Page 24 of Hallow’s Eve
“You do that, and you’ll never know who really killed Grady,” Riff warned her.
“Wait a minute? You called the bikers in?” Louis, our head cook accused her.
Everyone fell silent.
With a stern face, Celie admitted to it with a bob. “Someone here has killed the father of my children. I planned to find out who and have swift justice.” The crowd grew loud again as we all realized she meant for the bikers to take care of the killer. Kill the killer, or whoever they thought was the killer. Celie put her hands on her hips and got loud. “But Earl is dead and.” Everyone gasped, not knowing this information before. Celie motioned to the dead biker on the floor, “I’m washing my hands of this.”
Thorn confronted her. “Got real Royal blood on your hands now, bitch.”
Dimple stepped between them, his large belly making Thorn take a step back.
Tugging on his arm, I asked Hallow, “He one of y’all, too?”
Hallow bowed an answer because he was engrossed in the scene.
Riff addressed Celie, “On behalf of Kingpin, we regret Wolf’s untimely death. With him not being a patched member, yet we were about to let this be. Just for tonight. Not sure the killer’s still here. Can’t find a motive.”
“A motive?” Celie shouted.
“Yeah, seems everyone loved Wolf around here. He was a great feller.”
Celie broke loose of Elvis and beat on Riff’s chest. “I know he was. He sure was until he started messing with the likes of you. He was killed because of you bikers.” Celie finally showed her true colors. I knew she’d be mad as hell if Grady had truly been murdered.
I cried with her.
Riff caught her hands, ignoring her anger and turned to Hallow. “What do you think, detective?”
Hallow wrenched his neck, “I have my suspicions.”
Buzzard sounded in, “I have my suspicions, too.”
Thorn blurted out, “Me three.”
Riff went on, “Now that our brother, Sadist is cold, we’re done playing. Celie you best wait until we’re gone to call the fuzz, or they’ll be hell to pay.”
Celie seemed resolved. She stopped fighting and signaled her agreement.
Riff addressed the crowd, “Goes for the lot of you. You don’t want to be on the Royal Bastards’ kill list, you never saw us.” He placed his hand on Elvis’s shoulder. “Brother, I know you’ve got your cage, get Sadist home.”
Cage?
Dimple seemed reluctant. “I drove the Cadillac,” he said, and I realized they were talking about a car.
Riff countered, “So? Wrap him up tight.”
“I’m going to need some help dragging him out of here.”
“Take whoever you need.”
Dimple chose Ford to help him, grabbing his shirt collar. Ford had changed out of his sweatpants and Titan’s jersey into a button up and jeans. Since he’d be dealing with a dead body, I bet he was glad not to get his precious jersey dirty.
Riff turned to the other bikers. “Boys, grab a suspect. Whoever you think killed our brothers, their accomplices. They can answer to Kingpin. We’re getting out of here.”
As soon as the words left Riff’s lips, Thorn and Buzzard snatched me by either arm. “Hey! How the hell would I have killed him? I was in the back.” Protesting, I searched for Hallow who had left me and grabbed a hold of poor Jasper by his shirt collar.
Jasper sputtered out, “I’m innocent, man.”
His buddy Ford who was helping wrap up Sadist didn’t come to either of our rescues, but Greta complained, “You need to leave poor Jasper alone. He’s. He’s special.”
