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He might have been right about the infection. Pretty sure I had a fever. Not that I was going to tell anyone that. The antibiotics would knock it on its head anyway.
Exhaustion gripped me tightly, squeezing the energy out of my muscles, and I was sure I’d had more naps in the last few days than Hayley Jade had.
My eyelids were always heavy. I put on a good front when Bliss or Scythe was here, because I didn’t want either of them worrying about me.
“You look like shit,” a voice croaked from beside me.
I jumped a fucking mile. The metal frame on the bed protested beneath me with a jangling rattle.
Hayden’s blue eyes watched me quietly.
“Like you can fucking talk. Thought you were a goner for sure.” I ground my teeth. This wasn’t exactly the scenario I’d imagined when I’d told Hawk and Fang to peel Hayden off that road and bring him back here. At the time, the plan had been to nurse him back to health, at least enough that he could speak, then make him hurt until he told us everything he knew.
I’d imagined killing him with my own two hands for being responsible for my father’s death.
Now all I wanted to know was what my father had been doing behind my back.
All of a sudden, Hayden Chaos Whitling didn’t seem like the enemy.
Maybe my father had deserved everything he’d gotten.
I opened my mouth to ask if my dad had been involved in the trafficking, and yet, now that I had the opportunity, I didn’t have the guts to ask.
“You in pain?” I asked instead. “Hawk’s been taking care of you. Said we had to keep up your pain meds or you wouldn’t heal.”
“I’m fine.” He struggled to sit up, but he didn’t get far. He groaned, slumping down onto his back again.
I cocked my head to one side, watching him. “You’ve been in and out of consciousness for over a week. I wouldn’t try moving around too much.”
Suddenly, his eyes went wide. “Kara. Caleb has Kara. In the ambulance…” He stared down at his chest and ripped off a few heart monitor leads.
I tried reaching for him. “Hey. Relax.”
He grabbed the IV stuck in his arm and yanked it out viciously. “You fucking relax. I need to find her. He’ll hurt her.”
“I said lay your ass back down.” I didn’t have the energy to physically restrain him, so I pulled the gun from beneath my pillow and pointed it at him. I’d have to give Fang and Hawk a pat on the back when I saw them next. They’d left it there for me in case of this exact situation, even though I’d scoffed at their concerns Hayden might wake up. I thought for sure the guy would be dead before the end of the week.
Hayden looked so panicked I actually felt bad for the asshole. He stared down the barrel of my gun, that‘I don’t take orders from no one’expression on his face I knew all too well.
Because I saw it in the mirror.
I dropped the safety on the gun.
Hayden sat his ass back down, just like I’d fucking told him to. But I threw the guy a bone, ’cause he was pretty pathetic. “Kara’s fine. Now, at least.”
The fight went straight of him. He lay back down. “The baby?”
I frowned. This was interesting. Why the hell did Hayden ‘Chaos’ Whitling even give a shit about that woman’s child?
“Why do you even care? You were ready to sell the both of them to the highest bidder, right? That is what you and Caleb were doing, holding those women against their will. Wasn’t it?”
He shook his head slowly. “No. I mean, fuck, yes. But I didn’t know what I was getting into. I thought it was just a protection gig. That’s what I was told. I didn’t know until they were already in the house that they’d been stolen from the streets.”
I ground my teeth. “Then why not let them go?”
He swallowed thickly. “I know you’ve got a family.”
Despite how average I felt, I was off that bed and pushing the gun into Hayden’s forehead quicker than you could blink. “Don’t fucking talk about my family.”
