Chapter Four #2
She was right. We’d talked this in circles that went nowhere, so I dropped the subject for now.
She finished getting dressed, running her fingers through her hair in an attempt to straighten it.
I liked it all mussed up, but I had a feeling she didn’t want to hear that with Ace standing on the other side of the door.
“Do I look okay?”
“Good enough to eat.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not what I need to hear right now.”
“Okay then. You look like a woman who had been well and truly fucked and enjoyed every minute of it.”
She let out an exasperated snort. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t want all your brothers to know I go for quickies in a hospital bed.”
I raised one brow. “They’re not dumb. I doubt they think we closed the door so we could discuss grocery shopping lists.”
“True.” She wrinkled her nose. Adorable. Yup. I was doomed. She needed to have my cut on her. And soon. Before I had to kill some asshole for looking at her sideways.
Another knock sounded on the door, louder this time. I slanted a look at Janet. “You ready?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
I raised my voice. “Come on in.”
The door opened and Ace stood framed in the doorway. He swept a quick look from me to Janet and back again before stepping inside and approaching my bedside. “How you feeling?”
“Like someone shoved a knife in my side, but you should see the other guy.”
“Yeah. One ain’t talking, but the cops caught up to the other guy. Stupid enough to let the security camera get a full-on face view. Seems he’s a regular at the station.”
“Rival gang?” We generally didn’t have issues with other MCs unless they tried to muscle in on our territory. We weren’t one percenters, but we weren’t above bending a few rules if it kept our turf safe.
Ace didn’t answer immediately, slanting a pointed look at Janet.
She grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder. “I should be going.”
She knew the rules about club business. We didn’t discuss it in front of anyone but patched in members, and occasionally the prospects if they needed to know something.
Definitely not the wives or girlfriends.
It was as much for their protection as anything.
What you didn’t know, you couldn’t be expected to tell anyone.
Like the cops. Or an attorney. Or a judge.
Or a member of a fucking rival club stupid enough to touch one of our women.
Ace dipped his head in acknowledgement. “Thanks again for looking out for our boy.”
She dropped a quick kiss on my forehead and headed for the door. “No problem. I’m kind of fond of him myself.” She pulled the door closed behind her.
I turned my attention back to Ace. “What’s the scoop?”
“Not a rival gang. A couple of low-life guns for hire. The one survivor swears he has no idea who hired them, or if you were the intended target or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The dead guy was the main contact, and he’s not talking.”
I snorted. “So, what you’re saying is that I killed the wrong guy?”
“Kind of looks that way. The survivor swears he wasn’t the one who knifed you, so they charged him with aggravated assault and let him out on bail.
The only good side is since he fingered his partner as the one with the knife, you’re definitely off the hook on any kind of charges.
Given his testimony that it wasn’t your knife, it’s cut and dried self-defense. ”
My hands went to the bulky bandage on my side. “The gaping hole in my side wasn’t enough? So now what?”
Ace shrugged. “As soon as the doctor clears you, we get you back to the clubhouse. Shadow is checking online to see if he can find anything but so far, it’s crickets.
Unless you can think of a reason why someone would go to that much trouble to off you, we got nothing.
It’s starting to look like you really were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but you need to be extra careful until we know that for sure. ”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. I have a feeling Janet’s going to make sure of that.”
“You two serious or what? You haven’t got your cut on her.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m working on it. She’s stubborn as shit.”
Ace grinned. “Playing hard to get?”
I gave him a sour look. “Yeah. Maybe you could get Deuce to ask Sophia to have a word with her. You know? Tell her how great it is to be a Riptide old lady?”
“Not a chance.” Ace held up both hands. “I’m staying out of your love life, and I’ll bet Deuce is too.
” His face got serious again. “Shadow will keep his eye on the dark web, see if anything about you pops up. Meanwhile, keep your head down and try to think if there is anyone you may have pissed off enough to want to slaughter you. It could have nothing to do with Riptide. Gotta think you weren’t an angel before you joined the SEALs program. ”
He had a point there. I’d been in a few scrapes in my teenage years, but I couldn’t come up with anything I might have done to provoke this drastic an attack.
Just the usual shit kids do before they realize they’re not invincible.
A thought occurred to me. “If this was a hit, it had to be someone with serious money. Murder for hire isn’t cheap. ”
“True.” Ace narrowed his eyes. “I’ll have one of the prospects keep an eye on the guy they cut loose on bail. Whoever hired him might get in touch. They would be pissed if they paid and didn’t get results.”
I nodded, struggling to look alert. I could feel my strength waning. Probably had something to do with the liquid dripping into my arm from the IV. I needed a nap, but damned if I was going to let that show in front of Ace.
It was as if Ace could read my thoughts, part of what made him a natural leader.
“I need to get back to the clubhouse. Beast and Rattler have been scouting real estate and they have some likely properties they want to go over. Market is ripe for investment right now.” He reached out to grip my hand.
“If you need anything, just holler. Give the prospects something to do besides hold the wall up out there.”
I gave his hand a squeeze and let go. “Thanks.”
His mouth narrowed into a thin line. “You’re family. We find out this was aimed at you, we’ll take care of it.”
A knock sounded at the door.
“What?” Ace barked out the question.
“The doc is here to check on Thor. Should I let him in?”
Ace slanted a look at me. “Yes. I was just leaving.” He lowered his voice. “You can update me when he’s done. You have your phone?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Janet brought it in for me.”
He studied me for a moment. “She’s a keeper, Thor. Nail her down.”
“I’m trying.”
A ghost of a smile crossed his face. “Good. Talk soon.” Spinning on his heels, he brushed past the doctor, who looked pretty spooked. Likely more used to giving out orders than taking them.
The doctor picked up the clipboard from the bottom of my bed, and studied the monitor hooked up to me. “How are we feeling today?”
I snorted. “Don’t know about you, but I feel like I got run over by a bus.”
“Not surprising. This says you have a knife wound, not to mention assorted bruises and scrapes.” He carefully removed the bandage and checked out the stitches, poking gently at the skin around them.
“That is one nasty cut. The stitches are starting to heal already, though. No infection, which is good. Knife wounds are notorious for that.”
“You’re not the same guy that stitched me up, are you?”
He shook his head. “No, that would have been Dr. Murphy. He’s the emergency room doctor, but once you stabilized you got stuck with me. I’m the local on-call guy.”
“Fair enough.” Not that I really cared, but there had been something about the Murphy guy that sent a bad vibe through me.
Probably nothing, but trusting my instincts was what had kept me alive in combat when there wasn’t enough time to think things through.
I was okay with trading him out. “What’s your name? ”
“Dr. Samson.” He pulled a prescription pad out of his pocket and scribbled something down.
“I’m going to give you some antibiotics just in case that knife wasn’t as clean as it could be, and a painkiller so you can relax.
We’re going to keep you here for the night, and unless anything changes you can go home tomorrow.
But you need to take it easy for the next couple of weeks until that cut is well on the way to healing.
You try anything strenuous, you could pull out the stitches and start it bleeding all over again. ”
I wasn’t about to ask him what he classified as strenuous. If he didn’t say no sex, I wouldn’t have to lie to Janet when she asked me.
Just as if I’d summoned her, Janet appeared in the doorway. “May I come in?”
Dr. Samson looked up. “Hi, Janet. Sure. You know the patient?”
She locked her gaze on the bandage as he taped it back down. “I’m afraid so. He going to live?”
The doctor chuckled. “I think it’s likely so long as he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
She shook her head. “If he didn’t do anything stupid he wouldn’t be here, so that’s not comforting.”
“I’m right here. I can hear every word you say.” I pretended to look hurt, tamping down a twinge of jealousy at the sight of Janet joking with another man. “I was being a hero, rescuing a damsel in distress.”
“Of course you’re a hero.” She grinned. “But I kind of like you as a live hero, so you’re going to do exactly what Dr. Samson here tells you, okay?”
I sighed theatrically. “Okay, fine.”
The doctor ignored the byplay, addressing Janet.
“I’m going to have some antibiotics and some more painkiller added to the IV.
He’ll probably be pretty groggy for the rest of the night.
Unless complications set in, I’ll sign his discharge papers in the morning and he can go home.
He’ll need to take it easy for a few weeks and go to his regular doctor to check on it and get the stitches out. ”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
“No problem. You need anything else, you know where to find me.” He turned and left the room.
Janet approached the bed and leaned over to kiss me on the lips. I brought my hand up to cup the back of her head, sliding my tongue along her lips to coax them open. The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted us.
Janet straightened up and turned. A stern looking woman in scrubs bustled in, pushing a cart in front of her.
“And you are?” I’d never been known for my tact.
“I’m the nurse who’s going to spike that drippy thing for you.” She raised one brow. “I’d ask if you were okay with that, but I follow the doctor’s orders, not the patient’s.”
Janet reached over and picked up the two vials sitting on the cart, reading the labels.
She reached for my hand. “You need these, and you need some rest. I’m on shift shortly, so I need to get ready.
I’ll check in on you on my break.” She dropped a disappointingly chaste kiss on my lips and headed out of the room.
The nurse fussed with the IV for a few minutes, adding the contents of the vials.
When she was satisfied with the setup, she packed everything on her cart and glared down at me.
“Not sure what’s going on between you and that girl, but she’s one of the good ones.
Be nice to her.” With that she swept out of the room.
I stared at the empty doorway. I was getting the feeling everyone thought Janet was too good for me.
Maybe they were right.