Doc (Ruthless Kings MC #7) - K.L. Savage Page 0,34

sun is hidden behind the veil of soot. It’s eerie. Darkness has cast it’s shadow, defeating the strength of the day.

I inhale a sharp breath when wood creaks, and a loud bang follows next. Half of the roof has caved in on Skirt’s house now, but I can’t leave Mary. She’s my friend too. “Mary? Talk to me.” The terrain is rockier near Skirt’s house, and my feet are hating me for trudging through the rocks and cactuses.

“Jo,” her small voice sounds like it’s right next to me.

The wind blows a few embers from the fire by my face, pieces of wood, ash, and possibly Skirt. Something wraps around my ankle, and I scream, jerking my leg away, but that’s when I see Mary. She’s laying on her stomach, and her leg is trapped under a chunk of wood. It looks like a beam. It’s charred at the end.

I cover my mouth when I realize she isn’t trapped under the wood, but pierced by it. “Mary…” I kneel on the ground, and the hard clay of the desert rubs against my knees.

“Wha—what are you doing here?” she asks with a tired smile on her face. Her skin has lost its color, and she’s lost a lot of blood. Not enough to kill her, but enough to make her feel weak. Her classic red lipstick is smeared across her lips, and she’s holding her hands against her thigh. “Aren’t you in the looney bin now?” she teases as her eyes drop to my arms. “Bitch, you should have talked to me.” She coughs, and the sudden jerk of her body must have tugged against her wound because she grips her thigh until her knuckles turn white.

“I didn’t talk to anyone. Mary,” I say her name on an unconfident breath. “I can’t take this out. I have to go get help.”

“No, don’t go. Please. I’ve been here forever.”

“I don’t have the strength to carry you, Mary. My arms are injured, and my stitches are pulling loose. I’ll go get Doc, okay? I promise.” I lay my hand on her good leg and squeeze her ankle.

“You look like shit for someone about to go see Doc,” she kids, reminding me she knows about my crush on him.

“That’s what happens when you escape the hospital. Crazy seems to morph and take over all the pretty features,” I try to joke with her, but it falls flat when I see the blood ooze from the inside of her thigh. “I’m going to go get help. Just please, keep breathing. We’ve been through too much,” I say, clearing the lump from my throat. “We aren’t going to let a damn piece of wood stop our streak.”

“You get me out of here! I’m never hanging with those cut-sluts again. I don’t know what I was thinking,” she cries.

“You were doing what made you feel better, Mary. Just like I was.” I show her my arms, the blood seeping through the bandages. I turn my head over my shoulder when I hear a few shouts and screams, breaking the moment between me and Mary. A white blob gets closer and whines. It’s Yeti. He’s next to me, soot all over his white fur, and his tongue is out as he pants heavily. I rub my hand down his back, and my palm touches something wet. Turning my hand over, red shines on what’s left of the sun peeking through the smoke.

And the blood isn’t coming from Yeti.

“Hey, boy. Stay here with Mary, okay? I have to go get help. Stay,” I repeat, standing slowly so I don’t fall over from how dizzy I am. Yeti whines and lays down, propping his chin on the front of his paw as he stares at Mary.

“Don’t forget about me.”

“I hot-wired a car for you. I’d never forget you,” I say earnestly, then press my arms to my chest again to try to keep pressure on my wounds. I hurry away, heading toward the smoke and heat. Instinctively, my eyes sting from the instantaneous threat of being burnt. I hold my breath and run through the smoke, looking for someone, anyone to help me when I hear someone crying out for help in Skirt’s burning house.

I can’t ignore it.

He’s been ignored too many times.

I look around to see if there is anyone else coming, someone like Bullseye, Reaper, or Tool, but there’s no one. I won’t leave Skirt. I don’t care if I can hardly walk, think, or am bleeding out of