Page 34 of Striker
Jasper slaps me on the shoulder. “You did good, but it would have been better to interrogate him first.” Before I can respond, he leans over and addresses Jinx. “Are you planning on dying today, brother?”
Jinx scowls at him. “Apparently Striker won’t fuckin’ let me.”
Cutter speaks up, “It’s gone straight through. He’s gonna be fine.”
Jasper glances around before responding. “Thank fuck. That’s the one silver linin’ in this whole clusterfuck.”
Between the four of us, we get Jinx into the truck with Cutter. Then we load up Jinx’s bike in the back of the truck, and they take off for the clubhouse. Me? I stand there with my best friend’s blood on my hands. I should never have turned down the backup Jasper offered me earlier. Jinx and I made the same mistake, underestimating the pencil pusher.
Jasper reaches out, grabs my arm and turns me around. “How about you? Are you hit?”
I shake my head, bewildered by the question. If I were, someone surely would have noticed. “No. Of course not.”
“All that blood on your hands is Jinx’s?”
I take a deep breath and fight back the surge of guilt threatening to spill out. “Yeah. I kept pressure on his wound, that’s all.”
His eyes move past me to Keene. “You said you killed him? Why?”
“Didn’t have a choice. Keene shot Jinx once and was standin’ over him, about to put another bullet in his face.”
Jasper just nods because nothing else needs saying. Given the choice between Keene or Jinx breathing, Keene’s gonna lose every single time. Having a brother’s back is part of the code we live by. The stupid fucker should have known better than to draw down on one of us.
We still have a dead man in a backyard, and we need to deal with that first. Slate shows up and goes straight to Onyx before they come to where Jasper and I are standing. Slate, our club’s VP, jerks his chin towards Keene. “Onyx and I will see to the body and clean up the scene here. Striker, you should get back to the clubhouse and help them manage Jinx. You know how he gets when he’s upset.”
***
When we get back to the clubhouse, Cutter has cleaned up Jinx’s wound and is stitching the wound shut. Of course, Jinx is grumbling about it between drinks of whiskey straight from the bottle.
“You’re lucky,” Cutter tells him. “The bullet didn’t nick any major arteries or bones.”
“Strangely enough, I don’t feel very fuckin’ lucky,” Jinx slings back. “Do a good fuckin’ job there, bro. That shoulder is important to me.”
I chime in, “Apparently, not as fuckin’ important as your mouth.”
Takin’ another swig of whiskey from the bottle, Jinx glares at me. “Every fuckin’ body is a comedian today.”
Nora arrives a short while later with their newborn in her arms. She sees all the bloody bandages littering the floor and goes pale.
Jinx immediately starts tryin’ to soothe her fears. “Baby, I’m okay. It’s just a flesh wound. It looks a lot worse than it is, I promise you.”
Nora quickly hands the baby to me, walks across the room to Jinx and smacks his good shoulder.
“Ow! What the fuck, sweetness?”
“What the fuck right back at you. Were you trying to get yourself killed out there today? You have a wife and baby to worry about now. You have to be more careful with yourself.”
He reaches for her, but she takes a step back, still angry. Before I can get my head around what’s happening, she moves forward again, cups his face in both hands and kisses him fiercely.
I look down at their daughter and whisper, “Your parents are fuckin’ weird, kid. So, you need to be prepared for that.”
When Nora takes the baby back and huddles with Jinx, I head outside, intent upon giving them some privacy.
Jasper walks up. “I hear Jinx is gonna be all right. But this situation don’t bode well for your investigation into who’s stalkin’ your old lady. You keep diligently runnin’ down leads but you’re no closer to finding out who’s behind this whole thing.”
“You don’t have to remind me of what I already know. It’s frustratin’ as fuck. Look, I’m heading home. It’s been a rough mornin’.”
He nods. “Go home. You need some rest. We’ll find a way.”
