I wasn’t entirely sure of the answer since I lost a few days with the fever and infection. “About a week, I think. I started running a high fever, so a couple of days are kind of a blur.”
“It’s looking good now, and you’ve got one hell of a story to tell,” Batta said with an almost envious tone.
“So, what do you boys have on the agenda today?” Leigh asked as she began clearing the dishes from the table.
“The fire marshal gave us the okay to get started on repairing the clubhouse, so Copper wants all hands on deck. I’m guessing we’ll be there all day,” Judge answered.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Leigh asked.
Judge nodded. “Can you pick up the girls and Bronze from the hospital in a couple of hours?”
“Yes, I can do that, but what are you not telling me?” Leigh asked, quirking a brow.
“Bronze and the girls need a place to stay until we can sort something else out,” Judge said quickly.
Leigh sucked in a sharp breath, straightened her spine, and placed her balled fists on her hips, “I don’t know what you think you have sorted now, but it damn well better not be my house. I’ll be happy to pick them up and drop them off somewhere. My house has always been open to the members and their families, not to the club whores. If Bronze wants to crash here, that’s fine. As far as I’m concerned, the girls can stay at Copper’s place or he can put them up in a hotel, but they will not stay in my house.”
There were so many things in her little rant that warranted further discussion. First, club whores? Second, Copper’s place? Copper had his own place, and he was going to have whores staying there for the foreseeable future? I felt a pang of jealousy at the thought, but I put forth my best effort to ignore it.
I had no claim on Copper. Yes, he was attractive, extremely so, but I was planning on leaving in a few days. He could do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted, especially since he made it clear he didn’t want to do whatever with me.
I stood quickly and carried my plate to the sink where I began to wash the dishes while Leigh argued with her son. I made quick work of the dishes and went back to my room before being noticed.
I plopped down on the bed, my shoulders sagging in despair. How had my life turned into such a mess? I was a good person. I followed the law and tried to help others when I could. I didn’t use drugs or torture animals. Still, the universe saw fit to take a huge dump on my life starting with my mother’s untimely death.
Once the first tear fell, there was no stopping the others. The floodgates opened, and for the first time since the snowball started rolling, I let it all out. I ended up going into the bathroom and turning on the shower to mask my choking sobs. Right there, on Leigh’s guest bathroom floor, I cried until I couldn’t cry any more.
11
My chest tightened when I saw Leigh’s name flashing on my cell phone’s screen. “Hey, Leigh. Is everything okay?”
“No, Copper, everything is not okay. For the record, I’m talking to you as the little boy who used to run around with my son and get into trouble, not as the President of the Blackwings MC. Having said that, you know good and damn well I wouldn’t allow the club whores to stay in my house. That has never been and never will be acceptable. Bronze is more than welcome to stay with the stipulation that he will not bring whores into my home. I’m willing to pick them up from the hospital, but I need you to tell me where to drop them off. Let me know what you decide. Next up, I want to know what in the hell you did to that girl this morning. She ran upstairs after breakfast and locked herself in the guest bathroom. I’ve had to listen to her cry, and I mean really cry, for over an hour now. Given the way you tore out of here this morning, after sleeping in her bed, it wasn’t hard to figure out where to place the blame. On second thought, I don’t want to know what you did; just get your ass over here and fix whatever you screwed up.”
I waited for more. When nothing came, I pulled the phone from my ear and looked at the screen. She hung up on me. She chewed me a new one and hung up on me. Leigh had never laid into me like that, not even when me, Judge, and Bronze stole her car and wrecked it when we were in high school.
I was still staring dumbly at the phone in my hand when my phone came to life again. This time, Luke’s name was on the screen.
“I managed to clear my day, and I’m in Devil Springs. Where do you want to meet me with Layla?” he asked.
“Do you know where Leigh Jackson lives?”
“Yes. Is that where Layla is?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll meet you there,” he said and disconnected.
Fuck! It was barely ten o’clock in the morning, and my day had already gone to shit. Unfortunately, I had a strong feeling it was about to get much worse.
Thankfully, I arrived at Leigh’s place before Luke. I needed to give Leigh a brief explanation of what was about to happen in case Kayla/Layla didn’t handle things well, which I suspected she wouldn’t.
Leigh stepped out onto the front porch when she heard me pull into the driveway. Before she could say anything, I started, “I don’t have much time, but there’s something you need to know. There’s more to the story about how I came across Kayla, and I don’t have time to explain it. What I can tell you is while I was trying to help her, I was also trying to figure out who she was. Spazz ran her picture through some facial recognition software, and he got a hit on an FBI site. Phoenix asked his friend who’s an agent to check into it. Long story short, he’s on his way here now to question her. He did say she was a victim they wanted to question, not a criminal they were actively trying to apprehend.”
Her mouth dropped open and closed. She did that two more times before snapping it shut and glaring at me. She then whirled around and went back inside the house without saying a single word to me. Leigh was a remarkable woman, but a pissed off Leigh was downright terrifying.
Luke pulled into the driveway a few minutes later. He stepped out of the car, looking every bit the part of a stereotypical federal agent. He approached me with his hand extended, “Copper, good to see you.”
I shook his hand. “Good to see you, too. Got anything for me before I go get Kayla?”