“I’m going too. If she’s afraid of you, all bets are off.”
Marco groaned. “Where she goes, I follow.”
“Damn, I don’t blame you, man. I would too-” Stag’s voice choked off as Marco wrapped a large hand around his throat.
“One more fucking word…”
Glory
Inever expected tosee Lenore and Marco striding into the waiting room, where I’d ended up again while I waited for an actual doctor to see me. I’d been triaged, given pain relief, and a cool pad to rest over the burn. They said there wasn’t much more that could be done, but the doctor would assess it anyway, to make a final judgement. I had a wad of papers to take home with me, but Henley hadn’t been waiting for me when I came back out, and when my eyes landed on him, just behind Marco, I gasped. His cheek was red and swollen, and his nose was bleeding. He was also gripping his stomach as he walked. What the hell happened out there?
“Oh my god, are you okay?” I tried to get up, and Lenore stopped me, sitting beside me immediately as Marco flanked her. The room was thankfully only about half full, and there were a few seats around me that were untaken, and others emptied out as more bikers filed into the waiting area.
“Excuse me, you can’t just-”
I tuned out the poor staff trying to corral bikers, and focused on Henley again, who sat carefully in the chair opposite me, a whole aisle away. His eyes were mostly on me, but he was also warily side-eyeing Marco… no wait,Lenore.
“What happened? Are you hurt?”
He snorted. “You’re the one hurt, Glory. Have they given you anything for the pain?”
I nodded, turning to look at Lenore next.
“You’re here? How are you here?”
She tapped the bracelet on my left wrist. “You signalled for help.”
“Fuck me! That’s how you tracked her?” Henley frowned at me next. “You called them for help?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t, so maybe you accidentally did it when you swapped the bracelet to my other wrist for me.”
Lenore groaned. “So it was a false… I mean, it’s not false, because you’re definitely hurt. Gloria, did he do this? Do you want him removed? And by removed, I mean…” she leaned closer, “dead?”
“What the fuck!”
I ignored his outburst, focusing on her instead. Her blue eyes were practically brimming with fury, and I suddenly realised she’s the one who hurt Henley.
“You hit him?”
“I mean, if he hurt you, he deserves it.”
“He didn’t! Oh my god. You… you thought it too. The nurses did, but I explained everything to them. I didn’t… I didn’t know you received an alert.”
“It’s ridiculously easy to do by accident,” Henley hissed at us, and I nodded, because the panic button was right by the clasp.
“I told Nige it was a design flaw, but he was all, I’m the one doing all the work as usual, so get off my case.”
Marco snorted, leaning around Lenore.
“He literally talks like that. You’d love him. Women always do.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, “you came out here for nothing.”
“You’re not nothing,” Henley muttered under his breath, but he was still watching Lenore warily.
“He didn’t do this, he really didn’t. I was cooking, and the timer went, and I moved too fast. I didn’t want… I didn’t want to ruin the ravioli. They had egg yolks in, so the timing is vital, and I messed it up.”
Henley leaned forward, his focus on me again. “You didn’t mess anything up. I’m so proud of you. For the record, they looked amazing.”
