Chapter Four #2
“I’m coming home tomorrow.”
Anchor laughed once. Not because it was funny. “No.”
I looked at him. “Yes.”
“You’re not making that decision.”
“I just did.” I would be out of here by noon tomorrow. You could bet on it.
“The doctors make that decision,” Cross pointed out.
“No, they advise me.” And I wasn’t going to take their advice anymore.
“That’s not how this works,” Cross chuckled.
“It’s exactly how it works. They can’t fucking chain me to the bed.”
Cross tilted his head. “Pretty sure they can if you keep acting like this.”
“Fuck you.”
Anchor stepped closer to the bed. “What is your doctor actually saying?”
I knew this was coming. “They go back and forth.”
His face flattened. “That means what?”
“It means one says soon. Another wants a couple more days. Physical therapy wants me stronger.”
“So nobody said tomorrow,” Anchor pointed out.
“I did.”
“That doesn’t count.”
“It counts to me.”
Anchor stared at me.
I stared right back. I’d known this man long enough to know when he was deciding whether to argue or punch me. Considering I was in a hospital bed, punching me was probably off the table.
Probably.
“You can’t even walk across this room by yourself,” he said.
“I have a wheelchair,” I pointed out. “And I can work on walking. I just need to keep doing rehab and get my strength back.”
“Like rehab that they are giving you in the hospital?” Cross laughed.
I waved my hand at him. “What they are doing with me in rehab, I can do back on the island. And I have the wheelchair,” I repeated.
“You hate the wheelchair,” Skull called. “You moan and groan every time you get in it.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t fucking use it.”
Cross glanced at Anchor.
I caught it. “No silent communication bullshit.”
Anchor looked back at me. “I’m not fucking around, Bob.”
“Neither am I.”
“You get home and something happens, what then?”
I leveled my gaze on him. “Something is already happening.”
“That’s different.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“It is when you’re one bad day away from being right back where you started.”
That pissed me off. “I am not one bad day away from dying.”
Anchor held up his hands. “I didn’t say dying.”
“You meant it.”
He lowered his hands. “No. I meant you need to heal.”
“I can heal at home.”
Anchor opened his mouth.
I cut him off. “I can sit in a fucking bed at the clubhouse just as easily as I can sit in this one.”
“You need nurses.”
“No, I fucking don’t. I’ll probably sleep a fuck ton better at the clubhouse than here with the nurses waking me up every two hours coming in to torture me.”
Skull let out a laugh. “Yeah, I do agree with that one. I can’t remember the last time I slept the whole night through since you landed in the hospital.”
“It would be nice not to have one of us always at the hospital,” Cross agreed.
I pointed at him. “Exactly.”
“We still have Erin in the hospital,” Anchor pointed out.
I waved my hand at Anchor. “That’s not the point. Hire someone to stay with her, and McKayla can visit when she can.” The club needed to be at the clubhouse and getting me out of here was going to make that happen.
“Nah,” Anchor said. “One of us needs to be here with Erin until she gets discharged. She wouldn’t be hurt if it wasn’t for the club.”
“Yeah, but Bob does have a point that if he goes home, that leaves just one of us being here, and not three,” Skull pointed out.
“Three?” Cross asked.
“Bob, someone with him, and then someone with Erin. Three, dumbass,” Skull drawled.
“I go home, so does Cross, and then it’s just Wannabe here. I doubt this fucker is going to go after Erin again, so it’ll be easy for him here. It’s a good babysitting job for the prospect,” I added.
Anchor nodded his head. “Yeah, but I don’t know about you at the clubhouse.”
“We’ve got enough people at the clubhouse to make sure I don’t fall on my face.”
Anchor’s mouth tightened. “That’s not helping your argument.”
“I’m not trying to prove I can run a marathon. I’m saying I don’t need to be here.”
“You need medical care.”
I shook my head. “I need follow-up care. There’s a difference.”
Anchor went quiet. Got him.
“I’ve got another doctor coming in this afternoon,” I told him.
“And?”
“And I’ll tell him I’m leaving tomorrow.”
Anchor stared at me. “You’ll tell him.”
“Yeah.”
“What happens when he tells you no?”
“I’ll ask him what has to happen for him to say yes.”
Cross nodded slowly. That was better. Less like I was threatening to rip the IV out and crawl home.
Anchor noticed too. His shoulders relaxed maybe half an inch. “And if he says you can’t?”
“I’ll make him explain why.”
“And if the reason is legitimate?”
I didn’t answer.
Anchor waited.
Fuck.
“If it’s legitimate,” I finally growled, “I’ll listen.”
Cross laughed. “Look at you. Growth.”
“Don’t push it.”
Anchor nodded. “That’s the first reasonable thing you’ve said.”
“I’ve been reasonable this whole time.”
They all laughed. Assholes.
I looked at the phone. “Skull.”
“Yeah?”
“Where’s Ramona now?”
“Still at the RV, last I knew.”
“Tell Pull and Wannabe not to leave.”
“They won’t.”
“And don’t tell her anything,” I added.
“About?”
“Any of it.”
Skull was quiet.
I continued. “The killer. Bernice. Erin. Whatever she starts asking, tell her I’ll explain it.”
Cross leaned back.
Anchor didn’t interrupt.
“That’s gonna be hard,” Skull said.
“Why?”
“Because she’s already asking questions.”
“Then tell her to wait.”
Skull laughed. “Have you met her?”
I stared at the phone. “Yeah. I have.”
“Then you know how that’s gonna go.”
I did. Ramona had never liked being told to wait. Or no. Or mind her business. Apparently, that hadn’t changed.
“Keep her busy.”
“With what?” Skull asked.
“I don’t fucking know.” He was the VP of the club. He had to have some idea of what to do to keep her busy.
“Helpful,” he grunted.
“Tell her the RV needs work.”
“It does,” Cross laughed.
“Good. Figure that out.” I doubted it was going to be a quick fix to her RV, so that should keep her busy until I got back.
“Anything else, princess?” Skull chuckled.
“Fuck you.”
Cross laughed.
Skull chuckled. Then his voice sobered. “Bob.”
“What?”
“She’s okay.”
I didn’t answer. He knew what I was worried about.
“She’s with us,” he continued. “Nobody’s getting near her.”
Something in my chest loosened. “Yeah.”
“We got her.”
I looked toward the window. “I know.”
And I did. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that they shouldn’t have to. “She came for me,” I said quietly.
Anchor heard.
So did Cross.
So did Skull.
Nobody joked.
I rubbed a hand over my beard. “She came here because she trusted me to take care of whatever she’s dealing with. Instead, she gets here and finds me half-dead in a hospital.”
“Not half-dead,” Cross said.
I ignored him. “She shouldn’t have to wonder if she made a mistake coming here.”
Anchor studied me. “She won’t.”
“I know.” Because I wasn’t going to let her.
I looked at Anchor. “Tomorrow.”
His jaw worked. “We’ll see what the doctor says.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Bob.”
“I’m not staying another day after that.” This time tomorrow, I was going to be back on the island. I was going to be in my wheelchair, but I was going to be out of here.
Anchor let out a long breath. “Fine.”
Cross turned his head.
Skull said, “What the fuck?”
Anchor held up a hand. “I didn’t say he could leave. I said we’ll talk to the doctor.”
“Same thing,” I muttered.
“No. It’s really fucking not,” Skull laughed.
“Close enough.”
Anchor pointed at me. “You leave when it’s safe.”
“I leave tomorrow.”
“You are the most stubborn motherfucker I’ve ever met.” Anchor stared at me. “That’s a good thing, except when you’re being stubborn toward me.”
“Thanks.”
“That wasn’t a compliment.”
“Still taking it.”
Cross stood and stretched. “I almost feel bad for Ramona.”
I looked at him. “Why?”
“She drove all this way looking for you.”
“So?”
“And apparently twenty years wasn’t enough time for her to forget what a pain in the ass you are.”
I flipped him off.
He grinned.
Skull laughed through the phone. “I’m hanging up before you all get me involved in something.”
“You are involved,” Anchor told him. “Keep everyone close. Ramona doesn’t go anywhere alone.”
“And don’t tell her I’m coming home tomorrow,” I called. “She surprised me by coming here, so I’m going to surprise her by coming home.”
I could tell that Skull was shaking his head. “Whatever you want, Bob.”
“And let me know if she asks anything else,” I added.
“Will do.”
I leaned toward the phone.
“And Skull?”
“What?”
“Tell Prime I’m going to kick his ass once I get out of the wheelchair.”
Prime’s voice suddenly sounded in the background. “Fuck you, Ashland!”
My eyes narrowed.
“Put that motherfucker on the phone,” I demanded. I was going to kick his ass for telling everyone my name. That shit was buried and needed to stay that way.
“Negative,” Skull choked out, trying not to laugh.
“Skull,” I called.
“Talk tomorrow, Ashland.” The call ended.
I stared at the dark phone screen.
Cross was still laughing.
Anchor shook his head. “Your life got a lot more complicated yesterday.”
I looked toward the window.
Ramona was probably sitting in that RV right now, trying to figure out what the hell she’d walked into.
Good luck with that, because I barely knew anymore.
My club was hunting someone who knew too much about us. Bernice was dead, Erin was in the hospital, and I had holes in my memory big enough to drive a truck through.
And Ramona had shown up with trouble of her own.
None of it changed one thing.
Tomorrow, I was going home. I didn’t care if I had to roll through the clubhouse doors in this fucking wheelchair.
Ramona came to Skull Island because she needed me. It was time I got back there and acted like it.