Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77505 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77505 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
I guess all of that paranoia and distrust created something else new for me: anxiety.
Lovely.
Just what I needed.
“I’m a mess,” I told Sugar.
I reached up toward the island to grab my phone to check in on my app so it didn’t text my neighbor.
“We should probably try to get some sleep, huh?” I asked when Sugar rested her head on my legs and let out a long-suffering sigh.
Her ears perked up at that.
“Come on, baby,” I said, peeling myself off the floor, making sure the door was locked, then walking into my bedroom, kicking off my shoes and peeling off clothes as I went.
We both fell into bed.
Sugar was out cold within minutes.
I lay there, staring at the ceiling, my heartbeat hammering in my chest hard enough for me to place a hand there, trying to assure myself that I was fine, that it was just anxiety, that it was no big deal.
Sugar let out a whimpering sound, making me turn. But she was just chasing something in her sleep, her little feet jerking and her jowls twitching.
I curled into her, making her the little spoon, trying to take some comfort in her warm, familiar body.
Tell me why it was right then that my mind flashed back to the meeting spot.
To a big, hulking biker.
To thighs that knew where they stood.
To shoulders wide enough to lean on.
To arms strong enough to keep you from falling apart.
God.
What the hell was that about?
I was not someone who romanticized men.
Did I enjoy them on occasion?
Sure.
But even then, kind of rarely. And it had been so long that it was borderline embarrassing.
I damn sure never did something monumentally stupid. Like trust a man. Like rely on one. Like seek comfort in one.
So why the hell was I thinking like that about a complete stranger, making him star in some absurd, knight-in-shining-armor fantasy of mine?
He wasn’t the hero.
I’d been the one to save the day.
I was my own damn knight in shining armor.
I didn’t need to be saved.
But as I finally drifted off to sleep, it was that wide chest I imagined resting on, and those massive arms wrapping tightly around me.
And I slept like a damn baby.
CHAPTER FIVE
Colter
“Hit me again,” Raff said with a boyish smile.
The woman next to him, dressed in a damn nurse’s Halloween costume, reached for his electrolyte drink—complete with a hot pink twisty straw—and held it up to him.
“Not a fucking thing wrong with his arms,” Slash said as he walked past, shaking his head.
“I’m under strict orders,” Raff said, feigning offense.
“To stay on your ass. Not to not reach for your own drink,” Slash shot back.
Was the guy milking his injury?
Abso-fucking-lutely.
But we were so damn glad he made it that we generally ignored his revolving door of women wearing various kinds of nurse’s dresses or scrubs that had been around the clubhouse for the past day and a half.
It really had been touch-and-go for him that first night.
Dr. Price said that Raff had been putting on a good show for us so we didn’t worry, that he was in the beginning stages of shock when he got to the office.
But because it was a small town and we wanted to avoid the hospital if at all possible, there was no chance for a transfusion.
He’d been pumped full of fluids, cleaned and stitched up, and slowly stabilized.
Raff came home with an IV drip—something Dr. Price said was not normally done, but he was bending rules for him since he would be doing daily house calls—and under strict orders to eat lots of red meat, spinach, and beans. He was also instructed to move around as little as possible. To not pull his stitches, sure. But more so, because it was going to take his body up to six weeks to replace his red blood cells. And until then, he was going to be weak.
He wasn’t kidding, either.
Raff got winded and pale as fuck each time he even needed to go to the bathroom. So we’d planted his ass in the living room where everyone could keep an eye on him and get him whatever he needed.
He took it a step further by inviting half the female population over to wait on him hand and foot. Despite there being no option for any… pain relief.
“Babe, don’t wanna be rude, but I’m gonna need your, ah, shift to be over,” Slash said.
“That’s okay. I have to get to actual work anyway,” the woman said, patting Raff’s good leg, then grabbing her bag and heading out, still wearing her costume.
“I was this close to getting a sponge bath,” Raff said with a long-suffering sigh.
“We’ve put this off long enough. Rook is on his way over to tell us what he figured out about this club. And I want to know more about this woman.”