Everyone in the cart laughed.
“Baby, there’s no one else I want more than you.” He kissed her head, grabbing her hand as they the elevator stopped. They walked down a long corridor until they came to a stop. Inside the room she saw Butch laid on the bed. Michael was lying beside him while Butch read him a story. Cheryl was sat on the other side, laughing. The three made for a striking family.
Whizz cleared his throat, catching their attention. Cheryl stood, grabbing her jacket from the back of the chair.
“Hey, brother,” Whizz said. “I’ve brought you some visitors.”
“I’m sorry, but he can only have limited visitors,” the nurse said, blushing as they turned toward her.
“Felicity,” Nash said. “The club’s opening back up soon. You’ll be able to come and have a few drinks. We’ve got a couple of new prospects for you to try out.”
Her face went beet red. “I’ll let it slide this once.”
The nurse walked away looking mightily embarrassed.
“Why did you do that?” Sophia asked, hitting him in the side. “You know she hasn’t been with anyone at the club. She came with a friend.”
“I don’t care. It got us what we wanted.”
“There was no need to be cruel about it,” Angel said. “I felt sorry for her.”
“You feel sorry for everyone, babe,” Lash said.
“Felicity has been good to me,” Butch said, drawing their attention back to the bed. Lacey stared at him. She couldn’t look away from the bandage across his throat. Her club had done that to him.
“Good, I’ll put in a good word at the club.”
“She’s not interested in the club. I believe she’s a friend of Sandy’s,” Butch said.
“How have you been?” Lash asked, getting all serious.
“I’ve been fine. I’ve had this guy to keep me company.” Butch ruffled Michael’s head.
Michael smiled. Yearning hit Lacey square in the gut, combined with guilt. Butch had almost died because of her club.
She stayed back as the others talked with Butch. Lacey noticed Cheryl held onto her jacket like a lifeline.
“We’re going to be taking a vote,” Whizz said.
“A vote?”
“Yeah, on you coming back to the club.”
“You better let me know how that works out.” Butch smiled.
“I don’t suppose I could talk with Butch alone, could I?” Lacey asked, looking at all of them.
“I don’t want you to,” Cheryl said, looking startled by the thought of Lacey being alone with Butch.
“I won’t hurt you. I promise. I only want to talk with you.”
“Come on, Cheryl. I think Michael could use some chocolate milk and a cookie.” Whizz took control, leading everyone out of the room. Lacey was thankful none of them put up much of a fight for her to sit with Butch. Cheryl was the last to leave, kissing Butch’s head.
“She’s worried about me,” Butch said, turning toward her.
“For good reason, Butch. You put yourself in a lot of danger.” She stared at the bandage at his neck.
“I’ll survive.”
“I’m not talking about the shooting. You put yourself at risk by helping us. I needed you to know that I tried to get Danny and Dalton not to go that day.”
“There’s nothing you could have done to stop what happened. I shouldn’t have felt some fucking obligation to helping the club. It was a stupid and idiot thing to do.” Butch sat up in bed. “Is that why you came to talk to me today? To relieve your guilt?”
She shook her head. “I’m going to be marrying Whizz. I’m in love with him. I wanted to see you because I owed you that.”
“You don’t owe me, Lacey. I didn’t owe you or the Savage Brothers anything. I thought I did, and now I’m paying the price for it.”
“Whizz is working on you getting back with the club.” She took the seat where Cheryl had been sitting beside the bed.
“It’ll never be the same,” he said.
“But you won’t be out.”
“Why are you doing this?” he asked.
“Why am I doing what? Being nice?”
“Yeah. We’re not the same, Lacey. We never have been. I don’t know why I fucked up like I did, but we’re not friends.”
She licked her dry lips. “I know we’re not friends, far from it in fact. I get that you hate me. I even know why you do, but we’re not completely different. You’re all I have from the past. I know you hate me, and I accept that. I hope in time I can prove to you I didn’t mean anything by what happened. I hope we can be friends.”
Lacey sat back, playing with her fingers in front of her.
Silence descended on them. She wouldn’t break it. This was up to Butch to make the final decision on how their friendship would go.
“I’m sorry about Dalton.”
She smiled. “Don’t be. You didn’t know him, not really.”
“Danny fucking shot me, the bastard.”
“Yep, he was an asshole all of his life, and he proved it in death.”
This was a start. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
****
Whizz held back to talk with Cheryl. “You bought a gun to the hospital?”
“I didn’t know who was going to come after him or what I was going to have to do in order to protect him.” Cheryl turned to look at him. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my family. Michael and Butch, they’re my family. If The Skulls accept Butch back, I’ll extend that.”
“Did you go and see Alex?”
“I went and saw him, and I spoke to him.
“And?”
“I had to threaten to take Michael away before he’d listen.”
“He listened. Alex stood up for Butch. We’re going to take a vote on letting Butch back in. I don’t know how it’ll go down, but I think it could go in our favor.”
She nodded. “I really want to thank you for helping us. I mean that. Without you I doubt anyone would have come to see him.”
Whizz nodded, climbing on the elevator that Lash and the others had held. After they got a cup of coffee, they all went back upstairs to have some fun with Butch. It was nice finally getting back into the swing of the club.
Chapter Thirteen
Days passed, and those days turned into weeks. Whizz started looking for houses while Lacey started to become part of the club. The women accepted her into the fold, and after a few days, the men were used to having her around. Ned Walker, after a tense visit, finally went back to Vegas, taking his fighters with him. He did, however, warn them all he’d be back for the wedding. Whizz didn’t know if he wanted Ned at his wedding. The old man seemed to be able to melt women’s knickers right off their bodies. He didn’t want that kind of competition.