Wolf (Evil Dead MC 4)

“You fought over the knife.”

“Where’d this fairytale supposedly take place?”

“An alley behind that saloon on Main Street, round the corner from that tee shirt place.”

“Wouldn’t that leave a blood trail?”

“Crash used his tee shirt to staunch the flow of your blood. We dumped it and the knife in the alley. It’s all good. Just don’t change the story.”

Wolf nodded, wincing as another wave of pain took him.

Cole’s voice softened with regret. “This was all because of me, Wolf. Because of that beating I gave Taz in Reno.”

Wolf looked over at him, taking in his tormented face, then back at the ceiling. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, Cole. Taz was a sociopath.”

Cole shook his head. “This was a message meant for me. He said as much.”

Wolf frowned, and looked back at Cole. “I may be a little fuzzy, but I do remember shooting the motherfucker. When the hell did you talk to him?”

“We went back after we loaded you off to the hospital. Crystal showed us where the campsite was, only he wasn’t there.”

“What the fuck do you mean he wasn’t there?”

“He’d crawled off into the woods. Wasn’t hard to find, just followed the blood trail.” Cole attempted a grin. “Much better than breadcrumbs.”

“And?”

“And before I emptied my clip into him, he told me it was all payback for Reno. Apparently, I’d fucked up his face.”

That got a slight chuckle out of Wolf, which made him grimace in pain, his eyes closing. “Fuck that hurts. Don’t make me laugh.”

“Sorry.”

“So, you saw the camp?”

“Yeah.” Cole swallowed. “He was a sick motherfucker.”

Wolf nodded. “It was a sick feeling, Cole. Being strung up in that tree, just hanging there like his personal piñata.” He paused and looked over at his VP. “We’ve faced a lot of shit, haven’t we?”

Cole nodded solemnly.

“But, Christ, Cole. I think that was the closest I ever came to checking out. I didn’t think I was getting outta there alive.”

He saw a muscle in Cole’s jaw clench and knew this was an uncomfortable subject. Facing one’s mortality wasn’t easy for any man. Thinking you were the cause of another’s near death was possibly worse. Wolf cleared his throat and caught Cole’s attention. “Hey.”

Cole’s eyes, which had been staring at the bed, returned to him.

“It was Crystal that got us out of there. If it wasn’t for her, I’d be dead.”

“That’s not the way she tells it.”

Wolf frowned. “What do you mean?”

“She said you were the one that talked her through it. Got her to calm down enough to deal with it. Told her what to do.”

Wolf looked at the ceiling, thinking about everything Crystal had done, everything she had endured to get them free. “I wanted her to go, save herself. But she wouldn’t. She wouldn’t leave me.”

“You know she was never going to leave you.”