I blinked so many times until I could see I was in a hospital room, machines hooked to my body,
and there was a doctor and a nurse checking up on me.
I waited until they finished their examination and left the room. Then I turned to Jesse who was all
bruised. “What happened?” I slurred.
He wet my lips with some ice chips and stroked my hair. “He’s dead. When you stomped his foot,
he was startled. He fired his gun, but thank fuck you couldn’t hold yourself up anymore. When you
fell, the bullet landed in your shoulder, not in your skull. I shot him myself right after.”
“But now the family will come after you.”
“I don’t give a shit. Let them come. I don’t care about anything but you and keeping you safe.”
“Oh, Jesse. You’re so stupid.” I cried. “What about your brothers? Are they okay?”
“They’ll live. Some of them are in the next room, but they’re all kickin’.”
“And you?”
“A few scratches here and there is all. I’m all right, baby girl.”
The door opened, and Colton came in. He took one look at me and smiled. “She’s up, y’all!”
Racer wheeled himself in, sitting in a wheelchair. Cottonmouth followed, his arm in a cast. Viper
walked in as well, dragging an IV stand.
“Holy shit. What happened to you guys?” I asked, pained to see them all battered up because of
me.
“That ain’t nothing, girl. We’ve seen worse,” Racer said.
“Colton, you did good, my man. We don’t know what we would have done without you,” Jesse
said, and the rest of the men patted Colton on the shoulders and back. His father looked at him so
proudly. I glanced at Jesse for an explanation.
He held my hand. “He’d put trackers on Racer’s bike and cut when he wasn’t looking. When
Colton found out Racer was on the move, but the bike wasn’t, he figured we were in trouble. He
called the other chapters in Illinois and Indiana. They came to the rescue.”
“Thank you, Colton,” I said and glanced back at Jesse. “Still, killing Rasputin Romanov was a
very stupid thing to do.”
“So was sacrificing your life like that. What the fuck were you thinking?”
Throat clearing and awkward murmurs filled the room before the men excused themselves and shut
the door.
