Bulldog grabbed Jenna’s jacket off the rack by the door and brought it to her. He was rougher than Jack would have been, but at this point, Jenna didn’t care. Jack stepped away, still talking to Carlos. He was taking care of their son now that Bulldog was here to help with her.
“I’m sorry,” Bulldog murmured. She must have winced and not realized it. “Can you walk?”
Tears escaped her eyes as she shook her head. Or tried to shake her head.
He must have gotten the message because she was in his arms in the next second. He took her weight with ease. Once outside, Jenna noticed one of the club’s SUVs idling in their driveway. Most of the snow from the winter had melted by now with only the occasional patch here or there. The club was due to take their bikes out for their first run of the season soon. Depending on the weather, it was usually the last week of March or the first week of April. Grumpy would be working on getting them all de-winterized by now.
Bulldog got her to the SUV and buckled in. Every motion hurt, but Jenna bore it. She had to. Ollie was going to need his mother.
Jack hopped into the passenger seat. She hadn’t even seen him leaving the house. “Hospital,” he ordered Bulldog when the SAA got behind the wheel.
“What’s happening?” Jenna asked. She thought her voice was too low and slurred to be understood, but Jack turned in his seat to face her. She noticed he wasn’t on the phone anymore.
“Carlos says the ambulance has Aaron. They’re on their way to the hospital already. The firefighters are working on getting to Ollie.”
“He’s alive?!” Her voice was louder that time, driven by her shock and relief, but still slurred.
“He’s alive,” Jack confirmed. “But he’s hurt. Carlos thinks it’s a broken leg.”
A broken leg? They could deal with a broken leg. Her poor baby, but he wasalive!He would heal! That was all that mattered.
Jack turned back towards the front. In a hard voice that was all Steel, he told Bulldog, “Chip said he didn’t see any brake lights.”
Jenna’s eyes caught Bulldog’s grip on the wheel tighten. He pulled out his own phone and put it to his ear. “Grumpy,” he snapped. “Get to Chester Road. Ollie’s cage crashed.” Slight pause, and then, “I don’t know yet, but we need you to look at it. Particularly, his brake line.” Bulldog’s jaw ticked. “Possible.”
Jenna didn’t know what was possible, but she did not like what she was hearing. While she didn’t know enough about cars to know specifically what no taillights meant, she understood what Bulldog had just asked of Grumpy. If the brake line was cut, did that mean the brakesandthe taillights wouldn’t work?
Pain flared in her neck and shoulders again. Jenna tried to muffle her gasp, but Jack must have heard. He spun around in his chair to look at her. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Jenna couldn’t shake her head to answer. “Fine,” she tried to insist.
“You are not fine, Jen,” Jack insisted.
Jenna, though, squared her jaw—even if only metaphorically. She would be fine, because her son needed her. She didn’t care what it took. She wasnotrelapsing now.
Steel spotted Chip first. “What happened?!”
The prospect had blood down the front of his white shirt. His brown eyes looked a little wild, but mentally, he appeared to be present. “Everything seemed fine. They drove through town, stopped numerous times with no issues. Then we got on Chester Road. I gave them some distance, but could still see their cage clearly. Next thing I know, the cage is swerving. I saw no brake lights. It all happened so fast. They went right, a tire blew, and they went into the guard rail.”
Jenna’s hand in Steel’s flexed. She was in a wheelchair provided by the hospital. Bulldog dropped them off at the ER doors and then went to park. She was limp, but what she was experiencing was far different from any other exacerbation Steel had seen her have before. It was like she was there mentally, but not physically. He didn’t know if that was good or bad, and what was worse, was she kept insisting she was fine.
“Where’s Ollie?” Steel demanded.
“He hasn’t arrived yet,” Chip told them. “I went in the ambulance with Aaron since Carlos was with Ollie. They were still working on getting him out of the cage when I left. But Carlos said he was responsive and talking.”
Jenna’s arm shook. “How’s Aaron?” she asked, her words slow and deliberate. Like she was trying to suppress her slur.
Fucking hell. His son had been wounded in a car accident and his wife might be having a flare-up—and Steel was fuckinguselessto help either.
“Where’s Tessa?”
“In with Aaron,” Chip said, pointing behind himself and to the right. The ER was a large oval with the nurses’ station in the middle and exam rooms on either side. Opposite the entry doors were the double doors that led into the main hospital area. “His arm might be broken. He soccer mom’ed Ollie when they impacted.”
Steel had no idea what that meant, and he was running out of patience. “He what?”
“He put his arm across Ollie’s chest when the airbags deployed,” Chip explained.
Steel would have called that a 70s seatbelt, but he supposed that was aging himself. Given Ollie’s size and the potential speed they hit the guard rail, that action might have saved Ollie from a broken clavicle or nose from the impact of the airbag. Shit. Steel was going to have to thank Aaron. Why couldn’t the guy be a dick? It would make Steel’s life so much easier.
