Chapter Three
Olivia
The next morning I called the hospital as soon as I woke up. They patched me through to Dax’s room.
“Hey, good morning,” I said. “How are you feeling?”
“Good morning, beautiful. I feel like a million bucks.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously,” he said. “I’m ready to blow this joint.”
“Shut up! You better not be trying to get out of there already.”
“I tried, but the Doc said no. This place is worse than prison. Come break me out,” he pleaded.
“Nope, I’m sorry. You told me I had to go to work today.”
“Damn, I did, didn’t I? My mom should be here soon, I’ll ask her.”
I laughed and said, “Yeah, good luck with that. Has the doctor been in to see you today?”
“Yeah, he said that I am a perfect male specimen.”
I laughed again and said, “Well, that’s a given. Stop screwing around and tell me what he really said.”
“He said the bullet went clean through. They patched the hole in my stomach and took out my spleen, which I don’t really need. He’s just going to recommend I avoid sick people because I guess the spleen is part of your immune system or something. That was pretty much it. When the swelling goes down they’ll do another CT scan of my abdomen to make sure it all looks like it’s supposed to and maybe I can go home in a few more days.”
“Now that’s good news,” I told him. “Has anyone else been in to see you?” I was fishing for whether or not any of the guys from the club were visiting him…or bothering him.”
“Not so far. I’m sure my mom will be here soon.”
“Okay, I’ll keep my phone on me so if you get bored give me a text or a call.”
“Will do. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I hung up with an odd sense of peace, like everything was going to be okay…finally. I finished getting ready for work and headed in. My uncle had gotten in before me and opened up.
“Hey girl,” he said. “I’ll be in the back doing some modifications today so if you need me just holler.”
“I will, but I doubt I’ll need you though. I’m practically a motorcycle parts expert now,” I told him with a grin.
He smiled back and said, “Yeah, okay.”
I watched him go into the back and I opened up the register for the day. A few minutes later I heard the door jangle. I looked up to see three cops walk in…two in uniform and a detective. I was only assuming he was a detective. He had on a cheap suit and his hair was styled in a comb over. Add that to his choice of company and that was what my brain deduced.
“Hi, can I help you?” I asked the one not in uniform.
“Hi, Olivia?”
“Yes…”
“I was wondering if you had a minute. I’d like to ask you a few questions about a shooting over at the Smoke Joint two nights ago.”
“Okay,” I said, my voice breaking.
“Were you there that night Miss?” he asked.
“I had been, earlier. But I wasn’t there when the shooting took place,” I told him.
“So about what time did you get there?”
“I had been packing all day, so I wasn’t really conscious of the time because I was so focused, but I think it was maybe six-thirty or so.”
“Who did you go to see, ma’am?”
“I was there to see Dax,” I told him.
“Did you find him there?”
“He wasn’t there when I first arrived. He got there about five minutes after I did.”
“Did he say where he had been?”
“No, but I didn’t ask.”
“Does Dax spend a lot of time at the bar?”
I thought about his parole and I knew that him living there was a violation. The thought of lying to the police made me sick to my stomach but I wasn’t going to throw Dax to the wolves so I said, “Not that I know of. He just stopped by to get his sketch pad out of his saddle bags is what he told me.”
“If he doesn’t hang out there, why would you go there to look for him?” the detective asked me. Shit!
I shrugged, I was a criminal genius. “I had looked everywhere else he might be.” I said.
The detective didn’t look like he was convinced but he changed the subject and said, “Who else was there at the bar when you got there?”
“I didn’t spend much time there, I just walked straight through to the back, but I saw Bull and Blake and Bo.” The detective smirked and said, “The president, vice president and treasurer of the club?”
“Yeah, I guess. I don’t know much about the club.”
“Do you know if Dax has any enemies?” he asked.
“Not that I know of,” I said.
“He did a couple years up at Folsom. Does he talk about any of the enemies he may have made there?”
“Not to me,” I told him. “I really don’t know what I can tell you about any of this, detective. I wasn’t there when he got shot. I don’t know anything.”
“Of course you don’t,” he said. “Who were you living with when Dax was doing time?”
The mother-fucker already dam well knew the answer to that question before he asked me. I told him about living with Terrance but breaking up a few weeks ago and moving in with my uncle. He kept a smug smirk on his face the entire time. I had never wanted to hit a cop before, but I really wanted to slap that look off his face.
He finally said, “Okay, if you think of anything else,” and handed me a card.
I looked at it and then back at him and I said, “I’ll call right away.”
He smiled and seemed genuinely amused. After they left, my uncle who I hadn’t seen watching from the back came up to the counter.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Was that about Dax getting shot?”
“Yeah, how did you know he got shot?”
“Honey, I work in the motorcycle business. I hear all the good rumors. And of course there was you racing off to the hospital yesterday. How is he doing?”
“He’s doing well actually. They took out his spleen and repaired his stomach…”
“Olivia, I let you come stay here after your dad was arrested, to keep you safe. I shouldn’t have ever let you hang around this place and get involved with that club. They’re dangerous guys. Dax getting shot in the gut proves it, if you didn’t already know.”
“I know,” I admitted. “But Dax isn’t like them, he just wants out.”
“Then he needs to do it before he gets you involved in something nasty. Unless he already has. Is that why the police think you would know something about the shooting, Liv? Are you already involved in something?”
“No, I promise I’m not. If anything, Dax doesn’t tell me most of what goes on down there and I stay away from the rest of them as much as I can. I’m not into anything except Dax. I love him.”
My uncle sighed and put his arm around me. Pulling me into his side he said, “I know you’re a good girl, I just worry about you.”
“Please don’t. I don’t want to make you worry. When Dax gets better, he and I are going to figure out what to do with our lives and it’s not going to have anything to do with the club.” As I spoke the words, I was really hoping they were true.