Page 22

“You know it.” He smiled back as he reached over, took her hand, and gave it a squeeze. “You remember everyone, right?”

“I remember the faces, the names? They’re not coming back as easily.” She had no doubt it was partly because most of them had less than conventional names. Or at least nicknames, but that wasn’t what they’d called them. What had Joker called it when he’d explained it several months earlier, when she’d started seeing Lacey? Road names. That was it.

“Names are no problem, sweetheart. Just check their cuts.”

She frowned at him. “What do you mean?”

Cypher touched a patch on the left shoulder of his vest that read ‘Cypher’. How had she not noticed it before? “We all wear our road names. Right below the position patch for officers.” He moved his fingers higher to the one that read ‘Tech Sgt’.

She skimmed her gaze down the leather vest, taking it in for the first time in months and wondering what else she’d missed and if maybe she should ask him what each patch meant. But not now. This wasn’t the place for that.

“Thanks for letting me know.” She nodded once. That would help. A lot. It meant she only had to remember the women’s names. And she already knew those.

Chapter Fifteen

Cypher watched as Lauren greeted his brothers. She was friendly and open. Not that he’d expected different. She wasn’t a snob and she’d been around them all at the wedding. Still, it was good to see that they were just as accepting of her.

They’d settled in and were chatting amongst themselves when Mud and Slide came in about half an hour later. One by one, people stood and greeted the newcomers. A couple of minutes later a scrubs clad nurse appeared, she looked around then approached hesitantly, as if she wasn’t sure how they would take what she had to say.

Cypher stepped forward. “Is there news?” he asked.

Her face turned pink to match the scrubs she wore.

“I’m sorry, no. I just came in to let you know that while we apricate your excitement, if your group gets much larger, or if there’s too much disturbance, we’ll have to ask that some of you use another waiting area or visit the cafeteria.”

He turned and looked back at the group, then back to her. “Are we being too loud?”

“No sir, we just want to make sure everyone’s comfortable and,” she paused and swallowed, then continued, “There had been some concern that such a large group could be intimidating to some of our other guests.”

“Thank you, Sam. We’ll keep that in mind,” Lauren said coming up beside him and taking his arm. Sam gave Lauren a grateful smile, as if she’d just been saved from an onerous task. “I’m sure someone will come update you when there’s news.”

Lauren thanked her and the nurse left.

Cypher looked down at Lauren. “Are we doing something we shouldn’t?” She spent far more time around the hospital than any of them did, except for Bones and he was on shift in the ER today, not with them.

Lauren shook her head even as she used her hold on his arm to spin him around to look at the room. The Warriors took up more than half of the room and most of the group were men. Few of them were small in any way.

“Think about this from the hospital’s perspective. You have a large group. And you’re all wearing cuts, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but they mark you as a demographic that’s widely perceived to be loud, boisterous, and often violent. The hospital, the doctors, nurses, and security are all trained to look for potential trouble and hopefully head it off before it becomes an issue. That’s all she’s doing. If we were being too loud or causing trouble, I’d say something. I have privileges here and I don’t want them revoked for being part of an issue like that.”

“What do you recommend?”

“See if anyone wants to go for food, either at the cafeteria or elsewhere.” She turned away, then looked back to him. “Hold on a sec. Can you give me Hex’s number?” she pulled out her phone and waited.

“Sure.” He gave her the number and watched as she typed out a message and sent it.

“I’m seeing if they’ll let me back to talk to them for a couple of minutes. I’ll check on her, both her state of mind and where she’s at in labor.” She held up one hand as if he’d started to say something even though he hadn’t. “I’m not that kind of doctor and I’m not trying to interfere, but if we can establish that things aren’t happening soon, we can safely let people come and go for a while. That will make the staff less nervous. And the men.” She pointedly scanned around the room. Cypher let his gaze follow her, trying to see them from an objective point of view, not just as the brothers he knew. They were getting restless, several shifting in their seats, a couple watching the clock. He saw her point. Looking at her nodded.

“Go check on them. I’ll talk to Wrath and see what we can do about reducing the numbers in here.” He watched as she carried her phone to a chair, keeping the device in her hand as she waited for a reply, then he went to the VP to see what they could do to clear some of these people out of here. It wasn’t like someone was hurt or their lives were in danger. They really didn’t need everyone here. Come to think of it, this many people would likely overwhelm the new parents and the baby as well.

Unless there were problems, they would be home in a day or so anyway, most of the club could wait that long. And if there were complications? Well, they’d handle that if and when it happened.

He heard the familiar chirp of Lauren’s phone and glanced her way. After reading the screen, she met his gaze and nodded once before standing and heading toward the nurse’s station. He made his way to Wrath and asked to have a word with him, tilting his head toward the hallway, hoping the VP would agree to take a few steps down the hall so they could talk without everyone listening in.

“What’s up?” Wrath asked once Cypher stopped twenty feet away from where everyone sat.

“We’re kind of overwhelming the hospital staff.”

“What do you mean? We’re not being loud.”