I can hear Landon and my father, and I think other voices, whispering in the hallway, but I don’t care.
By the time the nurse comes back and covers me with a second blanket, I’ve already started to tune out.
I watch as she injects something into my IV and then close my eyes. The meds kick in quickly, I feel myself sliding into sleep.
The last thing I see before I drift off is Landon’s handsome face.
I’m not sure if it’s really him or a figment of my imagination.
It doesn’t matter.
But it soothes me, like it did earlier tonight when everything blew up.
I have so many questions. So many concerns. So many things to do.
Just not tonight.
Chapter Five
Landon
Allora’s father is an honest-to-goodness biker.
The moment he walked in, with his leather cut and biker boots, I knew things were going to get interesting. Probably not in a good way, either. It’s a twist I wasn’t expecting. Allora doesn’t seem like a club princess—the slang term for the daughter of a prominent member of a motorcycle club—but I don’t really know her.
It might be time for me to bow out of this whole mess but Daniil and Mr. Sterling are deep in conversation, like they’re coming up with a plan or something. I should be paying attention but all I can think about is the sweet woman just a few feet away in the hospital bed who cried in my arms a few minutes ago.
The need to stay with her, protect her, make sure I’m here the moment she opens her eyes is overwhelming.
“She’s stubborn,” I hear Mr. Sterling say. “We’re not all that close since her mother died but…” He shakes his head. “I never thought—I mean, she lives on the beach in a nice area! And she’snot some kid. She knows how to protect herself. Not to walk down dark alleys by herself. I don’t understand how the fuck this happened.” For a moment, the biker façade slips and he’s just a middle-aged father worried about his daughter.
“These types of things are often crimes of convenience,” Daniil says gently. “She probably did everything right but they saw her, decided they wanted her…”
“Motherfuckers.” The badass biker is back. “I’m going to gut them, slowly and painfully, when I get my hands on them.”
For once, we’re in agreement.
My only regret about tonight is that I wasn’t able to chase that asshole. Catch him. Show him what it’s like to be overpowered, beaten, abused. I’d teach him a lesson he’d never forget. Then I’d end his sorry ass.
“Grim.” Daniil’s voice brings me back to the conversation at hand.
I turn to him questioningly.
“You mind staying here tonight? It probably wouldn’t be prudent for Mr. Sterling to stay and draw attention to himself and his club. But you could probably blend in, sit in the waiting area.”
I nod automatically. “Whatever you think is best.”
Mr. Sterling seems torn but eventually nods. “She and I butt heads anyway. My presence will just piss her off…and she’s been through enough.” He grabs his beard and runs his hand down it in what appears to be an absent-minded motion. “I don’t know how to help her. I’m not good at the…emotional stuff.”
Daniil nods sympathetically, ever the politician. “I’m sure we can find her professional help. I think, as men, we’re often not built for these types of situations.”
“If her mother was alive, she’d know what to do.” He sighs, morphing back into the father of a woman who was justbrutalized. “Me, I’m all about kicking ass and taking names. That’s not going to help her through this, though.”
“No. What she needs now is to heal. And feel safe.”
“I’d like to bring her back to the club with me, where I can protect her, but she won’t go. She hates everything about my lifestyle. She left the fold when she went off to college and never came back. Most of the time, I’m okay with that. She has a good job, made a lot of money when she was modeling, is totally independent. But this? I don’t know how to handle this.”
Modeling? That doesn’t surprise me.
