Three years ago, when Matt and I had first gotten together, Tanner had been around all the time. But I had liked his company. He’d made me laugh, made me feel like I belonged, like I was a part of the Reid family. He had hit on me all the time, but I always knew he was teasing, that I was nothing more than a sister to him. We had become friends, and he was the only guy Matt had never gotten jealous of.
“What happens now?” I asked a while later, when the quiet seemed to be too loud. “I mean, will there be a funeral?”
“Yes,” Raven assured me. “Well, a memorial. Once the boys get taken to the funeral home, they will be cremated. I already asked Bash if that was okay. It was a pretty easy decision to make since there…” Her chin trembled, but she clenched her jaw. “There won’t be much to put in a casket anyway.”
“Willa!” Flick dropped her spoon onto the counter and caught the other woman around the waist as she began to sway. “Shit,” she cried when Willa became dead weight in her arms.
Raven and I rushed around the island to help her, and we were able to get Willa safely laid out on the floor. Raven dropped to her knees beside her, already checking the brunette’s pulse. “Get Spider,” she commanded.
Unsure who she was talking to, I ran to do just that. I raced out into the huge, open room, my eyes scanning over everyone, but there were too many faces. “Spider!” I called out as loud as I could. “Spider!”
All eyes flew to me, but none of them belonged to the scary as hell MC enforcer. “Spider!” I yelled his name at the top of my lungs, and the door upstairs that I could only assume was Bash’s office was jerked open.
Menacing eyes narrowed on me. “What?”
“It’s Willa…” His wife’s name had barely left my mouth before he was running down the stairs. “…she fainted.”
He was already on the ground floor before Matt and Bash had even stepped out of the office. Side by side, it was easy to tell that the last of the Reid clan were related. Bash was wider in the chest, with longer hair where Matt’s had always been cut shorter, but they had the same stubborn set to their jaws and the same electric-blue eyes. Both pairs were now full of questions as they stomped down the stairs, the Hannigan brothers right behind them.
“What’s going on, babe?” Matt asked when he reached me.
“I don’t know. Willa just kind of went limp.”
He took my hand, and we followed Bash into the kitchen.
Spider was on his knees on the other side of Willa, who had already started to come around. “Don’t try to get up,” he ordered in a voice that shook. “Doc is on his way.”
Willa’s eyes seemed unfocused for a moment before she blinked them and then frowned up at her husband. “What happened? Why am I on the floor?”
“You passed out,” Raven told her as she checked the other woman’s pulse again. “Your pulse is starting to come back up. I think your blood pressure dropped.”
“Well, I feel fine now.” She started to lift onto her elbows, but Spider pressed her back down with a hand to her chest, earning a glare from her. “James, I’m fine. Really. It’s just been a really long and emotional day. I’m okay.”
He got to his feet then bent and lifted her effortlessly into his arms. “You aren’t doing shit until Doc checks you out.” He glanced at Raven. “Can you come help me get her into bed?”
“Right behind you,” she assured him as he carried Willa out of the kitchen.
Jet and Hawk were already getting into the sandwiches. Hawk stuffed one into his mouth, grabbed two more, and then left without more than a garbled “thanks” to Flick. Jet kissed Flick’s lips before cramming his mouth full of chicken salad. “Love you, babe,” he grumbled as he followed after his younger brother.
Flick watched them go with a bemused look on her face, before turning her gaze on Matt and Bash. “You two hungry?”
They both shook their dark heads, getting a glower in return. “You two need to eat. Tell him, Rory.”
I hugged Matt’s waist. “She’s right. Please? Just eat a little something. For me.”
“Did you eat?” I shook my head. “If you fix us both a plate, I’ll eat. But only if you do.”
I rolled my eyes, earning a half grin from him. “Fine, you win. This time.”
He brushed his lips over mine. “Babe, as long as I have you, I win every day.”
Chapter Ten
Quinn
A FIRM KNOCK ON RAIDER’S bedroom door had me pushing to my feet from where I’d been sitting on the floor with Lexa and Max. They didn’t even look up from their coloring when I got up. Unsure if it was friend or foe—or in my case, one of my sisters—I cautiously opened the door an inch. Spotting Colt on the other side, I swung it open.
As soon as I got a better look at my best friend’s face, I knew something was wrong. His eyes looked dead, his face pale and hard. It could have been that he’d just lost one of his closest friends, two of his MC brothers. Heck, it could have been any number of reasons, but that look in his eyes made me worry about him. And Raider.