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“Dally,” Starla gasps, combing his hair back from his face before gently tracing his bruised cheek in an unusual display of affection.
His one good eye closes as he swallows hard at her touch. She lets her hand drop and steps back after a moment, seeming to realize we’re all here to see Dallas, not just her. My intuition tells me something more is going on between them. Still, she’s never said anything to confirm that, so I don’t know just what their relationship is.
“What happened?” I ask, desperate to know what’s going on. In the car, Rico had been tight-lipped with what I could only label as stress. All he’d said was there had been some kind of altercation, which I could have easily guessed by his own black eye. “Is Gabe okay?”
Dally’s expression turns sour as his blue eye, stark against the black-and-purple bruising, focuses on me. “When I asked, my doc said it sounded like he wouldn’t need surgery as far as he knew, but we brought him to the hospital because he got a pretty bad head injury.”
“Whathappened?” I repeat.
Dallas shrugs, then winces, and Starla steps closer once more as she busies herself with trying to adjust his pillows into something more comfortable.
“We got jumped inside the clubhouse,” he says simply.
“It was some kind of ambush,” Knuckles supplements. “All the guys were supposed to be working, and we heard a commotion in the residential house. When we went to investigate, they were on Gabe and Dally before we had time to step through the door.”
My heart pounds frantically inside my chest. From the bruises on Dallas’s face, I would guess it wasn’t just a fist fight. He’s a good fighter, from what Gabe’s told me. So seeing him in this state tells me they were fighting for their lives.
“It was bad,” Dally confirms. “They outnumbered us and had the whole space blacked out so we couldn’t see them coming.”
“They had steel pipes,” Rico adds.
Tears of anxiety sting my eyes, and I glance back over my shoulder toward the door.What if the doctor has news about Gabe and I’m not in the waiting room for him to speak with?
“I asked that they come here first to give us an update on Gabe,” Dallas says, his voice raw.
“Thank you,” I breathe, sinking into a chair as the stress of the situation consumes me.
“You okay, Winter?” Knuckles asks as I lean forward to rest my elbows on my knees. It’s less than comfortable as the baby rests heavily on my bladder, but I feel like I need the stability to stop my careening mind.
It feels odd to have Knuckles sound tender, concerned about me. Though I’ve found my way back to a level of comfort around Gabriel’s boys, it’s never far from my mind that once upon a time, Gabe handed me over to them to meet their sexual desires for a night. Knowing them so intimately is something I’m not sure I’ll ever fully forget.
“I’m fine,” I whisper, leaning back in the chair as I wipe my eyes.
“He’ll be okay,” Rico says adamantly, his tone more reassuring than anything that’s been said so far. “Gabriel’s a fighter, not to mention strong as hell. And there’s no way he would quit on you. He’s crazy about you.”
Fresh tears spring to my eyes at his words.
“Shut up, dipshit. You’re making her cry,” Knuckles snaps, shoving Rico, who stumbles, unsteady on his feet—probably due to the narrow gash that’s bled through the thigh of his jeans.
“No, no, it’s fine. It’s just all these damn hormones,” I sniffle.
Starla snags a box of tissues and comes to sit next to me.
I take a tissue and wipe my tears and nose. “Thanks,” I say, smiling waterily.
“So, what happened to you girls?” Dallas asks after a moment.
I glance up at Rico. He really is terrible with communication. Maybe next time, I should call Knuckles instead. Then I’m silently scolding myself for even thinking there could be a next time. This better never happen again.
Rico shrugs as if to say it’s not his job to play telephone for everyone.
I roll my eyes. “My tires were slashed while Starla and I were shopping downtown.”
Dallas’s eyebrows press into a momentary frown before he flinches once again. “If they knew your car without you in it, that must mean they followed you.”
I nod as a shiver of fear runs down my spine. I recall that feeling of someone watching me and wonder if it might have any validity. I decide it’s better to mention it and look silly than not say anything and regret it later. “I don’t have any specific reason to think this aside from a creepy feeling I got, but I think they were still around, waiting to see our reaction when we returned or something.”
Starla glances at me in surprise. I hadn’t mentioned it before because I didn’t want to freak her out unnecessarily.
