Just then Cole looked up to see several men in Evil Dead cuts troop into the waiting room that was already crowded with brothers. Shades, and a couple of his guys, a big one named Griz, and a guy built like a brick house named Hammer.
“I gotta go, babe. Love you. I’ll call you later.” Cole disconnected and slowly slid from beneath Crystal, lowering her gently down on the couch. She didn’t wake.
He stood and clasped hands with Shades. They bumped shoulders and slapped each other on the back.
“Heard about your guy. How’s he doing?” Shades asked.
“He was sliced up pretty bad. Lost a lot of blood, but he’s hanging in there.”
Shades nodded, his voice low. “Any idea who did it?”
“Yeah. A DK,” he replied quietly.
“No shit?”
Cole nodded. “A sick motherfucker out of Cali named Taz. Went nomad a couple years ago. I’ve had several run-ins with him the last few years.”
“Hell, let’s go get him,” Shades offered.
“Already taken care of.”
Shades nodded, understanding Cole’s unspoken message. “Good.”
Cole noticed the frown on Shades face and knew there was something he wasn’t saying. “What?”
Shades eyes moved to the two uniformed officers who’d been posted down the hall. Mack was right now down at the station giving some bullshit statement about an attempted robbery by a masked man. Cole wasn’t sure how long that was going to fly. Cole’s eyes followed Shades, and then returned to him. “Shades?”
“Look, you’ve got enough on your hands—”
“Yeah, and my patience is about shot, so just fucking tell me.”
“We’ve got a guy missing.”
“What do you mean ‘missing’?”
“Didn’t come back to camp last night. Haven’t been able to reach him. He’s not answering his cell, it just goes straight to voicemail and about an hour ago, it stopped doing even that.”
“Maybe the battery died.”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t buy it? He’s not just off fucking some pussy?”
Shades shook his head. “He’d have found a way to check in.”
“You’re worried it’s connected to this?”
Shades shrugged. “Strange coincidence.”
Cole shook his head. “It’s not related. Taz…he was acting alone. It was a personal grudge.”
Shades nodded, but Cole could see t
he wheels turning in his head as he tried to figure out an explanation.
“Have you had any other trouble I don’t know about?” Cole pressed.
Shades shook his head. “If it’s not the DKs making a move against us…I don’t know, there’s been some shit going on with the Death Heads, but nothing we’ve been connected with.”