Page 107 of The Bonds We Break
Even then, I keep pulling the trigger, just in case.
And I’m still pulling it when Halo enters the room, gun raised. He takes one look at my face, and lowers his weapon before raising his hands. “It’s over, Rae,” he says.
He steps over bodies, plural, as he approaches me. “Give me the gun, Rae.”
Suddenly, my body is shaking uncontrollably. “He’s ... hurt,” I manage to get out.
“I know, sweetheart. Let Clutch and Switch get to him, yeah?” He offers his hand. It’s gloved. I can’t process anymore. Everything is so confusing.
“Oh, God,” I gasp when I look at King’s gray face, covered in sweat, and the huge blood pool. So much of the air is tainted with the scent of iron.
I drop the gun, and Halo grabs me.
“Don’t take me from him,” I cry as I fight Halo with what strength I have left, even as I see Switch, their medic, and Clutch dive into the space I left behind.
My brother rushes into the room. “Where the hell is—fuck.” He tears me from Halo and wraps me in his arms. “You did good, Rae-Rae,” he says. “You did real good. We’ll stay right here, but now it’s time to get King medical help and clean up.”
I hear mumbling. Bates says there’s no way of cleaning anything up. Niro agrees. He mentions the number of neighbors who are already looking out of their windows. All we can do is wait for an ambulance and the police.
My knees hit the floor, and I reach for King’s hand. I touch his wrist and feel a pulse.
I stay with him through the ambulance ride. And I wait on a blue plastic chair through surgery and through the painful minutes in recovery after he’s been given blood.
Before the police got there, Vex and Bates checked the bodies for identification. I have no idea what they found.
There were whispers of a perimeter around the hospital, and every hour, men have come and gone. Ryker shoulder checks me. “You need anything, Rae? Briar can bring you some clean clothes.”
There are bloodstains on my hands, on my sweater. I shake my head. “How much trouble am I in?” It’s the first time I’ve considered it. My first thought was King and getting him through surgery. But as the adrenaline fades, I panic.
“You’re not in any trouble, sweetheart,” Halo says.
“But I have to be. I shot all those people.” The fact I killed does not weigh heavy. I’d kill them all again for trying to kill us. The secret I can’t speak yet is that I felt a kind of emancipation from being abused as a child. This time, I fought back.
And fighting back felt ... powerful.
Clutch shakes his head too, his arm tightly around Gwen who joined us at the hospital about fifteen minutes after we arrived. “Castle Doctrine. You can protect yourself in your own home. Ever since the issues with”—he looks at my brother—“well, law enforcement, all the weapons in our homes are legally owned and registered. Our lawyer is dealing with the police.”
Spark nods. “They’re not gonna give a shit about a biker being taken out by another gang. You’re fine, Rae.”
Long seconds drag into even longer minutes and hours. Clutch convinces Gwen to take a walk and grab some coffee.
I take a deep breath. It seems horrible to be worried about myself. The club have known and loved King longer than I have.
“Mr. Hills’s family?” The doctor is in scrubs. His hair is still in a net.
“That’s his wife,” Niro says, pointing to me.
“Mrs. Hills,” he says nervously. A room full of bikers is probably intimidating.
I know why Niro said that. They will only talk to next-of-kin, and Gwen isn’t back yet. So, I stand. “Yes.”
“You can go see him now. He’s starting to come around, but it’s a slow process. The surgery went well. I don’t think there will be any lasting damage, but he’s going to need some therapy on his shoulder when he’s healed.”
My knees shake, but thankfully Ryker has hold of my elbow.
“If you’ll follow me.”
The room is in semidarkness. Monitors show me the pattern of his heartbeat, and the scent of pine and something decidedly antiseptic is strong. But on the bed is the man I thought I was going to lose. Shaking free of Ryker, I hurry to him, reaching for his hand. His hands are warmer than they were in the spare room. And I’ll take all the positive signs I can get.
