Page 3 of Fearless
The kid smiled again, and it looked genuine this time rather than smug.
"I'll go talk to the bondsman," he said, walking backward away from our cell. "Back in a flash."
"Hey, hold up," I called after him. "What's your name?"
"Gunner," he answered. "Gunner Youngblood."
I stole a glance at Jandro. Maybe this preppy Gunner cat wasn’t so bad after all.
One
MARIPOSA
PRESENT DAY
“Please…”
The man let out another pathetic wheeze like he was dying. Like he could fool me, the one keeping him alive in order to receive justice from the Steel Demons, from the brotherhood he betrayed. I ignored his plea, and proceeded to stick him with a fresh IV bag for his bare minimum of nutrients.
“You’re a healer,” he tried again, reaching for my hand. “You’re a good woman with a kind heart. Please, if you just set me up with a bag of food, and let me out of here so I can get my bike—”
“I may be a good woman with a kind heart, Python, but I’m not an idiot.”
He tried yet again, from a different angle. “I could take you with me. You’re miserable here. I saw it from that first day Reaper dragged you in. You don’t have to be scared. I can protect—”
“Python,” I sighed. “Even if I wanted to run away with you, you’ve got gunshot wounds in each leg, are still recovering from blood loss, and you’ve been on a liquid diet for three days. You might make it from your bed to the floor, but not much further than that. You’re certainly in no shape to ride through the desert.”
I cleaned up my supplies, snapped my gloves off, then rubbed a generous amount of hand sanitizer into my palms.
“Because I have such a kind heart,” I stood up, “I won’t tell Reaper you offered to take away his woman. He’d surely dish out something extra on you for that.”
Python’s face paled. “He’s sharing you?”
“Yes.”
“With who?”
I hesitated for a moment, unsure of how open these multi-person relationships were to the rest of the club. Then again, I kissed Reaper and Jandro in front of everyone at the party. I didn’t recall anyone reacting weirdly to it, although I was only really focusing on two people at the time.
“Just Jandro for now,” I answered.
The prisoner scowled and looked off to the corner of his cell. It was a comfortable room, as far as jail cells went. It reminded me of a cheap motel room, with a bed, bathroom, desk, and seating area. Only it had no windows or entertainment.
Reaper told me the cells had been quarantine rooms. Rich people had them installed in their neighborhoods about a decade before the Collapse, to isolate people who displayed symptoms of contagious diseases that had been on the rise, such as measles, polio, and deadly strains of flu. All the more reason to get the entire club vaccinated.
“Same time tomorrow,” I told Python before nodding at Dallas, who stood guard in the room.
Dallas let me out and proceeded to stand just outside the door after locking it, weapon brandished. I knew they changed shifts every few hours and Gunner would take his post eventually. The only one not in rotation for guarding Python’s cell was Bones, with whom he had been close. Python and Bones shared the same woman—Reaper’s ex, Heather.
“Thank you again, Dallas.” I didn’t know him well, but he always struck me as one of the warmest Steel Demons. He had a kind face for a biker, with bushy eyebrows atop smiling blue eyes, a shaved head, and a dark beard reaching down to the top of his chest. Unlike one of the other guardsmen, Big G, Dallas seemed completely devoted to his wife, Andrea, which earned him points in my book.
“No need to thank me, Mari,” he chuckled politely. “Just doin’ my job.”
I smiled in return. “Do you know when your captain’s coming on guard duty?”
“Another hour, I think.” He tilted his head in the direction of the conference room down the hall, where the club usually held church, and gave me a playful wink. “He’s in there with Reaper now. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you interrupted,“ he teased.
“Or Reaper will blow a head gasket and not speak to me for the rest of the night,” I returned, only half joking.
