Inflamed: A Shadow Riders MC (69 page)

"Riv," called out Blue. "Riv, there was alota fuckin' smoke on that second floor, brother. Asshole started that shit downstairs and used a fuckin' fan to make sure the smoke hit her before the actual fire did. And I'm guessin' it's 'cause he was wantin' her to suffocate before burnin' up."

"Come on, baby," said River again, keeping his focus on Mia. "Come on."

"We gotta get her to a goddamn hospital," said Blue. "Otherwise, this asshole is gonna get just what the fuck he wanted with her dyin' right in the same place she tried to save that girl." He nodded. "Come on. I'll get her legs like before, you get her goddamn shoulders and head."

River stared up at his friend, his eyes turning red as reluctant tears streamed his hard face; the words of familiarity hit him in the face like a goddamn brick wall. Only this time was different. This time he wasn't just saving a girl who had just been dumped in front of his goddamn club. He was saving the woman who even back then, even before she fucking knew it, even before he did, had saved him first.

They picked her up and as quickly as they could, loaded her into Ricky’s van. Blue searched Ricky's men for the keys, then searched Ricky himself and found them inside the pocket of his pants. After hopping in, with Blue in the driver's seat while River kept a tight hold on Mia in the back, they sped away from the now blown up property leaving nothing but their pride behind.

Chapter Fifty-Four

I shifted my body against what felt like nothing more than a giant pile of lumps and turned my face into the scratchiest pillow I had ever laid my head against. I knew that I wasn't back home with River, and that I wasn't in our bed, because even though his pillows weren't the softest in the world to lay on, they still didn't make me feel as if I had been sleeping on sandpaper.

As I tried shifting again to find some kind of balance and comfort, I felt a hand slink around my waist and pull me tight against a massive, warm chest. When I heard a sharp groan followed by a light growl inside my ear, I knew then and there that it was no one else but River, and instantly, I felt at home. It didn't matter where the hell I was and it didn't matter why. As long as he was with me, I knew that I was safe.

"Mornin'," he mumbled against the back of my ear.

My eyes fluttered open and I inhaled. And when I saw the large beeping monitor next to my bed, along with a white handrail attached to it, I realized within two seconds where I was. I wanted to panic, despite every instinct I had telling me to fight against it. But I tried to remain calm and swallowed hard while moving my eyes across the room.

"Morning," I replied. He moved his body closer to me and combed his fingers across my stomach. Thinking back on what had led me here made my head start spinning. I didn't remember much after shooting Ricky in the head and passing out in River's arms. I did remember that he was bleeding, though it was obvious he had been stitched up since then. Just as much as it was obvious that, given his boots, jeans and plain white tee, that I was the only actual patient inside the room. "How long have I been out?" I asked him.

"Too goddamn long," he told me. "Two fuckin' days which is like a goddamn lifetime for a motherfucker me, babe. But they had to get all that smoke and shit outta your lungs from you bein' inside that house. Said you had inhaled so goddamn much of it that if we didn't get you here on time that..." He stopped and shoved his face into my hair, inhaling every bit of me that he could. "Blue won't tell me how the fuck you two managed to escape."

"There's not really much to tell," I answered. "After he finally managed to get inside the room, he was able to break down the boards on the window. We jumped and I sort of used his stomach as a safety net." I chuckled as did he. "Have you been in here with me the entire time I've been out?"

"Wouldn't be any place else, babe. I left when I had to, but outside of that, I've been here with you 'cause I can't bother bein' without you for even a goddamn day or night. Doctor said I shouldn't have been sharin' this goddamn bed with you the entire time 'cause you needed to fuckin' rest on your own, but... fuck that shit," he said. "I'll always be selfish as fuck when it comes to you, and I ain't gonna start makin' apologies for that shit."

"I don't ever want you to. Be as selfish as you want with me," I said. "As selfish as I always plan to be with you." I brushed my fingers up and down his arm as he shoved it up further against my waist. "What happened with Ricky after--?”

"I beat the shit outta him and you put a goddamn bullet in his head? I had Tank head out there to clean up the mess we made."

"The mess we made." I chuckled. "We're a real regular Bonnie and Clyde these days," I said. And then I stared down at myself, at my hospital gown, at the name tags and hospital bracelets covering my arms, at the IV's sticking out of my veins, somewhat in shame. Then I turned my eyes up to the window and stared out into the sunlight. I rolled my hand beneath my cheek and as I moved, River shifted even closer to me and griped his arms around my waist even harder. I almost felt as if I couldn't breathe again, but God, I didn't want him to ever let me go. "Even if he's really dead, there's still a chance that others could come after us for retaliation."

"I got that shit covered," he said. "You and your girl ain't gotta worry about another goddamn thing to do with that prick, his family, his connections, nothin' ever again." His arms tightened around me again and I felt warm again, whole.

"I never found out from him why those kids were inside that house," I told him.

"The impact, darlin'. Folks thinkin' we burned down a dope house with a buncha kids inside made us look like ruthless savages in the worst fuckin' way possible. It's what Ricky wanted in order to keep his control over Wolf and the club, 'cause he knew once the shit was done, he'd toss the blame to that motherfucker. And bein' the weak asshole that he was, he jumped inside his back pocket and never fuckin' left."

"So Wolf was the catalyst to everything?"

"Pretty fuckin' much, doll. But you ain't gotta worry about that motherfucker anymore either, just like I don't."

"Oh." My heart sank and I gulped. "Does that make you president of the club now? Officially?"

"Yep. Me as the king with you as my queen," he breathed. "I moved Blue up to VP status with Snake as Sergeant-At-Arms. And now with that asshole Fontaine put to ground and the club officially cleared of the fire at the dope house, we plan on re-openin' the garage later this month with some of the nomads that came back and rejoined. Already had a few motherfuckers call in to place orders for parts like we had never even closed down for all these goddamn years."

"That's good. That's good, but um... you didn't--"

"Slice Wolf's fuckin' head off his goddamn neck with a fuckin' machete in the goddamn meantime?" he asked me. A light chuckle escaped him as he skimmed his nose across the back of my neck and drew his tongue across my skin. "I fuckin' wanted to," he said. "
Really
fuckin' wanted to."

"What stopped you?"

"You," he replied. "Your voice and the shit you said to me before I left you to go out and see him… I still don't want that motherfucker to live and if he fuckin' dropped dead tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a single goddamn tear for him. But knowin' he's my old man makes shit seem different now. Not even better or worse, but just fuckin' different." He paused and exhaled against me. "You make me wanna be a better person, Mia, a better fuckin' man than I ever thought I could be or ever fuckin’ wanted to be, babe. I'll still be me and I'll still do and say stupid shit and I might even piss you off sometimes when I'm not tryin' to, but... I don't wanna be that same motherfucker you met eight years ago or the same motherfucker you met when you came back to me askin' for my help. You stayin' with me even knowin' what the fuck I did to that motherfucker who attacked my mother... That shit's real, darlin'. Too goddamn real for me."

"Real in a good way or a bad way?"

"A real fuckin' good way, baby. Real fuckin' good." He pressed his face against my neck and opened his mouth to taste my skin again. His hands dropped down to my hips and he rocked himself against me. I laughed as his cock immediately got hard.

"We're in a hospital bed," I told him.

"Baby, I'll take you any fuckin' time, any fuckin' where. Even in this small as fuck hospital made for only one. You already know that shit--"

"I know it. But..." I shuffled and twisted my body against him. He moved his hands up as I turned to stare him directly in the face. I reached up a hand and brushed the fallen strands of hair from his eye and back up into the hair on his head. His brows flinched and he smiled at me, then wrapped a hand around my jaw and eased his tongue into my mouth. I wiggled my body against him unintentionally and he reached down for my leg to wrap around his waist. "Your wound," I told him.

"I been stitched up for days now." He pressed his mouth even harder against mine and drove his tongue even deeper, moved it even slower against mine, making my toes curl and forcing me to throw my hand across his back and dig my nails deep into him through his shirt. He moved his hand around to the front of my gown, then stopped just before slipping his fingers between my thighs, and pulled back.

I frowned. "What?"

"What'd you think my name meant back then before I told you about the creek?" he asked me.

I lifted up my shoulder in a shrug and responded, "I don't know."

"Your nose twitched," he said.

"So?"

"Means you ain't tellin' me the truth about somethin'. What'd you think it meant?"

"I thought... that it meant you were like a fish swimming upstream in a river instead of down like everybody else," I told him. He made a face and pulled even further back from me. I chuckled and brought him closer. "I didn't say it was clever. It was just the first thing that popped into my head." I grinned, and though he tried like hell not to, he couldn't help but eventually do the same. I snaked my fingers through his hair again and brought my hand down the side of his face, stroking the salt and pepper hairs along his strong jawline. He was still so insanely beautiful. God couldn't have created a more perfect looking man if He tried. "Can I tell you something?"

He nodded. "Yeah, darlin'."

I sighed and turned my eyes down to the tiny hairs on his chest. "I didn't think my life would ever turn out to be like this."

"Like this?"

"With you, here." I paused. "Not
here
, but... here. In your arms and so damn deep in love with you that the thought of never having what we share again actually causes me physical pain."

He draped his arm around me and held me even closer to his body. "Yeah, I know that shit, darlin'," he said. "The thought of ever bein' without you again burns like a motherfucker and hurts like hell."

"Yeah--"

"I felt that shit when I thought you hadn't gotten out of the house with Blue," he blurted. "Then I felt it again even more, even worse than that when you passed out in my arms and stopped breathin'. My entire goddamn life flashed before my eyes and I realized without you, I had none worth livin' anymore past that. Even with my girl and my club. And I say that shit as a completely selfish as fuck motherfucker because I know that I found my life again in you; and with you gone, it felt like I was gone too. And I didn't regret that shit, 'cause without you here, babe, there's no me. The light fuckin' dims. The world fuckin' swallows me up whole and there ain't a goddamn thing left inside of it for me to hang onto anymore without you in it."

Wow
.

"That was…” I shook my head at the beauty of his words. “You should put that on a Hallmark card," I told him. “Sign it and then give it to me so that I can hold onto it forever.”

"I was thinkin' maybe about stuffin' 'em into my vows instead. But if we got married right here and now, I wouldn't fuckin' have to."

"Yeah, that's extremely romantic. You with a stitched up stab wound and me with smoke in my lungs. Not to mention, my hospital gown--"

"You look damn good wearin' anything, baby. Better yet, even nothin' at all."

I tried hiding a smile as I shook my head against the pillow. "I'm not marrying you inside of a hospital, River Hawkins."

"I'm sorry, babe, but I don't think you've got much of a goddamn choice or say in that."

Before I knew what the hell was happening, he had reached inside his pocket and ripped out his cell phone, punched a few numbers and spoke almost too cryptically to the person on the other end, which was too difficult for me to understand. After a few seconds, a wide grin split his lips and he hung up the phone, shoving it back inside his pocket.

"What the hell is going on?" I asked him.

And suddenly, the hospital door swung back and Avery came racing inside. "MAMA!" she hollered out, her tiny voice sending waves throughout the room. Excitedly, she jumped up near the bed and with River's help, was able to climb up and fall into my lap. I looked over at him with tears in my eyes as I wrapped my arms around her and held her so damn tight that she started to complain about not being able to breathe.

"I'm sorry," I told her, pulling back. I brushed her hair back from her face and she wiped away my fallen tears. "When did you get back from Montana?"

"Last night," she said. "Madison and Blue came to pick us up."