“She’s holding on for now,” I say.
“What you got?”Stone pulls the chief’s attention back his way.
“Wasn’t natural by any means.They used C4 but also had an accelerant to burn the place up to try to hide the evidence,” Turner says.
“When the fuck would someone have the time to rig up C4 without anyone knowing it?”Reaper asks.
Stone snaps his head over to Hawk, who’s standing by the sink in the corner of the cubicle.
“Get to the street and start checking the cameras.Start at my house then Blaze’s house.If you have to go door to door to ask to see their security footage or doorbell cameras then fucking do it,” Stone orders.
“And if they don’t want to share it?”Hawk asks.
“Don’t give them a chance.”
“I’ll come with you,” Twitch offers, and Bear follows them out.
“This retaliation?”Turner asks Stone after the door closes.
“Not sure,” Stone says with a shrug then secures an arm around Raegan.“But we’ll handle it.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” the chief mumbles.“I’m going to try to keep this quiet for as long as I can, but you need to act fast before the wrong people get word that houses are blowing up in the city because of some turf war or whatever shit y’all are doing.”Turner rubs his temple.“Got the fire marshal to say it was an isolated gas leak, so hopefully that will squash any rumors for now.”
“Thanks for the heads up, Chief,” Stone says then nods for Turner to leave.
Once we are alone, Stone turns to the room.
“I want the MC on lockdown.Make the calls and get everyone important there until we figure out who our threat is.”Brass starts to say something, but Stone holds his hand up.“I want someone outside Sutton’s room standing guard.If there needs to be a schedule then make it happen.”Stone turns to Reaper.“Call the MC Chapters, I want a conference call with all the presidents…” He looks over at the clock above the door.“In one hour.I want every available Nomad here in the next forty-eight hours.”
“Yes, sir,” Reaper says with a nod then exits the room, phone in hand.
“Lockdown starts now.I want everyone behind our walls within the next forty-eight hours,” Stone states then dismisses the brothers as I sit and ponder what the hell has just happened in the last few hours.
Two days later, I’m finally able to sit beside Sutton in her room.I’m in some medical suit, and the closest I can get to her is three feet from her bed.The doctors are worried about her getting an infection, so unless you’re one of her many nurses, you can’t be too close to her.
The last few days have been a roller coaster, and for several minutes I thought we lost her.The machines are keeping her alive right now because her body is so exhausted from trying to recover and heal itself that her heart is getting overworked.
“You can talk to her,” I hear from the doorway and turn to see Melissa.
“I don’t know what to say,” I admit.
“Some studies show that patients in comas respond better when they can hear your voice,” she tells me, coming to stand next to my chair.“It says that sometimes their vitals show improvement.”
I look back over at Sutton’s prone body.
“Do you think she’s going to recover from this?”I ask.“Be honest.”
“Honestly,” she pauses.“I’m not sure.The last forty-eight hours have been hard on her body, but she’s fighting and that’s all we can ask for.”I feel a hand on my shoulder.“The question is…are you going to able to fight just as hard if she pulls through?Patients who experience these types of traumas have a hard road ahead of them and need a strong support system to help them through it.She’s going to want to die most days because it’s so painful, and it's going to be hard to watch her suffer and only be able to lend emotional support.”
“She’d do it for me,” I say, firmly.
“She absolutely would,” Melissa says.“You know she was moving in with you, right?All that work on the house was for Rocky, and once it was done she’d decided to tell you that she wanted to be a family with you and Zane.”
“Stone mentioned it,” I say.
“She can’t tell you this, but when we were discussing the project she’d said how much she loved you and Zane and couldn’t wait for all of y’all to finally be under the same roof and maybe start your family.”
My breath catches in my throat.
