“Red, any chance the sample man came?” Topaz approached them, avoiding eye contact with Onyx completely.
“Sure. You know where they are,” Red said then passed off his chart and prescription order to Lil’ Mama in her office before heading to another room.
Topaz continued her way toward the clinic storage.
Cocking his head to the side, Onyx couldn’t resist and followed her. At some point, they had to come to an understanding because they didn’t have to be best friends, but they needed more than the light tolerance between them.
First, she dug in the recycling and found a small box then she cleaned out the clinic’s sample supply of some purple discs. When Topaz caught sight of him in the doorway she snipped, “What are you doing, following me?”
“I thought you had the hook-up for the good stuff, instead I see you’re just stealing supplies from the clinic and needy patients,” he replied with an arch to his eyebrow. “You gonna tell the mailman he’s transporting drugs?”
Her face blushed and she turned toward him, chest out and though she wasn’t as busty as the other women, the look was still good. “Mind your own damn business. I’m getting these for my Nanna if you must know.”
“Sure,” he replied and leaned on the doorjamb.
“You’re not a cop anymore Onyx,” she said, cutting him deeper than she could possibly know. “So hop back on the Segway and go check out the happenings at the smoothie stand, Paul Blart.”
“I was joking.” Onyx held his hands up in surrender and tried to smooth over the argument because it was his fault this time. They didn’t have that relationship, and in a way it was killing him. His dry wit got him through some sick and twisted situations as a cop and saved him from eating his gun when he woke up a limb short.
Hollywood, Red and Hack walked up the hallway, stopping by the supply room.
“You being robbed?” Hollywood asked with zero concern and the same dry wit that got them both past the hard nights as he peered in the room, “Hey Topaz, how are you doing?”
“Just fine. Thanks for asking.” She turned to cut between the men. Escaping from the group.
If Onyx was honest with himself, it was him she was running from with her box of drugs. Onyx regretted teasing her. She took him way too serious sometimes.
“Breakroom.” Red pointed and the men finished their journey.
Hack pulled out a chair and sat down. “Ladies, I have to talk to you.”
Red chuckled, “I’ll lady you, Hack. What’s up?”
Red and Hollywood pulled out chairs and sat down.
Onyx leaned against the counter with his arms crossed.
“Hollywood, thanks for coming straight here,” Hack said to Hollywood, even though the man was still dressed in his Sherriff browns.
Wearing the leathers of the Steels still made Onyx, uneasy around his former brethren. Even though Hollywood wore the same when he was off duty. Too many biker club run-ins in LA had left a bad taste in his mouth.
“I was checking out the Hard Road and what was going on in our area,” Hack opened the laptop he tended to have at the ready like most men have a gun.
“What do you have for us?” Red asked.
Onyx now wondered if he should be listening. An enforcer didn’t hold the rank any of these men did. Hack was a treasurer and founding member and Hollywood was sergeant at arms. Onyx had fast tracked to enforcer because of his relationship with Hollywood, but this seemed like an executive officer discussion.
“Three rescues all at once. I was wondering if we can handle that many?”
“Let’s see if we send a couple men to each, I think we can handle it,” Red answered. “Depends if we’re monitoring or getting involved.
“I can go,” Onyx volunteered. “You and the LAPD both certified me as a first responder.”
Having a dying rescue dropped on their doorstep Red decreed all rescues through the Hard Road website, a dark net domestic violence escape site, were to at least be monitored. Some men believe if I can’t have you then no one can, so even the best laid plans can break left and turn into a violent mess. Leaving dead and injured in their wake.
“We’ll have church tonight and decide who’s going to do what.” Red stretched, then got up when his wife Roadkill waved a chart at him from the doorway.
Topaz arranged the last of the Advair into the box with a few treats and cash rolled into a mini M&M container. The care package she put together for her Nanna was a regular practice. Using her insurance for some asthma meds, the samples she got from Red helped to bridge costs. Her grandma had been the only one who’d been there for her after the tragedy that sent her on a tailspin. Talking to Doc for ten minutes had her mind unearthing up shit it shouldn’t be and she wasn’t in the mood for feelings or emotions.
Pulling up a chair to the desk in her room, she grabbed her old scrap book from high school. Flipping the pages right now brought up the good memories she held. Her finger kept running over the dried corsage from homecoming.
Cheerleading was everything to her back then. She had even made captain in her senior year before everything went wrong. New Bend, Arkansas had been a perfect place to grow up, or so she thought. Much like the kids in Turnabout, fun, adventure and security. Dating the quarterback of the football team rounded out a life fit for a Hallmark movie, until it took a turn for the worse and became a Lifetime
