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“Jules, does the chief know?” Slaughter asked.
“Yes. He signed off on his paperwork himself.”
“Jesus Christ,” Slaughter cursed, raking his hands through his hair. “All this time and no one knew. What we forced him to do...”
“No,” I growled, looking up at my friend. “No one forced me. I knew what I was doing.”
“Damn it, Sandman, this changes everything.”
“Nothing changes.”
“He’s right, Slaughter,” Jules said, getting to her feet. “Sandman is still Sandman. A brother in the Golden Skulls motorcycle club. He’s still the husband to Sunny and the father to Soleil. So, he had a bad day. Tell me who doesn’t have them, and I’ll call bullshit.”
“Jules, he’s the executioner for the club.”
“And I’m a fucking mechanic. What’s your point?”
“Jules is right, Slaughter. Solomon’s autism diagnosis does not negate his ability to be the person the club needs. From my understanding, he’s shown none of you cause for worry. He’s still the same man he was before the diagnosis. Recently, he has taken the steps to seek guidance and is now gaining knowledge of specific tools to manage his overwhelmed mind. And let’s be real for a minute here. With what happened to Sunny, I think it’s remarkable that Solomon hasn’t broken down before. If anything was going to trigger him, it would have been that.”
“The brothers need to know.”
“NO!” I yelled, getting to my feet, my weighted blanket falling to the floor. “I’m not stupid!”
“Brother. I’m not saying you are. I would never say that, but we need to know stuff like this. We can’t help you if we don’t know. Remember when Samuel’s blood sugar dropped? Because Matrix insisted, we all learned what to do. We were able to get Samuel the medical attention he needed. When Phantom has one of her nightmares, what do we do?”
“We give her space until she’s ready to talk.”
“That’s right. We all help. All of us. No matter how overwhelmed Daphne may feel, we are always there by her side, ready to offer our assistance. The Golden Skulls isn’t just a motorcycle club, brother. It’s a family. We are your family.”
“He’s right, Sandman,” Bullseye said, standing in the doorway along with the rest of my club brothers. “We are your family. Like us or not, we are your brothers and as such, we all work together, side by side. If one of us needs help, all of us will be there, no matter what. We will sit down and talk about this, but right now your wife is awake and asking for you. So, get yourself together because we are all going to the hospital.”
Walking down the long hallway, with my brothers behind me, I felt something I had never felt before.
A feeling of belonging.
I never had that feeling before, even with my Sunshine. I knew she was mine, and that I loved her, but a small part of myself never truly allowed myself to believe that she would always be mine.
I wanted her to be.
I dreamed of that very thing.
Standing outside her door, I looked at the door handle, my hand trembling, afraid it was all a dream. I didn’t know what I would do if it was. I wasn’t ashamed to admit I needed her more than she needed me. I had from the moment I met her. My only fear was that I would walk into her room, and she would still be asleep or in her coma.
A hand touched my shoulder.
“We are all here, Sandman,” Slaughter said, squeezing my shoulder a bit.
“She’s awake?” I asked, looking at Savage, who nodded.
“Yes. Jessica called me the minute she woke up. You know Jess. She wouldn’t lie about that.”
Taking a deep breath, I opened the door to find Bones, Stitch, Dr. Claudia, and Jessica all surrounding my sunshine.
They were crowding her.
I didn’t like that.
“I’m telling you, I’m fine,” I heard her firmly say. “I want to go home.”
