Page 67 of Reaper's Revenge

“Yeah. Word of warning, though, she punches like a freight train. The last time she punched me, I was out cold. When Bernie woke me up, she was gone.” I shrug. “You'll be fine… once it's over.”

He grimaces but nods as we raid the staff room for snacks, too, then head back to the room.

As we push into the room, Ray’s asleep, and Dane has fetched some of the bigger, comfier chairs and some blankets so we can at least be semi-comfy. “Marie, do you want to stay in one of the rooms we have, that might be more comfortable for you?”

“I'm not leaving her side.” I nod and give her a kiss on the head before sliding into a chair myself.

I'm not sure how much time passes as we all doze off, but I hear the door click open, and Bernie pushes his head through. Standing up, I walk over and meet him in the corridor.

“How's things?”

“Bas’s organisation, everything’s gone. We burnt it all to the ground… there’s not a single person or building left… the fucking intel she sent at the last minute, fuck… she’s good.” Pulling me in for a hug, I wince.

“Hades.” I mutter under my breath.

“How is she? How's Steel?”

“She’s Ray, broken arm, concussion but good. Steel, no news yet. Still in surgery, last we heard.”

“Once they’re stable, we will transport them to the clinic so they can be closer to home.”

“Where’s Bran?”

“Sent him to be with Demi. She’s freaking out and I thought there’s no point in the whole fucking club being here. I said I'd get her to FaceTime them when she’s up to it. Demi’s gonna gather everyone in the coffee shop so they can all see her.”

“Fuck. We were fucking lucky this time, Brother, we could have lost her.”

Nodding, he hugs me. “I know, Brother. How's the baby?”

I pull back from him, grinning like the twat that I am. “Babies.” I grin. “Fucking babies!”

Barking out a laugh. “Fucking overachiever, she couldn’t just save all our asses and be pregnant with one baby; it had to be two. Wait, tell me it's only two?”

“Yeah, it's only two.” I chuckle. “Fucking grandparents, Hades, can we actually do this again? Kids, I mean. We barely survived them fuckers.”

“I cant fucking wait!” He laughs.

“You’re a fucking sadist, that’s why.”

“It’ll be a breeze. We know what we're doing this time.”

“She called me Dad.” I blurt out.

“It suits you.”

Grinning, we slide back into the room. Dragging in another chair, Ray grumbles as we enter before her eyes flutter open. “Pa,” she rasps. Her voice is wrecked. It sounds sore when she speaks. Bernie walks over and hugs her. “It's all gone, Squirt. You did so good.”

She nods and smiles, and he hugs her like he’s never gonna let her go again, and I smile now that the family’s back together. We just need Steel to pull through; otherwise… fuck knows what she’ll do.

Dane steps out of the room to call Dice, and we all just sit, wait, wish, and hope. That's all we can do right now.

After a bit more sleep and a few hours later, a doctor comes in. He looks like he's come straight from surgery. “He’s stable, for now. He's lucky the bullet went through his shoulder then in under his arm but at a downward angle. It ricocheted off his vest, puncturing his lung, liver and kidney. We had to remove the kidney and the damaged liver, we repaired the lung, he needed several blood transfusions, and we've placed him in a medically induced coma.”

“So… what now?” Ray sounds scared and frustrated.

“Now we just wait. We've done all we can for him now. It just depends on how strong he is.”

“I need to see him.”

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