Page 54 of Redemption
I lift a suspicious eyebrow. “Really?”
He puts a hand up and chuckles uncomfortably under his breath. “Dead serious. That’s actually been my name for a while, or at least ever since I came to find myself here. I’m part of the medical team. In my early days, I was tasked with a lot of wound care.Stitches, if you will.” He smiles grimly before nodding to me. “What’s yours?”
“Jax.” Plain. Simple. It’s all the information he needs to know and is all I’m going to allow him to know.
“Ah, yes. Very good.” He grins and clicks his pen as he jots down a few notes on his paperwork, lifting his gaze back to mine when he’s satisfied. “And am I to understand you have absolutely no idea how you came to be here today?”
This fucking asshole. My upper lip curls with disdain as I suck on my teeth, conjuring my best Professor Snape impression in return. “Obviously.”
“Well, I was afraid of that. Sir—”
“Ok, enough with the fucking ‘Sir’ bullshit,” I interrupt, tired of the fucking nomenclature.
“Alright. Sorry. Jax...,” he corrects, “you were recently in a car accident and, as a result, have suffered a pretty severe concussion and have been unconscious for quite a while ever since. Your memory may be a little skewed. What’s the last thing you remember?”
A car accident.
It’s fuzzy but, as I force myself to focus, memories begin to flood my mind. Waking up in a van. Me fighting those guys. The accident afterwards and me blacking out because of it.
Think... What happened before....
It takes a few seconds, but then it comes to me. Not everything, just little details.
The front steps of a large building. A gravel courtyard. A circular driveway. Buildings to the left and right. Wrought iron gates.
“You got it, big guy.”
The memory of her voice is a shock to the system. There was a girl. My girl. She was there. Vivid pictures of her beautiful face fill my vision. Blonde hair, blue eyes, short little thing, curves for days, barely came up to my shoulders.
Aly...
I was waiting on the steps for her, and then...
Holy shit. The drone. That guy with the gun. I was shot.
Shot... at point-blank... in the back.
I glance down at my naked chest and side, searching for an exit wound that should be there. Only, I don’t see anything. Although my flesh is sufficiently bruised, it’s still unbroken. From the shooter’s distance, a bullet should have penetrated right through. Done and done. It doesn’t make any sense for me not to have some sort of exit wound.
But as I take stock of all the pains and aches in my body, I don’t feel like I’ve been shot. Ran over by a bus? Definitely. But not shot. There would be a sharp distinction in a centralized area if that were the case. The pain I have is everywhere, but it’s dull. Not sharp at all. Well, except for my head, which is splitting with a pounding headache at the moment. And my shoulder, uselessly throbbing and currently cradled in a sling.
All that pales in comparison, however, as I think back on the most important part of everything I need to remember. My bright light in the dark tunnel.
Aly.
She went to the bathroom but never came back. Fuck. Is she hurt? Where is she? We had just left—
Another memory barrels into me. One filled with a loud-mouthed blonde who doesn’t know when to shut up, and a quiet, observant redhead.
Hawk and Cole.
My brothers until the end.
Holy shit. Did they get shot and thrown into vans like I did?
I refocus my gaze ahead of me at the man who’s far too calm for my liking. Is this lackluster stand-in for a doctor a part of those who shot me? I definitely didn’t trust him before,but with this revelation he’s officially at the top of my shit list, becoming public enemy number one.
I clench my jaw as my heart rate picks up again.
