Page 127

“Where’s your purse?” she asked.

Purse? In my drawer? Yes. In my drawer. I grabbed it and stared at Clover.

She picked up my phone from my desk. “You’ll want this.”

“Right.” I clutched the phone. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Do you need to lock up your classroom?”

“No.”

“Anything else we can get later. I’ll drive you.”

I nodded and slung my purse over my shoulder.

My knees weakened as I followed her out the main doors. Every step felt like a thousand miles. Two buses waited in front of the school, and cars lined both sides of the street with parents picking up their kids.

Clover led me to a white sedan in the emergency vehicle parking spot. She pushed the button on her fob to unlock the doors.

“You can’t park here,” I said. Why did I even care? She was taking me to Brett.

“The sign doesn’t specify what kind of emergency vehicle.” She climbed behind the wheel. “This is an emergency. Steele is asking for you.”

I sat in the passenger side and snapped on the seat belt. Because she’d parked in the first stall, she whipped out and shifted to the front of the line, bypassing all the waiting parents.

“Lili doesn’t know,” I said more to myself than to Clover.

“No, but Natalie does. She had to come to the hospital to give consent to treatment and provide insurance information.” Clover cast a quick glance at me then turned her focus back to the road. “She didn’t stay. I’m sure you know how she feels about Hellers.”

“I do.” And I knew how she felt about Brett. Did Clover know about the things Natalie had done to him? “He wouldn’t want her there.”

“I know. Hellers have been with him twenty-four/seven. They’ve taken over the ICU.”

ICU. Life support. The scent of hospitals. Panic crawled up my throat.

“Breathe, Jaymi.”

Box breaths. Inhale. Exhale. But I couldn’t shake the anxiety. I needed to touch his warm skin and feel his breath on mine. Silent tears slipped onto my cheeks. “What happened?” I turned to Clover. “Was it a motorcycle accident?”

“No. It wasn’t an accident.” She glanced at me again, this time with concern reflected in her eyes. “He should be the one to tell you.”

“Clover, please? I need to be prepared.” I didn’t know how much of my past she’d been told. “I can’t walk into the hospital room and see him dying.” I broke into sobs. “I can’t lose him.”

She inhaled a sharp breath. “Oh, Jaymi. You won’t.” She reached across the console and grasped my hand. “He’s off the ventilator and breathing on his own. He’s lucky the knife hit bone.”

I snapped my gaze at her. “He was stabbed?”

Her mouth pulled into a sympathetic frown. She blinked tears from her eyes. “He was. The cut to the bone developed an infection, and he went septic, but the antibiotics are working.”

“Was someone trying to kill him? Was he in a fight? Or was someone trying to rob him?” Brett was strong and intimidating. The patches on his cut would make most people cautious.

A tremble built in the cage around my heart and rippled through my limbs. The man I loved was kind and gentle and honorable. But I understood I didn’t know the same man that rode with Crawlers. A man who lived on the wrong side of the law.

“Have the police caught who stabbed him?”

“You haven’t been around the MC. Jaymi, Hellers don’t go to the police.” She turned to me. “Especially when it involves one of their own.”

“Did Brett agree?”