“All right.” I lifted the covers, wanting to tuck him in. I’d helped him change his bandage and I’d blanched when I saw the angry red wound in his side. He’d griped and cursed, but I’d somehow convinced him to take a pain pill, so at least he could sleep. Sleep would help him heal.
“What did you say to his father?”
Colt’s eyes were half-mast and I knew the potent drug was dragging him into sleep, but he still found the resolve to answer me. “I told him I was taking his son and giving him a better place to live. I told him he had two choices. I’d give him a thousand bucks a month for him to sign the paperwork for guardianship and for the schools, and then he’d keep his mouth shut, or he’d disappear and I’d get Silas’s guardianship in court when he was gone. He chose not to argue.”
“We did the right thing, getting Silas out of there.”
“Yeah, we did.” He paused, his breathing evening out.
I thought he’d fallen asleep and was on my way to the door when his words stopped me.
“I’ll call the club lawyer in the morning. We’ll make sure we are Silas’s legal guardians as fast as we can, okay?”
My eyes softened and the tears that I felt threatening were in danger of spilling over.
“Okay, honey. Sleep if you can. If you need anything…”
He didn’t reply and I knew he’d passed out.
I closed the door and headed down the hallway to the backyard. The wake for Cheese was still going strong. I planned on having a drink in his honor. And a drink for Shelly. And then I’d find a secluded place and cry. Let out all the bottled up emotions that were still sitting somewhere inside of me.
The girls swarmed me, enveloping me in their arms. They didn’t offer empty platitudes, just their silent comfort and the knowledge that they were there if I needed anything.
“Did you eat today?” Darcy asked, pulling back.
I shook my head. “I haven’t had much of an appetite.”
Rachel handed me a bottle of Irish whiskey. “This’ll do you right.”
“Thanks.” I took a sip, enjoying the warmth of it as it settled in my belly.
“Amazing thing what you’re doing for that boy,” Joni said.
“Anyone would’ve done it.”
Allison raised her eyebrows. “No, not anyone.”
“He was Cheese’s family,” I said with a raw throat. “Cheese wasourfamily. It was the only thing to do.” I raised my bottle in the air and yelled, “To Cheese!”
Echoes of my toast resounded across the yard as people drank to their fallen brother.
“To Shelly,” Boxer called, his eyes meeting mine.
“To Shelly,” everyone chanted.
We continued to drink and then the guys lit a massive bonfire. Flynn and his boys were not at the clubhouse, but out on the streets of Waco, sniffing out all they could about the Iron Horsemen. Knight and the Coeur d’Alene brothers were seeing to our safety, guarding the clubhouse entrances so we could mourn and drink, though no one was getting sloppy.
The club was on total lockdown. No one would harm us tonight.
I wandered over to Boxer who was sitting on a table by himself, his face expressionless. He didn’t bother to crack a joke or try to lighten the atmosphere. Tonight, we’d let the mood be dark. Tomorrow, when the sun rose, we would face it all again, but for now, we kept to the shadows to mourn the spirits that would haunt us.
“Shit day,” Boxer stated.
“The shittiest,” I agreed.
I drank from the bottle of whiskey, no longer feeling the burn of it.
“How’s Colt?” he asked.