Chapter Ten
Scarlet
My shift runs over and the next morning when I arrive at ER, I have dark rings beneath my eyes.
Jane, the department manager, grabs me in the staff room. “What are you doing here?”
I smile, though I know it doesn’t go to my eyes. My sadness is palpable. I feel sure everyone can see it and there’s not a damn thing I can do about that. “I’m here now, and I’m sure you could do with the extra hands.”
“Always, but you’ve been off work sick this week, don’t overdo it. If you hit a wall, go home and rest. That’s an order.” She narrows her eyes at me. “You are pale.”
I turn and hope she hasn’t spotted the red line on my neck.
“I’ll be fine, but thanks, I appreciate it.
” The truth is, I have barely slept despite my bone-aching exhaustion.
I’d had a dream about Reaper, woken thinking he was with me, and then been unable to get back to sleep.
Work is the best thing for me until his memory fades.
But will it? I have no idea.
Reaper might be a scarred soul who believes himself to be unworthy of love, but that doesn’t stop me wanting him. No matter what the cost.
I bury myself in some paperwork, sipping a coffee, and then check a few images for a junior colleague. The medic covering me is efficient and capable and I’m glad for the admin time.
Just after midday, a commotion kicks off in the emergency room. Shouts and curses in a deep voice and then the sound of something being flung with force.
I rush to help, along with Todd. Two tall youths are kicking off. Clearly high on something, they are both bloodied and bruised and their pupils blown wide.
“Hey, hey, calm down,” I say, holding up my hands. “What’s the problem?”
“Her!” The one with red frizzy hair says. His movements are jerky and frantic. “We’ve been waiting fucking hours to be seen. She won’t let us in to talk to a doctor.” He picks up a chair and flings it at the automatic doors. Luckily it bounces and doesn’t strike anyone.
“I’m a doctor,” I say. “Why don’t you come with me? We’ll get you seen.”
“See, I fucking told you,” his friend says. “You got to get a bit crazy in here if you want any help from these motherfuckers.”
“That’s not true,” I say, eyeing the receptionist who is on the phone, to Security I hope. “We operate a triage system, we see the sickest first, and as you are on your feet, breathing, not bleeding out, it takes us a while to get to you.”
“And that’s not fucking on.” Redhead dashes up to me, his eyes flashing manically, and his fist clenched. “We have as much right as anyone else.”
I back up. My heart squeezing as fear holds me hostage. I’ve had a man come at me like this before and he saw it through by beating me black-and-blue.
“It’s bitches like you who need to learn your place.” Redhead yells in my face.
“Yeah, fucking whore,” his friend shouts also looming over me.
They are both at me. They’ve clearly already been in a fight and their adrenaline is pumping, their fury taken hold. There is no reasoning with them.
I hold my breath, praying for security. I’m backed into a corner and they are tall and crazed. Redhead snarls, the corners of his mouth full of spit. “Someone has to pay for this shitshow.”
Then suddenly a big dark figure looms behind them, a head taller, huge bulky shoulders, leathers, and ink.
The two high youths stop abruptly. Their gripped clothing is yanked. Both fall to the floor in a tangle of limbs and cries of surprise.
Reaper.
He looks me up and down as though checking for injuries, then presses the sole of one of his boots onto the throat of the guy nearest him. “You okay?” he asks me as the youth grips Reaper’s calf and chokes.
I nod and a juddering breath leaves my chest.
Redhead goes to sit up. Reaper delivers a swift brutal punch to his ribs. It’s on target, and Redhead drops to the floor clutching his side and groaning. His eyes are screwed up tight and he draws up his knees.
“Who are these twats?” Reaper looks down at the guy he’s holding captive. His cheeks are bright red and his tongue hanging out.
“A couple of cokeheads,” I say. “Kicking off.”
“And don’t you have damn security here?” He sends his dark gaze around the department’s waiting room. “I would have thought that was pretty fucking essential.”
Everyone is wide-eyed and staring at the big badass biker who seemed to come out of thin air and save the day. Todd picks up the chair that was thrown. Rights it.
“Yes,” I say, “we do have security.”
As I speak they rush in. Two uniformed security guards who are frequent visitors to the ER.
“Where the fuck were you?” Reaper demands, removing his boot from the neck of the guy he’s choking. “My woman was in danger.”
My woman?
“Got here as quick as we could,” Jeff says and pulls Redhead to standing. “And you are...?” He narrows his eyes at Reaper.
“Pissed off,” Reaper says and takes hold of my hand. “I don’t want anyone in her face like that again, got that?” He points at Jeff and then the other security guy, Wayne. He snarls. “Ever.”
“Got it.” Jeff looks from Reaper to me.
“Anything ever happens here during you’re watch, you’ll answer to me.” Reaper bangs the diamond SoS patch on his cut. “Got it?”
“Got it.” Wayne sends his attention my way. “You know this guy, Doc?”
I nod.
“’Course she fucking knows me. Get your purse, honey,” Reaper says, his voice softening. “We’re out of here.”
“But I’m working and I...”
“Go,” Todd says to me in a low firm tone. “You’re covered and you look like shit.”
I touch my hair. “Thanks.”
“You look fucking beautiful,” Reaper says and strokes my cheek. “You’re never anything but beautiful.”
I swallow and my heart does a silly little flip. “Why are you here?”
“We gotta talk.”
“About what?”
“Us.”
“There’s an us?” A flicker of hope sparks in my chest.
“I can’t stop fucking thinking about you, wondering if I made the biggest mistake of my life leaving you like that. So yeah, there’s an us.”
“Biggest mistake.” I scowl up at him and tip my chin. “Yeah, I reckon you did.”
He chuckles as though my self-righteous expression is amusing. “So, let me make it up to you.”
“Perhaps you can’t.”
He drags me close, his thick arms wrapping around me and one big palm landing on my ass with a slap.
“Reaper!” Everyone is watching. This is so inappropriate at work.
“You know I can, big time,” he says. “Don’t you dare try and deny it.”
I look into his eyes, they’re a storm of emotions, and I have to acknowledge I’ll take whatever he wants to give me. “I’ll get my purse.”
Within minutes I’m climbing onto the back of his Harley.
I see Todd looking out of the clinical room window.
He spots that I’ve seen him and he gives me a thumbs-up, accompanied by a cheesy grin.
No doubt he’ll be quizzing me nonstop next time I’m on duty.
I don’t care. The black pit of despair that has been like a wet cloak over my shoulders for the last two days has lifted and in its place I feel light and hopeful.
Reaper revs the engine and grips the handlebars. “Where’s the nearest fucking bed so I can strip you naked and fuck your brains out?”
“You are so romantic.”
“Get used to it.”
I grin as a shiver of desire goes through me. “My apartment, turn left, and it’s two blocks away.”
He speeds off. The engine rumbles between my legs and I press closer to his back and hold his torso with locked fingers.
I don’t know what’s changed, why he came for me. But I’m not complaining.
Soon we are pulling up outside my apartment. He kills the engine and we climb off.
The next thing I know he’s kissing me. His tongue searches for mine and his arms lock around my body. I whimper and close my eyes, giving into what I’ve been missing and craving.
The kiss intensifies and my heart rate picks up. He’s breathing fast and his body, beneath this cut and t-shirt, feels like a cobra about to strike. He’s coiled for action, all that power is about to unleash.
“Why ... why did you leave me at the motel?” I ask, my hands over the webs on his neck.
He frowns. “I’m not worth loving.”
“Reaper.” My heart squeezes in pain.
“I’m a monster, have been since I left home as a kid and took up the ways of a one-percenter club.” His eyes flash with pain. “I hate that I have so many kills to my name, that violence comes so easily.”
“I don’t hate that about you.”
“You should.” He closes his eyes. “Why don’t you?”
“Because when I look at you, I don’t see a monster. Would a monster have just broken up a potentially violent situation back there at the hospital?”
He doesn’t speak.
I move a strand of hair from beside his eye. “You’re loveable, Reaper, and you deserve to be loved.”
“No one has ever loved me, not my family, not...”
“I reckon your biker buddies love you.” I pause. “Did they tell you to come to me today? I’m glad you did, by the way.”
“I guess a couple were surprised we weren’t together. Disappointed even.”
“So, perhaps they care about you and want to see you happy.”
He swallows, more of a gulp. I wonder if emotion has caught this big bad biker of mine in the throat.
“I don’t reckon love can survive in my world,” he says.
“Why don’t we give it a try?”
He nods. “I reckon we’ll have to, ’cause there’s no going back for me. I fucking love you, Scarlet. As fast as a bullet can hit, it’s there. I don’t want to be without you.”
“So don’t be.”
He kisses me and holds my face close to his. “I have no fucking idea how this is gonna work.”
“You don’t. I do.” I bite on my bottom lip and hold in a grin. “But we do need that bed.”
He laughs, a low gruff sound, and then scoops me into his arms.
I giggle as he climbs the stairs to my apartment, carrying me as though I weigh nothing. Being close to him is all I want. The rest of the world slips away when we’re together.
We go into my small apartment and he back-kicks the door closed as though the loud slam will truly lock everything out. It smells of toast and coffee and when he puts me down, I start to clear a few mugs off the table.