When Gambler’s body had gone limp, I knew I had to do something or we were going to crash, bad. I reach for the handlebars, squashing Gambler. I knocked his hands off the handlebars, the fact that he had let go so easily scared the shit out of me, but I knew I couldn’t focus on that right now. My hands gripped the bars just as the bike started to shake and sway. I tried coasting to a stop, avoiding traffic and causing an even worse accident than we were about to have.
I bumped over to the shoulder, rocks kicking up under the tires. I hit the brakes, and I knew as soon as I did it, I had made a mistake. The wheels skidded, and I tried to correct it, but I couldn’t.
We skidded, leaning over to the left, and I saw the road come up and rip my leg apart, feeling like burning coals as the gravel and dirt embedded in my leg. I let go of the handlebars and held onto Gambler. The bike skidded ahead of us as Gambler and I rolled into the ditch. My head banged on the road, thankfully protected by the helmet Gambler insisted I always wear.
When we finally came to a stop, my arms were still wrapped around his body I heard him moan, and I thanked God that he was still alive. We had both just laid the bike down, but he had also been shot, maybe twice.
I heard the screeching of tires, and I immediately panicked, thinking that whoever had shot at us had come to finish the job.
“Call nine one one, now!” I heard bellowed. I craned my neck, trying to see who was talking, but we were too far down in the ditch to see the road. Two sets of black boots came stomping down the embankment skidding to a stop next to Gambler and me.
I held Gambler tight to me and closed my eyes, afraid to see who had found us. “Gwen, it’s us darlin’, nothing is going to happen to ya’ll. Meg is calling an ambulance right now.” I opened my eyes and looked up into King’s face.
“Thank God,” I cried.
“Where are you hurt? Did you get shot?” Rigid asked, kneeling on the other side of me.
“Um, I’m hurt, but Gambler was shot. Once for sure in the neck, and I think in the leg too. You have to help him!”
“We will, darlin’. You’re gonna have to let him go, though.” Rigid said, prying my arms away from Gambler. I didn’t realize how tight I had been holding on to him until I tried loosening my arms and my muscles relaxed, crying out in relief.
“Can you move?” King asked me.
I took stock of my body, trying to figure out if anything was broken. I was bleeding, bruised, and sore, but I didn’t think anything was broken. “I think I’m OK,” I said hoarsely.
“I just want you to lie here until the ambulance comes.” Rigid gently lifted Gambler off of me and laid him next to me. Gambler’s eyes fluttered open and I cried out, thankful he was conscious.
Rigid looked at his neck, trying to see how bad he had been hit. “I think it just grazed him. I’m not sure, but it doesn’t look like there is an entry wound.”
“What about his leg?” I asked, trying to sit up, but my arms shook and I collapsed onto the ground.
“Gwen, you need to just lay down,” King ordered. He undid the helmet on my head, gently taking it off. He took off his coat, folded it up and slid it under my head. “Stay still.”
“The ambulance will be here in five minutes,” Meg called.
“I want you and Cyn to stay up there and wait for it to come. It might miss us if we’re all down here,” King called.
“Is everyone OK?”
“Gwen is banged up, and Gambler got shot. He’s losing a lot of blood; we need to get him out of here as fast as we can.”
Gambler groaned, and I tried to get up again, but King held me down. “I’m not going to tell you again, Gwen. Stay still. There could be something wrong with you that we can’t see. Stay. Still.”
“She’s stubborn as shit,” Gambler wheezed.
“Gambler,” I cried. I had never been so relieved to hear his voice before.
“Gwen,” he gasped.
“Stop trying to talk, brother. The ambulance should be here any minute.” Rigid pressed down on his shoulder when he attempted to sit up. “Stop trying to move. I don’t know what’s all wrong with ya’ll.”
“My ribs.” Gambler moved his hand, grasping his left side. That was the side we had fallen on. I tried to hold onto Gambler as much as I could, but I knew he had taken the brunt of the fall.
“Probably broke a few. Just lay still. If you move wrong, you might puncture a lung.”
King stood up and walked over to the edge of the ditch. “I hear sirens, babe. You see it yet?”
“I see cars pulling over up there.” I heard Meg say.
“There it is!” Cyn called.
The next ten minutes were a whirlwind of poking, prodding, and twenty questions. As they were loading Gambler up onto a gurney, another ambulance arrived to take me to the hospital. Gambler was still conscious and answering questions the whole time. He tried insisting that I go in the first ambulance but the paramedics ignored him and loaded him up while he protested.
“All right, we’re going to slide this board under you, and then we’ll get you loaded up.” I glanced to the left, watching the woman paramedic who had been talking to me the whole time, explaining everything as it happened.
“We’re going to the same hospital as Gambler, right?”
“Gambler? You mean the other guy who was just here? Of course. We’ll try to get ya’ll in close rooms, too, as long as he doesn’t need to be on a different floor.” The paramedic finished writing on her clipboard and shoved it into her bag. “Just stay still and relax. As far we can tell there isn’t any internal bleeding.”
I was hoisted up and carried over to the ambulance and raised in. “We’ll meet you at the hospital,” Meg called as the back doors slammed shut.
I closed my eyes, trying not to worry about Gambler. They had figured that he had broken a couple of ribs from the fall and, of course, other bumps, bruises, and cuts. He was just grazed by the bullet on his neck and his leg didn’t appear to have hit any major arteries. We were both OK for the most part.
I felt the ambulance pull off the shoulder and head to the hospital. Somehow a day of relaxing fun had turned into ambulance rides and gun shots.
*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*
Chapter 14
Gambler
“I need to know how Gwen is. I don’t care about me. Just tell me if she’s OK,” I pleaded with the nurse who was taking my blood pressure.
“I can’t say anything about other patients unless you are family. I told you once you’re up to it and if she agrees, I’ll take you over to see her.” The nurse scribbled something down on her clipboard and clipped it to the end of the bed and walked out of the room.
I had been here for over an hour, and I hadn’t been able to find out any information on Gwen. King had come, and I told him to not come back until he had information on Gwen. I was afraid he was running into the same problem I was, none of us were her family.
I glanced around the room and spotted the phone next to the bed. I knew what I was about to do was a longshot, but I didn’t have much choice.
I picked up the receiver and called the front desk of the hospital.
“Rockton General, how may I direct your call?”
“I need to speak to a Gwen Lawson. She was in a car accident today. I’m her brother.”
“Hold please.” The line clicked over to cheesy jazz music, and I waited for two minutes before she came back on the line.
“We have her in room two fourteen. Would you like me to ring you over to her room?”
Hell yeah! “Yes, please.” The shit music came back on, but this time, I didn’t mind it because I knew the next person I talked to was going to be Gwen.
“Hello?” Jesus, freakin’ Meg.
“Put Gwen on the phone.”
“Gambler? What the hell are you doing calling? Aren’t you in a room just down the hall?”
“Yeah, but they won’t tell me anything about Gwen. I called pretending to be her br
other and they patched me over to her room. Put her on the phone.”
“Jeez, desperate much?” she scoffed. “Gambler wants you,” I heard Meg say as she handed the phone to Gwen.
“Gambler?” Gwen asked, surprised.
“It’s me, doll. The damn nurse won’t tell me how you are doing so I got creative and rang the front desk and said I was your brother.”
Gwen laughed, “You must have been desperate.”
“I just need to know if you’re OK, doll.”
“I’m OK. Just bumps and bruises. My leg is pretty shredded, but it’s all superficial. I think I’ll be out of here in a little bit. What about you?”
I adjusted the blanket that was draped over me and slowly raised my other arm over my head, careful not to hurt my neck. There was an enormous bandage on the left side of my neck where the bullet had ripped open my skin. The doctor had said if it had hit me a half an inch to left I wouldn’t be here anymore. “I’m hanging in there. I think I’m going to need to spend the night tonight, but I should be out of here in the morning.”
“Oh crap, the nurse just came in. I’ll call you back. What room are you in?”
I looked around, trying to see a room number. “I don’t know, doll. I’ll call you back in twenty minutes, that ok?” I don’t know why I needed to call her back. I had found out that she was OK, that was all I needed to know.
“OK. Bye,” she whispered. The dial tone of the phone sounded in my ear, and I replaced the receiver on the table.
Now, what the hell was I supposed to do? I glanced at the clock, seeing it was only half past three. I flipped the TV on, flipping through the channels till I found a marathon of Fast and Loud. Hammer, Slider, and Gravel had stopped by earlier but had left to go scope out the cafeteria for any good food. I told them they were on a hopeless mission, but they still went.
I glanced at the clock again, seeing it had only been five minutes since I talked to Gwen. I laid my head back on the pillow and watched the TV waiting for fifteen minutes to go by. Not even ten minutes later I was passed out, the medicine they had given me finally kicking in. I never got to call Gwen back.
*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*’*
Chapter 15
Gwen
“Are you sure you want us to leave you here?”
I glanced over my shoulder at Marley and Troy, who were standing behind me in the hallway.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Hell, the hospital is probably the safest place for me.” I had just been released and was standing in the door to Gambler’s room. He had never called me back, and I was worried that something had happened to him. Thankfully all that had happened to him was that he fell asleep.
“Do you want me to bring you some more clothes?” I glanced down at the yoga pants and shirt Marley had in Troy’s truck and shook my head.
“I’ll be fine. Gambler said he should be released tomorrow so this will be fine until then.” Thankfully the pants were stretchy enough I could squeeze my ass into them and the shirt was baggy.
“OK, well, I guess we’ll see you tomorrow. Call me if you need anything, OK?” Marley said, her voice laced with concern.
“Will do. I think we all just need to relax.” I glanced back into Gambler’s room, seeing he was still sleeping.
“Troy has to head to work, but remember, if you need me, just call.” Marley wrapped her arms around me, squeezing the hell out of me. “I’m so glad you’re OK,” she whispered.
I hugged her back, thankful that today wasn’t as bad as it could have been. “Me too,” I said, stepping back. Troy threw his arm over her shoulder, and they walked down the hall arm in arm.
I stepped into the room, mindful of being quiet as I shut the door and looked around. His room was set up just like mine was, and I walked over to the chair that was next to the bed. I sat down gingerly and stretched my legs out in front of me. My leg protested pain shooting up it and I grimaced. Fuck that hurt. My leg didn’t hurt that bad until they had washed it out and scrubbed it clean of all the dirt and gravel. Now it was tender and painful.
There was a knock on the door and the same nurse who had taken care of me walked in the room. She looked at me in surprise and smiled. “I should have known you would come down here.” She walked over to the sink and washed her hands.
“I wanted to make sure he was OK,” I said meekly, afraid she was going to tell me I had to leave.
She grabbed paper towels and dried her hands as she studied me. “You’re fine, hun. No need to look like I’m the bouncer about to kick you out,” she laughed. She grabbed his chart from the bottom of the bed, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “That chair you’re sitting in folds down into a bed. Probably not the comfiest, but it’ll be better than the floor,” she said as she studied the chart. She grabbed her pen out of her pocket and scribbled something down.
“It’ll be OK if I spend the night?”
“Of course, hun. Just no parties,” she winked at me and walked over to the machines that were hooked up to Gambler.
“He’s going to be OK, right?”
“As far as I can tell he should be good. It’ll take a bit to recover, but nothing I don’t think he can’t handle.” She scribbled something on the clipboard and looked up at me. “How long have you two been together? He was asking to see you the whole time, too.”
“Oh, well, I’m not really sure we’re even together.” I looked down at my hands clasped in my hands and bit my lip. Jeez, this was such a messed up situation.
“Oh, well, maybe ya’ll figure things out now.” She smiled at me sympathetically, setting the clipboard at the end of the bed and walked out of the room, quietly shutting the door.
Figure things out? Lord knew if that would happen. When Gambler had passed out on the bike, I had panicked thinking the worse, and as much as I tried to tell myself that didn’t mean anything, I couldn’t deny it anymore. Gambler meant something to me. The way I felt about him was something new and scary.
I grabbed the remote from the side of the bed and turned up the volume. He was watching some car show I had never seen before, but you really couldn’t go wrong with hot guys and cars.
After two episodes, my stomach started growling, and I was seriously considering wandering around in search of food.
Just as I grabbed my wallet off the floor, Gambler stirred next to me, his head turning towards the door. I watched his hand as he flexed his fingers, and I wondered if he was awake.
“Shit,” he cursed his voice gravely from sleep.
Well, that answered my question. He turned his head to the table beside me and looked at the time. “Fuck.”
“Is something wrong?” I asked.
His eyes shot to me, “What the hell?”
“Um, did you need something?” I had no idea what he meant by ‘what the hell.' Maybe he didn’t expect me to be here or he didn’t want me here.
“I forgot to call you.” He cleared his throat, and his eyes traveled all over my body, taking in my less than stellar appearance and baggy clothes.
“Oh, that’s OK. I might have missed it if you had called. I got discharged right after I got off the phone with you.” I clasped my hands in my lap, searching for what else to say.
“You’re OK to go home?”
“So they say. My leg is pretty beaten up, but I’m good. I’m sure tomorrow I’ll be pretty stiff.”
“I think stiff might be an understatement, doll,” he winked at me, his gorgeous smile spreading across his lips.
“You might be right although you might have it a bit worse than me.” I motioned to the bandage on his neck and felt the tears coming. I had no idea why I was about to cry. I think it was finally hitting me that today could have turned out a lot worse than it did.
I glanced away, my eyes trying to focus on the TV, but they were blurred by the tears that I couldn’t hold back. I tried swiping them away as they rained down my cheeks, but there were too many to catch.
My world felt like it was ab
out to end, and I had no idea how to stop it. Gambler was OK, I kept reminding myself.
“Gwen,” Gambler quietly called to me. All I could do was shake my head and sob. “Gwen, come here.”
“I… can’t,” I hiccupped.
“I need to hold you right now, Gwen. Don’t make me get out of this bed. I think I’d be pretty shaky right now.”
Deep breaths. Everything and everyone was fine. I counted backward from ten trying to calm the panic that was trying to overtake me.
“Son of a bitch,” Gambler grumbled under his breath.
I saw him toss the blanket off him and try to swing his legs out of the bed. “What the hell are you doing?” I demanded, shooting up from my chair.
“You need me, and I can’t fucking get to you right now.” He tried to sit up and grimaced in pain, holding his stomach.
“Gambler, stop it!” I gently pushed on his shoulder and grabbed the corner of the blanket he had tossed off. I pulled it up over his legs, noticing the large bandage on his leg, but blocked from my mind how he had gotten it. “You don’t need to worry about me right now,” I scolded, tucking him back in.
“Get in here with me,” he ordered, tossing back the blanket again.
“No, you’re crazy. You need to rest, not have me smushed in that bed with you.”
“I’m not taking no for an answer, doll. I want you in this bed with me. I may not be able to do what I really wanted to do to you the next time I had you in bed, but I can still damn sure hold you.”
“Gambler, I can’t. I’m-”
“Gwen, get in the fucking bed.” I looked him in the eye, and I knew he wasn’t messing around.
“Gambler, if I hurt you by climbing in that bed, I don’t think I’ll be able to live with myself.”
“You won’t hurt me,” he grabbed my hand, tugging me closer to the bed. “I need to make sure you’re fine, and the only way it’s going to sink in that we’re both alive and not dead is if I hold you in my arms. I need you right now, Gwen.”
The tears sprung back, swelling and building. “I need you, too,” I choked out.
I slipped off my shoes, tucking them under the bed, and pulled the covers back more. Gambler slowly slid over to the other side of the bed gingerly. I slid in, clinging to the edge of the bed, afraid to touch him.
Gambler's Longshot: Devil's Knights Series Page 8
