Page 90 of Cold as Stone
The waiting room at Stoneheart General Hospital buzzes with nervous energy and the kind of barely contained chaos that follows the Stoneheart MC wherever they go. I’m curled up in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, Lee’s leather cut draped over my shoulders, watching the controlled mayhem unfold around me.
Bones is pacing a hole in the linoleum floor, muttering under his breath about how long labor is supposed to take. Duck sits stoically in the corner, his wife Maggie knitting something tiny and yellow. Hawk stands by the windows like a sentinel, periodically checking his phone for updates from Axel.
“Any word?” Lee asks, returning from the vending machine with two cups of coffee that smell like they were brewed sometime last week.
“Nothing yet.” I accept the coffee gratefully, even though it tastes like sludge. “Hawk says it could be hours still.”
“First babies take their time,” Maggie agrees without looking up from her knitting. “Poppy’s young and strong. Everything will be fine.”
I hope she’s right. Poppy and Axel have been through hell to get to this point. They deserve this happiness.
The elevator dings, and I look up to see Mercy and Cash stepping out together. They’re trying to look casual, but there’s something in their body language—the careful distance between them—that makes me bite back a smile.
“Any news?” Mercy asks, settling into the chair beside me.
“Still waiting,” I reply, then lower my voice. “Interesting entrance you two made.”
Mercy’s cheeks go pink. “We just happened to arrive at the same time.”
“Uh-huh.” I glance at Cash, who’s suddenly very interested in the outdated magazines on the side table. “And I suppose that hickey on your neck is from running into a door?”
Her hand flies to her throat. “Kya!”
“I’m just saying, if you two are going to sneak around, you might want to invest in some concealer.”
Before Mercy can respond, the elevator opens again and Stone steps out, followed by Josie Bright. The lawyer looks impeccable as always—not a hair out of place, her suit perfectly pressed—but there’s something different about her tonight. A softness around the edges that wasn’t there before.
Stone, on the other hand, looks like he’s been running his hands through his hair. His usually perfect appearance is slightlyrumpled, and there’s an energy about him that’s distinctly un-presidential.
“Jesus,” Lee mutters under his breath. “Everyone’s getting laid but us.”
I elbow him in the ribs. “We got laid three hours ago.”
“That was three hours ago. I have needs.”
“You have a problem.”
“A problem that you created by being irresistible.”
Despite everything—the hospital setting, the worry about Poppy, the exhaustion from being here all night—I feel that familiar flutter of heat low in my belly.
“Down, boy,” I murmur. “This is neither the time nor the place.”
“There’s always time,” he says, but he’s grinning as he says it. “And I can find a place.”
Stone approaches our little group, and I notice the way his eyes track to Josie as she settles into a chair across the room. She’s pulled out her phone and appears to be working, but I catch her glancing his way more than once.
“How’s Axel holding up?” Stone asks.
“About as well as you’d expect,” Lee replies. “Hawk had to physically restrain him from threatening a doctor an hour ago.”
“Can’t blame him. Waiting’s the hardest part.”
Across the room, Josie looks up from her phone, and for just a moment, her gaze meets Stone’s. The air between thempractically crackles with tension before she looks away, color staining her cheeks.
Oh, this is interesting.
“Josie,” I call out. “Come sit with us. No point in sitting alone.”
