“Turn off the lights,” someone ordered. “If she has a concussion, the lights are going to make her head hurt worse.”
Within two seconds the lights had been turned off and I felt only slightly better.
“I still can’t get hold of Doc. Should I call Raven or do you want to take her to the hospital?”
Hawk’s rough hand skimmed over my cheek tenderly, causing even more tears to slip free. “Baby, I’m gonna have to move you. Raven isn’t going to be able to take care of something like this. She can sew up cuts and dig out bullets, but heads are trickier.” I felt his warm lips brush over my temple. “Put your arms around me, baby.”
Something as simple as lifting my arms to wrap them around his neck made me feel like my head was literally going to explode. I cried out in pain and buried my face in his chest as he stood, holding me close to his hard body. “Find Harley’s keys,” he growled at someone. “We’re going to have to use his truck.”
“What do you want us to do with him?” It was Raider’s voice this time, and it was coming from right beside Hawk.
“Don’t let Spider at him. He’s mine.” The menace in Hawk’s voice would have terrified me if I’d thought it was directed at me. I knew it wasn’t; so I just buried my face in his chest a little deeper and tried to block out the pain. “I’ll be back as soon as I know Gracie is okay.”
“Take your time, brother,” Bash’s voice reached my ears. “Spider will let you have your turn at him. Raven is going to meet you at the hospital to make sure that she is taken care of immediately. Tell them Doc Robertson is her regular doctor.”
“I’m coming with you,” Jack informed Hawk, and he didn’t argue.
He climbed into the truck with me still in his arms. When the door shut behind him, he tucked me closer. I heard Jack get in on the driver’s side and the truck growled to life. I bit my lip nearly in half as the trip to the hospital turned out to be nearly my undoing. I didn’t know how much longer I could handle this headache. Nothing had ever physically hurt so much in my life.
Several times I felt Hawk’s lips on my face, heard his ragged breathing. His heartbeat was going crazy, but even that hurt to listen to. When the truck stopped and someone opened the door a small cry escaped me when the lights from what I assumed was the hospital entrance flashed over my shut eyes.
I felt cold, hard hands try to take me from Hawk’s arms as I clung to him as tightly as I could. “No,” I moaned. “No.” I didn’t want him to leave me. Didn’t trust anyone else to keep me safe. Hawk’s arms meant safety. They were home.
“Sir, we need to take her straight back. Place her on the gurney,” a male voice that didn’t sound in any way familiar asked.
“It’s okay, Gracie.” Raven’s voice was right beside me now and I felt her hands on mine as she tried to pull me free from her brother.
Memories of the first night I’d met Hawk and Raven swarmed through my throbbing head. She’d done this same thing that night, trying to get me to let him go so that she could check my bruises and other things when I’d nearly been raped. Sadly, this night was so much more frightening. That night I’d walked away with a few bad dreams, a sore throat, and some bruises. Tonight? I didn’t know what Harley had meant to do to me, and that was so much worse for some reason.
Hawk placed me on the gurney and carefully unwrapped my arms from around him, but one of his big hands stayed clasped to one of mine. “I’m not going anywhere, baby. Don’t worry. I’m right here.”
Seconds later I was being pushed into the hospital where I heard medical personnel running around. At one point the gurney stopped and a quiet, male voice started asking questions. While Raven answered the man, a doctor, I had to assume, lifted one of my lids and shined a penlight into it.
I cried out and turned away from the source of pain as I started to dry heave. There was nothing left in my stomach, but my body didn’t seem to care as my stomach began to spasm. “Severe concussion. Let’s get her a CT. Does she need a rape kit?”
Nausea rolled in my stomach for an entirely different reason. I’d been so distracted by my head that I hadn’t taken stock of any other damage done to my body. I tried to push the pain back enough to figure out if I had been violated while I’d been unconscious. After a moment I breathed a sigh of relief. “No, he didn’t rape me.”
“Gracie, you’re going to be staying with us here at Trinity Community Hospital for a few days,” the doctor informed me. “My nurses are going to get an IV started, give you something for the pain, and then take you down to radiology for that CT. I understand that Dr. Robertson is your regular physician. He will be in to see you tomorrow morning. Until then, if there is anything you need feel free to let us know.”
I didn’t try to pay attention to what was going on around me once he was gone. Hawk continued to hold my hand and I heard Raven’s voice like it was background noise. I tried to block out the pain. When someone stuck a needle in my arm, I barely noticed. Seconds later I felt the burn of whatever medication the nurse had injected into the IV and soon I was drifting off, floating away from the pain.
Chapter 9
Spider
Willa kept blowing up my phone, but I couldn’t stop and talk to her. Not yet. When this shit was finished I would call her back, let her know that everything was okay and that I loved her. Not yet. Not when I was in enforcer mode. When I was ready to eviscerate the sonofabitch that was strapped to an old six-foot-long table in the back of Uncle Jack’s spare parts warehouse.
Bash had told me that I couldn’t touch Harley until Hawk and Jack got back from the hospital. Even then I might not get a shot at the fucker. I wanted to do my job, wanted to make the man that I had thought of as a brother only a few hours ago bleed and beg for mercy before I put a bullet between his eyes.
I didn’t always enjoy my job as the MC’s enforcer, but when it came to one of my club brothers hurting a female I rejoiced in the punishments I would get to hand out. That it was Gracie, sweet and innocent little Gracie… I would have relished every second of the beating I would have given this motherfucker.
But I will wait and let Hawk have his vengeance. Gracie was his, so it was naturally his right to deliver Harley’s punishment. And when Hawk was done, if there was anything still left of the fucker, Uncle Jack would get to take a shot at him as her grandfather.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t going to make Harley sweat thinking I was going to be the one to end him. Although Hawk wasn’t a better option, Harley was ready to piss himself thinking I was going to finish him off at any second. It made me grin as I leaned against the table and ran my eyes over the biker from head to toe, imagining where I would start first.
Stomach. Yeah, I would punch him in the stomach until he puked. Then I would switch it up and start beating on his head. Give him a concussion as bad as Gracie’s has. Make him confused and half blind before I moved to another part of his body. I wouldn’t leave a single inch of him without a bruise. He would be welted up, bleeding, broken bones would stick out from every angle. When he was unconscious, his lung filling up with blood from broken ribs that had punctured his lungs, then I would finish him off. One shot to the head, two to the chest.
“Here,” Bash grunted, handing me his phone. “It’s Willa. She’s about to drive me insane.”