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31

RIOT

I was halfway through my second coffee when the clubhouse door opened, and Maria walked in.

My body reacted before my brain did and I stood so fast the stool scraped loudly across the floor causing me to flinch.

Her eyes found mine immediately.

Fuck. I hadn’t seen her since the clinic, six days. Not that I’d been counting. I’d thought about going there more than once. Thought about sitting outside until her shift finished like I used to or leaving one of those shitty coffees she always complained about from the cart outside. I hadn’t. She said she needed proof things would be different, and she wanted me to leave her alone. I figured the first thing I could prove was that I could respect what she asked for.

“I didn’t know you were coming today.”

Maria adjusted the medical bag hanging from her shoulder. “I’m not here for you.”

That one hurt. I nodded once. “Right.”

“Maria!” Reaper yelled from the back. “Before this stupid fuck bleeds to death.”

“I’m not bleeding to death!” Ghost shouted.

“You got blood on my fuckin’ boots!”

“That sounds like a you problem.”

Maria closed her eyes briefly. “Coming.”

She walked straight past me. The faint smell of her perfume hit as she did and every part of me wanted to reach out, drag her into my arms and kiss her until we were both breathless.

I didn’t, I sat back down and stared at the coffee in front of me. “She hates me.”

Shadow took a slow drink of whiskey beside me. “She came to patch up Ghost, not hold your fuckin’ hand.”

I glared at him. “Helpful.”

He shrugged.

Maria had accepted my apology. That was all. She believed I was sorry. She’d even told me she still loved me, but she didn’t trust me. Turned out knowing the woman you loved still loved you but didn’t trust you enough to come home was its own special kind of torture.

“You gonna sit there looking like someone shot your dog all fuckin’ day?” Shadow asked.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

His eyebrows lifted. “You asking me?”

“Apparently.”

“Jesus Christ.” He shook his head. “No wonder she fuckin’ left you.”

“Fuck you.”

“Truth hurts.”

I turned back toward the bar. Every now and then Maria’s voice drifted from the back room, then her laugh.

My chest clenched. I missed that sound in my apartment, missed her shit everywhere. Her textbooks on the table and scrubs hanging over the back of chairs. Her stealing half my food after insisting she wasn’t hungry. Fuck, I even missed her complaining about my coffee.

Shadow poured himself another whiskey. “Woman tell you what she wants?”