“Yes, thanks.”
His gaze lingers on my neck.I have a red line there.He frowns.
“Shout if you need anything.”I duck out of the curtain before he can comment.
“Scarlet.”The head nurse rushes up to me.“Eight-year-old boy with stridor in two.I’ve given oxygen and a nebulizer but he’s getting worse.I don’t know why.”
“Okay, I’ll come and see him now.”
****
Reaper
Riding away from the Mountain Inn was one of the most gut-wrenching things I’ve ever done in my life, and I’ve done some difficult shit and been in some hairy-assed scrapes.But leaving Scarlet, the only woman who’s made me feel anything in such a long time, screws with my head and my heart.
But I have to be strong and stick to my resolution.I’m no damn good for her.She is the beauty to my beast.If I am the devil she is a fucking angel.I’d nearly gotten her killed not once but twice, and if it went to a third time, perhaps she wouldn’t be so lucky.Perhaps I wouldn’t be so lucky.
I drive into the clubhouse, park up, and stomp to the makeshift bar we have beside the meeting room.Ghost is sipping from a bottle of Bud.I swipe one from the refrigerator and shove a few dollars into the honesty box.I flip the lid and it clatters to the floor.
“Where’s your woman?”Ghost asks.
“She’s not my fucking woman.”I take a gulp then slam the bottle on the stained old bar and grab a seat.
“Huh, could have fooled me.”He raises his eyebrows.
“Did you see her with a knife at her neck?A Hyena holding it with murder on his mind?”I shake my head to try and rid the terrifying image.What I wouldn’t have done in that moment to have the knife at my neck.
“Yeah, I saw that, then I saw you kill the motherfucker.”
“And so did she.”I clench my jaw.
“And that’s a problem?”
“Yeah, don’t you get it, she’s a goddamn healer, a doctor, that’s what she was put on this earth to do, and I’m a monster, a killer, the exact opposite.”
He shrugs.“Opposites attract.”
“Not on this occasion, one opposite will get the other killed.”
He’s quiet for a moment.An engine revs outside, someone tinkering with their bike.“Shame, it would have been useful to have a doc around here.”
I jab my finger at him.“She’s more than an asset, man.”
“Hey, hey, I know that.”He holds up his hands in mock surrender then grins.“Certainly, to you she is.”
I scowl at him, my shoulders tensing.“Not anymore.”
“Yeah, yeah, you keep telling yourself that.”
“Why you being an ass, Ghost?”
“Because you’re my bro, and despite me being a big numb-nut I care about you, and when I’ve seen you with her, which ain’t much, you’ve looked more alive than you have in years.”
“Yeah, I ain’t exactly known her long, so no big deal.She’s gone back to her life and I’ve gone back to mine.”
“Her life at the ER?”
“You got it.”I take another slug of drink.“I’m fucking lethal, she protects life, we don’t mix.”
