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“Don’t say that shit.”
“Why? It’s the truth. You not being in her life means there’s no one to have her back. Would you let your woman walk home alone late at night?”
No reply is necessary. I get where he’s going. “I haven’t told her everything. I don’t want Quinn to hate me.”
“If she’s judging you on your past, then she’s not the one,” he says plainly. “Think on it.” He looks to the sky and closes his eyes. “Close your eyes, Priest. Listen to the sound of your heart beating, the sounds of the forest. Trust me.”
I do as he says. I close my eyes and hear the rustle of wind through the leaves on the trees, the birds fluttering from branch to branch.
“Do you feel it?” he asks.
“Feel it?”
“The calm.”
I do. “Yeah.”
“What does calm look like?”
And there it is. With my eyes firmly closed, my heart becomes light, and Quinn appears in my thoughts.
“Quinn.”
I stay in this position for a while, and when I open my eyes, Guard is staring at me.
“Good talk, brother.” We collect our stuff and walk back to our bikes.
I climb on my motorcycle and glance over at Guard before putting on my helmet. “Good talk. Thank you.”
“Go get your woman. Ava’s dying to add another girl to her Lady Pride,” he teases.
FIVE
Accidents Happen
PRIEST
We make it back to the compound in the early hours of the evening, and we’re greeted by Demon racing out to his bike.
I walk over and watch him get on his bike. “Where’s the fire, bro?”
“Bethany was in a car accident. Frankie’s freaking out. Sofia is on her way to the hospital, and I’m meeting him there,” Demon rattles off as he revs his bike to life.
A darkness comes over me. A feeling that something’s really wrong. “Was she alone?”
“With her girl. Maid of honor, Quinn, I think. Not sure. I don’t have the whole story. Frankie’s a mess and isn’t making a lot of sense.” I grip the handlebar of his bike. He looks down at my hand. “Gotta go, man.”
“Coming with you,” I say. I hop back on my bike and tail Demon all the way to the hospital. I need to see Quinn with my own eyes and know that she’s all right.
* * *
Quinn
Iunderstand the importance of being thoroughly examined, but we’ve been at the hospital for hours now. On the police officer’s insistence, Bethany and I were both taken by ambulance to Cedar Mill Hospital. Bethany is more in shock than hurt. The last thing we expected was for the pickup truck ahead of us to stop so abruptly, causing Bethany to hit the brakes hard. We stopped inches from the truck, but unfortunately, the car behind us didn’t. Our car was caught between the two vehicles. Luckily, both Bethany and I got off with only bumps and scrapes.
Frankie was making such a fuss that Bethany submitted to having a bunch of tests done to make sure the doctors didn’t miss anything, and by association, I’m swept along for the ride. Bethany’s on the other side of the curtain waiting for our final release.
“Well, I have to say, a day out with you is never boring,” I tease, touching my hand to the bandage on my forehead where I hit my head when we were thrown forward.
