Page 38 of Baiting Kong

“Sawyer.”

“Any clue why Sawyer would take off without talking to the cops?”

“No.”

Creature raised an eyebrow at him, and Axel turned his hands over, shrugging.

“Seriously, I don’t know. He was out the back moments before the cops burst in.”

Okay, well, there were a billion and one reasons to avoid the cops, that Creature knew. He’d gone out of his way to steer clear of them many times himself.

“Tell me the parts you haven’t told me yet,” Creature insisted.

“There’s not a lot more to tell.”

“But there is some, so spill it.”

“Sawyer was giving the robbers shit,” Axel said. “Like I told you, they were confused and contradicting one another right from the jump. When Scout joined him in giving them shit, one of the robbers turned his gun on Scout; that’s when Sawyer jumped him. The other guy, I don’t know; I was on the ground by then. When the shooting stopped, the robbers were dead, shit was knocked over everywhere, and Ms. Esperanza was bleeding. Sawyer didn’t have a mark on him, just some blood splattered on his cheek from one of the men he’d killed.”

Ahhh, now it made sense why Sawyer had taken off. What a clusterfuck.

“Scout came up with the whole chip thing when the cops started asking what happened,” Axel admitted. “He’s hell-bent on protecting him, and I don’t blame him. Those fuckin’ tweakers could have shot him.”

“You’ll get no argument from me about that,” Creature said. “Though it might have been safer for all of you if Sawyer had kept his mouth shut.”

Creature didn’t add that, as a member of the Hounds, he doubted Sawyer knew the meaning of discretion or shutting the fuck up, but then, neither did most of his club brothers. Several in particular came to mind who’d have been in there heckling the robbers too, and yeah, Creature could admit that he’d have charged the bastards if they’d pointed a gun at someone he cared about.

“So, now what?” Axel asked.

“Now we figure out a solution to get the cops off your asses,” Creature said as he pulled out his phone.

“You can’t tell the cops what happened,” Axel said, leaping up like he was about to bolt for the door.

“Piff, I ain’t callin’ the cops,” Creature said as he pressed the phone icon beside Mark’s name. “I’m calling the Prez, and then I’m calling Kong and telling him to find Scout and get over here with him so we can all have a little chat.”

“Do you really think you can fix this?” Axel asked.

“Only if Scout is willing to trust us enough to be honest and let us help him,” Creature said.

“He’s scared,” Axel blurted, “and not just about what happened at the gas station. When he ran into me the other day, he was walking back from somewhere. Limping, actually, and he hissed and winced when he leaned against the building. I figured he’d wrecked his bike, but he said it just needed maintenance, soI don’t really know what happened to him for him to be fucked up that way.”

“Didn’t I just talk to you?” Mark said by way of greeting.

“Yeah, but I need you over here like, yesterday,” Creature replied.

“See you in five,” Mark said, hanging up.

Kong’s greeting wasn’t much better. “What do you need? I thought you said you weren’t ready for a rematch yet.”

“I’m not; my shoulder is still bugging me,” Creature admitted. “But I need you to track down Scout and get him here.”

“I’ll do my best, but in case you haven’t noticed, the little shit has been ducking me every chance he gets,” Kong admitted.

“Then you’d better hone your tracking skills and ferret out where he’s gotten to,” Creature demanded. “Mark is on the way here too. I doubt he’s going to be pleased when he hears what Axel has to tell him.”

“I’ll find him,” Kong declared before ending the call.

“D-do I have to move out now?” Axel asked, his voice soft and almost timid as he stared across the table at Creature with sad eyes and a hangdog expression.

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