Page 106 of Pieces of Heaven

Uninterested in tooting my own horn, I don’t reply to his comment. Instead, I ask, “Where’s Xenia?”

“In the waiting room with Kourtney,” Tomcat answers when Ruin just eyeballs me.

My body goes rigid, and the heart monitor gets rowdy. Earlier, the nurse said my blood pressure was high. She kept asking me to calm down. I explained how I was calm. That’s when she got worried and tracked down a doctor to give me something.

I don’t blame her for being scared. None of these nice normal people want to be responsible for letting one of the Berserkers die.

Now, my blood pressure rises as I try to sit up. “I should take care of that.”

Ruin simply says “no” as if that’ll do anything except irritate me more. Walla Walla scoots past them and smiles down at me.

“I peeked out there before I came in here,” he says, sounding like he’s talking to a child. “They were holding hands and comforting each other. No worries about them getting along, okay?”

I can’t really picture Kourtney holding anyone’s hand, let alone a stranger’s. She wouldn’t even hold mine when we were kids and crossing the street.

The sedative makes the past more fun to focus on than what’s happening in the room. All the good times tumble together until I can’t remember ever being anything except happy as a kid.

“We didn’t get all of the assholes,” Ruin says once Goose takes up the last lick of space in my room. “From the ones that attacked Armor, two bailed once he took down their leader. Tomcat and I saw six guys on our asses, but we only hunted down four. My dad said he saw the other two come out of the woods and grab a truck they left behind.”

“We also didn’t get all the assholes chasing me,” Goose says and frowns at Walla Walla. “You prioritized my safety over killing the enemy. Fucking weak.”

“I have no regrets,” he says and pets her head.

Ruin ignores them and explains, “Just before we got hit, Todd Rogers called me. His spy in the Halvorson house reported Erik was shot while outside with Urick and Peter. The younger Halvorson is here in surgery and likely won’t walk again. Urick had some kind of heart thing from the stress.”

“These guys can’t shoot for shit,” Armor mutters and cracks his neck. “I’d be dead if they could aim their damn rifles. Instead, they hit the lady I was picking up an order from. She’ll survive, but there’ll be nerve damage.”

Even with my mind uninterested in all these details, I can tell Armor’s thinking about what would have happened if Yazmin was with him. Would she be the one with nerve damage? Could he have lost the woman who sees more in him than the asshole he shows everyone else?

I consider Xenia in the waiting room with Kourtney. I’d love nothing more than for my sister to keep my woman safe. If I die, Xenia’s got no one to love her right.

Ruin starts talking again as my mind drifts. “Peter gave us the GPS tracking info for the work trucks the assholes are using. All of the surviving fuckers left town and are making their way south. Feels like a trap. Though the guys who work the ranch aren’t winning any genius contests, they’ve got to know those trucks have trackers on them.”

“How many attackers were there?” Eagle asks, and I flinch at the sound of his voice after forgetting he was sitting right next to me.

Ruin frowns at my reaction before answering, “Seems like the eighteen or so we fought at Willie’s Burger Bash earlier in the year.”

“How are Nomad and Smokey?” I ask, realizing their bodies aren’t stuffed inside this room.

“Nomad took a bullet to the foot while tearing a guy’s face off,” Ruin mutters as if I’m annoying him. “He’s mostly pissed.”

Armor takes over as he’s prone to do by explaining, “Smokey wrecked his motorcycle and tore up his knee. He’s hurting but likely fine.”

“What happens now?” Eagle asks in a tone that makes me think he’s looking to leave and go to his family.

Ruin’s pissed off expression freezes. He seems unsure for a split second. I remember that look a few times when we were hiding in the roughest parts of the Valley while the Jordan family hunted us. Back then, Ruin might have regretted what he’d gotten us in to, but he never admitted any doubts. Just like he won’t today.

“Todd Rogers is sending a team to check out where the Halvorson trucks are parked.”

“What does this team do if they find those men?” Walla Walla asks.

Ruin grunts. “Bury them.”

I’m surprised Ruin isn’t planning to hunt them down himself. Being the scariest Steel Berserker has gotten harder since he hooked up with Selene. Though I personally saw him start going soft around the time his now thirteen-year-old daughter was born.

I feel the same kind of weak right now. I don’t care about revenge or spilling blood. I’m just real curious about what’s happening between Xenia and Kourtney in the waiting room. Is my woman having second thoughts after today?

“This is where we stand for the night,” Ruin announces when the room gets too warm for all us to remain in here. “Yagger and Dice are still iffy. I’m going to stick around until I know their situations. Hobo needs to stay overnight to keep an eye on his blood pressure. We have Rogers’s security around the hospital. I want someone to escort Eagle home and someone else needs to make sure Nomad gets to his place. Goose, you’re in charge of making sure Smokey stays off his twisted knee once he gets discharged tomorrow.”

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