Chapter Five
Ryker
“ A nything new?” a soft, feminine voice asks quietly. I try to peel my eyes open, but I think someone placed weights on my eyelids; they feel so fucking heavy.
“No. We need Grayson back,” another voice says, much louder, not soft and soothing. I fucking hate it. They need to shut up; my head hurts.
“I know,” the pleasant voice says, “as soon as Ry wakes up, it’ll be better.”
Since I can’t open my eyes, I listen to other sounds in the room, feet shuffling and annoying as hell beeps. The beeping picks up speed as pain races through my body, from my head to my shoulder and down to my ribs.
“Ryker?” the soft voice says.
“Can you open your eyes?” the other voice says, making me wish I could flip them off. Obviously, if I could, I would, but I just feel so tired, and I’m in so much pain.
“Hi, let me give him another dose of pain meds,” a new, kind voice says.
“Shouldn’t he fully wake up first?” the loud voice asks.
God, shut the fuck up, I think as I fall into a black abyss.
Fuck me, this shit hurts.
“I bet it does. It might hurt more when I slap you upside the head for telling me to shut the fuck up. Want to open your fucking eyes?”
“Noah! What the hell?”
“What, princess? Maybe if I annoy him enough, he will wake up just to give me shit. It’s better than this in and out state. I swear to fuck, if he is just doing it to fuck with us—”
“Oh my fucking God, you are driving me up a wall.” The voice gets closer, and I feel a feather light touch on my cheek. “Ryker? Can you open your eyes?”
This time when I try to blink them open, they actually open. “Ah, fuck,” I grumble as the light hits my eyes, my body so fucking heavy.
“Hey…” Hands cup my face, and I crack my eyes open again to meet the most beautiful hazel eyes I have ever seen in my life.
“Are you an angel?” I rasp. Seeing her terrified eyes makes something in my chest ache, and all I want to do is take away her pain.
“More like a demon,” another voice grunts as Harley chuckles softly and tears track down her cheeks.
“Would you go get a nurse?” Harley says to the other person before looking back down at me. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’m in heaven.”
“That’s probably the pain meds talking,” a deep voice says. Harley straightens but stays close, a hand on my shoulder. “Nice to see you awake. I’m Dr. Stewart. You’ve been through quite the ordeal, so don’t push trying to jump right back up.”
“What happened?” I ask, glancing at Noah standing at the foot of my head.
“You don’t remember?” Harley tilts her head at me, worried.
My head throbs as I try to remember everything, but it all feels fuzzy right now. I shake my head, and Noah explains, “You were in the garage shop with Axe, Sugar, and Atlas. There was an explosion.”
“It’s been about three days. You had to have emergency surgery, and then you’ve been out since,” Harley continues.
“Surgery?” I question, trying to remember anything, but everything just feels blank. I just remember being home and then now. I want to be angry, want to make myself try to remember, but the exhaustion I feel seems to weigh me down and keep me from reacting like I want.
“Yes,” the doctor says. “You came in with some cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and some shrapnel embedded in your skin. We got you all taken care of and were waiting to get you to CT when you crashed. You were rushed right up to surgery, where we discovered your spleen had ruptured. It was removed without complications, and you have been stable since just getting the rest your body needs.”
Well that fucking sucks. “You said others were in the shop?” I ask Noah.
“A nurse will be in shortly to check you over. I’ll give you some space,” the doctor says as he takes his leave.
“Axe, Sugar, and Atlas,” he tells me. “Axe is good. He had some bruised ribs, and it looks like he got the shit beat out of him, but he’s home and fine. Besides Presley, who is losing her shit.” He chuckles. “Sugar had to be brought in, but he is home already and doing better. Just resting. Atlas has been touch and go.” Noah hesitates.
When he doesn’t continue, I glance up at Harley, tears in her eyes. Moving my good arm takes a few seconds, but I manage to reach up and take her hand, giving it a light squeeze.
“He had a rod through his chest. They took him straight into the OR, but they ended up having to leave him open and put him in the ICU. He was losing too much blood and kept crashing during surgery. They were able to remove the rod, and he went back into surgery where they were able to finish fixing him up. They ended up putting him into an induced coma, so we just have to wait,” she says as more tears fall down her face.
“Come here,” I say, moving slowly to scoot over. I wince but try to hide it and pull on her hand until she climbs onto the bed and curls up next to me.
Pressing my lips to her forehead, I glance up at Noah as he speaks. “He hasn’t crashed in the last six hours, which is the longest stretch so far. We are trying to be hopeful.” Walking up to my side, he places a hand on my head and leans down so our faces are only an inch apart. “I’m fucking glad you’re awake. Stay awake so we can get you the fuck out of here and then I can kick your ass for—” He shakes his head and straightens as he ruffles my hair. He may not have finished his sentence, but I can see it in his eyes and the creases on his face. He was scared.
“I’m going to go update the others. They are only allowing two of us at a time in here. I’m sure someone else will want to come in.” He gives Harley’s shoulder a squeeze and then walks out, pulling the door shut behind him.
“How are you holding up, little flame?”
Harley sighs and tilts her head so she can look at my face. “I should be asking you that.”
I smile and tap her nose. “I’m alive. The pain meds are helping a lot right now, so I don’t feel much. I just wish I could remember everything.”
“Maybe it’ll come back,” she says, and then shuts her eyes. “We’ve all been stressed. Colton had his construction crew come out and help get everything stabilized so we don’t have to worry about the upstairs collapsing, although all the rooms above the garages are off-limits for now. The guys have all been rotating being here or at the club helping clean up.”
“Do they know what caused the explosion?” I ask her.
“No. I think Rage has suspicions, but he is being tight lipped. Everyone has been going nonstop, so I don’t think they’ve had church or any time to discuss it all. That, and Grayson hasn’t been helping them. They allow one of us to stay overnight, and it’s been him every night. He leaves in the morning to go sleep and shower and come back, and if others are in here, then he sits in the waiting room.”
She opens her eyes and turns so her chin is resting on my chest. “It’s been hard on all of us, but Grayson has struggled the most, I think.”
The frown on her perfect face and the terrified looks tells me she isn’t being fully truthful. She struggled as much as he did, but she isn’t going to admit it, my stubborn girl.
“I’m sorry. I wish I could’ve been up and supporting everyone.”
She furrows her brows. “Ry, you have nothing to apologize for. All that matters is you are okay and you take the time to heal so we can all stop worrying about you.”
Laying my head back, I run my hand up and down her back. I know I need to give myself time to heal, but fuck, that’s the last thing I want to do.
The door opening wakes me, and I slowly crack my eyes open to find Grayson quietly entering. When he notices I’m awake, his shoulders drop. “Hi.”
“Hey,” I whisper back. He walks around to the opposite side where Harley is still laying sound asleep and pulls a chair up close. The second he takes a seat, I wiggle my fingers on my bad arm and gesture for him to take my hand. After hesitating for a second, he places his hand in mine and I squeeze.
He lets out a sigh as his eyes fall shut and a single tear trails down his cheek. After he takes a moment, he glances at me again. “How are you feeling?”
“Heavy. My body just feels tired and heavy. But otherwise, I honestly feel fine, which I’m sure when these pain meds wear off, I won’t be feeling as fine. What about you?” I ask, taking in the bags under his eyes.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I say, “That’s not what I asked.”
“I’m fine. Or I will be, once we figure out what happened.” He scrubs his free hand down his face.
“Well you’re going to have to start working again in order to figure it out,” I say and notice how he tenses and glances away. “Grayson?” I question, his eyes shooting up to mine. “I know this was a bump in the road, and I don’t know how it felt to experience everything the last few days, but we are still a team. Cade, Harley, you, and me. The four of us do this shit together. Always.”
“I know. I just… I’ll explain everything to you guys soon. Can we just focus on getting you out of here and making sure Atlas lives?”
I nod, but I don’t like it. I plan to tell him that, but a light knock on the door interrupts us as a nurse pops her head in. “Hey, how are we feeling?”
“Perfect. I think I’m good to go home now.” I grin at her when she rolls her eyes.
“You don’t want to go home yet. If you did, I would be overbearing and up your ass all day and night,” Harley grumbles as she sits up and rubs her eyes.
“Oh, that sounds perfect. As long as it’s me up your—”
A hand covers my mouth as Harley glares at me. “Stop talking, Ryker.”
I mumble, “Yes, ma’am,” from under her hand and then stick my tongue out to lick her palm. She yanks her hand away and wipes it on my lovely hospital gown.
“Okay, well, it’s time for meds, and the doctor is going to come in shortly so we can see about getting you moving a little. How would a walk to the bathroom and a shower sound?” the nurse asks.
“Fucking amazing,” I groan.
“Perfect. Well, you two,” she glances at Gray and Harley, “go get some coffee and food. He’ll be busy for the next hour or so and then probably sleep.”
They nod, and Harley leans over me, pecking my lips and pulling away before I have a chance to deepen it, making me huff. She grins at me and walks towards the door. “Be good, Ryker.”
“We’ll come back as soon as we can,” Grayson says, giving my hand one last squeeze before standing.
The thought of kissing him forces a memory to slam into me.
Lunch with all of them… Walking Grayson to the tech room...
“I’m going to kiss you now.”
“I will do that again…”
Talking to the guys about the bikes… Atlas pulling up then a blinding light coming from…from right where Atlas’ bike sat.
“Ry?” Grayson questions softly from where he now stands next to the bed.
Shaking my head, I give him a forced smile. “I’m good.” He starts to walk away but stops when I call his name. “I know I said I would kiss you again, but being crippled and all, I’m gonna need you to get your ass back over here and do it for me.”
Grayson’s mouth drops open, and he stares at me wide eyed before glancing at a grinning Harley and a nurse looking down at her tablet, not paying attention to us.
I raise a brow when he doesn’t move. “Well? Are you really going to leave poor, injured Ryker without even a kiss goodbye?”
His cheeks turn a delicious shade of red as he walks back over to me and bends over the bed, his hands on either side of my head. “I hate you,” he grumbles.
“I know,” I smile up at him and use my free hand to cup his neck, pulling his face down to mine. The kiss is short and sweet, but I can feel the tension bleeding out. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he needed this.
And I needed it from him. Reassurance that the other day wasn’t a fluke or I didn’t completely make it up in my head.
Harley
“Hey, Harley,” Presley says as I walk into the kitchen at the club. After the nurse had Grayson and I leave Ryker’s room, we came back home to shower, eat, and check in on everything happening around here. “How’s Ryker?”
“He’s good,” I tell her. “I have a feeling he is going to give us a lot of shit about wanting to leave as soon as possible.”
She chuckles as she pulls ingredients out of the fridge. “More than likely. Axe has been a pain about resting. He insists he’s fine, but he still needs to rest his ribs. Yesterday, I caught him out in the garage helping clean up.” She rolls her eyes.
“I thought mama bear was going to actually hurt him, so he’d have to go to the hospital and not be able to do anything for a while,” Raven adds as she walks into the kitchen and hugs Presley before giving me a side hug.
“He needs rest,” Presley grumbles. “I did get Jayce on board with making him rest. And of course, Axe can’t say no to that cute little face. They’ve been having movie marathons.”
“How’s Brielle?” I ask Raven. I’ve seen Brielle once since everything happened, and she wasn’t doing well. Since then, Raven has taken over being her support person if Lincoln can’t be with her.
“She’s sleeping right now. I’m worried about what this will do to her if he doesn’t make it.” Raven sighs.
“He’s going to make it.” I breathe through my nose, trying to calm the rising anger. “He has to make it.”
“I know, Harley. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it as he won’t make it.” She says gently, like I might explode at any moment.
“On a more positive note, I really hope this brings them closer. I’ve talked with Bri a little about her relationship with the guys, and it’s not them with the issue. It’s her,” Presley says.
“She does want it. It’s clear as day to everyone except her,” Raven grumbles. Catching movement out of the corner of my eye, I look up to find Carly standing there wide eyed. Raven sees her as well and lets out a laugh. “Chill out, Carls. Not talking about your crazy ass. This time.”
“What? I–” Carly starts, trying to play it off, but Raven raises a hand, stopping her.
“Don’t even lie to me, girlfriend.”
“You know, Rage is probably really stressed out with everything going on. You should go find him and help him find some relief,” Raven says, wiggling her brows.
Presley tries to hold back her laugh while Carly huffs and I… Well, I think I might need to hurl. “Can we end this conversation before I puke?”
“As if you aren’t fuckin’ around with those boys any chance you get.” Raven chuckles.
Presley grabs a towel off the counter and whacks her with it. “Oh my God, get out of the kitchen, you trouble maker. Leave the poor girls alone.” She chastises her.
Raven’s laughter booms as she leaves the kitchen, and I feel like someone just slapped me with a ton of bricks.
Oh my God. Shooting up, I mumble a quick I’ll be back and then take off after Raven, feeling like she will be the easiest to ask for help. “Raven?”
She spins around from where she was approaching Stone, who is sitting on the couch. “What’s up?”
“Can I, uh, talk to you for a second?”
Noticing the panic on my face, she nods seriously and grabs my hand before pulling me down the hall. Opening a door, she pulls me into an empty office and shuts the door behind us.
“What’s going on?” she questions right away.
“I think I fucked up,” I blurt, feeling my palms grow sweaty.
“Okay. I’m going to need more than that if you want me to help.” She cocks a brow.
“Crap,” I grumble before blurting out in one big breath, “The other day, Cayden and I had sex at the hospital, and we didn’t use protection. He definitely–well, you know, finished—and I don’t want to be pregnant. Oh my God, I’m so stupid. I’m pregnant, aren’t I?”
“Wow, okay. First off, breathe.” I take a breath, and she nods. “Good. How long ago was this?”
“Um, the day of the explosion.”
“Well, make that two explosions that day,” she mumbles as my jaw drops. Did she really just say that? “Well, it’s been three almost four days. We can get you a plan B to take, but you need to understand that the longer you wait, the less likely it is to work. I honestly doubt you are even pregnant, but being safe is a good idea. We also are going to have to talk about getting you on some birth control.”
“Okay.” I breathe, the panic dying down inside me as Raven finds solutions.
The days fly by as we continue to go back and forth from the hospital and work on getting the garage all cleaned out so Colton can have his crew rebuild. It was news to me that he runs a construction crew. I guess he started it years ago for building the houses on the club property but after he formed a solid crew they expanded and he has taken a step back from it since things around here have been kind of crazy the last two years.
Atlas is still in the induced coma, but from Lincoln’s last update, it sounds like they are going to try to slowly pull him out of it over the next day or so. It’s terrifying and exciting. I have to remind myself Atlas is stubborn and he will fight his way back. He has to; Brielle needs him.
“Harley?” Gabe’s voice sounds from the other side of my door as he knocks.
“Come in,” I respond, tossing my leather jacket over my hoodie and jeans. “What’s up?” Since we can’t be in our rooms at the club right now with the damage below, Gabe, Grayson, Cayden, and I have been staying in his house.
He leans against the door frame, watching as I pull my hair out from under the jacket, choosing to leave my hair down and wavy today–a choice I will no doubt regret later. “I just wanted to check in before we head to the club, see how you are truly doing with everything.”
Sighing I plop down on the edge of my bed, fidgeting with the cuffs of my jacket. “I’m alright, I think. I’m having mixed feelings about Atlas, excited and terrified at the same time. And I’m happy Ryker finally gets to come home, even though he is probably going to be even more of a pain in the ass.” Gabe chuckles, knowing I’m right, because the boy has been driving us all crazy from his hospital room.
“Have you heard anything from Oakley?” I ask him, curious how she’s settling into the inpatient rehab we were able to get her into. She left a few days ago, so I didn’t get a chance to say anything to her with all the chaos.
“Not yet. If we don’t hear from them soon, I’ll have someone get in contact to make sure she is doing alright.” He straightens and glances behind him down the hallway. “We should probably get going. Ryker is not going to be happy to come home and have school work to dive right into.”
Groaning, I stand and walk towards him. “Don’t remind me. I’m not happy about it either.”
Gabe chuckles as we head down the hall towards Grayson and Cayden, who are waiting in the living room. “Last semester. You can do it. Plus, you only have two classes, right?”
I nod. “Yeah. Ryker has three, and Cade and I have two. Then, we all can graduate in June together.” I grin at him.
“I’m proud of you, Harley,” he tells me as he pulls me into a hug. “Once you are officially done with your courses, I have a surprise for you, if that’s a motivator at all.”
“You’re not going to tell me what it is, are you?"
Gabe just laughs as he pulls back and ruffles my hair, making me grumble at him. “Let’s head over to the club.” He gestures for us all to follow.
As soon as we step out of Gabe’s back door and start walking through the yard to the club a big black blur comes speeding from the woods across the yard and slams into Cade hard.
“Fuck,” Cade grunts as he pets Bear. “I need to go for a run soon, huh?”
“Maybe we can go on one later today?” I ask, hopeful. None of us have been working out the last week.
Gabe scoffs. “Good luck trying to do that without Ryker. He can’t go running with his arm still in a cast.”
“Grayson can distract him.” Cade smirks at Gray, whose cheeks turn red. As soon as we step inside, we are met with more chaos.