Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69577 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
That was going to be crazy, even for me.
“My stepsister is so smart that she’s scary,” Cody admitted. “Though, she does have a few issues, and one of those issues is her ability to do anything electronically. It’s like her and electronics don’t get along.”
I snorted. “I guess I’ll go get her.”
“Thanks, Creed,” she said. “You know where she lives?”
“I know about where she lives,” I offered.
“That’s good enough,” she sighed. “Thank you, again.”
Thirty minutes later, I found myself at the emergency room entrance standing in front of a frazzled-looking elderly nurse.
“Who did you say that you were here to see?”
“Birdee Calvert.”
“Ahh, Birdee Calvert used to be Watts.” The nurse nodded. “That’s been pretty confusing. She’s bounced back and forth between the two names since she got here.” She leveled me with a look. “In case you’re not aware of her entire life story, she changed her last name to Calvert to be free of her stepfather and mother’s name. She thought about using her actual father’s name, but she didn’t want to be associated with that, either, thanks to her father being a complete douche to her for her entire life.” The nurse paused. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, though.”
She kept speaking as if she’d dismissed her own concerns.
“We’ve had some issues with the system today. Every time we input her driver’s license information, it picks up her sister, Mable. It’s been the weirdest thing.”
I didn’t bother to tell her that Birdee’s mother was responsible for that mess, and instead said, “What’s her room number?”
The nurse gave me directions, and I started heading that way moments later.
I found her with her eyes closed and her hair a riot of curls around her face.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen her so approachable.
Every time I met her, she had this huge “back the fuck off” sign stamped on her forehead.
Now, she looked tired and vulnerable.
And tiny as fuck in the hospital bed that she was practically curled up in.
“Are you Mr. Daugherty?”
I looked over to see a doctor on my right. “That’s me.”
“Good.” The doctor nodded. “You know what happened to her?”
I was what happened to her…
“Yes,” I admitted. “What’s the next step? Do I need to get her prescriptions?”
Romeo’s wife was going to kill me. Birdee had literally just gotten out of her arm and leg cast from when she’d been in a car wreck not too long ago.
“Yes, but that can wait until tomorrow. We gave her a dose of pain meds that should last her through the night. Tomorrow, she’ll need to take the antibiotics, though.” He looked at me shrewdly. “You’ll have to wake her up once every hour. If she starts acting off or her pupils are looking odd, I want you to bring her back in immediately.”
I just shook my head.
That hadn’t been in the plan…
“With the main issues being her head, and how hard she hit the grill of that truck, I really think that it would be better for her to stay overnight, but she’s unwilling to stay. And I can’t very well keep her without her consent.”
Dammit.
“I’ll take care of her,” I lied.
I wouldn’t be taking care of her.
I didn’t do taking care of anybody.
That taking care of people thing had ended when I’d “died” about nine months ago now. When Apollo had told me that I was going to have to ‘be’ dead for this to work, that meant leaving the people that I loved behind.
Well, one person.
Bernice.
Every time I thought about her, my fucking heart ached.
She’d done so damn much to get me out of that hellhole, and this was how I repaid her?
I was lower than dirt.
And I didn’t deserve to be happy.
Honestly, the only reason that I did it was because I knew that Bernice wouldn’t stop. She’d fight until her last breath. And to do that, she would put off living.
I couldn’t let her live like that anymore.
Apollo and I had talked long and hard about allowing Bernice to be in on the action, so to speak. We’d decided in the end that Bernice couldn’t come. Bernie had really, really bad asthma. She could barely tolerate Alabama weather, let alone freakin’ Montana. On top of that, she had anemia. Both of those pairings meant that she could not deal with the cold weather. She would literally suffer like crazy up here.
Apollo and I had talked about it at length. We’d contemplated moving the whole setup somewhere else, but we had eyes and ears on this small town. It was safe. And overall, we could do what we wanted when we wanted here. It was also a biker town, and the club that ran it was affiliated with Apollo’s MC.
Dixie Wardens, Sawtooth, Montana Chapter, was fucking awesome. And they’d allowed us to patch in when we got here. They’d vouched for us and ultimately given us an alibi as well as backup if we ever needed it.