Page 14 of Blood Revealed

“Okay. Then… um… I’ll be back tomorrow at two.”

She doesn’t look up from the mess on her desk or give me a proper goodbye as I turn to leave. Blood sits at a table in the back of the room sipping a beer from a bottle, watching Dainty Rae strut her stuff when I exit the back hallway into the main seating area. She is amazing. But he tears his attention away from her to smile at me.

“How’d it go?” he asks.

“Well, I met Shelly.”

“She’s good people,” he says, as if he’d never shared his spectacular sexual moves with her.

“Right. Well, I’m supposed to be back here tomorrow at two for training. Can someone bring me?”

“Sure, sweetheart. I’ll bring you.” Hearing him say that makes my heart hurt. I mean, he’sbeen with Shelly. I’ve never been with anyone. Of course, he’s willing to bring me here. Who can blame him? The women here are amazing. Nothing I can compete with.

When we leave the club, he doesn’t take me right back to the compound but drives to an area they call “the top of the hill,” where the only things there are a couple of grocery stores, a building supply store, and a Walmart.

“It’s cold,” he says when I shoot him a ‘what the heck?’ look. “You don’t have any cold weather clothing.”

“I also don’t have any money, Blood. A fact you very well know.”

“Sweetheart, I’ll take care of that. No one’s asking you to pay for shit. Once you start making tips, I’ll step back. Until then you need stuff that I can pay for.”

“But—”

“I’m not arguing with you on this. Let’s go in.”

Okay, so I’m not sure what just happened, but I find myself being led inside the Walmart, where Blood buys me practically a new winter wardrobe and we get our grocery shopping done before heading back to the clubhouse. Duke calls when we’re almost there to tell Blood that Dawna wants to visit with me.

Instead of taking the bags into my room, I veer off to the pretty blue doublewide with Blood at my side. He lets us in. Duke looks haggard, standing at the kitchen island, gripping the edge hard enough that if he gripped it with a tiny bit more pressure, he’d break it clean off.

“She’s in the room,” he barks and I jump. The pain in his voice is startling. I turn my head to look at Blood. He tries to smile, lifting his chin to tell me to go. My steps begin to falter the closer to Dawna’s room I get.

She’s even more frail today than she was yesterday. The end is coming and it’s coming soon. “Hi,” I say to announce myself from the hallway, lifting a hand to wave. She shifts her eyes to look at me but can’t even garner enough strength to turn her head.

“Hi,” she whispers.

“Are you sure you don’t want to rest?” I ask, hanging back in the doorway.

“No,” she says. “Got eternity soon. Need to talk now.”

I take in a deep breath to work up the courage to approach the bed. It came easier to me yesterday. Yesterday I’d never spoken to her before. Yesterday I wasn’t in the presence of a woman this close to taking her final breaths. Then I force myself to sit on the bed in the same spot I sat yesterday.

“What do you need?”

“You saw him?”

Duke. Right. She needs to talk about Duke. I nod. “He’s not taking it well.” This comes out less than a whisper. “I’m asking him now to let you stay. Please take care of him.”

“I promise.”

“Good. Will you get him?”

The tears stay checked until my back is to her. Then they begin to fall because I can’t hold them back any longer. “Um…” I say to get the men’s attention. Both of them look to me. “Dawna wants you to come in the room with us, Duke. And, well, if there are any men who want to say goodbye, they need to come now.”

The hard look he shoots me practically drops me to my knees, but I stand tall. “I’m sorry,” I say. “But denying it won’t change the facts.” On that note, I turn to walk back to Dawna. About a minute later, we’re joined by Duke and Blood.

“Some ’a the brothers are comin’ to see ya, sweetheart,” Duke says to his wife. “Hope ya don’t mind.”

“No,” she whispers. “It’s good. They need to come.”

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