Chapter Sixteen
Iwas in a daze, stepping outside with my phone in my hand, as I processed what just happened. She burned herself so badly, and was in so much pain, so most of me was just relieved she was being seen or at least triaged quickly. Hopefully they’d give her something good for the pain.
The worst part was her injury, her pain, but the bit that chilled me inside was the fact that they thought I did it. Those nurses immediately assumed I’d deliberately burned her, that I was an asshole, a monster like Sean.
Fuck me. My fingers were shaking as I dialled my phone, leaning my shoulder against the tall concrete post outside the entrance.
As it rang, I realised the tones were a little robotic and scratchy, so I walked away from the entrance until it cleared, putting me out in the concrete walkway between the hospital and the car park.
“Hello?”
“Lissa? It’s Henley.”
“You sound terrible. What’s happened? Is Glory okay?”
My breath sounded like a fucking ragged sob, so I swallowed hard and forced air into my lungs.
“She’s hurt. She… fuck! She was cooking, and she splashed boiling water.
It’s bad, Lissa. She’s… I don’t know what to do.
They think I did it, and maybe that’s true.
Maybe it’s my fault. I mean, I walked into the kitchen and she was fine.
Happy, even. That’s where it all went to shit, but I didn’t mean to. I didn’t…”
“Shhh… take a breath, Henley. You didn’t hurt her. You couldn’t, and we both know that. Tell me everything.”
I haltingly tried to explain, going back to how determined she was last night to cook, and how I thought she might have changed her mind, but there she was, cooking what looked like fucking home-made pasta, and then it all went to hell.
“It’s my fault. If I hadn’t distracted her, she’d be okay. She wouldn’t be burned if I didn’t-”
“ASSHOLE!”
Someone slammed into me from behind, sending my phone skittering across the concrete, and as I spun to try and defend myself, fists flew at my face, and I saw blonde hair flying.
The fists hit fucking hard, but the scent of feminine perfume told me I was being attacked by a woman, so what could I do but defend?
I wasn’t about to hit her, no matter how hard she was wailing on me.
I swear her fucking foot hit me right in the gut, and I doubled over, taking a knee to my face as I fell back, cradling my stomach and gasping for breath.
Just one. I’ll take just one fucking breath right now.
“That’s enough, sweetheart!” The endearment caught my attention, because that’s my name I use for Glory. It’s not original, admittedly, but she’s always liked it. At least that was my hope.
In front of me was a huge guy, but in his arms, flailing and hissing like a pissed off cat, was a blonde woman. Fucking fists of fury, but those feet were deadly too, if the pain gripping my stomach was anything to go by.
“Calm down, woman. That’s it, just fucking calm down. Let’s take a breather, and then you can break him.”
“I’m going to tear you into tiny fucking pieces and flush them down the toilet, you hear me?!”
The man chuckled and she cursed.
“Fuck you, Marco! He hurt her!”
Wait, what?
“Hurt… who?” I choked out, my breathing still ragged from the kick I took.
“Her! Gloria!”
Jesus. Like I could ever do that. I lowered my hands, pressing against the pavement to push myself back up onto my feet, because I would face her like a fucking man. Fuck, it was agony to straighten up, like my stomach was literally tearing in two as I moved.
“I’d never hurt her. Never. I’d have jumped in front of her if I could, but if you think I’m the kind of asshole who could even think of doing something awful to her, then kill me right here. I won’t fight you.”
She sagged in the big guy’s arms and he chuckled.
“That’s better, sweetheart. Let him talk before you rip his nads off, yeah?”
She glared over her shoulder at him, and then, fuck me, he released her. Jesus, I’d never faced my death in the eye like this before, but it was happening right now. I lifted both hands, gasping as my stomach clenched again with pain.
“Jesus, I think you broke my spleen.”
“Good,” she gritted out, folding her arms and looking no less dangerous.
“You must be Lenore. She mentioned you.”
“Fucking right I am. We got the panic alert, and we came running. Since she didn’t answer her phone, we tracked her.”
Panic alert. Tracked. What the hell.
“Without her phone? I don’t think she even brought it.”
“That’s right,” she declared fiercely, and then frowned, glancing toward the sound we all heard, and fuck me, this was the worst possible time for it. The throaty roar of motorcycles. Not just a few by the sound of it.
She tensed again, bracing herself against the new threat, and the big guy groaned.
“Brilliant. Now we’ll never get to fucking check on her.”
“Thank you,” I said over the roaring sound as motorcycle after motorcycle pulled into the car park, engines cutting as men in leather headed rapidly in our direction.
“What?”
I lifted my hands again as that deadly glare reached me, even as the big guy tried to edge in front of her, which she was resisting just as fiercely as she did everything else.
“Thanks for saving her.” She frowned with confusion, and then heavy boots were thudding right between us as my club stepped in.
“Oohhh, who’s the hot chick?” Stag taunted, as she lunged in his direction and the big guy caught her.
“Watch it, fucker,” he snapped, gripping her around the waist again.
“She’s like a tiger, look at her.”
“Stag, for fuck’s sake!”
Micro pushed past Harley and folded his arms.
“Alright, someone wanna tell me what the fuck’s happening here? You attacked our brother?”
He wasn’t asking the big guy. He could tell it was her. Jesus fuck, I’d never live this down.
“Awww did the prospect get his ass beaten by a girl?”
She lunged at Stag again, and this time the big guy chuckled and released her. She landed a fierce right hook on the fucker, and he staggered a step as he absorbed the force of her rage.
“Jesus fuck!”
Everyone seemed to move at once, but Micro wasn’t the only one getting between our brothers and Lenore and her man, who was holding onto her again, by the way. I stupidly waded in too.
“Back off, let me explain!”
Micro held up a hand and they paused.
“I’m waiting. You look like you were hit by a train.”
Lenore blew on her knuckles and faked taking a bow, or at least as best she could with those huge fucking arms holding her back.
“Why, thank you.”
“Wanna tell me what’s going on? We got the heads up from Lissa that you were under attack, and-”
“You fucker! You were chatting up another woman, while the one you brutalised was in the hospital?!”
Micro laughed, turning to hold up a hand in her direction.
“You wanna give him a minute to explain himself? If he hurt anyone, we’ll all take a piece of him, but if he was flirting with another brother’s old lady, he’s already dead anyway.”
“Old lady!” She screeched, a sound that was blissfully silenced by a large, meaty palm over her mouth, but he moved it a second later with a low curse.
“Biting’s for the fucking bedroom, woman.”
“Yeah, it is,” someone muttered, and a few scattered chuckles followed.
“Can I just fucking talk?”
They all stared at me, and fuck me, my stomach felt bruised from the inside out. I rested a palm against it as I tried to take a full deep breath, something I was realising I’d stopped doing since I got up.
“Think you cracked a fucking rib or something,” I grumbled, groaning as she smirked at me.
“Okay, here’s what happened, okay? Glory burned herself cooking, I rushed her here, and apparently Cujo over there thinks that means I’m an asshole.”
She lunged at me again, but the big guy held her back.
“Aw Cujo. He’s not wrong, sweetheart, you’re so fucking savage.”
“I swear, if they start making out, I’m out of here.”
“Nah, that’s Seb’s thing, not mine.”
Deadly silence fell, and I had no idea why.
Who the fuck was Seb, and why did that immediately have Micro, Harley, and Rocket all on edge.
Oh wait, Grease was making his way stealthily through the crowd, and his hand was tucked under his jacket.
Did he bring that fucking golden gun I’d heard so much about?
I was a little curious about it, but it wasn’t really the time for show and tell.
“Who’s Seb?” I asked warily, wondering how my night turned into a fucking circus sideshow.
“Our boss,” the big guy said, following it up with, “I’m Marco Cardini, and this is Lenore. We work for the-”
“Bennetts,” Micro finished grimly. Who?
“Jesus, how the fuck are those assholes involved in this?”
Lenore suddenly started laughing. “You’ve clearly met them before,” she said to Micro, who grimaced.
“Too many of us have now. What’s the connection here?”
And it was all a big coincidence apparently. The charity was something that Lenore worked for, along with big Marco, and a bunch of the other enforcers for these crime lord bosses of theirs. Bennetts. Didn’t sound so dangerous to me, but you know what? All I cared about was inside that building.
“I need to go check on her. Can we… is this done?”
Lenore glanced at Marco, and then gestured to the hospital entrance.
“I’m going too. If she’s afraid of you, all bets are off.”
Marco groaned. “Where she goes, I follow.”
“Damn, I don’t blame you, man. I would too-” Stag’s voice choked off as Marco wrapped a large hand around his throat.
“One more fucking word…”
Glory
Inever expected to see Lenore and Marco striding into the waiting room, where I’d ended up again while I waited for an actual doctor to see me.
I’d been triaged, given pain relief, and a cool pad to rest over the burn.
They said there wasn’t much more that could be done, but the doctor would assess it anyway, to make a final judgement.
I had a wad of papers to take home with me, but Henley hadn’t been waiting for me when I came back out, and when my eyes landed on him, just behind Marco, I gasped.
His cheek was red and swollen, and his nose was bleeding.
He was also gripping his stomach as he walked. What the hell happened out there?
“Oh my god, are you okay?” I tried to get up, and Lenore stopped me, sitting beside me immediately as Marco flanked her. The room was thankfully only about half full, and there were a few seats around me that were untaken, and others emptied out as more bikers filed into the waiting area.
“Excuse me, you can’t just-”
I tuned out the poor staff trying to corral bikers, and focused on Henley again, who sat carefully in the chair opposite me, a whole aisle away. His eyes were mostly on me, but he was also warily side-eyeing Marco… no wait, Lenore.
“What happened? Are you hurt?”
He snorted. “You’re the one hurt, Glory. Have they given you anything for the pain?”
I nodded, turning to look at Lenore next.
“You’re here? How are you here?”
She tapped the bracelet on my left wrist. “You signalled for help.”
“Fuck me! That’s how you tracked her?” Henley frowned at me next. “You called them for help?”
I shook my head. “I didn’t, so maybe you accidentally did it when you swapped the bracelet to my other wrist for me.”
Lenore groaned. “So it was a false… I mean, it’s not false, because you’re definitely hurt. Gloria, did he do this? Do you want him removed? And by removed, I mean…” she leaned closer, “dead?”
“What the fuck!”
I ignored his outburst, focusing on her instead. Her blue eyes were practically brimming with fury, and I suddenly realised she’s the one who hurt Henley.
“You hit him?”
“I mean, if he hurt you, he deserves it.”
“He didn’t! Oh my god. You… you thought it too. The nurses did, but I explained everything to them. I didn’t… I didn’t know you received an alert.”
“It’s ridiculously easy to do by accident,” Henley hissed at us, and I nodded, because the panic button was right by the clasp.
“I told Nige it was a design flaw, but he was all, I’m the one doing all the work as usual, so get off my case.”
Marco snorted, leaning around Lenore.
“He literally talks like that. You’d love him. Women always do.”
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, “you came out here for nothing.”
“You’re not nothing,” Henley muttered under his breath, but he was still watching Lenore warily.
“He didn’t do this, he really didn’t. I was cooking, and the timer went, and I moved too fast. I didn’t want… I didn’t want to ruin the ravioli. They had egg yolks in, so the timing is vital, and I messed it up.”
Henley leaned forward, his focus on me again. “You didn’t mess anything up. I’m so proud of you. For the record, they looked amazing.”
I’d been proud of them too, but hearing it from him meant more, because he knew how I’d loved to cook before, and my god, I felt so guilty that he got beaten because of me.
“He’s nothing like Sean,” I said fiercely to Lenore, watching a smile blossom on her face.
“You’re so sexy when you’re fired up,” she said, grinning wider by the second, “so I don’t need to rip off his balls and mail them to that club of his?”
I grimaced. “Dear god, please don’t. He really did everything he could to look after me. He does. He’s a good man. He’s…” I turned to smile at him, but he was too busy pressing his fingers gingerly against his ribs, “he’s the best person I know.”
“Good.”