imagine it.
“As you all probably know by now, Mitch was killed last night,” he says without wasting any time. A few of the brothers groan. Not in surprise, just regret, and sadness.
“It was a senseless death, an accident that shouldn’t have been possible, but all accidents are—”
“It was the fucking Knights’ fault!” One of the brothers yells. Cross casts a dark look in that direction.
“Yeah!” Another brother yells. “What are we gonna do about it?”
Several more raise their voices, saying pretty much the same thing.
“Nothing!” Cross answers. “We will do nothing. Because it was an accident. A miscommunication. The bomb went off because it wasn’t handled right. The Knights lost two of their own in the blast too. That’s punishment enough.”
A few of the brothers grumble and the energy in the room is murderous. I want revenge too. The thirst for it is hanging in the air around us, thick like fog. But Cross’ word is law. No one questions it. Ever.
“Now, please join me in a moment of silence to remember him.”
He hangs his head, and I follow his example. I focus hard on my interlaced hands, but I can’t still my thoughts enough to think of nothing but my fallen brother. The silence in the room is so absolute I can hear the wind rustling the dried up shrubs outside. My heart’s racing, my stomach’s clenched, and I want a drink so bad that bile is rising in my throat. A drink and Brenda and then things might be at least a little closer to OK. Mitch will never have a drink again. He’ll never enjoy a woman again. Never ride again. Never…never do anything at all again.
“Once we get home, we will honor Mitch as we would any fallen brother. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to recover his body last night, but Hawk is doing everything he can to fix that. Although Mitch’s family might want to claim his body and we will honor that too,” Cross says, breaking the tense, sad silence. “For now, we must stay put. Tomorrow, we’ll start investigating what we’re facing now, but carefully. We don’t know why the cops showed up last night or what their aim was. Until we do, we have to stay out of sight and this bunker is the safest place for us. So I expect everyone to stay here, no exceptions, except on my orders.”
His gaze passes over all of us, and I feel like it lingered on me a little more pointedly.
But I’m through defying Cross’ orders. And I certainly won’t do anything to put any one of my brothers in danger. Not now. Not after we just lost Mitch. Not after we lost him so that we don’t even have his body to bury.
Brenda
The pizza arrived so fast it was too hot to eat, and I slammed the door in the pimply kid’s face the moment after he delivered it. I don’t want to discuss paying for the room. If I do that, I won’t have enough for a bus ticket out of here. Getting out of here should be my first priority.
Who knows if Colt will ever be back…I sure don’t. I just want his promises to be true.
I wolf down more than half of the extra-large pie, which is possibly more food than I’ve ever eaten in one sitting. It also tastes better than any pizza I’ve ever had—the cheese rich and thick and baked just enough to be both crunchy and soft, and the crust must be some ancient recipe from the old country because I’ve never had finer.
Despite a growing stomach ache, that’s threatening to get worse I feel better once I’m full.
If Colt doesn’t show up by midnight, I’m outta here. If he doesn’t at least call…
That’s what I promised myself after I finished eating. It’s past midnight now and I’m still waiting.
He’ll be back. I know he will.
Besides, I bet that kid’s watching me real close now. He’ll see me leave.
The phone ringing wakes me. I have no idea what time it is, but the room is so quiet I bet it’s late. I almost roll right off the bed as I reach for it.
“Brenda?” Colt says, and I’m wide awake from the hope welling in my chest. But his voice sounds so damn distant.
“Yeah,” I say. “You said you’d be back.”
“And I will be,” he assures me. “Just not yet.”
“When?”
“It’s complicated.”
My heart’s racing and I don’t know if it’s in fright or anger. It’s both, I guess. “The