Iceman Chapter 1
Today was the day. I was finally cleared to do physical therapy without any kind of restrictions. I should’ve started it weeks ago, but I couldn’t due to complications. It seemed that the bullet that almost killed me still had to fuck up my life, even after it was removed.
We all believed I was doing great when I came out of surgery. It had been touch and go during it. The bullet had come damn close to my heart. An inch to the left, and I’d be dead. I was told that the surgeons had worried about losing me, but in the end, I rallied and came through surgery better than expected.
I thought I was doing pretty damn good, considering. And I was, until day three, when I developed a raging infection. It had kicked my ass for days. Every antibiotic they tried didn’t seem capable of knocking it out. Finally, after a week in the hospital, they found the right one, and a week later, the infection was gone. I was surprised by how weak I was after only fourteen days of not being my usual self.
I was lucky after they determined they had the correct antibiotic. Because Zara was a doctor, they let me go home with her to watch me. The doctors wanted me to remain in Cherokee so they could follow my care, but I wanted to be back home in Hunters Creek. I was forever grateful when they reluctantly agreed to allow me to go home. Sure, I could’ve signed out against medical advice, but Zara and several others prevented me from doing that.
I thought I was on the home stretch once I got home when another curveball hit me. I woke up with chest pain three weeks after the shooting. More testing, and I was admitted and back in surgery. It seemed that there was a tiny fragment of the bullet that the surgeons hadn’t been able to extract. That was news to me.
I was told it wasn’t uncommon for some gunshot victims to have them, and they could remain in their bodies, not causing any issues for the rest of their lives. Well, I wasn’t one of those people. My fragment migrated, causing pain as it pressed onto nerves. When they went in, this time, they were able to remove the fragment, but it set the clock back on me again as far as being able to do much in the way of rehabilitation.
For a guy like me, that was agony because I typically worked out all the time. I kept myself in peak form with my workouts, which I did at least five days a week. I lifted weights, did various resistance training, extreme sports, and ran. Those were all a no-no until I was given the all-clear. The most I was allowed to do was walk and do mild stretching. I refused to work with a physical therapist on pussy stretching and walking on a treadmill.
A couple of days ago, I resumed my old workouts. I informed my doctors that I didn’t need to take any physical therapy sessions because my old routines were far better. If it weren’t for Demon’s old lady, I would’ve been in our club gym breaking a sweat already. Zara had sided with the surgeons, which meant Bull listened to her and ordered me to do physical therapy. When your club president told you to do something or not to do it, you’d better listen.
At least I won one concession. Instead of going to a therapy office, rehab facility, or doing it at the hospital, they were sending the PT to work with me here at the compound in our gym.
Whichever prospect was at the gate would allow the therapist inside. We had three guys doing their two-year prospecting with us—Gavin, Walker, and Diego. They were the first bunch to be put in the extended period. In the past, you would do a year and be either voted in or shown the door. Bull and the other presidents were trying this extended trial period at the suggestion of Diablo, the president of the Horsemen of Wrath. He said he felt it determined better if they had what it took. I was okay with it as long as it wasn’t me doing it.
Diego had been with us for a year as of last month. Gavin and Walker were at the one-and-a-half-year mark. As long as those two didn’t fuck up big time, they’d be patched in as full members around May of next year.
Why my mind went to the prospects and when they were eligible to patch in, when I’d been thinking about my therapy, was a new thing I found myself doing since the shooting. My mind would start out on one subject and then jump off onto a tangent. Zara told me it wasn’t unusual after the trauma of the shooting and being sedated twice. She said that I had to stop being so hard on myself. She assured me it would get better over time. I sure hoped so.
It was Monday, which meant almost every Warrior and most of their old ladies were at work or off the compound doing errands. With it being so close to Christmas, I bet some of them were shopping. We had a great big celebration every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They sure had gotten more extensive and more involved since Harlow, Bull’s oldest daughter, met and married Terror, our Dublin Falls chapter president.
Once that occurred, we began going there to celebrate with them. That changed when Bull met and settled down with Jocelyn more than five years later. Our president finding an old lady signaled the start of our chapter beginning to settle down. With new small kids of his own, Bull began to take turns with celebrations shared with the Dublin Falls crowd. He took turns going there to celebrate one or the other holiday with Harlow and her family, and they came here on the opposite one. Regardless, the rest of us would be having a big day here.
Shit, there I went again, going off on another damn tangent. Mentally shaking myself, I paced the common room of our clubhouse. If that PT didn’t get here in the next five minutes, I’d break my promise to Zara and go to the gym and do my own workout. After another minute of waiting, I was headed in that direction when Zara popped up out of nowhere. She was giving me a stern-eyed look.
“What’re you doing at home in the middle of the day?” I asked. She should be at work.
“I came home to ensure you hadn’t broken your promise to give the PT a chance. I figured I’d get here and find you in the gym, alone, doing your own thing with no PT in sight. Walker said they haven’t arrived yet but are due any minute. I’ll hang with you until they get here.”
“Zara, I don’t need a babysitter. I’m capable of waiting alone. Do you know who they’re sending?”
“I don’t. I know the company your PT works for, and they have a solid reputation. I explained they needed to match you with someone who could keep you in check as much as necessary but would still challenge you. I know your typical workouts are intense. You’ll get there again. But starting out this way is good for you. He or she will make sure you don’t undo the work that went into saving your life. It’s not as if you’ve been a couch potato for decades. Besides, I know you’ve been working your lower half.” She gave me a narrow-eyed squint of reprimand.
I thought I’d been sneaky about that. Guess not. “It was mainly walking, then running once I felt strong enough. It wasn’t enough to mess up my healing up here.” I pointed to my upper left chest area as if she didn’t know where I’d been shot.
“I know, or I would’ve put an end to it. Just give this a chance, Iceman. You’ll be surprised what therapy from the right individual can do for you.”
I held up a hand. “I promise to try, but that’s as far as this goes. Bull made me agree to do five sessions. If, at the end of those, I find there’s no benefit in working with a PT versus doing it myself, then I can do it.”
She was shaking her head and scowling when the door opened, and in strolled Walker. Accompanying him was a tall man, who I’d place close to my age of thirty-two. He was dressed in scrubs. He appeared to be physically fit. Someone with his build didn’t get it from being afraid of hard work or sweat. I perked up. Things were looking up. Walker brought him to me and made introductions.
“This is Iceman. He’s your patient.”
“Thank you, Walker. I’ll take it from here,” Zara said, smiling. Giving us a chin lift, the prospect left.
My optimism dipped. It started when the therapist ran his gaze up and down Zara rather than introducing himself to me. I saw male appreciation in his gaze, even though it was clear she wore a wedding ring. He smiled as he held out his hand to her.
“Hello, I’m Ladd Murrow. No one told me my patient would have such a gorgeous companion. Please tell me you aren’t his wife.”
I had nothing against guys being flirtatious. I was. But it was what he did after he was corrected and put on notice that she was taken that did it for me.
“I’m not his wife. I’m married to one of his club brothers. I’m Zara. I was the one who contacted your agency about my brother,” she explained.
“Well, isn’t this my lucky day? How did you know to ask for us? I have to admit, you did get the best.”
“I’m a doctor. I’ve had some of my patients use your agency. Let me introduce you to Iceman.” She gestured to me, giving him a hint that I was the one he should be paying attention to, not her.
He barely glanced at me. It wasn’t until I held out my hand and refused to put it down that he conceded and gave me a handshake. When he did, I was disappointed. For such a strong man, his handshake was weak as hell. I detested it. I squeezed harder to see if he’d wake up. He frowned and tightened his grip a bit more, but it still underwhelmed me. When I let go, he smiled at Zara and held his hand out to her again. She ignored it.
“I’ll leave you two to get acquainted. I’ll be up here if you need me, Iceman. Remember, take it easy,” she reminded me.
He watched her ass the entire walk across the room until she was out of sight. When she was, he shook his head and whistled. “Man, how do you stand to see that every day? I’d never be able to concentrate.”
“It’s easy. She belongs to my brother, and if I acted like a lecherous fool, he’d knock my head off.”
My tone finally caught his attention. He gave me an unrepentant shrug. “Sorry, I just couldn’t help it. Okay, so am I to assume we’ll work here? If so, I’ll see what I can come up with. I thought you’d have something we could use to help with our sessions,” he muttered.
“We do. Follow me,” I told him.
I took him through the clubhouse to where we had our gym. He avidly checked it out. Before it became our clubhouse, the place had been a former mini-mansion. While it had changed over the years, we kept it in good shape. No way would Bull allow us to trash it. Ladd was full of questions about it. I tried not to be rude, but I kept the details to a minimum. Usually, I didn’t mind telling others about it. I was proud of our home.
When he saw the gym, he was impressed. I thought that would have him changing his tune and going into professional mode. Wrong. First, he put me on the treadmill for fifteen minutes at a barely walking pace. I thought it was a waste when my upper chest and left arm needed rebuilding, but he was the professional, so I went along with it.
At the end, he told me to go to the wall and do standing push-ups against it. As the hour continued, I found he wasn’t doing anything challenging. I was never so glad to see an hour go by. I hadn’t done enough to break a sweat. When the hour was up, I walked him out to his car. He spent a few minutes bragging about his sports car, and only after I pressed for the date and time of our next session did he reluctantly take out his cell phone and look at it. With the appointment scheduled, I stood there and watched him drive out the gate.
As soon as he was gone, Zara popped up. She gave me a hopeful smile, but I read the disappointment underneath. “How did it go?”
“Z, don’t take this wrong, but I’d get a better workout from Easton.” Easton was my brother Tank’s oldest. He was turning nine years old in a couple of months.
She sighed. “I know it’s boring, and you want a bigger challenge. Just stick with it. I promise it’ll be worth it. He’s with one of the top two therapy companies around. My patients who used them sang their praises.”
“Zara, I promised I’d do five sessions. I’ll keep it, but if this is any indication of what I have to look forward to, five will be it. I’d start warning Bull and the others.”
Sighing, she hugged me, then patted me on the back and left me to do my own thing. I had to fight not to sneak into the gym and give myself an actual workout. Since I couldn’t work fully, I was at a loss. Usually, I worked at our construction company, AW Construction. However, Tank was cautious about allowing me to do much of anything. Finally, I settled into my room.
Presently, I occupied one of the fifteen bedrooms in the clubhouse. With over half the club with old ladies, the single members, who numbered seven, and the three prospects took up barely over half of the rooms. Although the way Player had been acting these past few weeks after meeting Saylor, I wondered if he might be giving up his bachelor status. He’d been an utter asshole to her, but he’d been trying to make up for it. Time would tell if he succeeded.
I found that as much as I enjoyed my brothers, I wanted a place to myself, which led me to find my ideal house plans. I hadn’t intended to show them to anyone, but after I was shot, I needed something to occupy my mind other than the pain and long journey ahead. So I showed them to Tank, and then we talked about modifications I’d make to it. Before I knew it, he had talked me into letting him and the crews begin to build a house for me. It was barely in the planning stages and wouldn’t be done for several months, but I couldn’t wait until it was. If I got too lonely living alone in it, I’d ask Renegade, my best friend, to share it.
Renegade, Loki, and I had prospected together. It quickly led to us all becoming tight friends, with Renegade being my best, though Loki wasn’t far behind. We’d battled through our months of prospecting by having each other’s backs. It wasn’t hard to do when you were men with similar principles.
Staring at the walls and not wanting to watch television, I took out my plan. I began surfing the Internet for pictures of materials, furnishings, and appliances I wanted in my house. If I had a woman, I’d ask her what she wanted, but I wasn’t one of those guys. While I wasn’t opposed to having an old lady if the right woman came along, I wasn’t in a rush. The last thing I wanted to do was make a mistake. We’d learned having a man or woman as your forever person was possible. A few had more unconventional pairings. Dublin Falls, so far, had almost every kind. There was a male with a male. Two men with one woman who they shared. And finally, two men with one woman where the guys were sexually involved with each other, too. It was all fine with us. We didn’t care who you loved or fucked, as long as it was consensual.
Thinking of women made me wonder if any club bunnies were around. I might not be able to do much work, but no one said I couldn’t fuck. Finding my cell phone, I pulled up the first bunny’s name, Bonnie. She and Shantal were our newest. They joined us earlier this year. The two who had been here the longest were Vida and Clover. Both were over two years at the club.
If I had my pick, it would be one of the new ones or Vida. There was something about Clover that put me off. Plus, she had this thing for Player and was often turning others down, hoping she’d get to hook up with him. She needed to be careful. If she kept it up, she’d find herself out on her ass. Bull would only tolerate her doing it for so long, then she’d either have to stop it or leave.
When Bonnie didn’t answer, I tried Shantal next. She answered on the third ring.
“Hey, Iceman, I’m sorry. I was in the other room and had to run for my phone. Do you need me?” she asked huskily. Bunnies knew what a guy was calling for.
“Yeah, if you’re available. Come to my room.” There was no need to be coy. She knew I was asking her here to have sex.
“Give me five minutes, and I’ll be there.”
“See you in five,” I repeated before hanging up.
I leaned back against the headboard to wait for her. Yeah, a nice hard fuck would do wonders. All that energy and tension I didn’t work off in my therapy session I’d do now. I’d take the substitute for now.
???
Today was my third session with Ladd, and it would be my last one. I had the first with him on Monday and again on Wednesday. He told me three times a week was ideal, and since I wanted to get them over with as fast as possible, I agreed.
There would be no more because he wasn’t an iota better or different than he had been the first time. He would flirt with the old ladies or bunnies if they happened to pass by. All he cared about was being a hound with the women. If the circumstances had been right, I wouldn’t mind, but he was here to rehab me, not to get his cock wet. He was lucky that when he pulled that crap with the old ladies, none of their men had been present. If they had, I wouldn’t be finishing up this pathetic excuse for a therapy visit.
He had me doing the same thing every time. He wasn’t even bothering to have me do more reps or be on the treadmill longer each time. There were still twenty minutes left. I stopped midway through a wall pushup and walked over to him. Ladd was staring down at his phone. While I worked out, he’d spend his time on his phone. Ladd was constantly tapping away and smiling. I didn’t know if he was texting, posting on social media, or what. I couldn’t give a fuck.
“Get up,” I snapped.
He didn’t respond, so I repeated it, only louder. “Get up.”
His head lifted, and he gave me a confused look. “What?”
“You heard me. I said GET UP!” I shouted it this time.
He scrambled to his feet. “What’s gotten into you, Iceman?”
“What’s gotten into me is that I’ve wasted three fucking visits with you. I didn’t want to waste my time when I knew the kind of workout I could do, but I promised I’d try. You have me doing the same shit all the time. It’s not one bit challenging, and you stare at your goddamn phone the whole time. If you’re not doing that, you come on to every woman you meet, including my club brothers’ old ladies. It’s disgusting, and you’re lucky they haven’t told their old men. I want you to get your shit and leave. Don’t come back.”
He was sputtering when Zara came hurrying into the room. I held in my groan. Shit. “Z, before you say anything, you need to know. I’m finished with this clown. He’s not doing a thing for me, and he’s unprofessional.”
“Dr. Moretti, I’m not sure what’s gotten into him, but I don’t have to be treated this way.” Ladd huffed.
“Ladd, I know what his problem is. He’s frustrated with you, and I can’t say that I blame him. I thought he’d say you had to go after the first day. However, he stuck out the week. I’m proud of you, Ice. As for you, Ladd. You’re the worst physical therapist I’ve ever met. I’ve been watching the security feeds in here every time you’ve been here. If this is what you do, your patients must get better by sheer luck or on their own. Get out. I’ll be speaking to your agency. If they want my business, then they need to give me only the good staff.”
He tried to argue and blame it on me, but we marched his ass outside and to his car. He glared at us as he sped out of the parking area to the gate. Luckily, it was on an automatic sensor. This allowed it to open without someone being there to do it. He revved his engine and sped out the gate as soon as it opened far enough. I couldn’t be sure because of the dark tinted windows, but I thought he had raised his hand and given us the middle finger. I flipped him off regardless.
I turned to face Zara. She was shaking her head. “I’m so sorry, Iceman. I had to give him a chance. I kept praying he’d improve, but I knew it was enough when he did the same thing twice. I hate for you to think this is what quality PT is like. I assure you it’s not. Would you be willing to give one more person a chance? I swear, this time, it’ll be someone I can personally vouch for.”
I wanted to shoot it down, but her hopeful expression made me open my mouth and say something totally different. “Sure, if you want me to give another one a chance, I will. But I’m only willing to commit to the two left on my original promise. If by some miracle this person does me good or presents an actual challenge, then I’ll toy with the possibility of doing more.”
“Thank you, and let me say, you showed tremendous restraint. I’ll go make my phone call. I’ll see if I can get who I want out here next week. It depends on openings in schedules.”
I nodded. “Let’s go get a damn drink.”
She laughed, wrapped her arm around my waist, and let me lead her inside.