Page 106 of Property of Rattler

Turning my head so I can see her face, I have to smile. After what we just did, my simple comment has made her blush.

A knock sounds on the door. Ames jumps up like a scalded cat, brushes her hand over her hair, doing little to smooth it down. Chuckling, I call out for whoever it is to come in.

“Hi Ames, Rattler. I just got off shift. Thought I’d stop by and check how you’re doing. How are you feeling?” The last is obviously directed at me.

“Could do with some of the heavy duty painkillers,” I tell Bronwyn, noticing Ames suck in her cheeks. Yeah, even though I wasn’t doing much of the work, perhaps letting her give me a blow job was a bit too much. But fuck, I’m a man. There was no way I was going to tell her no.

Bronwyn rummages in the bag she’s brought in with her, and joy of joys, brings out a refill for the tablets she’d left for me. Approaching, she places them on the nightstand, then delves into the bag again, this time producing a thermometer that she presses to my ear. After it beeps, she looks at it, and appears satisfied. Next she wraps a cuff around my arm, and attaches it to a monitor. After I’ve felt the tight squeeze followed shortly after by the cuff releasing, she activates it all over again. After glancing at the second reading, she tuts.

“Your blood pressure is a little higher than I like. Have you been taking it easy?” I can’t help the smirk that comes over my face. Rolling her eyes, she takes in Ames whose face is once again bright red. “You’ve got to rest, Rattler. You want to get back on your feet, then no exertions, okay?”

As she’s examining my legs, there’s more rapping on the door. Ames goes to open it.

“What you want, Dee?” I ask, as I see the prospect.

“Ames has got a visitor. Prez asked if she could come downstairs.”

I open my mouth but Ames gets in first. “What visitor?”

“Satin.” The prospect’s mouth twists as he drops his bombshell.

Ames’s face lights up, while internally I’m screaming, what the fuck is that traitorous bitch doing here, and why has Prez okayed a meeting? One thing for sure, she won’t be going down there alone.

I sit up, gently pushing Bronwyn’s probing hand away. “I’m coming with you.”

“Rattler, you need to rest.”

“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” I tell Short’s old lady. “Ames, pass my crutches to me.”

Bronwyn sighs as if knowing she’s already lost the battle. Then she watches carefully as I slowly get to my feet. When I make my way out of the room and to the stairs, she’s hovering right next to me. I hope I don’t lose my balance, a little thing like her wouldn’t break my fall. It would be her who’d probably end up hurt. Which makes me extra cautious. Short would fucking kill me if anything happened to her.

Ames is sensibly following behind. But when she reaches the bottom, she squeals as she sees her friend, and rushes over to her as if the last few weeks hadn’t happened.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Satin asks.

“My brother caught up with me. I had to go into hiding,” my woman explains.

Satin pulls her in for a hug, then speaks quietly, and if I didn’t have great hearing, I wouldn’t have heard. “Come outside with me, I need to talk to you.”

I hop the few steps between us, and stand possessively close to Ames. “She’s not leaving the clubhouse. If you want to talk, you do it here.” I wave Dee over. “We’ll be sitting there,” I pointto a table. “I’ll have a beer…” Bronwyn coughs loudly. Inwardly cursing, I change my order. “I’ll have a soda, and Ames? Satin?”

“Soda for me.” Ames smiles at Dee.

Satin seems uncomfortable, but nevertheless requests, “Double Jack.”

I lead the way over to the table. The girls sit, but I’m left wondering how I pull out a chair and sit on it when my legs won’t bear weight. They’re even worse than they were earlier. Ames sees my predicament, and pulls out the chair, but Dee is approaching. I decide he can help get me situated, then push me in so at least I’m sat at the table and not two feet from it.

When he returns, he’s got drinks and mats on a tray—didn’t even think we possessed beer mats. The tables are already marked to shit, what do three more rings matter? Or is he trying to impress? But as he goes to put the mats on the table, he drops them and swears. Then he sets the tray down and goes down to his knees to retrieve them.

My eyes are on his strange behaviour, so I notice him glance at Satin and when he sees she’s distracted by Ames, he gives me a wink, then presses something to the underside of the table as he stands up. Then he nonchalantly spreads out the beer mats and gives the girls the drinks. Mine, he keeps on the tray.

“Prez wants to see you in his office, now. Direct order.”

My jaw clenches. “He told you to say that?”

“Those exact words,” the prospect replies.

I can’t ignore a direct order from my Prez, however much I want to. Every instinct tells me to stay here with Ames, but I can’t.