Page 58 of Shattered Pieces

“If it involves Rory then it just pisses him off. He knows I’m getting twitchy, but⁠—”

“If you can’t rely on him, you know I’ll push all of our bullshit aside for you. Nothing is more important than you staying sober,” I insisted, patting his knee.

“Have you heard from her? She got shivved?” he asked, and I blew out a breath.

“Yeah. Lexi got attacked and Rory jumped in. Got shivved in the abdomen twice and spent the night in the hospital. She was discharged this morning.”

“Did you get to speak to her?”

“No, but Mark rode down there and broke into the hospital last night through the air duct. Idiot fell asleep with her and almost got caught this morning,” I scoffed, shaking my head a little.

Relief filled his face, his voice soft. “He spent the night with her?”

“Yeah. No major damage but she needs time to heal. She cried herself to sleep on him though, so she’s not coping in there. I know Lex, and Rory jumping in and getting shivved for her is a huge loyalty boost. The girls should have her back more now, so hopefully, things will settle,” I explained.

“Don’t tell her about me. About⁠—”

“I won’t. She can’t help you in there anyway, so it would just stress her out for no reason. Are you going to be fine on your own tonight? Be honest.”

“I don’t know.”

“Can I get Skeet to pick you up? I know you don’t like people here. You can crash with me, but it will likely cause more issues for you, and Marco’s struggling too, so I’m not sure it’s a great idea having both of you together right now,” I said with a cringe, and he winced.

“Skeet’s busy.”

“He needs to learn there’s no point being at the top if everything below you crumbles. Being the king of nothing holds no power,” I answered, reaching over to cup the nape of his neck, forcing him to look at me. “If you need him or any of your other brothers, you tell them. If they don’t drop everything for you, then what’s the point in being part of a crew? Your crew is your family.”

“The crew is why I’m like this.”

“As much as I’d love them to take the blame, that’s not true. You were strung out when you met them,” I reminded him.

“I wish Slash was here. None of this would’ve happened if he was,” he whispered, and I gave him a sad smile.

“I know, man. Look,” I chuckled, pulling back from him to grab my phone, finding the selfie Marco had sent me of him with Rory. “Does that help?”

He took my phone, his eyes studying the photo as if he could transfer himself into it.

“She looks tired,” he mumbled.

“She was drugged up and half asleep, but she’s definitely tired.”

“Any closer to getting her out?”

I let him hold onto my phone a little longer since it didn’t seem like he was in a hurry to hand it back, and I relaxed into the couch to get comfortable.

“Not really. Once I know who the witness is, I can get rid of them. There’s no case without them.”

“What about the murder weapon?”

“They have to be bluffing because we disposed of that ourselves.”

He frowned, and it was good to give him something to focus on. It would drown out the other noise in his head.

“Without the witness, surely the weapon is useless, right? There’s no body or shell casings to match the weapon even if they have one with her prints on it,” he finally said, making me nod.

“The worst they can get her for is having an unmarked firearm. First major offense while being backed by Josie Holloway and represented by Kirk Jennings? Yeah, she’ll be out in no time. I just need to find out the witnesses fucking name to make them vanish.”

“I’ll do some digging,” he offered, and I shook my head.