My smile faded. “He’s got two broken legs, some pretty serious maxillofacial trauma and a hole in his neck, but he’s going to be okay.”
“Maxio-what?” Isaac asked, looking confused.
Sometimes I forgot medical terminology was basically a second language. It was easier to put it in layman’s terms to explain it. “His face looks like he’s been beaten with a baseball bat.”
“Damn,” Isaac shook his head.
“Do we know what happened?” Ronnie asked.
“I have no idea.” I gestured toward Michelle who was leaving one of the ER cubicles farther down the corridor. She was patched up but still looking shaken and dazed. “You might want to ask her.”
Caleb and Isaac both turned to look.
“I’m on it,” Isaac said, before walking off toward the bruised and shaken blonde girl.
Ronnie turned to Caleb. “Where’s your brother?”
“He had to head over to Head Quarters.”
Displeasure bit into Ronnie’s face, and she folded her arms across her impressive rack. “What’s up at the pussy playground now?”
“Tito.”
Ronnie looked even more unimpressed. “What’s that little pervert upset about?”
I didn’t know what Head Quarters was but I could hazard a guess.
While Caleb spoke to Ronnie, I pulled my handbag over my shoulder and turned to my mom. “Are you heading home?”
I explained how I had to ride in with the ambulance and that Sheriff Buckman was going to arrange for my car to be dropped off at her place.
“I have to head over to Sticky Fingers first.”
Sticky Fingers was my mom’s cake shop. She was a talented cake designer, well known across three counties for her elaborate wedding and celebration cakes.
“We can drop you on the way,” she suggested.
I shook my head. Her cake shop was in the other direction.
“I’ll get a cab into town,” I said. “The airline lost my bag so I need to pick up a change of clothes.”
Isaac jogged up the hallway to rejoin us, his face serious. He looked at Caleb. “Think we need to call a meeting. Looks like we may have a problem,” he said.
“What sort of problem?” Ronnie asked.
Isaac’s brow furrowed. “Michelle just told me someone deliberately ran them off the road.” Caleb and Isaac exchanged a look.
“Payback?” Caleb suggested.
“Don’t know,” Isaac looked concerned. “But we need to find out. Let’s get to the clubhouse and speak to Bull.”
Bull was Ronnie’s brother, and from what I could make out, the current president of the Kings.
“I’ll call Cade.” Isaac turned to me and winked. “It was really good to see you.”
Caleb agreed. “Welcome home, Indy.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
After they left, I turned to my mom. “I’ll see you at home?”
My mom hugged me again and we held each other for the longest moment.
“It’s good to have you home, baby girl.”
Riding the elevator down to the ground floor, I tried to push it all to the back of my mind. Five minutes back in Destiny and there was already drama. I didn’t know what the possible payback was about and I couldn’t help but wonder what bullshit was going on.
Then I remembered this wasn’t my world anymore and I really didn’t want to know.
INDY
Now
Because I needed to buy clothes, I took a cab to Main Street. The only clothing shop in town was a department store called McGovern’s. It was Destiny’s version of Walmart and smelled like a stale old movie theatre. In twelve years it hadn’t changed.
I wandered around the drab store feeling out of place and trying not to breathe in the stale air. Lifeless elevator music scratched and crackled through the old speakers in the ceiling, while flustered mothers pushed their carts around trying to shop and drink their extra large Starbucks while their children hollered and whined at their feet. Toward the back of the store, right beside women’s underwear, someone had vomited all over the floor.
Thirty minutes later, I had a few pairs of underwear, a change of bras, a pair of black pants, and two blouses.
And probably scabies.
I was about to pay for my items when I heard a voice behind me.
“Indigo? Indigo Parrish?”
I closed my eyes and swore under my breath. I was hoping to avoid anyone while I was here, and I knew that voice.
I sucked in a deep breath and turned around.
“Hi, Mallory,” I said brightly.
Mallory Massey. One of my best friends in high school.
“Oh my Lord, it really is you!” she said with a huge grin. Her lips were still painted the bright red she wore in school and her hair still tumbled around her face in thick waves. But she looked older. Frayed around the edges. She was also heavily pregnant.
She pulled me in for a big hug, the bracelets on her arms jangling and her big baby belly pushing into me as she hugged me tight.
“It’s so good to see you. I didn’t think I’d ever lay my eyes on you again. Aren’t you some fancy doctor in the city now?”