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“I gotta check on her,” I said, heart aching at the memory of her unconscious in my arms on the side of the road.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Just gotta remind you that this shit wasn’t your fault,” he said. “You did everything you could,” he added. “From the looks of things,” he went on, looking at my face. “Know we all like to think we’re fucking infallible, that we should be able to shield the women around us from ever getting hurt. But that ain’t how it always goes down. You were outnumbered. But you fought like fucking hell to save her. You gotta be okay with that.”
He was speaking from a lot of experience, given how much shit had gone down with the club over the years. That shit often involved the women close to us getting hurt, no matter how hard the men fought to protect them, to shield them from it.
“Yeah. I’ll get there,” I said. “Once I check on her,” I added. There would be no trying to compartmentalize this shit until I saw with my own two eyes that she was alright.
“Do your old man a favor,” he said.
“Okay.”
“Get some sleep before you go tracking her down. She needs rest too,” he added, knowing that was the one that would hold me back.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Maybe you can play this down for me with Mom,” I said, waving toward my face.
“And face her wrath when she knows I lied to her? No fucking way,” he said with a smirk as he put all the shit back into the plastic container and clicked the lid into place. “Ice that face,” he demanded.
“I will. Thanks, Dad,” I said.
He reached out, giving my shoulder a squeeze, then walked out.
Alone, I changed out of my bloody shirt, and made my way toward the bed.
Someone, likely Brooks, had already dropped some water, a bottle of pills, and a few ice packs on my nightstand.
With the adrenaline getting reabsorbed and the pain starting to settle in, I made my way to the bed, took a few of the pills, and placed the ice packs on the spots that hurt the worst.
Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.
And dreamed about driving a never-ending road with a certain woman wrapped around me, her body pressed to mine, both of us without a fucking care in the world.
It was a loud slam that woke me from the dream, making me shoot up in bed, disoriented for a moment, before I realized it must have just been a door slamming.
But as soon as I was awake, every fucking blow I’d taken suddenly hurt with an intensity I hadn’t been prepared for.
“Fuck,” I grumbled as a headache clapped behind my eyes, and my entire goddamn face felt bruised and swollen.
Even my ribs, which I hadn’t noticed at all the night before, were screaming at the sudden change in position.
I glanced over toward the clock, finding it was already past ten, and cursing as I climbed off of the bed.
I felt like I’d aged a few decades as I trudged toward the bathroom to brush my teeth and change.
If I thought I’d looked rough the night before, I looked like complete shit in the morning light.
My entire face was a bruise. Smatterings of purple, blue, and yellow. The white of my eye was all red. My cheek was swollen almost twice the size it had been when I’d gone to bed.
“Christ,” I hissed at my reflection before turning away from it, and going in search of some much-needed caffeine.
“There he… fuck,” Seth said, eyes widening as he looked at me.
“I’m fine,” I said, knee-jerk, even if I felt anything but.
“Yeah, okay,” he said, shaking his head.
“I feel like shit, but I’m fine,” I clarified.
“That’s more like it,” he said. “The fuck, man?” he asked.
It wasn’t a question that needed answering, so I just nodded as I made my way into the kitchen, grabbing a coffee large enough to fight back the fog in my mind.
“Did anyone find anything out while I was sleeping?” I asked, putting cream and sugar into my coffee.
“Not so far. Junior wasn’t home when Voss dropped over. Just some dude named Barry who was dog-sitting.”
“Right,” I said, nodding. “Is Fallon pulling people in for guard duty?” I asked.
“No, man. I’m here because we’re family,” Seth said, brows pinched. “But we’re supposed to be careful while driving at night for the time being though, just in case.”
That made sense.
Even if it was making less and less sense that it was targeted as I thought about it.
That didn’t change shit in my mind, though. I had to find those fucks. They had to pay for what they did to that girl.
As if sensing the direction of my thoughts, Seth sighed. “Guess it’s good that she got a ride home with you last night.”
