Watching her closely, I said, “I know you and Scott are going through something, Harlow. Are you doing okay?”
A sad look crossed her face. “Not really,” she admitted softly. She took a deep breath before opening up. “I was pregnant and lost the baby. Scott’s been amazing but I’m so lost and I don’t know how to move past it. I need some time but he just wants to fix everything . . . You know what men are like, they see a problem and try to come up with ways to make it better, but this can’t be fixed.”
Fuck.
Harlow went back to her dishes before I could say anything. It seemed like she needed some space so I left it. My phone rang a moment later and I held it up, and said, “I’m gonna get going, babe. Just wanted to stop in and make sure you were alright.”
She came to me with a hug. “Thank you for coming over,” she murmured.
“I’ll talk to you soon,” I promised, and then left them to it.
As I answered my phone, my mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Scott and all the shit he had to deal with at the moment. I hoped he was up to it, because with Marcus out of the picture, he had a lot to take on.
It was Merrick on the phone. “Hi Boss,” he said after I’d answered, “got an update for you.”
My mind ran blank. “What for?” I asked, getting in my car.
“On Phil Deacon.”
“Phil fucking Deacon,” I muttered. “What’s the update?”
“Turns out the reason we can’t find him is because he’s dead.”
“What the fuck?”
“Yeah, the day he threatened Layla, he also threatened Onyx’s woman, and Onyx wasn’t too pleased about that so he took care of him.”
I chuckled. “So Onyx the fucker finally got his wish to do more than just talk to Phil.”
I could hear Merrick’s grin in his voice. “Would seem so. Where are you?”
“I’m sitting outside Madison’s house and am just about to pay a visit to the Storm clubhouse.”
“Fuck, that’s gonna be a shit fight over there.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me.”
“Good luck with that,” he said, and we ended the call.
God knew what would happen with Storm now.
***
The mood was grim at the clubhouse. The guys who had still looked up to Marcus were sitting around the bar, discussing revenge on whoever did it.
Scott greeted me in the bar and quickly took me into the office where Griff was. As the current Vice President, he’d had to assume control for the moment, and he appeared to be struggling with it.
“How’s the mood in the club?” I asked once we were behind closed doors.
“Not good,” Scott answered. It was obvious from his body language and tone, he wasn’t happy with me.
Griff threw the pen he was holding down on the table and leaned back in his chair. “We got word this morning that Marcus sent a shitload of drugs into Ricky’s territory yesterday morning.”
“I thought we’d put that plan on hold for the moment,” I said.
“We had,” Griff said pointedly.
“Fuck,” I muttered. “That screws with everything. We’re not ready for that yet.”
“You’re fucking telling us,” Scott threw in, clearly stressed.
I grabbed my phone. “I’ll get Merrick to round up some of the boys to come over and set up watch. You’re gonna need eyes on this club, and I’d be putting some on your homes, too.”
“We also need to get to Ricky,” Scott said.
“For what it’s worth, Scott, I didn’t intend to kill Marcus yesterday. I couldn’t control it, though, and for that I’m sorry. But only because of the impact it will have on Storm. I’m not fucking sorry I killed him.”
Scott pushed out a long, tired breath. “Yeah, brother, I’m not sorry you did, either. And we’ll get through this shit like we always do.”
Brother.
It was still there.
“I spoke to Harlow this morning.”
He stared at me for a long moment. “She told you?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Sorry, man. I get the impression she’s not coping well with the loss.”
He raked a hand through his hair. “No, she’s not, and as much as I try to figure it all out, she keeps pushing me away. She won’t open up to me and let me help her.”
“Maybe this isn’t something you can figure out. Perhaps it’s something you just have to live through while making sure you’re there for each other.”
“Yeah,” he murmured.
“Jesus, Scott. Sorry, man,” Griff said.
I didn’t say anything, but rather simply watched him and took in everything I figured he must be feeling. Losing a child would be hard enough, but for the woman you loved to shut down on you at the same time would make it even harder.
Sensing Scott’s reluctance to talk about this any further, I changed the subject. “What’s the plan with the club now?”
“I’ve called Church for this afternoon and we’ll vote in a new President,” Griff said.
“Scott?” I asked.
Griff glanced at Scott and then back at me. “That was always the plan, but due to the way shit went down, fuck knows if he’ll get the votes needed.”