Helpless (Steel Demons MC #5) - Crystal Ash Page 0,78

isn’t present in others, at least not in the same way. Shadow has something that attracts her, which doesn’t mean she’s unhappy with us.”

Gunner blew out a long breath, shoving his hair back. “I guess that makes sense. I just figured three dudes would be enough, you know?”

“She’s meant to have four of us.” I let my hand fall off the armrest, stroking down Hades’ back.

“How do you know?”

“I just do.”

“All right, well,” Gunner sighed. “What are the boundaries to this? Do you think they’re fucking?”

“She wouldn’t do that.” Jandro was now sweeping up Mari’s personal items from the bed and putting them back in her duffel bag. He paused with a sigh, holding a lacy black thong in his fist. “Damn, I miss her.”

“Says the fucker who gets to see her in a few hours,” I growled, before addressing Gunner’s concern. “No, she wouldn’t fuck him without our explicit approval. He’s probably too fucking sick anyway. But they’ve probably gotten closer, emotionally.”

Gunner let out a pained sound. “I don’t know if that’s better or worse.”

“It’s better,” I assured him. “She doesn’t have sex clouding her judgment.”

Jandro came around the bed and patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t get yourself twisted in knots over it. She might be attracted to him, but she loves us. She won’t jeopardize that, especially not after you got her all worked up with that toy in her ass.”

The blond demon gave a wolfish smirk. “I think it was Reap that did the working up.”

“What I do best.” I ashed my cigarette. “Don’t forget that Shadow is loyal to us too, in every way. He’s probably the Demon I’m most proud of and trust the most, aside from you two.”

“That’s true,” Jandro agreed. “Shadow is almost hyper-aware of his behavior because he doesn’t want to fuck anything up. He won’t do something that he feels wrongs us, or jeopardizes the club.”

“So, what do you think?” Gunner returned his gaze to me. “You’re just good with this?”

“I never said that,” I shot back. “I’m a little surprised, but like ‘Dro mentioned, the signs were there. They’re getting closer, but for all we know, it may just be as friends. We still don’t know how Mari feels about everything, and this is ultimately about her. As far as bringing Shadow into our fold, I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s not who I would expect, but Mari could certainly choose worse.”

“On that note.” Jandro smoothed out the bedspread after packing Mari’s supplies. “You had eyes on Big G lately?”

“Always,” Gunner answered. “He’s staying away from Tessa for now. Andrea and Noelle are helping to be a buffer between them.”

“Good.” Jandro pocketed Mari’s list and shouldered the pack with her supplies. “I’m packing a lunch and heading out, chingados.”

“Kiss her for me,” Gunner sighed wistfully. “Fuck, I can’t wait til she’s back.”

“Smack her ass for me,” I pitched in. “See if she still feels anything from two nights ago.”

“Sure thing, you domineering fuck.” Jandro rolled his eyes as he headed for the door. “Don’t worry, guys. I’m not coming back without our girl.”

Twenty-Four

MARIPOSA

“You found some, Grudge?”

The silent man nodded, producing a small flask from his cut pocket. He held it out for me to inspect. I unscrewed the cap and took a whiff, the unmistakable burn of rubbing alcohol hitting my nose.

“Perfect, thank you.” I ran out of my small stash, and only had one needle and set of tubing until someone came with the rest of my stuff, hopefully tonight.

Grudge held his pad of paper out to me. What are you going to do?

“The infection is in Shadow’s bloodstream,” I explained. “And I don’t want to give him the wrong antibiotic, or a useless one, against the strain he has. We have no way of knowing what he has without a lab to test it. So the next best thing is bleeding him out.”

His dark eyebrows pinched together as he listened.

“We drain the infected blood out of his body,” I said. “Which will prompt his body to speed up the process of creating new, fresh blood cells to fight the infection.”

Won’t losing blood make him weaker?

“I won’t drain him too much.” I looked at the bed, where Shadow continued to toss around restlessly.

Sometimes he slept for an hour or so, but kept waking up disoriented and confused. He could only eat and drink in small amounts before becoming nauseous. Touching and talking to him seemed to soothe him the most.

“Sepsis can go bad very quickly,” I said to Grudge. “The