Page 17

Seventeen

I know my phone can hear me, but the number of weight loss drug ads that I’m receiving makes me think that they can see me, too.

— Text from Keely to Chevy

CHEVY

I woke up with my head pressed between a pair of perfectly pert breasts.

In fact, one was so close to my mouth that all I had to do was lift my chin and I could suck one of those perfect nipples right into my mouth.

Though I’d have liked to have stayed where I was, my phone had rung, which had been what had woken me in the first place.

I slowly disentangled myself from Aella’s hold—her arms were wrapped around my head for some reason as she held me to her—and picked up the vibrating phone on the nightstand.

I walked out of the room and into the living room before answering it quietly.

“Clayborne,” I said gruffly.

“Chevy, this is Tayla,” the night shift surgery coordinator said chipperly. “We had a mass casualty incident, and we have a ton of patients en route. It’s all hands on deck.”

I groaned. “I’ll be there.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I gotta try a few others real quickly. I hope they can come in.”

I headed back to the bedroom and went for my sweats and t-shirt, the only thing I’d been living in for the last five and a half days, and slipped them on.

“What’s going on?” Aella mumbled.

“Mass casualty incident,” I answered as I watched her stretch, the t-shirt she was wearing rising up the length of her body to expose her ass, and those cute little black panties that barely covered it.

“Oh,” she yawned. “What time is it?”

“No idea,” I admitted.

Her phone buzzed, and she reached over and picked it up, displaying her perfectly round ass in an even better light.

I had to thank the city of Dallas for putting in such great street lights in this section of town.

When I’d been trying to go to bed last night, I’d cursed it. But I definitely had a different opinion now.

“Hey, Tayla. Yes, I can come in.” She paused. “Really?”

After a few more back and forths between them, Aella got up and tossed the phone on the bed.

“All hands on deck, I guess,” she said. “Apparently with everyone out with the flu, they need everyone they can find to come in.”

“You can ride with me,” I grinned.

She flipped on the overhead light and walked to the closet where she pulled out a simple set of black scrubs.

They were unshapely, and I hated them instantly.

Maybe I’d buy her some of the ones that were all the rage now.

I liked them because they were a hell of a lot more pleasant to look at than the scrubs she was wearing now. They defined and were comfortable—at least from what I’d heard.

“Let me brush my teeth and we can go,” she said.

I did, following suit right after her with a toothbrush I’d stolen out of her cabinet.

When we got down to my bike, I mounted and held out my hand for her to follow suit.

My belly clenched when she threw one leg over and sucked herself up to my body.

We’d spent the last few days together, every waking second, and I hadn’t thought things could get any better.

I was wrong.

Having her arms around my belly, and her front pressed up against my back, was definitely one of those moments that I’d remember forever.

I liked the feel of her against me.

I liked that she trusted me enough to get on the back of my bike.

A bike that I’d never had another woman on before in my years of owning it.

“Ready?” I asked.

“Ready,” she confirmed, pressing her chin to my shoulder so she could see over.

I started the bike up with a dull roar and set the alarm off on the Cadillac I was parked next to.

She giggled in my ear and then squealed when I took off out of the parking lot.

The ride itself would’ve normally taken us ten minutes, tops.

This time, though, it took nearly double that due to the amount of traffic.

Eventually, I just started to ride on the shoulder passing all of the cars that were backed up.

When we got closer to the exit that we needed, the traffic started to make sense.

Red and blue flashing lights were everywhere, and at the center of those lights were tons of smashed cars blocking all lanes of traffic.

A cop held his hand up and I stopped, albeit reluctantly.

“Need you to not…”

I spoke over him. “We work at the hospital. Got called in for this.”

I gestured at the cars, and the cop nodded. “Stay to the far left. There’s a lot of gas. Don’t want it to ignite.”

I nodded back, then maneuvered the motorcycle through the grass and debris until I got to the other side.

Once we got past that, it was a straight shot right to the hospital.

Instead of going to my usual spot, I drove right up to the entrance and parked off to the side near the bike rack.

Both of us got off and we headed inside at a fast walk.

Without a word, both of us took the stairs, and when we were about to split up I grabbed her hand and said, “See you later?”

Her smile was soft. “Yeah, see you later.”

I watched her walk away, heading up to Dru to ask where she was needed.

I, on the other hand, headed to the board to see where I was going first.

Tayla was standing there with a marker in her hand writing stuff out.

“You’re working on the suspect.”

I turned to her. “Suspect?”

“The man that caused that pile up is in OR three. Young man, twenty-one. Thought it would be the best thing ever to test his new Maserati and see how fast he could make it go. He lost control on the opposite side of seventy-five, then flew over the barriers and crashed into all those cars on the other side. Kid’s got a spleen laceration and that’s it.” She sighed.

I hated working on morons.

There were times that I had to fight the urge to add just a little too much sleeping agent and whoops, he doesn’t come back.

“I’ll get scrubbed in,” I grumbled.

Before I could do that, though, my phone rang for a second time that night.

I answered anyway, placing the phone to my ear as I headed to get scrubbed in.

“Webber, can’t talk very long…”

“You at the hospital?” he asked, sounding…fucked up.

“Yes,” I answered slowly.

“You happen to have a kid come in that caused a pile up?”

Cold started to slither through my body.

“Yes,” I answered quietly.

“Not sure how to tell you this but,” he hesitated. “He killed Laney and Tavi.”

My stomach dropped, and acid started to climb up the length of my esophagus.

“Are you sure?” I rasped.

My mind was just…blank.

“Very,” he said. “Laney got to the hospital. They were able to deliver the baby but…she was too fucked up. Her head was practically smooshed like a pancake. That car landed right on her car and smashed it. Tavi was crushed in the back seat.”

Laney was Audric’s—Detroit’s—old lady.

She’d been helping care for Tavi, Apollo’s son, since they’d gotten Tavi back from his piece of shit grandmother that’d had him for over two years, hiding him away from Apollo.

“We just got him back,” I rasped.

“I know.” Webber sounded sickened. “That’s why I need this man gone.”

I knew what he was asking.

He didn’t want us to have to deal with that motherfucker being alive.

Not after what he’d done to two of the most beloved people in our entire club.

Anger burned through my senses.

My heart was broken, the anger started to haze the corners of my vision, and my heart rate picked up to an unhealthy state.

“I’ll handle it.”

Webber hung up moments later, leaving me staring at nothing.

I don’t know how long I stood there for, but it was the light touch on my arm that had me staring at the woman that I was in love with that had me making my move.

I pulled her to me without thought, slammed my mouth down onto hers, tasting everything that was Aella, then pulled away and disappeared into the room where I started washing my hands.

My heart rate was still elevated as I made it into the OR.

Fingers slightly stiff from the anger that was pulsing through me, I scrubbed up alongside the surgeon.

“This kid killed thirty-two people,” the surgeon said with zero emotion in his voice.

I didn’t reply, because two of those people were people that I loved the most.

“You know who any of them were?” I asked.

“No, you?” he asked.

“No,” I lied. “Ready?”

We went into the operating room together.

Adrenaline does weird things to your body.

When your body is in fight mode, you produce it. It makes you faster, sharper, stronger. It helps you focus more intensely and you can perform for longer.

But when the adrenaline wears off, you’re left with this pent up energy that has to be released somehow.

It’s just unfortunate for Aella that she happened to be in that dark corridor near the even darker supply closet when I walked out of that surgery, uncaring about the life I’d just taken.