Page 62 of Roses Are Dead
That should have made sense, but it didn’t. “What?”
“Your BP was way too low, man. She, Roishin, argued with Ma about your body mass, height, and the general average for a person your size and thought that one-ten over sixty was too low for you.”
I’d never had a reading that low.
“About four or so, you stabilized at one-forty over ninety. That’s when she let Ma go home.”
Okay, while getting in Wolf’s face, and Ma’s was awful, it wasn’t exactly everybody. “Who… or what else?”
Wolf started counting off on his fingers. “That club visiting last night? Yeah, two of their guys. Monica, because Roishin didn’t drink the drink like she thought your girl should, and then she got blamed for your condition. Hammer, because he was supposed to be watching your girl, and paid too much attention to the stripper and hangers instead. Baldy, because he hates mouthy women, Skinner… but I have no fucking idea why he’s pissed. And?—”
I cut him off. “Who didn’t she piss off?” That list might be shorter.
“Get this, KC.”
“Who?”
“Kill Count.”
It was as if I’d been dropped into an alternate universe. “Who the fuck is that?”
“Damn, that shit worked fast on you. Whoosh. You and I named him for fuck’s sake.”
“Why the heck did we do that?”
“Because, and I’m quoting what you said here, ‘Next time, just make it their head and save yourself some scratch.’ To which, Whoosh said, ‘I’m trying not to add to my kill count.’ Then I named him KC and you agreed.”
Did I remember that?
Not really.
I scrunched my face to try to stave off the pressure between my temples, but it didn’t work.
“And mostly, folks are pissed because I postponed the ride today.”
“You didn’t.”
He got right in my face. “Yeah, I did. See, I wanted to announce your nomination after we got KC patched in, but I couldn’t quite do that with you being the only asshole not along on the ride.”
Wolf had a point. But a horrible one. “That announcement could have waited.”
“Yeah, it could have, but more shit went down.”
Did I want to hear this? “Can it wait?”
“No.”
Wolf was firm in his answer. I sighed. “Lay it on me.”
“I’d rather not while you’re lying in your own puke.”
“I’m not lying in puke.” At least, I hoped not. I rolled over and did a push-up, and tried to see where the basin was, where I was, and what the fuck kind of shape I was in. That’s when I noticed I didn’t have my vest on. “Where’s my vest?”
“Hanging up in my office. Your girl’s been anointed its guardian until you’re on your feet. I figured if she was good enough to sit with you all night and make sure no one fucked with you like they did me that one time, that she’d be a good choice to respect it. She knows not to let it touch the ground. Or to mess with it.”
I curled onto my knees and tried to sit on my heels. It hurt, but I felt a little more human once I was upright. “And who knows you ordered this?” It was a bad look, giving a brand-new piece of ass a man’s vest.
“You and I, and KC. He’s on the door.”
