Page 36 of Wild Night (Vicious Reapers MC #2)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

IVY

When I feel the urge to open my eyes again, this time, they do as I demand. They open. The room is dark, the beeping still incessant. Inhaling a deep breath, I begin to cough. I feel like I can’t quite breathe.

What the fuck?

Placing my hand on the center of my chest, I wheeze, unable to breathe deeply at all. Then it all comes flooding back to me. One memory after another—the note, the office, all the guys standing around, and then… the heat and the boom .

I start breathing faster as the memories play on a loop, almost like a fucking movie. Did they all die? Did they live? Am I dead? Fuck, I don’t know what the hell is going on. The harder I panic, the less it makes sense.

Then the door opens, and I watch as someone wearing nurses’ scrubs walks through the door. She stops at my bedside, checking the machines, and when her eyes scan my body, she smiles when she realizes I’m awake.

“There is a whole room full of people who will be happy to know that you’re awake, Justin Whitmore.”

Well, I guess I’m not dead, then.

“Is everyone okay?” I ask, although it comes out as a whisper, because my throat feels like I swallowed a cupful of broken glass shards.

“Let me get you some water. You’ll feel a bit groggy from the anesthetic, but I’ll have the doctor come by to talk to you about what happened.”

“I had surgery?” I ask. Although it’s not a question. It’s more like a statement.

“You did,” she confirms.

I’m not sure how I should feel about that. I’ve never had surgery before. I don’t ask her any details about it. It’s clear that she probably isn’t supposed to talk about it to me, at least not before the doctor.

“Everybody else is okay,” she says softly, reaching for my hand. She wraps her fingers around it, squeezing gently. “You bore the brunt.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, I close my eyes. Thank fuck. I’m relieved I’m the one who was hurt the worst. She releases my hand, then moves toward the door, stopping before she opens it and looks over her shoulder at me.

“You have a lot of people who love you. The doctor will probably send your parents in with your permission after he’s spoken to you.”

Giving her a smile, I dip my chin slightly. She opens the door and passes through without saying anything else before she disappears. I want to tell her to let Posey in here before my parents, but I guess that’s something for the doctor.

Thankfully, the doctor comes in a few moments later. He gives me a smile because we’ve known one another for years. Not just because we’re both professionals in a small town, but also because we went to high school together.

“George,” I say, my voice still sounding like shit.

“You’re a lucky bastard, Justin. But then again, you always were,” he says before he tells me all about my ailments.

I broke my arm, which required surgery. Six weeks to fucking heal before I can take the cast off, something I hadn’t realized I even had. I hit my head hard enough that they were worried about a brain bleed.

Luckily, all tests came back normal.

My lungs are a fucking mess from the smoke and shit I inhaled, though, but eventually, I’ll make a full recovery. Silver linings and shit, I guess.

“The police will be by tomorrow to get a statement from you. Clearly, someone tried to hurt you, Justin,” he murmurs. “Don’t keep information from them.”

“Because I’m a Vicious Reaper?” I ask.

He jerks his chin. “That and because you want to catch them first. You don’t know who the fuck you’re dealing with here. If they could do that to your office, who knows what the hell they’ll try next.”

George isn’t wrong. But he’s not right, either. I may not know who the fuck I’m dealing with right now, but I do know they won’t get a chance to try it again, police or not. Before I tell anyone a damn thing, I need to talk to Posey, my parents, and then Bullet.

In that fucking order.

“George,” I call out. “Can you send my fiancée, Posey, in first?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he murmurs, then what feels like seconds later, the door opens, and I see her standing hesitantly in that doorway.

She’s wearing the same outfit as earlier, but streaks of her makeup have been removed from the tears rolling down her cheeks. She’s obviously been through hell, yet still manages to look absolutely fucking stunning.

“Hey, princess,” I rasp.

Those two words are all she needs from me. She hurries toward me, then stops at my bedside. She reaches for my hand, taking it in hers and gently squeezing my fingers.

“I was so worried,” Posey rasps. “I thought I lost you before I really had you.”

My lips twitch into a smirk. “You are not fucking getting rid of me that easily,” I growl.

“You’re okay?” she asks.

“I will be. You good with sticking with me for a while?”

She shakes her head once, then she sinks down so she’s sitting on the edge of the bed.

Her hand leaves mine, but only so she can cup my cheek.

Her eyes search my own, then she leans forward and touches her lips to mine.

She doesn’t deepen the kiss before she speaks, her mouth moving against mine with each word she says.

“I’m not going anywhere, Justin. It’s you, me, and our baby for life.”

Fuck yeah, it is.

POSEY

Standing outside the room while Justin and his parents talk, I watch as Bullet and Dakota rush toward me.

She throws her arms around me, pulling me close to her.

We haven’t really spoken since this whole thing happened.

She was focused on Bullet, as she should have been, and I was pacing, thinking, crying, and then sitting with Mae.

“He’s okay,” she breathes.

“He’s okay,” I confirm.

We cling to one another, and although it doesn’t feel exactly like it did with Mae, it still feels pretty damn good. Bullet stands off to the side, his eyes shifting between us, to the door, and then promptly flick down to his shoes.

Taking a step back, I smile as I look over at him. “He said he wanted to talk to you after Mae and Lloyd leave,” I say.

Bullet nods his head, but he doesn’t look up at me. I don’t know what he’s thinking. Maybe the same thing we all are, that this whole situation feels utterly surreal. That we’re thankful Justin is okay. But maybe he’s also thinking about how he could have died.

Honestly, he’s probably got a mixture of emotions and thoughts flying around in his head—I know I do. Dakota says something, her voice taking me away from my thoughts and my focus on Bullet.

I’m not sure what she said, but thankfully, she repeats herself. The second time breaks through, and I am able to not only hear her but understand her. My focus shifts from Bullet to her.

“Did you have a nice conversation with Ivy’s mom?” she asks.

“She’s really nice,” I say. “I wish I had met her under different circumstances, but she seems great.”

“They both are,” Bullet announces. “They’re good people.” He doesn’t sound as if he’s trying to convince me of anything, but rather that he’s lost in his own head and just chiming in when he can.

Before I can say anything else, a nurse approaches us.

I watch her walk over to our small group of three, and I expect her to begin speaking with Bullet because he seems to know everyone here and can get the most information out of them in general.

Though there’s no more information to get now that Justin is awake and able to tell me anything and everything about his medical care.

“Posey Bennet?” she asks, her gaze flicking from Dakota to me.

I raise my hand as if I’m being called on in school, and my eyes find hers. “I’m Posey,” I say.

She gives me a tight smile, her expression not friendly at all. I’m unsure what she could possibly want with me, and by name. “There is someone at the nurses’ station who needs to speak to you.”

My mind is jumbled, and I know I’m not thinking clearly, but who the hell would want to speak to me at the nurses’ station? Every single person I know, aside from some in Northern California, is here in this hospital and knows exactly where I am. They could come get me themselves.

But since I’m definitely not thinking straight, I follow her to the nurses’ station. Bullet and Dakota obviously don’t sense anything wrong with it, either. They don’t say anything and just watch me walk away.

The nurse’s footsteps are quick, and I practically have to run behind her to keep up. She passes the nurses’ station, and I call out for her, but she continues, not even pausing as she shifts to look over her shoulder at me, telling me to keep coming.

There is a door with an exit sign, and I watch her take a step outside, holding the door for me. Every nerve in my body begins to tingle. It’s not a tingling of excitement. It’s a warning. My feet stop moving, almost as if I’ve stepped on concrete. I try to pick them up, but they won’t budge.

Something is wrong here.

Very wrong.

“They’re waiting for you just out here. I guess they got tired of hanging around in the hospital,” she says, urging me to move forward.

Even if I wanted to walk toward her, I physically can’t.

My feet are cemented to the floor, and besides, I don’t want to.

She reaches inside, but her own feet stay planted outside the doorway.

Her fingers wrap around my wrist, squeezing hard.

It feels desperate. All of this feels very desperate.

I shake my head as I look into her eyes.

I open my mouth to tell her no and try to tug my arm backward, but she releases me almost instantly.

Her eyes are so wide, I don’t know how she’s able to keep them open.

Then her mouth opens, but nothing comes out.

She jerks backward, almost as if she’s been pulled back or hit from the front, then she runs.

“What the…”

“Stay here,” Bullet growls from behind me.

He takes off past me, his heavy boots slamming against the floor as he runs after her. I hear him coughing as the door slams closed. My spine straightens, and then my entire body begins to tremble.

Visions, memories of Lucian taking me, grabbing me by my hair and choking me, and everything else that monster did to me appear in the forefront of my mind.

I thought I would be okay knowing he can’t hurt me anymore, but what the hell is happening, and who was that woman?

Why did she want me to go outside? Who was waiting for me?

I have a million questions and not a single answer.