Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Iris
Frozen in place, Iris’ gaped as Law ran away from her.
Well, he wasn’t actually running, but he was moving fast enough he might as well be.
Before she’d recovered, he was already through the door into the lobby.
The sight of the door swinging shut was what finally got her moving—except someone grabbed her arm.
“What just happened?” Master Asad’s voice was harsher than she’d ever heard before, and he had a grip like a steel cage. Iris tried to jerk away as she answered him, but it wasn’t an easy hold to break.
“I don’t know!” She turned, purposefully jerking her arm to where his fingers and thumb met, the weakest part of his grip.
Three cheers for Angel’s self-defense class because it worked, and she took off after Law.
She could hear Master Asad’s low curse behind her, but she ignored him as she darted for the door.
Blowing through the lobby, she ran outside—straight into Master Kincaid. He grabbed her upper arms, both of them, to steady her but didn’t let go. Damn these interfering Doms. Iris tried to look around him, trying to figure out where Law had gone.
“What is going on? Where is Law going?” Master Kincaid’s questions were drowned out by the sound of Master Asad coming through the door behind her and cursing as he came to an abrupt halt. She actually felt the air move behind her as he managed not to run into her, but he came damn close.
Before she could answer, she heard the sound of a car starting.
“Shit! Where’s he going?” she wailed, yanking away from Master Kincaid. It didn’t work quite as well as it had with Master Asad since he was holding both her hands, but she got to the side of him. Enough that she saw Master Law’s car back up, then peel out of the parking lot.
“Law!” She screamed his name at the back of his car, anger rising inside her as she realized he was just driving away without saying anything to her, without explaining. What the fuck was going on?
A blur of movement aimed at Law’s car.
The sound of metal crunching against metal.
The front of Law’s car went sideways, spinning as the other car slammed into it.
Someone was screaming.
Iris was moving, Master Kincaid only a step or two ahead of her as he bolted for the cars, before she realized the scream had come from her.
Behind her, she heard shouts, but it was as though they were very far away as she dashed through the parking lot, dodging around cars, running for the one Law was in. She could see him through the windows, slumped sideways.
The car that had hit him had hit the driver’s side.
A sob bubbled up in her throat, but she pushed it back.
The other car pulled back and turned, speeding away down the road. Iris gaped, her head snapping to look after it.
What the fuck?! A hit and run?
She didn’t stop moving. The important thing was Law.
“Law!” she screamed again as she got to the passenger side and saw the blood trickling down his head. He wasn’t moving. Fear fueled her panic, and she didn’t come to a stop so much as she slammed into the side of his car, using it to stop her.
Master Kincaid was more graceful, using his hand to vault himself to slide across the trunk and landing on the other side. He pivoted the moment he touched down.
“Fuck! That asshole.” Master Kincaid’s head snapped up, looking at her. “Iris, can you get in on that side? The door is warped. It’ll never open.”
Panting for breath, Iris grabbed the handle and pulled. A sob rose in her throat again, panic clawing at her from the inside—but Law needed her to be calm. She took a deep breath.
“Locked. We can break the window?”
“Got it.” Master Asad joined her at the side of the car. “Move back.”
He slammed something hard into the window, and it shattered. Iris would have darted forward to open it, but someone else was already holding on to her—she hadn’t even noticed the rest of the people who had come out of the club. Master Asad was the one to reach through the window and unlock it.
“Law!” she cried out as she saw him move, his head turning slightly but not lifting.
“They have him, Iris. It’s okay.” The familiar voice took a moment to recognize. The same voice that had been there for her, over and over, throughout the years, no matter how much of a pain she was.
Her brother was wrong, though. It wasn’t okay.
Still, she turned and pressed her face to his broad chest, crying because there wasn’t anything she could do.
All she could do was step back and wait while Master Mitch crawled onto the passenger seat to check Law over.
He was a nurse and could actually help. Then she stood there when the ambulance and firetruck arrived, and they finally got Law’s car door open and got him out of the car.
With a brace wrapped around his neck, strapped to a wooden board they lifted onto the stretcher, he looked small. Vulnerable. Utterly unlike himself. And it terrified her even more.
“I have to go with him.” She pulled away from Andrew, running to where they were loading Law into the back of the ambulance. Master Asad stood there, talking to one of the EMTs. She grabbed onto his arm. “I should go with him.”
She didn’t need to turn to know her brother was behind her, his presence supporting her.
“And you are?” The EMT asked, looking up.
She had shoulder-length brown hair and bangs that wisped in the slight breeze.
Her eyes scanned over Iris, though she’d clearly seen enough of the surrounding crowd not to be shocked by Iris’ outfit.
The expression on her face was blank, but at least it wasn’t judgmental.
“She’s his fiancée,” Andrew said. Master Asad’s eyes widened, and Iris’ jaw clamped shut, but neither of them refuted Andrew’s lie. Whatever it took to get her in the back of the ambulance with him.
“It’s new, she’s not his emergency contact, but I’ll follow,” Master Asad said. “If he wakes up, he’ll want her with him.”
Would he?
He ran from her in the club. Right out the door and got into the car, which was the whole reason for this mess.
Iris clenched her jaw. Maybe it would be better to let Master Asad go with him. She didn’t know if he’d want her there.
“Here.” Kate’s voice sounded in her ear as something wrapped around her. Dimly, Iris realized Kate had just put a mid-thigh light coat on her, covering her outfit. Right now, she didn’t care what she looked like or what people thought of her, but when she got to the hospital, she might.
“Get in. We’ll meet you there.” Andrew held out his hand to give her a leg up.
The EMT nodded and gestured, so rather than hold everyone up even longer, Iris got in.
The doors closed behind her as she sat on a little bench, reaching out to hold his hand.
His fingers were limp in hers, without the reassurance she was looking for, and she had to bite her lip to keep from crying.
“Hi, I’m Jenn,” the EMT said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Does your fiancé have any health conditions that we should know about? Allergies?” If she noticed the lack of a ring on Iris’ finger, she didn’t say anything.
“No, not that I know of,” Iris said tensely, but then, why would she? She felt like an impostor, but she didn’t want to let go of his hand.
“We’ll go over it again at the hospital,” Jenn said reassuringly. The other EMT ignored Iris, cleaning the wound on Law’s head. “If you want to talk to him, it might help him wake up a little faster.”
If that was true, Iris had no idea, but at least it gave her something useful to do. She just hoped if—when—he woke up, he was happy to see her. She still didn’t know what had happened at Stronghold or why he’d run out the way he had. Run from her.
Leaning down, she whispered in his ear, promising she’d be a good girl—the best girl—if he’d just wake up.
Law
Everything hurt. Law groaned as a kind of throbbing ache pulled him slowly into the waking world, despite how badly he wanted to stay asleep.
Fuck, why do I hurt so much? I feel like I got hit by a truck.
“Oh, I think he’s coming around.” Iris’ voice slipped into his consciousness, and he felt something tighten around his hand. They were holding hands, but it was an odd position. He didn’t think she was lying next to him, even though he was in bed. “Law, can you open your eyes?”
Of course, he could open his eyes… except that he couldn’t. He tried. They didn’t move.
“Give him a minute.” Asad’s voice was calm, measured.
It struck him how stressed Iris sounded by comparison.
“It was a hard knock to the head.”
It was?
Law tried, but he didn’t remember getting knocked on the head. He remembered being in Stronghold… in Master Patrick’s office after he’d stopped some asshole from assaulting Iris. Had the asshole hit him?
No, that didn’t track.
Groaning, Law forced his eyes open.
Holy shit. He was in a hospital.
“Law!” Iris’ face swam before his eyes as she bent over him. Squinting up at her, he tried to talk, but his mouth didn’t feel like it was working. “Oh, thank goodness, he’s awake.”
“What happened?” This time the words made it out, his diction a little fuzzy but understandable. Iris and Asad tried to answer him at the same time. Almost immediately, Iris bit her lip and stopped talking, so Asad could fill him in.
Apparently, after the asshole Dom had been escorted from the club, Law and Iris had gone into the main area.
He’d cut and run out the door as if his ass was on fire— Asad’s colorful commentary—then Asad and Iris had run after him.
Unfortunately, they’d been too slow to keep Law from getting into his car and driving off, which was when ‘that asshole Don’ had done a hit and run while Law was on his way out of the parking lot.
“The cops already have him.” Asad shook his head. “Fucking idiot. The cameras caught everything. The only thing I don’t understand is why you ran out of the club like that.”
“I don’t remember.” Law frowned. Everything was very fuzzy and far away. He knew he’d been in Master Patrick’s office and why and remembered he’d been pissed to all hell, but he couldn’t think of why he’d run. Had he been running after the man?
“We walked back into the club, and you freaked out. I mean, for you,” Iris tacked on hastily. “You were… odd. I suggested we go to the bar and get a couple drinks to decompress, and you just started running.”
“Oh, yeah, well, that would do it,” Asad said before Law could respond. He blamed the accident for making him slow on the uptake.
“What? Why?”
“He’s an alcoholic.”
Iris
Staring at Master Asad, Iris tried to make the words make sense in her head. Little clues started clicking into place—the things she’d seen, things Law had said.
Oh. Oh.
“Asad.” Law growled the other man’s name. Like… like, actually growled.
“A recovering alcoholic,” Master Asad corrected, giving Law a look.
Law glared back at him.
“So that’s why you don’t drink.” Iris shook her head. “I thought you just wanted to maintain control before scening. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It hadn’t come up yet.” Law avoided her gaze, which wasn’t easy to do since he was pretty much immobile.
He winced as he moved his head. Yeah, she bet that hurt.
He had a head wound that required two stitches and a hairline fracture on his clavicle.
Pretty much any head movement was guaranteed to hurt.
Iris pressed her lips together and swallowed her words.
He was avoiding the topic, which wasn’t like him, but it wasn’t hard to figure out he was doing so because he was ashamed.
It was all over his expression and in his voice.
If he hadn’t been in a car accident, she might have gotten butthurt over the fact he hadn’t trusted her with the information yet, but as it was, she was going to give him a pass.
“Oh good, he’s awake!” Nurse Rhonda, a no-nonsense woman in her fifties, bustled in.
Iris had been a little worried about the hospital staff’s reaction to the leather, silk, and lace worn by her, Master Asad, and all their friends in the waiting room, but most of them had taken it in stride.
Rhonda had assured Iris she loved “those kinds of books” and had asked several questions about whether they belonged to a “real club.” She’d also promised to bring Iris some homemade penis candies. Iris kind of loved her.
She was tempted to talk to Master Patrick about hooking Rhonda up with some information about Stronghold and maybe a membership or at least a tour.
Especially when she bossed around a very reluctant Law, actually getting results and answers from him. Brusquely checking him over, Rhonda finally nodded her head in satisfaction.
“We’ll get the doctor in here soon enough, but I think you’ll be cleared to go as long as you have someone who can keep an eye on you.
” Rhonda smiled. “Now, no strenuous aerobics or odd positions, and since it’s his right arm, if he likes to use a whip or a flogger, he should definitely wait at least six to eight weeks. ”
The slightly horrified, slightly awed expression on Law’s face as he listened to Rhonda’s at-home healthcare advice made Iris’ sides ache as she forced down her laughter.
Glancing at Law, then back at Iris, Rhonda lowered her voice.
“Does he like to use a whip?”
“He favors electricity,” Iris whispered, though, from Law’s groan, he still heard her. Master Asad was grinning widely, not bothering to hide his amusement. “But he’s not bad with a whip.”
“You are in so much trouble, Iris,” Law growled.
Rhonda’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, that was very good. Damn, I wish I’d been recording that. Okay, I’ll go get the doctor. I’ll be back.” She whisked out of the room, leaving Iris and Asad cracking up while Law’s grumpy expression got even grumpier.
If some of Iris’ laughter was a little hysterical because she was so relieved he was okay, no one else seemed to notice.