Page 11 of Sweet Revenge

Turned out I didn’t need to.

She showed up at our clubhouse two years later with information that could help destroy the Widows, and I knew then that she was never going back.

I finally had my chance, and I sure as hell planned to take it.

CHAPTER SEVEN

MAGGIE

Sitting on the side of the bed, I waited patiently. It had been five days since I was brought into the hospital by ambulance, and I was finally being released. They’d kept me a little longer because of my head injury and the horrible headaches I was experiencing, but those had subsided and the doctor said he was finally comfortable sending me home.

Home.

A place that didn’t exist for me. I didn’t have a home. I had a place I was staying because I’d somehow become a responsibility to the Sinners. They appreciated the information I’d brought to them all those months ago and wanted to repay that. Somehow, without it ever being my intention, I’d become an obligation to them.

Something I never wanted to be.

It was starting to feel like I’d been an obligation to someone my entire life, and I had no idea how to change that.

Luke had been to the hospital several times, and I knew he was frustrated with me, but I honestly couldn’t remember the night Snake attacked me. I’ve searched my memory, but there was nothing. I told him I would contact him as soon as it came back, but I was starting to doubt that was going to happen, and I think my doctor was too. This hit to my head, one of many, might have been the one to permanently damage me.

And I didn’t care.

I was lost in a world of darkness. I felt nothing. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I didn’t want to see anyone. I overheard the doctor tell Becs he felt I was depressed and was prescribing me medication to help, but I didn’t care about that either. Medication wouldn’t change my situation.

I flinched when the door was pushed open and Becs walked through, followed by Gunner.

Gunner.

His intensity scared me. I didn’t understand it, and I was constantly on alert, waiting for it to turn against me. That was what I knew, what I understood. He’d never so much as touched me, but I didn’t trust him. He looked badass, like the bikers I’d come to know, but he didn’t talk to me like they did. His dirty blond hair was short compared to Snake’s long dark hair often worn in a ponytail, but I’d noticed over the past nine months that those weren’t the only differences. It wasn’t that Gunner’s eyes were dark blue and Snake’s were brown or that Gunner was tall and lanky while Snake was shorter and broad, it was the way he walked that was different, the way he carried himself. As much as I didn’t trust Gunner, I somehow recognized that if I could learn to trust him, I would feel safer than I ever had in my life.

I just didn’t know how to stop being afraid.

Becs rounded the bed and came to stand in front of me, a beautiful smile gracing her lips. “Finally, we get to take you home! Are you excited?”

Home. There was that word again. Home had been my mom. I hadn’t had home in a long time, but I nodded anyway. “Yeah, I’m ready.”

She held up a white paper bag and shook it. “I already stopped at the pharmacy and picked up your prescriptions.”

I nodded again. “Thank you.”

Her smile grew bigger. “You don’t have to thank me, Maggie. We’re friends. That’s what friends do for each other.”

Friends? I never really had a friend, and I didn’t expect her to think of me as one, so I was surprised. I was her obligation. The first time she came to see me after they moved me into the clubhouse all those months ago, she’d told me that Bear had asked her to visit me. I think it was his way of making me feel less like a prisoner.

But I was a prisoner, and we all knew that. Yes, they were keeping me to protect me from Snake and the other men in his club, but I was still a prisoner in the sense that I couldn’t leave, and it felt like that would never change.

“That outfit looks cute on you.” Becs said, and I looked down at the tank top and leggings I was wearing. I hadn’t paid much attention to the clothes she’d brought yesterday for me to wear today, just put them on this morning after the nurse helped me shower. Luke had taken the clothes I was wearing the night I was attacked because he was hoping they might find some DNA evidence on them, but I was doubtful. The rape kit had come back without semen, so Snake had obviously worn a condom. When I shared that with Luke, he said they may find hair on my clothes that could lead them to Snake. But I knew better. Snake would never leave a trace to implicate himself. The club trained him, trained all of them, to never leave anything behind.

Luke had told me they think Snake ran when he heard the police sirens, and therefore might have left something behind. When I asked him why he thought that, he told me he knew the only way Snake would leave without me was to save himself. He was probably right. Snake wanted to kill me, that was obvious, but it seemed he wanted to play with his prey a little before the kill. I guess I was lucky enough to be found before the kill.

Most days, I didn’t feel lucky for that reprieve.

I realized I’d never answered Becs, so I smiled softly without any happiness. “Thank you.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Gunner said, and I shifted my attention to him. He was wearing what I always saw him in, jeans and a T-shirt, black boots and his leather MC vest or cut, which was what they called it. Vice President was sewn on the front, and that caused a tremor of fear to run through me. It was a reminder of the power he held, and in my experience, anyone with power eventually used it against me.

Becs reached down and wrapped her hand around my elbow to help me up. I’d refused the wheelchair that was offered, and the nurses didn’t argue with me. I had nothing to carry while I walked beside Becs, her hand soft above the stiff material of my cast. Gunner walked in front of us, leading us to the elevator and eventually inside.

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