“Sorry, Sevey, but I can’t let you go back there. It’s not safe.” He didn’t budge an inch in the face of my anger, but he did jerk his head toward the other three. “Help if you can, but don’t take any fucking chances. Watch the cops too. They aren’t going to stop to ask who is on what side.”
The guys followed Jesse’s orders, carefully working their way through the tents until they were out of sight, but by then it had quieted down substantially. Wailing sirens, accompanied by clouds of dust from the dirt road, rapidly neared the clearing.
“I think it’s over, Jesse. Don’t make me wait while people might need help.” My tone brooked no argument, and from the way he glanced in the direction the others had gone, I could tell he wasn’t too happy to be waiting behind either.
“Carefully, woman. I mean it. If you get hurt, we’re going to have words.” He motioned for me to follow him. I wasn’t an idiot. He was the professional, so I didn’t give him a bit of grief over it until we were able to see the aftermath of the violence.
As reinforcements pulled in, I ran to where Lochlan and Gus, guarded by Coot, were doing what they could for Albany and Josh. I quickly turned to keep Tee’s body, lying a few yards away, out of my line of sight. Others were missing or had been caught in the melee, but those that could were trying to help the injured.
“Both Boudreauxs are medics. If anyone can keep them alive long enough to get to the hospital, it’s those two,” Jesse murmured in my ear, then he urged me down into the space between Albany and Josh so he could take up watch in the opposite direction from Coot.
Albany wasn’t conscious, but Josh was, and his eyes locked on mine as I scooted back to stay out of the way. He gave me a half smile, I assumed to reassure me, but there was nothing reassuring about the entire situation or the blood all over him. I was thankful he had his vest on, or I feared I would have lost another of my longtime friends in this fucked up mess.
At that point, more police arrived, and for a little while, it became more chaotic. Several people were unaccounted for, Bronco included, when it all got sorted out. I didn’t have time to wonder about him for long since we lost Albany. My feelings about him were torn. He was a good guy, but he’d also killed a great man, and I didn’t know that I could have ever forgiven him for that, not that it mattered anymore. Worried that Josh would end up dead too, I refused to leave his side until they loaded him up in the ambulance.
“I’ll be at the hospital as soon as I get cleaned up and check on Aunt Flo and Opal, okay? Don’t be going anywhere on me. I couldn’t stand it, you understand?” I demanded, hand gripping his as tightly as I dared.
He let out a weak chuckle, then groaned at the pain it caused while the paramedics tried to shoo me away. “You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried…or unless you sicced your man-quad on me.” Then more seriously, he added, “I’m sorry about your crew, Sevey. I wouldn’t have thought…” He shook his head and trailed off as there wasn’t much more to say on the subject.
“Ma’am, you need to move out of the way if you’re not coming with us,” one of the paramedics ordered, giving me a stern look that I was sure had served him well in the past.
As Josh was loaded into the ambulance, Coot tucked me under his chin and wrapped his arms over my shoulders to hug me from behind. Slouching into him, I took comfort from his nearness and waited for the other guys to finish up with their preliminary reports to the police so we could go home.
“You okay, darlin’?”
“As much as I can be. I texted Aunt Flo that we were alright and filled her in with the bare minimum, so she’s on alert. She said Opal was fine when I asked, but I’m not going to quit feeling anxious until I can see for myself. I used to imagine all sorts of stuff happening to her when she was tiny, still do sometimes. I’d bail out of the shower with shampoo in my hair just to check that she wasn’t in any danger. Don’t know how many times I woke up in a panic just to check that she was breathing despite the monitor that had an alarm.” I ended my rambling and shrugged as much as I was able with him wrapped around me. Feeling a little silly about saying all of that, I clammed up and chalked my oversharing up to what had to be shock and a need to fill the silence. “I guess losing friends, Josh being hurt, and the fear that I, or one of you, would lose our lives has taken its toll.”
He didn’t comment on the catch in my voice. A few tears had escaped through the course of everything, but I’d largely managed to hold them at bay. I had a feeling that once I started, I wouldn’t be stopping for a while, and I preferred the privacy of my home to have a breakdown.
“I still have to tell the club, and I don’t even know who I can trust there anymore. Hell, I’m such a shit club president that I can’t even keep the loyalty of my club or see that I’ve fucked up enough for them to betray me,” I said morosely, a healthy dose of self-deprecation thrown in.
Coot’s arms tightened on me, and Jesse came up in time to hear my last remark. The leader of their quad wasn’t too happy about it.
“We’re going home, then we’ll help you deal with making the announcement and any changes. I’ll personally vet everyone so you don’t have to deal with any more shit, Sevey. And stop being down on yourself. No one is perfect, and you can’t control what others do. It was only a matter of time before that man decided to try for a coup. Feel sorry for the friend you lost, not for the monster he became.”
I knew he was right, about Tee anyway, but I still felt the sting of regret. The one that said if only I’d done this or that, it would have made a difference. Pulling from Coot’s embrace, I headed for the side-by-side, holding the keys out for one of them to take. I wasn’t in any sort of the right headspace to be driving, especially not with my vision blurred by the tears I refused to let fall.
“Loch, Gus, let’s go!” Jesse yelled at the other two. They’d finished with the cops but were having their own furtive discussion. I couldn’t hear them, probably something that was on purpose since their heads were together, but at Jesse’s shout, they broke apart and hurried to load up in the backseat.