Chapter 34
Bear
I tried to do everything right. I gave her time, space, autonomy, and respect.
Everything Carl tried to take from her. Even her life.
I don’t know how she got free, but Rose was far from unharmed.
Her wrists were bloody and raw. The jagged edge of her hair hung uneven from where she’d cut it to get free.
There were bruises, scrapes, scratches, and blood on her naked skin. Burns ran down her arms and along her spine from the pole as the entire pyre burst ablaze. She favored her left side as if it were broken or worse.
And she begged for that bastard’s life.
I turned to the horror show behind me. The conflagration was high, but slowly being quelled by the downpour that dumped on us. The lightning that had struck the hill… no, the post she was tied to, moved on.
My head still hurt from the blows I took, and I tried to keep upright just in case Carl somehow walked out of those flames.
“ Please , Bear . For Beth . Not for me.”
My hammer necklace tapped against my chest with each labored puff of air I sucked in.
I heard her screams. And ran from the road at full speed. John told me where the place was, but didn’t mention how fucking far everything was or how much that would slow me down. I’d poured so much into getting up that fucking hill I couldn’t fight Carl . But I could watch him burn, right?
For Beth she pleaded. Rose loved her more than she ever could love me.
I was being selfish and jealous, and a weak-ass monster by doing nothing.
I caught one of that dickweed’s feet and dragged him out of the flames. The rain continued to pour down, dowsing the blaze of his clothing almost instantly. He was charred from knee to shoulder. The side of his face was burnt. The other side, uncannily calm. That side’s eye opened.
The fucker was still alive.
He stared at me with that single unburnt eye, accusing me. Judging me.
I hefted his sorry ass into the bed of his truck and tossed a tarp over him. “ Get in the truck, Rose .”
She limped blindly, falling to a crawl. I tossed her in the passenger seat with a little more care than I showed Carl .
Her labored breathing didn’t sound good.
She shook from the cold or shock. I stripped off my outer layers and wrapped her in them to warm her, then tried to figure out how I’d get her out of here.
Luckily , barbecue boy had left the keys in the ignition.
Grand theft doesn’t apply if you’re carrying the owner in the bed, does it?
I shrugged off those intrusive thoughts and backed the truck around to pick my way out of this hellscape.
A half hour later, we’d made it to the hospital, and I had to explain myself. Or not .
You show up with two burnt people in a stolen truck and there’s not as many questions as you’d think. Until they notice one of them is wearing only a Destroyers leather coat and your bloody T -shirt as a skirt.
I sat my ass on the floor outside Rose’s curtain-ringed cubicle in the emergency department. Carl was upstairs in the ICU or surgery somewhere. I hoped the motherfucker died.
As another doctor swept into Rose’s space, a disgusted-looking nurse carried a bundle of bloody sheets out. I stopped her. “ Do you have my coat?’
Her eyes held rage.
I could tell by the set of her jaw that she thought I’d done this.
“ She was naked when I found her.” The pause went on too long, so I filled in the gap. “ I don’t give a shit about my shirt, but my coat is… well, not as important as she is, but they’re going to give me grief if I don’t ask.”
“ Who’s going to do that?”
Who indeed? I’d blown off church. “ No one. Sorry .” I doubted they would give two shits about me now. I sat back down, slouching against one of the columns that made up a corner of the room.
“ Who did all that to her?”
“ That asshole you guys are trying to save.” I pointed at the ceiling.
“ Why ?”
That was a great question. Jealousy ? Fanaticism ? An egomaniacal possessive streak like a certain biker who was a fucking idiot? “ He’s a psycho, I guess.” It took one to know one. That lesson hit hard.
The nurse shifted the bundle in her arms and pulled out my coat, blood and all. She pinched it between her fingers as if it were going to bite her for touching it.
I held out my hand, waiting for her to walk the distance between us.
“ Are you sure you want to keep it?”
It had Rose’s blood on it. The smell of ozone clung to it.
I nodded. “ Yeah .” If that’s all I got to keep of her as a reminder of us, then I’d wear those damned stains with honor.
For as long as I could. Which would be tomorrow when Wolf came for my patch and everything tied to it.
A police officer stopped at the intersection of the hallways, first looking the wrong way, then he spotted me. His eyes took in my hair, the blood, my piercings, tattoos, the coat being offered, the blood on it, and you know what happened next, right?
“ Hands in the air, you’re under arrest.”
Yeah . That .
I held my shaking hands above my head.
“ What are you arresting him for?” The nurse stepped between us.
“ Ma’am , step out of the way. This man is dangerous.”
“ For your information, he brought both of the victims in. That’s called heroic . Get your words straight.”
He peeked around her at me. “ Heroic ? Him ?”
The things that were going through my head were probably written in my scowl. If he could hear them, I’d be locked up for life.
The nurse turned her back on the cop and addressed me, “ You need to be treated for those head wounds you got defending the woman in there.”
“ How’s she doing?” I tried to stand up, but it was tricky with my hands held safely where the cop could see them.
“ Considering she was struck by lightning? As well as can be expected.”
She was struck by lightning? My knees gave out, and I ended up on the floor again. This time, I stared at the ceiling. It was spinning.
“ Timber . The big ones always go down the worst.” The nurse directed orderlies to get me on a gurney and wheel me into another curtain-lined room.
The cop trailed behind to “get my statement” and was promptly barred from the cubicle.
I was attached to monitors and several people scanned my pupils and asked me to do dumb things like press on their hands with first one arm then the other.
Somewhere in there, they asked for an emergency number to call.
I bit the bullet and gave them the club’s private line.
It was an hour before Wolf showed up with his wife in tow. Tits flashed me a grin and disappeared.
“ Where is she heading?”
“ She hates hospitals. Did you know that?”
Wolf’s tone was not jovial, certainly not forthcoming, and that set me off. “ No one asked her to show up.”
“ She’s meeting your lawyer outside, asshole.”
Oh . Good . “ Are you sure you want that?” I eyeballed him, not daring to back down because there’s one thing Wolf respected more than respect, and that was strength. I’d shown enough weakness tonight.
“ Yeah . Can’t have my VP in jail, can I ?”
I let out a cautious breath. “ I missed the meeting.”
“ Yeah , well, KC stuck up for you. Once he voted your way, everyone else caved.”
I cleared my throat. “ He shouldn’t have done that.”
Wolf studied me for almost a minute before speaking. “ He’s staying.”
Thank the Gods .
The silence stretched out longer than it should. “ Is someone checking on Rose ?”
Wolf sighed and crossed his arms. “ I thought you two were done.”
We might be. “ She got hit by lightning.”
He stared at me. His gaze dropped to my necklace. “ I’m never giving you shit about your religion again.”
“ Fuck you.” I couldn’t help what happened next.
A laugh leaked out. It was so damn tragic, and unbelievable that I couldn’t stop.
On the heels of its giggling death came a sob.
I couldn’t help that either. It caught in my throat and I coughed.
Smoke and the smell of burnt hair clung to my lungs, and I wanted to get rid of all of it.
I puked onto the floor and still couldn’t get my breath.
“ Nurse ! Someone !”
They strapped me down and secured an oxygen mask to my face. My head swam. Wolf leaned over me, holding one hand tight. “ Stay with me. This isn’t going to kill you. You hear me?”
In reply, I lifted my middle finger. It stuck out of his grip. He felt the movement, turned my hand to witness it sticking out, and laughed. “ You’ll live.” He sat back down, still holding onto my hand, but making room for the team of doctors to hook me up to more monitors and shit.
Hours later, they deemed me fit enough to discharge.
The smoke inhalation symptoms had subsided, and my head scans were clear.
I had a minor concussion, but responded well despite that.
The cuts on my skull took fourteen stitches to close.
I looked like a black and blue Frankenstein once they were done.
I lingered in the lounge near Rose’s room.
She was admitted for observation. Her heartbeat was irregular, her hearing impacted, and she was having trouble seeing out of her right eye.
Her concussion was worse than mine, likely a result of the beating Carl gave her.
She also had third-degree burns where the nylon cord melted into her skin at her wrists.
Other , less dire burns were being treated as well.
At least she hadn’t been directly in the fire when it caught.
I pondered her close call and the events that still seemed too unreal to be believed. Who in their right mind burns someone alive? And why? Rose hadn’t done anything to deserve that.
Tits sat with me, trading places with Wolf so he could talk to the lawyer about everything.
He came back with good news.
“ They checked out the site. The fire’s out, but there’s enough evidence to back up your story. The receipts for all that gas were in the cab of Carl’s truck. Cops matched them to Carl’s credit card.”
“ Did that asshole survive?”