Alessia cracks a smile, just barely. “The nurses think he’s a war criminal. He threatened to ‘clear the entire floor’ if they didn’t tell him where you were.”
Something unclenches in my chest. I sag back against the pillow.
There’s a knock at the door, a warning, and then Rabid enters. He fills the doorway, his leather vest black as midnight, his beard bristling like a bear emerging from hibernation. His eyes lock onto mine, and for a moment I’m eight years old again, but all Rabid does is stand there, silent, until the others make room for him at my bedside.
He looks at me for a long time, then at the women gathered around. He shakes his head, half-admiration, half-exasperation. “You lived through something evil,” he says. “And you fought back. That makes you a member of the Twisted Devils family. Permanently. No matter what happens, no matter where you go, you’ll always be one of us, and we will always have your back.”
His voice is low thunder, a declaration, a home. Emotion stings my eyes again.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
Rabid nods once, sharply. “Breaker’s in good hands. He’ll be with you soon. That fool’s stubborn as hell, but he’s strong. And he sure as shit loves you.”
My breath catches, and finally, I whisper the only thing in my heart. “I need to see him.”
Molly squeezes my hand. Bianca wipes a tear from her cheek. And Claire flashes a knowing look at her ol’ man.
Rabid nods without hesitation. “Then let’s make that happen.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Breaker
Pain wakes me before the light does. It is white-hot and bone-deep, a punishing force that rips through my unconsciousness and drags me awake. Breathing hurts. My ribs are a hive of angry hornets. My left wrist is immobile, wrapped so thick that it feels like a separate entity. There’s a tightness around my head, a bandage, probably keeping my skull from splitting apart. My mouth tastes of blood and metal. Every muscle feels like I’ve been beaten with rebar. I wish that were the case.
I open my eyes. Ceiling tiles, off-white and uneven. A beige curtain, half-pulled around my bed like a shroud. Someone’s drawn a marker smiley face on the IV bag. It was probably Mayhem. I want to hit him for it.
I brace myself, grit my teeth, and try to sit up. My core rebels immediately; a spike of agony bolts through my chest and into my back, paralyzing me halfway up.
I drop back onto the pillow, panting.
“Lie. Down.” A nurse appears like a tiny, furious angel of death and shoves me back against the mattress with surprising strength. “You have a dislocated wrist, three cracked ribs, deep tissue bruising, several knife wounds, and a concussion. Oh, and dehydration. And stupidity, but that’s not covered by insurance. You’re lucky you’re not in a body bag, and you are not getting out of this bed.”
“Watch me,” I growl, already trying again.
She plants her palm in the center of my chest. “Test me, Marine. I dare you. Test me and find out what it’s like to be sedated… again.”
I glare. She glares harder.
I consider it just long enough to make her nervous. “What hospital is this?”
“Ironwood Memorial,” she says, checking the chart. “And before you ask, yes, you have visitors. And yes, they’re already causing trouble.”
Before I can decide whether to call her bluff about sedating me, the door swings open and Rabid steps inside. “Give us a moment, please,” he says.
The nurse nods and leaves the room.
He walks to the foot of my bed, arms crossed over his cut, eyes tracking every inch of me, assessing my injuries, assessing the man who survived betrayal.
“You look like shit,” he says.
“Feel like it, too.”
He drags a chair over and sits, his expression carved from stone. “You wanna tell me what the fuck happened?”
I do. I tell him everything. I tell him about Viper, about Pike, about the two of them working together as some kind of murderous team, about the betrayal, the basement, the fight — all of it in details that make my stomach roil to repeat.
By the time I finish, Rabid's knuckles have gone white around the armrests. In his eyes, I can see a murderous score being kept and know that the bartender who drugged Riley and anyone else who helped or knew about it and did nothing is in for a rude awakening. After a second, he shakes his head, and something approaching kindness settles into his eyes.
