A Happy Coincidence

Chapter 6

Rory had tried to slip into the driver's seat but much to her dismay, she missed it. She didn't actually miss it as much as she was pushed and shoved away from the van until one of the guys managed to get there. It was normal behavior, like a bunch of toddlers, but she really needed to be behind the wheel. Instead, she was in the back tapping her boots on the steel bench across from her.

"If we were the A-Team who would I be?" One of the bounty hunters, Eric, asked the group.

She rolled her eyes. "Wouldn't work out. There's no nerd." Rory said with a wink to Johnny who sat in the passenger seat. "Can you guys shut up? I really need to think."

"About?" The question was a whisper, asked by the older gentleman, Jeffrey, who had been best friends with Rory's dad.

"Dying." She said with a smirk. Really, she was thinking of how not to die without having to tell her group exactly what she'd done and with who. "I'm kidding," she said to ease his concern. "Just have to get back in it. It's been a while."

He didn't look away as Rory pulled out her phone and typed a quick text to Happy.She couldn't say much with eyes on her. "Where are you?"

--

"I'm gonna shove that bike so far up your ass." Tig growled as he waited, impatiently, in the hall of the emergency department. Knowing he was okay was what allowed Half-Sack and Happy to enjoy the banter between Tig and Bobby.

Checking his phone, Happy read the text and smirked, assuming Rory wanted another go around. They had more than enough going on, Happy snapped his phone shut and turned his attention right back to the guys. He'd hit her up for a booty call later, maybe.

"They're waitin' on a shuttle." Bobby explained again and again. They were all itching to get where they needed to be and any hospital wasn't it.

"I hate this shit." Tig groaned, shifting his weight around in the wheel chair. "Take me outside, I need a smoke."

As Bobby began to push the wheelchair he called back to Happy. "Go tell that bitch, she's still got his insurance card."

--

"He's probably in the ER." Rory said as she poked her head out the back of the van, parked right across from the south entrance of the hospital. "Let me pop in, take a look, see if I can't find him. I'll radio if I see him."

"There's three exits." The older man said as he skimmed the newest email from one of their many spotters. "Ambulance bays at each."

"Alright, go around once and meet me back here. Don't take him without me, I don't need you guys leaving me here like back in Oklahoma."

Rory jumped out of the van and jogged through the parking lot. She still hadn't received a text back from Happy but that would have just made the entire situation too easy on her. "Nothing can ever be easy," she grumbled. Usually Rory would try to walk calmly, look casual, but anonymity wasn't necessary. Most of the halls seemed to run circularly and after once around she didn't see anything. With a quicker pace she went around again, stopping short and doing a double take when she laid eyes on Happy at the reception desk. How did she miss him before?

"Happy." She jogged over and shoved him. "I texted you. Where's your friend? Tig or whatever."

He looked her over with a dirty expression thinking she was one of those psycho kind of girls and he'd made a big mistake. "Why?"

Frustrated she grabbed his wrist and pulled him back the way she came."He jumped bail in Oregon and I have three adrenaline drunk, tough guy recovery agents circling the lot looking for him."

"He just went out for a smoke." Happy said with a strange type of dark enthusiasm  and bolted out toward the door. Going the opposite way, Rory slipped out the double doors just as the van was rolling back around.

"He's not here," she hollered in the passenger side window.

"No shit, we got him with us. Let's go."

The door slid open to reveal Tig, wrists bound, staring at her with a scathing look. Silently, she pleaded with him but didn't move into the van. "What happened to him?"

"Not on us, who gives a shit. As long as he doesn't bleed out we get our money."

The pounding of boots hit her ears a split second before the others' and Rory glanced back to see Happy, Bobby and Half-Sack racing toward her. Time seemed to slow as she weighed her options, jump in and pray the club didn't hunt her down or let her only family squeal away and hope they forgave her. Stepping away from the door, her eyes darted back to Happy. About to speak, she was thrown sideways onto the cement as a flatbed truck smashed into the van in an attempt to rescue Tig.

"Grab her!" One of the guys shouted from inside the van as the flatbed backed up to ram the bounty hunters again.

"No. Just go." Rory protested as the youngest of the three men pulled her roughly back into the van before peeling out of the parking lot.