She wanted to scratch me with her little claws and force me to take a step back, fine. I’d play. Let her think she had the upper hand, but I could already tell by the way she was looking at me out of the corner of her eye, she was scared this time she’d pushed me too far. Or perhaps scratched me a little too deep.
I don’t remember a time when another woman fucking compared to this pull Avery had on me. Maybe fucking never. It’d been months since any of my men had gone near her, or even fucking looked at her. It’d somehow become this unspoken rule without me even having to say shit.
They saw it.
I felt it.
But Avery was determined to destroy it before it pulled her in too.
What was it? I wasn’t even really sure. There was something there, something I couldn’t explain to anyone who had the balls to fucking ask.
My calm was drawn to her chaos.
And I still couldn’t decide if I fucking hated or loved it. I just knew at first, it had been the sexiest fucking thing I’d ever seen. Like I was watching this beautiful woman spend her life like she was dancing in the rain. But the closer I got, the more I realized maybe it wasn’t about the dancing, and more about the way she craved the danger of the storm, how she teased the lightning, daring it to strike.
It was like she was the negative and I was the positive, opposite as fucking hell, but put them together, and the sparks that were created were off the fucking charts.
Ty was at the front desk waiting for us when we walked through the front doors. “She’s doing fine. Awake. Alert. Annoyed.” He explained with a smirk. “Come o—”
“Give me the prescription,” a man roared, just off to the left. “I don’t need to see a doctor.” I frowned, watching him grab the desk in front of him as his body swayed. The girl behind the desk had her eyes wide, her hand below the desk, no doubt pushing the panic button.
“Sir, just sit down, and I’ll see what I can do,” another nurse tried to placate him, stepping around the desk with a gentle smile. One I fucking knew. Emma. She held her palms up flat, showing him she wasn’t a threat. “Just give me a second, let me see if I can get you something.”
Her sweet tone I remembered.
It was soft.
Calming.
Born to be in this environment where she could use it to help people, to make sure they felt safe.
“Shotgun,” Avery whispered, my back straightening at the urgency in her voice. I looked over my shoulder to find her wide-eyed and nodding to the man’s foot. Following her eyes, it only took a second to see the knife handle tucked into the side of his steel-capped boots.
I gritted my teeth, my body already swaying toward the guy and Emma. “Ty, take her back to see Holly,” I ordered sternly under my breath.
“Shot—”
I paused for a second, jerking around and lowering my voice. “For once, Avery…”
Do as you’re fucking told.
Tyler wrapped his arm around her shoulders and began to pull her backward, though I could tell she wasn’t the only one of them apprehensive about leaving. I had no doubt it wouldn’t be long before he was back out here after depositing Avery with her friend, though.
I needed to patch the kid already.
“I need the drugs,” the man roared, jump-starting my body into action. “You don’t fucking understand!”
Emma was backing away now, her eyes wide and worried, the man walking toward her, his hands shaking as he curled them into fists.
He bent over, reaching down.
Too late.
I was already across the room, drawing my fist back and swinging before his hand could reach past his knee. He caught the movement of the air, looking up as my knuckles connected with his temple. People screamed, leaping out of the way as he hit the floor with a hard thud, his eyes rolling back into his head.
The air stilled.
Quiet.
My hand instantly beginning to throb.
Heavy footsteps rushed the room behind me, but my eyes didn’t deviate from the bastard on the tiles, making sure he wasn’t about to get back up again and this time with a vengeance.
“Please take him,” Emma’s voice urged, her perfume striking my senses as she stepped up beside me. I finally looked up to find two cops breathing heavily, looking between the unconscious man on the floor and me.
Excellent.
Just what I needed tonight.
To be arrested for assault.
“He’s got a knife in his boot,” I informed them simply, hoping that would be enough explanation or that someone would at least have my back.
“He’s right. The man was reaching for it, I was lucky Marcus got to him first,” Emma rambled, using my government name like she always did. I was never entirely sure why she was so opposed to using my road name.
Marcus was the name I was given at birth by two parents I despised.
Shotgun was the man I’d grown to be.
And he was so much fucking more than that kid before.
“All right, we’ll get him out of here,” one of the officers grumbled, removing what looked to be a steak knife before the two of them dragged his still unconscious ass from the emergency room. But not before pausing at the door to scold me like a child. “Next time, wait for the police before you take things into your own hands.”
“Sure,” I growled, my lip curling. “I’ll stand around and watch him slit a few peoples’ throats before I fucking do anything. Gotcha. Noted.”
The way the one officer narrowed his eyes told me if he didn’t have a body in his hands, I’d be walking out in handcuffs.
But I had no fucks to give.
It wasn’t in my nature to stand back while some bastard hurt people.
No fucking sir.
“Come on.” My head snapped to Emma, who was looking down at my hand with worry. She took my forearm between her hands, and for a second, we both paused, both looking down where we were touching like maybe we were expecting something different.
Something more.
Maybe a spark of some kind?
But there just wasn’t.
Did I care about her? Fuck, yes.
She’d always been there to help out, to patch someone up whenever we needed her. But the truth was, it was usually at a time where there was high tension, and I think we both simply found each other in order to ease it. She put her ass on the line for the club, risked her career for the club, so my respect for her was high. But essentially, that was also what ended up being the reason there was nothing between us. Because she decided it wasn’t an option anymore, that her future was more important to her.
In my eyes, the club came first—fucking always.
In her eyes, it simply couldn’t—ever.
And thankfully, we walked away before there were any stronger feelings than just two people who fucked occasionally. The moment of wonder over, she began to pull me toward the hallway, or at least should I say she tried. My feet were planted. Unmoving. “I want to check your hand.”
“It’s fi—”
“Humor me.”
It wasn’t the way she narrowed her eyes or folded her arms across her chest in this not taking no for an answer kind of way that made me follow her down the corridor. No. It was the dark circles under her eyes. The way her shoulders seemed like they carried more weight than usual. And to top it off, it was the fact that she looked half the size she did the last time I’d seen her, maybe a year ago.