He rolls his eyes as if that’s just one more reason she needs more than a doc, a nurse, and an amateur medical room. “I saw the scar and suspected. Bronwyn knows to watch closely for any signs of infection. I have already prescribed antibiotics preemptively, so she should be good for now. But at the sign of a raised temperature, I need to know.” He shakes his head as if he doesn’t understand why he’s doing this. “Just promise me one thing.” He pauses and waits.
“Anything,” I vow.
“If Bronwyn has concerns, you get her to the hospital, risks be damned. There, at least she’d have a chance.”
My lips press together. Am I wrong to insist she gets treatment here at the club? Am I overestimating the risk of the Mafia finding her? Are they even looking, or did Alongi act completely on his own? Would her death be on me for not getting her the best medical attention?
I’m to blame however this goes. Instead of killing the fucking bitch, I let Toni go. And how did she repay me for her freedom? She sold Trixie out to the Mafia. I can only hope any payment was worth it, knowing she won’t live long enough to enjoy it. Tyrant will have no mercy on her, and if he needs encouragement, all I’ll need to do is send him a picture of how Trix looks. He’ll have to extract information before he kills her. We need to know how much she told the fucking Mafia about the club, and whether they’re likely to come calling.
Not that we’d be worried. We’d be more than a match for them. After the attack by the MDMC, we’ve got fortified gates and a reinforced steel fence all around the compound. Our windows are bulletproof glass. At least Toni never learned how well we can defend ourselves.
“Well?” Belatedly, I realise the doc is waiting for an answer.
“I agree,” I tell him. “I’ll do the best for my woman, but the best right now is for her to stay with us. If her condition worsens, we’ll take the risk of bringing her in.”
“You call for the paramedics. If she goes downhill, time will be of the essence.”
I raise my chin. “Understood.”
He copies my action, then, bag in hand, turns to go. Now that he’s finished treating her, I’m not going to be kept apart from my old lady. I’d been pushed out earlier, being told I was in the way, but now nothing is going to stop me. As I cross the clubroom, brothers parting to make my way easier, out of theside of my eye, I see Bullseye stop the doctor, presumably to offer the gratitude that I’d forgotten to acknowledge, or give him some recompense for his time and trouble this evening.
At the medical room door, I hesitate, my mind flashing back to how I’d found her. While I had wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms and comfort her, she was so badly injured that I didn’t know where I could touch without hurting her. When she’d lost consciousness, for a moment, I’d thought she was dead.
She could still die,a voice in the back of my head reminds me. I silence it.Not on my watch. We’ve got a whole lifetime to live together.
My hand shakes as I push down the handle and open the door. The Delta operator inside me, even the enforcer, is missing. As I step inside, I become simply a man worried sick about his woman.
Ignoring Bronwyn, who’s fussing about, taking Trixie’s pulse, applying a blood pressure monitor, and checking the medication is running through the IV as it’s meant to, my focus is solely on my woman. Even though I’d seen the extent of her injuries with my own eyes, my heart breaks as I see her again, as if part of me hoped that the doctor had worked miracles. She’s been cleaned up, but her eyes are still blackened, and her face so pale her skin’s almost translucent. She’s lying so still, I have to check for myself that her chest is still rising and falling.
There’s a scraping sound. Bronwyn touches my arm and points to the chair she’s just drawn up for me. “Sit, Freak. You can hold her hand. Talk to her. She might not show any reaction, but it’s possible she can hear your voice.”
Words stick in my throat. Then I manage to croak out, “I don’t know what to say.” I’ve never been much of a talker, especially in a one-sided conversation.
Placing her hand on my shoulder, she says softly, “Tell her how much you love her, Freak. Tell her the man who hurt her will never get near her again. Talk about Ace, and the future you’re going to have together. About the new house that you’re building. Anything. All she needs is to hear your voice.”
Suddenly, I doubt I was right to keep her here and not let her go to the hospital, where she could get full medical attention. I raise my eyes to Bronwyn. “You’ll keep checking her? Watch for any sign of deterioration?”
Instead of getting riled that I’m telling her about the job she’s trained for, she squeezes her fingers that are still on my shoulder. “I know what I’m doing, Freak. If I have the slightest worry, I’ll call the paramedics in.”
“When will she wake up? Is the medication keeping her under?”
Moving away from me to perform her checks again, Bronwyn shakes her head. “She’s not on any sedative. She’s unconscious as her body needs time to heal. She’ll wake up when she’s ready.”
At first, it’s difficult to get any words past the lump in my throat. I’m overly conscious that Trixie can’t talk back, and I feel awkward talking about my emotions in front of a third person. But Bronwyn just efficiently keeps doing her own thing, as if I don’t exist in her medical world.
Taking Trixie’s hand, I bend over and kiss it, noting the blood under her fingernails that corresponds with the scratches I’d seen on Alongi’s face. “You fought back, didn’t you, Trix?” The words start to come at last. “I fuckin’ love you, woman. I didn’t think you could still surprise me, but you defended yourself. Made quite a mess of that bastard’s face.” I even manage a soft chuckle. “I presume you were responsible for breaking thesoldato’snose. But don’t worry, we finished the job. We put a bullet straight between his eyes.” I pause, as if waiting for her to respond. She doesn’t, of course. “We’ve got Alongi. You’ll neverhave to worry about him again. As soon as we’ve questioned him, he’ll have a date with Words’ cremator. Neither of their bodies will ever be found. You’re safe. And fuck, Trix, I’ll propose properly later when I’ve got a ring, and you can reply to me, but I want nothing more than to marry you, give you a new fuckin’ name so you never have to think about him again. I’ll ask you, you can bet on that. And though Ace is coming up sixteen, let’s make it so you can adopt him legally. He’ll like that.”
There’s movement behind her eyelids. “Bron!” I get her attention and point it out, worried when they go still again.
“It’s normal, Freak, like when you’re dreaming. Take it as a sign she’s still in there.”
I resume talking, not knowing where all the words are coming from. I go through the topics that Bronwyn had suggested to me, then I think of a few more. I describe bike rides we’ll take together when she’s properly healed.
“Her blood pressure is coming down,” Bronwyn interrupts me.
“Is that a good or bad thing?”
She smiles as she reassures me. “Good.”
