Peyton
45 minutes earlier…
Jack slammed down the shot glass on the table, making the cards shake a bit. He’d been going at it pretty hard for the last hour or so, and I was willing to admit that it annoyed me. Jack was a good enough guy, but his company got progressively more obnoxious as he drank. Tonight, however, I was making the extra effort to not let it get to me.
Jack had a reason to be drunk. He had a reason to be blubbering and angry and rambling, even if it annoyed me.
“That bitch,” he hiccupped, then wiped at his mouth. “How could she do something like this?”
I gathered up the cards and shuffled again. He was only half paying attention, and the others at the table would have been happy to take full advantage of that, which was why we were playing with cigarettes and not money. It wouldn’t be fair to take all of Jack’s money tonight. Not when he was so messed up over Amy.
“And with that cocksucker, too,” he growled. His eyes lit up in anger, fueled further by the alcohol.
I let out a sigh, then dealt the cards. “Should thank the bastard,” I told him seriously.
Jack looked at me like I’d just grown a second head. “What?” he demanded, his tongue sounding heavy in his mouth as he tried to talk around it instead of with it.
I shrugged my shoulders, glancing at my hand. I didn’t have squat, but I could bluff my way through just about anything. Hell, that was half the fun of poker in the first place, right? I moved my cards around like I was organizing them, like I had something to organize. Then I waited as the others mulled over their lot.
My eyes flickered to Jack, then back to my hand. Eight high, I thought. I resisted the urge to snort at how ridiculous it was to try and win with something like that. Still, I would.
“I’m saying that a cheating bitch is a cheating bitch,” I pointed out. Jack looked like he was struggling to follow, or maybe he was just struggling to translate the words in his alcohol addled brain. “Better you find that out about her now rather than marry first.”
For a second, Jack looked like a three year old trying to figure out a philosophy text book. He wasn’t necessarily stupid but he would never be mistaken for a sober drunk.
His face softened slightly, and for a second, I thought I’d gotten through to him. Then he opened his big mouth. “I’m’a kill that bastard! That whore stealing son of a bitch!”
I sighed, but I didn’t bother telling him this time how stupid he sounded. Wouldn’t it be better to let some other asshole deal with a cheating woman? Wouldn’t it be better to get your heart kicked a little now, rather than trying to deal with that shit later when you’ve gotten really attached? I didn’t bother saying this or telling him that they’d only been dating a few months. He wouldn’t listen in this state.
Instead, I called my bet and took two cards. Jack continued to drink and wail; we continued to play cards.
I was just about to show Sean that I was a better bluffer than he had guessed when my phone rang. I retrieved it from my pocket and glanced at the screen. Frowning a little, I answered it. It was Daniel. “You change your mind about coming out tonight?” I asked him, throwing down my failure of a hand on top of the table. The boys groaned, having already folded themselves. All except Jack, who hadn’t even seemed to notice that a game was begin played. He got up to get himself another drink; I collected the pot, which was about twenty-three cigarettes.
“No, boss, I’m at work,” he told me, and I straightened up at the serious tone in his voice.
“What’s going on?”
There was a pause. The sounds came through muffled, like maybe he was covering the mouthpiece. Then he said, “I got a tip. Something about a bad motorcycle wreck between Richmond and Allerton.”
I started to frown, realizing who was in that area. “You heard anything from Keenan?”
There was another pause, then, “No, that’s why I called you. I’ve tried his cell a dozen times but keep getting voicemail. There’s a chance it isn’t him, but he was supposed to be watching that stretch of road. It’s not like him to not check in with someone. Besides, it’s our territory. No one else on a bike would be going through there this time of night.”
I had to agree. The Copperheads owned everything from the south side of Richmond to the far end of Allerton, right before you hit the river. If there was anyone out there on a motorcycle at this time of night, it was Keenan. Otherwise, he’d have been the one calling to tell me that someone was on our turf.
“Who reported the crash?” I asked. “Have the police arrived yet?”
“No,” Daniel told me quickly. “That’s why I’m calling you. I got the call directly to my personal line. The guy who called was anonymous. All he said was there’s been a wreck involving a motorcycle. If I want to be the first on the scene, I’d better move fast.”
I frowned. Daniel was on the police force. It was a hairy situation because I didn’t like cops, but I respected Daniel. Officially, he was a stand-up police officer, which he took very seriously. But unofficially, he was one of my closest friends. He wanted no part of selling drugs or boosting cars, and if I ever did something truly stupid like selling girls, he’d be the first one to hang my ass.
But I happened to agree with him on that front, so we didn’t have an issue there.
That being said, he did do us favors. Not the big stuff but little things. He kept the police from getting too close, kept the fights from getting too crazy, and he kept us straighter than most of the clubs out there.
Still, he could only do so much.
“Sounds like someone knew you were my in,” I murmured softly into the phone. I didn’t like that idea. Not one bit.
There was a long pause before Daniel said anything more. “Yeah, it does. And if one person knows, someone else probably does, too.” To his credit, Daniel didn’t sound worried about it, which told me that, whatever happened, he’d see this thing through.
“Thanks. You got a specific address?”
“Just that it’s close to the turnoff for Pike. Nothing more than that.”
I thought a moment, then asked, “How soon before you have to say something to someone?”
He hesitated half a second, then said, “I can give you maybe an hour. Anything longer and I can’t guarantee that someone else won’t get a call about it.”
I nodded, though he couldn’t see. I told him, “Give me that, then do what you have to do. I’ll take care of it or I won’t.”
I hung up the phone, then looked at the men around me. None of them were in any position to be driving, and I needed them with their wits about them. And seeing as how all of them had had at least three shots and God only knew how many beers, I quickly decided that none of them were coming with me. Period.
Standing quickly, I told Sean next to me and Thomas on the other side, “Crash upstairs. No one leaves tonight. Make sure Jack doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“Where you going, boss?” Sean was the least drunk of the group by several shots. I didn’t trust him enough to drive a motorcycle anywhere, but he seemed to be focusing a little better than the rest.
“To check out a report,” I said smoothly. Until I knew for sure it was Keenan, I didn’t want to cause any trouble. If I told them what it was, they’d likely want to come with me, and I wasn’t interested in fighting with three drunk assholes over whether or not they were sober enough to not be a problem for me.
Sean frowned. “Was that Daniel?” he asked. He, like several of the other men, didn’t much care for Daniel. They didn’t like that he was a cop and always questioned his loyalties. They didn’t look at things the way I did, and I didn’t blame them.
Daniel and I went way back. Not everyone had that kind of history.
“Yeah. He said that there was an accident. Nothing serious, but I’m going to check it out. I need a ride anyway.”
Sean didn’t look wholly convinced, but I was a damn good bluffer. The calm, easy way I spoke calmed down whatever instinctual worry that Sean was sensing. The man ended up shrugging his shoulders and said, “I was just about to clean your clock anyway.”
I forced a laugh, shaking my head. “Yeah, and there are pigs flying airplanes around the bar right now as we speak. You should wave ‘em down the next chance you get.”
Sean flipped me the bird but grinned to show that it was all in good fun. I told them to take it easy, then left the bar. Slipping on my motorcycle, I drove as quickly as I could towards Pike Street, the turnoff where Daniel had told me that the accident had happened.
# # #
If it hadn’t been for the flashing hazards, I probably would have blazed right past the car pulled over to the side of the road and Keenan lying in a ditch. As it was, I spotted the lights for the car, and as I slowed, I noticed a young woman next to it—a sexy young woman with full breasts, curling brown hair that tumbled over her shoulders, and little more than a tank top over what looked like a pair of pajama pants.
I slowed until finally coming to a stop beside her.
“Oh, thank God,” she said to me, sounding genuinely relieved. It was ironic, definitely not the normal reaction I got from people. “Can you help me? Do you have a phone?”
I threw out the kickstand to my bike, then dismounted. “What’s going on? You having some car trouble?” I motioned towards her car, which looked to be running with the hazards flashing.
She quickly shook her head. “No, no, I’m fine. But there’s a man down there,” she pointed towards the ditch, “who’s been in an accident. He’s really banged up. I’ve done my best to patch him up, but he really needs a doctor.”
As soon as she mentioned a man and an accident, I quickly rushed past her. She followed after me, still talking as I slid down the bank into the ditch.
“I tried to call the police myself, but my phone died. I don’t think they got any of the information I gave to them before it went out.”
It was definitely Keenan, and there was no question about it—he was in trouble.
From the looks of it, he’d been patched up pretty well with a neck brace, some raggedy bandages already bloodied up, and what looked like the woman’s coat hanging off to the side. My worry for Keenan kept my eyes from wandering back to the modelesque beauty ambling down the side of the ditch after me.
“How long has he been like this?” I asked, kneeling down beside him. I reached for his hand to check his pulse. He looked beaten up pretty badly, and I didn’t like seeing all the blood. I worried that it was too much for him to recover from.
This was a motorcycle accident? I found myself wondering.
It looked more like someone had tried to gut him. The thought darkened my mood considerably, and it didn’t help any when the woman spoke again.
“Don’t touch him!” she scolded me, slapping at my hand like I was a child reaching for the cookie jar. “Moving him could exacerbate any injuries he’s sustained, especially the ones we can’t see.”
Jumping to my feet, I pressed into her personal space, using my height and size to intimidate her. It usually worked better with shorter women, but I still had a good five inches on her, and I used them to my advantage. “Who the fuck are you to be barking orders at me? Do you have any idea who I am?” I snarled at her angrily.
Her pretty green eyes widened in surprise, then quickly narrowed in anger. “From what I can see, you’re some pushy man on a bike with no medical experience and a short temper, whereas I am a damn nurse!”
Nurse?
A flash of headlights down the road distracted me enough to stop my tirade, just enough time to allow a little niggle of appreciation that she hadn’t backed down from my anger. But not enough to tell her that.
When the lights slowed as they got closer, I started to get nervous. This was Keenan on the side of the road, no doubt. But I wasn’t sure how he’d gotten there. Was it just an accident? Or was my sense that something more was going on correct?
Either way, I had to get Keenan the hell out of here. Daniel would give me the time I asked for and not a second more, the bastard, which meant the next headlights coming towards us could be cops.
Hell, with my luck, it could be another damn Good Samaritan like this fucking woman.
I rounded on her again. “Look, lady—” I began, but she interrupted me.
“Jasmine.”
I blinked at her. “What?”
“My name. It’s Jasmine,” she elaborated coolly, like she dealt with angry bikers and half-dead ones on the side of the road in the middle of the night all the damn time.
“Okay, Nurse Jasmine,” I growled at her impatiently. “If you’re done with the fucking introductions, we need to get him the hell out of here.”
Her features softened with worry, and I admitted to myself again that she was beautiful. I went ahead and let my eyes drop to her cleavage, though the rest of her wasn’t bad to look at either. She had hips that flared out and legs that were long. Yep, not bad to look at.
“You’re right,” she finally admitted grudgingly. “He needs to get to a hospital. He’s lost a lot of blood, and I don’t know if he’s sustained any other—”
“No,” I snapped at her, my eyes jerking back to her face.
Surprise took over her features again. “But he’s—”
“I said no,” I growled at her again. When I realized that I was being harsh with her—and that being a nurse meant she’d probably call someone once we were gone—I made a conscious effort to soften my tone. I didn’t think I did a very good job. “Look, he’s a friend of mine, okay? And he…doesn’t have insurance.”
She frowned deeply at me, suspicion mixing in with uncertainty. “This is serious. He needs medical attention.”
I glanced from her pretty face down to Keenan’s bloody one. Yeah, he did need medical attention. And not just pain pills either. Too bad. Those I could get in a snap, I thought grimly. When my eyes wandered back to Jasmine, an idea began to form in my head—a bad one. Nurse Jasmine, I reminded myself. “You’re right, he does.”
“Great. Then let’s get an ambulance here—”
I cut her off. “You think he’ll last that long? Nearest hospital is about forty minutes away.”
She opened her mouth to answer, then snapped it shut. She glanced down at Keenan. “I was worried about that myself,” she admitted. “He really shouldn’t be moved, though. If he has a neck or spine injury, moving him could cause paralysis or something equally bad.”
I cocked my head at her. “And if we wait for the hospital, he’ll die. That’s equally bad, isn’t it?”
She gave me a dirty look for using her own words. “This isn’t a game.”
“No, this is my friend’s life.”
Her full lips pulled into a frown. “Fine. I have a car. If you can help me lift him, I can drive him to the hospital.”
I shook my head quickly. “No. I said no hospital.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized my mistake. Saying he had no insurance was one thing. Arguing that he wouldn’t survive a trip to the hospital if we waited was one thing. Insisting that we couldn’t drive to the hospital ourselves was another.
She’ll be suspicious, I realized belatedly. What was worse, I didn’t have any idea how much she knew about what was going on.
Her eyebrows shot up again. Not so subtly, she took a step back, like she was a little wary of me all of a sudden. “What’s going on? Why don’t you want to go to the hospital?”
Clearing my throat, I tried to recover. “Look, if it wasn’t fifteen minutes shy of an hour, I’d say let’s go. But it is. And he doesn’t have that kind of time. But just up the road down Pike is a house that belonged to my parents. If we take him there, he might even survive the damn car ride.”
“Which won’t do us any good if he dies there instead!” she countered. She was still arguing, which was a pain in the ass, but at least she didn’t seem suspicious anymore. Forgotten was my adamant insistence to not go to the hospital.
Kicking up a corner of my mouth, I said, “It’s a good thing I’ve got Nurse Jasmine then, isn’t it?”
She frowned, and I worried that she wouldn’t come with me. I was afraid that she’d call the police and I would have some serious explaining to do. Keenan could die because of it all. But then she said, “Fine. Let’s go. We’ve already wasted too much time standing around arguing.”
My mouth stretched into a full smile. “Yes, we fucking have.”