Next thing I knew, I was alone with Duke. I guess the saying “Be careful what you wish for” was true. I had repeatedly wished to have some time alone with Duke and now I did. Fucking great.
CHAPTER FOUR
Duke
My mind seemed to wake up before my body did. Everything hurt and nothing worked. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get my eyes to open. I couldn’t get any of my body parts to voluntarily move and I couldn’t make a sound. For a brief moment, I thought I might be dead, but then I remembered the pain. What in the hell was going on?
I tried to quiet my mind and pay attention to what I could hear. At least my ears seemed to be working. There was a rhythmic beeping and the sounds of some kind of cloth or clothing being rustled. A door opened and closed and then I heard footsteps. I felt a hand touch mine and then I heard her voice. Reese.
“Duke, please wake up. It’s been days. Days! I need you to wake up. I can’t handle this. It’s too much for me. Everything is too much. I need you. I need you to wake up. Please,” she said and sniffled. Was she crying? Reese didn’t cry. Before I could figure out what was going on or where we were, I drifted off into the black abyss again.
The next time I woke, I heard Reese’s voice right away. “I have to go back to the clubhouse when your sister gets here. Please, Duke, please come back to us. Please.” I felt something wet land on my nose and then her lips ever so gently touched my cheek.
Off and on I woke, hearing a variety of voices and conversations each time. Every time I woke, I tried with everything I had to move or make some kind of noise, but nothing worked. I would try and try until I fell back into the black.
One of the last times I woke in my paralyzed like state, I heard Reese’s voice again. She was talking to someone. I soon realized the other voice belonged to my sister. “Reese, honey, are you sure you’re okay? You’ve been in that bathroom throwing up every day for the last week. If you’re sick, you really shouldn’t be around Duke.”
“I’m not sick, Harper. I already told you. My stomach gets upset like this when I’m worried or stressed. Trust me, it’s not contagious,” Reese snapped back.
Harper huffed, “This is none of my business, but are you pregnant?”
I heard Reese gasp and quickly answer, “Of course I’m not pregnant. It’s not even a possibility.” It was a possibility, she and I both knew that. Condoms weren’t one hundred percent effective. I assumed she was on birth control, as most girls her age were, but that wasn’t one hundred percent effective either. Even though the chance was small, it was still a possibility. And by the way Reese answered, I would guess it was a certainty.
The next conversation I recalled hearing was a one-sided conversation Reese was having. I assumed she was on the phone since I couldn’t hear the other person. “I’m sure. I don’t want it. It’s not up to him, it’s my decision to make. I don’t care about the money. I just want it gone as fast as possible. Just set it up and let me know the time and place. I’ll be there.”
Not long after that, Harper arrived to relieve Reese. I’m guessing they had been tag teaming staying with me so that I was never left alone in the hospital. “I hope your appointment goes well. Will you be back this afternoon?” Harper asked.
“Thanks. I’m not sure if I’ll be back or not. It depends on how long it takes. I’ll call and let you know,” Reese replied.
So, she was pregnant with my child and she was off to have an abortion while I was laid up in this fucking hospital unable to have any say in what she was doing. By the time she got back, awake or not, it would already be done and there would be nothing I could do about it. Consumed with fury, I gladly let the blackness take me away.
The next time my mind came back online, I did the same thing I did each time before. I tried to open my eyes first. They opened. Holy shit, my eyes opened! My vision was blurry, but it was steadily clearing. The next thing I tried was my voice. It worked. I made some unintelligible sound, but it was enough. Harper’s face was directly in front of mine seconds later.
She yelled my name as tears fell from her eyes. I winced from the sheer volume of her voice. “Tone it down would you, sis? My fucking head is killing me.”
“That’s because you had brain surgery. And excuse me for being happy. You’ve been in a coma for a week and a half,” she snapped.
What? A week and a half? That couldn’t be right. “You’re shitting me, right?”
“I most certainly am not. It’s been the longest 10 days of my life. I didn’t know if you would ever come out of it and they couldn’t even tell us if you would be the same if you did wake up. Clearly, you’re the same asshole you were before your attack.”
“My attack?” I asked.
“You don’t remember?” she asked. I shook my head. “You were attacked by someone or someones. You were stabbed eight times and had a severe head injury. Any of that ring a bell?”
It didn’t. I remembered leaving the clubhouse and riding into town. The last thing I could remember was riding down Main Street. After that, nothing. I was lost in my thoughts, trying desperately to remember what in the hell happened to me when a nurse and two doctors entered the room.
“Mr. Jackson, good to see you awake. How are you feeling?” the man I assumed to be a doctor asked.
The next portion of the day was spent being examined by two different physicians, answering a litany of questions, and going through a series of ridiculous medical tests. By the time they were finished, I was exhausted, which of course is when Phoenix showed up. I did my best to answer his questions and then played the I’m too tired for any more right now card.
Truth be told, I wanted to see Reese. We apparently had some things to discuss, but it’s not like I could ask for her. I would just have to wait until she showed up in my room. Unfortunately for me, that didn’t happen until two days later. By that time, I was well and truly pissed.
I was pretending to be asleep when Reese walked in. I maintained the facade until I was sure that my sister had left. Then, I opened my eyes and waited for her to notice me. It didn’t take long. She smiled and came closer to the bed. “Duke, I’m so glad you’re awake. I’ve been so worried about you.”
I just stared at her. During the time I had to brood, I decided that I would give her a dose of her own medicine. In other words, I was going to shut down and not talk. Immature? Absolutely. Did I care? Not one bit. Eventually, she stopped trying to talk to me and returned to her seat. This pattern continued for several days before she stopped coming to the hospital altogether.
Then, one day, she showed up out of the blue. I called and asked one of my brothers to bring me my laptop and a few other necessities. According to Reese, no one other than her was available to bring the requested items to me. She assured me that she was only dropping off the items and had no plans to stay. That was until she received a text message. She held up her phone and showed me the text.
