Chapter 9 Guilty Confessions #2
Mercedez pulls her phone from her pocket, activates the screen, and then pushes it in my face. It’s a picture of Milly and me outside the hotel, kissing. My stomach drops. I move the phone out of my face and narrow my eyes at her. “You followed me?”
“Yes, so what? I put a tracker on your motorcycle. You were with her! What does she have that I don’t?” Her voice sounds more hurt than angry now, and it makes me feel like shit.
My body stiffens. I pause, unable to find my words.
She saw us kissing, and she has proof. I can’t lie this time, and what if she goes to Reaper with the message?
It could blow everything up. Caution is needed here.
I gulp. “I don’t know what you want me to say.
” I rub the back of my neck. “Me and Milly aren’t together—we just spent the night together. ”
“Milly said she wanted to live here for good. She said it last night. Why would she stay if she thought nothing was going on between you two?”
Now I remember Mercedez asking Milly last night what she got up to. I should have caught on then. “But I don’t know what’s going on between me and Milly. We just slept together.” Do I want something more . . . I don’t think it’s in our future.
Mercedez takes a deep breath and pulls out a pocketknife.
My heart is pounding and my breath is frantic. “Give me the knife, Mercedez,” I say in a gentle tone.
She shakes her head; tears roll down her cheeks. The sharp blade flies out of the handle.
I’m sweating, but anxious and on guard. I’m unsure whether she’s going to stab me or hurt herself. Fuck it. I can’t live with myself if she hurts herself. “Mercedez,” I say and take a step toward her.
More tears fall. The hand holding the knife trembles. “If you choose her over me, I’m going to kill myself.” Her voice is filled with conviction, and I believe she’d do it. She’s unstable. “The club is my only family. You’re the only man I’ve ever loved. I can’t lose it all.”
Fear has me in a chokehold, but I make the decision. I rush toward her. She squeals and holds the knife up and away from me, but I overpower her. I grab the handle from her clutches and toss it away from us, onto the bed.
I wrap my arms around her, holding her as she cries hysterically and goes limp in my embrace. “Help!” I yell out. “Is anyone there? I need help.”
After a moment, Ava rushes in, her eyes wide as her hand flies to her mouth.
“Go get Reaper and call an ambulance,” I tell her.
She nods and leaves while I hold Mercedez, rubbing soothing circles on her back. “Shhh . . . it’s going to be okay.”
“But you chose her,” she whispers, her voice cracking.
“I haven’t chosen anyone,” I lie. I’ll always choose Milly, but I don’t want to make Mercedez’s condition worse.
I hear heavy footsteps. Reaper and Bomber stride into the room and approach us cautiously.
Their eyes dart to the knife on the bed, then to Mercedez in my arms. The room feels claustrophobic as I feel the weight of their judgement.
I try to step toward them to talk in private, but Mercedez grips my shirt.
My mouth is dry as I struggle to find the right words without giving Milly’s and my secret away.
“What the hell is going on here?” Reaper demands, his voice low and dangerous.
“She’s not well,” I say, nodding toward the knife. “She needs help. I think I should go with her to the hospital.”
“No, not to her,” says Mercedez, with a bite in her tone.
I suck in a breath as Reaper gives me an odd look.
“I’ll be with you the whole time Mercedez. I’ll stay with you for as long as I can, I promise.” I’m quietly begging her not to say anything.
She pulls away and stares into my eyes. “You promise?”
I nod.
Her breathing stutters. “Oh-kay. If you leave me, I have nothing left.”
“You need to go to the hospital,” Reaper says in a softer voice as he talks to Mercedez. “We’ll get you the help you need. We take care of our own.”
She nods and her shoulders sag.
I stay with Mercedez. It feels like forever until the ambulance arrives, but once I hear the sirens and see those blue and red lights flashing through the window, I pick Mercedez up and carry her past Reaper and Bomber, downstairs and outside. Everyone’s curious eyes are on us.
Trixie and Dolly dart over. “Oh my god, is she okay?” Dolly asks.
“She will be,” I reply.
Once the ambulance pulls up outside the clubhouse, the paramedic gets out and asks questions, and I answer her while staring at Mercedez on the stretcher.
“Twitch,” Mercedez calls out, stretching her hand to touch mine.
“You can come to the hospital,” says the paramedic, so I jump up into the ambulance, take a seat, and take Mercedez’s hand in mine.
“It’s going to be okay,” I say to her.
“I’ll be okay if you’re with me,” she answers, and my gut drops to my feet. I may not see her as my life partner, but we have been friendly for many years now, and I’d hate to see her hurt herself because of me.
The paramedic fusses over Mercedez as I sit back and let her do her job. I space out on the way to the hospital. Dread builds when we reach it. The door opens and I see Milly’s face.
“No!” Mercedez screams. “He’s mine . . . Did you hear me, bitch? He’s mine, not yours!”
Milly’s face turns ashen.
“Milly, go and get the other doctor,” I tell her. I don’t want to make this situation worse.
She blinks a few times and dashes away while the ambulance crew brings the stretcher to the ground. The male doctor the women all love strides to us, then he’s talking to Mercedez and the paramedic. Milly pulls me by the arm when we step inside the ER, but Mercedez screams out for me.
With a frown, I shake my head at Milly. “I can’t do this right now. I must be with Mercedez.”
“I’m sorry—you have to wait in the waiting room while we assess her,” Milly replies.
My shoulders drop. “Just let me talk to her first.”
I walk to Mercedez. “The doctor needs to talk to you. I’ll be in the waiting room. I’m not leaving here, okay?”
Mercedez starts crying again, and as I walk out, she calls out my name. I flinch, but I keep on walking.
Milly ushers me out to the waiting room, where I plonk down on a seat.
“What happened?” she asks, concerned. “She tried to kill herself. Why?”
I raise my head. “She put a tracker on my bike, and she followed me. She has photos of us kissing outside the hotel.” I shake my head in disbelief. “We were so careless in doing that. Now she knows, and she threatened to kill herself over it.”
Milly gasps out loud. I can see the guilt written all over her face. She moves to touch my cheek. “Is that a hand mark?”
I pull away before she can touch me.
With wide eyes, she asks, “Did she hit you?”
“Yep, she did,” I answer bluntly. I still can’t believe it.
Did I deserve a slap? I don’t think so, but another part of me still questions it, like maybe I did.
Maybe I was giving her the wrong impression, and I should have ended it when I thought she was getting too serious and overprotective of me.
But I didn’t, and here I am . . . at the hospital.
Milly lets out a deep sigh. “Does anyone else know about us?” she asks quietly.
I cringe. “No, she didn’t tell anyone. Well, not that I’m aware of, and no one mentioned it.”
Milly looks deep in thought.
I run a hand through my hair and peer off into the distance. “What will happen with Mercedez now?”
“The psychiatrist will talk to her, but if she’s a danger to herself, she may be put on a psych hold.”
My head falls into my hands. I’m overwhelmed. “Everything happened so fast. I knew she liked me, but I never thought she was capable of this. If I had thought she would go to these lengths, I would have ended our fling a long time ago.” I feel a hand on my shoulder.
“You can’t predict how someone will act. It’s not your fault.”
I let out a cold chuckle and glance up at her. “Then whose fault is it?”
Milly presses her lips together and stays silent.
“Whatever this is between me and you . . . it needs to be on hold for now. With everything that’s going on.
” I throw my hands up and gesture around the hospital.
I can’t have a death on my conscience, no matter how much it hurts for us to have a break.
Though there’s a part of me that questions whether we’ll ever be able to have a good time again like we did yesterday.
Tears glisten in her eyes, and I feel as though I’ve been stabbed in the heart. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, with an aching pain in my voice. “It’s not the right time.” To be honest, I don’t know if there’ll ever be the right time for us.
She forces a smile, but the tears fall. “I understand.”
I know she does, but it doesn’t make this any easier.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” Milly says, before walking away and back into the ER.
I watch her disappear through the ER doors, her shoulders stiff, her head held high.
But I know her well enough to see the cracks beneath the surface.
She’s hurting, and I’m the one who put that pain there.
My chest feels hollow, like someone’s ripped out a piece of me and left nothing but an aching void.
I lean my head back against the hospital wall. The weight of everything presses down on me—Mercedez, Milly, the club, Reaper. It’s all too much. I feel like I’m standing on the edge of a cliff and one wrong move will send me plummeting into the abyss.
The automatic doors slide open and a nurse steps out, her eyes scanning the area. “Reece?” she calls.
I nod. “Yeah?”
“Mercedez is stable for now,” the nurse says, her tone professional but kind. “The psychiatrist is with her, and they’ll likely keep her on a seventy-two-hour hold for observation.”
I let out a breath. “Thanks for letting me know.”
The nurse gives me a small smile before heading back inside, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I should feel relieved that Mercedez is safe, but all I feel is guilt.
Guilt for not seeing the signs sooner. Guilt for letting things get this far.
Guilt for dragging Milly into this mess.
I settle back in my chair. There’s nothing I can do, but I promised I’d be here for Mercedez. So, for now, this is where I’m staying.