Chapter Thirteen
Dani
I feel like complete shit. I’m being kept overnight for observation, but we still haven’t heard about the prospect who drove me today.
I just can’t stop trying to imagine who would mess with my brakes.
Everyone takes a turn to visit me, though I feel myself drift in and out of sleep. No one seems to mind though.
I know the pain killers they have given me are helping with everything, and it’s going to hurt like a bitch for a while.
Broken ribs are no joke. I can barely breathe without experiencing pain. Not to mention that my face is swollen and likely bruised. I don’t need a mirror to know that since I could see it on everyone’s face as they walked in here and got sight of me.
Zane and my parents haven’t left my side. They talk about what happened. Someone tried to kill us. Right now, we aren’t sure if the hit was planned for myself or him. So far, there are no leads.
I know they are looking at cameras, but I doubt there are any cameras where we were parked. It doesn’t hurt to look though.
I can barely concentrate on what they say since my head is pounding. Eventually, I close my eyes as Zane’s hand squeezes mine.
When I come to again it’s just Zane, my mom, and my dad in the room. They are whispering amongst themselves. The daylight is already gone, and I have no idea what time it is.
I must groan from the pain or something because all three sets of eyes snap to me before rushing over to my bed.
“What do you need?” my mom asks.
“N?” I rasp. Hopefully they have heard something about him by now.
“He’s out of surgery, but one of his legs will be in a cast for the next eight weeks. There was some damage to the side of impact. He had internal bleeding, but they were able to stop it. His arm was broken as well, and he will be in a cast for that too. There was also bruising to his ribs and face. He will have a long road to recovery, but he’s alive,” my dad says.
Tears well in my eyes. I’m glad he’s alive, although that brings another worry. The person who did this, whoever they are, will find out we are both alive and can try to finish the job.
“We have people guarding him in his room, and you aren’t leaving my side right now,” Zane tells me.
“Who?” I rasp.
“We don’t know yet. Which is why both of you will be on constant watch. We believe that they might try again. We just don’t know who they are after yet,” Zane says.
I hate to be on constant watch, but I have a feeling it was me they were after. The prospect has been a part of this club for months, but it is only when he was alone with me when this shit happens. If they were after him, they would have already done this a long time ago.
The hard part will be the waiting for the person to strike again.
My parents decide to leave, but Zane doesn’t leave my side. My dad looks at him like he expected that.
When we are alone, I turn to Zane and find his eyes already on mine.
“I don’t think I have ever been so scared,” he whispers before lifting my hand to kiss it.
“I just don’t understand who would do something like this,” I whisper.
“We will find who did this and make them pay,” he says with a cold look in his eyes.
Fuck, I’m glad that look isn’t aimed at me but, instead, whomever fucked with the car.
I eat a little bit before I end up falling back asleep. I know Zane won’t be comfortable all night like that, but tomorrow the doctor should clear me and we will be able to sleep in our own bed back at the club.
~
In the morning, we spend hours waiting for the doctor to pop in and let me know that I am being discharged. A nurse comes in afterwards to explain after care. I just nod along with everything she says. I know how to take care of myself, and I plan to get plenty of rest.
With a couple of my ribs broken, I will be stuck in bed for awhile.
I was looking forward to that job helping Whisky, but that will have to wait too seeing as Zane and my father told me that my focus needs to be on getting better first. My dad told me that he will hire another nurse for the position until I am healed.
We check on N who is barely awake. He looks worse than I do, which isn’t all that surprising. I can’t help the tears that fall from my eyes.
“Hey, none of that,” he rasps.
“I’m sorry. I just have a feeling that it’s my fault,” I whisper.
“Even if it was, I wouldn’t change a thing. It wouldn’t have gone any differently,” he croaks out.
“How can you say that? You barely know me,” I cry out.
“Because I was there to protect you; not the other way around. It was my job to keep you safe,” he says softly.
“You did the best you could, brother. I’ll never forget that,” Zane says, breaking the moment.
“I’ll be fine and out of here in a couple days,” N says.
“Is he coming to the club when he gets out?” I ask Zane.
Zane nods his head. “Yeah, he will be watched until he gets better. It’s almost time to vote for his patch too.”
N looks down when he hears this, but I don’t ask anything until we are in the vehicle.
“Why does N look upset when you said you guys were voting for his patch soon?” I ask.
“Because he thinks the vote won’t go in his favour since the last month of his patch is going to be spent with him in bed being waited on, and he won’t be able to ride until his leg and arm are healed,” Zane explains.
“I’m sure he has nothing to worry about. It’s not like it was his fault that he’s bed ridden,” I say.
“Exactly, but on the night of the patching ceremony, we also go out on the first ride as brothers for the patched member before going back to the club to party,” Zane says before adding, “that will likely need to be postponed.”
“I’ll keep my fingers crossed for him,” I say softly, causing a small smile to break out on Zane’s face.
Zane
It doesn’t take long to get Dani back to the club. Instead, it takes longer to get her back into bed because everyone wants to talk to her and see how she’s doing. The exhaustion on her face shows before I tell everyone they can talk to her later.
When I take her to my room, there are a couple of treats on the bed with some food and drinks. Non-alcoholic, of course, since Dani is on pain killers.
I make sure she’s comfortable before putting on a random show so she can eat and relax.
She doesn’t eat much and is asleep pretty fast.
I make sure she’s out before I turn on my favourite show. I keep the volume low so that I don’t wake her.
At first, I keep checking on her to make sure she doesn’t wake up but, eventually, I get so lost in the show that I don’t notice her wake up.
When I look back down at her, she’s looking at me with amusement in her eyes and a big ass fucking smile on her face.
“Are you seriously singing along to the Gilmore Girls theme song?” she asks, trying to hold back laughter.
“Fuck, I thought you were sleeping,” I spit out.
“Clearly,” she says again, looking so fucking amused.
“You can’t tell anyone this!” I say in a panic.
“Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me. You just have to answer one thing for me,” she says, looking serious.
“What’s that?” I eye her warily.
“Are you team Dean, Jess, or Logan?” she says with a straight face.
“Jess obviously,” I say before I can stop myself.
“Just when I thought we had a chance, you had to go and say something like that,” she says with a sigh.
“Let me guess, you are team Dean,” I say.
“Logan. I don’t think I know anyone who is team Dean,” she says thoughtfully.
“Who is Logan?” I ask.
Dani’s eyes light up like a Christmas tree. “Oh thank God! You haven’t met Logan yet. We still have a chance at happily ever after; there is still hope for you yet!” she exclaims.
“I hardly think I will be changing my mind about Jess, woman!” I growl out.
When she giggles at me and gives me a look, I finally realise what I have just said and how passionately I have said it. My face is definitely flush with embarrassment.
“Oh Sweetie, I know you think that Jess is an absolute dream boat now, and don’t think you will ever be able to get over him but, just like Rory, you will be able to find happiness again with Logan. It will be okay, honey, I promise,” Dani says, patronising me.
I would say more to defend myself if I had any way to do so. Dani puts her arms around me to jokingly comfort me, but we end up staying cuddled up like that as we watch more episodes while she rests. Thankfully, now that I have her, anyone who walks in on us watching Gilmore Girls will assume that I’m watching it for her, instead of the other way around.
I take the next couple days off to take care of her. N will also be coming back from the hospital, and we are putting him up in one of the rooms that are empty. We also had to drag Whisky to the club since we hired a nurse to take care of all three of them.
The woman meets with Prez and takes time to listen to all of their conditions before she meets her new patients. It’s nice to see that she doesn’t treat us any differently than any other patient. Sometimes outsiders have trouble integrating into our world.
The nurse’s name is Daisy. Her eyes widened when Prez told her how much we were paying. We knew that it was going to be a lot of work; plus, Whisky was a grump, so we needed to compensate for that.
Daisy was in her forties and had been in between jobs, since she recently lost her job. If you listen to town gossip, it was because she was fired for stalking a doctor but, like everyone says, there are two sides to every story. We don’t know hers yet, but I have a feeling it’s different from what everyone is saying.
We all have had experience on the bad side of gossip. We know how rumours tend to fly.
It’s hard heading back to work, but we all have shit we need to do sometimes.
There were no cameras showing who messed with the car, which had been our only hope at this point. We are pretty much sitting ducks waiting for something else to happen.
I fucking hate it.
When I get back to the club, I see Dani and N relaxing in the main room on the couch.
“Where’s Daisy? How did she do on her first day?” I ask.
They both smirk at the same time. “She’s giving Whisky a sponge bath,” Dani says with a little laugh.
I raise an eyebrow at her response. “Really?”
They both nod their heads. “Whisky spent all day flirting with her. I didn’t see any of the grump you guys told me he was. He said he needed a sponge bath because he can’t stand for a long enough time to have a shower, and he’s too weak to get out of the tub,” Dani explains.
“Bullshit,” I say with laughter.
“Even if that were true, he has brothers who would help him out of the bathtub or shower. I think it was just his way of getting her hands on him,” Dani says.
“He told me when she was out of ear shot that I wasn’t allowed to ask for a sponge bath,” N says while shaking his head with a smile on his face.
“Damn, I’m sure one of the club girls would love to help you out, or Mama,” I say with a wicked grin.
“Fuck, don’t tell Mama. She might bring that wooden spoon with her,” he says with a shiver.
“Whisky also told me that if I wanted a sponge bath from Daisy, he gets to watch. But I told him my man was more than capable of helping me into the tub,” Dani says.
“Damn fucking rights. Whisky will just have to keep fucking fantasizing about that because it sure as fuck isn’t going to happen,” I tell them.
“Well, I sure could use a bath right now,” Dani says with a heated stare my way.
“We better get you cleaned up then,” I rasp.
“I think I need someone to give me a bath, right fucking now,” the prospect says loudly, causing everyone to laugh.
“I’ll wash you,” one of the newer club girls says.
Someone helps him to his room as I carefully lift up Dani to bring her to our room. When we get there, I set her on the counter in our bathroom.
She waits while I get the water hot. I strip out of my clothes before taking hers off.
I carefully lift her into the tub and climb behind her.
She breathes a sigh of relief and relaxes against me.
She feels so perfect and right in my arms. I live in this moment with her. We are right where we are supposed to be.