Page 29 of Ride or Dies

“Junkyard dislocated his shoulder,” Judge said. “The one he fucked up in that wreck a few years back. Mason took a bullet—”

I was running toward the clubhouse before Judge finished his sentence. Tucker called my name, but I ignored him. If Levi was hurt too, I’d find out soon enough. Right now, I knew Mason was injured and I needed to see him. Heads turned my way as I ran past other bikers, but no one tried to stop me.

The door to Mason’s room was closed, but I didn’t care. I opened it, my heart in my throat as I braced myself for what I might see. The first thing I registered was that Mason was sitting up in his bed, shirtless, with patches of blood drying on one side of his body. Then I saw the woman sitting on the chair next to the bed. She looked to be in her late thirties, with dark red hair and a serious expression on her face.

“Hey, Evie.” Mason smiled at me, but I could see the pain in his eyes. It twisted something in me that wouldn’t have been touched if I was only lusting after him.

The woman spoke up. “He’s going to be fine.” She stood and pulled off the latex glove she was wearing before holding out her hand. “I’m Lara, Chief’s old lady.”

The jealousy that had spiked when I first saw her faded. I knew enough about biker culture to understand that I didn’t have any reason to be jealous. Not that I would’ve had one anyway, since I hadn’t staked any sort of claim on Mason or any of the Bradshaw brothers.

“I’m also a nurse,” Lara added with a smile that made me think she knew exactly what’d been going through my head. “I patch up the guys whenever things aren’t bad enough for them to need a hospital.”

“Judge said you’d been shot.” Tucker’s voice came from behind me.

“Grazed,” Mason said.

“A little more than that,” Lara corrected. “He’s got a groove about three inches long across his ribs.”

“Went right through my damn cut,” Mason said.

“If he hadn’t been wearing it, he’d have needed more than a cleaning and stitches,” Lara said.

“I’m gonna have a wicked scar.” Mason looked down at his side where I could now see a white bandage.

“I’ll leave you to handle cleaning up,” Lara said. She nodded at me. “Nice to officially meet you, Evie.”

“You good, Mason?” Tucker asked as Lara left the room.

Mason’s eyes locked with mine as he nodded. “Levi’s gonna want to see you. He should be in his office.”

Before the door closed behind me, I was at Mason’s side. I didn’t think, didn’t talk. I just did what I needed to do to reassure myself that he was okay.

I kissed him.

Chapter Sixteen

Evie

When I ran the tip of my tongue along the seam of his mouth, I tasted a hint of copper on his lips. It hit me like a punch that I could have lost him before I’d even really had him. A shudder went through me and I pulled back, needing to compose myself. I didn’t go far though. Mason reached up and caught the back of my neck.

“Hey, Evie-girl, you okay?” Mason’s voice was soft.

I nodded, surprised by the lump in my throat and the tears burning my eyes.

“I know seeing me shirtless is a lot, but there’s no need to cry over it.”

His comment startled a laugh out of me, which I assumed was what he’d been trying to do, and I found that I could speak.

“When Judge said that you’d been shot…” I shook my head, not wanting to go back there again.

“And you were just so happy to see I’m okay that you had to kiss me?” His tone was teasing, but there was something a little more serious in his eyes as he asked, “Was it a pity kiss?”

I could’ve agreed, made light of it, but I had Tucker’s words in the back of my mind and realized that I didn’t want to brush this off.

“No,” I said softly. “It was because, for a minute, I didn’t think I’d ever get to kiss you again.”

Mason’s eyes darkened to near-black. “You wanted to kiss me again?”

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