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All good news.
She’d make a full recovery.
Physically.
The door opened and closed. I didn’t look up to see who it was. I kept my eyes on Violet. They’d cleaned all the blood off her. She looked paler, smaller than normal in that bed.
My eyes flickered to the monitor every now and then, first hers, then the baby’s. Then they went back to her chest, the rise and fall, finishing on her face. It had been my routine for hours.
Kate had been here, on the other side of the bed, clutching her daughter’s hand, forcing smiles and jokes, hiding her horror as only a parent could.
She left only because Violet urged her too. Because she had a baby boy at home. It had been tense since it was clear Kate did not want to let her firstborn out of her sight.
“Elden’s here,” Violet had argued. She was tired. Crashing. You could see it. Hear it. It had been a miracle that she’d been alert and together for as long as she had. Except for when her eyes had gone blank and glossy somewhere between the club and the hospital. That had been the scariest moment of my fucking life.
But she came back to me.
She was a fucking miracle.
“He’s not going to let me out of his sight, right, handsome?” she’d asked me with a teasing grin. My gut clenched.
“Right, baby,” I kissed her hand.
Kate looked at me uncertainly. With the same uncertain edge that had been there since she found out I impregnated her daughter.
But now there was something else. A trust. She might not like what I was to Violet, but she understood how it worked in this club. What we did for the women we loved. She knew come hell or high water, her daughter was safe with me. Even though I’d fucking failed them both with Violet in this hospital bed.
So she left, promising to be back the second she bathed and put her son to bed.
Violet had crashed not long after that, holding it together only for her mother’s sake, not wanting her to worry.
Boots thumped against the ground as Swiss sat beside me.
He’d been here beside his wife too, then he’d been at the club, trying to figure out who the fuck did this.
The piece of shit sheriff didn’t help. He was treating the fucking club like suspects. Apparently, he’d tried to come in here to interview Violet. Swiss had made sure that didn’t happen. I couldn’t be within five feet of the man. I might’ve ripped his head off.
He didn’t speak as soon as he sat down beside me.
“She’s going to be okay, brother,” he said finally, clapping me on the shoulder.
It was only the second time he’d called me brother since he’d found out Violet was carrying my baby. There was no violence in his tone now. No undertone that communicated he would kill me if he could.
I might’ve felt relief if the situation were different. If my woman wasn’t in a hospital bed with a fucking stab wound and trauma that would live in her bones.
“I can’t stop thinking about pulling into that parking lot,” I said, not taking my eyes off her. “Seeing her standing there, covered in blood. Covered in it.” I shuddered. “Can’t stop hearin’ her crying out in pain on the other side of the phone, hearing her fighting him off.”
My stomach turned at the memory that wasn’t a memory. I could hear it right now, clear as day. Could feel the bike underneath me, willing it to go faster when I knew I was already too late to save her.
Knowing that she was completely fucking alone. Pregnant with my baby, and it could all be taken away from me.
“Gonna be marryin’ her,” I said, still staring at Violet.
I took a breath, a long one, finding enough control to convince myself that if I took my eyes off her for a moment, she’d still be there, her chest would still rise and fall, and the heartbeat monitors would stay steady.
Not much would get me to look away from her at that point, but this was important to me and I was going to do it right… Well, as right as I could given the current circumstances.
My eyes found Swiss’s. They were hard with worry, but not with the borderline hatred he’d been directing at me since the news came out. Rightly so. I deserved it.
