Slick (The Grayverse #1)

CHAPTER SIX

As much as I hate to hear Diana cry, I’m kind of glad she’s too busy fussing over her new mate to notice the route I’m taking. Not that she’d be able to discern the governor’s mansion from a trauma hospital. She hasn’t been out of the facility in a decade, and even if she walked these streets every day of her previous life, they scrubbed her memories during admission. Something her alpha seems to be acutely aware of, given the way he glared at me like I’d personally messed with her head.

Not sure why the facility didn’t scrub him . Maybe he was such a great actor, they really believed that before they scooped him up, he was a brain-addled hobo living under a bridge. Or maybe they didn’t bother scrubbing the guys in the basement, because once they went in, none of them ever came back out.

Except for Kane, if that’s his real name. It could be bullshit, but he doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who hides behind an alias. Other than pretending to be a homeless bum to get into the facility, he seems to take pride in being exactly what he is. Which is a cigar-smoking, leather-wearing, neck-snapping asshole.

Who somehow managed to break us out of a facility even more tightly locked down than a maximum-security psych ward.

Lucky me.

I check the rearview mirror, pressing a little harder on the gas as Diana lifts her tear-streaked face to mine. “Dex!”

It’s a broken wail, and I shift my gaze to the alpha. He’s pale under his bronze skin, the bullet wound in his side oozing dark blood. “It’s okay, Diana. I’m taking him straight to a doctor.”

Tears trickle down her cheeks as she reaches forward, grasping my shoulder. “Help him, Dex. Please!”

I nod, dragging my gaze away from her and turning sharply down a side street. I’m on familiar streets now, but I know I can’t let down my guard. By now, the Carrillos will have no doubt been informed of our escape, along with the GTA of the mini-tank I’m driving, and who knows what they’ll do to get their property back?

“You need to stop the bleeding.” I rummage through the console one-handed until I locate a small medical kit and toss it to her. “Find a gauze pad or a bandage and put pressure on the wound.”

She makes a soft mewling sound, but works quickly to locate a pad and peel it from its wrapper. The danger here is an arterial tear, but the blood is slow and dark, so it’s more likely venous. I watch as she presses the pad to the alpha’s side, her eyes searching for mine in the rearview mirror.

“Good girl,” I tell her. “Now keep the pressure on until we get there.”

She nods and I flick open my burner phone and start by sending an SOS to my brother. Johnny will know to lie low until I can talk to him in person, since his default reaction these days is to run and hide while I clean up his mess. Thrusting aside my frustration with my brother, I send a text to Ben, praying he’s on call and not snoozing in the doctor’s lounge. He’s a resident in the ER at St Luke’s and the closest thing I have to a best friend. He kicked my ass for taking on Johnny’s debts and sidelining my nursing career, but he also sweet-talked the hospital registrar into giving me back my job. Hopefully, he’s got another miracle up his sleeve, because I’m about to turn up on his doorstep with a GSW victim in Donny Carrillo’s car.

It’s only another couple of minutes to the hospital, but like all under-funded government buildings, traffic is congested, parking is limited, and the layout could’ve been designed by a blind man. It feels like I’m circling the drain as I make my way to the rear of the hospital. A dark pall seems to hang over this part of the building, mainly because this is where overflow patients were housed – and often died – during the last pandemic.

I park next to a line of dumpsters, and checking my mirrors, slide out of the car. The metal security door to the old wing of the hospital opens and Ben is standing there, his weary face slack with disbelief. “You said you were coming in hot, but this is insane, Dex.”

I just grunt as I round the car, since there’s no way I can disguise the damage. Even if the cracked windshield didn’t alert him, the bullet holes make it look like I was caught in a killer hailstorm. “You got a cot?”

“Yeah, but who…?” Ben’s question dies away as I open the back door and Diana hops out. She’s pulled her jumpsuit back on, but it’s a crumpled mess of bloodstains and alpha cum, and the scent of her omega slick rises around her like a heady fog. “What the…?”

“Diana, this is Ben. He’s an urgent care doctor here. And once he snaps out of it, he’s going to fix your alpha up.”

At that introduction, Diana whirls on my friend with huge, desperate eyes. “Please, doctor. He’s badly hurt. Can you help him?”

“Uh, yeah. I’m sure we can do something.” Ben gulps as he stares down at her, and I’d smirk at the way he’s cracked like a gooey egg if we weren’t in so much freaking trouble. “Let’s get him inside and see what he needs.”

Diana has no reason to trust doctors, but if that fact is starting to dawn on her, she doesn’t show it as Ben helps me lift Kane onto a gurney. The guy is Hummer-sized, and we’re both puffing by the time we wheel him inside. “Name?”

I glance at Diana before saying, “Can we just list him as a John Doe?”

“None of this is going on record,” Ben mutters, then shakes his head as he stares down at his newest patient. The alpha is naked except for the leather coat, but we’ve both had patients present to the ER in less, so other than a raised eyebrow, my friend doesn’t comment.

The gurney is the newest thing in this part of the hospital, since it was technically closed down a decade ago. The battle against rising damp, old pipes, and faulty electrics just got too expensive for the administrators to keep fighting, especially when they needed every spare dollar for extra beds upstairs. It means we’re working with the bare minimum in terms of a trauma room, and I notice Diana looking around with doubtful eyes as we hurry down the faded green corridor.

“You’re going to have to assist,” Ben says when we reach the room he’s set up. I think he’s stating the obvious until he turns to Diana. “We can take care of the bullet wound, but holding your alpha’s hand will go a long way to helping him get through this.”

“Anything,” she murmurs, and shuffles in closer as Ben starts his admission process – checking vitals, then locating the origin of the blood loss. All the while, Diana clings to her alpha like he’s going to disappear if she lets go.

“Through and through,” Ben says, sounding relieved as he swaps out the gauze pad and directs me to start supplemental oxygen and IV access. “We should X-ray this, but I’m assuming you just want a quick patch job?”

“Just get him stable,” I reply, feeling more than a twinge of guilt. Providing unofficial care to a patient in the basement is bad enough, without all the other stuff I’ve dragged to his doorstep.

We work side-by-side until he says, “Who is he?”

“Unknown,” I mutter, earning a sharp glance from my friend. “He was in the… Serenity Center.”

I stumble over the name, since there’s nothing serene about the facility we just broke out of, but Ben knows enough to put the pieces together. He doesn’t say anything, though, and we eventually finish up, washing our hands in an old sink in the corner.

When we return, Diana is still clinging to Kane’s hand, her scent harsh with fear. “Why isn’t he waking up?”

“The body often needs to rest after trauma of this kind,” Ben says gently. He’s snapped on a new pair of gloves, and he touches her shoulder to turn her towards him. “Now, are you ready to show me what happened to you?”

But Diana brushes him off just as gently. “Thank you, but I’m fine.”

Ben frowns at her bloodstained appearance, and I nod back at the cot. “He used his magic knot to fix her up.”

“Jesus, Dex.” Ben grabs my arm and drags me over to a dusty corner. Diana could probably still hear us over the creaking pipes, but all of her attention is on her alpha. “Are you telling me they just mated? Like right then?”

“In the backseat of that goonmobile outside.”

“Damn.” He sounds both shocked and curious. As betas, mating isn’t something we give much thought to, but as medical professionals, a miracle is a miracle, and it’s obvious he’s intrigued. “You watched?”

“I drove .” He snorts at my sour tone, and I shrug. “I can give you the highlights if you need them for his chart.”

“I’m sure they’re burned into your brain, but no.” He turns to study them for a moment, and when he glances back at me, there’s a glimmer of sympathy in his eyes. “She’s who I think she is, right?”

The NDA I signed kept me from giving Ben too many details about the facility, but Diana’s name might have slipped out once or twice. “Yeah.”

“Which means she’s also extremely valuable. And not just to the guy on the gurney.” I can feel my mouth tighten into a grim line, and he sighs. “So, they’ll come looking for her?”

“We’re going to lie low for a bit. If they come here, you can say he was dropped off at your door, driver unseen. But if they get their hands on Diana, she goes back to the facility and the rest of us are dead.”

“Jesus.” He scrubs a hand across his forehead. “Well, thanks for picking my hospital basement to come bleed all over.”

I grimace, but he just shakes off his dark mood, which is one of the things I love about Ben. Years in the ER means he can roll with just about any fucked-up situation. “That amount of blood loss wouldn’t usually be an issue for an alpha of his size, but the power exchange could have him out for a couple of days. You really think you can keep them apart that long?”

I glance back at the cot to find Diana asleep on her alpha. I’m not sure if it’s a good sign or not that he has tucked an arm around her while he’s out. “I’ll do whatever’s necessary to keep her safe.”

Ben just sighs. “If you value my advice, you’ll put some distance between you and these two. They’re not going to give you anything but trouble.”

“You gotta admit, it keeps life interesting,” I mutter, because how can I tell him that there’s no going back for me now? Betas don’t get mixed up in alpha and omega business, but Diana is my business, and I don’t plan on stepping aside in a hurry.

“Hmmm.” Ben is clearly skeptical, but he knows me well enough not to argue, digging in his coat pocket for his keys. “You remember my apartment code?”

“Don’t need it.” I wave off his keys, walking over to collect Diana from the cot. “I’ll get rid of the car, but it’s best if you don’t know more than that.” He doesn’t look pleased, but he doesn’t fight me, either. Instead, he helps me get Diana onto a spare cot, pausing to gently brush her hair off her face. Even bloodstained and drugged, she looks like a sleeping angel, and I see that flicker of sympathy in his eyes again. “I know you care about her, Dex, but she’s not worth dying over.”

I just grunt and start wheeling her towards the door. “We’ll be back in a couple of days to check on him. If he wakes before then…”

“Yeah, I got it.” He waves a hand behind him at the cart of medical supplies. “If the pharma option fails me, I’ve got the padded room in the corner. But you’ve crossed some lines here, Dex. And I don’t just mean breaking about a dozen hospital rules.”

That’s not something I can think about right now. “Yeah, well, my grasp on right and wrong got a little fuzzy when the bullets started flying.”

I dump the gangster’s ride in an alley about five blocks from the hospital, then boost another car to drive us to a walk-in clinic down by the docks. It’s being renovated, so it’s dark and empty, but I know the door code for most of the clinics in the area. I leave Diana locked in a treatment room while I ditch the car in a long-term lot at the ferry terminal, sweat pouring off me in rivulets by the time I make my way back. The clinic is still dark and quiet, and I collapse onto a cot beside her.

Ben’s warning plays back through my mind as I try to will my overstimulated limbs to relax. The truth is, I’ve stopped counting the felonies I’m racking up, because what’s the point? Even if the cops track me down, I’ll be dead before they ever prosecute me. The Carrillo gang has eyes and ears everywhere, and once they mop up the mess at the facility, they’ll call in all favors to hunt us down. Dying at the hands of a bloodthirsty gang isn’t exactly appealing but as I turn on the cot to watch Diana sleep, I can’t think of much I’d do differently.

“I love you. I always have.”

The sweet declaration felt like a knife to my heart at the time, but now I clutch at it, holding it close. Fuck ethics and fuck the Carrillos. Diana loves me – she claimed me – and not even the thought of dying a slow, painful death will make me turn my back on that.