I had been avoiding him from the moment I arrived at the compound. I never thought I’d see anyone from my past here, so imagine my surprise when I spotted Judge and Maverick.
They were nomads, never staying long at any particular club preferring the open road to a sedentary lifestyle. Neither of them ever gave me pause to distrust them, other than the cuts they wore but they knew me. Saw me over the years as I grew up. They knew my mother and were in the area when my father murdered her.
Eventually, one or both of them would corner me, and I knew I wasn’t going to like what either of them had to say. So, I waited for him to say something with the clipboard in hand.
“How is he?”
“Vitals are good.”
“No fever?”
“No.”
“How’s Savage?”
“Better. He’s with his niece right now.”
“And the drinking?”
“Not since we took off a few weeks ago.”
“Good.”
The room went silent.
I could feel the tension in the air.
I knew he wanted to ask. Curiosity ran deep with the members, yet Judge stayed silent and when I looked up from the chart in my hands, I saw him staring at me.
“Something else you want to ask, Judge?”
“Not particularly. How have you been?”
“Good. Busy.”
“Do they know?” he asked, sitting in one of the seats in the room.
Staring at the chart in my hands, I lightly shook my head.
“Are you going to tell them?”
I didn’t respond. Instead, I placed the chart back in its holder on the wall. I didn’t want to talk about this shit. I needed to leave. There was no way I could stick around with Judge and Maverick here. They may not hold with what the club does but they were still members. And once a Golden Skull, always a Skull.
I couldn’t trust them.
None of them.
Opening the door, I stopped when I heard him say, “Kitty was trying to clean up this club before she died. She set things in motion that can’t be stopped. She died protecting the truth. Don’t be like Kitty, Jessie. Be better. No secret is worth dying for.”
I said nothing as I walked out of the room.
I walked into the kitchen and spotted Reaper and Ghost sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee, laughing over what I didn’t know. Their smiles faded as Reaper asked, “How’s Ink?”
“So far he’s taking to the antibiotics Healer prescribed.”
Reaper sighed, “One of the things I like about you Jessica is that you don’t mince words. You give it to me straight. Don’t start being evasive now. Just tell me. How is Ink?”
I nodded, took a deep breath and said, “The damage was bad. Healer took what he could but left enough so that Ink shouldn’t need a colostomy bag. What he’s worried about now is another infection. If Ink gets another infection, it could kill him. So, I am suggesting you keep everyone away from him right now. Any little thing, even a simple cold will kill him. It’s not good but it’s not that bad, yet. The next forty-eight hours and we’ll know more.”