Rush - Blue Devils MC Book 2 (Book 1 Included FREE for a short time only!) (4 page)

“I’m sorry to do this to you, but we gotta go.” His whisper took on an urgent edge and her eyes focused a little more, questioning.

“What—” she croaked and licked her lips. Her eyes flitted around the room and Rush straightened up, looking around too. He found a glass with a straw and a little water at the bottom on a table in the corner.

“Here you go,” he said, and cradled her against him as she sucked the water down. He felt her soft body against his and swallowed hard. Only a pervert would be thinking about her curves at a moment like this, but his dick didn’t seem to mind that title.

“What’s going on?” she finally said as she lifted her head from the straw. “What…what time is it?” Her voice was rough with sleep and deep exhaustion, and Rush fought down the feeling of guilt that he’d been the cause of all of this. If the Blue Devils hadn’t agreed to sell the guns to the
Chupas
, they wouldn’t have dared to kidnap the Catholic schoolgirls, and Blue wouldn’t have been shot. It was all his fault - he hadn’t stood up and fought Brock when he should have.

He would never forgive himself, and she wouldn’t either.
If
she found out.

“It’s about 3:30 in the morning, but…the
Chupas
are looking for you. They sent a guy into the hospital with a syringe. I don’t know what’s in the syringe but I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t a vitamin shot.”

Dead silence. Not a breath, not a movement.

“WWWWhhhhattttttt?!?!” she shrieked. Rush clamped his hand down over her mouth, afraid a nurse would come busting in at any moment. She licked the palm of his hand and he jerked it away in surprise. She was glaring at him.

Yup, she was fully awake.

“Listen, buster, you can’t come marching in here at three o’clock in the morning and tell me that someone is out to kill me, and expect me to be quiet about it.” She appeared to be getting angrier by the moment, instead of calming down. Rush grabbed his thighs to curb his impulse to put his hand across her mouth again. Somehow, he didn’t think that would go over so well.

“I can damn well get mad if I damn well want to!” she ended in a half-shout and then crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him.

Well, she
tried
to cross her arms across her chest, but the IV tubes hooked to the back of her hand got tangled up and she had to unwrap them before she could complete the maneuver, and by time she finished, all of her anger had dissipated, replaced by panic. She looked up at him with desperation in her eyes.

“Really? The
Chupacabras
were here?” she finally asked in a small voice.

“Yes. And Blue, you can yell at me all you want later, I promise, but right now I’m worried that another one is going to come waltzing along, looking for his buddy. We don’t have time for you to tell me which way is up, but if we make it out of here alive, I promise I’ll let you then.”

She looked at him suspiciously for a moment. “For as long as I want?”

“Yup, you can yell at me as long as you want,” he said in a mock solemn voice and then added a criss-cross across his chest for extra emphasis. He felt like he was 10 years old all over again, but it worked.

“Well, let’s get this party started then,” she said in a strangely cheerful voice, and swung her legs out of the bed. He wondered if her mood swings were something that developed after they’d graduated from high school, or if it was being shot in the head that did it to her.

Either way, he figured this was another observation he should probably keep to himself.

She held her hand out towards him and he went to help pull her up off the bed when she instead closed her eyes and turned her head away. “Pull it out straight and don’t monkey with it,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut.

Oh.

Oh fuck.

When he’d been contemplating their escape plan (which, admittedly, he’d only spent about 10 seconds doing), he hadn’t thought about disconnecting her from the various machines hospitals liked to connect their patients to. Specifically her IV. Blood and gore didn’t bother him, but suddenly, the idea of hurting his Blue terrified him.

She sighed impatiently, her eyes still squeezed shut. “If I heard you right, there’s a time factor involved here,” she said drily.

“Right!” he said, and cleared his throat. He took her hand in his and pulled off the tape securing the IV in place, and then slowly pulled the needle out, keeping it as straight as possible during the withdrawal process.

Once the end of the needle cleared her skin, her eyes popped back open. “All right, let’s bust this joint.”

Rush couldn’t help but laugh. Some things never changed. Always up for an adventure, always excited to take on the world - that was his Blue. She grinned up at him and for a moment, they just stared at each other, lost.

Yup, some things never change
.

And then, she stood up and headed for the bathroom. Which was in the opposite direction of the door they needed to be walking out of Right Now.

“Blue, where are you going?!” he whisper-yelled, afraid to holler like he wanted to and attract attention to them, but seriously, what the fuck!

“I have to change,” she said, closing the door behind her. “You don’t think I’m going to wander around Tucson in a hospital gown, do you?”

Rush closed his eyes in frustration and groaned. As much as he hated to admit that she was right, she was goddamn right.

Not that he was going to tell her that, of course. It might go to her head or something.

“At least hurry!” he hissed, and then went to gather up her giant purse and all of her get-well cards sitting on every available flat surface in the room. He skipped on the flower bouquets, even the daisies he’d bought. He’d buy her a hundred more bouquets if they just made it out of this alive.

Finally
, she was opening up the bathroom door, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, tennis-shoes on her feet.

“Where’d you get the street clothes?” he asked her as they began hobbling down the hallway together. Slower than he wanted, but it was at least forward motion.

“They didn’t know when I’d be released from the hospital, so Dad brought clothes in just in case. He didn’t want to have to drive back to Copper Lode to get clothes for me if the hospital decided to release me early.”

Blue was walking, but not fast enough for Rush’s liking, so, ignoring her shouts of protest, he swung her up into his arms and started striding down the hallway and then into the stairwell leading to the ground floor.

At least this time she’s awake enough to be impressed.

Far from being impressed with his ability to carry her without getting short of breath, she instead began slapping his arm, demanding that he put her down.

Ignoring her, he pushed out of the glass door and into the cool night air.

It was time to go home.

Chapter Four

Hannah Blue

As Rush strode across the parking lot, carrying her like she weighed no more than a sack of sugar, she couldn’t help but wonder how the hell she’d gotten into this situation. She wasn’t gonna lie, not even to herself, and claim that she’d led a blameless life, but on the other hand, she couldn’t recall anything she’d done to deserve something like this.

That shoots the Karma theory in the ass
…

She shouldn’t be dramatic and say that she never expected to see him again; after all, her parents ran in the same (very small) social circle. She hadn’t expected to be so lucky as to never see him again; that was just asking too much of the negligent gods who’d been watching over her life thus far. But she sure as hell hadn’t expected it to be like
this
. She’d always thought it’d be at a Christmas party, where he’d come in with a beautiful wife and three small children and she’d have to grin and bear it and ask him how the Blue Devil MC life was treating him and then bitch slap him for being an idiot.

To be honest, she probably would’ve just started with the bitch slapping.

As he started to cross the mostly empty parking lot, she spotted the Harley. And then peered down Rush’s legs and saw his leather chaps, something he wouldn’t have worn if he’d driven a car to the hospital. And then she realized that he expected her to ride on that thing.

“Rush,” she said, a warning tone in her voice. “We’re not, by any chance, going towards that…that
bike
, right?” He winced but kept walking, staring straight ahead as he did so.

She took that for the answer that it was, and crossed her arms, pulling away from him as she did so.
At least this time I don’t have the IV tube to contend with
.

“Timothy David Blackburn,” she said, her voice growing more cantankerous by the moment, his wincing at his real name being used growing apace with her anger. “You’re not honestly expecting me to get onto that…that
thing
with you, right?” This time, she couldn’t even bring herself to say
bike
.

Motorcycles represented everything that tore her and Rush apart after graduation. They were dangerous and reckless and he’d eventually chosen them over her. He’d chosen the Blue Devils over her.

He’d chosen
Lain
over her.

It was the one part of their lives that had never meshed. For the longest time, she’d thought that motorcycles were going to be a phase, just like her daddy had assured her they were. High school boys and motorcycles - two halves to a whole. Of
course
he was going to love them. But he would love her more, in the end.

Except, he hadn’t.

“Hannah Blue Wright,” he said, mimicking her, “you can hate bikes all you want. You can hate the Blue Devils all you want. You can yell at me until you turn blue in the face,
once
we get to safety. But right here, right now, we’re out in the open, and if a
Chupa
came around the corner, I’d have no way to protect you. We. Have. Got. To. Go.”

She gritted her teeth in anger. She wanted down, goddammit. She was going to be fine. She didn’t need Rush. She could at least walk to the motorcycle. He could give her that part of her dignity back. She jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow and with a yelp, his grip on her loosened. She wiggled her way out of his arms, using his surprise to her advantage, and took off walking as quickly as she could towards the dreaded machine.

A part of her, far, far away and quiet, knew that she was being slightly irrational about the whole thing. She couldn’t blame Rush for the
Chupas
trying to kill her. He had nothing to do with it. It wasn’t like he stood on that bus next to the asshole who shot her and helped him do it. He’d just saved her life, and she knew she was being an ungrateful bitch at the moment.

But that part of her was very quiet and oh so far away. The loud, angry, pissed part of her was upfront and yelling. It was hard to hear over that noise.

“I need you to wake the guys up,” Rush said, startling her.
What?! What guys?!
She turned back towards him and opened up her mouth to ask him what the hell he was talking about when she realized that he was on the phone. She could hear angry, indecipherable noises coming through, and figured it had to be Lain he was talking to.

“We’re busting out of here,” Rush said, talking over Lain. “A
Chupa
tried to kill her a half hour ago. I’ll tell you all about it when we get there. We’ll be there in about two hours.”

And then hung up while Lain was still talking.

She could only stare at him, wide-eyed. She’d never once, ever, in her entire life, imagined that Rush was even capable of hanging up on Lain.
What the hell happened in the 13 years that I was gone?

As they reached the motorcycle, she could only be grateful that her dad had thought to bring her clothes to the hospital in preparation of her release. At least she wouldn’t have to ride a motorcycle in a hospital gown, all of her…parts flapping in the wind for all the world to see.

“I’m sorry, Blue, my helmet won’t fit over your bandage,” he said regretfully, gesturing to her head with said helmet in hand. She hesitated for a moment and then realized he was right. Only a helmet made for a giant would be big enough to fit over the bandage on her head.

“Fine, just try not to kill us, will ya?” she said drily.

As she watched him put his helmet on, she admitted to herself that he hadn’t expected to have to rush her out of the hospital at four in the morning - it wasn’t like he’d driven the Harley to the hospital just to piss her off. She could quit being so bitchy…for the moment. She’d be pissed off later. He’d promised her the chance to chew his ass out thoroughly. She’d be angry then.

“Well now, you just take all the fun out of it,” he said and grinned at her. She couldn’t help but smile back.

She swung onto the bike behind him but pulled back in surprise when he reached into his waistband at the small of his back and pulled out a fucking cannon. Okay, slightly smaller than a cannon, but not by much. She let out a yelp but he ignored it and pulled forward slowly.

She placed her hands on his hips, attempting to stay as far away from him as possible without actually falling off.
Who the hell carries a gun with them to the hospital?? Who is this man and what did he do with my Rush?!
They drove slowly out of the parking lot, but as they passed an even larger motorcycle with super tall handlebars that stuck out abnormally from the bike, Rush calmly raised his gun and shot out the tires. The sound was a deafening roar that made her ears ring and her eyes widen in shock. Rush then calmly slid the gun into a leather pocket up by the handlebars.

He’s so calm about shooting that cannon. Why is he calm about shooting a small cannon? What the fuck happened since I’ve been gone?
She scooted even further away from him, balancing precariously on the back of the bike. She didn’t know who the hell this Rush guy was - he looked an awful lot like her boyfriend from high school but he was acting like someone else. Like a gang member or a thug or…something.

They pulled up to a stop sign at the edge of the hospital parking lot, and Rush called back to her over his shoulder, “You’re gonna need to hold on better than that. Tuck your head against my back and close your eyes.” He waited until she’d reluctantly slid her arms fully around his waist and snuggled up against his thighs with hers before he turned right out of the parking lot and headed for home.

Home. When did I start thinking of Copper Lode as ‘home’ again?

As the bike picked up speed and her hair began to whip around her face as they rode, she closed her eyes and the scene popped into her mind instantly, unbidden.

“It’s too fucking hot out here. Let’s go up into the mountains.” Lain’s voice cut through the flirting Rush and her had been silently engaged in and Hannah mentally cursed him. Lain, oblivious as ever - such a guy - had no idea they’d even been doing anything but innocently sitting there. Hannah sometimes wondered if Lain would notice a fireworks display; he certainly seemed to be missing the ones she and Rush had been putting on.

“I have a friend - Tina, do you guys remember her? - I bet she’d like to go with us.” Hannah kept herself from rolling her eyes, but only just barely. Rush bit back his own laughter. Lain didn’t have Flavor of the Week - he had Flavor of the Hour. Sometimes Flavor of the Half Hour. Someday, some girl was gonna catch his attention and force him to pay attention to her for more than 30 minutes at a time, but that someday hadn’t happened yet.

Lain met them up at Diamonds Peak with Tina riding double on his motorcycle. Bikes freaked Hannah the fuck out - she’d seen one too many wrecks where the guy never walked again - and she’d refused to ride double on Rush’s bike, so they took his car up instead.

When they stepped out of the car, the vista opened up in front of them and Hannah sighed appreciatively. Maybe dry, brown desert wasn’t her style, but standing up here on this mountain, she could enjoy the stark beauty in front of her, even if she preferred the sand that came on the ocean beach instead.

“Wow!” Tina said, somehow turning that word into two syllables. “This is, like, totally rad. Thanks for bringing me up here, baby.” Apparently ‘thank you’s’ included a full make-out session in Tina’s world and she and Lain spent some time swapping spit.

Sure that Lain’s attention was elsewhere, Hannah felt free to roll her eyes. Rush caught the gesture and grinned down at her. “Wanna go hike around a little?” he asked.

“That’d be great!” Hannah said, a little too enthusiastically. She grimaced at herself and Rush broke out into laughter.

“Well, anything that makes you
that
happy…” he said, teasing. He took her hand and they hiked around the rock formations for a while, stopping occasionally to drink out of the canteen Rush had prudently thought to bring along.

“I know we decided that it was cooler up here than down there,” Hannah said eventually, panting, finding a shady rock to sit on, “but I think that only helps if we sit on our asses instead of wandering around.”

“Yeah, we’re probably doing this wrong,” Rush agreed with a smile. “Let me walk around to the other side of these rocks to see if there’s anything to explore over there. Or any shady spots to enjoy.” He winked at her and she laughed, settling back onto the limestone rock a little more. It had a funky bump right in the middle of it, making it difficult to get comfortable, and as she squirmed around, she glanced down.

And froze.

And couldn’t scream. Or move. Or even whimper. She’d turned into limestone rock. She was terrified. Petrified. She didn’t know, just didn’t know anything. In that moment, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to recall her name. She was just staring, and that…that
thing
was staring back at her. Evil. It was going to coil and strike and bite her and eat her and the coyotes were going to gnaw on her bones.

Far away, in another galaxy perhaps, there was noise and she realized in the tiny part of her brain that was still processing noise, that Rush was talking to her but she couldn’t understand him. Nothing existed except her and this…thing that was staring at her with its beady little eyes.

Then it was flying through the air, far away from her, and the spell was gone and she could hear again but it didn’t matter, she began to shake and whimper. Then Rush was picking her up and carrying her, making little soothing noises, telling her it was going to be okay. She couldn't unclench her teeth enough to respond but the shakes got bigger and the tears began rolling, unchecked, down her cheeks.

Rush was telling Lain that they were going and the stupid airhead with him whined about ruining her fun and then Rush was driving to her house. He unbuckled her seat belt and carried her up the back staircase and she was remembering how he’d carried her the first night they’d met and how she’d trusted him then, too. He laid her down on her bed and pulled off her shoes and curled up beside her, stroking her arm.

“It’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay,” he repeated over and over again in a singsong voice and then, “It’s gone. It’s never coming back again,” and the fact that he was smart enough not to use
that
word is what made her fall in love with Rush right then and there. She finally moved and curled up on her side, into him, and she cried, great heaving sobs, and he held her and told her that everything was going to be okay.

And she believed him. She could always believe Rush.

***

He slowed down and finally came to a gentle stop. She opened up her eyes and realized they’d made it back to Copper Lode. Somewhere along the way, she’d fallen asleep. “How you doing back there?” he called back over his shoulder.

“Ummm…” she said with a yawn. “A little tired.”

“We’re almost to the clubhouse. Hang on a little longer.” He took off from the stop sign and Hannah snuggled back down against him happily. She felt like a child, wrapped up and safe. Nothing could harm her here. She could spend the rest of her life on this bike, safe from the world. Safe from the
Chupas.
Somehow, her fear of motorcycles had dissipated a little. Maybe it was Rush and how she always knew she’d be safe with him. Maybe it was her growing up.