Chapter 28 - Karter
I ignore the knock on the hospital door. They can either take the hint and go away or come in and deal with me. Either way, they ain’t going to walk away happy.
The cops already tried to keep me out of her room.
That wasn’t going to happen. Watching the doctor’s office explode in front of Diana and her get thrown into the opposite wall took more than years off my life.
I didn’t breathe again till I shoved past everyone and got her in my arms. Her pulse, the first thing I checked, was there.
It should have been enough to let me breathe and let them work. It wasn’t.
General got me into every room he could. If I wasn’t in the room, I was in the viewing room. Backstage passes all the way.
“She doing okay?”
I don’t look up at Ruby, but I don’t kick her out either.
“She’ll live.”
General is giving me everything he can, but even he’s bound by rules and regulations.
On paper, I’m no one. We’re not family, not more than dating.
I shouldn’t know shit. But he knows I’ve claimed her.
Not just because of what Nana told me, but because the first thought I had when Nana called me was Diana.
Not Ruby. My kid probably should have been my first thought, if I remembered her in that way.
We’re getting better, but it’s still new.
One day I’ll think of her first, but not right now.
All that matters is Babygirl.
General has her heavily sedated right now.
We got her out of the hallway as quickly as we could and brought her up to another floor to get looked over.
She was knocked unconscious, and they kept her that way while they looked her over.
Sprained ankle. Hairline fracture in her elbow. The blood, thank fuck, wasn’t hers.
I know I asked her. She said she was good, but I still had to know for sure.
So after checking her pulse, I ran my hands over her quickly to make sure I didn’t feel any wound that would hurt her more if I moved her.
Once I found nothing glaring, I picked her up and ran like hell.
Casper stayed to help, but Mad Max was with me.
The guy never leaves my side, and I’m grateful for that.
The second I put her down on the gurney, I needed someone to hold me up for a second before I got my shit together and followed her.
It was Mad Max who got General to us quickly before I got thrown out of the place.
It was also Mad Max who made sure I could see her.
And it was him who waited silently with me in the room.
His girl, Fairy, already came. She’s been sitting on his lap the whole time, quiet and watching, just like her man.
Fairy’s a good one. She knows when to talk and when to shut up.
She’s good with silence, unlike some of the old ladies.
But when she opens her mouth? Damn, you never know what’s going to come out of it.
Fairy has zero filter. Probably why half of us like her so damn much.
No need to guess what’s on her mind—she just says it.
That and a whole lot of other random shit, but she’s a genius.
The type that knows too much, and it spills over when she gets talking.
“Can we have a minute?”
My head shifts at Ruby’s words. I see her looking at Mad Max and Fairy as she directs her question to them.
Mad Max looks at me, and I give him a chin lift. I already know he’ll just stand right outside the door. He might give Ruby the space she wants, but not enough to get him out of protecting me.
“Is this one of those times where you say a minute, but you really mean like five or ten? Because if that’s the case, you should ask for us to leave till you’re done.
Unless you really only need a minute, and then I’ll start the stopwatch once the door closes,” Fairy babbles on with a tilt of her head.
Ruby nods. “I’ll come get you.”
It’s enough for Fairy, and they leave us alone. I’m still sitting by the bed, holding my girl’s hand. She’s so damn beautiful that it almost hurts to look at. The sun is setting, and the last rays cast her in a halo of red and orange.
I should be freaking out, thinking the fire is catching from before. But all I see is the woman who has given me so much since the moment I opened my eyes. I never expected to be in her position, waiting to see her eyes open like I know she was doing for me.
Weeks ago, she confessed that she used to wonder, while she cared for me, what color my eyes were. She didn’t want to ask and look creepy, so she guessed. I asked if she was disappointed when she saw them. All she said was “How could I be? ’Cause all I saw in them was me.”
Yeah, I licked her pussy clean that night. Twice. Her confession was everything to me.
She’s everything.
“Dad.” Ruby shuffles closer, then hesitates off to the side.
“I just wanted to say…” She pauses, and I look away from Babygirl to Peaches.
Not my daughter, but the woman of the club I love.
She’s one and the same, but I think my time asleep did us both some good.
She grew out of the shadow I’m sure I put over her by being her dad.
She’s not Ruby, the president’s daughter.
She’s Peaches, the old lady of the president’s enforcer, and also the daughter of Law.
A man who’s part of the club and happy to still be in it.
“You told Mom you would love her till death do us part.”
I look down and away. I hear the sadness in her voice, and guilt is creeping up in my mind. Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking of Diana as my old lady. Not when I had one. But fuck if I don’t want to.
“Well… you died.”
I turn back at her words, brows creased together.
She rolls her eyes, and I’m not sure if it’s because of my reaction or the tears that are threatening to spill down her cheeks.
“I’m not saying you have to forget her, even if you remember her.
Just that, maybe, a part of you can move on.
” She sniffs and nods toward Diana. “To start something new. Another chance.”
The beeps from the monitor echo in the room as I take Ruby in.
What she’s saying. Her blessing of sorts.
I know this is hard for her to say, but she’s saying it.
She means it. Since I woke up, not a moment has gone by that I couldn’t read her.
She either sucks at poker or I really do know her and can tell her feelings, maybe even better than she can. And she means this. All of it.
“Maybe fate wanted you to have two lives. Two hearts. Two loves.”
“What are you saying, kid?” My voice is gruff from my own emotions. And while I can guess at what she’s saying, I still want her to actually tell me. Not only so I can be a thousand percent sure, but also to make her admit it out loud so she doesn’t take it back. Ever.
“I’m saying… I won’t hurt her if she’s around more. Might even come to call her my friend. But I’ll never call her Mom.” She glares at the last part and pulls a startled laugh from me.
“Never would have expected you to,” I say as I reach out and grab her hand, pulling her close to give her a hug as I hold Diana with my other hand.
I’ve got both my girls in my life, and I’m not letting go of either one.
Ruby sits with me a bit, but soon Kooper’s demanding she go home and rest. Something she’s completely against, but she leaves when he says they can get wings. Even Fairy and Mad Max head home after a bit.
We’ve got a man on the door just in case. We already figured out everything that went down, that this had nothing to do with us. Doesn’t mean a Hound is going to go through anything alone. Even waiting in the hospital for his girl to wake up.
If General hadn’t reassured Casper and the rest of the damn club, they’d still all be camped out in the waiting room, rules be damned.
But our resident doc gave them the all clear.
Diana is going to be fine. He’s only keeping her under for so long for her mind to really accept everything.
She knew Ashley, and they were close. Seeing her friend die, then watching that fucking husband of hers shoot himself is one thing.
Having the building half explode around her is another.
The guy knew what he was doing, I’ll give him that. He rigged the place to blow, but kept it contained. He was crazy, but not enough to take everyone out. Just him and his girl, apparently.
Flint already told me that the cops raided his place and found a girl strangled in the bathroom.
Intel Flint could find from security cameras was that it was the same girl he was sneaking out to see at a motel across town.
People always think that a seedy motel is the way to go, but they’ve got cameras just like everywhere else.
Only way not to get caught is to not do the shit—or have someone like the Hounds work the comms to make it look like you were never there.
“What do you say? Should we wake Sleeping Beauty?” General says as a greeting as he opens the door and comes in, followed by Nurse Vicky.
For once, she doesn’t seem like a complete bitch.
Mean as hell still, but there’s a small, tiny, itty-bitty softness around her eyes when she sees my girl in the bed.
Then her eyes find mine, and they turn hard. “You aren’t family.”
“He’s family enough, Vicky. Diana’s grandmother gave him permission to stay while she went home to rest. I’m sure you can imagine what a strain it is on a woman of that age to witness her granddaughter go through all of this,” General says smoothly as he pulls something from his coat.
Vicky snorts, and I barely hold mine own back.
Nana ain’t old or frail like General is making her out to be.
I know this. He knows this. Hell, even Nurse Vicky knows this.
The only reason I’m here and not Nana is because she doesn’t like hospitals.
Says she spent too much time in this one watching her daughter die that she ain’t doing it again, so she went home.
She’s been texting me every five minutes, though.
I told her just to come back, but she declined.
Still getting the texts, and I’ve got no problem with every one that comes in.
“All right. This will be better than any prince could do,” General mutters as he squeezes a liquid out of a syringe into part of Diana’s IV. It takes a moment, but then her lashes flutter and her eyes open.
“Hey, Babygirl.” I get close, not enough to block out the rest in the room, but enough that she knows I’m here and not just a random voice in the room. I squeeze her fingers and rub my thumb around her knuckles constantly.
She blinks a few times and then squeezes back, and I take my first solid breath since getting the call from Nana.
“Hey, Diana. How you feeling?” General goes into doctor mode, and I move back—barely an inch—to give him access to look her over fully now that her eyes are open.
“Okay.” She clears her throat twice before Vicky offers her a straw to sip some water.
“Slowly,” Vicky chides.
Diana nods after another sip before releasing it and resting her head back on the bed.
“What happened?” she asks.
General looks at me for a beat before he answers.
“There was an explosion. You got thrown back. We checked you over. Other than a few bumps and bruises, nothing too bad. I expect a full recovery.”
“What about…?” She looks at me and then General, eyes briefly passing by Vicky as she pleads for more answers.
“Nurse, why don’t you give us the room for a bit?”
Vicky’s head jerks back as if she’s surprised, but instead of arguing, she nods. Then she squeezes Diana’s leg in comfort and walks out.
“Ashley didn’t make it. Neither did her kids,” General says before Babygirl can explain what she wants to know. “After the gunshot, none of them were going to make it. There was nothing you could have done.”
Tears flow down her face, and she nods in understanding.
I expect she knows this, but still, hearing it?
God, I wish I could take away this pain from her.
I wish so much that I could, but I can only promise myself, and her, that I’ll be there for her when she needs it.
When the load is too heavy to carry this memory, I’ll be there.
I would like to think she’d be able to move on and not let this day affect her, but I know my girl.
She cares. Almost to a fault. She’ll hold this longer than she should, but she’ll do it with a smile to not burden anyone else.
And that’s where I’ll come in and hold her up.
Support her when it’s all too much and she needs the help.
“And the baby?” She looks at General, who looks at me. Then she looks at me too.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” She grabs my hand with both of hers, and her strength is clear in them despite her laying in a hospital bed.
“I know this isn’t what you want. I didn’t expect it.
I didn’t plan for it. And I’m not going to ask you to do anything you don’t want to do.
You have too much going on right now. And I know I should have told you before this, but with you and Ruby, I just…
. I’m sorry. I should have told you, but I didn’t.
And I want… I want to keep it. Even if you don’t want to be part of our lives, I get that.
It’s a lot, and you have so much going on. It’s just that I… I—”
“Diana,” General cuts in softly, nothing like the blade her words just drove through me. The thought of her doing this alone stabs me straight through the heart and leaves a trail of blood in its wake.
She looks at him, and I just look at her, already knowing what he’s going to say. Already knowing the truth.
“You’re not pregnant.”
“Wha… what?”
“It was a false positive. You’re not pregnant.”