Everlasting - Christine Michelle Page 0,63

Jay answered.

“We’re going to have to, your dad’s in a bad way,” I informed him. “Who else do we have?” I asked, wondering where everyone was.

“Not sure yet,” Diamond answered. “Got separated from Court and Snake while we were in there. Pretty confident I took out the younger brother of their group.”

“Good. Let’s hope we get the other two while we’re here. If not, I’m more than happy to go hunting again once we get these guys home.”

Diamond chuckled. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

“We lost a year. My girl had to give birth without her man by her side because of these fuckers,” I reminded him.

“I know, Double-D. Your family has been through it this year, and part of that falls on our deal we made with these bastards all those years ago.”

“Nah, it falls on their heads for having no fucking honor and pulling this shit.”

“Still, don’t think the Tallahassee Chapter won’t go hunting with you in a damn minute. We’ll be more than happy to make sure this is one particular snake that never grows another head back.”

I nodded as he helped me, carefully, move Merc. His eyebrows furrowed in on themselves about the same time my own did. Merc hadn’t appeared to have lost weight because he was wearing bulky clothing when he got here. I chalked it up to him dressing for winter, but as we moved him, I finally took a good, hard look at my friend. He was damn near gaunt. Granted, his son had been missing for a fucking year. His wife was undergoing treatments, and soon surgery, for her cancer. I expected his age to start eating at him, but not like this. This was something else altogether.

“Damn it, Merc, what the fuck has been going on with you?”

He grinned at me. “Don’t worry about it, D. I have it covered. You just get me to someone who can remove this bullshit sticking out of me and we’ll worry about the rest later.” Then he put his hand up on my arm and attempted to squeeze. “You did it, brother. You’re bringing my boys home.”

“Ever got us the information we needed. She’s responsible for bringing them home, finally.”

“Remind me to kiss our daughter when we get back then.”

“That did not sound right,” I tormented him. He chuckled and then coughed and sputtered when the pain from moving ripped through him. “Stay still, brother.” The warning wasn’t necessary because he passed out before he could comprehend what I was telling him anyway.

Merc wasn’t able to come back with us, so Jay stayed behind along with Diamond and Snake to watch over him and make sure no one turned up to exact revenge. Before we left to take Deck home, I pulled Jay aside, “You let me know what the hell is going on with him. It’s more than the stress of everything that’s happened to your family this year.”

Jay nodded, but then shocked the shit out of me with his response. “No offense, D, but if my father wants you to know what’s happening with him, he’ll tell you himself. I won’t break his confidence unless it means saving him from himself.”

I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “I respect that, but that man’s been by my side since long before you were a misfire, you feel? You make sure and tell me if he needs anything at all so I can get it for him, or put a boot up his ass about it, you got it?”

“A misfire?” He laughed.

“Well, you ain’t all there, are you?”

“Fucking hell,” he murmured after a bout of full-blown laughter. “It’s good to be able to do that and breathe.” I knew what he meant. There hadn’t been a whole lot of cause to just laugh in quite some time. “Get my brother back to his family and take care of him. He doesn’t look so good, D.”

“He’s alive. Anything else, we can work on.”

Chapter 26

Finally

Ever

I didn’t tell my girls that their dad was coming home today. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if that was more for selfish reasons than to protect them at this point. I’d been called and told that the information I provided was good and that they were on their way back. A couple nomads with Aces High, a security contractor with Redemption Inc., and a brother from the Tallahassee Chapter had all been killed in order to make it happen. Four men lost their lives to bring mine home. Merc was