Table of Contents
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Sneak Peak at Diesel
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Copyright © 2018 by Savannah Rylan
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No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Chapter 1
Rock
“What the fuck happened in there with you?” I asked Mick.
“Nothing. I swear to you. He was fine. Talking. Coherent. I don’t know what the hell just happened.”
“They’re fucking reviving him in his damn bed, Mick! What the fuck happened!?” I yelled as I stood in Mick’s face.
“Rock, calm down,” Knox said as he gently put his hand on my shoulder.
“Calm the fuck down? He just went into cardiac arrest for fuck’s sake. What do you mean, ‘calm down’?” I asked and I pulled my shoulder out from underneath his hand.
The fights went on like that for hours while Brewer was out. After what seemed like an eternity, the nurses were able to get him stable, but no one could seem to backtrack what made him crash in the first fucking place. God Damn it. He had been stable for three damn days!
What the hell had happened to my best friend?
I spent the rest of the week hanging out at the hospital. I told myself that I was standing outside his door for protection, but deep down, I knew it was because I was too scared to leave his side. I wasn’t going to let anything else happen to Brewer.
Luckily, nothing else happened, and they were discharging him today. I’d been in to see him a few times since he started to flatline, and he was still foggy on all the details of what happened. I had decided not to push him on it, for fear that his heart would shit out again.
“Do the doctors know what’s happened yet?” Makenna asked with a shaky voice. I turned around and watched Makenna run up with a small little girl at her side. Her daughter looked just fucking like her. Same brown hair. Same determined blue eyes. No wonder Brewer was smitten with the two of them.
It was a valid question. Brewer had been in the hospital through the damn weekend without another incident. “A fluke, they called it. Just a hiccup in the road to recovery.” But people’s hearts didn’t fucking stop just because. That wasn’t a fucking hiccup.
Brewer would’ve been dead had he already been at home.
“They’ve run every damn test imaginable, and nothing’s coming back. One doctor told me that as Brewer continues to relive the trauma, it might throw him into these episodes. Another doctor is calling it a fluke.”
“A person’s heart stopping isn’t a ‘fluke’.”
“You’re telling me,” I said.
“Where’s Brewer?” the little girl asked.
I bent down and looked straight into her eyes as worry filled her stare.
“He’s in his room waiting for you,” I said.
“He is?” she asked.
“Have you missed him?” I asked.
I looked up at Makenna and she smiled down at me.
“Oh yeah. I haven’t read my book at all. He’s supposed to read it,” she said.
“Oh, he is. Well, then it will make you happy to know that he is being discharged today.”
“He’s what?” Makenna asked.
“Yep,” I said as I stood. “They’re letting him go today. He’s been here a week, and except for the ‘hiccup’, they say he’s good to go.”
Makenna took off past me with Ana running at her side. I watched them barge into Brewer’s room and throw themselves at him. What the hell was it with these guys and making fucking families? Now we had more women and children we needed to protect from this madhouse our lives had become. I shook my head and gave them a second to settle down. I watched from off in the distance as Makenna wrapped herself around him and her little daughter crawled up into his lap.
Family life suited Brewer.
You know, if he wasn’t a killer with illegal police connections who rode with the biker gang that owned Redding.
I sat in the fucking waiting room and hung out while they gathered Brewer’s things. The doctors came in and checked him over one last time before handing him his discharge papers and instructions. He was probably going to Makenna’s place or some shit, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t offer for him to come stay with me. Ana kept giggling and talking her head off while they packed up his shit, then the three of them came walking out of the room hand in hand.
“No wheelchair for the injured?” I asked as I stood.
Brewer smiled at me as he clapped my back.
“We need to talk later,” he said into my ear.
It was low. Almost whispered. I looked at him as my brow ticked. Whatever it was, it was serious business if he didn’t want to say it in front of the girls. Hell, I didn’t want to fucking say anything in front of the girls. Editing myself in front of them was hard enough, but doing that shit in front of kids?
Let’s just say ‘Uncle Rock’ wasn’t going to be a family favorite.
“You got it,” I said as I nodded my head.
“Rock, can you help Brewer downstairs? Ana and I are going to pull the car around,” Makenna said.
“Sure thing, boss,” I said with a grin. “Come on, old man. Lean on me, would ya?”
I wrapped Brewer’s good arm around me and hoisted him onto his tiptoes. Brewer was a tall son of a bitch, but I was the tallest of the group. And I always made it fucking known to anyone and everyone whenever I had the chance. They wanted to mock me about my technological skills and how I hunched over a damn keyboard all fucking day until I loomed over them with my steel gray eyes.
They didn’t have shit to say then.
“So, when do you wanna talk?” I asked as Makenna and Ana took off down the hall.
We waved them off before Brewer and I slowly made our way to the elevator.
“Not here,” he said.
“This have anything to do with that incident a few days ago?” I asked.
“You mean where my heart stopped and I had an out of body experience?”
“You fucking what now?” I asked.
We stepped into the elevator as I quirked an eyebrow at him.
“We can’t talk about it here,” Brewer said. “But I think I believe this rat shit a hell of a lot more now.”
My eyes widened as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.
“What? You’re gonna drop that shit on me and then leave it like that?” I asked.
“The shock of it threw me into my cardiac arrest,” he said.
“And you didn’t fucking think to tell anyone?” I asked.
I reached over and opened the door so we could pour ours
elves into the lobby of the hospital.
“Not here,” Brewer said as he shot me a look.
Frustration clenched my throat as I helped him out the main door.
“So, putting a pin in that shit for a second. You know now that you’re injured there’s no way in hell you’re going along with this fun little plan to take care of Rex, right?” I asked.
“I don’t like it, but I get it,” Brewer said.
“Good. Because I was ready to fucking fight you on it. Which really only meant I’d shove my thumb into your shoulder until you cried for mercy.”
“Cried for what now?” he asked.
“Mercy.”
“You’re going to have to define that word. I don’t know what it means.”
I grinned at him as we stood on the curb, waiting for Makenna to pull around.
“So, the plan’s still being put into action?” Brewer asked.
“Honestly? Shit sort of came to a halt when you almost died. Twice,” I said.
“Then I’ll expect a church meeting soon.”
“Yep. Probably for the best. Diesel’s been on edge ever since you got yourself shot. But you should’ve seen the way Makenna stood up to him when he told her not to come with us. Holy hell, I’ve never seen someone command Diesel like that.”
“Makenna’s a hell of a woman. You’ll really like her.”
“Trust me. I think I already do.”
“So, regarding this other… shit. You want to talk sooner or later?” I asked.
A car pulled up in front of us and quickly parked itself.
“We’ll talk soon,” Brewer said as he looked over at me. “Right now, I have to figure out what to do about them. I have to keep them safe with a bum fucking arm.”
“Ready to go?” Makenna asked as she walked around.
“You got your drugs?” I asked as I opened the car door.
“We’re heading to pick up his prescriptions now,” Makenna said. “Then we’re headed back to my place.”
“Well, if he pulls too much shit-”
Brewer shot me a look before he nodded towards the car. Ana waved at me and I waved back as I gritted my teeth.
Fucking kids.
“If he pulls too much crap or you need help in any way, you got all our numbers now. And if we don’t pick up, you know the number to the mechanic shop.”
“I practically have it memorized now,” Makenna said with a smile.
I helped her get Brewer’s big ass into the car before she reached in and buckled him up. She really was a good woman. I could tell by the beauty of her daughter and the way she cared for my friend. I still didn’t like the idea of bringing more women and children into all this shit when we were in the middle of fucking sorting through it. But it was what it was, and I’d help in any way I could.
“I’m serious,” I said as Makenna stood up. “If you need anything-”
“You’ll be the first one I call. Promise,” she said.
She reached up and cupped my cheek like only a mother would. Then she turned and walked back around to the driver’s side of the car. I stood there and watched them drive off while Ana continued to wave at me like the cute little thing she was. I sighed as I stood there on the curb, watching until that piece of shit car was completely out of sight.
Then, Brewer’s words echoed off the corners of my fucking mind.
I think I believe this rat shit a hell of a lot more now.
What the fuck happened to my best friend?
Chapter 2
Piper
“Dr. Jackson, welcome.”
The nurses at the emergency room station embraced me as I walked through the doors.
“Thank you for your warm welcome,” I said. “It’s good to be back.”
“Have you lived in the area before?”
“A long time ago,” I said. “I wasn’t sure about coming back when I was offered the job, but I figured coming home might do me a bit of good after a grueling residency in New York City.”
“Well, hopefully the small-town life is exactly how you remembered it being.”
Yeah, that was what I was afraid of.
Medical school had been treacherous. I came home frequently to try and get away from all of the hustling and bustling. And it was nice, coming home. But I figured I would stay in the city after I graduated with my doctorate. I figured the hospital I worked at would provide me with a position after the connections I’d made.
But when they chose two other doctors over me, I had to scramble like crazy for a job.
Redding wasn’t my first choice. Or even my tenth. But they offered me a position in their E.R. and that was where I wanted to be. Right in the heart of all that fucking action. I was an adrenaline junkie at heart. Bungee jumping. Skydiving. Deep-sea scuba diving. You name it, I’ve done it. Underneath my clothes and my white coat are tattoos that covered the most beautiful places of my body. I’d gotten one after every year completed for medical school. Eleven years in all, and ten beautifully-colored tattoos in all the right places to make men shiver where they stood.
In my work clothes, I was Piper Jackson. E.R. extraordinaire with creative ways to save people’s lives.
Outside of my work clothes, I was an adrenaline junkie. A woman who wore her jeans a little too tight, her tops a little too short, and bold red lipstick that made any man sink to his knees for a piece of me.
I was also a mother to a beautiful five-year old boy about to start kindergarten.
Five years ago, I made a trip home. I was debating on whether or not being a doctor was the right path for me to take. I was in my second year of medical school. I was angry. Alone. Scared. I’d just buried my father and found myself in an empty home that had been willed to me. The only thing my parents ever had to pass down to me. They both grew up in Redding and met one another through the grocery store they both worked at. They married, lived their lives, and worked themselves to the bone until they died. They passed away with just enough money to pay off their debts and leave absolutely no mark on the world.
Except for in their daughter and grandson.
Burying my father was the hardest thing I’d ever done, and I sought comfort in the arms of a man in a bar that night. A man with a thick tongue, the language of a sailor, and hands that wouldn’t quit. I spent my entire summer vacation with him, riding his cock and making him beg my name in ways I knew I’d never forget.
Then that asshole got thrown into jail.
I was worried about moving back to Redding, but the timing seemed right. Gavin was about to start kindergarten and I had my childhood home that was paid off and occupied by no one. I moved us in there two weeks ago and got my son enrolled into the elementary school I attended as a child, and that was that.
I was back home.
Part of me was nervous about running into my son’s father. But he was a troublemaker. I had a penchant for them. They were good for one-night stands and high-speed flings, especially for an adrenaline junkie like myself. But for being a father? A role model? Someone who could provide and stick the fuck around?
Hardly.
That man was probably still in jail anyway.
“Incoming! Car accident in the middle of town. Two adults, three children, and one pedestrian. Triage, everyone!”
I ran down the hallway and started coordinating as many supplies as I could. Redding’s hospital was tiny, at best. It was only myself and another E.R. doctor that worked the emergency level. When one of us was working, the other was on call. But with that schedule came a very decent paycheck. That was one of the reasons why I decided to stick out my medical degree. After I found out I was pregnant with my son, I knew I would be the sole provider for his life.
And being a doctor made it very easy to do that for Gavin.
The doors burst open and a flood of gurneys came rushing in. The children were crying and one of the paramedics was on top of the woman, pumping at her chest. I took one of the gurneys and led it into the first room, then star
ted rolling everyone else into the first empty rooms I could find. Curtains were thrown back and I.V.’s were administered. Blood seemed to drip everywhere as the paramedics tried to save the woman who had come rolling in with a massive gash to her stomach.
It was chaos from the second I stepped foot into that place.
Children were stitched up and the mother needed blood. The father was rushed into emergency surgery to remove the glass shrapnel from his face. He would need reconstructive surgery and the mother would need a stay in the ICU. But no one was dying today.
Not on my watch.
After four hours of what seemed like endless anger and sorrow, everyone in the accident stabilized. Including the pedestrian that had been hit. I sat down in a chair in the corner and drew in a deep breath, relishing in the adrenaline that coursed through my veins. I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, my mind swirling back to Gavin.
Back to my boy.
It was emergencies like those that made me view our time as precious. Important. Fleeting. I conjured his face and wondered how his first day of kindergarten was going. Was he having a good time? Was he making friends? Were his teachers being kind? My heart ached and soared at the same time. I could see those lively gray eyes and that thick head of black hair. Every single day that passed, he looked more and more like his father. His jaw became more set and his eyes became sterner. And he was growing like a weed. Monstrous, like the stature of his father. At five years old, he topped out at over four feet tall. He soared over other children his age, and every time I looked at him it served to remind me of that night.
That night I spent with his father.
The night I spent with Rock.
“Dr. Jackson?”
“Yep?” I asked.
“The bus is here. Your son wants to see you before he goes to daycare.”
“Then send my boy on in,” I said with a smile.
That was the only other thing that sold me on this hospital in Redding. They had an onsite daycare Gavin could be bussed to after school. Which meant if my shifts ran long or became staggered in any way, he would still be taken care of.
After all, I was alone in this world. No parents to help and no father of my child to watch over him.
Rock (Dead Souls MC Book 4) Page 1