agree,” Nat replied. “Callie has her own set of tricks and this just doesn’t jive with her. Plus we haven’t had any trouble with her since Eli spoke to her two months ago.”
“But Cig said she was seeing somebody in that Hellions club. That she had them do it,” Merci said as she rinsed her sponge in the bucket of water.
“I can’t see a club getting involved in an old lady’s vendetta. Even these Hellions. I know they go off half cocked sometimes; at least that’s their reputation. But this is crazy shit.”
At that moment all of our phones chirped. It was our men checking in.
“What’s going on?” I asked immediately. I heard the other girls asking the exact same question.
“It’s done. We’re heading back,” Bruce answered.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“We’re pretty sure they had nothing to do with it. In fact they seemed genuinely concerned that they might be the next target. So we’re back to square one. I’ll tell you more when I get there.”
We said our goodbyes and I continued with the cleanup. After the girls got off their phones they walked over to me.
“I’m glad that’s over with,” Nat said as she picked up the broom. “I would like to get through the rest of this pregnancy without any more of these meetings amongst clubs.”
“Yeah but we still don’t know who did this,” Merci replied.
“Do you think it’s possible the boys are too close to this? That they aren’t thinking clearly,” I said. “I mean we’re all affected by Frito’s death, but the guys more than us. You girls weren’t around when this club dealt in guns, but there were a lot of deaths and most came from rival clubs. But we’re not dealing in anything heavy anymore, nothing to warrant this type of retaliation.”
“So what do you think is going on?” Nat asked.
“Listen, back in the day when the SOD was running guns, this sort of thing happened all the time. Either there’d be a shoot out, running guys off the road, shooting up houses.”
“Good Lord, how did you stay sane?” Merci asked shaking her head.
“It was difficult, especially with a young child. But I knew the life I was getting into and as hard as it may be to imagine, you kind of get used to it.”
“I don’t think I could ever get use to that,” Merci replied.
“Here’s the thing--this whole shoot up of the store took me back to the way it use to be. When Bruce said something about Callie being behind it….well it just didn’t ring true. Sure it seemed like something another club might do, but Callie getting a club member worked up enough to do this. I’m not buying it. Someone wants it to look like club retaliation.”
“But why?” Asked Nat as she rubbed her hand over her blossoming tummy.
“To deflect attention,” I answered. There, I said it. It was out there now.
“From whom?” Merci asked slowly.
I looked at the floor and then straight at the girls.
“This has to remain right here with the three of us. Do I have your word?” I asked.
“Yes,” they both answered.
“I think it’s a member of the club.”
“What!” Merci gasped. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m serious,” I said. “And if we want to protect our men, we’ll have to work together.”
*****
When the boys got back, Bruce explained that Callie wasn’t even in the picture and never was. While she tried to hook up with several of the Hellions club members, they gave her the brush off as well. Bruce also explained that the Hellions weren’t as bad as their reputation would have people believe, but they liked the status and weren’t about to change it. However, they had no beef with the SOD and would rather keep in good standing than to have the club as enemies for no reason. Made sense to me. The Hellions said they would keep their ears open and let Elijah know of