He kissed me quickly on the lips before he headed down the hall. When he disappeared into the hospital room, I went to the waiting room and sat down in the only empty seat. After flipping through the pages of three different magazines, I began to get restless. I tried to be patient… tried to do what he told me to, but I couldn’t stop wondering who was lying in that hospital bed. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I got up from my seat, and slowly walked out of the crowded waiting room. The hallway seemed so much longer than it did thirty minutes ago, and I was having a hard time remembering where he turned to go into that room. I was about to give up and go back to the waiting room when I heard Maverick. His voice was low, but I could tell that he was upset.
When I stepped up to the glass window, and peered into the room, I saw Maverick try to console his hurting friend. I’d never seen this man before, so I knew he wasn’t one of Maverick’s brothers. I had no idea what had happened to him, but it was obviously bad – very bad. His face was deathly pale, and he was covered in bandages. He looked like he was in horrible pain as he laid there listening to Maverick. Every so often, he would wince when he struggled to respond to Maverick. He could barely talk, barely move as Maverick tried to talk to him. My chest tightened when I realized that he didn’t have cuts or scratches. There were no signs of bruising that might have come from some sort of accident. He’d been shot – more times than I could count. When I looked over to Maverick and saw the look of anguish on his face, I wanted to go to him, try to comfort him, but I knew I couldn’t. I had to get back to the waiting room before he saw me.
I rushed back to my seat in the waiting room, and tried shake the image of what I had seen from my mind. I couldn’t stop obsessing over the bullet wounds that covered the man’s body. Who could have done that to him? Was it the same men that killed Skidrow? I wasn’t sure how, but the man lying in that hospital bed had to have some tie to the club, and it scared me. Things weren’t getting any better, and I wished there was something I could do to help them.
Chapter 21
Maverick
?
Nitro wasn’t much help. He was still in a lot of pain, and it was hard for him to talk about it. He told me it was dark, and he couldn’t see who it was that shot him. It was bugging the shit out of him that he didn’t know more. In all the years Satan’s Fury has been working with him, this was the first time anyone had gotten past his long line of artillery. Nitro was the kind of man who always covered his tracks, never letting anyone fuck with him, and he was pissed that someone managed to catch him off guard. Considering how much protection he had, I could only assume that Nitro was shot by someone using a long distance rifle. It was the only way they’d ever be able to get a decent shot. Seeing him laid up in that hospital bed, actually made me feel a little sorry for the guy. He’d always been a pain in the ass, but he was good at his job. After all this, I knew he’d tighten up the reigns, making it even harder to deal with him.
Over the past few days, the club had met time and time again trying to find some kind of strategy. This shit was getting serious, and we had no idea what these guys were going to do next. Cotton was on edge, and the tension among the brothers was growing out of control. I needed a fucking break, so I headed into the kitchen for something to eat. When I walked into the kitchen, I found Dusty sitting at the table alone.
“Hey, little brother. What’s up?” I asked, with a chin lift as I pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. His eyebrows pinched together, making him look agitated.
“Nutin’,” he mumbled.
I was surprised to see him sitting there alone, so I asked, “Where’s your mom?”
“She’s talkin’ to Cotton,” he told me as he took a bite of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Something was wrong. He didn’t plow into me with a hug. Hell, he wouldn’t even look at me, and that just wasn’t like him.
“You want to tell me what’s bugging you?” I asked.
“No…” he pouted.
“Come on, Dusty. You know you can talk to me about it. Tell me what’s wrong.”
He let out a little defeated sigh before he said, “It was a girl in my class. She was really mean to me today,” he told me with his eyes skirting down towards his lap.
“Oh yeah… how was she mean?”
“She told me that I looked stupid… that I was stupid,” he cried. “She hit me in my arm really hard and called me retarded.”
“I’m sorry about that, Dusty. You’re right… that was mean. She doesn’t seem like a very nice girl to be saying something like that to you,” I told him. I hated that he had to deal with such ignorant people, but I knew it would only get worse as he got older. Dusty was an amazing kid, and if people would just give him a chance, they’d just see a special kid.
“Mom said that girl had a small mind like her momma,” he said. His eyes darted up to mine, searching for some kind of affirmation that his mother was right.
“Your mom’s right. That little girl is small minded, so I guess that makes her the one who’s not very smart,” I said trying my best to smile. “Fourth grade is tough. You just need to forget about what that little girl said and just be yourself. If she doesn’t want to be your friend, then it’s her loss.”
“Okay. Did you get any sprinkles?” he asked with his eyes sparkling with excitement. And just like that, he was moving on.