Page 145 of Mad Love

I sighed and looked at Ash. “Any luck reaching Tyler?”

He grimaced and shook his head. “No. The whole system is fucked right now. Phones are down, and so’s the internet.”

I frowned, worrying about Tyler all alone in the hotel, probably going nuts trying to find out if Chase was okay. It seemed like most of the damage to the city had been residential and power outages. Ash had confirmed Tyler’s hotel was fine, but phone lines were a mess since a few towers had gone down.

“Okay,” Ryan finally snapped, “I’m going to find the doctor—”

“No, you aren’t,” I cut him off firmly. “They’re doing the best they can, and the last thing they need is you bugging them about discharge papers.”

He glared at me.

Knight ticked up a finger. “I mean, we could just leave.”

We all stared at him, and he shrugged. “What? Maddie doesn’t have a concussion. They closed up the cut on her head. We’re waiting for pain meds—which we have—and a piece of paper saying to keep an eye on her if things change. Again, something we can do.”

Ryan rubbed his jaw and looked at me. “Wanna get out of here?”

“Yes,” I said as emphatically as I could, wanting to shower and crawl into bed. The sun was starting to peek up over the horizon, and it had been a long-ass night. I was still in the same torn, dirty clothes from earlier.

He rubbed the back of his neck with a decisive nod. “Okay. Let’s get you out of here.”

“What about Bex?” I asked, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.

He grimaced at me before looking at Bishop, who stood from the plastic couch and offered, “I’ll go see what she and Court are thinking. Back in a few.”

I bit my lower lip as I thought of someone else. “What about Chase?”

“What about him?” Ryan didn’t seem concerned in the slightest.

“Someone should be here for him when he wakes up,” I said, exasperated.

He still didn’t seem to care. “Not our problem, babe.”

“He was shot protecting me,” I argued.

“No,” Ryan retorted through clenched teeth, “he was shot because he was a dumbass who went back inside when his main goal should’ve been taking you somewhere safe.”

A frown tugged at my mouth. “He was trying to avenge his mom and sister.”

“Again, not our problem.” Ryan gave an indifferent shrug.

“Sometimes I want to slap you,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.

His eyes narrowed as he stepped closer to me, his lips brushing the shell of my ear. “The only slapping that’ll happen is my hand on your perky little ass when you’re feeling better. I wasn’t kidding before, Mads. You’re not gonna be able to sit for a fucking week.”

I opened my mouth, but he pressed a finger to it. His icy blue eyes warned me against fighting him right now, so I did the mature thing and bit the tip of his finger. He snorted, unperturbed, and kissed my forehead.

“You two are so weird,” Ash muttered, standing up. “Our coms are still working, so I’ll tell Linc and Royal we’re heading to Brookfield and they can meet us there.”

That still didn’t address the Chase issue. “But—”

“And I’ll tell Chase’s guard to come here and sit by his master’s side,” Ash added with a smile. “Hell, I’ll even mention picking up Tyler on the way.”

“Tyler has the drives,” I added. “She was still working on them at the hotel.”

Ash nodded. “I’ll have Royal get them from her before they leave. And I’ll make sure she has a way to get in touch with us if she needs to, okay?”

I smiled at him before glaring at Ryan. “Was that so hard?”

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