Page 29 of Road to Absolution

CHAPTER 8

The Women… The Protectors

DELILAH

After being released from the ER, I was escorted to another floor. In the ICU, directly in front of a nurses’ station, my husband lay in a bed, machines hooked up to what felt like every part of him. Monitoring the obvious. My husband was in a coma, with no answers to when he would wake. If ever.

Leaning my head to our joined hands, I was sitting next to Maverick’s bed when I heard her voice. “It’s me. I just battled for your fucking club. Now you treat me like this?”

There was a major strain happening between two clubs that were usually always unified, according to Viola. She was in the cafeteria with Tucker and Bailey. I didn’t want food. I just wanted Maverick to wake up.

After I heard Maverick’s chart set back in the holder in the hallway, Justice asked, “May I come in?”

With eyes so swollen that I wasn’t sure how my eyelashes hadn’t fallen out, I looked at her in the doorway. I should’ve been kicked out of the ICU by now, totally overstaying visiting hours. So should the next visitor entering the room, but when you had a brute of a man guarding you, employees tended to look the other way. Especially when a hospital security guard walked up, greeting, “Scorch, my man. Everything okay here?”

Giving a manly half-hug, Scorch replied, “Solid. Thanks, dude. How’s the family?”

Justice was shorter than me but carried an inner strength that made it obvious she could hang with bikers, much like Viola could. “Mind if I sit?”

Not letting go of my husband’s lifeless hand, I sat back in my own chair. The only way I knew how to say yes without screaming my frustrations of the whole night.

Accepting my limited restraint, she sat, her tight jeans stretching around thin but muscular thighs. I didn’t miss the wince she made as she held the center of her chest. One side of her cut draped open, exposing a little bit of her holster and the butt of a gun.

Not appreciating her prying into my private business, I asked, “You a doctor?”

Her long jet-black hair, pulled back in a ponytail, moved as she shook her head. “No, but I can read a chart to a certain degree.”

I stared at the shaved part of her hair starting right above her ears that wrapped around the back of her head, as I asked, “Did the doctors lie to me? Is there a chance he can wake up?”

Her smaller but defined biceps tightened as she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “Head injuries are a mystery.”

Hoping my tired self didn’t snarl at her, I looked away. “So I’ve been told. If that’s all you have to offer, stay out of my husband’s chart.”

Bright red lips pursed as if surprised at my reaction. Not sure if she liked my response or not, she replied, “That didn’t sound like the sweet Delilah I’ve heard so much about.” Her tongue clucked.

My eyes found her huge gray ones laced with long black lashes, and I stared. Deeply. “Your husband killed her.”

Her tough exterior disappeared in a flash. She sat straight up. Those inquisitive eyes filled with sorrow and something else that, without knowing her, I couldn’t read. She stood. “I should leave you be.”

With her heading toward the door, I quickly said, “I’m sorry.”

Justice kept her back to me, but I could see her head hang forward. Her many earrings glistened in the hospital lighting. “You shouldn’t be. You’ve done nothing wrong but try to survive—”

After her long pause, I said, “I have many questions.”

Just then, Scorch appeared in the open doorway. He just stood there.

Justice peered up, her upper red lip curling as she pointed at him. “You’re really starting to piss me off. Remember your rank.”

Scorch shrugged. “I hear you walked away from yours.”

In lightning speed, her chest was to his stomach. That little thing had not one issue with sneering up at him. “For my fucking kids, you dickwad. Don’t you ever doubt who I am to my club—” She stopped when Scorch stared at me from over her head. “What?”

She peered back to see me covering my mouth. How could I hold hatred to a woman who would fight so hard for her family? Isn’t that what I was doing? Trying to hold mine together?

Message received, I nodded to Scorch, then asked Justice, “Please stay.”

Anger fading, she came back to her chair.