Page 49 of Deacon

Nomad nodded slowly. “That lines up.”

“It does,” Ledger agreed. “Didn’t wanna jump there too fast before, but lookin’ back, she wasn’t mournin’ shit. She was workin’ the situation.”

I closed my eyes for a second as exhaustion washed through me. “Priest knows now.”

“Yeah,” Nomad said. “He does.”

Silence settled around us, full without becoming awkward. The machines continued their steady hum while hospital air moved cold and dry against my skin, and every injury in my body reminded me exactly where I was. Then Nomad shifted in his chair, and something about the change in his expression made me suspicious immediately.

“What.”

His mouth curved. “Ink says there’s been a pretty little nurse sittin’ vigil beside your bed every night while you were in the coma.”

Ledger pushed away from the wall. “Wanna tell us about her?”

My whole body became too aware too fast. Just hearing them mention Lila brought back the sight of her standing beside this bed, older and real, the woman layered over every version of the girl I remembered. “Yeah. Lila.”

Ledger stopped. “Lila?” His brows climbed. “Your Lila? The one you left behind and talk about all the time?”

I turned toward the window because looking at either of them while her name sat fresh in my mouth felt like asking to be skinned alive. “Yeah. That Lila.”

“What are the damn chances?” Ledger muttered.

My mouth pulled without quite becoming a smile. “Seein’ as this is my hometown, pretty good, I’d suppose.”

Nomad went still.

He leaned back, his expression sharpening. “Your hometown?”

I looked at him.

“We clubbed up two towns over from your hometown,” he said slowly, “and you never told us it was your hometown?”

A tired sigh escaped me. “I left all that behind.”

Ledger gave me a look sharp enough to peel bark. “Woman sittin’ vigil at your bedside every night till she damn near exhausted herself doesn’t sound like you left much behind.”

“I had to.”

The words came harder than I meant them to, and pain followed close behind, but once they were loose there was no dragging them back.

“I had to leave her. Her old man was deputy chief of police, and I was in the local MC. Then I found out shit I was never supposed to know.” My chest tightened as the old reasons came back with ugly clarity. “If I stayed, it would’ve put both of us in the middle of it. She would’ve had to choose sides. Could’ve started a war, gotten her hurt, maybe gotten me killed. And I sure as shit couldn’t tell her what her old man was involved in. She thought that man walked on water.”

The monitor chirped faster.

A sharp ache spread beneath my ribs and climbed into my shoulder, turning the next breath into something I had to work for. Nomad was out of the chair immediately, one hand lifting in warning.

“Easy.”

“I am easy,” I snapped, which would have been more convincing if my next inhale hadn’t hitched badly enough to make the machine complain louder.

“Brother.” Ledger’s humor vanished. “Settle down.”

The door opened before I could find another breath, and a nurse entered with the brisk focus of someone who had already dealt with enough stubborn men for one shift. Her gaze went from the monitor to me, then landed on Nomad and Ledger crowding the room.

“Well,” she said as she reached the bed, “whatever you’re doing, you’re done.”

She checked the lines first, then the monitor, before leaning close enough to listen to my breathing. “You need to calm down. Your heart rate just jumped, and you’re working too hard to breathe.”