Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 134531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134531 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
The doctor’s eyes went sideways, probably looking for security, a burly orderly, whatever the fuck passed as protection here. He looked like the kind of fuck who would offer up the petite nurse beside him instead of face me himself. Then his eyes went behind me, where I assumed all of my brothers were standing. I didn’t take notice of anything but Kate.
Faint pulse. Faint pulse.
The doctor swallowed visibly before clearing his throat. “It’s against hospital policy, sir.”
I sighed, knowing that he was a pussy. A bureaucratic pussy which meant he was gonna waste time. Time that Kate did not have.
So that was when I took my piece out of my cut, still holding onto Kate’s stretcher as if it were fused to my palm, and pointed it at the doctor’s head.
“I’m not fuckin’ around,” I informed the sufficiently scared doctor.
The bustle of movement around me told me my brothers had my back against whatever rent-a-cops might’ve had any ideas.
“This is my woman,” I bit out. “And you are obviously one of the last people in town who understand what my patch means. But I’ll educate you by telling you that I’m not afraid to use this,” I shook the gun, “if you do not get your ass into gear, and fix my woman. And forget all about hospital policy.”
The doctor gaped at me for a second, and I idly wondered if I’d be shooting a man today. I would do it in a heartbeat. Without hesitation. I would not regret it. But it would be messy and inconvenient.
Luckily, the doctor didn’t have a death wish. “Okay, we need to prep her for the OR,” he told the nurses. “Get him a gown.” He motioned to me.
I lowered my gun and started moving behind the doors, glancing to Hansen. He nodded to me, takin’ his place by the doors. As did the rest of my brothers.
I trusted they would stand guard, make sure no one would come to take me from her side. They were in for a war if they did.
Kate went into surgery.
Which meant I did too.
I watched them cut open my woman.
Save her life.
Eventually, she was settled into a room. In intensive care.
At that point, Sarah, the club’s unofficial doctor, who worked at this hospital, took over for the doctor who was shit scared of me.
Sarah was not shit scared. Sarah respected the club. Sarah took a lot of fucking risks for us. Because she grew up in Garnett. She’d benefitted directly from the club.
And because she’d been in love with Jagger for a long time. She wasn’t bitter about him and Caroline... She was happy for them. She was a better person than all of us fucking scoundrels.
“How you holding up?” she asked, staring at me while she walked over to Kate.
“Will be better when you tell me that Kate is gonna make a full recovery.”
It was the first time I’d spoken in a while. How long had she been in surgery? I couldn’t say. A lifetime, at least.
Sarah didn’t answer me at first. She reached down to squeeze Kate’s hand in a gesture of tenderness that was not unlike her.
Her blue eyes found mine. “She had internal bleeding which we managed to stop.” She glanced to the chart in her hands. “Three broken ribs. Collapsed lung. Ruptured spleen. Her eye socket is fractured. And her windpipe is severely bruised.”
Every item on the list of Kate’s injuries was a bullet through my skin. Through my flesh, my bones. Each one fucking ripped me apart.
My eyes found Kate’s neck where the skin was shades of red, purple and black. Where he had strangled her. Where he had tried to take the life from her.
I remembered when those had been my hands. When I couldn’t fucking come without teasing death out of women—Kate included. Kate especially. My stomach roiled in disgust.
“I know it sounds like a lot.” Sarah spoke gently. “And it is. She’s incredibly lucky to be alive. But I can tell you that she is going to heal. It may take some time, but she’ll heal.”
Sarah was not one to lie to me. I understood that. She might’ve been kind, but she didn’t bullshit.
So I knew she was telling the truth. But looking at Kate, so pale except for the black and purple of the bruises covering her face, the machines she was attached to, the breathing tube down her throat… I found it really fucking hard to believe her.
“When will she wake up?”
I needed to see her eyes. Needed to watch her inhale and exhale under her own power. Nothing else would make me believe. Nothing else would bring me back from the edge. Only Kate could do that.
Sarah sighed. “I can’t tell you that. It may be tomorrow. It may be a week from now. She’s undergone serious trauma. And her body will do a lot of healing while she’s unconscious.”