“He wasn’t, or at least, not the way you think. He didn’t know she was married. She didn’t wear her ring to work, and he thought she was single.”
“Fuck,” Ranger muttered, consciously holding his body still. “So what happened?”
“After a few months, Bones discovered she was married and broke it off. He thought that they were having to keep it on the down low because of her work, but then he stumbled upon her and her husband out one day and realized the real reason.”
Holy fuck. Or should he say, holy cuck.
“But Bones broke it off, right?”
Ghost nodded, both of them ignoring Angel as she continued to work on Ranger’s tattoo. The rhythm of the tattoo gun was soothing in a way. Ranger didn’t think he could ever fall asleep while getting a tattoo, like others said they could, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.
“Broke it off and demanded she tell her husband, or he would,” Ghost told him. Ranger nodded his approval at that. Bones was not the type of person to take such a betrayal lying down. “She claimed she told him, but then she wanted to continue also sleeping with Bones.”
“No way!” Angel said, snapping her head up. “I didn’t know that part!”
Ghost indicated to the partly done tattoo. “Do you mind? We’re trying to have a private conversation here. I’m not paying you to eavesdrop.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Forgive me, your majesty,” Angel said in a regal voice, mock bowing over Ranger’s navel. “I will keep my little peasant ears closed for this private conversation.”
Ranger snorted. “Can your little peasant ass hurry this up? How long does it take to draw a couple of lines?” he asked in feigned impatience.
Angel pointed the tattoo gun at him. “Watch it, bud. If I rush, I might,” she ticked the gun up in the air, “slip.”
Ranger held up his hands in surrender. “Take as much time as you need, your peasantess.”
Angel scratched her nose with her middle finger before flicking the gun back on.
To Ghost, Ranger prompted, “So she wanted to keep sleeping with Bones?”
“He said ‘no’, of course. Even if they were in an open relationship, which he didn’t think they were because she’d been hiding it from her husband, he wasn’t interested in that sort of dynamic. He kept her on as his PT because the clinic was short staffed and it might have harmed her career if their relationship got out, but he kept it strictly professional.”
“Let me guess. She didn’t.”
“Nope. But after she won his bid at the bachelor auction two Halloweens ago, Bones put a stop to everything. Changed up PTs, moved his schedule so he wasn’t there at the same time she was… Basically went no contact, and she seemed to finally get the message. Even took some time off work to get her head on straight. Fast forward to four months ago, and Dru winds up dead and her husband injured.”
As dramatic as that story was, Ranger still didn’t understand what it had to do with Bones riding back from Alexandria in the cage. “Okay… So is the clinic short staffed without her? Is Bones not getting his therapy or something?”
Ghost shook his head. “At the funerals, we showed up to show our respect. Bones approached the husband to extend his condolences, which the man accepted, thinking Bones was nothing more than a former patient of Dru’s.”
“Uh oh…” Ranger said knowingly.
Ghost’s expression said it all. “Come to find out, Dru never told him about the affair. When he was going through her things, he found her journals filled with her feelings, thoughts, hell, sex positions… She even had a plan to divorce her husband, abandon her kids, and run away with Bones.”
“Oh fuck,” Ranger breathed out. He couldn’t imagine grieving someone he loved, only to find out after she passed that she’d betrayed him so completely.
“Unfortunately, her journals did not contain dates or even the fact that it was all in the pastandthat Bones broke up with her or thatshewas practically stalkinghim,” Ghost continued dryly. “And three days after you relapsed, Jett Deininger was waiting for Bones outside the PT office and stabbed him in the heart.”
Angel must have known Ranger’s reaction was coming because she stopped tattooing just before Ghost dropped that bombshell. Ranger bolted upright on the tattoo chair. “What!?”
“Bones is fine,” Ghost said sternly. “You saw him the other day. Thankfully, Deininger didn’t realize the strength it would take to actually stab someone through the breastplate. Blade went left, puncturing Bones’ lung and nicking a major blood vessel. Thankfully, he was outside of the clinic where doctors were able to come and assist before the ambulance arrived. Cage was waiting for Bones as his ride—they’d been coming from work—and he was able to apprehend Deininger before Carlos arrived. In the ER, Bones was rushed to emergency surgery where they performed a hippopotamus-thorastic?—”
“Hemopneumothorax,” Angel corrected, having paused tattooing completely.
“That,” Ghost said dismissively. “He had a chest tube and had to have his lung re-expanded, and after about two weeks in the hospital, was finally able to come home. He’s still on certain restrictions, but is on track for making a full recovery.”
Ranger stared dumbfounded at Ghost for several long minutes. “Why wouldn’t you tell me all this?” If it happened days after Ranger’s relapse, then it had been three months ago. Three months of him not knowing that his club brother had almostdied.
“Seriously?” Ghost asked Ranger like he was a couple of crayons short of a full box. “I already told you. We wanted you to concentrate onyou. There wasn’t anything you could have done.The rest of us were just as helpless as we had to wait for the surgeons to do their jobs. All it would have done was add to your stress.”
