More Than Miles (A Lost Kings MC Novel) (43 page)

“Y
ou planning to give him the good news today?” Wrath asks as I get up from the war room table.

“Fuck yeah, I am.”

The good news is that Killa has been found and dealt with. Wrath found him, and I ended him.

Justice for Mariella—an innocent. And justice for my best friend who still can’t fucking walk.

I didn’t lose any sleep over it.

Maybe that makes me a bad person. I don’t waste a lot of time worrying about it.

In our world, payback is swift and brutal and often
final.

That leaves one remaining Viper on the loose. Ransom. In time, we’ll find him and take him out, too.

Rock nods at me. “Go ahead. Hope and I will be down later.”

“Trinity and I will be down, too,” Wrath adds

Having us all visiting Teller is less about security now and more about keeping his spirits up. Rehab hasn’t been going well for him.

He’s looking gloomier than ever when I walk in.

We’ve known each other so long, he knows something’s up.

“It’s done.”

“Killa?”

“Last night,” I confirm.

“Should have been me.”

“I know, brother. But we couldn’t risk—”

He grabs my arm, stopping me. “I understand. Thank you.”

That’s the last we talk about it.

He’s grumpy about everything else. Physical therapy, his therapist not working him hard enough, but then ten seconds later he bitches that he’s seeing her too often and he’s tired.

I’m a little relieved when Hope and Rock show up. Although, watching them hold hands and be so affectionate with each other is a bit nauseating in my current mood.

Wrath and Trinity show up next. Wrath jerks his head toward the hallway, and Rock and I follow him out.

“He’s bitchier than usual, so good luck,” I say to Wrath.

“Great.”

Inside the room, I hear Hope and Trinity fussing over Teller. An effort to distract him from the fact that the three of us are in the hall talking about him like he’s a two year old.

Wrath pins Rock with one of his scary faces—one that has no effect on Rock whatsoever—and explains what he thinks is bothering Teller. “He said something about how if he never regains the use of his legs, he’s out of the club.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Rock groans. “He got injured over a club beef, and he thinks we’re gonna toss him out. Asshole,” Rock mutters.

“Yeah, well, try to work it into the conversation that he’s not going anywhere,” Wrath suggests before taking off down the hall.

“Did you give him the news?” Rock asks as I’m about to step inside.

“Yeah. It made him happy for about a second.”

“Wanted it to be him, right?”

“Yes,” I answer. He slaps me on the back and places his hand at the back of my neck, walking me into the room.

Teller lifts his chin at me. “Hey, Fucker.”

“Can’t you be nice to each other?” Hope teases.

“Morning, Blake, are you finished ratting me out to dad?” Teller says with a big smirk on his face. Well, I guess being a cocky dick is better than the usual attitude we’ve been getting from him lately.

Rock groans and Hope playfully slaps Teller’s shoulder. “That’s
not
what I meant.”

Wrath returns with lunch for everyone, and we’re our regular rowdy selves. So much so, that one of the nurses stops in to ask us to keep it down.

“I’m pretty sure I’m the youngest person here,” Teller says after she leaves.

I’m trying to come up with a casual way of asking if Teller’s heard from Heidi when he leans over and grabs his phone. “Got this from my sister the other day.” He passes it to Hope, and I restrain myself from snatching the phone out of her hand.

“Aw, cute. She told me he took some time off, and they were doing a lot of family stuff.”

Hope passes it to me, and it’s a picture of Heidi and Alexa at what looks like a zoo. “Cute,” I say, handing it back to Teller.

I’m happy for her. I really am. Glad the little punk is finally treating her right.

“She say when she’s coming back?” Rock asks.

Hope jumps and pulls her phone out of her back pocket. “It’s like she knew we were talking about her,” she jokes. “Hi, Heidi, we were just—”

Hope’s eyes widen, her jaw drops. “Heidi, calm down.” She paces to the other side of the room, while every one of us focuses on her side of the conversation. “What did they tell you?”

“Hope, what’s wrong?” Marcel demands.

She shakes her head and holds her hand up. Teller turns his glare on Rock, silently asking him to get a hold of his wife, I guess.

Wrath gets up and closes the door, while Rock joins Hope by the window. He gently pries the phone out of her hands and hits the speaker button.

Heidi’s anxious voice fills the room. “I don’t know what to do, they’re not telling me anything, but the explosion was bad. It’s all over the news. The other families are meeting at the company’s local office to wait for information, but I don’t want to bring Alexa down there—”

“Heidi, it’s Rock. Calm down.”

She bursts into tears.

Teller and I exchange a look.

“Honey, I’m visiting with your brother,” Hope says calmly.

“Oh. Oh, okay.”

Hope crosses the room and sits next to Teller.

“Heidi, what’s going on?” he asks.

“I don’t know.” She sobs. “They just called and said there was an explosion. Half the crew is missing, the rest are either injured or—”

Trinity gasps and even though Heidi can’t say the word, we all know.

An avalanche of guilt lands on my shoulders
. Shit.
I may not have liked the kid. Didn’t think he was right for Heidi. Might have wanted to kick his ass a few times. But I’d
never
wish this on him. Or her.

Hope shoots a pleading look at Rock and he nods. “Heidi, is Penny around?”

“Yes. She’s on the phone with Lucas’s family.”

“Okay. Have you called Axel’s parents?”

“No. Not yet.”

“Do that,” she directs, utterly calm and unruffled. “Let them know what’s going on. Then stick with Penny. I’m going to find a flight up there. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“You’ll do that? Come all the way up here?”

“Yes. Give me a little time to figure it out. I’ll call you back.”

“Thank you.”

Hope’s trembling as she ends the call and sets her phone down. She held it together the whole time she was on the phone, but now she leans against Rock and cries softly. I know she spent some time with Axel when he was prospecting for us and liked him.

Teller looks like he wants to strangle something. “I
hate
this,” he growls. “Fucking
hate
that I’m stuck here.”

I know where I’m headed. I’m just waiting for prez to give me the go ahead. He stares at me with a raised eyebrow and squeezes Hope tighter. “I can’t have her going up there alone. I need to be here for that meet.”

“I got her, prez.”

“Thank you,” Teller says.

Rock nods at me. “Okay.” The
I’m trusting you with my wife
in his expression isn’t lost on me.

Hope wipes her face and straightens up. “Shit. If he’s… If he’s really…we’ll have to help her pack up their apartment and whatever else she needs. We might be gone for a while, Rock.”

“Whatever you need to do. If you need me after Saturday, I’ll be there.”

She doesn’t even question him. Just nods.

Teller picks up his phone and starts checking for flights.

“I can do it,” Hope says.

“Please. Let me do something. I feel fucking useless.”

Teller can’t get us on a flight until later that night. And it leaves from Boston. So we basically have enough time to run up to the property, throw some clothes in a bag, and have Rock drive us to the airport.

Penny hasn’t stopped crying since she hung up the phone. We’ve been sitting on my living room floor watching the news for hours. I have Alexa propped up on her Boppy pillow in front of me playing with her toys. She’s quieter than usual, as if she knows something’s wrong.

Me, I don’t know what I am. Numb? Guilty? Angry?

At the moment, I land on angry. Axel’s company has confirmed five workers were killed, six injured, and seventeen still missing. They’ve also started subtly shifting the blame to two other companies involved in the project. The news keeps talking about a ruptured pipeline and gallons of crude oil that were spilled. Experts talk about risk management and how there hasn’t been an accident of this magnitude in five years.

No one mentions the families who are sitting on the floors of their darkened apartments waiting to hear news. Some news. Any news.

Hope called me from Los Angeles where she said there was an hour layover. She gave me a time but asked me to stay at the apartment. She said she’d rent a car when they get here.

I don’t ask who came with her. I assume it’s Rock. I can’t think beyond that.

After dropping the news of his “promotion” in my lap before leaving, I’ve been furious with Axel. I hate that we left on such bad terms. We spoke briefly yesterday, and I’d sent him a picture of Alexa and me before I tucked her into bed last night, but it doesn’t feel like enough.

Penny sniffles and looks up. “God, Heidi, what if they’re disfigured or disabled or something horrible?”

“Then we deal with it and thank God they’re still with us.”

She snaps her mouth shut at my sharp tone and focuses on the television again. A few minutes later, there’s a commotion out in the hallway.

“I better check in case that’s his parents,” she says.

“Go ahead. You know where I’ll be.”

Alexa gets a quick kiss before Penny runs out.

I end up dozing for a few minutes before my phone wakes me. I’m almost afraid to answer it, fearing what might lie on the other end.

I
need a lot of coffee when we finally make it off the plane. Keeping Hope upright helps me focus. She’s even more exhausted than I am.

The guy at the rental car counter gives me lip when I point out we reserved a large SUV and he tries to hand me the keys to some shitty little subcompact. “Hope, can you go look up that receipt for me?” I ask nodding to a quiet corner. She gives me a curious look but does as I ask.

As soon as she’s out of hearing range, I lean over the desk. “Listen, asshole. You know that explosion that’s all over the news?” I nod at the television that’s been covering nothing but the oil spill since we walked in here. “My friend’s husband was on that rig, and I’m here to help her out. I just traveled thirteen fucking hours to get here. Don’t fuck with me.” I figure it’s better to go with a generic threat before I give him the details about what I’m going to do to him if he doesn’t straighten this out.

His bored expression turns into a pale-faced stare quick. “Give me a minute.”

Christ.

“Sir, all I have left is an Infiniti QX80, from our Prestige Collection.”

“Perfect.” I slap down my credit card and he raises an eyebrow. I guess my scruffy appearance has him doubting whether I can afford the prissy SUV. I flick my license across the counter. “I don’t have all night, dude. Move it along.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Jesus Christ.”