”

Jackson gunned the SUV, leaving his bike behind without hesitation. He picked up speed, fast. Not caring about limits or laws. “I wasn’t sure, but the weather app still shows nothing,” the prospect hastily said.

“I trust any Texan over a suited-up weather man,” Grumpy growled. “Maddie knew before I did.”

“Knew what? What’s happening?” Kelly shouted over the hailstorm.

Then, just like the downpour, the hail stopped. Outside the SUV, an eerie stillness filled the air. Like the world had frozen. No wind, no trees swaying, no birds. The only thing that moved was the wall cloud in the mirrors behind them, coming towards them almost irrationally fast.

A roar like the hounds of hell had been released filled the air as a massive funnel cloud formed and chased them down.

CHAPTER 14

Terror. Unadulterated, pure terror. No other words were necessary to describe the wretched feeling powering through Kelly as they sped away from the tornado. A tornado. It went beyond reality into a nightmare.

When Kelly was seven years old, a tornado had passed through Mount Grove. She didn’t remember much beyond the “game” her mom had played with her in their bathtub on the first floor. It was noisy, but her mom held her close as they cuddled under the mattress. Her mom had called it the Fort of Prayer.

The Doyle house had been spared, but other buildings and houses had not been. As tornados went, it could have been a lot worse. The horror of the damage and deaths were overshadowed in her young mind by the excitement of the Mount Grove Middle School being destroyed. The tornado had torn a path straight through, and while the school had not been hers, it was a thrill for the town youths to know a school had been taken down by a tornado.

Now, as an adult, no such thrills or games crossed her mind. She’d read the news, heard the horrible stories from survivors. Like the Joplin tornado in 2011. Watching the Netflix documentary about it had removed her from the reality of the fear, listening to the escalation of how a high school graduation day had turned into the worst tornado tragedy in recorded history.

Kelly was not removed now. She gripped the door handle with all her might, like she had the power to infuse the SUV to just go faster. Her other hand was reached across the bench seat to Maddie, trying to keep the young pregnant woman steady as Jackson swerved, weaved, and pushed the SUV to its limits.

The night the bar had exploded, Kelly had wondered if that chaos had been comparable to a warzone. As awful as that night had been, it didn’t come close to now.

Cars with panicked drivers landed in ditches, people running haphazardly across the road—some even towards the tornado as they sought shelter—branches, debris, and unidentifiable parts flew this way and that in front of them, like the wind couldn’t figure out which direction it was blowing. Vehicles crashed into each other, blocking the road.

Somehow Jackson kept his cool, taking them around everything with so much ease that Kelly had to wonder if he was even human. She certainly was unable to detach herself from her panic and fear. Her mind kept flicking through times in her life. Her mom. What would happen to her mom if Kelly died today? And Bubbe! Without Kelly’s salary, Bubbe would not be able to stay in the home. She’d be kicked out onto the streets, and it would be all Kelly’s fault.

The club. Faces, smiles, laughter ran through her mind like a reel on steroids. Kelly remembered the first time Lucky brought Scotty into the diner. It was her second or third day working there. She knew who Lucky was, having seen him and his little sister around town. All the women knew he’d come home from the war to take guardianship of his sister. Kelly was too young to remember his parents, but everyone knew the tragic story of how his dad went missing one winter night and wasn’t found until the spring when the river thawed. It was used as a cautionary tale in Driver’s Ed classes. Then there were the rumors that Lucky was fighting for another sibling, this one just a few months old. Kelly might have had a crush on him, but unlike other women in town who tried to make a move on him, Kelly recognized that he was far too busy and stressed to even consider romance.

She’d watched Scotty grow, from that little baby in the carrier to the young man he was today. A college student! He was the light of the town, and Kelly was honored to be his friend.

The ol’ ladies who now called themselves her sisters. Kelly had been looking forward to being one of them, to sharing in that bond so few could ever understand. And the club brothers. Whoever thought a motorcycle club could ever be honorable? Kelly certainly hadn’t. Shows like Sons of Anarchy and news stories about Hell’s Angels MC had painted a not-so pleasant outlook for motorcycle clubs. So when a hardened Marine moved to town to create a new club, many were not thrilled about the prospect.

Now Kelly was one of them, an ol’ lady. She loved them, even before she wore a cut of her own. They were good people. People who had found family in circumstance, not blood. And for a moment in time, Kelly had been welcome in their home.

And Maddie. Yesterday had been incredible. Getting to meet her, getting to learn about her and know that Kelly was going to be a part of, not just her life but also her babies? There was so much life in her, so much potential. Maybe Kelly would never have kids of her own, maybe Maddie would never call her ‘Mom’. But she could have been the very best bubbe to those little babies.

Would she ever know? Would she ever get to meet them? If anyone survived today, it had to be Maddie. It just had to be.

Kelly tried not to think of the last. It was too much, too distressing. The idea that it had taken them ten years to get to where they were. A bomb had tried to keep them apart; it had failed. His mom had tried to keep them apart; she had also failed.

Would a tornado succeed?

Kelly couldn’t do it. She couldn’t bear the thought that this was their end.

The SUV veered so violently that Kelly was thrown against the door. She cried out, her eyes that she hadn’t realized she’d closed flew open. Her left shoulder screamed in pain, and she lost her grip on Maddie.

“Daddy!”

Kelly’s head turned, praying that Maddie’s outcry had been from fear, not pain. Tears streamed down the young woman’s face. Her black hair was held up in a ponytail. She had a pillow pressed to her belly.