Page 64 of Road to Absolution

Too tired to move, I saw the couch, the table, a chair, my open bag of clothes…

Nothing out of the norm, and the loud running fading down the hall, my eyes slid shut. The drug was kind and had my mind going back to sleep.

Hearing strained breathing, my eyes drifted open.

Nothing but the couch and furniture were to be seen.

My eyes… drifted shut.

Pulling me from sleep was a panicked whisper. “Where’s his fucking IV?”

Huh?

My eyes… opened.

There were now two black shadows right in front of me, studying my sprawled-out arm and IV poll no longer attached to me. Holy shit! I jerked back to get away from whatever strangers were in my room, but that sent them both into panics. “Fuck! He saw us!”

I didn’t see shit! It was dark and I was practically high!

A bedrail trapped me. I couldn’t back away any further. So, there was nowhere to go when one shadow grabbed a pillow and shoved it down onto my face. Even in my weak and drugged state, I was able to battle the one man, but when his buddy pounced on top, too, I was overpowered. My muscles were simply too fatigued to carry the weight of two men—something that was easy for my trained body, only a month ago.

“One! Two! Three!” yelled the ref.

I swung. I kicked. I fought, but every time, I felt a fist slam down to my stomach, hitting two ribs that hadn’t completely mended from the accident. Air from my exasperated lungs, due to excruciating pain, would press against the pillow that was suffocating me.

“Four! Five! Is she worth it?”

Fuck you! I was running out of air but didn’t surrender. I yanked a knee up and rammed it into someone’s side while trying to turn my head for a gasp of air.

“Six! Seven! Eight—”

Abruptly, the men lifted off me. Crash! They slammed into a machine and wall by my head. I hadn’t seen it but heard and felt the vibration of their landing.

Wildly pushing the pillow off me, I saw my nurse. Being a professional and accustomed to pressure had her trying to appear calm but she was as frantic as me, trying to untangle my legs from the sheet and blanket mess my struggle had made.

Not sure if she needed me free so I could run, I looked to my left to see Scorch, bent over and punching a man, mangled in the machines on the floor. My redheaded brother was growling and spitting mad, “He’s a Ryder.” Punch! “He’s a Ryder.” Punch! “You tell them he’s a Ryder…” Punch!

Scorch may not have had my training or my skills, but the fucker was getting shit done. No fucking joke, this Enforcer was pure power, driven by rage.

The man on Scorch’s back might as well have been a fly; he was so ineffective. In fact, he got in the way and received an elbow to the nose. It exploded on impact. “Shit!” The man screamed, faltering back, holding the destroyed cartilage. He still tried to help his partner, though. Had to give credit where due, but it was a pathetic attempt. He swung a leg out madly, but was blind due to the pain in the center of his swelling face, and only managed to trip himself.

As he crashed to the floor, I was somewhat insulted that this was the man who was sent to kill me. The fuck?

The nurse rushed around the bed and yanked on Scorch’s shoulders. “They’re coming. Let them go.”

He let her pull him back but kicked at the dazed men, huddled together and scampering for the door. “Tell ‘em what I said. Don’t fuck with Ryders!”

The nurse raced back to me, trying to help me with the wires that were now practically a noose. “Maverick, are you hurt?”

Scorch was calmly picking up machines as if just another day at the office.

It was my first taste of lying to the public—anyone not within the club—when two security guards came running in. One asked, “Everyone okay?”

Probably since Scorch was beet red and sweating, and I was gasping for air like a maniac, the guards looked to the nurse.

My hair was standing up because of friction from the pillow mishap, and my face showed complete disbelief, but this woman had the damn thermometer in my ear again, as if a “fever” was going to explain the condition of the “unstable” patient and his now “untidy” room.

Scorch shook his head and reached into his pocket. Tossing each security guard a hundred-dollar bill, he grumbled, “My man had a nightmare. Got it?”