Despite what had happened last night, she was a major, and he was still very much enlisted.
Ryker didn’t seem fazed by her comment and continued to tease, “Yeah, I’m not supposed to say this, but she’s got all of us wrapped around her finger.”
Bent’s attention focused on her, and she prayed he didn’t notice the flush in her cheeks.
His gaze narrowed. “What did you need to talk with me about?”
“It’s about Angel Fire. Ash and the guys…”
She cocked her head, surprised at his hesitancy but understood his concern. Their request affected him on a level that went beyond simply butting his way into the band. She needed to ask him about it later.
“Yeah, where are they? I mean, no disrespect, Tia, but I kind of thought they’d be the ones standing beside my bed. Not you.”
“What do you mean?” Ryker asked. “They said—”
“Ryker,” she interrupted, “his memory is spotty. He doesn’t remember anything before this morning. I don’t think he knows what they did or didn’t say to him.”
Ryker’s eyes widened. “Shit, that bites.”
“Yeah,” Bent said, pointing to his head. “Everything is scrambled in here.” He paused and glanced down, losing himself in thought for a moment, but then he glanced up. “Is my memory fucked? Like, is this one of those brain injury things?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “Want me to find out?”
“Only if I’m going to remember,” he said with a frown. “This is so fucked up.” His eyes brightened, and he turned to Ryker. “Hey! I’ve got an idea.”
“What?”
“Don’t let Ash cancel the tour.”
“I—”
“Nah, listen,” Bent pushed, “he can’t cancel. I might be fucked up, but you’re not.”
Ryker lifted both hands and took a step back. “Hey, I’m not so sure…”
“Fuck, Ash has been talking about this tour for the past six months. He’s been totally stoked about it. I don’t want this to mess with that.” He rapped on the splint covering his arm. “Who knows how long I’m going to be out of it? But that’s no reason for the tour to suffer, not when we’ve got you.”
“Bent,” she said, interjecting herself into a conversation that didn’t concern her, “that’s a lot to ask of Ryker. I know I’d feel a little weird about it if it were me.”
“Why?” His eyes cut between her and Ryker. “I think it’s a great idea. He knows all the songs. We only have a couple that are new, ones we wanted to premier on this tour. It won’t take but a secondfor him to learn them. It’s the perfect solution to a royally fucked up situation.”
“You want me to play for Angel Fire?” Ryker pressed two fingers to his forehead. “I just don’t know.”
“Shit, you gotta do this for me,” Bent begged.
Ryker had a deep-seated fear about stepping in and breaking up the band, but excitement lingered behind his eyes. There was a desperation to his refusal, but Bent remained steadfast and insistent. While they argued back and forth, she stepped away to take a look at Bent’s chart, worried about the extent of the damage to his arm and concerned about his memory loss. There was more than a little swelling in his hand, and not all of his fingers had been moving when he wiggled them. The possibility of nerve damage weighed heavily on her mind. He might never fully recover, and that would have significant repercussions.
The door to the ward banged open, and five men entered, bringing the overall level of testosterone to a suffocating height. Angel Fire had arrived, and behind them, the towering form of her savior surveyed the room. Forest’s eyes latched on to her, shifted to Ryker, and narrowed with disapproval.Did he know?
Not possible.
She and Ryker had been careful. But why did it look like Forest wanted to rip Ryker a new one?
“Did you tell him?” Ash entered the room like he owned it, sauntering in with swagger.
His charismatic grin brought smiles to the faces of the other patients in the ward—men trapped on beds, attached to monitoring wires, and hooked to IV tubing. He didn’t ignore them even though he clearly wanted to speak with Bent. Ash and the others stopped at each bed, shook hands with the patients, and lightened the mood by cracking jokes and generally goofing off. It was probably the bestpain medicine those guys would see and one hell of a story for them to tell their friends.
Eventually, Ash made his way over to Bent. He gripped Bent’s good shoulder and gave it a shake. “Did you?”
