Shade moved away, bringing the silence he needed to concentrate on calming the killing rage inside of him. The one he wanted to kill was beyond his touch, his blood drying on Viper’s boots. He prayed for the strength to keep him from knocking down the door that blocked him from seeing his wife.
Shade returned to his position by Viper’s side without saying a word. Just as all the Last Riders and friends, who were filling the waiting room, spilling outside to the parking lot.
Shade didn’t try to tell him everything was going to be all right. The doctor’s face had said it all as the EMTs wheeled the gurney into the delivery room.
The wait was endless. Each minute slowly ticked by as he prayed for his wife and baby girl.
Shade moved some chairs over to where they could see the door when a nurse told them they needed to keep the hallway clear, and Viper finally sat down.
“Have you heard how Killyama and Jackal are doing?”
Viper had known it was bad when Killyama and Jackal’s ambulances had taken them to Jamestown, which was twenty minutes away.
“Jackal is being stitched up, and Killyama just came out of surgery. The doctors say they’ll both be fine.”
Jackal, Fade, and Hennessy had been in Treepoint for three days. The men had been exhausted from their continuous search for Raul since the bombing of their clubhouses and had needed the break, using the opportunity to rest as Shade and Lucky searched for more information.
Raul had slipped so far beneath their net that they hadn’t been able to find him. Now they knew why. He had been hiding in plain sight, planning to kill Winter and Viper before going to Jamestown and getting revenge on Fat Louise and Cade.
The murderous bastard was dead now. That was the only bright spot.
Fat Louise, Cade, Winter, and he were alive thanks to Fade. He had spotted the car Raul had parked at the end of the street and gone to investigate. Raul had shot him in the face. Then, when Jackal had tried to take him down and save Fade, he had almost lost his own life.
Raul had been afraid that Jackal had alerted Viper and gone on the offensive, going inside Aunt Shay’s house and planning to force Viper and Cade to come to him. Thank God Viper hadn’t been forced into a decision he wouldn’t have wanted to make. He would have made a bargain with the devil to save his wife and child. Still, the sight of Winter covered in blood had made him feel like a failure.
The door to the ER opened, sending Viper to his feet. He locked his knees, not wanting to breakdown in front of his men. He felt Shade moving nearer to him as the nurse called two names.
“Curt Dawkins and Loker James?”
The nurse turned toward him then Curt as he approached.
“I’m Loker James,” Viper spoke first, trying to read the woman’s impassive face.
“Curt Dawkins.” Curt was holding a soda can, as if he had been enjoying a snack.
“Mr. James, I need you to follow the blue line and go to Consulting Room 1. Mr. Dawkins, I need you to follow the blue line to Consulting Room 2. The doctors will be with you momentarily.”
Viper saw the four colored lines that wound through the hospital, stepping on the blue one.
“You want me to come with you?” Shade offered.
“No. Stay here. I’ll be back to talk to everyone after I talk to the doctor.”
Viper walked the line around a corner. If the news was bad, he would have time to compose himself before talking to them. He had been in the hospital many times during life and death situations and had never been asked to go to a private area to talk.
The room was the size of a small closet. Viper remained standing, seeing Curt go into the room across from him and take a seat, seeming impatient at the doctor’s delay.
The time had been an agony of waiting, and now he was dreading the doctor coming in. Each moment that passed was another minute he could convince himself Winter and his child were still living, safe in the doctor and staff’s hands.
Viper saw Dr. Price and Dr. Matthews giving each other a look before each of them went inside their respective door.
“Sit down. This isn’t going to be easy to hear.” Dr. Price’s face was as impassive as it had always been.
Viper sat.
“Winter is unconscious. She will be for a couple of days. I want to keep her sedated until she can handle the pain. Even then, she will be in immense pain when she wakes. I’ll make sure everything is done to help her deal with it.”
Viper nodded. “I don’t want her in pain.”
“She’ll have to have another surgery on her hip. The orthopedic surgeon will come to see you tomorrow. How soon she can have surgery will be up to him.” The doctor sighed, sitting down across from him at a small, round table. “That was the good news. I had to perform a hysterectomy on Winter. She was bleeding so badly I had no choice. In these situations, the tissue is examined for any abnormalities. It came back positive for ovarian cancer.”