Chapter 94
-Hailey-
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We sat in the waiting room, in a row of connected plastic chairs. The kind that make your back ache after five minutes.
Logan fidgeted relentlessly. His good leg bounced, and his fingers drummed on his thigh. Every few seconds, his gaze would cut toward the double doors leading back to the treatment areas like he was trying to will the
River was calm and quiet, with one arm draped over the back of Abby’s chair. She leaned i his shoulder. But her eyes were alert, watching the nurses‘ station.
to appear.
her head rested on
The contrast between them and Logan was wild a dripping faucet next to a boiling kettle. I just watched Logan. Watched the tension coil tighter and tighter in him. His jeans were flung over his shoulder, and he sat there in his hoodie, cut, and boxers.
It would’ve been kind of a funny sight. In any other circumstance.
When the surgeon finally pushed through the doors, we all stood up at the same time. Despite his leg, Logan was the first to reach him.
“He made it through surgery,” the doctor said calmly. “He’s in recovery. It was touch and go significant amount of blood. Unfortunately, the blade nicked his liver.”
for a minute
–
he lost a
He paused, letting that sink in. My stomach did a flip.
“But we were able to repair the damage. He’s stable. Your friend here,” he said, nodding toward Abby, “her fast action made all the difference. He’s young, he’s strong. Barring any complications, he should pull through just fine.”
A breath rushed out of me. Abby squeezed my hand and a small tired smile crept onto her lips. Relief washed over River’s face, smoothing the worry lines around his eyes.
But Logan’s posture didn’t relax. He absorbed the information like a general receiving a battlefield report. “How long until he’s awake? Until he can talk?”
The doctor blinked, taken aback by the bluntness. “He’ll be in and out for several hours. We’ll keep him sedated overnight. You can see him briefly, but he won’t be coherent until morning
Logan processed this, and I could tell his mind was already leaping ahead. He turned to River and Abby. “You two stay. Wait for him to wake up. See if he remembers anything else about the kid. The car. Anything.”
It wasn’t a question. It was an order. River nodded. “You got it.”
“I’ll call with updates,” Abby added, her voice soft but firm. She understood the assignment.
Logan gave a single nod. He was already turning. Shifting his focus to the exit, to the van, to the war waiting back at the
clubhouse.
The medical crisis was over. The longer, uglier battle was calling him home.
The air felt different on the return trip. Still cold, still dark. But the frantic urgency had bled away, leaving nothing but a bone–deep exhaustion.
Logan drove slower now. The van, which had been a screaming metal projectile on the way to the hospital, was now just a vessel carrying us through the quiet, sleeping town.
He hadn’t spoken since we’d left the hospital. His hands rested on the wheel at ten and two, and his gaze was fixed on the road ahead. But I could feel the mania behind his silence. It wasn’t the cold, operational focus from earlier.
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Chapter 94
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I reached over, and my fingers brushed lightly over the back of his hand where it gripped the steering wheel. He flinched, just a little, as if my touch had reminded him I was there. That he wasn’t alone with his thoughts.
“He’s going to be okay.” I said softly. It was a feeble thing to say, but it all I had.
I
Logan was silent, watching a traffic light turn from red to green know,” he finally rasped. The word was rough. “I’m not
worried about Leo.”
He took a deep breath, his shoulders rising and falling. “They used a kid, Hailey. A scared sh he did it. He’s not tryin‘ to kill us. He’s trying to make us doubt everything. Every face. Ever to jump at shadows until we’re too tired to fight back.”
was crying while
ves by. He wants us
I listened, and my heart ached for the weight he was carrying. This was the opening I’d been looking for. The crack in his armor. He wasn’t pushing me away… he was letting me see the machinery of his fear.
was so goddamn eager to hit back, I walked us right into it. “I led the guys into a trap tonight,” he continued, his voice low. And while we were out there blowin‘ up a decoy, Anatoly was probably posted up somewhere outside the club. Watchin‘ that kid stab Leo.”
He shook his head. A gesture of pure frustration and self–loathing. “I should’ve seen it. I shouldn’t’ve left you
there alone.”
“I wasn’t alone… most of the club was there. And your badass sister with her shotgun,” I said, trying feebly to lighten the tone. “You’re not a mind reader, Logan,” I added. “You did what you thought was right.”
“Did I?” he asked sharply, and the question hung in the air.
We were getting closer to the clubhouse, and his walls were going back up. I could see it in the set of his jaw, the way started scanning the side streets and the dark patches between the streetlights.
Then, his right hand left the steering wheel. It crossed the space betwe before it came to rest on my thigh. The warmth of it seeped into me.
he
us, and his knuckles brushed against my jeans
It wasn’t a possessive grip or a frantic clutch. It was calm. An anchor. A silent admission that I was his center in the chaos.
I laid my hand over his, lacing my fingers through his rough, scarred slow, absent rhythm against mine.
ones. He didn’t look at me, but his thumb stroked a
We drove the last few blocks like that, and the silence wasn’t empty anymore. It was filled with a thousand unspoken things.
The calm before the storm felt fragile. A soap bubble reflecting all the colors of the coming violence. But inside the van, with his hand in mine, I knew this was the only place I was ever supposed to be.
Whatever hell was coming next, we’d face it from the same trench.
