Rogue (Rogue Angels MC #1)

Chapter 7

7

Rogue

I definitely intended to be smoother in my choice of words when I spoke to Melody again. Instead, I disintegrated into a schoolboy the moment she fixed me with her deep blue eyes. They’re dark blue. The color of the ocean on a sunny spring day. Definitely one of my favorite colors. If not actually my favorite.

And analyzing the exact shade of her eyes is something the school boy me would do too. If I’m not careful I might start composing a poem about them. I should stop. Especially since she shot me down. But what woman wouldn’t after I came on stronger than a hormone-crazed teenager?

Her rejection just makes me want to try harder.

Or maybe that’s because of the pain that flooded her eyes when they brought in those traffic accident victims. It was a deep sort of pain. The kind that no amount of sun or fun or time can ever erase. I’m no stranger to that kind of pain. I see it all the time. Not just in my eyes, but in the eyes of everyone in my MC.

Like, for example, in Lotus’ eyes. Who I failed to protect even though she’s one of our most vulnerable charges. I left her in the ER waiting area while I went to hit on Melody, but now I’m back. She’s finally stopped shaking, but her wrist is now the color of plums and has swollen to three times its normal size. The bruise stretching across the left side of her face is ripening. Soon that will be the color of plums too.

The ER waiting room is packed and smells of sweat, blood, piss and alcohol. The door opening from time to time doesn’t make it any better, since the stench of downtown in the evening is even worse. We could be here waiting for hours still. I haven’t seen a doctor pass by reception in a while, which probably means they’re all tied up with that traffic accident.

“This is taking so long,” I mutter and stand up to go bang on the glass wall that separates the waiting area from the ER proper, but Lotus lays her hand on my arm to stop me.

“We can just go back home, Rogue,” she says. “I’ll be fine. I don’t even feel so bad.”

She’s said this a bunch of times already, so I just shake my head.

“Don’t talk crazy, Lotus,” I say. “You need to be checked out by a doctor.”

“OK, but you don’t have to wait with me,” she says. “I’m sure you have more important things to do.”

I turn to her. “Nothing’s more important to me right now than making sure you’re OK. I was supposed to keep you safe and I failed.”

Her eyes tear up, making me think I might’ve gone overboard. I meant what I said. But I don’t need her crying on top of everything else.

The sliding door leading into the ER slithers open behind me.

“Richards,” a nurse calls Lotus’ last name.

Melody is standing right behind her. She glances at Lotus’ face and swollen arm then back at me. And I feel like the whole world just exploded outwards around me as I hold her gaze. She just made a whole bunch of assumptions about me, that much I can tell from the look she’s giving me. And none of them are good. I know that too.

Lotus is crying and trying to stop it, which just makes it worse. Melody wraps her arm around her shoulders as soon as she’s through the door.

“Come now, Ms. Richards, don’t cry. We’ll take good care of you,” Melody says in a kind, caring voice, the kind I wish she’d use with me. But instead, I just get a nasty look over Lotus’ shoulder. “This nurse will show you where to go.”

I follow after her and the nurse leading Lotus away.

“You can wait right here,” Melody says to me, her eyes now the color of very hard and very frozen ice. Actually, her whole face looks that way.

“No,” Lotus hiccups. “Can he come with me?”

Which adds yet another layer of angry hardness to Melody’s eyes. But she doesn’t say no to Lotus.

Great. Either she’s thinking I’m with Lotus or that I did this to her. Neither of those things is something I want her thinking.

They lead Lotus into one of the already almost full exam rooms. After all of us are in there, it’s pretty crowded. Suffocatingly so. Maybe that’s because of the ice in Melody’s eyes too.

She doesn’t look at me again as she starts examining Lotus’ injuries. “And how did this happen?”

“I…” Lotus stammers and looks at me with fearful and still very teary eyes.

Now the nurse and Melody are both glaring at me. Damn. This is not going well for me.

“No, no, he didn’t do this to me. He would never,” Lotus hastens to explain, talking shrilly, her voice rising in pitch with every word until all the patients and other nurses in the room are staring at us.

She’s not convincing anyone.

“Rogue saved me from a guy who used to beat me up all the time,” Lotus goes on. “His name was Brick. And Rogue punched him out so I could get away. No, this was…”

She glances at me with fear in her eyes again as she stops talking.

“Is that right?” Melody asks her soothingly without meeting my eyes.

Great. So maybe she doesn’t think I hurt Lotus, but now she just thinks Lotus is my woman. Not much of an improvement on before.

“Can I talk to you outside, Doctor?” I ask her.

“I’m a little busy,” Melody says, still not looking at me. “I’m sure Ms. Richards can fill me in on all I need to know.”

“Come on, it’ll just take a second,” I insist and she shrugs and strides out of the room without so much as glancing at me.

But as soon as the door is closed, she finally looks at me, and the anger in her eyes very nearly knocks me backwards. It’s like the mother of all storms raging over the ocean.

“It’s not what you think?—”

“I don’t think anything,” she says, but she’s clearly lying. “I just want to examine my patient.”

“She was attacked by the same guys who shot me,” I tell her. “It’s better if you don’t make her say it in front of too many people. It was a warning.”

Melody’s eyes finally thaw out a little bit hearing that.

“You should take better care of your woman,” she snaps.

“She’s not my woman,” I say, so happy she’s giving me the chance to clarify this.

“Even if she’s just your club girl then,” she says even more ferociously.

“Hey, I’m here with her, aren’t I?” I say, feeling my blood rising too.

It’s not just because of the accusation in her eyes. It’s also because I totally failed to protect Lotus. But mostly it’s because I’m starting to accept that maybe I don’t have a chance in hell with this pretty lady in front of me.

“Take a seat out here,” she says. “And let me take care of Ms. Richards.”

She doesn’t wait for me to say anything, just goes back into the exam room and slams the door shut, making the glass in the windows rattle.

Great.

Now I want her to know I’m not some creep who doesn’t take care of his club girls on top of really wanting to look into those deep ocean blue eyes of hers while she’s riding my cock.

The problem is, I have a very strong suspicion that neither of those things are in our future as far as she’s concerned.

But one of those things she’s yet to find out about me is that I never back down from a fight. Not even a losing one.