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)
I gritted my teeth. Every instinct in me was thrumming to protect Kate, shield her, not let another man touch her, fucking look at her. But that was fucking pointless. The damage was already done.
Plus, Hansen had been a combat medic in another life. He was in love with his Old Lady. He was a good man. He would take care of her.
Even knowing all of that, I couldn’t let her go.
“You can hold on to her,” he said placidly, evenly. “You don’t have to let her go. I just need to check her vitals.”
With my jaw clenched, I nodded to him, unable to speak. He needed to check her vitals. He needed to see if I was holding a dead woman in my arms. For the second time in my life, I was holding the world in my arms, and it was already fucking gone.
Hansen moved forward slowly but urgently, as if he were trying to deal with a rabid dog. I was a rabid dog.
His hands moved carefully, touching her reverently and professionally. His fingers were stained with her blood.
“I’ve got a pulse,” he uttered. “A faint one.”
A pulse. A faint pulse. I held on to that. Her heart was barely beating, but it was beating. That meant I still had something to hold on to. One thread to grip on to before I tore this fuckin’ world apart.
He looked at me. “She needs a hospital.” Although he spoke in a low, even tone, there was a sense of urgency in there that scared the hell out of me. “Can tell she’s got broken ribs.” His eyes scanned her face. Her ruined face. “Broken nose for sure. Maybe a fractured eye socket.” He spoke with a calmness that came from the battlefield.
There were muttered curses from behind him as he listed Kate’s injuries that were anything but calm.
“She may be bleeding internally,” Hansen continued. “We can’t treat her at the club.”
Hospital.
It was with only the very worst-case scenarios that we fucked with hospitals. Sarah, the doctor the club trusted, could do almost anything at the club.
Almost.
Hospitals had protocols, paper trails, things that would become inconvenient for us.
Life or death. That’s what hospitals were reserved for.
“Well, then we’re gettin’ her to a fuckin’ hospital,” I snarled.
Hansen nodded, watching me carefully. I realized I was still pointing my piece at him.
“We’ve got a Prospect with a van fifteen minutes out,” Cody reported, staring at Kate in horror.
All of the brothers were. Except Hades. That motherfucker had nothing on his face. Which was most dangerous.
“Can get an ambulance here in five,” Elden grunted, phone at his ear.
“Does she have five minutes?” I asked Hansen, lowering my gun.
We were all on bikes. There was no way to transport her even if she didn’t.
Hansen nodded. “Yeah, she’ll hold on,” he said firmly. “She’s strong.”
I looked down at her, brushing the hair that was stuck to her face in blood. “Yeah, Countess,” I murmured. “You’re strong. You can hold on. Hold on for me.”
My eyes found Hades. The only person I would trust with the request I was going to make.
“You need to find the husband. Find him. Make him hurt. Don’t cut anything off, but make him fuckin’ hurt. Make him want to die. Take him back to the club where I can finish him.”
Hades nodded, not hesitating to climb back on his bike and roar off.
The husband would die. Slowly. If he died or not, did not depend on whether Kate made it or not.
If I died or not depended on whether Kate made it or not.
Chapter Fifteen
Swiss
“Sir, we can take it from here.”
I stared at the man in the white coat who was trying to separate me from Kate.
I’d ridden in the ambulance with her, watching the paramedics work on her.
They’d had to perform CPR about five minutes after they got there.
Hansen had been right.
Kate did have five minutes.
But she wouldn’t have had ten. If I’d fucked around for ten more minutes, she would’ve died alone on the side of the road.
They managed to bring her back.
Faint pulse.
That’s what I was reciting in my mind.
Faint pulse.
“You aren’t takin’ her anywhere where my eyes aren’t on her,” I informed the doctor, holding onto Kate’s stretcher with an iron grip.
In my mind’s eye, I saw double doors close, the image gritty, faded with age. I saw a man in a white coat stop me as I tried to walk through them. Though they certainly couldn’t be the same man, they looked the same to me. Older. White. Went to the country club on Sundays.
Because I’d been brought up to respect and fear such figures, I’d listened that time when he’d told me to wait. That he would take care of things. I’d believed the rich, older, educated man because I’d been conditioned to.
Since then, I didn’t respect anyone who wasn’t wearing a Son’s cut. And in that moment, I didn’t fucking fear anything other than Kate going through those doors without me.