They did a gas and go at the Love’s just before hopping on the interstate for the return trip to Tucson, but then stopped again at Daybreakers Café. This was their normal haunt for lunch when they were making a delivery.
“Seven this time, Mary,” Chet said as they stepped into the diner.
“Who’s your friends?” the older woman asked, giving the other woman a hard look.
“My boss, his boss,” he said pointing first at Zane then Arsen, “and some friends.”
“What happened to her?”
“A crash.”
Mary looked at him. “Uh-huh.” She turned and led the party to a large circular booth in the back and placed the menus on the table. “Jen will be right with you.”
Arsen normally liked to sit on the outside, but he wanted their companion in the center, so he slid in with Zane on the outside to his right. She sat and stared straight ahead, not picking up her menu. He offered her his, and she took it, but he could tell from watching her eyes she wasn’t seeing it. He sighed.
“What should we order her?”
“A psychiatrist?” Berk mumbled.
“You have a problem, Berk?” Arsen challenged.
“Other than she bit me?”
“You’re the one who grabbed her.”
“You’re the one who wanted her on the bike.”
“I didn’t say muscle her. If she didn’t want to get on the bike, that’s her choice. She’s obviously been abused, so that’s on you.”
“What do you want from me, Arsen?”
“How about a little compassion?”
“We don’t know her. Maybe she brought it on herself.”
“Really? What would Marla have to do for you to beat her like that?”
Berk paused. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
Arsen grunted and let it drop. If she’d bitten him like she had Berk, he’d probably be cranky too.
“What can I get you gentlemen to drink?” Jen asked, trying hard not to stare at the battered woman. She took their drink orders and left.
“Do you know what you want?” Arsen asked, but she gave no indication of hearing. “A burger?”
He gave up for the moment and worried about his own lunch. Jen brought their drink orders and he noticed her staring at her water. As Jen took orders, he offered her the glass. “It’s yours. Go on.” She took the glass and downed it without stopping.
“For you?” Jen asked.
“What are your soups?”
“Chili, loaded baked potato, and chicken with wild rice.”
“She’ll have the potato with sourdough. I’ll have the bacon cheeseburger. And another water for her as soon as you can. Make it two.”
Jen took Zane’s order, left, and returned in a moment with two more glasses of water that she sat in front of the woman.
She stared at the glass until Arsen nudged it toward her with a finger. She picked it up and downed almost the entire thing before stopping. She panted for a moment, then drained it as soon as she’d caught her breath. She reached for the other glass, but Arsen slid it away.
“You can have it, but I want you to wait a second, okay? Too much cold water, too fast, will make you sick.” He slid the glass back in front of her. “It’s yours, and you can have as much as you want, but I want you to wait until your food arrives to drink it, okay?”
She sat and stared at the glass. He wondered what she had gone through, and how long she’d been without water. As they waited, Jen brought two more glasses of water, which Arsen clustered in front of her. She didn’t reach for the glass again. He wanted to offer it to her, but he also didn’t want her puking and making any dehydration worse.
When Jen returned with their tray, she continued to stare at the glass. “Go ahead,” he said softly, sliding a glass to the edge of the table. She took it, but only took a couple of swallows before putting it back.
“Good girl,” he smiled, pushing her soup in front of her.
“Anything else for you gentlemen?”
When nobody wanted anything, Jen left. Arsen slid the soup in front of him and tasted it. “Shit! That’s hot! You better wait a minute for it to cool.”
“You’re treating her like baby,” Berk sneered.
“Better than letting her hurt herself,” Arsen replied, ignoring Berk’s tone.
“What are we going to do with her?” Zane asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe take her back to the clubhouse and have Doc Holiday look at her.”
“Why?” Chet asked. “She’s not our problem. We can leave her here. She’s safe. She’ll have eaten and had something to drink. She won’t get heatstroke. Mary and Jen will watch her. We can call the cops and they could pick her up here.”
“You’re sure she won’t walk out the minute we leave?” Arsen asked.
“What if she does? She’s still not our problem.”
Zane nodded. “I have to agree with Chet. She could be wanted by the police for all we know. We don’t need that.”
“So just dump her?”
“We’re not dumping her, Arsen,” Greg joined in. “We got her off the side of the road. We’ve fed her and got her out of the heat. What else do you want to do?”
“How about we make sure she’s okay before we give her a boot in the ass?” he snapped. He gave her soup another stir to help it cool. He tasted it again, but it was still painfully hot.
There was an uncomfortable silence before Zane spoke, his voice gentle. “We’ll follow your lead, you know that, but I want to make sure you understand what you’re doing. This won’t bring Holly back.”
That stung. “I know. It’s not about Holly.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then what’s it about?”
He sighed. “It about doing the right thing. I wasn’t there for Holly, but I can be here for her. If Holly were still here, she’d be the first one to tell all of you to go fuck yourselves, and she’d do anything she could to help this girl. You all know it.”
Zane leaned back in the booth. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Arsen looked around the table. All the brothers were looking sheepish, even Berk. “I understand she’s not our problem, but I can’t just leave her stranded. I would hope someone would do the same if it were one of your old ladies.”
“Yeah, okay. Fuck it,” Greg muttered. “Let Doc Holiday check her out. He probably knows somebody who can get her the help she needs anyway.” The rest of the brothers nodded in agreement.
He tried her soup then slid it in front of her. “It’s good. Try it.” She made no movement so he placed the spoon in her hand. “Try it.”
She looked at the soup a moment then dipped the spoon into the thick liquid and brought it to her lips. She took several bites then stopped.
Arsen finished chewing his burger. “You have to be hungrier than that. Come on.” He gave the bowl a bump with his finger to encourage her and she started eating again. He broke off a bite sized bit of bread, then dipped it in the soup and handed it to her. She looked at it a moment, before she took it, placed it in her mouth, and chewed slowly.
It made for a slow meal, with Arsen having to continuously hound her to eat, but as the soup disappeared, she needed less and less encouragement.
“Doctor Hollander, please,” Arsen said into his phone as she slowly ate. Doctor Richard M. Hollander, Doc Holiday to the club, had been the club doctor for three decades, longer than Arsen had been alive. Grizzled but sweet, he’d patched up every member of the club at least once.
“This is Doctor Hollander.”
“Doc, Arsen. Can you stop by the clubhouse on your way home? I have someone for you to look at.”
“Who, and what happened?”
“Who, I don’t know. Don’t know what happened either, but it looks like somebody kicked the shit out of her.”
“Her?”
“Yeah. I picked her up walking along the side of the interstate.”
“Where is she now?”
“Having a bowl of soup in Yuma.”
“Yuma?”
Arsen chuckled. “I’ll explain it all when you get there. Can you stop by? Bring your magic bag. I think you may need it.”
“Yeah. It’ll be about five before I can get there.”
“That’s fine. We won’t be back to Tucson until four, four thirty anyway.”
“If you found her outside, and she’d been out there any length of time, make sure you get her cooled down and give her lots of water.”
“Already on it, Doc.”
“See you about five, then.”
“Thanks, Doc.” Arsen killed the call, then immediately dialed his phone again, calling his Sergeant at Arms. “Phil, find somebody who’s free to take the van and get to Dateland to pick up a motorcycle.”
“Why?” Phil asked.
“There’s an abandoned Fat Bob sitting on the side of the interstate, if someone hasn’t stolen it already. I want it picked up and brought back to the clubhouse.”
“Okay, but stealing bikes isn’t really our gig, you know what I mean?”
“It’s either already stolen, or I have the owner with me.”
“What?”
Again Arsen laughed. “I’ll explain it when I get there. Just get on it. If I don’t see it on the way past, I’ll call, and whoever you sent can turn around.”
There was a pause. “I’ll make it happen.”
He turned his attention back to the woman. She was sitting again, the bowl empty and a glass of water untouched. Finished or not, she was done. They had to get on the road if they were going to beat Doc Holiday back to the clubhouse. If she wanted more water she could get it when they stopped at Gila Bend for gas. They would all be ready for water by then.