Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 90721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“Kettle!” I gasped rushing forward. “What happened to you, are you okay?”
Kettle nodded, and then his face went utterly white for a few precious moments, before walking slowly forward and dropping carefully into a chair in the corner of the room.
“Yeah,” he croaked, cleared his throat, and continued. “Just a little bump on the head.”
I wasn’t so sure it was just a bump on the head. To be sure, I walked behind Kettle only to gasp. “Kettle! You’ve got a huge gash at the back of your head and a knot the size of Alaska! You should be in bed, not here.”
He laughed humorlessly. “This is where I belong. I failed my best friend. I didn’t watch his back. I was supposed to have his back.” He rasped.
“You did have my back, dumbass. Why do you think I got hit in the chest?” A thready voice rasped from the bed.
I gasped and moved carefully around Kettle to walk to Sebastian’s bedside. “What happened, Sebastian?”
My hand involuntarily started drifting over his arm and up to his chest.
Sebastian wasn’t looking at me when he replied. He was looking at Kettle.
“You let the President know it was Devon McRae.” Sebastian’s voice was like ice.
The name Devon McRae was familiar, and it took me a few long moments to realize just who the man was.
His boss.
Holy shit.
Kettle stiffened at the mention of that name. “That’s the arsonist, too?”
“Have you ever seen him there at one of those fires, even once? Cause I sure as fuck haven’t. He always shows up at least an hour after the fire starts. Sick fucking bastard.” Sebastian replied.
When Kettle started to rise painfully to his feet, I snarled at him. “You sit your ass down before you fall. I’ll go tell the ‘President’ who it was. Don’t fucking move.”
I glared at them both, gave Sebastian a soft kiss on the lips, and left the room. My steps were purposeful as I went down the long hallway back to the waiting room.
I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting when I got back to the waiting room the ER nurse had guided them to once they’d arrived, but this wasn’t this. Possibly, I could’ve assumed that the same people that were there earlier, were there now. That was a big resounding no. They’d multiplied. By at least three.
They no longer fit in the small waiting room. Now they spilled out into the hall.
Some of the other chapters had stayed to do a little gambling and visiting while they were here; so, when I found them all here, most of them wet from the hurricane outside, my heart warmed. They were there for Sebastian. They were family. No matter what conditions tried to keep them from their destination. They’d always be there.
Silas was talking to Stone at the end of the hallway, heads close together as they spoke softly.
I didn’t hear anything of what they were saying, and they broke apart as soon as they saw me walking down the hall.
I was still mad. The situation was beyond out of hand, and something needed to be figured out, fast. That man, the one man Sebastian should’ve been able to trust with his life, had been the one to nearly take it.
And I could care less what the club was about to do to him. Personally, I hoped he burned in hell.
Silas must have seen the resolve on my face, and the pain, because he was at my side in moments holding on to me elbows.
I looked back and forth from him to Stone, hesitating.
When Silas gave me a reassuring squeeze and nodded, I told them everything I knew. “He’s not really...with us, yet. He’s still weak and tired, they started him on the blood, and the nurse thinks as soon as he gets that into him, he’ll get some life breathed back into him. Kettle’s doing...okay. He needs a bed, but as you can guess, he’s not up to leaving Sebastian right now. If you want to go back, I’ll wait out here.”
Both men had taken me up on the offer. Murder was in their eyes, and I really didn’t want to be in on that conversation. The less I knew the better.
That didn’t mean I didn’t want the man to pay for what he’d done to Sebastian, Kettle, and all those innocent people. It just meant that I didn’t want to be witness to what I knew they were about to do.
Payback’s a bitch.
***
Silas
Two hours later
“You know who I am, big man?” I asked the big piece of shit sitting in front of me.
We’d found him at his own fucking place.
It was obvious to me that the man didn’t have the first clue how to commit a crime without getting caught.
My contacts and Sebastian’s expertise had figured out it had to be someone that could obtain a certain chemical accelerant, such as a firefighter who taught seminars on what certain types of accelerants do to a fire in any given situation.
My contact had told me, just that morning, about each man that could’ve done it within a 50 mile radius, and only one single name popped up over and over again. McRae.
That had been why I’d gone to get Baylee and my grandson. I’d told Sebastian, figuring he could hold his own while surrounded by his men that worked with him. But I’d miscalculated, and that had almost cost my son his life.
“You know, it was sloppy to do your playing in your own playground. What did you think was going to happen?” I asked.
Devon McRae, the former firefighter captain, refused to answer.
“My boy idolized you. Had nothing but nice things to say about you for all these years. Then out of the blue I’m getting told by the members that you’re treating him badly, but that my boy refuses to say a single goddamned bad thing about you. You were supposed to be a role model as his lieutenant. Not fuck him over.” I barked.
His mouth was closed tightly, and his big fists were balled so hard that the knuckles on his fingers were white.