Chapter 18
TEX
Iwoke up with a crick in my neck and the taste of bad hospital coffee still lingering on my tongue.
For a second I didn’t know where I was, and then the smell hit me.
Antiseptic and bleach, and that sterile hospital scent that clings to your skin and clothes. Then the memories came rushing back.
Gunfire.
Rowan’s screams.
Blood on my hands and seeping into my clothes as her eyes fluttered closed.
I jerked upright in the chair beside the bed, my hand automatically going for the gun at my hip.
I scanned the room quickly, freezing when I noticed the bed was empty, and my heart slammed against my ribs so hard it actually hurt.
“Rowan?”
The room was silent.
Machines hummed softly beside the bed, their screens glowing in the dim light. The blanket had been folded back, the pillow dented where her head had once been.
But she was gone.
A cold wave of panic rushed through me.
“No.”
I stood up so fast the chair scraped loudly across the tiled floor.
“Rowan!”
Her name came out rough and desperate and I hated how pathetic I sounded.
My mind went straight to the worst possible place.
She’d died, while I was asleep like a damn idiot.
I ran a hand through my hair, breathing hard as I looked around the room like she might magically reappear.
“ROWAN!”
Fuck! What was I going to do? I had been charged with her protection and now she was just gone?
“Fuck…FUCK!” I yelled, growing more and more frantic.
Maybe she hadn’t died, I tried to reason with my own panicked mind. But if she hadn’t died, then where was she?
And then my mind went to an even worse place than before…the cartel.
If they had taken her, if they had hurt her, it would be the last thing any of them did. I would burn their whole organization to the ground, killing each one of them slowly, methodically, and very very painfully.
Fuck sitting down and holding peace talks.
Fuck trying to work with them on anything.
They were all dead.
I pulled out my gun and checked that it was loaded just as the door opened.
A nurse hurried inside, her eyes going wide when she saw all six foot three of pissed-off biker pacing the hospital room with a gun in his hand.
“Sir,” She held up her hands, her eyes wider than saucers.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
The nurse blinked quickly. “The patient?”
“Rowan,” I snapped. “Where. Is. She?”
Her startled expression shifted slightly. “Oh, she’s not… She’s fine.”
My chest tightened, my gaze never leaving her face.
“She’s gone down for an X-ray,” the nurse explained quickly. “They took her about fifteen minutes ago. You were asleep and she said not to wake you. She was quite insistent about it.”
I exhaled slowly, my pulse still hammering in my ears. “Take me to her.”
The nurse hesitated. “Sir, she’ll be back very soon. If you can wait here.”
“Take me to her,” I repeated, my voice low, “now.”
Something in my tone made her rethink arguing with me anymore.
“All right,” she said nervously. “It’s this way.”
We stepped out into the busy hallway. The hospital corridors stretched out in long white lines under harsh fluorescent lights. Everything echoed faintly. The squeak of rubber soles, distant voices, the occasional beep of machines coming from patient rooms.
We passed a flustered-looking nurse pushing a cart stacked with metal trays and syringes.
Another hallway held rows of equipment: heart monitors, IV stands, oxygen tanks, all lined up neatly against the wall.
A man in scrubs pushed a gurney past us with a patient hooked up to machines and an oxygen mask over his mouth. Both of them looked at me briefly before quickly looking away.
Hospitals had always felt like a strange to me. They were too quiet and too clean. And there were way too many people trying to pretend nothing bad ever happened inside these walls.
I had always been a man that preferred honesty, even if that honesty killed me.
We turned one corner, and then another, and anyone else would have gotten lost in the maze of hallways. But I had been born with a personal navigation system in my body, and I had already memorized the way back to Rowan’s room.
Finally the nurse pointed toward a room with a large glass window.
“They’re in there.”
I didn’t even slow down. Instead, I stalked past the nurse and toward the room.
Rowan sat on a narrow table inside, one arm resting carefully across her lap and the other in a sling across her chest. A technician adjusted the large X-ray machine beside her. Her green hospital gown hung loosely around her slender shoulders, her dark hair slightly messy like she’d just woken up.
She looked so small and fragile—nothing like the fierce woman I’d seen riding horses across her ranch yesterday, or the one arguing with me and showing no fear and no mercy.
The door opened behind me and the technician glanced up, a scowl creasing his features.
“Sir, you can’t be—”
Rowan turned and her eyes widened slightly. “Tex? What are you doing?”
Relief hit me so hard my knees almost gave out. “You’re okay,” I said, but it wasn’t a question. It was a statement. A fact. She was okay. Her arm busted up, but she was still living and breathing, and that was what mattered.
The technician frowned. “Sir, you’re not supposed to be in here during imaging.”
“I’ll stand back, but I’m not leaving.”
The man looked irritated but finished the scan quickly.
A moment later the door opened again and a doctor stepped inside, flipping through Rowan’s chart. He glanced at me immediately.
“And you are?”
“Tex.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Don’t really care what you meant.”
The doctor sighed. “You can wait outside.”
“I’m staying.”
“Sir, I need you to leave.”
“No.” The word came out flat. “I’m staying.”
The doctor frowned deeper but decided against arguing any further with me. He looked at Rowan. “Is this okay with you?”
Her forehead puckered in frustration but she nodded.
The doctor cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Well, the bullet went clean through the arm. No major damage. She’s lost a lot of blood, and we’ve had to give her a transfusion, but you’re a healthy young woman and I don’t think there will be any lasting nerve damage.
A couple of days’ rest and monitoring, and you can go home.
You’re going to be in this sling for a while though and we’ll give you a course if antibiotics to ward of any infection.
Is there anyone at home who can help you?
” He looked down at his notes again before speaking.
“I believe you own a ranch. Well, you’re going to need lots of help for a few weeks, at the very least.”
“I’ll be there. I’ll be helping her,” I said without hesitation. “I’ll have others come around and help with the ranch.”
The doctor didn’t bother to look at me, instead he sighed again, tutted, and shook his head before scribbling something down on the chart in his hand.
“So she’s going to be okay?” I asked, my voice thick and desperate.
The doctor looked at me a look of disdain on his face. “Thankfully, yes.” He glanced at Rowan and sighed before leaving the room.
I knew what he was thinking and I didn’t blame him. I was thinking it myself too.
I had been getting that look my whole life.
Regardless, deep relief washed through me. She was going to be okay.
“Tex,” Rowan began as soon as the door closed behind the doctor.
“You’re not safe,” I said quietly.
“What do you mean?” her eyes widened.
“It was the cartel,” I said. I’d suspected as much last night, but Moose and Bear and one of the prospects had followed the sedan for a few miles before catching up with it. For cartel men, they hadn’t taken much to crack.
Rowan’s face had gone even paler, if that were possible.
A nurse brought in a wheelchair. “I’ll take you back upstairs,” she told Rowan.
But I was already moving towards it. “I’ve got it.” I took the handles of the chair and carefully helped Rowan settle into it.
She glanced back at me, a little surprised. “You don’t have to—”
“I know,” I cut in, a little harder than I had meant.
I started pushing the chair down the hallway. The wheels squeaked softly on the polished floor. Neither of us spoke until we had passed through the maze of corridors and were back in her room. Inside, JD was sitting with Moose. Both of them looked up as we entered.
I nodded at JD. “Prez?”
“Tex,” he replied, giving me a curt nod back.
Rowan’s fingers tightened slightly against the thin hospital blanket. JD and Moose stood up.
“It’s okay, we just came to check on you and make sure you were okay,” JD explained.
“Doc says she’s going to be fine,” I replied.
“That’s good. That’s real good,” JD said. “Tex, can I talk to you outside?”
He and Moose left the room, and when Rowan tried to stand up, I leaned down and scooped her up in my arms in one gentle movement and carried her over to the bed.
Her arms automatically came up around my neck, and I laid her gently in the bed, pulling the covers up around her.
I could see the dried blood in her hair and down her neck and I pushed away the panic that the sight of it gave me.
“I’ll be right back.”
Rowan looked hesitant, her eyes wide and fearful. “Okay.”
“Hey,” I said, touching the bottom of her chin and lifting her face up, “I’ll be right outside the door. I’ll be two minutes and then I’ll be back.”
I headed outside, closing the door with a soft click behind me. JD was pacing slowly, and he looked up when I came out. I held out a hand and he shook it.
“This is some fucked-up shit,” I said, and Moose snorted on a dry laugh.
“‘Fucked-up shit’ is one way of putting it.”
“Still got no news on the one that got away,” JD said, and I could see the tension in his shoulders, “there’s more out there though. They’re like fuckin’ weeds that keep growing back.”
“How did this happen?” I snapped, and JD narrowed his eyes. “I thought you said we had it all covered.”