Chapter 53
Grease
“Give your brother the phone!” I yelled at Callie as I stomped into my boots and left my room.
I’d been lying on my bed in my underwear, looking at f*cking apartment ads, when she’d called. I’d immediately scrambled into some jeans when I heard her scared voice on the other end of the line.
“Grease, f*ck! It’s bad, man,” Cody hissed, his voice low. “Echo was bringing Farrah over and Cal went out to meet them. I didn’t see it. I was in the bathroom when I heard the shots and came running.”
“Is your sister okay?” I asked as I raced through the clubhouse looking for Poet or Slider. Where the f*ck was everyone?
“Yeah, she wasn’t hurt.” He paused. “Echo’s dead, though.”
“What the f*ck?” I roared, pausing in disbelief. “What the f*ck happened?”
“I have no goddamn idea. When I came out of the apartment, Echo was f*cking down, and Callie was wrestling with Farrah on the stairs.”
I finally found Poet and Slider outside having a smoke. I wasn’t sure why they did it, but if they were smoking together they always stepped outside to do it.
“Prez, we’ve got f*ckin’ problems,” I yelled, practically running toward him. “Cody, I’ll send some boys to you and call you back.”
I hung up the phone as I reached the men and took a second to control my emotions.
“Some f*cker killed Echo in Callie’s parking lot, with Farrah and Callie f*ckin’ watching,” I told them as I flipped open my phone. “I don’t think they knew who it was.”
“Are the girls okay?” Poet asked calmly, but the twitching of his fingers gave a different impression.
“Callie’s brother says they’re fine,” I answered, listening to Michael’s phone ring repeatedly before hanging up.
“We need to get some of our boys over there—Echo’s f*ckin’ dead in her driveway,” I told them both, but Slider was already on his phone.
“We’ll get some men over there, boyo, calm down.”
“F*ck that! Some f*ck just shot down a brother in my woman’s f*ckin’ driveway!” I roared back, completely losing my shit. “She f*ckin’ watched it go down, and she’s not strong enough for that shit!”
“I think the girl will surprise you,” Slider commented as he shoved his phone back in his pocket. “I’ll head out with you and we’ll take some of the boys. Be ready in ten.”
He turned and walked back into the building as I gaped at his retreating back.
“Don’t forget that his daughter was there, too. Don’t matter how well he knows her, that’s still his blood, yeah?” Poet warned me quietly, patting me on the back as he passed.
It didn’t take ten minutes to leave—it took seven—and by the time we rode out, I’d talked to Cody and found out that brothers from the Sacramento Chapter had already showed up. I heard sirens in the background as he hung up, and I hoped that no one did anything stupid.
I was so scared out of my mind, wondering what shape Callie’d be in when we got there, that I couldn’t focus on anything but that and ended up making the drive on autopilot.
It reminded me so much of another time I’d raced south to get her that it felt like déjà vu.
I just prayed to whoever would hear me, that when I got to her, she wasn’t the girl I’d found hiding in a crawlspace.