Page 388 of The Tempted

And I wanted to collect.

Jack protested, and I started to argue when Pipe made his way over to us. He was grinning as he held the phone in the air and delivered us the sweet news that Blackie had finally pulled his ass out of the coma.

There was no question about it—the pie could wait.

We hustled out of the cemetery and drove our asses to the hospital, eager to see the brother we almost lost. The hospital tried to give us some shit about all of us not being able to visit him in the ICU but that didn’t last very long and we did what we did best, disobeyed the rules and strode into Blackie’s little cubical.

“There he is,” Wolf cheered.

Jack was the first to make his way to Blackie, ignoring the tubes and pushing aside the machines they were attached to. He bent down, taking Blackie’s head in his hand and kissed the top of his head.

“My man,” Jack said, kissing his head again before he leaned back and stared at our vice president. “Left side of the table’s been empty, brother,” he explained hoarsely.

“I’m sorry,” Blackie stammered.

“You got nothing to be sorry for,” Jack replied. “I owe you everything,” he reiterated. “You saved Lacey, and you kept Reina sane,” he continued. “You sacrificed yourself for the club and that shit deserves a whole lot more than a thank you. Need you well, Black, need you to reverse this shit Jimmy has you strung out on, knocking on death’s door,” he growled. “Whatever it takes, we’ve got you,” he insisted.

“Ay!” Pipe agreed.

“Did we get him? Gold is he…” Blackie asked.

“Oh, we fucking got him,” Jack assured. “Lit that motherfucker up,” he added.

“How?” Blackie asked.

Jack turned around and pointed his thumb over his shoulder at me.

“This son of a bitch right here, saved the day, your life and my sanity,” he declared.

“And still no fucking pie,” I added.

Blackie stared at me for a moment before looking back at Jack.

“What about the deal?”

“We made a new deal,” he explained.

“You got the drugs?” Blackie asked, trying to sit up.

“C’mon man, don’t worry ‘bout that shit. You need to concentrate on getting off this shit and getting yourself good,” Jack said, as he helped Blackie adjust himself in the bed

“I want to know,” he insisted.

“We took the drugs from The Red Dragons,” I offered. Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because Bones elbowed me in the gut and all eyes turned to me, glaring at me. I forgot that Blackie knew about the war with The Dragons, that he saw that shit, lived it and lost his wife in the middle of it. The guy wakes up from a coma to be reminded of the darkest time of his life.

Shit I’m a dickhead.

“You got the drugs from Wu? Are you out of your fucking minds?”

“Blackie, it’s good. We’re good. Jones arrested Jimmy at Temptations with the drugs,” Jack explained calmly. “Everything went like we planned.”

“We didn’t plan to fuck the Chinese,” Blackie said furiously, as he started to cough.

“It’s fine, brother. Wu and the Dragons have no idea it was us. We have a meet with them tomorrow for another shipment of guns. We’re good man,” Pipe offered. “We’re fucking good man, relax!”

Pipe turned, fixing me with a hard stare. “Tell him your news,” he demanded.

“What news?” I asked bewildered.

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