Page 57 of Avenging Devil: Part 2

Chapter Seventeen

Niran

“Where are you hurt, apart from the obvious?”

“Everywhere,” I gasped, unable to believe in the nick of time I’d been saved. Better yet, I’d heard those glorious words, Saffie’s alive. Fuck knew how. The Devil must have been watching over us today, decided he didn’t want us, and left us both in the land of the living.

A man I didn’t know dropped to his knees and began assessing my injuries. His eyes looked at the bloody wounds from where they were none too careful when removing my clothes, some deep and blood flowing freely, but when his gaze followed my leg down, the grimace on his face told me all I needed to know. It must look as bad as it felt.

“Lost,” I called out, my tone urgent and desperate as I saw my prez approaching.

“Brother?” He quickened his step, squatting down beside me. Like the other man, his mouth twisted.

“My foot. Don’t let them take my foot.”

“Niran, fuck—”

“Preacher,” Lost snapped angrily, then to me, said, “We’ll do what we can, Brother. I promise you that.”

Fog swirled in my brain. It was hard to stay conscious or to open my swollen eyes, and I wasn’t sure if the words escaping my mouth were coherent. “I can’t lose my foot, Lost. I just can’t. Don’t let them take it. Please, Prez.” I was conscious. I was starting to beg.

I was safe. My brothers were here. I tried to tell myself that’s what was most important. In my head, I was telling them on repeat not to let my foot be amputated, but whether I actually uttered the words, I had no idea. It was my worst fucking nightmare. It wasn’t just the disability, the inconvenience of having a missing limb, it was the things people who are whole didn’t realise—the phantom pains, the itches that were impossible to scratch because there was nothing there, the learning to cope in an able-bodied world. I didn’t want to go through that again. That couldn’t be the legacy of getting entangled with the Crazy Wolves.

From that point, I didn’t have much memory about getting out of the Crazy Wolves’ clubhouse. What I did remember was a haze of pain and however gently my brothers tried to move me, my foot, my leg and all the way up my spine was ablaze with pain.

With Preacher poised to shove a needle into me, I screamed again at him, or maybe it was only in my mind, “Don’t let them take my foot.”

Then I remembered no more.

The first thing I do when I come around is to raise my head and look down. Letting out a heavy sigh, I see a contraption keeping the sheets raised over where my foot should be. The frame looks familiar, as does the sound of the beeping of the monitor next to me. I’m in the hospital. I’m groggy, my throat feels sore, my mouth is dry. All symptoms of having had anaesthesia and an operation.

It’s gone. Rolling my head back, I try to fight off the sense of loss that slams into me. It’s happened again. It’s like a rerun of an old program on television, a repeat. I’m waking up in a hospital all over again, to find I’m missing a limb.

“Niran? You’re awake. How do you feel?” The gentle tone immediately calms the panic flooding through me.

Saffie.She’s with me? I didn’t expect that. I thought she’d lost all trust in me after the lies I’d told Duke to get him to take me to Nevada.

Duke.Something is niggling at the back of my mind, but I just can’t bring it forward. Something important.

“They’ve saved your foot.” Her soft voice gives me the words I didn’t expect to hear.

I feel lightheaded with relief, or maybe that’s the aftereffect of the anaesthetic. “They did?” That’s a fuckin’ miracle.

She chuckles. “Yes. Well, I don’t think they had much choice after Dart stood over the surgeon, threatening a painful death if he didn’t do his best to save it. Though apparently, there’s so much steel in there, you’ll set off every metal detector in the vicinity.”

I breathe in deeply, trying to come to terms with the knowledge the worst hadn’t happened. I hadn’t been relishing lining up for another prosthesis. Closing my eyes, I let that sink in for a while. I’ve no doubt I have a long recovery ahead, but I’ve still got a foot. And, it seems, the woman I value more than any limb is here beside me.

Am I still dreaming, still high on drugs? Is she a figment of my imagination?

Turning my head toward her, she looks very real. Her face is still bruised and battered from Duke’s and Slit’s attentions. “Saffie, why are you here?” In the real world, surely she’d have gone as soon as she knew she had her freedom. I’d destroyed all her faith in me. Had I told her the reasons? I think I did, but at the time, she’d only half believed me.

She winces and glances down at her hands. “Your brothers kind of expected me to stay with you. And when I thought about it, I couldn’t leave you. Just as you couldn’t leave me.”

That why she’s here is because of my brothers’ expectations, rather than any desire of her own, rings warning bells, even in my befuddled brain.

“You’re not here as my ol’ lady, are you?” I don’t pussy around, wanting to know where I stand. Or crawl, as right now I’m crippled.

“I’m here as a friend.” She now looks at me. “Can I get you anything?” she asks brightly.

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