“I-I wanted to let you know she is recovering from the bronchoscopy. As soon as she’s out of the anesthesia more, we’ll be admitting her overnight. She’ll be in room 202. I’ll let you know when she goes up.” I thanked her for letting me know. What I wanted to do was rush back there and see her. The nurse went back into the treatment area and I resumed my pacing. A half hour later, the same nurse came out to tell us they had moved Madisen up to room 202. I was thanking her when she grabbed my hand and placed a piece of paper in it. I looked down to see a phone number scribbled on it. I glared at her.
“Are you for fucking real right now? I’m here waiting to see my woman, and you think I want your damn phone number?” I growled at her. My brothers all looked at me in surprise. Yeah, in the past I would have taken her up on what she was obviously offering, but that was before Madisen. Now, all I wanted was her. She flushed red and scampered back through the doors. I threw her number in the trash. Joker caught my eye and nodded.
“Let’s go see how she is,” I told them, and we headed up to the second floor
When we stepped off the elevator, I saw the nurses’ station. There were three nurses standing there. The older one approached us, asking how she could help us.
“We’re here to see Madisen Collins. They said down in the ER she was brought up here to room 202.”
“Yes, she was. I’ll show you where her room is. She can have two visitors at a time. Try to keep the visits brief. She needs her rest.” We nodded.
Bull and I followed her. I needed to see her. Not having eyes on her was causing me all kinds of anxiety. Like something would happen and she’d disappear or something. Easing the door open, my eyes fell on her. She was still surrounded by machines that were making noises. Her face was now clean. Her eyes were closed. We tiptoed over to her bedside. We must have made a noise, or she sensed us, because her eyes fluttered open. She looked at Bull and smiled. Then her eyes met mine. She looked shocked to see me. Yeah, we’d be talking once she was feeling better. She needed to know I wasn’t going anywhere. She was mine, even if she didn’t know it yet.
“Hey, sweetheart, how are you feeling?” Bull asked her quietly.
“I’m okay. What happened to the bakery?” she asked anxiously and tried to sit up. A grimace flashed across her face and she coughed. She held her chest as she gasped and coughed. Her voice sounded raspy. I looked at Bull in panic. He frowned but grabbed a glass of water beside the bed. When she stopped coughing, he handed it to her. She took a couple of sips.
“Sorry, it’s all the damn smoke. They told me it would take a little while to get it all out of my lungs. Damn, it hurts. Now, tell me, how is the bakery?” She asked very matter-of-factly. Like her almost dying from smoke inhalation wasn’t a big fucking deal. I was about to chime in when there was a knock at the door. Looking over, I saw Chief Scarelli and another officer waiting to be allowed in the room. Bull waved them inside. Scarelli was the one to speak when they got to her bedside.
“Hi, Madisen. How are you doing, darlin’?” he asked. I glared at him. Why in the hell was he calling her Madisen and darlin’?
“Hi, Chief, I’ve been better and worse. How is the bakery? Sorry you’ll have to go without your daily roll every morning for a while,” she said with an impish smile on her face. He laughed and patted his trim waist.
“Well, it’ll help me loosen up these pants. No worries. As soon as you’re back in business, I’ll be back. But to answer your question about the bakery, it’s had a lot of damage. It’s not completely destroyed, so after some repairs, you should be able to reopen. What I need is to take your official statement. I hate to ask you right now, but I need to get it as soon as possible. Are you up to it?”
She nodded and tried to scoot up in the bed. I leaned down and scooped her up in my arms and set her higher up. She threw me a surprised look, then she looked at Scarelli and his officer. So far, the other officer just stood there looking at all of us. He had a tight look on his face. He wasn’t happy. I didn’t know if it was because of what happened or if it was something else. Scarelli dived right into his questions.
“Tell us what happened from the moment you arrived at the bakery this morning until they took you to the hospital. Don’t worry if you can’t remember everything. You were pretty confused when we got you out. Take your time and let me know if you need to take a break.”
“I got there just before four, which is my usual time. I came in the back door and got started right away. It was maybe an hour later, when I smelled smoke. At first, I thought it was something burning in the ovens. I checked and found nothing, so I went out to the front. The smoke out there was worse, but I didn’t see anything on fire. That’s when the fire alarms finally went off. I’m not sure why it took them so long, because it was smoky all over. I headed back to the kitchen. I planned to leave that way since it was less smoky and then call Bull. When I went to open the back door, it wouldn’t open no matter how hard I pushed.” At this point, Scarelli looked up at me and Bull. We knew from the scene it had been blocked.
She continued, “When I couldn’t get it to open, I went back to the front. I was going to go out that door. The smoke had already gotten worse, so I crawled to the door. When I got there and unlocked it, it wouldn’t open either. I knew I had to get out of there. I was now seeing flames over near the south wall, so I grabbed one of the chairs at the nearest table. I stood up and slammed it into the window. Unfortunately, I realized it was that damn safety glass. It wouldn’t break. I hit it several times. I was getting dizzy. The last thing I remember before I woke up to see the paramedics working on me was hitting it and seeing a few cracks appear. I blacked out.”
I was pacing around the room by this point. She’d come so damn close to dying before I could ever get the chance to be with her. I knew one thing for certain. She’d be fucking protected. Bull watched me. He knew what I was thinking, and he gave me a nod. Scarelli cleared his throat.
“The reason you couldn’t get either door open is they were blocked. The back one had the dumpster from the alley wedged in front of it. The front door had a chain tied around it. Now, I need to ask if you know of anyone who would want to harm you.” She looked at Bull, then me. I knew she was thinking about that creeper Chris she’d had the fight with. I nodded at her.
Before she could respond, the officer with the chief spoke up, “Or better yet, what are you doing at the bakery with the MC to cause this to happen? Maybe someone is pissed they’re not getting their cut of the profits or something,” he said with a sneer. I saw Bull stiffen and Scarelli jerk. He looked over at his officer.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Talbot? Who would want revenge on a damn bakery?”
“Come on, Chief. You know it has to be some kind of front for the club’s illegal shit. Laundering their drug money, no doubt.” I stepped over to him.
“Listen, you little prick. The Warriors don’t run drugs or anything else. Yeah, we partially own the bakery with Madisen, but that’s it. There is no reason for anyone to be gunning for her or us because of the bakery, asshole.”
He curled his lip. “Yeah, sure. You honestly want me to think you and your club piece there are just running a bakery? I wasn’t born yesterday. Everyone knows MCs are into all kinds of illegal shit,” he said. Bull stepped between us. He knew I was seconds away from beating this asshole into the ground, even if he was a cop.
“Joe, you need to get him out of here before my brother busts his mouth. We won’t have someone like him on our case.”
Talbot sputtered. Scarelli narrowed his eyes at him. “Get the hell out, Talbot. I’ll deal with your ass later. Bull and the Warriors are an integral part of Hunters Creek. They don’t do the shit you’re implying. I know you’re new around here, but what you just spouted out just shows how biased and unrealistic you are. Don’t believe everything you read and see on TV about clubs. Now get lost.”
Talbot swore and stomped out after throwing all of us a pissed look. For a moment, his eyes lingered on Madisen. I didn’t like the look in them. He might be a problem.
After he left, Scarelli apologized, “I’m so damn sorry. He’s new, only been with us a year and not from around here. Obviously, he watches too much TV. Don’t worry, he won’t be working this case. Let’s get back to what we were talking about. Anyone you know who might want to hurt you?”
I could see she was tired, so I spoke up for her. “There was a guy a few days ago who she got into an argument with at the bakery. He had been dating one of the other employees. Apparently, he’d gotten physical with her. She was at work when he came in looking for her. He tried to make her go with him and Madisen intervened. They argued, and he left. I saw them arguing outside while some of the guys and I were across the street at the garage.”
Scarelli asked her for the employee’s name and the guy’s, which she readily supplied. Then he asked her if there was anyone else who might want to harm her. We all saw the hesitation on her face.