Chapter 21

When you make sure you’re on the same page with someone, also make sure you are in the same book, and all parties know how to read.

-Words of wisdom

Tobias

I woke up with the worst case of cottonmouth I’d ever experienced, and immediately reached to the side of the bed for my glass of water that normally resided there.

Only, the thing that I felt when I reached wasn’t a table, but a pole of some sort.

I cracked open an eye, and immediately groaned when the sun nearly blinded me.

“Fuck,” I cried out, now using my hand as a shield for the sun that was now blinding me.

That’s about the time that I realized that the thing pointed at my face wasn’t the sun at all, but a flashlight.

“Reed, you asshole. Get off of me.”

Reed and I used to share a room, and he was the type of jerk off who would fuck with me, even fifteen years later.

“Why is it always me that he blames?” Came Reed’s voice.

Only it sounded like he was across the room, not anywhere near me.

I cracked my eye open again and was relieved to see that there was no light shining in my eyes anymore.

Who I did see standing there, however, was Audrey. She had a small smile on her face, and she was leaning over me as she looked at me with so much concern that it was hard to take in.

“Sorry,” she said. “I wanted to make sure your pupils were reacting. You’ve been asleep for a long time.”

I had?

“What’s wrong with your face?”

Her face slipped into a frown.

“That’s not very nice,” she snarled.

I grabbed her hand before she could get much more than a step away from the bed I was lying in, and pulled her toward me.

My strength deserted me, so all it really resembled was a feeble tug.

She took pity on me, though, and dropped her pretty ass on the side of my hospital bed.

Hospital bed?

I started to really look around, and realized rather quickly that I was, indeed, in a hospital.

I also wasn’t alone.

Not only were four brothers there, but so were my non-biological ones, the members of The Dixie Wardens.

“What the hell is going on?” I groaned.

I felt tired, but not tired enough to be in the hospital.

Audrey looked behind her and said, “Can everyone give us a few minutes?”

When Audrey turned her head, I saw the thick black line covered in stitches on her forehead, right at her hairline, and my stomach plummeted as the last minutes I remembered before passing out came back to me.

The Shaws. Shooting. My legs.

My legs!

I reached forward and ripped the blankets off of my legs, moaning when I saw them.

“Oh, fuck.” I pulled the hospital gown covering the top half of my legs up and stared.

“That was close.”

I looked over to find Audrey pointing at the gunshot wound that was close to my groin.

“I know,” I muttered. “I’m lucky I still have my dick and balls.”

After a quick check to make sure those were still where they were supposed to be, and indeed still intact, I moved on to the other parts of my legs. Those covered in bandages.

“I was referring to the fact that that one,” she indicated the gunshot near my groin, “Nearly caused your death. It nicked the artery, but the muscles surrounding the gunshot cramped or something, as Tommy Tom describes it, and clenched off the nick in the artery and ultimately saved your life.”

“Hmm,” I said. “That’s not good.”

She snorted. “No, it’s not.”

“What is the prognosis?” I questioned, almost scared to hear the answer.

Would I ever be able to walk again? What about use my legs?

That had to be the scariest part of it all.

If I couldn’t use my legs, how would I stand and watch Audrey walk down the aisle toward me? How would I make love to her on our wedding night? How would I be the shoulder she could lean on during the birth of our first child—a child I hadn’t realized I wanted until I’d nearly died—if I couldn’t hold myself aloft?

All of those scary thoughts rushed through my subconscious while I waited for her to speak, and by the time her lips parted to explain, I’d gone overboard thinking of all the things that I wouldn’t be able to do without the full use of my legs.

“They say you’ll be fine…given time,” she admitted. “What they’re worried about most, right now, is infection.” She paused, pointing to one wound in particular on my calf. “This one, in the day that you’ve been unconscious, has gotten red and inflamed, and they’ve started you on an IV drip that is supposed to help fight off the infection. But as of thirty minutes ago when they checked your temp, the fever still hasn’t gone down.”

I frowned.

“That’s it?” I asked. “I’ll be fine given time?”

She nodded. “As long as the infection doesn’t get worse.”

I started to maneuver myself up in the bed, but grimaced when I put weight on my right hand.

“What happened here?” I asked, holding up my hand.

“Four broken fingers,” she answered, touching the very tip of one finger lightly against my skin. “They think that you fell when the car slammed into your cruiser, and maybe you landed awkwardly and put your hand out to catch your fall. We don’t really know.”

Which reminded me.

“The other man…the one I’d pulled over. Is he okay?” I asked.

Audrey’s face fell.

“No. He died at the scene.”

My stomach plummeted.

I was almost afraid to ask about the Shaws.

“And the others?”

She knew exactly who I was speaking of.

“Brenda Shaw was pronounced dead at the scene,” she answered. “Ephraim, from what little I’ve heard from the others, is still in police custody but not doing well.”

Thank Christ.

“And you?” I asked, lifting my one good limb and placing the finger on her chest. “If you weren’t wearing that vest…you’d be dead right now.”

She got up and walked to the corner of the room, picking up the same black Kevlar vest that she’d been wearing at the start of my shift the day before.

“It…” she said, laying it down carefully on the bed. “Saved me…I owe you my life for forcing me to wear it.”

My lips turned up at the corner. “Company policy.”

She leaned forward until her lips hovered over mine.

“I love you, Toby.”

I groaned. “My brothers are so going to die.”

She grinned. “Don’t be too hard on them. They were really worried about you.”

I grunted in reply, and then leaned forward the last couple of inches until her mouth was on mine.

“Kiss me, and then tell them to get their asses in here.”

She kissed me, and then backed away. “Will do.”

Then she left, taking my heart with her as she did.