Page 60 of Riot’s Thorn (Sons of Erebus: Reno, NV #4)

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

RIOT

“ Y ou’ve got a good one,” Bones, the club’s doctor and weed grower, says with a grin. “She’s green.”

“Don’t start that shit with me, old man.”

“Old man?” He clenches his chest dramatically. Parker giggles, which makes me like him less than I did before. “I’m like five years older than you.”

“What does green mean?” Parker asks.

Bones wraps her swollen ankle. “It can mean a few things. Let’s see. . . transformation, growth”—he glances over at me—“falling in love.”

“Fuck me,” I curse. “Can you hurry up please? I’d like to get her home.”

The biker everyone says looks like a white biker Jesus cackles. “Yeah, yeah. She’s almost done.”

Parker presses an ice pack to her lower lip and winces as she takes in the room.“You run your practice out of a weed shop?”

“Yes and no. I technically am a private practice doctor, but the only patients I see are these idiots when they get themselves hurt. Other than that, I run Dope and grow my own crop out back. You’ll have to come check it out sometime.”

“I’d like that.”

“Good.” Bones stands, his chunky silver jewelry clanking.

“Since I don’t have an X-ray, I need to make sure you know everything I’ve told you is just my best guess.

If you run a fever or start feeling sick, get to the hospital.

The antibiotics I gave you should keep your leg from getting infected, but keep the wound clean and dry.

If the swelling in your. . . well, if everything doesn’t go down or you don’t feel significantly better by the end of next week, you should get to the doctor.

Again, I don’t think anything’s broken, but I can’t say for sure. ”

“Okay, I think I’m fine. Now that everything is stabilized, I feel much better,” Parker says while I crack every bone in my body trying not to come out of my skin.

Seeing her all beat up is testing the limits of my control.

I need to talk to Killer about the next name on her list because I have some rage to let loose.

“I can get some pain meds if you need them, but I’d try some of this to start. It’ll keep your body relaxed so you can heal.” Bones hands her a bag full of joints. “You ever smoke weed before?”

“No,” she says, her cheeks heating, as if she’s embarrassed about it.

He turns to me. “Share a blunt with the girl. You could use a couple puffs yourself. Maybe it’ll loosen you up a bit.”

“Yeah, okay,” I say, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, proving his point.

It’s been years since Bones pulled me aside and asked me about some of the things he noticed—mainly my anxiety and anger, but he also asked me about sleep and my social interactions. After that conversation, he handed me a bag of flower and taught me how to make spliffs.

I haven’t been smoking much since Parker came into my life, so that’s probably why I’ve been feeling less in control of my emotions.

With everything that’s happened, I should’ve been upping my intake, not lessening it.

This is a good time to get back into the habit, though I think Parker would appreciate it if I left out the tobacco.

“Hey, Parker?” Rebel, one of her security detail, pops her head inside the room. “We’re going to take off unless you need anything else?”

“No, I’m all good. Thank you. Tell the guys I said thanks too.”

“It was no problem. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry we weren’t able to keep you safe. You trusted us, and we let you down.”

“There was nothing you guys could’ve done. It was a crazy situation, and I’m the idiot who decided it was a good idea to go to a club when someone was hunting me,” Parker says. She moves to sit up, and I rush to her side to help. I’ve had cracked ribs before, and they hurt like a bitch.

“I won’t disagree there.” Rebel flashes her a wink.

“Are you sure you can take the girls?”

“Oh, yeah. Rosa and Louisa will come back to the center we run for trafficked teens. Anne called her family, and whatever reasons she had for running away, she doesn’t have them anymore.

Her parents sobbed when they heard her voice for the first time.

And Thea, well, her parents are donating five hundred thousand dollars to our center for bringing their daughter back safely. So, win-win.”

“Good. Now give me a hug.” The women embrace before Rebel excuses herself.

“I like her. She’s orange,” Bones says.

“What’s orange?” Parker asks, much to my dismay.

“It’s the sacral chakra. It represents sexuality and confidence.”

Parker giggles. “Makes sense. She’s in a polyamorous relationship with four men.”

“Really?” Bones mutters, more interested now. “Is she looking for a fifth?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I guess I’ll have to keep looking.”

“You do that. Thanks for fixing me up,” she says.

“Not a problem. Come by any time for that tour.”

“Will do!” She waves as I carry her to a car the club owns; this one is legally registered. I’m not taking any chances of getting pulled over with her.

I wish things were ready for her at the compound, but we’re still a week away from finishing, so we drive out to her place in NoCal.

She sleeps most of the way, which makes me happy.

Her body needs all the rest it can get. Now that she’s done liquidating her dad’s assets, she has no reason to get out of bed until she’s feeling better.

Reaching over, I place my hand on her thigh.

She startles for only a split second and barely opens her eyes.

When she sees it’s me, she sighs contentedly and places her hand on top of mine.

Before Parker, I didn’t know what it felt like to have someone be relieved to see me.

It fills my chest with so much emotion, I can hardly breathe.

Is that what love feels like? I think it might be.

Holy fuck. I think I love this girl.

Parker ends a call as I walk into her bedroom with her lunch. Handing her a sandwich and a bag of chips, I sit down next to her, plumping her pillows and making sure the ice pack is still in the optimal position. It’s been two days of me forcing her to stay put and two days of her bitching.

“Who was that?” I ask.

“My freaking PA.”

“Roland?” That fucking idiot? Why is she talking to him?

“Yeah. He asked me out before all this happened, and I rejected him. He took it well, but you know how some guys are; they don’t like being rejected. So, he quit.”

“Good.”

She slaps my arm. “Don’t be like that. We ended on good terms, but with me unable to leave the cabin for the foreseeable future, I had to call and ask him to reconsider and finish the month.”

“No,” I deadpan.

“Yes. I need to get a few things wrapped up, and he’s the only one who knows what needs to be done.”

“I’ll do it.”

“That’s silly. It’d take me forever to explain it all to you.” She takes a bite of her sandwich. “No, he’s fine with remaining in my employ for the next two weeks.”

“Not if he goes missing.”

She pins me with a look. “He did have some very specific requests.”

“Like what?”

“Like keeping my psychotic boyfriend away from him. Do you know anything about that?”

“Yes. I broke his hand for touching you.”

Her eyes widen, and she blinks once, twice, three times. “You’re joking.”

“That would be a weird thing to joke about.”

“Riot!” she shrieks.

“He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.”

“I think you’ve done enough killing for me lately.”

Parker cried when I told her Bart and his wife were dead.

At first, I thought she was sad, but then she explained she was relieved.

I thought being relieved was a happy emotion, so I don’t understand why she seemed upset, but she said they were happy tears.

I didn’t bother asking for an explanation about that one.

“If there’s someone out there who wants what belongs to me, then there hasn’t been enough killing,” I warn.

“Roland meant no harm. He was just feeling the situation out. Once he knew, he backed off. So tone down the caveman, okay?”

“Whatever.”

“Will you please go and get Amy and Ben today?” she asks for the millionth time.

“I don’t want to leave you.”

“Well, I don’t want some unsuspecting victim to catch a bullet because my man doesn’t have his emotional support rats.”

I sigh. This cabin is so far away from the clubhouse, I don’t feel right about leaving. “Lucky and Tinleigh have been rat-sitting, but their mangy mutt almost took a bite out of Ben yesterday, so I guess it would be good to get them safe.”

Parker laughs so hard, she clutches her side and tears well in her eyes. “Stop. Don’t make me laugh. It hurts.”

“It’s not funny.”

“It is funny. Their purebred Rottweiler puppy, who is very well-behaved, had to go to the vet because Ben attacked him and scratched his eyeball. He could’ve died from an infection.”

“He was just defending himself.”

“Okay, keep turning a blind eye to your baby’s bad behavior.”

“Now you’re pissing me off,” I say, placing my hand at the base of her throat and holding her forehead to mine.

Her smile falls, and her hands flatten on my chest before she tilts her head and moves in for a kiss.

Fuck, I want her. There’s still so much I want to do to her, to show her.

But even I know she needs time to heal before anything happens, so I pull away after one chaste meeting of our lips.

“Kiss me,” she demands.

“You just said laughing hurts, and kissing is never just kissing with us. It always turns into more.”

She shrugs. “So what? I’m sure there are things we can still do.”

“Okay, but you have to prove you can handle it first.”

“What? How?”

“I’ll give you a five-minute head start to run as far as you can before I come after you.”

Her tone turns breathy. “What will you do when you catch me?”

“I’ll beat your ass red with my belt.”

Her pulse pounds against my fingers. “You wouldn’t.”

“You like pain, remember? You told me yourself.”

“But my ankle isn’t healed. I can barely walk,” she says.

“That’s what I thought. Now, admit Ben and Amy are perfect angels.”