Ow.
Everything’s hazy. I could have sworn I won the fight, but I feel like I’ve had the shit kicked out of me.
My nose twitches. Antiseptic. Unpleasant. Trin doesn’t use crap like that to clean with.
Oddly, that’s the thought that pulls me out of my fog.
“Trinity?”
A small, pretty woman smiles down at me. “Welcome back, Mr. Ramsey.” Huh. Running my gaze over her, I determine she’s a nurse. I’m in a hospital bed. Definitely in a gown. What the fuck?
“Where am I?”
“Empire Med. I’ll go grab a doctor. And your family’s here.”
She pats my arm, her hand lingering a little longer than professionally necessary. “My girlfriend, Trinity. Where is she?” Her mouth turns down at the word girlfriend. I may have had the tar beaten out of me, but I know when a woman is interested. Instead of flattered, I’m annoyed.
“Both women that came in were treated and released,” she answers before hurrying out of the room.
Good. Now, where is she?
I take a few seconds to look myself over. Leg’s in a fucking cast. Despite the risks I take, I haven’t had a broken bone since my dad snapped my arm when I was eight. My head’s killing me. Reaching up, I realize they shaved my fucking head.
Before I assess any other damage, a doctor breezes in.
“You’re awake sooner than I expected.”
“I’m special that way,” I grumble and the doctor nods.
“Do you remember what happened?”
Trinity up against a wall. Definitely remember that. “Trinity? Where is she?”
He checks his notes. “Everyone else who came in with you is fine.”
Thank God. Still, I need to know my girl’s okay. “The blonde?”
“I didn’t treat the others, but no one else was admitted.”
Okay. That’s good news.
“What else can you remember?”
My mind’s still fuzzy. Riding. Getting pushed off the road. Fuck! “We were run off the road.”
He nods again. “That’s what I’ve been told. There are some police officers who want to talk to you. I told them they had to wait.”
Good. Hate pigs. Maybe I should have a lawyer? “Is Hope here?”
He seems confused. “My pres-brother’s ol-girlfriend,” I clarify remembering at the last second to use words that will make sense to the doc.
“There are a lot of people here for you. I’ll go find out.”
Two officers slink in after the doc leaves. One’s old and chubby, the other young and still has that enthusiastic look about him. Two walking clichés.
“Mr. Ramsey. We need a statement from you.”
“My doctor okay with you bein’ in here? I don’t even know what’s fuckin’ wrong with me yet.”
They share a look. “Do you remember what happened?”
I haven’t talked to Rock yet. “No.”
“Where were you last night?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Look, your blood tested clean. We’re not looking at you for driving under the influence,” young and optimistic informs me.
Chubby gives him the side-eye. I’m guessing his partner went off-script. I never drive impaired, so this isn’t really news to me.
“Is it possible your gang was in the middle of handling business, and that’s why you can’t remember?”
“Gang? What the fuck are you talking about?”
The older one rolls his eyes. “Sorry. Your club.”
Out of it or not, I’m not going to give this fuck the satisfaction of rattling me. “No, sir. Best I can recall—with my head injury and all—is riding with my girl and a car running us off the road.”
“Okay. Yeah. That’s the story the others had too,” Chubby says. He seems so disappointed.
“If you remember anything else, call us.” The young one flips a card and I slap it on the table next to me.
The doctor returns, not at all pleased to see my visitors. “I did not give you permission to speak to my patient,” he snaps. “He has a head injury, for God’s sake. You can’t question him.”
“Yeah, sure, Doc. We’re just leaving.”
The doc stares the duo down until they shuffle out the door. I kinda like this guy.
“I apologize. They should not have been in here.” His mouth settles into a grim line. “What do you remember? Or up until what point?”
Spending the day with Trinity. The fight. Sex with Trinity. My face pulls into a smile at that memory. The talk I wanted to have with Trinity. Pulling out of the gas station to meet up with the guys. Teller’s anxious face. Crashing. Fear. Failure. Hope holding my hand and taking care of me, even though I’ve been so mean to her.
“Remember everything I did yesterday.”
Doc looks relieved to hear that.
“Remember riding and an SUV bearing down on us. Gettin’ pushed off the road. After that it’s a bit sketchy.”
“Okay. That’s good. Very good. I think you’re going to be fine, Mr. Ramsey. You’re strong. In good health. But that said, you’ve got a concussion and we’re going to keep you to make sure it’s not more serious than that.”
I groan and he smiles.
“I know. Now, your leg is a tibial shaft fracture. That will take some time to heal. We can discuss it more when you’ve had some rest.”
“Okay. Can I see my brother? Rock? He out there?”
“Yes. I’ll send him in.” He taps my arm. “You’re lucky. Motorcycles are dangerous. Could have been much worse.”
My eyes roll and he chuckles. “I know. I’m obligated to say it.”
He walks out and I’m not waiting long before Rock pushes the door open. He gapes at me and I’m about to flip him off when I spot Hope.
I hold my hand out to her and she brushes by Rock, hurrying to my side. I take note of the bandages covering her hands and my jaw clenches.
“Oh my gosh! They shaved all your beautiful hair off,” she gushes, while gently running her hands over my head.
The girl actually says gosh and I almost got her killed last night. “You okay, sweetie?” I feel like fuckin’ shit. Never shoulda let Rock talk me into bringing the girls.
“Some scrapes. Nothing. How are you?”
I snort. “I feel like I got run over.”
Rock finally steps closer to me. I imagine he’s pretty rattled. “You kinda did, brother.”
Why is it just the two of them? “Where’s Trin? Is she okay?”
Rock nods and runs his hand over the back of his neck. “Yeah, I sent her home with one of the guys to get some rest.”
Godfuckingdammit. I don’t want her taking comfort anywhere else but with me. The thought of her alone up at the clubhouse with—“Who’d you send her home with?”
Rock takes a deep breath. “Easy, brother. She’s on her way back now.”
Good.
I turn back to Hope and gently take her hand. “You sure you’re okay? That was some bad shit, sweetheart. Thank you for taking care of me like you did.”
She seems embarrassed. I understand a little better why Rock’s so far gone over her, but I also don’t understand how he thinks keeping her in our world is fair. “I didn’t do anything useful. I froze. Trinity is the one who went all Tomb Raider on us.”
I’m real fuckin’ happy to hear that. Glad I took Trin to the gun range the day before too. Pain stabs through my head. “Fuck. How long did the doc say I’ll be down?”
Rock isn’t one to fuck around when it comes to serious shit. “Four to six months.”
Jesus Christ that’s a long time. Rock doesn’t give me a chance to start my bitching. “You’re going to follow every damn instruction. If you don’t, your leg will heal all fucked up and you’ll be a gimpy fuck the rest of your life. So six months is nothing to make sure you’re not walking in circles from now on.”
This is what makes Rock such a good prez. Always looking out for all us fuckups. Christ. I can’t protect the club in this shape. Who do I trust enough to take over for me? Dex? Murphy? Z? Shit. “You gotta take my patch, don’t ya?”
Rock groans. “Fuck, man. Why are you worried about that now? It’s not going anywhere. Z and the others will take care of shi—”
Nope. It don’t work like that. “Can’t ride. You gotta take my cut, prez.”
“Knock it off.”
Rock’s eyes zero in on the way Hope has her fingers wrapped around mine and I almost laugh out loud. “We know who it was?” I ask to distract him.
“Z has a lead on it. We’ll discuss it later.”
I want a piece of that. “When they gonna let me out?”
“A day or two. We gotta get you set up on the first floor somewhere—”
“He can stay in my room,” Trinity says softly from the doorway.
Thank fucking God. Warmth burns through my chest as I take in every inch of her. My girl’s okay. Couldn’t stand anything bad happening to her. I hold out my hand and she rushes over to take it.
“You’re such a big baby. Don’t you know how to drive your bike off a cliff by now?” She’s teasing, but I see the tension in her face. Especially the way her hand trembles when I grasp it.
Hope pats my unbroken leg and joins Rock.
He clears his throat. “We’re gonna get going. Trin, you need a ride, call me.”
“Yeah, okay,” I answer without taking my eyes off Trinity.
Her nose is a bit red, but it’s her lost little girl expression that makes me want to pick her up and carry her home. Except I can’t fucking move with the cast and all this other stuff in my way.
“You okay, angel?”
Her lip quivers, but her voice comes out strong. “Yeah.”
“Come sit next to me. Let me hold you.”
She hesitates. “That hospital bed’s barely big enough for you.”
“Eh, we’ve slept in smaller beds together and survived.” Her cheeks flush at the memory.
She finally climbs into the bed, carefully tucking herself against my side. Throwing her arm around me, she lets out a sigh. I brush my fingers through her hair, checking to make sure she’s okay.
“Rock said you went home. Get any rest?”
“A little.”
“Z take care of you?” The words stick in my throat, but I push ‘em out.
She laughs softly. “Yeah. Kept waking me up.”
Don’t like the sound of that. “Why?” I ask trying to keep my voice neutral.
She tips her head up. “Doctors said I had a mild concussion. Not enough to keep me here, but said I shouldn’t sleep too long unchecked.”
Oh. Well, now I feel like shit.
“I’m so sorry, angel.”
“You think I should leave?” she whispers.
“No fucking way. I dare anyone to say a word to me.”
She chuckles against my shoulder.
“Close your eyes.”
She shifts in my arms. “Am I hurting you?”
“No, babe. Close your eyes.”
“Okay,” she mumbles before falling asleep.
Overly friendly nurse returns and I prepare to fight her if she tries to wake Trin up. But she smiles, checks on a few things, then leaves.
Next time I wake up, Teller’s sitting in the chair next to me and Murphy’s pacing at the foot of the bed.
My mouth’s so dry, it takes two tries to get any words out. “How long you guys been here?”
“Haven’t left yet, brother. Gotta make sure you’re protected,” Murphy answers as he hands me a bottle of water from a small refrigerator in the corner.
“Thanks.”
Teller jerks his chin at Trinity. “She okay?”
“Yeah.”
He shakes his head. “You guys scared the fuck outta me. That took some skill, laying your bike down a mountain.”
I snort even though I know he’s being sincere. He shrugs. “Coulda been a lot worse, bro.”
I’m well aware and the thought has been nagging at me, even in my sleep.
Trinity stirs and blinks up at me. “You okay?” she asks.
First thing outta her mouth is asking if I’m okay. Takes me a second to answer her. “Yeah.”
Teller stands. “How you feel, Trin?”
She shakes herself awake and sits up, finally noticing Murphy and Teller. “Hey, guys. Yeah, I’m fine.” She flashes a weak smile at Teller.
“Need a ride home?” he asks. My arm tightens on Trin and the corner of her mouth twitches.
“No. I’m staying.”
It’s awkward for a second or two before the guys hold their fists out. We tap knuckles and they leave.
Trinity struggles to sit up and I panic. “Where you goin’?”
“I need to pee.”
“Oh, okay. You can do that.”
She smirks and wriggles out of the bed.
While she’s gone, a bored-looking girl drops off a tray of what looks like warmed over shit for breakfast.
“What the hell is that?” I ask her.
“Oatmeal. Healthy stuff,” she answers with a smirk, like she thinks I sit around drinking beer and eating Pringles all day.
“My girlfriend cooks lots of healthy stuff—it never looks like that.”
She shrugs and leaves. I poke at the brown slop with a spoon.
Trinity’s laughing when she returns. “I caught that whole exchange, you know.”
Good. I said it loud enough.
She stretches and glances at the tray. “It can’t be that bad.”
“By all means.” I push the tray toward her. She snags the apple and takes a chunk out of it.
I had planned to have a talk with her last night. After what happened, I can’t wait another second.
“Come here, babe.”
She hesitates. “You don’t want me crowding you again.”
“Yeah, I do. Get over here.”
She sets the apple down, takes a swig of orange juice, then climbs up and settles against me. My mouth finds her forehead and I press a kiss there. “No more bullshit, babe. You and me. I mean it,” I murmur against her cheek.
“Okay.”
Although she agreed, I don’t think what I said sunk in. I sift my fingers through her hair. “These last few weeks made me real happy.” She picks her head up and stares at me. Now she’s getting it. “No more going to war with each other, Trinity. You’re mad at me, you tell me. If I’m an asshole, just say it. You’re feeling bad, take it out my cock. No one else’s. No more of this dysfunctional tit-for-tat thing we’ve been doin’ for years.”
A deep, ragged sob tears from her throat. Yeah, I finally admitted what we’ve been doing for way too long. Big fat tears slide down her cheeks. “Wyatt, what are you asking of me?”
“To be my girl and I’ll be your man. That’s it. Nothing complicated, Angel Face.”
“Wy-”
“Hello, kids!” Rock announces as he flings the door open.
Motherfucker has the worst goddamn timing. Asshole.
Trinity, of course, jumps up like a scalded cat, cursing a blue streak. She whacks my bad leg in the process.
“Ow, fuck, Trin,” I growl at her. I’m so pissed she’s leaving.
“Sorry, sorry,” she mumbles. “Uh, I’m gonna go.” She runs out of the room and I want to choke the living fuck out of Rock.
I also want to tell him what he interrupted. Thought I was about to get somewhere with her. But he’s got that smug fucking smile on his face that I just want to punch.
“Knock it off, dick,” I grumble as I settle back into the bed.
“Sorry I interrupted cuddle time.”
I return his glare. “Fuck you.”
My stomach rumbles and I glare at the hospital tray. “You come here to tell me anything useful? Maybe bring me something?” I ask.
“What the hell do you want, balloons and flowers?”
“A fucking magazine would be nice. I’m bored as fuck.”
He gestures at the door. “Didn’t look bored a minute ago.”
Not sure if it’s the accident that rattled him or something else, but brother is seriously testing my patience today. More than normal. When I say Rock’s like my brother, I mean it in every way—especially the pissing me off until I want to knock him out way. I notice he’s by himself and wonder if that’s what crawled up his ass.
“Did Hope come with you?”
His jaw clenches. Yup, that’s what’s bugging him.
“No,” he spits out.
“She okay?”
He comes closer and I take notice of his torn up hands. Brother fought someone recently. “I dunno. She’s. . .You don’t realize, but she lost her dad when she was a teenager. Lost her husband young. I think this rattled her.”
Poor girl. I knew about her husband, obviously. “Oh, fuck. I didn’t know about her dad. That’s rough.”
“Yeah, and her mom went to shit after, so she basically got abandoned there.”
“Okay. Got it.” Maybe Hope fits in better with us than I thought.
He rubs the back of his neck like I know he does when he’s stressed. “I’m afraid this brought up bad shit for her. I’m worried she’s not dealing with it well.”
Probably not. “Not surprising. After getting through that other shit, sounds like she lived a pretty normal life ‘til you barged in.”
“Thanks,” he grumbles back.
Of course he thinks the worst. “I’m not trying to be a dick. I just don’t know how you think it’s going to work out between the two of you.”
“This wasn’t exactly normal.”
Is he kidding? This kind of shit happens all the time in our world. We’ve lived through much worse and I can’t understand why he’d wanna drag someone as soft as Hope into something so foreign to her. “You know what I mean. Look, I get it, she’s a total sweetheart. Treats everyone with respect. She’s not stuck up. I like how nice she is to Trinity. Hell, I like her. But I think soon she’s going to start dividing your focus. You can’t be half in, half out as our President.”
Of course he’s not ready to listen to reason where his woman’s concerned. “You want the gavel?” he snaps.
“Fuck, no, that’s not what I’m trying to say. But she doesn’t get what we’re about—at all. She’s too clean for our life. I’ve tried explaining shit to her, and it goes in one ear and out the other. Don’t drag her into it anymore. It’s not fair to her.”
His eyes narrow and he cocks his head to the side. “What exactly did you try to explain to her?”
“We are outlaws. She acts like it’s a bedtime story that has nothing to do with you two.”
“How many times have I told you to leave that shit to me? I’ll tell her things when I think she’s ready to hear them.”
Which if Rock has his way will be never. “Yeah, but by then she’ll be so deep in our shit, she’ll blow the MC to hell trying to escape.”
His eyes close for the briefest second and I know I’m not the smartest fucker in the world, but it hits me in the gut what he’s doing. “Rock, you think she’s going to fall so far in love with you, she’s going to overlook the fact that we’re up to our balls in illegal shit?”
I don’t need him to answer. The guilt’s spelled out all over his face. I shake my head.
“Jesus Christ.” Maybe we irritate the shit out of each other, but Rock’s a damn good person. The best. Picked my ass up off the street and gave me a home when I was a teenager. Gave me work and brought me into the MC. Saved my life more than once. I know he ain’t reeling her in on purpose to be cruel. Doubt he even realized until right this second what he’s been doing.
“I love her,” he says simply.
“Yeah, got that, brother.” After the misery his ex-wife put him through, he deserves to be happy. “We need to do a better job making her understand and keepin’ her safe.”
The corners of his mouth lift. “Thanks.”
I tilt my head in his direction. “You gonna explain why your hands look like you went one round with a brick wall?”
He glances down, opens and closes his hands. “What do you think?”
“Coulda waited for me, brother.”
“Z had a tip they weren’t gonna be around long.”
“Handled?”
“For now.”
A different nurse comes in. She’s older and doesn’t look like she’ll put up with any shit. “Out,” she barks at Rock. “He needs to rest. And I need to poke him.”
“I prefer to do the poking,” I say to her with a wink.
That stops her in her tracks and she actually laughs.
“I’ll be back later.” Rock gives me a fist bump and heads out, leaving me at the mercy of the nurse who seems determined to do things to me I’m not gonna like.