Chapter 25

I wrote a song for you. It’s called I don’t like your face. I hope you like it.

- Sawyer’s secret thoughts

Sawyer

I woke when something soft touched my face.

I blinked my eyes open and realized I’d fallen asleep in the chair again.

My neck hurt.

I stretched, pushing my arms up over my head.

They collided with something hard and I gasped, sitting up from my slumped position.

And stared right into the eyes of my brother.

The brother that wasn’t supposed to be here yet.

Johnson was a sight for sore eyes.

“Johnson,” I breathed, standing up and throwing myself into his arms.

Johnson caught me and pulled me tightly into his chest, burying his face into my neck as he hugged me hard.

“God, I’ve missed you so much!” I gasped as tears started to roll down my face. “How’d you get out so fast?”

“Family emergency. Called my CO and told him what happened; he told me to take off early,” he told me. “I needed to meet this man that everybody keeps going on and on about.”

I gasped and turned to find Silas’s beaten face staring at me with his signature smile tilting up the corner of his mouth.

“Silas,” I breathed, letting go of Johnson to rush to his side.

Silas smiled at me, then his eyes flicked up to my brother.

“Glad you made it home,” he said roughly.

His voice sounded like he’d just gargled with gravel, so I immediately reached for my glass of water and brought it to him, bending the straw to his lips.

He rolled his eyes at me, but nonetheless drank deeply until he hit the end of it.

He’d been out for nearly a day and a half thanks to all the pain meds and antibiotics rolling through his system.

No wonder he was thirsty.

“Thank you,” he said. “You okay?”

I smiled, placing my hand against his cheek.

“I’m perfectly fine, thanks to you. You, on the other hand, aren’t so good,” I told him.

He had eight broken ribs, a nearly punctured lung, and he was now spleen less.

“What’s the verdict?” He asked.

I sat down gently on the edge of the bed, aware of the way that Johnson scrutinized us, but stayed silent.

“You had some internal bleeding. They had to remove your spleen. Your lung was nearly punctured; luckily, though, it wasn’t. You’ve got eight broken ribs, though. Which isn’t surprising considering you were beaten black and blue. Oh, and I’m pretty sure your nose is broken.”

He grinned. “Do I still have all my teeth?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

He exhaled. “Well, at least that’s somethin’.”

I nodded.

“How long have I been out?”

“Little over twenty four hours,” I answered.

He nodded.

“How’re my kids?” He asked.

I smiled down at Silas. “They’re all fine. Scared and worried about you, but fine.”

He laughed, but then just as quickly grimaced. “I know that’s a lie.”

I shook my head. “Really, they’ve been in and out of here for the last day and a half, Silas. Even Sam.”

He took a deep breath and sighed.

“All it took was me nearly dying to get them here,” he laughed humorlessly. He looked at the man at my side. “Which brother are you?”

Johnson crossed his arms and smiled his usual smile.

“The best one.”

Silas laughed softly, aware of the pain, but not letting it stop him from showing his happiness.

“This is Johnson. The smooth talker of the family. He’s the easiest of my brothers to get along with,” I informed my soon to be husband.

Silas offered his hand to Johnson, and Johnson took it, not softening his grip at all to give Silas a pain-free handshake.

No, Johnson gripped hard and shook away, and I could see Silas wince, but he let it happen.

“Johnson,” I reprimanded my brother. “Go the fuck away and leave me alone for a minute.”

Johnson grinned unrepentantly. “He’d have done the same to me had the positions been reversed.”

Silas nodded. “Yeah, I would have.”

I pushed my brother’s shoulder. “Go. Tell the brunette at the desk that he’s awake, will ya?”

Johnson nodded. “Sure thing, sis.”

I rolled my eyes as he left the room but there was no real annoyance behind it. I was so happy I could burst.

Two more brothers home, and I’d be happier than I could remember being in years.

“Now that he’s gone, you can go ahead and tell me all of it. What’s the rest that you haven’t told me,” Silas said the moment Johnson cleared the door.

I looked at him, studying his face and body.

“Your sons’ kicked the shit out of Shovel. And, um, three of the four guards that… well, you know… were also taken care of by the club. That Black Jack guy, though, he really came through,” I informed him.

The man smiled.

Widely.

“Good,” he said, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. “Good.”

“Mr. Mackenzie,” a nurse said, bustling into the room with a huge computer in front of her. “How are you doing?”

I liked Silas’ nurse. She’d been his nurse the previous day, too.

“I’m fine,” he said, not admitting to being in pain.

“He hasn’t pressed his morphine pump yet, and I’m pretty sure he’s in pain,” I told her, knowing Silas would never admit to it.

Berty, the nurse, nodded. “Got it. Mr. Mackenzie, this is a morphine pump. You can press it if the red light is lit.” She indicated by picking up a button Silas could hold in his hand and pressing it. The red light clicked off, and Silas’ glared. “Don’t worry. You can’t over-medicate yourself. It’ll only let you press it every fifteen minutes, understand?”

Silas nodded. “Good. I have a few medications to give you, and I can take your catheter out if you’re interested.”

Silas nodded again.

“Excellent. Let’s take care of the catheter, first,” she said, pulling out some purple gloves and slipping them on. “Ma’am, if you could step…”

“She’s not going anywhere,” Silas snapped.

Berty winked at me. “Alright then, let’s do this.”

I watched as, with able hands, she quickly and efficiently removed the catheter from Silas.

I smiled down at my hands as I saw how uncomfortable it made him to have some woman holding his dick.

“It’s not funny,” he mumbled once she was done.

I lifted up laughing eyes to catch his angry gaze, and shrugged. “I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”

“It doesn’t feel right to have anybody touching it but you,” he grumbled.

Berty grinned, but didn’t look up from washing her hands.

I moved forward until I could place my lips on his. “I love you.”

He grinned. “Love you too, darlin’.”

And even though he was still hurt and had some healing to do, I knew everything was going to be alright.

Because Silas would make sure it was.

He’d never stop fighting for me, and I would do the same for him.

Because I loved him, and he loved me.

It was just as simple as that.