A black fucking day.
Then his eyes focused, the room got tense and the man in scrubs approached the door.
He walked through, scanned the room and asked, “Dusty Holliday?”
Everyone moved forward.
Mike got there first.
*
Joe came through the side door and Violet dashed to it. She hit his body, one hand curling around his bicep, one resting on his abs.
“Any word?” she asked, her eyes searching his hard, angry face.
“No,” he ground out then his hand closed around her head, he yanked her up and his mouth slammed down on hers.
Then he kissed her, hard and wet and for a very long time.
He lifted his head and looked into her eyes.
“Love you, buddy,” he whispered.
“Love you too, Joe,” she whispered back.
His phone rang and they both went still.
Then Joe pulled it out of his back pocket as Vi stayed close not that she could go anywhere even if she wanted to (which she didn’t). Joe’s arm was locked around her tight.
He looked at the display and muttered, “Fuck, Sully.”
Then he flipped it open and put it to his ear.
“Yo.”
Then Violet watched with a sinking heart as her husband’s expression changed and he slowly closed his eyes.
*
Clarisse got close to Fin’s side as he rested his forehead on the window, eyes closed.
“You gotta do it, Fin,” she whispered. “You promised.”
She watched his eyes scrunch tight.
Then he pulled the phone out of his back pocket and didn’t lift his forehead from the window as he held it in front of his face, his thumb moving on it.
Then he hit a button and put it to his ear opposite Clarisse.
She pressed closer, her hand trailing down his forearm until it curled around his.
His curled back so tight it hurt.
She didn’t make a peep.
“Aunt Debbie?” he asked and Clarisse stared at his profile.
Then he said softly, “Yeah, I got news.”
Clarisse pressed even closer.
And when she did, Fin’s hand got even tighter.
Then she closed her eyes and listened.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bicky and Bickrum McBickerson
Three weeks later…
When Mike’s foot hit the top of the stairs, he heard it.
He turned in the direction he was going anyway and moved down the hall to the double doors.
He opened one and took one step in.
“Seriously?” Jerra asked, standing by the bed, hands on her hips, face ticked off.
“I swear to God, if I have to lie in this bed another fucking day I’m gonna open fire!” Dusty shouted.
Layla, lying in bed with Dusty, woofed.
“Angel, shut it,” Mike ordered from his place standing inside the door and it was good he didn’t enter further because her head whipped his direction and even most a room away he could feel the heat from her narrowed gaze.
“Did you say ‘shut it’?” she asked with a deceptively soft voice.
“You got a hole in your chest,” he reminded her.
“It’s healing,” she fired back.
“And one in your leg,” he went on.
“That’s healing too!” she snapped.
“You know, it would really suck if you survived an attack from a psycho teenager on a rampage only to get strangled by your best friend,” Jerra observed.
“Ugh!” Dusty grunted then flopped back on the pillows and Mike felt his body start at her forceful actions even as he saw Jerra’s do the same and her hands come up like she could have gotten in there fast enough to cushion the fall.
“I got this, Jerra,” Mike muttered and she looked to him, wiped the concerned look off her face, replaced it with bogus attitude then she strutted to the door.
And she did this inviting, “Have at it. She seems to obey you.”
“I don’t obey! He’s an alpha! It’s just that I don’t have any choice!” Dusty shouted to her back.
With all due haste and without a word, Jerra left the room and closed the door.
Mike walked to the foot of the bed.
Then he said quietly, “Sweetheart, you gotta calm down.”
“Can I go lie on the couch downstairs without you carrying me?” she asked.
“No,” he answered.
Her eyes got squinty.
“For six hours, a lot of people who love you, including your bitch of a sister, were terrified outta their brains for you,” Mike reminded her softly and her eyes stopped being squinty and her face gentled.
Then she whispered, “I’m going nuts up here, Mike.”
“And you said you were goin’ nuts in the hospital so I brought you home. Now you’re goin’ nuts here. You gotta take it easy, Angel. Your leg is totally fucked up and you got a hole through your fuckin’ chest. Docs say you’ll have a complete recovery but not if you fuck it up.”
She held his eyes then flopped back on the mound of pillows again.
Mike walked around the bed, put a knee into it then put a fist on either side of her hips and his face close to hers.