Chapter Nineteen
Hatch
“FUCK!” I BELLOWED as Gina and Katie worked in tandem to reset my knee.
“You need to stow that bullshit, big man,” Katie taunted. “You brought all of this on yourself. And I had to lie to your wife. Jesus, she’s never going to talk to me again.”
“Baby,” Rooster admonished. “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”
“No, she’s right,” Hatch bit out, pain written all over his face. “I’ll smooth things over with Maisie.”
“I’d give you pain meds, but you can’t sleep,” Gina said. “You’ve got one hell of a concussion, and I’m worried about a brain injury.”
“I got it,” Hatch panted out.
“I can, however, give you a nerve block in your knee.”
“What the fuck happened to your face?”
That screech came from my wife and in my pain-filled haze, I almost thought it was an hallucination.
I followed the sound of her voice. “What the hell are you doing here, Sunshine, you’re supposed to be in the hospital?”
“Yeah, well, you’re not!”
“Maisie, you need to sit down, honey,” Dani ordered.
“Sunshine—”
“Don’t you dare ‘Sunshine’ me, Connor Wallace,” Maisie snapped. “What happened?”
“Maisie, you really need to sit down,” Katie said, dragging a chair over to the side of my bed and guiding her to it.
However, she refused to sit down.
“I need to know what the fuck happened to my husband.” She glared at Mack. “Someone needs to start talking.”
“Sit down, baby,” I growled. “Everyone else… out!”
“You want that nerve block first, Hatch?” Gina asked.
“I’m good, sweetheart,” I said. “We’ll do it when we’re done here.”
“I’ll be right outside,” Katie said more to Maisie than to me.
The group filed out of the room, and I held my hand out to Maisie. “Sit down before you fall down.”
“What happened to your face?” she demanded, ignoring my demand as her eyes filled with tears. She leaned over me and shook her head, tears sliding down her cheeks. “Your beautiful face.”
Despite excruciating pain radiating through every inch of my body, I pushed myself up and pulled her gently between my knees. “Baby, don’t cry. I hate it when you cry.”
“Stop trying to distract me with your sweetness.” She leaned back, taking a deep breath as she met my eyes. “You haven’t answered my question. What the fuck happened to your face? Were you in an accident?”
“Nothing happened to me. I got into a fight, is all.”
“Connor, I’ve seen you after plenty of fights.” She frowned. “You look like you’ve been run over.”
“The important thing is the war with the Spiders is over. For good. The club is safe, and most importantly, you’re safe.”
“Me seeing you like this doesn’t make me feel very safe,” Maisie said.
“You should see the other guy,” I retorted.
Maisie’s tone flattened. “Is Warlock dead?”
I nodded as much as my neck would allow.
She raised an eyebrow. “And you killed him.”
“Yeah,” I rasped. “I killed him. I didn’t want to, but he left me no ch—”
Maisie kissed me before I could get another word out. My face hurt like hell when she did, but I didn’t care. She was safe and she loved me.
“Won’t the Spiders retaliate?” Maisie asked, breaking our kiss.
I shook my head. “The Spiders are done. We closed them down.”
“How exactly did you do that?”
“Warlock and I came to an understanding,” I said, hoping she wouldn’t press further into the matter, but knowing full well, she would.
“You two came to an understanding just before you killed him?” she pressed.
I nodded. “That’s right.”
“That’s not much of an answer, is it?”
I sighed. “I don’t suppose we could just close this chapter without analyzing every word, could we?”
“Connor Wallace, I swear to the almighty God, if you don’t tell me everything you’ve been up to in the past three hours, I will force both your biological and club brothers to come into this room and finish the thrashing Warlock gave you.”
“Baby—”
“I mean it.”
“Do you promise you won’t get pissed?”
“No, I sodding do not.”
She clearly wasn’t gonna let this slide and it was never a good sign when Maisie began cursing in her native tongue, so I came clean. “This war between us and the Spiders was never gonna end. I mean, how fuckin’ long have we been going at it with these guys?”
“That’s history, get to the present.”
“When Warlock came after you that was it. A switch flipped inside of me. I knew I had to put an end to all of this. Not me and the club... just me.”
“So, you challenged him to a fight?”
I nodded.
“But you said you killed Warlock and you would have never done that unless…” Maisie’s words trailed off as she mentally processed the situation. “You agreed to a fight to the death.”
“I didn’t want to kill him. I had him beat and tried to show mercy, but he kept coming at me.”
“That’s not the point!” Maisie hollered. “You could have been killed!”
“But I wasn’t. Just a little banged up, and I’ve been banged up before,” I said.
“This is nothing compared to what I am going to do to you once we get home.”
“Baby I—”
“Don’t you dare ‘baby’ me. You snuck out of my hospital room to participate in what essentially amounts to a duel to the death, and I knew nothing about it.”
“I told you I was stepping out for a while and gave you a goodbye kiss,” I argued.
“I was on heavy drugs, and in and out of consciousness, and you know it, so don’t even try that load of bollocks on me.”
“It had to be all or nothing, Sunshine. Him versus me. His club against my club.”
“Our club,” she corrected.
“Our club,” I conceded. “That was the only way I could think to get rid of them without losing anyone else.”
“What do you mean his club versus ours? I saw the other guys. No one else has a scratch on them.” Her mouth twisted into a scowl as she worked out the meaning of my words.
“Are you telling me that besides the fact that you could have easily been killed tonight, and that if you had, the club would have gone down with you?”
I nodded. “The important part is that I won, and the Spiders are done for good.”
“No, Hatch. The important part is that your pride almost made me a widow tonight. Even worse, a widow without a support system, because you put the club on the line as well.”
“The club would still have your back no matter what,” I countered.
“There would be no club. That’s the point. But what hurts far more than the thought of the Dogs no longer being a club is the reality that you kept all of this from me.”
“Well, you kept a pretty damn big secret from me, and it landed you in the hospital,” I snapped. “Which is where you should be right fucking now.”
“Is that why you challenged Warlock. To get back at me?”
“Of course not, that’s not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying? How can you possibly expect me to be okay with the choice you made?”
I hung my head and sighed. “I can’t. You’re right. I made the decision to face Warlock without you. I made every member ditch their trackers at the club, and I asked them to keep quiet about what I was doing. But you have to believe that I did everything I did in order to protect you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I believe you believe that, but you still should have told me.”
“You would have stopped me.”
“Goddamned right I would have stopped you,” Maisie snapped.
“We both fucked up pretty bad today, didn’t we?” I asked, sheepishly.
“Not our shiniest moment, that’s for sure,” she replied.
“I’m sorry. I was panicked and had to make sure Warlock and the Spiders could never come after you again.”
“In all the years we’ve been together, I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say you were panicked.”
“I’ve never been that close to losing you before.”
Maisie’s eyes softened. “That must have been hard for you.”
“I lost my shit.”
“We both fucked up pretty bad today, didn’t we?” Maisie echoed my words, then gently cupped my face. “But I’d like to point out, you fucked up worse and I plan to dish out a punishment that won’t be fun.”
“I look forward to it.”
“Ah, no, love. It won’t be sexual, so get that idea out of your head. Hear me on that.”
“Okay, baby. I hear you.” I sighed. “Will you sit down now, please?”
She nodded and practically fell into the chair beside my bed.
* * *
Maisie
“Kate!” Hatch bellowed, bringing her and Gina rushing into the room. Followed closely by Rooster, Razor, Dani, and all of our kids.
“What the hell are you doing out of the hospital, Mummy?” Poppy admonished.
“Figuring out why your father wasn’t answering his phone,” I hissed.
“Maisie, honey, just how much pain are you in?” Katie asked.
I grimaced. “Level forty-seven.”
“Fuck!” Hatch snapped. “Get her something!”
“Sit back, Hatch,” Gina ordered. “I need to get this pain block in your knee.”
“I need my wife’s pain managed before you do that.”
“I’ve got her covered, buddy,” Katie said. “Let Gina get your pain sorted.”
“Get her covered and back to the hospital,” Hatch growled.
“We’re going to do that as soon as both of you are stable pain-wise,” Gina said.
“Now, goddammit, I want her back there now!”
“Jesus, Dad, you wanna stow that attitude when you’re talkin’ to the women who are tryin’ to help you?” Flash snapped back.
“Flash Wallace, don’t poke the fucking bear,” Katie ordered as she started an IV in my hand and shot me up with the best pain meds I’d had in my life. “Jesus, you need to learn some respect.”
Flash frowned. “What did I do?”
“You are failing to see that your father is not only in excruciating pain, he’s terrified for your mother, the person he loves more than anyone in this world. More than you, buddy, so how about you stow your fucking attitude and cut him some slack!”
“Go Katie,” Poppy murmured.
“Katie’s right, darling.” I smiled gently at my son. “You need to give Daddy some grace right now. He’s in a lot of pain and scared for me. There’s more going on than you’re even aware of, and if it was happening to Tate, I think you’d be acting a lot like him.”
“Everyone out!” Katie ordered.
Jamie walked over and kissed my cheek, followed by Flash, then Poppy, although, Poppy was the only one who kissed her father’s cheek as well, before the rest of the group left the room, leaving just the four of us.
I glanced over at Hatch and grimaced. I was feeling no pain, while I was fairly certain my man was feeling all of it. I reached for his hand, and he grabbed it like a talisman, holding it tight as Gina and Katie worked in tandem to assess the severity of his injuries outside of his knee.
“We need to get X-rays, big man,” Katie said. “You’re going to need to strip down to nothing and get a gown on. You want Flash or Jamie to help you do that, or one of the brothers?”
“Booker or Mack.”
“You got it.”
“Be right back,” Gina said, and the women left the room.
“Don’t leave,” Hatch rasped.
I smiled. “I’m not going anywhere, love.”
The door opened and both Booker and Mack walked in, proceeding to help Hatch remove all of his clothes and that’s when I completely lost my mind.
“Bloody hell,” I bit out.
“Close your eyes, Sunshine,” Hatch suggested.
“Like hell I will. What the fuck did that monster do to you?”
My husband, my beautiful husband, was bruised and bloody everywhere and I couldn’t stop tears from streaming down my face.
“Baby,” Hatch rasped. “Fuck, please, don’t cry.”
“The only spot on your body not bruised is your dick,” I cried, pushing up out of my chair.
Booker and Mack busted out laughing as Hatch let out a groan. “Sit the fuck down, Sunshine.”
“Why the hell did you let him do this?” I snarled at Mack and Booker.
Booker made his way to me and wrapped an arm around my waist. “Sit down, sweetheart.”
“Don’t you fucking condescend to me,” I snapped. “How the hell did you let it get this bad, Booker? Look at his body!”
“Yeah, I’m not gonna do that, Maisie,” he countered.
“As you pointed out, I protected your favorite part about me,” Hatch tried to joke.
“Not the time, Connor,” I hissed.
“Sit down, goddammit!” he bellowed.
“Okay, maybe both of you need to calm down,” Mack said. “Maisie, take a seat before you pass out. Hatch, let’s get you into this gown so Gina and Katie can get some scans.”
I lowered myself back into the chair with Booker’s help, but I did it with a scowl and a plan to make all of them pay.
They had no idea what they had coming. My husband would wish for the day of dislocated knees, cracked ribs, and bruises once I was done with him.