Page 37 of Property of Baffle
“Sorry for your bad luck, Baffle,” Glitch said as he too got on his ride.Grease just shook his head and seemed mildly disappointed in me.
“Do you need us to swing by Morton’s so you can see her in person?”
“No.She got my text and I want to get this over with.We have a long enough ride ahead of us.I don’t want to delay getting on the road.Did either of you get ahold of Punchy?”
Both men shook their heads.Figured.The man would probably kick our asses if we left his woman and daughter in the middle of a bunch of Devils whether he disowned Roxy or not.The bastard couldn’t pick up his own phone for them, though.Or for his club brothers apparently.Before we headed out, I sent Crutch a message.
BAFFLE: Know you and Tilly are busy with the boys today prepping for Bigfoot and Sammy’s return, but check in with Punchy if you can.Headed with Glitch and Grease to Truth or Consequences.Got a distress call from Roxy and Lila about a bunch of devils stirring up trouble there.
CRUTCH: Will do.Ride safe.Keep me updated.
I quickly texted my wife again.Neither of the texts showed that they had been read before we took off.Chances were that Nell was beyond pissed off at me and turned her phone off.
BAFFLE: Need to know you don’t hate me.Headed out now.
BAFFLE: Promise, I will make it up to you.
It tookthree fucking hours to get to Truth or Consequences.First thing we did when we rolled into town was to keep riding on through.We slid up and down the main drag, near the hotel where Roxy said they were hiding from the Devils and then over by the hot springs and up and down a few of the residential streets.We didn’t see a single sign of any other MC riding with their colors on, as Roxy insinuated, since she recognized them as Mojave Devils.
“Think they set us up?”Grease asked as he scanned the area outside the hotel again once we headed back over there.
“It’s looking like this was another one of Roxy’s tricks,” I agreed.“If it is, she needs to come back to Violence with us.Lila, too, if she’s really with her daughter.Bigfoot is going to want to have words.Fair warning, neither of them are riding with me.I’ll have a hard enough time convincing Nell to forgive me for canceling our date to come down here, especially since we didn’t find any evidence that the Devils were ever hanging around.I’d chew my own arms off before putting another woman on the back of my bike when Nell should have been the one on it tonight.”
“I’ll rent a truck and haul my Harley back,” Glitch offered.“I’m not putting either of them on the back of my girl and neither is my brother.”Grease nodded in agreement with his brother’s proclamation and I couldn’t really blame either of them for not wanting to do something I refused to do.
I pulled my phone out and immediately had a rush of texts.I thought they might be from Nell and scrolled through looking for her name.When I didn’t see it, I went back up to the top of the list and started glancing through from the first one I saw there.
BRADY: Get back home, now.Nell’s in trouble.
BRADY: Skip home.Haul ass to Springerville.She’s in the hospital there.
“What the fuck?”I yelled as I dialed my wife’s number.It rang straight to voicemail.
“What’s going on?”Grease asked as he hopped off his Harley and moved closer to me.
“Text from Brady said Nell is in the hospital in Springerville.”I went through the rest of my texts thinking someone might be able to give me more insight.
CRUTCH: Got a hold of Punchy, he says ignore his bitches.They’re probably lying.If that’s the case, bring them back.We need to deal with their bullshit in a way that officially cuts club ties, for both of them.
BIGFOOT: Actionable intel is that there are no devils sighted in your area.Have the boys bring the Parker girls back and get your ass to Springerville hospital as soon as you can.Your wife is there.Alive.Will update when I know more.
“She’s never going to forgive me.I gotta go,” I said at the same time I cranked my bike to life.
“Get gone.We’ll deal with Rox and Lila,” Glitch said.“Tracking Roxy’s phone now.”
I didn’t wait to hear anything else, I headed to the nearest gas station to fill up.GPS showed I had a three and half hour ride to get to the hospital.I didn’t plan on taking that long to get there.
20Cracked
Nell
As my bodyscreamed in pain and the sun continued to fry me, there were only two things on my mind, well three.The first was that I kept hoping Johnny wouldn’t get up and come for me.I couldn’t even crawl away with my leg the way it was.The second was that I didn’t want to die lying in the dirt where I could see a scorpion crawling not too far away.This area had Arizona Bark Scorpions and their venom was no joke.It would be just my luck to survive being run over by a rapist’s motorcycle only to end up dying at the fangs of a fucking tiny asshole of a scorpion.Then again, the sun might actually fry me first.The third thing on my mind was how betrayed I felt.
Rationally, I knew that Baffle, the VP of the Kings of Anarchy’s New Mexico chapter, had a job to do outside of being my husband, Rick.Despite it having been Roxy who asked for help, I knew what his text meant when he said there were devils.The other side of my brain, the one obviously attached to my stupid heart, felt an entirely different way about it.That was the part who felt betrayed.
I was lying in the dirt with a broken leg, staring down a scorpion who plotted my demise, and baking under the sun that kept getting closer instead of setting like it was supposed to.I was the woman in his life in need of help, and my husband had run off to save some bitch who had tricked him into sex years ago and pretended to be his ol’ lady with everyone who stood still long enough to hear her tell her lies.Because of her connections to the club and the fact that she cried, “mean bikers are here to get me,” he couldn’t ignore it.
Why did he have to be the one to go?
