Page 3 of Love Me Back (Diamond Creek #2)

Jessie

I stood off to the side while a few of the guys from the MC ooh ’d and aah ’d over the baby. It was fun to watch the big bad bikers act like kids fighting over who got to hold the newest member.

“Come on, Sam, share,” Jack whined to his old lady.

“No, I have him, and I’m keeping him.” Sam turned away from Jack as he reached for the baby. “I want a boy,” she whispered.

“Next time.”

Sam glared at King. “You really think Jack can produce a boy?” she asked the MC president.

“Hey!” Jack pouted.

I was amazed at the dynamic in this club. King was the president, but he didn’t lord his authority over his men. Not the way my uncle did.

King ruled with respect and honor. Not fear and death. No, King laughed with his men. He lived every day with them. Even the prospects. King didn’t ignore them as though they weren’t worth his time.

I had seen him sitting and eating with Archie. And playing darts with Johnny. King even sat at the bar and had a drink with Keys. He wasn’t a dictator. He was their brother. They were a family.

The sound of a phone ringing around the room pulled everyone’s attention to the man I compared to my uncle. He lifted the phone to his ear and said, “Hello.”

The smile he wore dropped suddenly, and he looked my way. I stood from my chair in the corner. Panic rose in my chest. This was the moment he learned my secret. The moment he told me I couldn’t stay in Diamond Creek.

“Yeah, we’re all here,” he said. He turned away so I couldn’t see his face and continued talking, “How is he?”

My brow furrowed. Who was he talking about? Had something happened to my father? My brother? Or my uncle?

“Okay, I’ll call the prospects to head over there and follow Banshee and Aspen back to the clubhouse. They can’t stay there. It’s too high a risk to your family.”

Banshee and Aspen were staying in one of the cabins on the ranch. He must be talking to Winchester. Which meant Grayson was the he King was asking about.

My feet moved on their own. I barely heard Ellie call my name as I moved closer to King. He murmured a few more words, but I couldn’t hear them over the sound of blood roaring in my ears.

If my uncle had done something to put Grayson or his siblings at risk, there would be hell to pay. I would tell the Feds everything I knew. They might not be able to go into Mexico and remove him, but I would make it damn hard for him to get anything over the border.

King slid his phone into his cut and turned around. His eyes bulged when he saw me standing in front of him.

“What happened?”

“Jessie—”

“What the fuck happened?” I asked again, my hands fisting at my sides. These people, they thought they knew me. I was just Ellie’s best friend. The city girl who was socially awkward. They had no idea of what I was capable of.

What I could do.

“There was an accident. Grayson was thrown from his horse.”

My gasp was loud in the silence of the room. Ellie called out to me, but my feet wouldn’t move. I stared at King, knowing there was more.

“I will ask one more time. What. The. Fuck. Happened?”

King crossed his arms over his wide chest and glared at me. His eyes narrowed, and I knew I’d fucked up. King didn’t know who I was. It was clear from the way he was looking at me. The way he was assessing me. There was no doubt in my mind he would have Nav doing a deep dive on me now.

“They don’t know. Grayson hasn’t woken up yet.”

I nodded. Turning to Ellie, I said, “I have to go.”

“I know. Take someone with you.”

“No.”

“Jessie.”

“No, Ellie. I’ll be fine.”

Eyes burned into the back of my head, and I knew it wasn’t just King. Every brother in the room, including Ryder, was staring at me. They wanted to know what had changed in me.

Only I couldn’t tell them.

They would find out soon enough.

“He’s here at the hospital,” King said.

I didn’t turn my head. My eyes stayed locked on Ellie. She nodded, telling me she understood.

“Go see him,” she whispered.

“I can’t.” I shook my head. She knew I couldn’t. It would draw too much attention to him.

“King, would you take Jessie to see Grayson?”

I glared at my best friend. I knew what she was doing. She thought if I saw him, if I laid eyes on him, it would lighten my anger. She was wrong, it would only make it worse. If my uncle was somehow responsible for Grayson’s accident, there would be no containing my rage.

“Sure. Come on, Jessie.”

King clamped his hand onto my elbow and led me from the room. We walked down the hallway in silence until the elevator doors closed us in.

“What’s going on?”

I looked up at the intimidating man. He might not be as ruthless as my uncle, but there was something in King that simmered beneath the surface.

Something dark.

Maybe he was more like me than I realized. I knew his father was Braesal O’Malley. My uncle called me as soon as the news tore through the underworld. Everyone knew who King was now, and the quiet life he had tried to build in the middle of nowhere had vanished.

Only I wasn’t sure he realized it.

He was still fighting for that life.

“I don’t know what you mean?” I asked, looking back at the doors as the bell dinged just before they slid open.

I stepped out onto the first floor—the emergency room. Before I could walk away, King grabbed my elbow again.

“What don’t I know?”

“I’m sure there are many things you don’t know, King.”

“Dammit, Jessie.” He pulled me away from the crowd of people in the hall and lowered his voice.

“There is a fucking war going on, Jessie. If this wasn’t an accident, I need to know, and I want to know how you fucking know it.

” His words were like gravel. His voice was low and deadly, and I realized there was more to Kingston O’Rourke than I had realized.

“This has nothing to do with your war.” I inhaled at the lie. “At least I don’t think it does.”

King’s head tilted to the side as if he was just noticing me. He stared at me like a puzzle he couldn’t fit the pieces into. His mistake was not having Nav look into me. He would be angry when he found out. That much I knew. What he did with that information was anyone’s guess.

He let go of my arm, and he must have seen the surprise on my face because he smiled. Only the smile didn’t reach his eyes. I had seen a smile like that many times. King wasn’t a man to be underestimated.

“Let’s go see Grayson,” he said as he walked past me.

I followed behind him quietly. Winchester was waiting outside the room when we walked up. His brother Emerson and his sister Addison were both with him.

“Carson’s in with him now.” His eyes landed on me. Something swirled in them. Something I wasn’t sure I understood, but he didn’t look happy I was there.

“Hudson? ”

“Looking for anything that might tell us what happened.”

“Excuse me,” I said quietly as I reached for the door. Winchester placed a hand on my arm.

“Don’t break my brother’s heart.”

His voice was light, almost playful. But the look in his eyes was darker than a moment ago. He didn’t want me here, and I didn’t want to be here. But now that I was, I needed to see him. I needed to lay eyes on him and see that he was okay.

All I could do was nod. I pushed the door open and stepped inside. He hadn’t woken up yet. Grayson Powell, the tall, broad-chested cowboy who haunted my dreams, both night and day, looked small in the hospital bed.

His chest was bare except for the electrodes stuck to his skin to monitor his vitals. The rhythmic beeping of the machine told me his heart was steady.

Carson, the oldest of the Powell children, sat by his bed.

His face was drawn, his eyes puffy as though he’d been crying.

Surely this wasn’t the first time Grayson had fallen off a horse.

I didn’t know a lot about him because I wouldn’t let myself get close, but I knew he’d been on the back of a horse since he was a toddler.

“How is he?” I asked. My voice was hoarse with the emotion I wasn’t used to showing.

“Doctor said he should be fine. Just waiting for him to wake up.”

My eyes closed on their own as a relieved sigh slipped through my lips. Tears threatened to fall, and I knew I had to get out of here before that happened.

“Do you know what happened?” I was afraid to hear the answer, and I prayed it was as simple as a rattlesnake.

“No, he called Tyson right before. Said the horse was spooked and wouldn’t settle.” He never took his eyes off his brother.

“So it could have been a snake?”

Carson turned to look at me. “No. It wasn’t a snake.” The cold look on Carson’s face told me he thought this was done by a human not an animal. It only confirmed what I suspected. A stone settled into the pit of my stomach. I had no choice. I had to call my uncle.

I nodded, even though I knew Carson couldn’t see it.

He had returned his focus to his brother.

I slipped out of the room. In the hall, King, Emerson, and Winchester were huddled together.

Addie sat in a chair across the hall. My eyes made contact with hers.

I felt her anger, but it didn’t feel directed at me.

I didn’t smile. I didn’t try to appease her with a false sense of hope.

Instead, I did nothing but slip away. Outside in the parking lot, I found a quiet corner and pulled out my phone. Dialing the number I knew by heart, I listened to it ring.

“ Yessica , to what do I owe the pleasure?” I shook my head at his voice. Despite being born in America and given an American name, my uncle insisted on pronouncing it differently.

“What did you do?”

“You have to be more specific, Yessica .”

“Grayson Powell was thrown from his horse today. He is in the hospital, unconscious. If I find out that you had anything to do with this—”

“Men fall from horses every day. Why do you assume this has anything to do with me?”

“Because any time trouble is brewing, you aren’t far behind,” I growled.

“The war that is brewing has nothing to do with me. I can assure you of that.”

“Bullshit.”

“Remember who you are speaking to, sobrina, ” he snarled at my disrespect.

“Remember who you are speaking to. If I find out you had anything at all to do with hurting him—”

“What does he mean to you?”

That stopped me in my tracks. I could almost see my uncle’s narrowed gaze as he assessed me, thinking he could read my thoughts.

He was never any good at that. It was the reason he feared me.

He never knew what I would do. How I would respond.

I was a wild card, and if there was one thing my uncle hated, it was a wild card .

He may have had my father and brother under his thumb and by default, control over my mother and sister with his hold on my family. But I was different. That was why I left. And why he let me go.

“He is a friend.”