Page 7 of Holly's Valentine Vow

“I’m Tonya, by the way,” the nurse says, her voice perkier than the last nurse who was full of condemnation. “I’ll be your nurse through the night. You won’t see Alison again.”

Thank God. I thought Holly was gonna rip that woman’s head off for how she treated my brothers and I’m even more grateful that she’s my partner for this ride we call life. A smirk crosses my face when it dawns on me that Mina is just like her mama, while Ruby is a little bit hesitant. Granted, she’s two years younger, so I suspect she’ll grow into her sassiness and sense of right and wrong. Especially with Holly as her mother, and Esther as her great-grandmother. Those two women alone have the ability to move mountains on sheer will alone.

“That’s good,” Holly murmurs as she intently watches Tonya remove the largest bandage on my left arm. I can’t help the hiss that passes my lips as the tape pulls at my skin, but when I see what’s underneath, I moan then close my eyes.

How is it that I can handle pretty much anything, and have during my years as a biker, but seeing my arm look like a raw chicken breast, complete with a yellowish gook that covers it has me wanting to puke my guts out?

“God, Rebel, that looks terrible,” Holly whispers, silent tears streaking down her face. She’s not directly over it, but it’s big enough that she can see it rather well from where she’s perched next to me. “And that’s with you having your riding leathers on?”

I nod, then wince because even that slight movement hurts like hell. “I imagine they’re toast as well,” I mutter once I can do so without screaming like some kind of pussy.

“It looked far worse when he arrived in the emergency room,” Tonya advises. At my look she grins and says, “We have initial pictures on your chart, so we know what to look for with respect to any infection trying to set in. While it does look bad to y’all, it’s already starting to heal a little. I do have to debride it, as well as the others, but I’m hoping your pain meds will kick in first before we begin that process. Iwillput some lidocaine on the areas I have to clean and dress to help numb them as much as possible.”

I close my eyes as Tonya sets to work, the conversation between the two women flowing around me as I mentally go over the events of the accident. I remember seeing a vehicle behind me, but it was far enough away that even though I signaled because I always do, I really didn’t need to do so because the car wouldn’t have had to slow down when passing the driveway.The club really doesn’t have any enemies per se since we’re legit, although we’ve had a few skirmishes with low-level gangs wanting to come into our town and set up their meth labs and dealer corners. But what happened to me isn’t really their style. They’re more apt to shoot someone in the back then run into the darkness like a cockroach. Plus, the car I saw in my mirrors was more in tune with a family vehicle, not a gangbanger one. They tend to soup up their rides with fancy paint jobs, rims, and they’re usually jacked up with hydraulics as well. Definitely more flash than common sense as far as I’m concerned.

Still, it’s been at least six months since the last time we saw them nosing around, and since then, Prophet and Fox have spread the word around town that the Steel Raiders willnottolerate drugs hitting our streets. It doesn’t mean the counties surrounding us aren’t experiencing issues, but ours isn’t, since we shut that shit down.

“Fuck, that hurt,” I yell out when Tonya hits a particularly sensitive area.

“Sorry, Rebel,” she murmurs. “I was hoping the lidocaine would help dim some of the more painful parts.”

“It must be because I haven’t really felt anything until just then,” I admit through clenched teeth.

“It’s because I was working on the edge so there’s no tunneling.”

Do I want to know what tunneling is?I muse. No, no, I do not, because it sounds unpleasant as hell.

“What’s tunneling?” Holly asks, speaking my thoughts even though I’d made up my mind that in this case ignorance is bliss. “Is it bad?”

Despite the electrical shocks still emanating from the area, I smirk. Leave it to my woman to pose the question I was too much of a pussy to ask. I’m not the kind of man who needs to know every little detail, especially when it comes to what happened to me. My brothers will investigate, my ol’ lady will make sure she knows what’s going on, and her grandmother will make sure we eat.

“It’s when a wound forms passageways under the surface of the skin. Sometimes, they’re short, others they’re long and they can end up taking twists and turns. What I’m doing is cleaning out any dead tissue I find, as well as the exudate, which is the fluid that’s excreted during wound healing. It’s definitely not pretty to look at, but it comes out during the inflammatory phase of healing due to the vasodilation of the blood vessels. Rebel’s wounds were thoroughly cleaned and debrided during the surgery to repair his fractures, so the area is heavily irritated,” Tonya explains as she continues working. “Just so you know, you had some of the best trauma surgeons working on you, including a visiting plastic surgeon who kept you from losing your leg.”

Yep. I was right, that information could’ve stayed hidden from me. I’d like to remain in my bubble of ignorance and not know the finer details of what they’re doing to me.

Pretty much everything she just said flew over my head, probably because of the pain meds coursing through my IV, but Holly just nods. It takes everything in my power to not let my gag reflex kick in. I have a reputation to maintain and my woman knowing that I’m skittish when it comes to my injuries, that’d ruin my badassery.

“So, it’s a good thing even though it kind of looks like chicken fat,” she says. “Is that what you call exudate?”

Medical terms are flying around my brain so fast, I have no hope in hell of keeping up at this point. I just know I’m fucked up from my head to my toes and gonna be recovering for some time, which sucks. How am I supposed to marry Holly in February if I can’t even walk on my own two feet?

Tonya laughs and nods. “Pretty much. Honestly, if they had been deeper, the doctor would’ve probably used a wound vac to help close them up.”

“Okay, nowthatsounds like a painful process,” I mutter, wondering why my pain medication has failed me. Why I’m not passed the fuck out is beyond my comprehension. It’s like the abyss is taunting me at this point.

“Truly, it’s not too bad,” Tonya admits. “I had to have one after I had a C-section with my youngest. A hematoma developed and I went in for emergency surgery to evict it. It helps heal the wound from the inside out by using negative pressure and keeps it in as close to a sterile environment as possible while doing so.” Still don’t want one which means I need to take every piece of advice they give and follow it to a T.

“How old’s your baby?” Holly questions.

“She’s three now and a holy terror,” Tonya says, giggling.

Holly glances at me then says, “I’ve got two little girls, the youngest, Ruby, is that age, so I can confirm your statement.”

Despite the pain that wracks my body, I can’t help the laugh that bursts free. Because Ruby is a spitfire. She might be a little hesitant at times, but she definitely gives Holly a run for her money.

“Ooow,” I moan. “This is gonna suck.”

“I’d say in about a week or so, the pain will lessen,” Tonya states. “As long as you don’t decide to go off script, Mr. Sher… I mean, Rebel.”

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