Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(11)

Fuck. Even Zeke was on his ass. “Yeah, Zeke. Good. You?” Zeke nodded again.

Well, that had been a lively chat.

“Beer or hooch tonight, boys?” Rose, Tuck’s wife, leaned on her elbows on the other side of the bar.

“Just a Bud for me, Rose.” Badger had learned quickly that drinking hard liquor f*cked him up fast these days. Didn’t mix with the Oxy at all. But he could do a couple of beers and be pretty okay.

Tommy ordered tequila, and Zeke took another beer. They stood at the bar and drank quietly. Tommy and Zeke faced out, but Badger leaned his elbows on the bar, feeling the first threads unraveling. He drank his beer and breathed.

The band finished its second set as Badger was finishing his second beer. His nose was starting to run, and his chest was starting to burn. He had about another hour. Maybe he could push it to two before he got twitchy. Maybe. The beer would help—it made him a little slow, but that slow was also calm. He waved his empty at Rose when she looked over, and she smiled and held up a finger, then served a guy at the other end of the bar.

“Need to talk to you, Badge.”

Billy Knox had come up beside him. They’d been friends since grade school, but relations had been chilly the past couple years, since Jerri Rae had gone into the club. Billy hated it—of course he did; his little sister spread her thighs for at least one guy most every night, and all the unattached Horde did her. Badger did her pretty often. She was hot, and she did what she was told. Maybe it was because she’d known him her whole life, but she seemed to like it when he paid her attention, and he liked that she liked it.

Badger had stopped being such a * around girls since the fall, and he didn’t wait around anymore for them to come to him—like some kind of nerdy middle-school shithead. But he still didn’t like getting too bossy with them. Except when they wanted to get all touchy-feely. He wouldn’t have that.

Billy thought Badger had betrayed their friendship banging his little sister. Maybe he had; Badger didn’t know—or care that much. She’d come to him first—and she’d been of age when she started at the club.

She was twenty-one now. Her call.

For the most part, Billy was trying to deal with his sister living the life she wanted. But he and Badger had come to blows over it a time or two. Back in the day, Billy had been stronger than him, but not anymore. Or, hell, maybe he was again, now. Badger didn’t have the range of motion he used to.

Rose had brought him a fresh bottle. Badger took a long swallow of his beer and turned to Billy, not knowing whether he would meet friend or foe. “Yeah, Bill?”

“Can we talk outside?”

He thought going outside alone with Billy could be a bad idea. “Nah. Gotta stay and keep an eye out.”

“It’s important, Badge. Only take a minute.”

Badger looked down at his friend—Billy was several inches shorter than his own six feet. He looked simply intent. Not threatening, but like he really did have something important to talk about. Deciding he’d stay close to the door, Badge nodded and drained his beer. The room tilted just a little when he turned and then righted. He took a deep breath, always feeling like breath was just a little harder to come by after a few cold ones. With a quick glance toward Tommy and a tip of his head to indicate where he was going, he followed Billy outside.

And came face to face with two other men—guys he’d gone to school with, too. Wally Fisher had a length of chain in his hands. Eric Dale had a f*cking bat. Eric and Billy grabbed Badger’s arms, and just that pull made his chest burn.

“What the f*ck, Billy?”

“You knocked up my sister.”

No—no, he most certainly had not. He always wrapped. Always. Fuck, he’d come to sometimes with the damn thing stuck to his dick—this morning, in fact. He’d been with Jerri Rae last night, and she’d been drunk off her ass. Last night. She was pregnant? What the f*ck? He shook all that away, though. Not his problem. Even if she was knocked up, he knew it wasn’t his. He’d never been too f*cked up not to wrap.

And he knew that to be true, because he never had the good fortune to black out.

“No way, man. No. It wasn’t me.”

“She says it’s you.” Billy punched him in the gut. As he doubled over, they dragged him away from the door.

He’d gained a reputation—hard earned in the Horde ring and in the Horde world—for having quick hands and feet. He fought now, ignoring the pain in his chest, and he got a couple of good licks in. But they were too many, and after three beers and with his need growing, he was too slow. They were armed, and all he had was his blade—until they’d taken it. When Tommy and Zeke beat them back and got them under control, Badger was curled up on the gravel, waiting for them to just f*cking kill him.

Zeke pulled him to sitting and set him against the wall. He heard Tommy on his burner, calling for backup. Time moved erratically. Maybe he’d gone under; he didn’t know. But the next thing he knew, Show was lifting him off the ground.

“Come on, little brother. Let’s get you seen to.” Adrienne’s stepfather mostly carried him to his truck and got him in the bitch seat. As Show closed the door, Badger saw Billy and company being forced into the club van by Len, Tommy, and Isaac. Dom and Zeke were heading back into the bar.

Badger closed his eyes and leaned back against the seat. The pain was bad, but strangely, it was almost more bearable when it was spread out all over his body like this.