and let me beat you at pool again.”
“Whatever you want, sugar.” Sledge stood and nodded to Lynn.
“You should stop by the bar once you’re done with work. We’ll probably be there for a bit,” I suggested.
Lynn laughed. “If I see you in there, I’ll stop for a drink. I haven’t spilled my guts to Robyn in a while.”
“See, even shrinks need someone to talk to,” Sledge pointed out. “At least you can get drunk while you spill your guts.”
“Very true,” Lynn laughed.
Sledge and I headed out.
I stopped at the bottom of the steps of the clinic and looked up at the sign.
“What are you doing, sugar?” Sledge followed my line of vision.
“Trying to feel what Duchess did when she saw this sign.” I looked at Sledge and smiled. “I think she felt hope because that’s exactly what I feel right now.”
A weight had lifted off me when I stepped out the doors of the clinic. I understood a little bit more about why things happened the way they did. It wasn’t my fault I couldn’t save Duchess. I had done everything I could, and it just wasn’t how it was supposed to end.
Sledge threaded his fingers through mine and lifted my hand to his lips. “Come on, sugar. I’ll buy you a drink and kick your ass in a game of pool.”
A laugh bubbled from my lips. “I’d like to see you try.”
*
Chapter Sixteen
Book Club…
Sledge
“Sugar.”
“Hmm?”
I nodded over her shoulder to the door of the bar. “You wanna tell my why Fancy, Kimber, and Petra just walked through the door?”
Queenie whipped around on her stool and raised her hands in the air. “Book Club!”
Oh, Jesus.
“It’s about time you bitches got here! I called you over half an hour ago!” Queenie shouted.
That was why it had taken her so long in the bathroom before. She was rounding up her posse.
The girls grabbed the stools on the other side of Queenie, and the quiet bar went from no noise to loud.
“We would have been here sooner, but the guys were insistent on parking close. They finally dropped us at the door and headed to a parking garage a couple of blocks over.” Kimber leaned back and gave me a little wave. “Hey, Sledgehammer.”
So Quinn, Dyno, and Rhino were here, too. There went my plans of having one more drink and then heading back to Queenie’s apartment.
Quinn walked in ten minutes later with Dyno and Rhino following right behind him.
“How the fuck did you get a parking spot out front?” Dyno asked. He sat down next to me and Quinn and Rhino next to him.
“We got here four hours ago.”
“Damn, man. You started early,” Dyno laughed.
“We had something else to do down here and came over for a drink. Now I guess it’s a Book Club.”
Quinn grunted. “Kimber told me we have church so she can have Book Club.”
“Uh, does she know we don’t drink and act like jackasses during church?” Dyno asked.
Quinn leveled his glare in Dyno.
“Okay, okay,” he laughed. “So we don’t drink during church.”
Robyn brought beers over for the guys and then moved over to the girls to figure out what fruity shit they wanted.
“You hear from Kaye?” I asked quietly. I had called when Queenie headed to the bathroom but only got Kaye’s answering machine.
Quinn shook his head. “I called her this morning and right before we left. She didn’t answer. This was the reason I didn’t want to involve the police. We have no fucking clue what it going on, and we can’t help.”
He was right, but I still felt it was the right thing to do.
“Who the hell invited him?” Dyno growled.
Core walked into the bar and headed over to us.
“I did,” Quinn said.
Dyno’s eyes bugged out, and he looked like he ate something sour. “Are you fucking crazy? Has the power gone to your head?”
Quinn shook his head. “No. I’m trying to run a fucking club. You guys need to pull the sticks out of your ass and give Core a chance.”
Core sat down next to Quinn. “Uh, hey guys.” He wasn’t wearing his cut yet, so the outrage from Dyno and Rhino was a minimum.
“You drive by a couple of times to get the nerve to walk through the door?” Dyno asked.
So, maybe Dyno was still a little pissed.
Core laughed. “I drove around the block a couple of times, but only because I couldn’t find a place to park.”
“Which is odd because there is not a fucking person in this place besides us,” Rhino pointed out.
Robyn