My Bad- Lani Lynn Vale

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  Dad’s brows went up, and Hoax shrugged. “That shit’s disgusting, what can I say?”

  Hoax shoved his hand into the pocket of his leather jacket, and something crinkled.

  My brows rose. “What’s that?”

  He pulled out four fortune cookies and showed them to me. “Did you know the donut store on the corner up here does fortune cookies?”

  I reached forward and snatched one up, as did my dad and Jack.

  We all cracked them open at the same time, and I smiled when I read mine.

  “The fortune you seek is in another cookie,” I read aloud.

  Hoax snorted, but it was Dad who replied with, “If that ain’t the truth.”

  “What does yours say?” I asked Hoax.

  “Love is not for the weak of heart,” he read.

  Our eyes connected, and something big passed between us.

  It wasn’t until Jack read his that our gazes finally disconnected.

  “Marriage lets you annoy one special person for the rest of your life,” Jack laughed his way through his fortune.

  “Nice,” Dad snorted. “That one fits perfectly, too.”

  “What’s yours, Dad?” I asked.

  “Uhhh…” He paused. “It’s a boy.”

  I frowned. “That’s your fortune?”

  He handed it over, and sure enough, that’s exactly what it said. “Huh.”

  “Boring,” Hoax muttered. “Everyone’s was good but yours.”

  “Unless your wife decides to bring home another puppy…” Jack offered.

  Dad cursed. “If she brings home another dog, I’m going to lose my shit.”

  “I can bring home another dog if I want to,” my mother’s voice came from behind us.

  Dad’s eyes widened slightly, and he tossed me the half-eaten donut that’d been in his hand.

  I immediately tossed it to Hoax seeing as I had a half-eaten one of my own in my hand.

  Hoax immediately took a bite and grimaced.

  My eyes started to water as I held the laughter in at the look on his face.

  Hoax had told us a funny story at dinner the other night about how much he hated blueberries and why. Seeing his face as he bit into that donut would be a memory I would go back on each time I needed a laugh. Or to remember how much this man was beginning to mean to me.

  For him to eat something he hated so that my dad could save face, made me want to giggle my ass off.

  “No, you can’t,” Dad said, trying to brush any residual crumbs off of his shirt and mouth. “I don’t want another damn dog.”

  Mom made her way into the garage fully, and her eyes narrowed on the box of donuts.

  Luckily there weren’t any more blueberry cake, or she might’ve really gotten suspicious.

  She did see the half-eaten one in Hoax’s hand, though, along with the smile that was more of a grimace.

  I swear he was holding that bite he’d taken in his mouth, ready to spit out the moment my mother turned her back.

  “You weren’t eating that, were you?” She eyed the donut in Hoax’s hand and then turned to my father.

  Dad blinked innocently at her.

  “No, it’s mine, see?” Hoax held out his tongue, which was now purple.

  My dad took a hasty drink of his coffee and I giggled. He’d have to brush his teeth to get rid of that purple tongue.

  My mother just rolled her eyes. “I specifically remember you telling a story at dinner the other night that was all about you hating blueberries.”

  Hoax’s shoulders drooped. “Shit.”

  That’s when everyone laughed. “Give me the rest of that donut back, kid.”

  Hoax held it out willingly. “Gross.”

  He shivered then for good emphasis.

  “Y’all are terrible,” my mother said, reaching for one of my glazed cakes—which were incidentally one of her favorites, too. “But Hoax, don’t keep enabling my husband’s bad habits. He likes you plenty fine now without you buttering him up with his favorite foods that he’s no longer allowed to eat.”

  Hoax shrugged. “You may think he likes me fine, but he probably doesn’t.”

  Dad grunted in confirmation.

  “Jesus,” both my mother and I said at the same time.

  Snickering, I popped the last of my donut into my mouth and brushed the glaze crumbs off of my hands before saying, “I’m going to run to the bathroom and then we can go, okay?”

  Hoax winked at me. “Ready when you are.”

  Chapter 9

  How to say ‘fuck off’ in a nice way.

  -Things you wish there was etiquette for

  Hoax

  My stomach was clenching with horror as I waited for the ambulance holding my club brother’s wife to enter the parking lot.

  I’d been visiting a certain nurse when the call had come in informing me of what had happened.

  I’d left Pru, who’d been in the middle of a call from medical dispatch with the ambulance that was carrying Landry—Wade’s wife—waiting for answers.

  She hadn’t spared me a glance, and I was happy about that.

  I needed her to be focused when she began to work on Landry.

  I’d begun to like the girl—Landry—and I wanted the best of the best working on her. Now that I had Pru in my life, the idea of anyone not having what I had was downright depressing to me. The thought of anything happening to Pru such as being shot sent a bolt of distress racing through my veins.

  “Hoax?”

  I turned to find Pru standing there, dressed and ready for battle. She had a yellow hospital gown covering her from neck to feet. There was a mask hanging from her right ear, and she had her gloves on with her hands held out in front of her.

  Her eyes were a mixture of worry and excitement.

  She loved her job. I could tell.

  But right now, I didn’t love her job. I didn’t love the fact that she was excited to have someone—someone that belonged to one of my brothers—coming in.

  But, I knew that was unfair. She wasn’t happy that there was a gunshot victim coming in. More likely she had adrenaline coursing through her veins and she liked the high it gave her.

  “You’re excited,” I said, sounding annoyed.

  Her eyes narrowed. “I’m an adrenaline junky.”

  Her shrug of nonchalance had me breathing out a harsh breath. “This is my friend. This is my brother’s wife.”

  Her eyes softened. “I’ll take care of her, Hoax.”

  I heard motorcycles in the distance, followed seconds later by the wail of a siren.

  That was them.

  Moments after I heard the sound, the doctor came outside dressed much the same as Landry, though he had eye protection on.

  “Pru,” the doc said. “You got eyes?”

  Pru cursed. “Shit, yeah. It’s in my pocket.”

  She started to fumble with the gown, and I walked up to her and found her pocket, extracting the glasses. Instead of holding them out to her, I placed them on her face, then dropped a soft kiss to her forehead. “Take care of her, baby.”

  She winked at me when I pulled away. “I’d have done it anyway, but for you, I’d give anything, do anything.”

  With that, she gestured for me to back up just as I saw the first flash of lights indicating the arrival of the ambulance.

  The next five minutes went about as one would expect. Though, I had to admit, watching it in real life, and watching it on the television? There was nothing similar between the two.

  Sure, there were aspects that were the same such as the trauma room’s appearance, as well as the way the nurses were dressed. However, there was no huge commotions, no screaming. Hell, when Wade arrived, there wasn’t even any denial of his entrance to the trauma room.

  The trauma room that I’d incidentally followed the crowd into.

  I’d sat by Landry’s side talking to her as the doctors and nurses worked her o
ver, stopping the bleeding from her wound and getting her to the point where she could be taken up to surgery. Wade arrived and took my place, but still, I didn’t leave.

  It was when Castiel arrived that Pru started to object.

  The commotion of controlling her bleeding had died down, and now she was relatively comfortable and stable as we waited for them to move her to surgery, which would be happening any minute.

  “All right, it’s time to go,” Pru said with a shake of her head. “I realize that y’all are worried, but you can’t all be in here.”

  “We’ll stay out of the way,” I promised, backing up to put myself against the wall.

  “We’ll behave, Pru.” Bayou promised. “But don’t make him leave.”

  With Wade’s tortured eyes on his wife, I knew he wouldn’t willingly leave. Then I’d be obligated to make him leave because my girl wanted us gone—and that altogether wasn’t a good position to be in.

  I didn’t want to come in between Wade and his girl.

  Landry became agitated when Wade backed away from her, and she opened her eyes for a few seconds. Long enough to say ‘don’t go’ before she passed back out again.

  That cemented it. Wade wouldn’t be leaving without a fight.

  I silently cursed.

  Pru walked out of the room long enough to grab a computer that was sitting near the nurses’ station, then rolled it back in. She pulled some med out of her pocket and scanned the label when Wade said, “What are you giving her?”

  Pru didn’t look up as she continued with what she was doing. “Giving her some meds that’ll help keep her calm for the next few minutes while we get the operating room ready for her arrival.”

  “Will it knock her out?” I asked.

  “Likely,” she answered me, her eyes flickering up to me and back to the screen.

  God, she was sexy as hell when she worked.

  “If she’s knocked out, then we won’t get answers as to what happened,” Castiel butted in.

  “Are they going to help with her pain?” Wade pushed.

  Pru shook her head. “No. Just control her consciousness and keep her calm.”

  “Can you not give it to her?” Wade asked. “I need her to answer a few questions.”

  Pru looked torn. “She can’t get worked up. She has to stay calm. Getting her worked up makes her blood pump, and that’ll cause her to bleed…which she can’t afford to do.”

  Wade looked like his chest was ripped right open by Pru’s words.

  He nodded his head. “I’ll keep her calm. She’ll be okay as long as I’m here. But…we have to know. We have to figure out what happened so we can better protect her.”

  “You don’t have long,” Pru murmured. “Five minutes max.”

  Pru relented, but she didn’t roll the computer away or put the meds up. She placed it back in her pocket, just in case.

  “Baby, please wake up.”

  Wade’s tortured voice had my stomach clenching.

  It clenched even harder when Landry’s eyes blinked open and snapped back closed.

  “Baby, please.” Wade dropped his forehead to rest on hers.

  The pure love and devotion that I could see between the two of them was awe-inspiring.

  I wanted that.

  I wanted that bad.

  I hadn’t realized how badly until right then.

  My eyes flicked up to Pru, who was watching me, and not Landry and Wade.

  Something passed between us, a knowledge that we both craved that intimacy, and my spine stiffened.

  I wanted that with her.

  She wanted that with me.

  Landry moaned, drawing our attention away from each other.

  Pru moved with a penlight to Landry’s head, and Wade blocked her from getting too close with his big body.

  Pru’s eyes narrowed. “Sir, I’m not going to ask you again to stay out of our way. If I have to repeat myself, you’ll be removed from the ER.”

  “Listen, Girl,” I found myself saying. “I know that you’re thinking that you’re helping, but you’re not. You know how she was acting when she was brought in. The only way she calmed down was when he had her hand. Trust me when I say you need him.”

  I shouldn’t have said that.

  I really shouldn’t have.

  The moment the words were out of my mouth, I realized that I should’ve held my tongue.

  Pru had been very nice about allowing us to be in here. I knew that had I not been who I was to her, none of us would be in here

  And I’d just shit on all that she’d allowed me to do by contradicting her in a room full of my club brothers.

  Pru stiffened even further as she turned to look at me with glaring eyes. “I agree,” she said calmly. “That he helped her calm down. But, I can also achieve those same desired effects by using drugs. And, since y’all for some reason think it’s better that she be awake so she can tell you what you think you need to know right now, I’m allowing that to happen. But, I’m trying to work here. She’s losing blood. I cannot have her getting harmed worse because y’all won’t stay the fuck out of my way.”

  I winced.

  Visibly and mentally.

  And, of course, Landry chose that moment to wake up fully and get with the party as well.

  I parked myself in the corner and listened, adding my two cents here and there while I soaked in her words. All the while, I watched Pru…and she was pissed.

  ***

  An hour later, after making sure that Wade was settled, and he wasn’t going to lose his shit, I went back down to the ER in search of the woman that probably wanted to throat punch me.

  “She’s been called to the principal’s office.”

  I turned to see her sister, Phoebe, leaning back in a chair staring at me with sympathy.

  The feeling of dread slithered its way through my body once more.

  “Kelley?” I guessed.

  “Kelley,” she confirmed.

  “Why?” I questioned.

  “Kelley found out that she allowed y’all to stay in the room, and that she begged the doctor to allow you to. He wasn’t happy about it.” She paused. “Neither was my mother, who had to come down hard on her in the middle of the ER about five minutes ago.”

  “Shit,” I grumbled. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  “Pretty much,” Phoebe confirmed. “Have fun dealing with that. You might want to get her something to eat from the cafeteria. She’s on her lunch break as of right now.”

  I walked to the hallway the security guard had led me to a couple of days ago, and then waited down the hall, out of sight, but close enough to hear every single word that came out of Kelley’s mouth.

  And, with each word, I wanted to rip his balls off.

  “My girl can hold a grudge.”

  I looked over to find Cheyenne standing with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at not me, but the open door that she could also hear Pru getting ripped a new one.

  “If he’s head of the board of directors, why does he deal with the reprimanding of ER staff?” I asked, sounding calm but feeling anything but.

  “Kelley is head of the board of the directors, but he’s also the son of the CEO of the hospital. His grandfather is a huge donor as well. Essentially, he’s my boss, minus my firing and hiring powers. So, really all he can do is lecture and bitch. If he wants to fire someone, he has to go through me. If I refuse, he’ll have to go above my head, which I have no doubt in my mind that he’d do.”

  I wanted to junk punch the man.

  “He’s a douchebag, and I want to fuck his face up with my fist,” I muttered as Kelley droned on.

  “Welcome to the club,” she snorted. “I came down here from labor and delivery about four years ago because I wanted a change of pace. Something that would allow me to come home at normal hours. And it was the worst mistake of my life. Kelley has done nothing but make my life a living hell since I made t
he decision.”

  “And now your daughter works for him, too,” I muttered, my fist clenching when I saw Kelley through the open doorway stop too close to Pru and touch her shoulder. “I want to rip his hand off.”

  Cheyenne laughed softly. “Sam’s already claimed that right if the time ever comes that he’s no longer mine and Pru’s boss. You’ll have to claim his foot or something.”

  I gritted my teeth. “She’s pissed as hell at me, isn’t she?”

  “You shouldn’t have put her in that position,” Cheyenne agreed. “But, she’ll get over it. She’s used to catching flack from Kelley.”

  “But not from you,” I pointed out.

  Cheyenne shrugged. “I had to make it look good. Honestly, had I been in the same position I would’ve done the same thing. But it’s also not my decision to make whether I like certain protocols or not. And she realizes the same thing. Hopefully this never comes up again for us to have to worry about.”

  My head dropped, and I studied the dirty, scuffed up soles of my boots.

  I had a week left.

  Seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours. How many fucking ever seconds.

  It wasn’t long enough.

  I knew that it wasn’t.

  We’d known each other for a very short amount of time. Not even a drop in the bucket.

  And hell, I wasn’t even sure that she’d talk to me after tonight.

  “My girl’s got a good head on her shoulders,” Cheyenne said, drawing me out of my inner contemplation of how bad I’d fucked up. “If this had been her sister, Piper, I might say that you should run for cover. But Pru has always been very pragmatic and understanding. She knows the score, honey. She won’t say or do anything that’ll hurt any more than what you’re saying to yourself.”

  I brought my head up and looked at Pru’s mother, who looked so much like the woman I was slowly starting to fall in love with. Hell, if I was being honest, I was already in love with her, just unwilling to admit it just yet.

  “I…”

  “If you can’t make decisions that are hard, maybe you shouldn’t be the charge nurse for the ER!” Kelley yelled.