The shift makes me uneasy. “And in a professional context, I appreciate that. Good night, Dr. Lane.”
His shoulders drop, and the smile returns as if he’s remembered who he is. “Of course. Goodnight, Isla.”
The fakeness of it sends a chill through me.
Thankfully, people mill around as I hurry from the building, but I find myself praying that my car starts the first time. I don’t want Noah to feel inspired to save me.
This morning, I did what Garrett said. I took the long way to work, all the way through town, then turning around at the grocery store at the town limits before weaving my way back to the vet.
And I look up to the ink-blue sky when my engine does function. It’s a beautifully clear Colorado evening, filled with stars, and I feel lucky. Lucky that Garrett and Kai…wait, I don’t know if I should call him that. Garrett mentioned his name, but Jackal didn’t say I could use it. Either way, I’m lucky that theyboth looked out for me this morning. I wonder if I should get them a gift. Something to thank them.
I don’t really have the skills to bake them something. And I’m pretty sure they don’t need anything handy done. I found a stack of notecards in Nanna’s bedside table when I was sorting through them the first night I stayed there. Maybe I’ll write them a note to say thank you.
When I get my next paycheck, I’m gonna have to figure out my budget. There are things that need doing to the house. And I know I’m being unsafe, driving around in the dark with a broken taillight. If a cop sees me, I’m getting a ticket.
But as I approach the turn for our road, another vehicle approaches from the opposite direction. When it gets closer and I see it’s an ambulance indicating it’s about to turn onto my road, my heart races.
Immediately, I wonder who is hurt. Garrett or…
Kai…Jackal…follows the ambulance on his bike.
“Oh, my God.”
Quickly, I park my car at home and run across the road to their house. Jackal tugs off his helmet and rubs his hand over his face, then through his hair. The glass from their front window is shattered all over the ground.
“Are you okay? What happened?” I ask.
Jackal looks as though he’s about to say something, but he shakes his head as he steps off the bike. He glances at the broken window, and I see the despair in his eyes.
“Is Shade…Garrett…okay?” I stand in front of him, but he looks ruined. “Come here.”
I step into his arms to hug him, but instead of the gentle hug I’ve offered, he wraps his arms tightly around me, drops his head to my shoulder, and makes a sound somewhere between a sob and a gasp.
My stomach drops. No second bike. A devastated biker.
For a moment, the scent of leather and the feel of the patch on his back shake me. But there’s something desperately human in the way he’s clinging to me.
The driver’s door opens, and Jackal quickly steps away from me. He rubs his face with both gloved hands and then physically tries to shake himself off.
“You ready to help him get inside?” Butcher says, closing the driver’s door before opening the rear doors of the ambulance. I’d recognize that man’s voice anywhere. I’ve slept with him more times than I care to mention.
And when his old lady, Greer, steps to the back of the ambulance, I’m reminded why I was never going to be good enough. She’s so beautiful, it hurts. And so smart, she was able to become a surgeon.
Butcher reaches out to help her down, and she grips hold of him. “Today, I think I will take you up on that offer. Can’t believe I still have seven more weeks of this.”
Butcher smiles softly, in a way he never smiled at me, and puts his hand on her large bump. “Don’t wish it away. You look fucking beautiful. And let me do all the lifting.”
Greer kisses him. “I’m going to take you up on that offer too.”
I step back, feeling the mixed guilt and shame flood me.
“You’re okay,” Jackal says quietly, his lips close to my ear.
“Isla,” Butcher says in his usual gruff way.
Greer pretty much ignores me.
I can’t say I blame her. Not sure I would want to hang around with a woman who’d slept with my husband before me.
