Page 55 of Cougar

“John,” I grip his hair. He must have brought his bike here because I don’t see his Stetson anywhere. “John, tell me what happened.”

“I can’t, Birdie. I don’t want to make things worse for you.”

“I can promise not telling me is what will make it worse.”

He bites his bottom lip, closes his eyes, and lets out a shaky breath. When his eyes open, he begins.

“A while ago, a girl named Mallory went missing. From this very hospital. We didn’t know what happened to her, but we kept looking. Well, we found her. Unfortunately, someone knew we did. Storm was the one who found her. He took her back to Cowboy’s house, where Judge met him. It was…” he starts crying harder.

“It’s okay. Take your time.”

He nods, and for a couple of minutes, he doesn’t say anything. He rubs my stomach as his tears stop. Once he’s no longer breaking down, he tells me the last thing I ever would have guessed.

“Someone followed them and snuck into the house. They shot Judge and Storm. Both of them are here. We don’t know if they’re going to make it. The girl in the car accident with you? That was Mallory.”

My hand came up to my mouth at some point; I can’t even tell you when. Tears are sliding down my cheeks. Who would do this? Why? They can’t die. They can’t. We all need them. This club is held together by those two. I’m about to say something, anything when a thought hits me.

“John, I saw him.”

“Who?”

“Whoever shot them. If he’s the one that took Mallory, he’s the one that hit me. I watched him run away from the accident. He ran into the neighborhood right before Sixth Street.”

“Birdie, thank you,” he stands up and kisses me. “I don’t want to leave you, but I have to check on everyone and tell Prez. Want me to send your mom back in?”

I nod my head and wipe the tears away. “I’m sad, but I’ll be okay. My focus now is resting and making sure Little Man here doesn’t try to come back out. I appreciate you telling me, but I think it’s best if I have some time to myself right now. I need to decompress the events of tonight and maybe take a nap. Go. I promise I’m okay.”

And it’s the truth. I’m okay. I will be okay. He needs to tell Cowboy so they can catch whoever did this to us. Little Man and I aren’t going anywhere. I won’t be the reason why they don’t catch this son of a bitch.

“I love you, Birdie,” he tells me before making his way to the door.

“I love you too, John.” and with that, he’s gone. It doesn’t stop me from speaking, though. “Find that asshole and kill him.” I look down at my stomach, gripping it again. “If there is any one promise I can make you, it’s that your dad will do anything to keep us safe. Anything. All we have to do is have faith that he’ll come back. He’ll come back. I know it.”

“Are you okay, dear?” I didn’t even hear my mom come back in. “Cougar said he told you?”

I nod my head and let her know I wanna try and nap. She tells me to go ahead and not worry about her. She’ll stay with me while my dad stays with his club. “I love you, Mom.”

Twenty Four

Cougar

I don’t really understand why she wants to be alone right now, but I am going to respect her wishes and do as asked. I don’t know where Mallory is, but since I know she’s here, I wander the hospital in an attempt to find her. I have a deep need to make sure she’s safe. He said that she’s okay, but given she had been taken from this hospital before, I want to confirm for myself that she is.

I keep my phone in my hand as I wander. Even though I’m doing what she asked, I’m hoping she’ll call me, asking me to come back to her and our son. She asked you to leave. Chill the hell out. A quick glance at my phone reveals no new notifications, and I put it away. She’ll call me when she needs me.

I continue to walk the hospital and ask a couple of different nurses, but none of them give me any information. I hope that Prez knows she’s here and told them not to give her information away.

Speaking of Prez.

I need to find him now. My mind is muddled from learning AJ was here with Mallory, but now that I’ve had time to think, I’m slightly panicking. Time to drop the bomb on him. What the hell is with today and giving us one fucking thing after another?

There is always one weak link in the chain. The one that causes the entire thing to crumble. That’s what I feel like right now—like I’m crumbling. We’ve been trying to get to the bottom of this enormous problem, and part of it has been under our noses for who knows how long.

We’ve made discoveries recently that have collapsed everything we stand for. Our family has taken a massive hit. All for what? And now, I’m about to add to the pile.

I get to the waiting room, and the first thing I notice is Elvira pacing back and forth. She’s holding one of her hands up to her mouth, most likely obliterating her nails. My brothers are sectioned off in different parts of the room, talking quietly to each other. Scanning over them, I finally see the man I need, talking on the phone.

While I don’t know who he’s talking to for sure, my guesses are his brother RJ or Dizz. I don’t know about RJ, but if it’s Dizz, I know he will be here as soon as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if Angel and Omen are with him.

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