Lethal Temptations (Tempted #5)(35)

It’s the unspoken vow to honor and cherish, protect and love one another.

It’s belonging to the one person in this world created just for you.

At least that’s what it means to me.

But what do I know? I’m just a girl who’s been sheltered from the life she was born in to.

My stomach twisted in knots as I made my way into the hospital. I had no idea what floor he was on or what unit he was in but I quickly learned he was in intensive care. They allowed me to go upstairs to the unit but when I was buzzed in the nurse told me there was already a visitor and there was only one permitted at a time. I pleaded with her to make an exception but she wouldn’t budge, closing the door to the unit and leaving me in the hallway.

Now what?

The elevator chimed behind me causing me to turn around as the doors opened and I came face to face with Riggs.

The universe isn’t my friend.

It hates me.

“Ah, shit,” he groaned, stepping off the elevator as he ran his fingers through his hair. “What the f*ck?” He asked the ceiling before pinning me with a glare. “Your father know you’re here?”

I rolled my eyes.

“I suppose you’re going to run back and tell him,” I accused.

“Fucking, Blackie…Man. Shit! Shit! Shit!” He rambled.

“How do you know I’m not here for another reason?” I said, placing my hands on my hips, cocking my head to the side as I challenged him. “Maybe I’m here picking up a prescription for birth control.”

He narrowed his eyes.

“It was one time!”

“What are you talking about?”

“What do you mean what am I talking about? What are you talking about? You know what? I don’t care. I have zero f*cks left,” he ranted.

“Are you okay?”

“No! I’m not okay. I have a pea. And a baby mama. And Bones in my ear telling me to own it…imagine? Me owning responsibility for something? It’s f*cking crazy. You should probably pick up that birth control or this could be you,” he said, as he swiped his hand down the length of his body.

“Breathe, Riggs,” I instructed, watching as the badass biker had a meltdown.

“I’m going to be a dad,” he hissed.

“Congratulations,” I smiled, earning me a glare in response. I guess impending fatherhood wasn’t on the agenda.

“Not funny,” he ground out, moving to walk around me. I quickly side-stepped him, blocking him by lifting my hand to his chest.

“Wait! Look, I’m sorry you’re having a crisis and all but I need your help,” I pleaded.

“Oh, hell no!” He shook his head. “I am not getting involved in this shit. Are you f*cking crazy?”

“Riggs! I have to see him,” I said, desperately.

“No, I don’t know what the hell is going on with the two of you and shit, I don’t want to know but I am not getting involved.”

I raised an eyebrow when he stomped his foot to drive his point home.

Poor guy, he was falling apart.

“Riggs, please,” I tried. “I want to see for myself that he’s okay.”

“Your father will kill you, him and me!”

“He doesn’t have to know,” I countered.

“Right,” he said sarcastically, lifting his eyes to the glass door. “Fuck, I know I’m going to regret this. Wolf is coming this way, go f*cking hide somewhere,” he hissed.

“Where?”

“Behind the goddamn plant. I don’t know just scram,” he said, shooing me away.

I scrambled toward one of the chairs in the waiting room, lifting a magazine to my face as Wolf strutted out from the intensive care wing.

“Well it’s about time you showed your pretty face,” he seethed. “I’m f*cking beat.”

“Yeah, sorry. I was dealing with the end of my freedom,” Riggs replied. “How’s he doing?”

“No change,” Wolf said, yawning. “I’m getting out of here. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

“Yeah, no worries, I’ve got it from here,” Riggs assured him.

“You okay?” Wolf asked suspiciously.

“Peachy,” he replied.

“Being a father isn’t a bad thing,” Wolf told him.

“No, of course not. This coming from a man with three sons. I wonder if you had a defiant little girl, what you would say?”

That last part was definitely a dig toward me.

Riggs was a shit head.

Wolf laughed as I peeked over the magazine and watched him get onto the elevator. Riggs waved goodbye to him and once the doors shut he turned his eyes back to mine.

“Come on little Miss Defiant,” he called.

I knew it!

I dropped the magazine, rose to my feet and hurried the doors, ringing the buzzer before I turned back to him.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re not welcome,” he grunted. “I never helped you.”

“Of course you didn’t,” I winked, remembering the last time he caught me and Blackie.

“Hurry up, I have a refrigerator I need to pick up,” he mumbled.

The nurse buzzed me in and I ran through the glass doors, leaving my accomplice to his pity party. I went over to the nurse’s station and after I found out which room he was in, I started for him.