“Wolf? What happened with him?”
“He was sliced up pretty bad. He’s in the ICU in Sturgis.”
“You’re fucking kidding me. What happened?”
“Got jumped by a sick motherfucker. A DK by the name of Taz.”
“No shit? We get the motherfucker?”
“Yeah. That’s been taken care of, and that is hush-hush.”
Griz grinned. “You missed it, bro. We all went and pissed on his grave.”
Hammer pointed to a tree on the other side of the campsite with a chuckle. “Using his cut for target practice.”
Ghost glanced over. Sure enough, there was a Devil Kings’ cut with a bowie knife nailing it to a tree. He whistled and asked, “Do the DKs know Taz was killed? And by us?”
“No, and we’re keeping it that way. As far as they know, he took off. He’s always been nomad, and those guys don’t live by anybody’s rules, so it’ll take a while before Big Ed realizes he’s missing. And that’ll be San Jose’s headache.”
“So the Devil Kings aren’t starting shit with us?”
Shades shook his head. “No. Cole claims it was a personal grudge between him and Taz. The fucker’s club wasn’t involved. Had no clue what he was up to.”
“You sure?”
“Well, I was worried when you turned up missing, but Cole assures me the grudge went back to some shit that went down between him and Taz years ago. Wolf just got in the way. Guess he was supposed to be some kind of sick message to Cole.”
Ghost stared. “That’s messed up shit. How’s Wolf doing? Hell, I can’t fucking believe this. We were just with him at the tattoo shop.”
Shades nodded. “I know. We’ve all been watching our backs ever since. But Cole says Wolf’s gonna pull through. I guess it was touch and go there for a while. He lost a lot of blood. But he’s conscious now and stable.”
Ghost lifted his chin to all the club chapters that were still there at the campground when most clubs would have pulled out on Sunday. “That why everyone’s still here?”
“That and you being missing, asshole.”
Ghost grinned. “Sorry about that, man. Couldn’t be helped.”
“You lose your fuckin’ phone?” Griz snapped.
“Battery died.”
“You couldn’t borrow one to make a fuckin’ call into your club?” Shades asked.
Ghost shook his head. “We were holed up in a shed in the middle of nowhere.”
Shades gave him a look. “And why was that?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Then why don’t you fuckin’ start at the beginning?”
“Like I said, Jessie’s got some info that the club’s gonna find useful. Butcher’s gonna want to hear it.”
“Why don’t you run it by me first. Then we’ll decide whether to bring it to Butcher. I’ve got my doubts that little girl could possibly have any information that would be significant.”
“This is.”
Shades brows shot up. “Then fuckin’ tell me.”