Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Shadow
Fucking Christ.
I came out this morning to check in with Maddox, give him the deal we could offer, and see how things were going when Tyler got the call on the radio from Della.
A goddamn rattlesnake had bitten her. I knew exactly where the lookout on this ranch was.
I might not have been out here as much as my cousin, but I’d been here all the same.
Maddox and I both took off for the Polaris ATV and got in. He was gonna need a hand with getting the horse back to the barn. No way he could do it alone. I’m sure one of the hands would have helped, but I’m here, so why the hell not?
The moment we caught up with Della, I wanted to toss her over my knee and spank her sweet ass red for what she was doing. The last thing she needed was for the venom to speed through her veins faster than it already was. Didn’t matter she tied a tourniquet around her leg.
On the way out here, Tyler radioed that he had called it in, and the ambulance was on the way. It’d meet us when we got back with her.
Before Maddox brings the ATV to a skidding halt, I jump out the side of it, rush the short distance between us, only to catch her as the horse slows. If I were a praying man, I’d thank God for us getting to her before she fell off the back of the damn beast.
Maddox went to the horse while I carried his sister back to the two-seater ATV.
“You get Della back to the house. I’ll take Rex. He doesn’t like other people to ride him other than Della, me, and Tyler.”
“Got her,” I grunt, setting her in the seat before running around the front to hop in, hitting the gas on the damn thing.
It probably should be the other way around, but I wasn’t complaining. Maddox can take the horse. I’ll deal with her. She’s far more important.
Since seeing her at Rodeo Roundup, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. After I left and headed to the clubhouse, I thought about taking one of the saddle bunnies to my room and forgetting about it. Only I couldn’t get her out of my head.
“Stay awake, sweetheart,” I tell her, tugging her to me, keeping her tight against my side.
“Don’t call me sweetheart,” she grumbles and weakly tries to push away. I don’t miss the exhaustion in her. I saw it in her face, mixed with the pain she’s got to be feeling.
“Need you to stay awake for me,” I tell her, pushing my foot to the floor. I need to get her ass back to the barn as soon as I can. She was at least smart enough to tighten the lead around her leg to hopefully slow the damn venom. Only her not staying calm and riding doesn’t help.
“Doesn’t matter,” she mutters.
“What doesn’t matter?”
“Nothing.”
I don’t know what she’s talking about, but it doesn’t sit well with me. My gut’s telling me there’s more to it than nothing. A hell of a lot more.
I don’t get what it is about this woman that’s got her filling my head since seeing her again. Could it be the fact she refused to let me walk her to her car?
That can’t be it. I’ve never allowed a woman at any time of my life to screw with my head as she’s done in less than twenty-four hours.
Instead of probing for more from her, I keep my mouth shut and steer the ATV toward the barn, seeing the flashing ambulance lights.
Thank fuck for that.
Della needed medical attention, and she needed it fast.
Saddle Ridge has a pretty good-sized Fire and Rescue team for being a small town.
Considering the fact we’re mostly land and shit happens, it’s a damn good thing.
Della isn’t the first to get bitten by a snake, and she won’t be the last. We have everything from rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and copperheads, to the measly black snake that isn’t venomous.
Things like this happen, and it wouldn’t do anyone any good if the town only had one ambulance and a shit crew.
Moments pass by in a commotion as Della is placed on a stretcher, put in the back of the ambulance, and whisked away. Maddox comes rushing through the barn, eyes on the back doors of the bus as it rushes down the lane.
“Don’t know what’s going on with you and your sister, but when I told her she needed to stay awake, she said it didn’t matter,” I tell him, not bullshitting around, though I’m not sure why I said it.
I just knew what he’d shared with me. I get his points, but what I saw in her was different, like she was hurting and not just physically.
Not just because she lost her granddaddy.
“I need to follow,” he grumbles, shaking his head. “I tried to talk to her when she got home last night. She ignored me and refused to take the time to talk then. Maybe now she’ll have to listen.”
“Maybe you should wait until she gets back here before you two do any talking,” I suggest.
Maddox seems to take my words and weigh them before nodding and letting out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, that might be good. Think you can go and look after her for me? I don’t want her to be up there by herself.”
Me?
Fuck. I figured he’d send one of the other guys after her. Not me.
“Yeah,” I find myself saying without thought. “I’ll just need to head to the clubhouse and grab my truck beforehand. Just in case she gets discharged. Don’t think it’s wise to put her on the back of my bike.”
No way was I putting Della on the back of my bike. The thought of her riding pressed up against me did something to my head.
Maddox offers, “Just take mine,” and jerks his chin toward his truck in front of the house. “Keys are in it. I’d say take Della’s car, but she doesn’t leave the keys in it.”
I snort and shake my head. People around here don’t seem to worry about leaving keys in a car or locking up the house. However, having been gone so many years, Della has learned to take safety measures. Doesn’t matter where you are, a woman most definitely needs to always take precautions.
“That’s the way it should be. No woman should leave her shit open for anyone to get into,” I tell him. “I’ll follow and be there for her. Give you updates.”
“Thanks, Shadow, I appreciate it.” He grunts and looks back to the barn before looking to me once again. “Let me know how she’s doing and when they’re gonna release her.”
“I’ll let you know.”
“If you’ll tell Della . . .” Maddox pauses and shakes his head, a grim expression in place. “Tell her that I’m here for her, and if she needs me, I’ll be there.”
I nod, keeping my thoughts to myself. I know what I said to him, but he should be the one to go and be with her.
I know when it comes to my sister, Taylor, no matter how much she pisses me off and I don’t want anything to do with her, I’d still fight for her.
That right there speaks volumes, considering I’m not a huge fan of who she is.
I can’t believe I’m agreeing to go to the damn hospital for him and look after his sister.
I’ve got a lot better things to be doing today, but here I am, doing my friend a favor by looking in on his sister.
That’s the way I need to look at it—no reason to even ponder past that.
Helping him is a better alternative to any other reason.
Leaving Maddox at the barn, I jog the distance to his truck. He’s right about taking it and not going to get my own. If I didn’t trust leaving my bike here, I wouldn’t be doing any of this. No one was going to fuck with it. If they did, there would be hell to pay.
* * *
“You can discharge me and let me out of here. I’m fine.”
It’s not the first time I’ve heard Della snap at one of the doctors and a few of the nurses. Each time I’ve told her to chill, yet she hasn’t listened to me.
Nope, gone was the soft-sounding of her voice, and in its place was a full tantrum attitude.
“Ma’am, as the doctor already said, we’re waiting on a room for you to be moved to.
With your vitals being as they’ve been when you were first brought in, he wants you monitored overnight to make sure with the two bites on your leg you’ll be okay,” Bella, one of the two nurses who’ve been rotating in and out, says.
“It was just a snake bite. You guys have given me the anti-venom, and I’m fine now. I can rest at home. I don’t need to be in the hospital. Let alone be here overnight.”
“Della, the docs want you here. Now, knock it off with givin’ them all a hard time and stop acting like the world revolves around your ass.” Now, why the fuck did I just say that to her? I’m an asshole, and I damn well know it.
Della shoots her glare in my direction, allowing the nurse to escape yet again. I guess that’s why I’m being a dick toward her. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone, not even Taylor, act like a bitch toward people the way this woman is.
“I’m not acting like the world revolves around me?” She huffs, nostrils flaring. “I simply want out of here.”
“Well, they want you here,” I point out as I lean back in the way-too-small seat and cross my arms. “You need to do what they tell you because the doctors would say it if they didn’t have concerns. Rattlesnake bites aren’t to be taken lightly.”
“I’m not taking it lightly,” she snaps, glaring. “If I have to stay here, then you can leave. I don’t need you here.” Looking away from me, I hear her mutter, “I don’t know what Maddox was thinking sending you.”
“He asked when I told him that he should give you space.” I’m not about to let her act like a bitch toward me when I’ve done nothing to earn the attitude.
I didn’t have an issue with her attitude last night, but for some reason, today it’s doing nothing other than pissing me off. I must be fucked in the head when it comes to her. Though there’s a difference between the way she was then and acting now—more anger than sass.
Which I don’t get.
None of us has done anything to invoke her anger, and she wasn’t about to take it out on me. Nor was I gonna sit here and listen to her abuse the nursing staff further.
“Calm the fuck down and lose the attitude, Della.”
“Just go. If they’re not going to let me out of here, then I want to be left alone.” She shoots me another glare. “And that doesn’t mean you sitting there the rest of the night. I don’t need a damn babysitter.”
I don’t think I’ve heard Della cuss before. “You want me to go?”
“I just said I did,” Della snaps.
I get out of my seat, take the one step I need to get to the bed she’s in, and lean in, getting directly in her face.
“I don’t know what the fuck your problem is, but you being a bitch isn’t the Della I remember.
The sass you gave me last night for trying to do something nice, I get, but you acting like a full-on bitch, yeah, that’s uncalled for.
You want to be that way, fine, but put the anger where it needs to be, toward your damn self. ”
Della glares, not letting my gaze go, but she doesn’t say a word.
Not letting her piss me off more than she already is, I dip my head down ‘til we’re both nearly nose-to-nose. “Call me when they let you out of here.”
Pulling away from her, I straighten and stalk out the door. I knew she had my number because Tyler Henderson had brought her bag in earlier with her phone. The hospital had needed her insurance information and her ID. I’d taken the opportunity to add my number to her phone and text myself.
The question was, why the fuck did I want her to call me when they release her? She’s not mine. I don’t want a woman, but it seems like there’s something between the two of us that I’m missing. Something I’m not sure I even want to know.