Released (Devil's Blaze MC #3)(64)

God, please let him hold on.





“Beth!” I yell, jerking up.

Everything in me screams in protest. It takes me a minute to figure out where I am. Finally, I realize that I’m in a bed—a hospital bed, to be exact. I look around at the same time I feel a hand touch my forehead. I glance up to find Beth’s gray eyes full of worry and concern.

“I’m here, sweetheart. I’m here.”

“You have circles,” I tell her, and it’s then that I notice my voice is hoarse and my throat feels raw.

“That I do,” she whispers, kissing me gently on the lips. My mouth is dry and the feeling of her lips is different than what I remember and lasts too short because I can’t manage to deepen the kiss. It seems like forever since I’ve tasted her. Before I can protest, she looks to the end of the room. “Go to the nurse’s station and tell them he’s awake,” she says, and it’s then that I notice her voice is hoarse too, but not quite as much as mine.

When she looks back around, she has tears shimmering in her eyes.

“You’re crying, mi cielo,” I tell her, trying to tighten my hold on her arm to pull her back to me. I can’t seem to even grip her though. I’m as weak as a kitten. “Stop crying. I do not want you to cry,” I tell her, frustrated because sitting up seems beyond what my body is willing to do. “Why am I here?” I ask, trying to remember what happened to put me in the hospital.

“You were shot by one of Viper’s men,” comes a voice I recognize, though I can’t understand what he’d be doing here. His words send alarm bells running through me.

“Get out of here. Beth had nothing to do with any of this…”

“Rest easy, son. I know what happened. I couldn’t be more proud of my daughter,” Tucker says.

I look from him to Beth, stunned. “You’ve met?”

“Yes,” she confirms. “I’m getting to know my father quite well, actually. It’s all okay, sweetheart. Don’t worry. It’s not good for you.”

“How long have I been out?” I ask, feeling very out of my depth.

“A month,” she whispers.

My hand flexes inside of hers. “Mierda…” I whisper, not being able to believe it. “Gabby? You?”

“We’re all okay, Skull. We’re great now that you’ve come back to us.”

“What happened to me, Beth?” I ask, needing to understand everything, but before she can tell me, a nurse comes into the room and asks everyone to leave while the doctor examines me. They don’t. Beast, Katie, Torch, Briar, Candy, and Sabre stand there with Beth and Tucker. “Gabby?” I ask, clinging to Beth’s hand and refusing to let her go.

“She’s fine, sweetheart. She’s with Mattah. I’ll be right outside.”

“No.”

“Mr. Cruz, we need the room cleared while we examine you.”

“Beth stays,” I tell the nurse, managing to get my hand to cooperate so I can hold on to her harder.

“Skull, I’ll…”

“You’re staying. I don’t want you out of my sight again.” She must know I need this because she doesn’t argue any further.

I listen as the doctor explains how I coded on the way to the hospital and how I’m short a kidney now. I even listen as he drones on about all of the complications I went through. Bottom line, I fought to come back to Beth and Gabby. Nothing else matters, except maybe one thing. When the doctor clears out and before the others come in, I say one word to Beth.

“Colin?”

“Gone forever. They all are, except for that bitch Teena. But Torch said he had something special planned for her.”

“Special?” I ask.

“Apparently Viper liked to supply women to a man in Northern Russia. Turns out, he got most of his ladies from Jane Does and women who lived on the street that check into the hospital who were unlucky enough to have Dr. Torres treat them. Torch thought it would be great to have Dr. Torres join the last bunch of ladies that Viper’s crew sent.”

“The last bunch?”

“Seems now that Tucker has taken control, the Chrome Saints are no longer involved in the human trafficking business.”

“Fuck no, we ain’t,” Tucker says. I look up to see all my men gathered around. Katie and Sacks are standing off to the side, and there isn’t a single one of the *s who look happy.

Why does it feel like I might not like where this conversation goes?





I feel the tension in the air. And I know the men are upset; they haven’t made a secret of that in the last month. I even kind of understand why, but Skull’s decisions are his own. I almost lost him and I don’t want them causing him to relapse. Gabby needs her daddy to be healthy. There’s so much that Skull and I haven’t been able to enjoy as a family and it just seems like one thing after another keeps popping up to take that away from us.

“Not right now,” I warn them, and all eyes turn to me. “We’re not doing this right now.”

“It’s our right…”

“It’s my right to have my man back. My right for Gabby to have her daddy back, and you guys will not come at him right now, especially since I haven’t even had him back for more than thirty minutes. So drag your asses out of here and you can have your pissing contests later.”