I check the time and notice to my surprise it’s almost eleven. The boy should probably be in bed by now. The fire is almost out anyway.
Okay. Leaving now.
Ravi just nods when I tell him and quickly throws some sand on the fire like Tse told him to do, before he follows me inside.
“Are we taking Van?” he asks, when I grab my wallet and my keys and open the front door.
“No. He probably needs a nap after all the exercise you gave him today. We’ll be back soon enough.”
I watch as he bends down and gives the dog a hug before he follows me out the door I lock behind us.
Just around the bend past Paco’s property I see rear lights up ahead. A car is parked half on the road, half on the shoulder, with the driver’s side door wide open. When I get closer, I notice something lying in the middle of the road. Not something, someone. They’re not moving.
I stop the Jeep at a distance.
“Is she hurt?” Ravi asks.
It’s only then I recognize it’s a woman with blonde hair. Something about her is familiar.
“Stay here,” I tell him.
I get out and am already pulling my phone from my pocket as I jog toward her.
“Oh no…Mandy?”
I kneel down on the ground beside her and brush the hair off her face, when suddenly her eyes snap open.
“I’m sorry.”
It’s the last thing I hear.
CHAPTER 24
Tse
THERE ARE ALREADY five or so bikes parked in the back, except for one lying on its side.
I could see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles from the road and rounded the restaurant parking lot to the back. Three patrol cars and an ambulance are blocking my view of the back door.
Getting out of my truck, I rush toward the sound of angry voices to find Paco and Honon struggling with Kaga.
“What the fuck is going on?” I bark at Wapi when I spot him near the rear of the ambulance.
“It’s Lea. She was heading home when someone took a knife to her in the parking lot. I was at the bar.”
“Lea?”
Kaga’s wife has been working at the restaurant now for a month or so. She’s a sweet woman. She and Kaga have been together for probably close to twenty years and have a couple of teen boys. Kaga is our second in command, his calm and laid-back character a perfect counterbalance to Ouray’s often more explosive personality.
Kaga is not so calm now.
“How is she?”
“I don’t know, man. Emme went out to toss some garbage in the bin and saw her lying there. Yelled for me.” He runs both his hands over his head and I notice they’re stained red. “So much blood. She was lookin’ at me but couldn’t talk. I didn’t know where to put my hands to stop the bleeding.”
We both jerk our heads around when the ambulance suddenly tears out of there. Kaga’s loud keening sets my hair on end and when I look his way, he’s on his knees on the ground.
“We need to get him to the hospital,” I announce, walking toward the small group, grateful I opted to drive instead of ride. “Get him in my truck.”
At that moment Ouray comes walking out of the restaurant and marches straight up to Kaga, hooks him under the arms and hauls him to his feet. Then he takes the other man’s face in his hands and leans close.
“Get it the fuck together, brother,” he barks in his face. “You keep this shit up and they won’t let you into the hospital either. Your wife needs you calm.”
That last comment seems to resonate and moments later we’re putting him in my passenger seat. Honon and Ouray get in the back and I guess the other guys will follow later.
“Someone get me up to speed,” I ask, as I steer the truck toward the exit.
Ouray explains how he, Kaga, and Honon were just coming back from the gym when Paco ran out of the clubhouse. He’d been checking the camera feed for the restaurant and saw the attack go down.
“We just took off. Didn’t realize it was Lea until we got here. Paco actually thought it was Sophia at first, with the similar haircuts.”
Never registered that before, but now that he mentions it, they both have short brown hair and are probably about the same height. Suddenly uneasy, I fish my phone from my pocket and toss it in the back seat.
“Text Sophia, tell her to bring Ravi to the clubhouse and stay there.”
I don’t want to waste time arguing over the phone with her, nor do I want to tell her what is going on until we know how Lea is doing. Otherwise, she’ll insist on coming to the hospital and I need to know she’s safe at the clubhouse.
“Good call,” Ouray mumbles, and when I glance in the rearview mirror I catch his worried eyes on me.
“She’s texting back,” Honon announces and I sigh in relief. “Says she’s leaving right away.”
“I’m gonna kill him,” Kaga mumbles beside me.
“You need to cool it, brother. Focus on Lea.” Ouray leans forward and grabs a firm hold of his shoulder. “Family first, then we’ll talk revenge.”
I get us to Mercy in record time, where we’re directed to a waiting room while Ouray is trying to get information from the nurse at the desk.
“Any idea who it was?” I ask Honon.
We’re standing off by the doors while Ouray sits down next to Kaga in one of the few available seats. The ER is busy. Every time a white coat walks in through the doors, the rumble of voices quiets and all eyes turn that way. Everyone is eagerly awaiting news.
“Paco said it was hard to make out on the screen. Fucker came at her from behind. Looks like he stabbed her first in the back and when she turned around, he repeatedly slashed at her front. Says she tried to fight him off.”
“Jesus.”
“All he could
