He nodded. “Let me know what the final decision is so I can get whatever needs to be taken care of done.”
“You’ll be the first to know,” I assured him. Sighing, I stood up to my full height. “I need to get back to the hospital,” I announced. “Whatever needs to be replaced, make sure its thrown out and something new is put in its place. I want this fucking clubhouse spotless the next time I walk in here.”
A chorus of acknowledgments rang up around the table. I slammed the gavel and stepped out of the chapel, already pulling my bike keys from my pocket. I needed to get back to the hospital to see my woman. Only been a mere few damn hours, and I already missed her like a fucking missing appendage.
That woman had no damn idea just how badly I needed her.
But I was determined to make sure that one day, shewouldknow.
I could barely breathe without her.
My body tensed when I saw two officers standing outside Aaliyah’s hospital room door. I swore to God, if they were harassing her because of her attachment to the club, to me, I’d lose my fucking shit and get arrested today.
She was off goddamn limits.
No one spoke to her without my fucking permission, and I was about to make shit that clear.
“The fuck is going on?” I snarled.
The youngest deputy held his hand out to me to shake. I just stared at it in disgust. Was he fucking serious right now? He expected a goddamn handshake after what just happened at my clubhouse? “Johnston Trim, right? We were called by a nurse. Apparently, a man tried strangling the woman inside.”
Strangled?
Nah.No fucking way someone had just tried to strangle her. No one would be that goddamn stupid.
“That woman,” I growled, “is my fucking old lady. The fuck do you mean someone tried to goddamn strangle her?”
He swallowed thickly and dropped his hand by his sides again. The other officer remained quiet, but he took a little step away, creating just a tiny bit more distance between us. In any other situation, I’d have been amused, but not this one. My fucking woman had just been assaulted.
Why the fuck hadn’t I immediately been notified?
“I, um, I—” the officer stuttered, tripping over his words.
I was about to bash his skull into the wall to maybe rattle something loose in his fucking brain when the hospital room door opened, saving the stumbling kid.
“Let him in,” the doctor ordered from inside the room.
The two officers stepped out of the way, and I shoved past them, shoulder-checking the one that started stuttering, storming inside. I stopped at the sight of Aaliyah. Breathing tubes were up her nose. The dark, hand-shaped bruises on her neck were a stark contrast to her pale, creamy skin.
I clenched my fists at my sides, my entire body thrumming with rage. I was ready to fucking destroy something.
“Who the fuck did it?” I snarled when the doctor shut the door behind us, giving us some privacy. I swung around to face him. “Dr. Wilson, whothe fucktouched her?”
Because they were about to goddamn die. And the goddamn guilt riding on my shoulders was eating me alive. This was the second fucking time I hadn’t been able to protect her.
If the universe was trying to send a message, it could fuck right on off. Everything in this world bent tomywill. I didn’t bend to anyone else.
“Dirk Wilson,” he informed me, keeping his voice low so there were no chances of our voices carrying past that door. “He was arrested—with a fight, might I add. He was out of his mind. High as hell. Alcohol on his breath, too.”
Dirk Wilson.
Her fucking ex that she’d left.
I strode over to her bed and gently trailed the backs of my fingers across her soft cheek.Fuck, her skin was so pale. It wasn’t supposed to be like this—not with her. She always had a pretty flush to her cheeks. She was my Red, goddammit.
“She almost died,” Dr. Wilson quietly informed me. I gritted my teeth, my molars grinding together, echoing loudly in the room. “We’re not sure what we’re facing when—or if—she wakes.”
Or if.