Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
She was off goddamn limits.
No one spoke to her without my fucking permission, and I was about to make shit that clear.
“The fuck is going on?” I snarled.
The youngest deputy held his hand out to me to shake. I just stared at it in disgust. Was he fucking serious right now? He expected a goddamn handshake after what just happened at my clubhouse? “Johnston Trim, right? We were called by a nurse. Apparently, a man tried strangling the woman inside.”
Strangled?
Nah. No fucking way someone had just tried to strangle her. No one would be that goddamn stupid.
“That woman,” I growled, “is my fucking old lady. The fuck do you mean someone tried to goddamn strangle her?”
He swallowed thickly and dropped his hand by his sides again. The other officer remained quiet, but he took a little step away, creating just a tiny bit more distance between us. In any other situation, I’d have been amused, but not this one. My fucking woman had just been assaulted.
Why the fuck hadn’t I immediately been notified?
“I, um, I—” the officer stuttered, tripping over his words.
I was about to bash his skull into the wall to maybe rattle something loose in his fucking brain when the hospital room door opened, saving the stumbling kid.
“Let him in,” the doctor ordered from inside the room.
The two officers stepped out of the way, and I shoved past them, shoulder-checking the one that started stuttering, storming inside. I stopped at the sight of Aaliyah. Breathing tubes were up her nose. The dark, hand-shaped bruises on her neck were a stark contrast to her pale, creamy skin.
I clenched my fists at my sides, my entire body thrumming with rage. I was ready to fucking destroy something.
“Who the fuck did it?” I snarled when the doctor shut the door behind us, giving us some privacy. I swung around to face him. “Dr. Wilson, who the fuck touched her?”
Because they were about to goddamn die. And the goddamn guilt riding on my shoulders was eating me alive. This was the second fucking time I hadn’t been able to protect her.
If the universe was trying to send a message, it could fuck right on off. Everything in this world bent to my will. I didn’t bend to anyone else.
“Dirk Wilson,” he informed me, keeping his voice low so there were no chances of our voices carrying past that door. “He was arrested—with a fight, might I add. He was out of his mind. High as hell. Alcohol on his breath, too.”
Dirk Wilson.
Her fucking ex that she’d left.
I strode over to her bed and gently trailed the backs of my fingers across her soft cheek. Fuck, her skin was so pale. It wasn’t supposed to be like this—not with her. She always had a pretty flush to her cheeks. She was my Red, goddammit.
“She almost died,” Dr. Wilson quietly informed me. I gritted my teeth, my molars grinding together, echoing loudly in the room. “We’re not sure what we’re facing when—or if—she wakes.”
Or if.
My heart clenched in my chest. I’d just gotten her. I couldn’t fucking lose her. Not like this. I couldn’t fucking live without her. Couldn’t breathe.
Without her, everything else would cease to matter anymore. I’d let the club fall, let the officers do whatever they wanted.
“Why the fuck wasn’t someone in here in time?” I asked, not once taking my eyes off her face. If I took my eyes off her or my hands off her soft skin, I’d destroy this entire fucking hospital room. My soul was thirsting for blood, practically salivating at the thought.
And we wanted the blood of one man—the same man that put these marks on my woman.
“We tried. He had the door locked.”
Fucking Christ. I was never leaving her side again—not while she lay vulnerable in a hospital bed. Not while she was where I couldn’t put proper protection on her. She was a queen, and I had to start guarding her like one.
I brushed my thumb along her jaw. “I’d like some privacy.”
The door clicking shut was the only signal I’d gotten that he was leaving. Clenching my jaw, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and held it to my ear, calling Blayke.
“Prez,” he answered.
“Dirk Wilson—he just got arrested. Keep an eye on him. I’ll give you details later.” I wouldn’t risk saying more where there were cameras. I wasn’t stupid enough for that. My head might have been a mess, but I wouldn’t risk being taken away from her.
Both times she’d almost died, I’d been away from her.
Never fucking again.
Only giving him that little bit to go off of, I hung up the phone and then sat down in my chair beside her bed, grasping her cool hand in mine.
“I’ll never let a goddamn thing happen to you again,” I swore. “They’ll have to fucking kill me first.”