Page 4 of Saber's Surrender

Begrudgingly, I head into the attached bathroom, relieve my bladder, and swipe some water on my face to clear the tear tracks from my skin. There’s nothing I can do about my swollen, red rimmed eyes, so I dry off and head out the door.

Along the way, I keep my head hung but watch ahead of myself for signs of feet so I can reroute my path. I manage to successfully make it around everyone without being accosted and asked any questions. A lot of the time I’m dragged into small talk, nothing consequential, just everyone wanting me to feel connected with the lot of them.

It’s nice of them to try, but I don’t think I’ll ever feel that. Not that I blame them for my predicament, I’ve come to realize that none of them know how barbarously I came to be in their midst. But I still don’t ever feel like being a chatty Kathy. I try to be as polite as possible, but I still get a few wary eyes because they’re not sure how to approach me and make me feel included.

As I breach the infirmary door, I gasp in shock when a gravelly voice takes me by surprise. “Wanna tell me why you and Saber can’t manage to be around one another and why neither of you can tolerate it long enough to have an adult conversation when it comes to managing the care of my kids?”

“Dragon.” I heave, my breath feeling like it’s about to explode inside of my chest. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Wasn’t my intention, Roxanne.” I hate it when someone uses my full name, it takes me back to a time and place I’d really rather not revisit. “I’d apologize, but right now I’m not feeling very apologetic since my woman left here full of tension from the chill between the two of you. She’s worried that whatever differences the two of you have will eventually affect our children and the quality of care they get. All I really want is for my question to not be avoided by any of the bullshit you two usually spew and I’dreallylike it if you gave me an answer. An honest one.”

Chewing on my bottom lip I consider the fact that if I were to tell him all of the raw, gritty details, the brothers will probably all band together with Saber when it comes to how much he hates me. I don’t want to live with this hanging over my shoulder, but I also don’t want to enter a room and feel as though hostility is being thrown my way either. So I compromise with myself and decide to share parts of it without exposing all of it.

Angling my head upward so I can look him in the eye, knowing I can do that with sincerity since what I have to say isn’t a lie per se, it’s just not the meat of the why’s. I start off by saying, “We’ve known each other all of our lives and we didn’t part on good terms.”

“You don’t say,” he acknowledges, crossing his arms across his barreled chest. “Care to expand on that?”

“Not really since it’s a private matter,” I disclose. When his eyes narrow, I sigh. “We had a disagreement about how to handle a situation. I didn’t do what he wanted me to, so he joined the military and vowed to never speak to me again.”

“See, here’s my problem with that.” Dragon stalls, swiping his thumb across his bottom lip as he examines me as if I’m one of his prospects who isn’t following his directive. It causes me to shiver as his irises elongate and his pupils darken to where they’re nearly black in color. “Tell me everything.” I clutch my head as pain radiates throughout my brain. It feels as if I’m being invaded by a foreign entity and a migraine pierces my scalp.

CHAPTER

TWO

Saber

“Dragon. Stop,”I sneer as I notice what he’s doing. “What the fuck, man?” I don’t break his concentration as he continues to probe Roxy’s mind. Watching her in agonizing pain does something to me, the need to protect her from the pain he’s inflicting upon her swamps me. “Stop!”

He shakes his head to rid himself of the haze and Foxy drops to her knees, clutching hers.

“What. Was. That,” she pants out. When she lifts her head to face us, I clutch my hands into fists. Her ducts are swollen and the red lines in her eyes are prominent, startling.

“She’s not the enemy, Dragon. What the fuck were you thinking? What did she do to cause you to go down that route?” I bellow out the question, my entire body vibrating in fury.

“I’m fucking over the two of you acting like assholes to one another, Saber. It’s bleeding into the club and I’m not having it! My old lady left here shaking because of it. You two may think you’re being sly when it comes to hiding the venom between you, but you’re not. It’s my job to protect every damn member of this club, including the two of you. If you won’t willingly tell me why one of my men has been mentally breaking down ever since bringing the Doc here, I’ll use any means necessary to get the truth out and fix it.”

“It’s personal, Dragon. Ain’t nobody’s business but ours,” I argue.

“And that’s where you’re wrong,” Dragon alleges. “If it’s affecting you to the degree it is, then it’s all of our business. You fucking walk around here with a chip on your shoulder and take it out on anybody that crosses your path. I’m done, Saber. You have one goddamn week to figure this shit out or I’ll figure it out for you. Got me?”

“Got you,” I say, adamantly nodding my head. “We’ll work it out.”

“You better because if not, you won’t like the consequences, either of you,” he insists as he drops his foot from the wall where it was propping him up and levels us with a dirty look before swiftly walking out.

“Shit,” I utter, looking up at the ceiling, hoping it has an idea of how we’ll find a way to get along. At least give the pretense we are. I don’t have to forgive her. I don’t even have to like her—I just have to find a way to respect her as a fellow doctor who’s in charge of keeping the little ones on task.

“What did he do to me?” Foxy asks, falling onto her ass with a thunk, hands still clutched around her skull.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, avoiding her question. She doesn’t know anything about any of our special gifts, including mine. I’ve always kept that secret close to the vest, because when we were younger I didn’t understand it well enough to talk about it. Now that I do, I don’t trust her enough to open up that flood gate because knowing her, she’d likely drown me in it.

She gets that look on her face that she always used to when she knew I was lying about something and refusing to tell her the truth. I suppose she decides it’s not worth it because she shakes it off and sighs.

“How do we get him off our backs, Saber? He’s not going to think we’ve suddenly gotten past our issue.”

I snort before saying, “Our issue?”

“You know what I mean,” she derides, standing up and walking over to the cabinet that holds all of our charts. “If our anger at one another is bleeding into the club like he claims, he’s not going to let this go. I don’t know him well, but even I can see that isn’t a probability.”

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