“How long do you think she’ll sleep?” I ask, then wish I hadn’t with the look Scalpel gives me.
“She’ll wake whenever she is rested fully. If she isn’t awake in two hours, we need to let Shelby know she’ll not be working tomorrow. We don’t want her losing her job now she just got it,” Scalpel states, and I nod because he’s right that she has only just started at the diner.
“I’ll speak with Shelby, Pres,” Joker surprises me by saying. I didn’t even know he was behind me. Turning to walk away, I’m shocked to see probably ten brothers standing around looking worried.
Walking back to the kitchen I sit across from Brewer. “What the fuck happened?”
Brewer shakes his head. “I was eating and suddenly it felt like someone was choking me out. But no one was touching me. Cilla jumped to her feet and was shouting as though someone wasthere. She said to get the fuck off me, then she said the weirdest thing...”
I’m not the most patient asshole, so when he paused I snarled, “What weird thing?”
“She said, 'Bono, stop this arsehole.' But, Pres, she was seeing someone who wasn’t there. Then she said, to get the fuck off him.”
“Interesting, very interesting. As long as you are okay now we’ll speak with Cilla when she wakes.” I’m mumbling to myself as I walk back to my office but look up as I close the office door behind me. “Thanks, Bono. I don’t know if you can hear me, but thanks.” Yeah, I feel a fuckin’ fool, but at least I’m alone in the office so the brothers won’t be taking the piss out of me.
Joker popped his head into the office, informing me all was good with Shelby, and she was understanding about the fact Cilla wouldn’t be at work tomorrow, but said to tell her to recover properly. Good woman, Shelby. It’s a shame one of the brothers hadn’t taken up with her.
Sitting at my desk, I allow my thoughts to wander, and I admit I’m wondering why anyone would want to throttle Brewer. He’s a good man and has done a lot of charity work by being the grunt when setting shit up for charity fundraising evenings. It has to stem from his time in the service. He wasn’t one of my team members, but many of the brothers here are ex-military, so we’ve all had incidents that were good or bad. Maybe Cilla will tell us more when she wakes from this psychic sleep she’s having.
Picking up my phone, I search Google for nickname ideas for Cilla. I’m gonna get under her skin. I can’t hold back the chuckle and then give a large smirk because I’m going to call her ‘Seer’ as that’s an old name for a female with psychic abilities. Yeah,that’s a good one. Let’s see how she handles that. “Are you seeing this, Bono? We are gonna call her Seer.”
Unknown to me, Bono is standing, looking over my shoulder at my mobile phone and the suggestions I found.*Yeah, good one, Tracker. Good one*I’ve no idea why but a chill runs through me and the old saying, ‘Someone just walked over your grave,’ comes to mind.
Two hours later and deep in the paperwork Coin handed to me I’m frowning at the figures. They are not adding up, and I’m sure Snake is stealing. We just have to figure out how and where he is stashing the cash.
A knock on the door catches my attention. “Come in.”
Finger saunters into the office and takes a seat. “I didn’t want to disturb you if you were deep in something, Pres. Scalpel said to inform you Cilla is past the unconscious stage and is now sleeping. When she’s fully awake, are we asking her what happened from her point of view?”
Leaning back in my seat before answering, I give a brief nod. “Yeah, we’ll ask Cilla the Seer what happened.”
“Cilla the Seer. You know she’s gonna rip you a new one for that Pres,” Finger laughs, and I don’t stop the huge smirk that crosses my face.
“She can try,” I laugh, then continue. “Okay, I want you to be on protection detail for Cilla. This guy might have seen her taking pictures of him. I don’t want to take the risk of something happening to her. She’ll probably cause a ruckus, but you can handle that. Wherever she goes, you go.”
“Okay, Pres, but you know it’s gonna be fuckin’ boring following her around and sitting in the diner for hours.”
“When she’s working at the diner you can do your other duties, but take her and get her home safely. Then stay with her. She’ll not like it, but tough. She’ll have to cope, and you’ll have to sort her out if needed.”
Before we can discuss more, the door opens and Keys walks in. “Found the fucker, Pres. He’s Nicholas Denning. Former Marine, was thrown out for doing shit he shouldn’t. Dishonorable discharge it’s called, but I call it justice for the two fellow Marines he had badly injured because he ignored his duties.”
Keys plants a wad of paper in front of me, and studying it, I see this prick is going to be meeting the acid bath. Since leaving the service, he’s become nothing but an assassin. For a service brother to not give a fuck about murdering multiple brothers for a few dollars shows how far gone he is. “We take the fucker out when we catch him.” Now, I’m showing the Tracker to my brothers that they know will not bend, bow or sway from the decision I’ve made.
Chapter 8
CILLA
My head is pounding and I’m wondering what the heck is going on! Turning my head slowly and looking around, I don’t recognize the room I’m in. Slowly sitting and checking around, it looks like a medical room!
The door opens and Scalpel walks in. Now, I only know that’s his name because it’s on his jacket thingy, which I’ve heard they call a cut.
“Ah, you are awake at last. I’m going to call you Sleeping Beauty since you’ve been asleep for fourteen hours.”
“What! Fourteen hours? What the heck!” I try scrambling from the bed, but Scalpel takes hold of my arm gently, keeping me in place.
“Let me check you before you go rushing away,” he says with some exasperation in his tone.
Checking me over doesn’t take him long, and he gives me a clean bill of health. Well, clear enough that I can go home to rest some more. “Thank you, Scalpel. Can I ask if Brewer is okay?”