Page 11 of Saber's Surrender

“Yeah, Canyon. I checked in on her like I promised you I would and she’s fast asleep. We’re just waiting on the rest of her tests to come back from the lab, but her prognosis looks good. She’s going to have a long road to recovery ahead of her like you do, but otherwise, she’s okay.”

“Did you ask if we could be in the same room? She’s gotta be scared being alone with strangers coming in and out of her room.”

“We’re working on it,” I promise him. “But until we know if she’s safe to be moved, we need to keep her as still as possible.”

“How long will it be until we know that?” he asks, looking vulnerable.

“It shouldn’t be too long, son.” Calling him that for the first time since the day he was born has a myriad of emotions flowing through me. I try not to let the fact that I’m choked up be shown on my face or heard in my words because he’s confused enough as it is.

Telling him about the loss of both of his parents as well as his grandmother was one of the most devastating pieces of news I’ve ever had to tell a young man—especially when it affects one of the most important people in my life.

“I need to perform one more test. It’s simple and not intrusive in the least. All I need to do is rub this around in your mouth,” I say. “Are you feeling up to it?”

“Yeah,” he chuckles. “It sounds easy enough.”

He opens wide and I rub it around his cheeks before depositing it back into its wrapper and seal it. I pat him on the shoulder and instruct him to get some rest. I hate leaving him alone in this room, but with the flu running rampant in our town, we don’t have any sitters who can stay with him. The only volunteer we have is sitting with Egypt since she’s much younger than he is. Too young to be on her own.

A page comes over the intercom calling me to the front desk where patients check in. As I round the corner, I notice RiffRaff and Jillian standing there talking to the receptionist.

“Hey,” I say in greeting as I near them. “Can you follow me to my office upstairs? I need to speak with the two of you privately.”

“Sure can. It’s why we’re here after all,” RiffRaff answers, shooting me a mischievous smirk. But when he sees the solemn look on my face it drops and a concerned look takes its place.

“Let the staff know I’ll be upstairs and if they run into any issues, they can call me on my private line,” I instruct Joanie, the receptionist.

“No problem,” she says, and her mood reflects mine when she gives me a half smile. Today’s trauma has definitely put a pall over the emergency room. It’s not that we don’t see tragedy on a somewhat regular basis; but having three out of six people in one vehicle dying on the scene hits differently, especially since there were two kids involved. The occupants of the other vehicles had to be diverted to the other hospitals around us because we were slammed with three badly injured patients.

“Thanks,” I tell her as I lead my friends to the elevator. Once we step inside, I lean against the wall needing its strength to help hold me upright.

Nobody says a peep as we walk down the corridor and I pull my keys from my pocket and unlock my office door. “Take a seat anywhere you like. The couch may be more comfortable because I’m not sure how long this is going to take.”

“What’s going on, Saber?” Jilly asks me. “You look pretty stressed right now.”

“I have a story to tell you and it’s a doozie,” I remark, sighing for what feels like the millionth time today. “I know you all suspect there’s history between me and Roxy. I’m going to give you the short version because there’s years of a story to talk about. Something I don’t share with many people is that I grew up in the foster care system. I have no idea who my biological parents are, nor do I want to know if I’m being upfront and honest. From my understanding, and from what little I do know, I was taken from my parents and it wasn’t a pretty picture. Anyhow, Roxy was in the same home as I was. Neither of us were adopted and we somehow managed to stay under the same roof until we graduated high school. She was my everything back then,” I muse. “And continued to be that to me until well into college. We went to the same university and even housed together in a rundown apartment complex thanks to my meager earnings from working at the movie theater.”

“A lot of our brothers in the club come from those same origins, Saber,” RiffRaff says, which gives me a second to further gather my thoughts. “Doesn’t change who you are as a brother to any of us, just so you know. Hell, there are some who had both parents and were treated like shit. Anyhow, I just wanted you to know that we’re not gonna share that shit because it’s not ours to tell. Carry on.”

There’s a reason I like him—he’s younger than I thought he’d be seeing as Brick’s in his late thirties, but I found out that he was a teenage father. Pain slices through me because maybe if Roxy and I had had the support like I know RiffRaff did since he grew up in the original version of the club, we wouldn’t have signed away our rights to Canyon.

It’s hard for me to think of him as that, but I won’t disrespect the couple who adopted him and from everything I saw, loved him unconditionally as though he was their own.

“With all the precautions out there, we did everything right when it came to preventing pregnancy, yet somehow we still managed to conceive.” Tears shed and trickle down my face and even knowing it’s unmanly to some to let my emotions freefall the way they are, I don’t swipe them away because they’re well-earned. “Roxy didn’t want to keep him, she didn’t feel it was in his best interest or ours. I fought her tooth and nail and even sought legal advice. In the long run, I didn’t have any rights and decided to give her that and signed my boy away. Tonight, that same boy that I never thought I’d see again came in via ambulance. He and his entire living family were in a crash that stole their lives outside of his ten-year-old sister as well as the grandfather who can’t care for him due to a cognitive ailment.”

“What do you need from us, Saber?” Jilly softly asks. “It’s obvious that something’s happened to cause you to share this with me and RiffRaff.”

“I know the two of you had to take classes to be foster parents while you went through the legal channels when Callum showed up,” I confess. “The hospital social worker is already involved because of the kids’ situations. I want you two to foster them while we, Roxy and I, sort through the channels to have him declared as our biological son and retain custody.”

“What about the little girl?” RiffRaff’s voice is gruff and I can see the sheen in his eyes. “I’m assuming she’s grown up with y’all’s son, correct? You can’t just take him and leave her to swing in the system.”

“We’d take her as well,” I reply. “They’re already going to be dealing with healing from their respective injuries, plus grieving over losing their parents and grandmother. I’ve already spoken to Roxy, and even though we have a tumultuous past, I’ve broached the topic of marriage. I know that technically, even with Canyon sharing our blood, we’ll have to adopt him as well as his sister. We both have lucrative careers and neither of us have a record so it shouldn’t be too difficult to go through the proper channels and get the ball rolling.”

“Especially since the club has a good reputation in the community. I know some places, bikers and their ol’ ladies can’t adopt because of the preconceived stigma that bikers have, but Roanoke’s not like that,” RiffRaff says. “We didn’t have any issues adopting Callum. Granted he’s Kimber’s half-brother, but he shares no blood with us at all. Still, he’s ours plain and simple, and I know you’ll have the backing of all the brothers in both chapters, as well as their ol’ ladies.”

Clearing my throat, I ask the question I’ve been trying to get clarity of throughout my incessant rambling. “Would y’all be willing to take them in until we go through the official channels? I’ll pitch in and help cover the extra costs involved with bringing in two extra mouths to feed, clothe, and house.”

CHAPTER

SEVEN

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