wrap the stethoscope around my neck after I finish listening to her heart.
“Nah, keep him wondering.”
I make a face and pucker my lips, shaping them in an O. “Ouch, that’s just mean.”
“That’s what he gets for saying…” She blushes bright red. “Never mind.”
Dirty seems to run in Ruthless King blood. We’ll do anything to win our women over, even if it means penetrating their dreams with the filthy things they love most.
“Well, you can’t say his method didn’t work. You’re awake.”
“Don’t tell him that. I’ll never hear the end of it.” She looks around, rolling her head left and right, and she frowns when she sees all the people around her that she cares about so much. “Oh my God.”
“Yeah, this is what church is about,” I say.
“Whoever did this is going to experience a bloodbath.”
Yeah, that’s the plan.
Raise hell.
Bring fury.
Spill Blood.
It’s the Ruthless way.
“I need to go see his mom,” I say to Reaper, who’s currently sitting there signing a piece of paperwork. From the header on it, it has something to do with Kings’ Club, which reminds me that I want to ask him about a job when I’m healed.
If I’m healed.
Even if it means waiting tables when I’m nine months pregnant, it’s what I’ll do.
Reaper leans in his seat and crosses his hands over his stomach. “No.” He doesn’t think about it. He doesn’t even blink.
I readjust the crutches under my arms and keep the weight off my bad leg. “Why? I really need to see her. Eric is busy today, and…” I’m not sure if they know about his mom having breast cancer. It isn’t my place, but everything has been so hectic that no one has had a chance to talk about the other things going on in people’s lives. “She’s dying, Reaper. She has breast cancer.”
His brows lift and the chair drops to the floor when he shoots forward. “Rachel has breast cancer? Since when? No way… She would have told us.”
“Years. She thought she could beat it, but the doctors have deemed it terminal. They gave her three months.”
Reaper hides his face in his hands and runs his fingers through his thick head of hair. “Fuck, Doc has got to be devastated. He and his mom are as thick as thieves. He’s closer with her than he is to us.”
“He’s taking it as well as he can, I think, but I really want to go check on her. Please?” I ask.
“Not by yourself. I know you’re pregnant and you have fifty stitches in your leg. Letting you go by yourself would be stupid on my part.”
Eric and a few of the guys are creating a plan, surveying, studying the casino, and Reaper is here waiting on Maximo and Natalia to come. They couldn’t make it yesterday. Maximo’s flight was delayed in Italy since he went to get Natalia himself.
“Take Knives with you,” Reaper says. “I need Tongue here for when Maximo comes over. Tongue makes him uncomfortable, and that’s my goal when I see Maximo today.”
“Knives,” I mumble and swallow. I can deal with Knives. He is a little touched in the head like Tongue, but not as bad. Unlike the other guys, Knives is one of the members I don’t know as well.
“Knives!” Reaper hollers, then stands to his full height. I crane my neck to stare up at him and tilt my head down. I hear the leather of his boots stretch from his wide feet as he walks. “Don’t turn away. You have no reason to be afraid of me. You know we have your back, right? You’re part of this family too. We’re going to find Brody. We’ll bring you justice, but you and the baby have a home here, no matter what happens with you and Doc.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“I swear to fucking god, Knives. Sling that ninja star again and slice another chunk out of my hair, and I’ll fucking kill you.”
Reaper groans in annoyance and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Not this again.”
“Maybe you should be quicker,” Knives mocks and then there’s a slam against the wall, followed by a picture falling to the ground, the glass shattering.
“Maybe you need to stop flinging those fucking things before you take someone’s eye out,” Tool snips.
“Shut up! The both of you, shut up.” Reaper swings his door open to find Tool there at the doorway and Knives flipping the star between his fingers. Tool has a cut on his cheek and the front of his hair is