“Transport’s here!” is shouted from somewhere in the front.
“I haven’t had any check ins from Renegade, but we need to have church once we get back to the clubhouse. We’ll have to fill him and his crew in on what we discuss when they return,” Rip states.
“Kaboom!” Rebel hollers as we sit back and enjoy watching the old Kmart facility go up in flames. I can’t seem to swipe the demented smile from my face as I watch it engulf in flames.
Splicer went with the transport team to Dallas to get the women settled and make sure they understand that our part in this fiasco doesn’t go any further than between us and them. He’s going to grab himself a hotel room in the area for a night or two so he can be of any assistance the women may need until help arrives. He’ll be joining our church meeting via satellite through a secure line.
Hazard, refusing to sit on the sidelines, left the hospital after being shot against medical advice by signing himself out, went back to the club and grabbed one of our SUVs. He, as well as Scripture, took Zoey, Elodie, and Letti back to the clubhouse so they could get cleaned up and some food in their bellies.
I’m sure once they’ve taken care of their basic needs, they’ll head to Indiana’s room and pass out from the adrenaline drop. I’m not sure where Letti will end up, but we have plenty of spare rooms on the prospects’ wing that she can use until we figure out where she’ll end up. Wherever that is, I’ll have my eyes on her.
CHAPTER
TEN
Letti
When I wake up,my eyes feel raw and gritty. For the first time in years, I allowed the tears to flow without fighting to hold them back. When I was shown to this room, my nerves got the best of me. Being alone freaked me out—I didn’t feel safe even though I knew I was.
These men put everything on the line to make sure we were. They basically initiated war with the Onyx wannabe Dragons. Devils… what the fuck ever. I’m so damn tired that I don’t give a shit if I call them by the right name or not.
Who doesn’t know what the name of their gang is anyway? Fools, that’s who. That thought makes me snort because it’s a ludicrous thing to have floating through your mind.
Feeling achy from sleeping in the same position throughout the night, I sit up and stretch my arms above my head, hearing the snap, crackle, and pop of my bones as my muscles loosen. A light chuckle has my head shifting to the other side of the room where a dark figure sits on the chair.
“Viking, is that you?”
“You didn’t move the whole night,” he informs me. “Had to check on you a few times to make sure you were still breathing.”
“Did you sit in that chair all night?” I ask, wondering why he’d do that. It’s a conundrum that I’d like answered.
“Most of it,” he states, and I see the shadow of his shoulders lift up then fall down in a shrug before he slouches back in the chair. “Don’t sleep much. Bad dreams.”
“That can’t be good for you. Your body requires rest, Viking.”
“I manage. I’ve gotten used to less sleep. I function just fine, Letti.”
“I could give you all the statistics on why that’s a bad thing, Viking man, but I won’t. Why did you stay here all night?” That’s the thing that’s plaguing me. Whereas I felt an instant connection to him, like he is the oxygen my lungs so desperately needed, I didn’t think that was reciprocated even though he stayed glued to my hip like a bump on a log yesterday after rescuing me and the others.
“Don’t know. Just needed to,” he answers.
“A man of few words, I see?” I ask, internally rolling my eyes. “Not much of an explanation,” I complain beneath my breath.
“If there’s nothing to say, why talk?” he counters, tilting his head to the side. “Endless chatter over bullshit is worthless. No reason for it. Wouldn’t you say?”
“Depends,” I remark. I’m a social butterfly since joining the land of the living. “After enduring my lonely childhood, where theonly company I had was myself, I like to fill the void of silence on most days.”
“Sounds exhausting,” he murmurs.
“Or uplifting,” I oppose. “Guess it’s a matter of how you look at it.”
“Glass half empty,” he parries.
“Or half full,” I counter, thwarting his negative viewpoint before letting him go down that rabbit hole. Today, I need sunshine and rainbows in my life, not shadows and dreary moods. “I’m free, Viking. Yesterday, I was preparing myself to go on the auction block and be sold to the highest bidder where there’s no telling what kind of life I would’ve had. So yeah, my glass is half full instead of partially empty.”
“We’re like oil and water,” he muses, snorting.
“Or like gold at the end of a rainbow after a stormy day and the pot the coins reside in,” I point out.
