“No.”
“Fine.”
Doc starts setting supplies on the tray. “I need space.”
I don’t move.
He doesn’t look up. “I said space, not exile. Stand there and glower if it keeps you from breaking furniture, but if you interfere, I will sedate you next.”
Blaze makes a choking sound like he’s trying not to laugh.
I ignore him.
Doc works. Minutes stretch. He checks her breathing again, pulse again, blood pressure, oxygen. He mutters to himself, curses at the syringes, asks Logan for details while Logan gives him the trimmed-down version. Van. Grab attempt. Injection. Unknown hired men. Target list possible. The room gets colder with every fact.
Olivia doesn’t wake. Her chest rises. Falls. Rises again.
I count. Ican’t stop.
At some point, Brooke steps closer to the doorway, not crossing into the room. “Cobra.”
I glance at her.
Her voice stays quiet. “When she wakes up, she’s going to be terrified.”
“I know.”
“She may not remember everything.”
“She’ll remember enough.”
“Maybe.” Brooke’s gaze shifts to Olivia. “But waking up here, surrounded by men, with you standing over her like that…”
I look at Brooke fully now.
She doesn’t flinch. “She’ll need calm,” Brooke says.
“I’m calm.”
Blaze coughs. “That is a fascinating interpretation.”
I don’t look away from Brooke.
She looks sad for half a second, then it’s gone. “You’re controlled. That’s not the same.”
The words land somewhere I don’t want them. Controlled is what I have. Calm is for people who grew up with doors that opened normally and hands that didn’t mean pain.
I don’t say that.
Brooke seems to hear it anyway. “I can sit with her,” she says. “When Doc is done. I won’t touch her unless she asks. I won’t crowd her. But if she opens her eyes and needs a female face first, I can be that.”
My first answer is no. It’s already there. Ready. Then I look at Olivia. Unconscious. Drugged. Taken from a street. Hauled into an MC clubhouse by a man who just killed the night around her with his bare hands. Brooke is right.
I hate it, but she is.
“You sit where I can see you,” I say.
Logan exhales like he’s been holding a breath since I carried Olivia through the door.
