Page 99 of Three to Fall

“I’m just jealous you aren’t sick. Why did I get a baby still making me vomit well past first trimester?” She paused, suddenly cringing.

I grimaced. “You thinking about puking right now?”

“I think it was all the talk of cake.” She clapped her hand over her mouth and hightailed it toward the bathroom, shoving bikers out of the way as she went.

I followed after to hold her hair back.

Because that’s what true family did.

25

HAYDEN

Iwoke in the middle of the night, sandwiched between Kara and Hawk, all three of us still bare-ass naked from fooling around earlier. I blinked in the darkness of my room, trying to work out what had woken me, but my brain was still fuzzy with sleep.

“Answer your fucking phone already.” Hawk fumbled on the bedside table next to him until he found the offending device and dropped it onto my chest.

I picked it up and blinked at the blurry screen, trying to make out the time, but got sidetracked by Luca’s name flashing obnoxiously.

“Shit.” Instantly more awake, I scooted to the end of the bed, yanked on some boxers, and replaced the covers over Kara’s shoulders.

Hawk rolled into my spot, pulling her tight against his chest and spooning her from behind.

I let myself into the dark, quiet communal room. Everyone was still asleep, and it was almost pitch-black. But I’d lived here long enough now that I instinctively knew where all the furniturewas. I sank down onto the cracked leather couch without bothering to turn on the light.

“What?” The greeting came out short and snappy, my entire body already on alert because Luca calling at this hour of the night couldn’t mean anything good.

Luca didn’t even say hello. Just barked an order down the line. “I need you.”

Oh, fuck him, calling me like I would just drop everything to come to his beck and call at two in the morning. “Don’t care. I’m going back to bed.”

“Hayden, please.”

I paused at the crack in his voice.

I was pretty sure I’d never heard Luca say please in the entire time I’d known him. Asking nicely wasn’t in his personality. There was never any room for refusal. He just demanded what he wanted, and ninety-nine-percent of the time, he got it.

He certainly never showed any emotion.

“What’s wrong? Is it Sinners?” I’d only left there a few hours earlier. My heart rate picked up as I mentally tried to remember if I’d switched off every gas burner and set the alarms.

“I’m at the hospital. In emergency. I won’t be here long, but I need you to come down. Please.” He ended the call before I could ask any other questions.

I swore under my breath and contemplated just going back to bed, but the kernel of worry inside me would keep me awake, I just knew it.

Luca had been off the last time I’d seen him. Upset over his underage sister’s marriage, and things had clearly been strained between him and his father.

It was the knowledge I was probably the last person he’d call if he had any other options that had me flicking the flashlight on my phone on and sneaking back into Hawk’s room to grab my clothes and boots.

I kissed Kara’s cheek softly, and she stirred, but I murmured softly in her ear, “I have to go out for a bit. Go back to sleep.”

She mumbled something but nodded, and I slipped out of the room. The other day when we’d been planning Alice’s funeral and memorial, I’d left a notepad and pen on the big communal table. I paused, jotting down a note that told them where I was going.

Couldn’t be too careful with Luca. Being summoned to his hospital bedside could end in any number of ways, and if I didn’t make it back for whatever reason, at least they’d be able to give the cops a starting spot.

The thought didn’t leave me particularly warm and cozy. For half a second, I thought about taking one of Hawk’s guns with me, but what the fuck was I going to do with one of those in the middle of a hospital filled with sick people and kids? Not to mention the fact I’d never get it past all the new security measures the hospital had installed after what had happened to Kara.

I drove into town, cursing myself for being this stupid. I tried talking myself out of it, the warning in my head practically a siren, but my fingers held the wheel steady, and my foot stayed on the gas until I was walking into the emergency room like the complete sucker I knew I was.

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