Coyote (Hawks MC Next Generation #1) - Lila Rose Page 0,24
because Ruin answered.
“Wasn’t far from here, heard the crash, and I just fuckin’ knew. Called the brothers.”
The hand at my head didn’t stop from gently running up and down. It helped me catch my breath, helped me settle a little.
“What about you?” Cody asked.
“I always check from my window that you guys pick her up, saw her get into the car, but then something told me to keep watching. Caught a car following. Got some things together and came as soon as I could.”
“Man, a rocket launcher?” Ruin said.
“It got the pissants’ attention, didn’t it?”
Ruin chuckled. “It sure fuckin’ did. Good job, old man.” There was a pause, and then Ruin said softly, “She okay?”
“Yeah, just in shock,” Cody answered.
Why was this time so different? Why couldn’t I get a handle on it like I had done the first time? I looked weak. I was acting weak.
“You two get to the hospital,” a new voice said.
I didn’t want to go to hospital. I just wanted to go home, my actual home, and crawl into bed to sleep for a week.
Cody tensed. “Dad—”
“No, Cody. You were in a motherfuckin’ crash. Hospital to get checked out. Ruin, you take them. Stanley, is it?”
And suddenly I didn’t want to open my mouth to say I didn’t want to go. Talon sounded a bit scary. Then again, I would love to open my mouth and say something, but it was like I was outside my body or an alien had sucked out my brain and it wasn’t working any longer.
I just wanted to cry. I wanted to curl into a ball. I wanted to stop picturing the crash and the way Cody had been limp in his seat. How there was so much blood.
“Yep,” Stanley replied, the word sounding light like he was smiling.
“You mind givin’ them a lift?”
“Not at all.”
“Dad, I don’t need to—”
“For her, you go. Hear me?”
“I would have taken her still. I just don’t need to see a doctor.”
“You want me to call your mum? You got blood all over you, boy. Get checked over.”
His hand at my lower back pressed in for a moment. He sighed, and I felt it brush over my hair. “What about the situation here?” he asked.
“I’ll get your aunt onto it.”
“Those fuckers?”
“They’re goin’ to the compound. Bet their fuckin’ leader will speak to me now.”
His chin briefly touched the top of my head; he must have nodded. “Keep me updated.”
“I’ve got her,” Cody said softly with an arm around my waist. He wrapped the other around my arm closest to him as he led me towards another car. “I’ve got you,” Cody whispered into my temple. Did he know my gaze had drifted to the car we’d been in? Did he know it kept replaying in my head?
I nodded as he opened the back door to the car for me. I slid in, wincing when cuts and scrapes pulled. He closed the door and walked around to the other side while Ruin and Stanley climbed in the front. Cody jumped in next to me, and I took a shuddering breath.
I had to push the crash back, push the man holding the gun to me away. I had to be strong.
“Is it over?” I asked quietly.
Cody took my hand. “It will be.”
I glanced at him for the first time and saw the blood, saw the cut. Just as I reached out, I pulled my hand back. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he told me.
I nodded again. It would be over. I would build up my wall inside me and block what I could out of the night… eventually. I would go back to how things were.
“My bakery—”
“Don’t you worry, Channa. It can close for one day at least,” Stanley said from the front.
He was right. “Can you call Denise for me?” I asked.
“Of course. Soon as we get in the hospital.”
“Stanley,” I called.
“Yeah, kid?”
“Did you really bring a rocket launcher with you?”
Ruin snorted, Cody chuckled low, and Stanley nodded. “Sure did.”
A giggle escaped me when I pictured old Stanley with a rocket launcher on his shoulder, aiming at the bastards. Another laugh dropped from my lips, and suddenly lightness filled me. I relaxed back in the seat and shared a small smile with Cody.
It was over.
No more guns, no more arseholes, and no more car crashes.
It was over, so I had a right to feel better even when my body