25. My Worst Nightmare

Chapter 25

My Worst Nightmare

S abre

I hated hospitals with a passion. White wall. Closed door. Sit. Wait. I was a man of action. I'd never been good at sitting on my hands and waiting for someone to grace our presence. Grizz was sitting next to me, and he was having a hard time sitting and waiting, too. He would stretch his left leg, and then he would bring it back in, only to bounce it a minute later. Once his left leg stopped, his right leg would do the same thing.

We'd ridden out of the diner's parking lot in formation, so no one in front of the car would know anything was amiss. It wasn't until the brothers in the back had yelled at the rest of us that there was a problem.

***

The car made a U-turn onto the emergency service road, but we were clueless about anything else. Following at a distance had been my order, but I heard Grizz in the earpiece of my helmet screaming that we should just overtake them. I couldn't remember what was exactly said, but I didn't want the women to be hurt on my watch. It wasn't until both of their car doors opened I realized it was going to happen anyway.

It was like watching a movie, where you knew exactly what was going to happen, but you were yelling at the screen, hoping for another outcome. The passenger door opened first, and we watched as Aunt E flew and rolled once she hit the pavement. Meredith came soon after, but she took most of the impact on her left side. The car continued speeding until it hit the guardrail in the middle.

Grizz laid his bike down in the middle of the road, not caring about the damage he'd just caused. He ran towards Meredith, but she was unconscious when he'd reached her. It was a nightmare. Grizz screamed at Scrub to do something, anything. He then turned back to her lifeless body and started screaming again about how she made him crazy. He went on a tirade about how she needed to wake up, so that he could make her see they were perfect together. I had known it was serious for him, but I hadn't paid attention to how serious it was until then. It was Old Lady serious.

Scrub parked his bike and immediately jumped in at the scene to take over. Assessing the situation, the first thing he did was plan for an emergency flight lift for the women. The club would eventually end up paying dearly for that one day, but at that moment, it might have been the difference between life and death for them. Watching Grizz lose his shit, I chose life in a heartbeat and worried about the bill later. If we lost Meredith, Grizz would never be the same, and I was just now understanding that.

Scrub had run to Meredith first, but when his preliminary check yielded nothing, he ran to the other side of the road to check on Aunt E. I saw the anguish on his face. It was bad, and he didn't have the right equipment, but he did the best he could.

The club stood to the side of the road and let Scrub and the paramedics work. We didn't move for fear that we would be in the way. As we stood there and watched, no one mentioned Pulse. He could have been alive at the time of the crash, and we wouldn't have known. No one cared enough about him to check. He wasn't getting a patch now, so he was dead to us. When the helicopter left, I walked towards the car with Wreck right behind me.

There was just enough space for us to walk in between the car and the guardrail. Approaching the driver's side door, I motioned for Wreck to wait. The window was still intact, so I tapped on the glass with my knuckle. There was no movement inside. I tapped a little harder. There was still no movement. Grabbing the door handle, I opened the driver's side door. Pulse was sitting straight up with a belt wrapped around his neck. The blood vessels in his eyes had burst, and there was slight bruising beneath the belt. He was dead.

"That's Tef's belt around his neck," Grizz said over my shoulder. I hadn't been aware that he had been following us to the car. He appeared to be hanging in there, for now. I'd eventually have to ask how he was holding up.

"How do you know?"I said over my shoulder.

"I bought it for her. It's a running joke. She has no ass," he said, lost in his own world.

"She was in the back when we left the diner, right?"

"Yeah, she was sitting right behind Pulse. She was being pissy and stormed over to the car to avoid everyone. I demanded to know why she didn't say goodbye, so I crouched so that she couldn't close the door." Grizz wiped his hand over his face.

"Grizz," I said, "she did this to protect them. Why they needed the protection is the more important question."

"There's a gun in his hand, Prez," Wreck said. "He was holding them at gunpoint."

"Tef," Grizz whined and doubled over, trying to grasp a breath. His body gave out as he bent over the guardrail and violently threw up.

"Wreck, help me pull his cut off of him, and we'll have to take the belt and anything else they left behind."

***

The news played on the hospital waiting room's TV. No one was watching, but we were all paying attention to the broadcast. Someone coughed. Another brother slid forward in their seat, with their hands in between their knees. A knee bounced somewhere in the room. Once the reporters went from the local news to sports, we were in the clear .

When the helicopter had left, the club had taken our time to make sure that we cleaned the scene. Pulling the plates off the car, I had made sure that we grabbed any personal items before burning the car. There were no cameras on that stretch of highway, and the car wouldn't yield any evidence once the highway patrol found it. The case, if it was ever even opened to begin with, would be closed. Either way, it wasn't important enough for the news.

The wait was killing me, and I traced what had happened, starting from the time we'd pulled into the diner. Halfway through, I realized I was just as lost as before and went back to staring at the opposite white wall.

"What if she doesn't make it?" Grizz said softly.

"She's too much of a bitch not to,"I whispered back. If I blatantly displayed my hostility towards Meredith in front of the brothers, they would never give her a chance to prove herself.

"Yeah, but she's my bitch. Just don't let her hear you call her that."

"Are you going to beat my ass for calling her one?" I asked, trying to liven up the mood, at least for a second.

"No. She's bitchy, and she hasn't earned the club's support, but she's mine." He took a deep breath and wiped the back of his hand against his lips. "She's mine, Sabre. Pregnant or not."

I didn't want to address his claim on her in the middle of the hospital's waiting room, but I had to keep him talking. It was better than the lifeless body that had sat next to me for the last hour. "You think she lost the baby?"

"Yeah. There's no way she could protect it. You saw her jump." He took another breath and wiped a few tears from his eyes. "She had her arm wrapped around her stomach. Protecting it. Just tells me that no matter what she said, she wanted it."

I sent a silent prayer of thanks that I knew where Grace was and that she was safe with my baby. I didn't know if I would have been able to handle it as well as Grizz, even though I knew he was numb. Settling back in my chair, we both went silent, deep in our own thoughts .

Two hours had passed, and I was still staring at the white wall when a flurry of activity took over at the emergency room's check-in desk.

I wasn't sure if they were doctors, nurses, or just personnel, but people came rushing out of the double doors. Standing in a line, they faced the ambulance bay. They were waiting for someone to come through the sliding double doors. I didn't know why I stared at them as hard as I did. I didn't care about anyone else, but I couldn't look away.

The overhead intercom crackled. "Dr. Andrews, please dial code 0014. Dr. Andrews, please dial code 0014."

"How many Dr. Andrews do you know that work in this hospital?" I asked Grizz, still watching the staff at the entrance.

"Just one, and she delivers babies," Grizz said, sliding to the front of his chair.

Fuck. That was what I was afraid of. I immediately stood up and walked over to the waiting room reception desk. As I approached, an older woman with a pink volunteer jacket stood up. "May I help you, sir?" she asked me.

"I just heard you page a Dr. Andrews. You wouldn't be paging Dr. Alison Andrews, would you?"I tried to smile, but I'd been staring at the white walls for too long and didn't have any fucks left to give.

"I am sorry, sir, but I am not at liberty to release any information," she answered, placing her hands on her hips.

"Look, I am an old family friend of Stands," I said.

"Who?" The lady looked at me over the top of her glasses and down the bridge of her nose. Fuck, she was going to bust my balls.

"Dr. Andrews. We're old family friends." I again tried to smile. This was more Pretty's department than mine. I wasn't having any luck trying to charm the pants off the old woman.

"I am sorry, but I am not at liberty to release any information. Perhaps give this Dr. Andrews a call, since you should have her number as a family friend ."

Well played, lady.

I didn't immediately sit back down in the waiting room. I was done with that shit, and if someone didn't give us an update soon, I'd demand one. Standing in front of the waiting room's reception desk, I turned to watch the people still waiting for the ambulance.

It wasn't long before the ambulance backed into the bay. The staff were leaning forward, ready to sprint at a moment's notice. Finally, the paramedic in the back of the bus opened the doors. The first person I saw was Thunder.

My brain went into overdrive. I blinked rapidly to make sure I was really seeing Thunder. Why was he here? What had happened that he needed an ambulance? If Thunder was here, who was with Grace? I'd put the fear of death into both of her bodyguards before leaving this morning. Maybe Chef was with Grace, and she was safe at the clubhouse. Thunder didn't look injured, but he was wide enough that I couldn't see behind him.

"Sir! Sir!" I heard, but the noise dulled into the background. "You can't be there. You need to sit back down."

"Prez," Thunder said to me as he took a step to the side.There was a hospital gurney in the back of the ambulance. All I could see was the swell of a pregnant woman's belly. The paramedic in the back of the bus jumped down, and started to pull the gurney forward. Blonde hair spilled down the sides, and there was a bracelet on the woman's right hand. It was Grace's. She'd told me that it was her aunt's, and that she'd stolen it, with permission, permanently. Thunder was here with Grace. This was my worst nightmare coming to life.

A scream echoed from the back of the ambulance. Grace was in pain, and they weren't moving fast enough. "Move!" I tried to command them, but they looked at me like I was crazy. "What the fuck are you doing just standing there? Fucking move! She's in pain."

I didn't know what I was planning on doing, but I took a step towards them, and Thunder blocked my path. Holding me against the wall, he tried to call me down. "Let them save her, Prez. We did the best we could."

"What the fuck happened? "

He didn't answer, just shook his head no.

As the paramedics rolled Grace out of the back of the ambulance, the staff took over.

"Thirty, female. Thirty-four weeks pregnant. Blood pressure 161 over 80. Shows signs of hypertension. Reported dizziness and blurry vision," I heard the paramedic rattle off.

The doors to the emergency room popped open, and Dr. Andrews ran out.

Stands, Bear's daughter, that wanted nothing to do with the club.

"Grace!"I raised my voice, hoping she would hear me over the chaos.

I saw her head turn in my direction, but she was lying on her back and couldn't see over her bump. "Sabre?" she asked.

"I am right here, mama." I tried to get closer to her, but between Thunder blocking me and all the staff, there was no room.

Stands' head popped up when she heard me. "Is your name Grace?" she asked.

"Yes." I heard her voice laced with pain.My heart broke to hear her like that.

"Well, Grace. You're in expert hands. I have the best delivery rate in this hospital, and that's not me bragging. That's just a fact. Plus, I am club. Feel like delivering today?"

They were rolling Grace through the double doors when I heard a dry chuckle. "Not like this," the words fell from Grace's lips in painful strikes to my heart.

The doors slammed shut. I'd have to sit in the waiting room, staring at the white fucking walls.

My legs buckled, and I slid down the wall until my ass hit the tile.

"I love you," I whispered, pretending she could hear it behind the door.

"Come on, Prez. Let's get you back to the waiting room."Thunder reached down and helped me back to my feet.

"Thunder? What the fuck happened? She was supposed to be safe."

"The cartel happened, Prez."